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Sunday, January 22, 2012

A Movie Night Birthday Bash

My little guy is not so little any more. He turned 11 this past birthday. I am just now getting around to sharing the details of this fun event. Grady chose a movie theme to this party. We have a movie theater style classroom at church that worked perfectly for this theme. Here are some photos.
The invite - I ordered a party pack from typewink. The kit was super affordable, easy to work with and adorable!

 I pasted the invite to a movie clapper I picked up at a party supply store.

 We went with a red, black, gold & silver theme.
I made popcorn inspired chocolate cupcakes. Got the idea from Pinterest (of course)
Water bottle wraps from the party pack. Love this little detail.
We had a selection of candies, popcorn a refreshments for the guests. They were given tickets (also part of the party pack) to buy their treats. We had pizza for dinner.
Here you can see some of the little details. I made "backstage" signs for the bathrooms, and had a VIP entrance marked with another sign I made, each guest was given their VIP backstage pass to get into the party. I made these as well. The welcome banner is from the party kit and I designed the signed below it based on the Pinterest idea here. I did find the sign online but it was in the neighborhood of $50 I think. What I made was just as cute and free! The banner I made myself using my Silhouette SD diecut machine and cupcake liners from Hobby Lobby.

Grady chose a couple of movie to watch in our theater room, we ate pizza, open presents. I as very happy when Grady informed me at the end of the evening that it was his best party ever!

I am willing to share the files I made. (Only the ones I made - not any part of the party pack I purchased) If you are interested you can contact me via my Facebook page.

XOXO ~Jo











Sunday, June 27, 2010

An invitation for me!

A few weeks ago we were visiting my in-laws and I was able to stop into Michelle's delicious store in downtown Oshkosh, Dainty Daisies. Michelle and I got to talking and I shared with her that I am just beginning to sell my handmade pretties. She inquired about what I make and she honored me with an invitation to sell my pretties at her store! I am so very excited and I really need to get to work getting her some inventory! Oh - are you by chance wondering what I will be selling there? My cute little hair clippies (some featuring vintage buttons), sweet little tutus & super hero capes for little ones with BIG imaginations. Stay tuned for photos of product. I need to go find my craft table, plug in that glue gun and get to work. But before I go a couple more photos of my rummaging adventures this weekend.




Sweet, tiny paintings with ornate plaster frames. Each painting has the story of "The Wee Musicians" on the back and the one of the boy has a date of 1952 on it. 



A wonderful chunky book (copyright 1964) with great vintage toys and colors. Not sure exactly what I am going to do with it yet but I do know it will involve taking it apart. Ideas anyone?


An old, old book (circa 1891 with a copyright of 1888) titled "Queen of Home, Her Reign From Infancy to Age, From Attic to Cellar." There is a note on the inside title page that it is "appropriately illustrated." That makes me kinda giggle. My plan was to use the pages for art projects...but in looking at it closer I'm not so sure any more. Just look at this gorgeousness:




XOXO ~Jo

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Project Time

Hello friends. I have so much going on I cannot even believe it. But I wanted to share with you some of my fabulous finds the last couple of days and my plans for them. Yesterday we ventured out to a couple of garage sales and I found this frame.

I know - it is kind of a gaudy gold - and it is broken. But to me it has so much promise!  I plan to use it to display my hair clippies when I have open houses or finally start selling at craft fairs. Here is a close up of it -


And this is the piece that is broken off of it. At first I was thinking it would be making its way straight to the garbage BUT then I thought with a nice coat of cream spray paint - it might make a very cool architectural accent.  


also scored this little goodie box of old sewing supplies - for $1! 
I was drawn to all the wooden spools of thread. I'm not sure I'll use them (I am just learning to sew and have no idea if this is the kind of thread I could use or not) but the colors are all so lovely and I just love the wooden spools. I even found wooden bobbins with the loveliest vintage Italian silk thread. Among the delicious colors I was surprised to also find a gorgeous rhinestone button, 2 mother of pearl belt buckles and some dark grey lace seam binding. Oh all the goodness!
 But I needed to find a way to display on the pretty wooden spools. 
This is what I came up with...for now. I say for now because this is what my craft table looks like right now. It is due for a major overhaul.
Tomorrow Macy, my Mom and I are heading to the Elkhorn to the Antiques flea market. I am so excited to see what kind of treasures await us - I think I feel butterflies! XoXo

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Let's try this again...Artfully Said Open House


Last month I was to host my first open house featuring my handcrafted goodness. At the last minute I needed to cancel because I was a little too under the weather. So I have rescheduled. I would love to see you. 

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Housekeeping & Easter

Hello there! Let's take care housekeeping first. I do apologize for the delay in announcing my winner from last weekend give away. I was fighting with the sizing of photos from my second post and did not want to post again until I had them fixed. My perfectionism is my Achilles heel sometime I tell ya! So...we DO have a winner. Using the random number selector tool here, Sabrina M. is our winner!! Sabrina was commenter #8 and left several wonderful comments on FB for me. I told her that counted no problem! Sabrina selected the red with white Swiss dot clippies with white vintage buttons on them and I am sure they will look adorable in her little Bean's hair or even her own.

I hope you all are enjoying this holiday weekend. I have to admit, I have been so busy lately that I have not been much in the spirit of Easter. No Easter, let alone Spring decorations have made it out of their totes yet. I think for me it is always a little more difficult to get in the spirit of things when Grady is with his "other" Dad. He will be back on Monday and we will be having our family dinner and Easter basket hunt after school that day. In the mean time, I am getting in the spirit moment by moment. Shopping for outfits for Jason & Macy to wear on Easter morning. Finding out a Spring dress from seasons ago fits again and selecting accessories to go with it. Taking a moment while grocery shopping to quickly pick up and chocolate bunny for Macy and imagining how her face will light up as she enjoys its wonderful flavor and signing for more over and over again. And even as I try to quickly type this I am looking very forward to some downtime with family this evening and tomorrow (and don't forget the yummy food!)

But really I know none of this is the essence of what Easter is about. So what I look most forward to is quietly sitting is worship tomorrow, looking up at my handsome husband as he preaches his Easter message and letting it resonate in my heart and mind not just tomorrow but every tomorrow after that. May you all have a wonderfully blessed Easter!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

My Heart is Swooning. Broken Doll Exhibit.

On Saturday evening I had the grand pleasure of attending "Broken Doll" an editorial photographic exhibition event at Common Wealth Gallery in Madison. I was not entirely sure what to expect but I was very intrigued by the promotional postcard my mom showed me.

Anyhoo, I have been just shy of obsessed with the photos I got from the event. They did not turn out as well as I would have liked due to exposure being off. I get nervous about taking too long to get an image correct and then end up not getting the quality I'd like. So for now I just have this sneak peek.






Check back tomorrow for the winner to this weekends give away!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Artfully Said


Well hello there! I am excited to launch my new blog. I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the questions "Who am I?" and "What am I about?" This is of course all an off-shoot of my continual journey to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. And really, well I think I am what I want to be when I grow up. It is just that I don't always know what to DO with that. And I do not always know what to call it.

Really, what do you call someone who is into creating art, photography, and documenting family stories, loves anything yummy or vintage, believes in trying to make the lives of my loved ones special, enjoys making the world around me prettier, hopes to inspire at least a person or two on my journey through life and attempts to keep my faith at the center of it all? Not exactly a narrow playing field I know. And so we come full circle. How's that you ask?

Well a few years ago - okay like 10 years ago now - I came up with a name for the little art business I was creating for myself. As it so happened, my art, well really a lot of my creativity, fell by the wayside for a number of years as I went through some life transitions. (It's funny how divorce, remarriage & childbearing can cause these things to happen) But now here I am 10 years later and asking myself all these fun little questions. And as I have uncovered the answers it has dawned on me that I have known the answers for far longer than I would have guessed. When I came up with the name "Artfully Said" 10 years ago I had no idea how much it really defined who I am and what I am about.

You see, "art" is defined as, "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing or of more than ordinary significance." I was so excited when I read this definition. In fact, I got chills. I know it is the definition for art but isn't it also the definition of life itself? And really all I strive to do is say something with my life. And that, my friends, is the purpose of this blog. Oh and I came up with an all professional sounding "title" for what I am, "Creativity & Lifestyle Professional."

This blog is meant to share with you my creative endeavors and hopefully inspire you to have some yourself. It will feature lots of photos and stories and hopefully some bits of wisdom and whimsy that I pick up along the way. I want to get to know my readers so please if you're visiting me and reading my blog be sure to leave a comment occasionally and let me know you're out there. Otherwise I feel like I am talking to myself. Which I do but really I much prefer two-way conversation. I'm sure you understand.

And so. with no further ado (drum roll please....), we will launch this blog with a little give away and self promotion. The following images are a portion of what is to come on my pending Etsy store (www.artfullysaid.etsy.com). I would love to share a pretty or two with you. Look closely - there are clips for little girls and big girls alike.

Leave me a comment telling which is your favorite clippie, clippie set, or clippie flower. At the end of the weekend I'll pick a winner randomly out of a hat. No worries if you're far away - I will just pop them in the mail to you. Now if you don't win but you just have to have a clippie or two, just say the word. The non-flower clippies are 1 for $3 and 2 for $5. The flower clippies are $8 a piece. Have a wonderful weekend. Go live some art!