Free Kid-Comes With One Month's Supply of Diapers

Portion of the back of her crib

With having a two year old, it’s become a daily power struggle between me and her and the fear of becoming institutionalized before she‘s three constantly looms over my head (maybe padded rooms are comfy, who knows).  Just when I think I’m on top of it and have drilled it in her head that we do not stomp on the cat or throw toys in people’s faces, she goes and finds some other bad behavior equally infuriating to taunt me with.  Yesterday I discovered that the back of her fairly expensive cherry finish 4 in 1 crib was covered in scrapes and scratches.  I mean covered, down to the bare wood.  Figuring she had snuck some hard toy contraband into the stuffed animal bin next to her crib, I searched to find no such things.  What the heck could have done this?  I even checked her stuffed animals eyes, thinking maybe she was scraping their hard eyeballs on the wood (as disturbing as an image that is) and nothing.  Today I put her down for her nap, she has her usual dramatic temper tantrum just in case I’ve forgotten that she hates nap time, and I hear a scratching noise soon after I close the door.  I creep up to the door, listening intently to this strange sound coming from her room.  I pop the door just a bit and peer inside.  What is the little turd up to?  She scraping at the wood with her bare fingernails!  How she hasn’t torn off every nail she has is beyond me, but now I’ve also solved why her nails are so dirty lately.  I figured she was in the planter in the living room again.  Solution?  I guess we keep her nails as short as absolutely possible just like we do to the cats to keep them from tearing up furniture when then run like savages through the living room.  I’m so ready for these terrible twos to be over.  She’s not always bad of course but I could really do without the drama.  So does anyone want to permanently baby sit my kid?

The culprit

Trying New Things

Winter's Frost

Being the do-it-yourself kind of person I am, I thought I’d try my hand at dying my own silk ribbon to use for my jewelry.  I had found these absolutely gorgeous raku leaves on Etsy and I knew I had to use them for my wire wrapped jewelry.  After making the pendants I wanted to find the perfect cording to accent the metallic hues on the leaves and the dark brown copper wire I had used.  I couldn’t for the life of me find what I wanted in any store (who knew grey dyed silk ribbon would be so elusive?) and didn’t really have the time to scour the internet for the perfect price and then wait by the mailbox.  So I had five yards of white silk ribbon and a pack of black powdered dye.  “Do not screw this up,” was the only thing going through my head since I have never dyed fabric before.  Two applications (water wasn’t hot enough the first time so the dye didn’t take well) and very black fingertips later, I had my grey ribbon!  Yay!  I didn’t even slop dye water all over my kitchen like I thought I was doomed to do since I have white cabinets!  It matches beautifully with the pendants as well.  Perhaps next time I can try mixing my own colors, but I won’t get ahead of myself just yet!

The necklace in the photograph is available at my Etsy store.  Click the Etsy badge in the column to the right or click this link to go to my store and check it out!  I will also have several other styles of this necklace (and tons more jewelry) available at my jewelry party coming up on November 5th at 7pm, if there are any left they will be listed on Etsy afterwards.  If you’d like to attend, please email me at heversonart@gmail.com for details.

A Couple of 360 Junkies

Starting her brain rotting early!  I couldn't pass up this cute picture though!  The really funny part is that whenever Ty's character dies or falls off something etc, she goes "oh shit".  Judge us all you want, it's cute in a way. At least for the most part we have convinced her that "oh poop" is a much better phrase :)

Kind of Best Friends

Kaylie with Jasper, he looks soooo happy!

Kaylie’s new favorite thing to do in the world for this week is to give our obscenely hairy maine coon, Jasper, hugs.  Granted it sounds adorable (and it is) and Jasper, the trooper that he is, deals with it with nothing more than an annoyed sigh and a “here we go again“ look in his eye, but you see my daughter‘s “hugs” consist of her dragging him by the neck and saying “awww” while shaking him back and forth like a ragdoll.  Granted she’s too little to understand he has feelings and bear hugs around the neck are not his idea of a good time, but as far as she’s concerned Jasper is nothing more than a really cool interactive hairy toy.  Why he puts up with it without much of a fight other than a whine here or there is totally beyond me.  He is a saint if you ask me with all the things she’s done to him!  She’s sat on him, laid on him, played on him, kicked him, hit him, pulled his fur, pulled his tail and the list goes on.  Gizmo, our torti won’t let her within five feet of her.

There’s also the fights over my lap.  Jasper will be purring to his heart’s content in my lap and Kaylie seems to think only she is allowed in my lap.  She sits on him, pushes him, kicks him if she has to in order to get in my lap.  Then Jasper, who doesn’t give up a fight easily, crams himself in the inconceivable space between her and me and purrs, rejoicing over his victory.  Then he and Kaylie’s eyes meet and it’s the look of death between the two of them.  Is it possible that Jasper is just a hairier toddler and this is cat/child sibling rivalry?  It’s rather comical the way those two fight like little kids over who gets my lap, heaven forbid they share!

Holding a kitten at the corn maze

Cats are by far her favorite animal at this point in life.  While at the Hayes Corn Maze, holding the barn kittens was about the only thing she wanted to do and was even trying to put them in her stroller to take home!  So far I think I have got it through to her that if she’s going to drag the poor cat around the living room, at least hold him under his arms so he can still breathe.  The funny part?  The dummy now purrs the whole time she’s dragging him around.  I guess I did well when I picked him out at the shelter three years ago.  If it was Gizmo (assuming she could catch her), she’d of packed her bags and left by now!  I’m hoping to talk hubby into us adopting a kitten this spring, maybe Jasper will get a bit of a break then :)!

Getting There!

Well I am feeling much better about the upcoming jewelry party.  I have at least a general idea how to go about it, and it was basically what I had figured.  Let people mingle for a bit then talk about my jewelry and trees and what I use, tell everyone my deal for coming (25% off any one item you order),  etc without yabbering too much.    It should turn out to be a great night!  I have everything labeled and pretty much ready to go, just have another new item or two I would like to come up with and I'm all ready!  I'm anxiously awaiting my shipment of these gorgeous handmade raku leaf pendants I found on Etsy a few days ago.  Oh Etsy, I love you so!  They will make wonderful wire wrapped necklaces!

Now to cross my fingers and hope that Kaylie is in a happy mood and doesn't feel the need to terrorize everyone there.  Kidzilla is not welcome.  Why can't kids come with a remote, preferably DVR?  It would be much more convenient.  I'd abuse the heck out of it ;)  Or at least a troubleshooting guide with an 24/7 customer service number not based out of India?  I guess unpredictability makes my life all that more interesting!

Temper Temper!

The drama of being two... I have no clue, and pretty sure she doesn't either, what set this off. She continues to roll around in a hilarious fit of random anger and I cannot stop laughing at how ridiculous she's being!  I couldn't resist snapping a pic with my BlackBerry, wait till her boyfriend sees this someday when she's 16....muh ha ha ha!

Coming Events

Photo Charm Tree

With fingers crossed and hopes high, I have my jewelry show coming up November 5th.  I must admit I'm a bit nervous about the whole thing.  I'm not really afraid of the whole talking to a bunch of complete strangers thing (most of the people there my hostess knows, not me), but more the fact that I don't know how to go about it.  The whole event was a wonderful idea proposed by my mom's hairdresser, Lisa, a bubbly gal I met once or twice before.  She even offered to host it for me and serve snacks and wine.  It is indeed a wonderful idea to have a party for my jewelry similar to parties for Partylite and Arbonne to sell their products.  Here's the catch: I've never in my life been to such a party, let alone been the star of one!  Yikes!

I've been in many an art show, and other than smiling and nodding at people and perhaps answering an inquisitive question or two about your entry, you don't really need to participate much. Heck, you don't even need to show up if you don't want to! I've also never been one to enjoy the spotlight and to top things off I'm not much of a talker either. I've really got myself into something haven't I? But I shall fear not and enjoy myself (a few glasses of wine later) and sell, sell, sell :). I'm sure my daughter will serve as quite the little ice breaker. Lisa insists I bring her, and since my mom is coming too, I at least have someone to stop her from wreaking havoc on her home. If we can make it through the event without her picking her nose or yelling "oh sh*t" (her new catch phrase which I am not to blame, *cough* Daddy *cough*) I will be just delighted!

Hopefully I can gain a bit of insight from my best friend coming to help me soon to label and price each item I'll have there. I still have three weeks to get ready so I've no reason to be totally in the dark, but wish me luck!

If anyone is interested in attending send me an email: heversonart@gmail.com and I'll send you the info. If you'd like to see what will be there please click the facebook badge in the column on the right or this link to go to my facebook page. I have photos of my trees (Photo Charm Tree pictured above) and jewelry that will be there in my Jewelry and Copper Sculpture photo albums.

A Little Something About Me

Starry Night Bracelet

I have been involved in art since I was a finger painting little kid and now that I have a daughter of my own I have a new appreciation for my mother and the messes she's had to clean up after my art disasters. Let me tell you off the bat that a two year old, a wet brush, a tub of water, watercolor paper, and a tray of watercolors are not a good combination. I'm pretty sure there's still paint in places I will never be able to reach on my ceiling! Anyway, I'm hoping to instill a love for the arts in my daughter as early as possible, and preferably in a less messy manner.

As for myself, I enjoy various forms of art: painting, drawing, mixed media, photography, and I've recently started working with copper wire making both wire trees and wire wrapped jewelry. Working in 3-D is something entirely new on my end, I've always been more of a mixed media girl most of my art career. Granted I've had my share of pottery and sculpture classes in high school but I don't think I can count making atrocious blobs of clay that vaguely resemble "pottery" or "sculpture" to be works of art.

While I was in college obtaining my AA, I could never find my artistic niche if you will and I considered painting, photography, jewelry making, and art history all to be potential majors in my quest to get my BFA (I liked to keep my options open and I'm terribly indecisive at times, it's an artists' curse really) which ended rather abruptly when my husband and I saw that little pink plus sign one October morning. I do have to thank my daughter, Kaylie, for saving me potentially $40k+ in student loans for a degree I couldn't make up my mind for. Several hated retail jobs later, I found my happy place in art. I will probably never become rich, nor would I really want to (well ok, I guess I wouldn't complain if I did) but I've discovered I really enjoy making and selling jewelry (such as the bracelet above)! Thanks to my husband who works very hard and is a great provider, I can continue to stay home with our daughter and pursue this new endeavor of mine (if only he knew how much I've spent...) instead of going back to the old grind after Kaylie starts kindergarten. Of course I have not forgotten my old friend mixed media, but I only have so many walls, which are all full now, to cover with my artwork. I will visit that friend again when Kaylie is older and in school so I have more time to start entering local art shows again.

I hope to keep everyone updated with my life as a mommy artist (and blogger now) and will definitely keep everyone in the loop about new items I've made and yadda yadda. Ciao for now :)