Miranda Murdock

Nursing cover!

2012-02-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

I bought this fabric originally think that I would be at least having one girl (I had a 75% chance of at least one since I have fraternal twins) or that my sister or sister in law would be having a girl since we were all pregnant at the same time but since we are all having boys I decided to turn it into a nursing cover for me.

It was super easy to make. I just followed this girls tutorial here.

Pictures of the finished nursery soon to come!

32 weeks and 3 days

2012-01-30T19:34:00.000-08:00

My mom, mother in law, and a few others wanted to see my big twin belly. I am 32 weeks and 3 days today which means less than 6 weeks left for me since my dr wont let me go past 38 weeks. Woo hoo!

Maui time!

2012-01-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

From Christmas to New Years 15 of us from the Pabst family went to Maui and we all had an awesome time.

This is 10 of the 15 of us playing in the ocean.

Ryan and I made the trek up to Haleakala and the sights were beautiful. You could see most of the island from the top.

It was super windy so ignore the really bad hair. My sister and I both hit the 28 week mark in our pregnancy on this trip. My doctor told me that 28 weeks pregnant with twins means that I am the size of a full term single pregnancy... Yay for me.

My Dad took Ryan and my brother in law Chris out for a surf lesson but sadly there was no surf to be found. But at least they looked cool doing it. Maybe next time Ryan tries surfing I wont be pregnant and can show him my mad surf "skills".

Before

After

One of my favorite things on this trip was getting a shaved ice every day! This was the best place we tried.

My cute niece Caroline

My parents go to Maui this week ever year and stay at the same place called Honokeana Cove. This place has tons of giant sea turtles swimming around which made for fun snorkeling. One time out snorkeling we saw 14 giant sea turtles. I also saw a big seal one day while sitting on the porch eating breakfast. This is Ryan trying out a paddle board in the cove.

Sweet Caroline

My nephew Charlie

My bro and my niece Ella

Hawaiian Ella

Ryan and the pretty beach

Happy New Year from the Murdocks!!!

For My Mom...

2011-10-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

My mom and a few others have been requesting pictures of my belly. I used to be really against taking pictures like this, but it is kind of exciting to see the progress of these ever growing twin boys. So I guess a few are ok...

I am about 19 weeks. Which is probably over the halfway point for me.

The Murdock Brothers!

2011-10-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well we are having twin boys. We are very excited but still a little surprised. For some reason we thought there would be at least one girl in there. Technically we had a 75% chance. It's funny whenever people close to us find out it's boys they chuckle a little after. I am so girly, we both grew up with lots of sisters, and we both hate sports so we are still a little confused about what to do with boys, but I am sure it will be lots of fun learning.

I hope they like skinny jeans because they are for sure getting a cute pair of these to match mommy and daddy!

Now on to decorating...

I kind of love the ideas of bright primary colors (love the name Primary pop) and bold simple fabric but I also love this fabric which isn't really modern but is sooo cute. Hmmmm what to do?

A special surprise!

2011-09-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know that I am pregnant but I also have a second surprise...

It's Twins!

Ryan and I will be expecting fraternal twins this March (or possibly February)!

Can't wait to find out what we are having next month!

One of the first things Ryan bought for our baby (back when we thought we would be having one) is a cute Apple onesie.

Garden Party!

2011-07-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

I am the secretary of the womens organization at my church and we threw our yearly garden party this week which was quite a hit. We held it this year in my friend Candace's beautiful backyard.

We had lots to eat, which included 2 different kinds of quiches, chicken sandwiches, a strawberry salad, fruit, two different kinds of muffins, and lots of homemade jam... I donated one of my strawberry jams from my last post.

Of course we had to use some cute Martha Stewart table decoration ideas. The hearts are actually made of napkins. Smart Martha!

I made a bunch of flag banners to decorate the yard with. I think they turned out pretty cute!

My friend Cathy is a gourmet baker and made 5 different desserts! I had about 4 cupcakes by the end... good thing Cathy's also my walking buddy.

All and all this was a lot of work but a great party!

We're jammin'!

2011-07-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

I wanna jam it wid yoooou...

I made jam this Sunday... It was my first time without some help and it turned out good, a little too sugary, but good. I might have to try out a few new recipes in the future but for now we have LOTS of strawberry freezer jam.

Oh and I made this apron back in May for my sister Kim and I keep forgetting to post it...

My new backyard!

2011-07-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here is our backyard when we moved into our house a year ago.

During the winter time weeds and grass grew on top of the rocks and cement.

It was really pretty at the moment but didn't last long...

These are some pictures we took a few weeks ago.

We tried to clear our backyard out ourselves. Over two saturdays we cleared a strip about 3 feet wide. After that 3 feet the debris got much thicker, and we gave up.

But then tragedy struck! Orange, frolicking through the rocks and weeds, at last succumbed to them.

"No more!", we said. We hired some industrious gentlemen to do what we could not. They made short work of our weeds and rocks, clearing them all in half a day. We felt a little silly.

The backyard also hard a very large deep pond that Ryan, with a little help from me, dug out.

Civilizations to come will never know there was a pond here.

We have a terrible time keeping our front yard watered, so we didn't want to find out what would happen to this much larger yard. We called around and took many estimates. A shady-seeming guy on craigslist quoted us half the price of everybody else. Come on over, shady-seeming guy!

He actually did a really, really good job.

He put in fancy wood border things and rototilled and mixed manure stuff into our dirt and put sod down and installed our automatic sprinkler system, with an extra pipe dealy that we can extend if we want to put in a drip system for a future garden around the borders.

Kitties don't like it… they sit on the dirt and stare disapprovingly. It's for your own good, kitties!

Fully automatic sprinkling! Isn't it gorgeous?!

Tentative…

Now on to gardening!

May is for Birthdays!

2011-05-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

May is birthday month in the Murdock/Pabst family and we had a few more since last I posted.

Ryan had his birthday yesterday and he requested a donut "cake" with a lion candle on top...

For my mother's birthday I made her a travel bag for her curling iron with heat resistant fabric on the inside.

I am working on a few other birthday presents currently, but the problem with handmade is it never seems to be done on time... oh well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAMILY!1!$%!!

We share a mom...

2011-05-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

From the day I was born my sister Heather trained me to tell everyone that she was my best friend...

Last week was her birthday...

Happy Birthday BFF!

(Good thing it's true.)

She is super smart and an excellent teacher, so I thought I would make her a vintage school-themed birthday card. I thought she needed to have something hand made to go with her birthday present, so I went out and bought some simple white towels from target.

Then I sewed a strip of fabric on them to match the apron I made her for her last birthday.

Turned out pretty good I think–and sorry to tell you Heather, but it was really easy.

Sadly, Orange was unable to be my Vanna White since he was out with a foxtail-to-the-eye injury.

He does look pretty cute in his cone with a bow, though.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

♥ Miranda, Ryan, Orange, & Sushi

Yoyo!

2011-04-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Just because I need ANOTHER hobby... I decided to try out quilting. Ryan was voting for woodworking as my new hobby, but since I already have the fabric, quilting won. I know I mentioned it in the last post but here is a little update... There are now two quilts in the works.

Our model for the day: Orange!

Don't you love this fabric? I have pieces of it throughout and I think I am going to back the quilt with it.

Sushi has also been helping by taking daily naps in my scraps.

A while back I saw a vintage quilt at my friend Kaari's house all made up of fabric yoyo's. It's more of a decorative quilt than a useful one but I loved it so I'm making my own.

To practice making yoyo's I made this headband.

Some lady told me her son would like it because it had buttons... not sure if thats a compliment, but I'll take it…

Now I've moved on to the quilt. I didn't make these ones, but this is what it will look like when it's all done. I guess they were really popular in the 20's-40's.

I want them all to be the same size so I bought a yoyo maker. It also gives me something to do while watching TV.

This is my progress so far!

I have a feeling this is going to be an ongoing project. 70 down... at least 330 to go.

Table Time!

2011-04-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have been in a sewing mood lately. I thought my little white dining room table need a little decoration so I made this. Not sure what you would call it... centerpiece? table runner? placemat?

It's also practice for the quilt I am working on with a similar pattern. I'll have to post pictures of it soon. I have only made one super simple quilt before, so wish me luck.

Grandma Camera

2011-04-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

I recently found this old camera of my grandma Aggies and was pretty excited so I went out and got a roll of film to try it out. After taking 24 pictures and getting the film processed I found out the camera no longer works... sad... but oh well. It sure does look nice on my shelf.

Same grandma but not the same camera... still cute huh?

Color Theory

2011-04-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I a while back had a conversation about my favorite color. I insisted it was purple and had been purple for about ten years. His reply was "It may be purple in theory but in practice it is orange." It's a funny point in a relationship when you realize the person you are with may just know more about you than you do. He was right. I own very few things that are purple and I never wear the color but orange is everywhere in my house and closet. I even have orange hair and a cat named Orange. Just like Peeta my favorite color is orange (if you know that reference you are just as nerdy as me).

A new realization hit me today though that I may just have a new favorite color... Yellow. It's starting to spread everywhere in my house and life and I don't think I mind it.

Doesn't Ryan look hansom with yellow!

I think it all started with my kitchen. It has the original formica counters from the 50's. I love them so I had to decorate around it.

I even painted one of the walls in my studio yellow.

This week I painted a thread rack I bought at a thrift store yellow. Doesn't the before look like a tomb stone...

After:

Now I just have to decide... is my favorite color orange or yellow? I'll have to go ask Ryan.

Meal Chart!

2011-03-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

I have been doing Weight Watchers since November and loving the results. A few weeks ago I hit my 10% goal which is a big mark in Weight Watchers (I made myself a little ribbon at that point) and yesterday I weighed in and I am about 13% which was my total weight loss goal. YAY! I am now back down to about the size I was when I got married.

In doing Weight Watchers I have really learned to change my eating habits. I am eating at home and cooking more and sadly I have noticed that the healthier you eat the more expensive it gets. Fresh fruits and veggies cost much more than processed foods and don't last as long. Living in the very expensive bay area doesn't help, either. I have been trying to plan out my weekly meals so I don't buy food and let it go to waste. Recently I was at my sister Heather's house and she had a cute weekly chart on the fridge. I used the idea and kind of made it my own. I had seen these envelope pocket wall hangers before and was always trying to think of a use for them and when I thought about the weekly meal chart I realized it was a perfect fit.

In the top pocket I keep all my previous meal ideas and blank cards for future ideas along with a pen.

The rest of the envelopes have days on them and hold the meal choice for that day.

This was the book I made while teaching my journal making class. I made a smaller size because I wanted it to slide easily into my purse. The class was larger than usual but we made it work and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.

My Best Friends Wedding!

2011-03-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

My BFF got married last Saturday and the wedding was beautiful and she was beautiful! I was pretty busy during the wedding and reception so here is one of the few picture I got a chance to take.

I made Jen this photo album with "newlywed advise" I collected from her shower. I made it using a kit which makes it go a lot faster since the book board is pre cut and the text block is already put together. I also carved two hearts in the cover.

Orange insisted on being in every picture...

I am teaching a class on journal making tonight at Paper Source with a similar kit.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

2011-02-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

My parents have been married 40 years! Pretty cool, huh?

For their anniversary they are going to Hawaii and recreating their honeymoon. They are even staying at the same hotel they stayed at 40 years ago. This was all my dad's idea, which I thought was pretty sweet. I hope Ryan and I are as cute as they are 37½ years from now.

Happy Anniversary mom and dad!

Making do!

2011-02-25T18:19:00.000-08:00

This bathroom was pretty rough when we moved in. Luckily we have two bathrooms.

The shower doesn't work and is bright pink and the door to the bathroom was missing... something we didn't realize until we moved in. It was really just an ugly bathroom with a cushy grandma seat and all (that was the first thing to go). The shower is on our list of things to do but since it's our second shower it's pretty low on the list. The bathroom door was a priority though, so we put that in a few months after we moved in.

At first I was just going to let this room sit and not decorate it until after we remodel, but after a few months I just couldn't take it anymore. I used paint I have left over from other room for the walls and cabinets. I also bought some cute hand towels and yesterday I finally got around to making some curtains out of leftover fabric. Someday I'll have a good looking bathroom but for now I think it turned out pretty cute for how much I spent on it.

More Valentines...

2011-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is my second year teaching the Valentines accordion class at Paper Source and I think I like this year's end result a lot better. This year it had a hard cover and a super cute pink box. I am also proud to announce that the Santana Row store ranks at the top of the company for workshops. Go SRW! I am glad I am part of such a rockin' team.

Side note...

Every Sunday at church Ryan and I teach seven three year olds which is really fun but also exhausting. Having a cute class helps a lot, though. One of them made this for me for Valentines day and told me about 8 times during class that I had to make sure I put it on my fridge. Ha, this is for you Avy...

Happy Valentines day!

2011-02-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

Valentine's shower!

2011-02-13T15:18:00.000-08:00

Isn't she pretty! She's getting married in 5 weeks. Yay!

Jen's shower was last week and I think she really loved it. My mother and I had lots of talented and fabulous people helping us. The Cooks who are long time friends of both my and Jen's family offered to have the party at their house. They run a rental business, have a party store, and own a beautiful house which made it a perfect location. It really would not have been as beautiful and nice as it was without them.

Romantic huh?

Lucky girl!

Also I was so thankful for Nicole Clark who took all these pictures. After the craziness of the shower I realized I had a total of 2 pictures taken. Oh well, mine were not as cute anyways.

I want to grow old with you

2011-02-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

Since Valentine's day is coming up I wanted to pay tribute to

one of my favorite couples Charles and Ray Eames.

Their designs have become icons of the 20th Century.

My Best Friend's Wedding!

2011-01-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

My best friend Jen is getting married in March and I am super excited. Jen and I have know each other since we were 8 and we even went to college and were roommates all 4 years which I hear is quite an accomplishment for girls. I think the thing that ironically always saved us is the fact that we are total opposites which actually made us complement each other really well. We thought this picture by Bansky summed it all up:

Jenny was my maid of honor at my wedding and now I get to be hers. As maid of honor I, with my mother's help, am throwing her a shower. We set the date before Valentines day so we could use that as a theme. The shower hasn't happened yet so I am sure I will have more pictures to come but I did take a few pictures of the invitations I designed.

I felt like the invite needed a little texture so I did it on a paper called "paper bag" and being the indecisive person I am I choose both red and pool colored envelopes and sent half with one color and half with the other.

I have also done a few other invitations for people recently and I think I am really starting to like it. We will see how it goes.

Shower Time!

2011-01-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

My life recently has become very busy with party planning. My fun and crafty friend Kristen is going to have her third little boy next month so we decided to celebrate by having a little dessert party at my house. It's the first party I have had at the new house so I was a little scared but I think it went pretty good.

For the party I thought we needed a fun polka dotted banner to go with the rest of the decorations.

The banner was a super easy project.

First I cut out about 12 triangles out of some cute Paper I have from Paper Source.

Then I pulled out some bias tape and sandwiched the paper between the fold tape.

Then I just sewed along the tape in order to secure the paper and it was done.

Now on to planning my friend Jennifer's bridal shower!

Finals

2011-01-19T15:08:00.000-08:00

Last month I finished my first semester at Mission College where I am taking graphic design classes. I thought I would post some of my final projects.

For my InDesign class we had to make a booklet and then make a second booklet from the template of the first one. I decided to do it on different sewing stitches. I called the series "Stitchionary". One book is on how to do a blanket stitch and the other is on gathering.

For my Illustrator class we had to do a technical drawing of something. I did my sewing machine. I love my Janome! She has been good to me.

For my Photoshop class I edited an old damaged picture of my grandpa. He was a surveyor and a true outdoorsman.

They all still need a little improvement, but for my first semester I am pretty proud of myself.

Boys and Girls

2011-01-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

My mother bough all of her kids doll's and trucks when we were kids in order to teach us equal opportunity and not to be gender specific. However, in the end us girls used the trucks to drive our dolls between parties, while my brother decided to put the dolls inside the truck and crash them into walls. Even though this idea didn't really work because "boys will be boys" and "girls will be girls", I still like the idea behind it: equal opportunity to like those things if you want to. My niece Ella is a great example of this. She is young, but already has a very tough and tomboyish attitude, but she's still girly at the same time. She loves to carry around purses and is almost always wearing a tutu and cute flowers in her hair. Well ,in order to carry on my mom's tradition I decided to make her a little purse and bought her some Hot Wheels.

Laminate Floors

2011-01-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

This is what Ryan and I did this Saturday. It's my craft room and if the floors last we will see about doing the whole house.

Orange

2011-01-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

My kitty showing his embarrassment at my blogging skills...

Sorry Orange!

I got class!

2010-11-28T23:23:00.000-08:00

I have been learning lots in my classes and I thought I would put up a few projects. Just a warning my classes are not art classes they are mostly just to learn the programs.

This is my InDesign midterm:

This is what it looks like all folded up.

Here are some instructions on how the book was folded.

This is my Photoshop midterm:

The type and a few other things about this picture are not really my style but they were

requirements for the project.

These are the source files I had to combine to make the project.

This was the poster and invitations I did for a church Christmas dinner I am in

charge of.

I am learning lots and even since I finished these projects I have learned so much more.

My Marzipan!

2010-09-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

My sister in law Maureen is super crafty and creative and my super cute and talented husband Ryan just redesigned her website. If you are looking for some good project Ideas or just like to see what talent she has take a peek.

Madebymarzipan.com

House stuff

2010-09-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry I keep posting on this but my house has been mostly what I have been working on recently. I made some curtains for my kitchen and living/dining room.

The fabric I got looked grey on the bolt and blue when I hung them up. Oh well I still like them.

My new lemon curtains I just sewed to match my yellow formica counter tops.

This is my new craft/sewing/art room. Now I just need decorating and paint color Ideas.

Back to school, back to school...

2010-09-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

I decided to go back to school and I have been singing this song all week.

Thanks Billy Madison!

After two years of being done with college and trying to figure out what I want to be, I decided that taking a few graphic design classes might be the right direction for me. Yeah I know I probably should have figured that out before or while in college but I have always been a little behind. Honestly for the last two years I have had about an idea a week of what I want to be. I looked into nursing school, being a seamstress, pattern making, teaching, substitute teaching, hotel hospitality, bank teller, carpenter (that was Ryan's pick), being an artist, hair stylist, nannying (sadly no agencies would take me, I guess a college degree and lots of experience with children and teaching was not what they were looking for ), and of course countless numbers of businesses I thought about starting.

The only one that has really stuck with me since I have graduated has been graphic design.

I laugh because I am taking these classes and I still have no definite goal in mind for a career but I feel like this is a good direction for my art and will definitely make me a more employable person living in the tech capital of the world.

I am still keeping my job at Paper Source since I was only working part time anyways and will still be teaching workshops.

I just started school on Monday at Mission College. It is very scary and exciting. Homework may be posted.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

2010-08-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

August 21st was my Birthday and it was a great one.

I love my ice cream cake.

I found this little surprise in my living room with a note on it.

My boy is so cute!

I have been taking lessons from my mother in law for a little over a year and still have a lot to learn.

My mom, sister Heather, and little neice Ella came and visited me for my Birthday. My sister just moved to Los Angeles from Chicago and wanted to have some cute decorations for her little girls room. She had these white letters and we decoupaged them with lots of fun pink paper. I have never really done crafts with my sister and mom and seeing them in this environment was pretty funny.

My New Home!

2010-08-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Last week Ryan, Sushi, and I moved into our new home. It was a bank owned home so it need lots of work but we are very excited. I now have enough projects for a lifetime. The house is very mid century modern so it's going to be very fun to decorate.

I already bought this cool lamp to go with the mid century modern style.

My in laws came into town last weekend to help out with the house which was really fun and we got lots done. I bought a color called moss to paint our living room and well it ended up being green in the can and blue on the walls but I love the color so it all worked out. Once my house is in a little better shape I can take more pictures.

(notice the color in the pan)

We also have a nice little addition to our family. He is 8 months old and loves to play with his tennis ball, chase Sushi, and be held.

Now he just needs a name... so far we have Jin (like ginger to go with Sushi and he is orange), Sulu (like in the old Star Treks), and queso (he is orange and Ryan loves his queso).

Any more ideas?

Creative Organization Workshop.

2010-08-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

I usualy try to post pictures of my samples before my classes but with my busy week I didn't have time but the class still sold out and went really well. I used our fun new Silhouette machine to cut out all the utensils for my cook book. This will be a fun book to organize all my recipes.

In college I did a bunch of etchings with utensils and it reminded me a lot of this book.

Welcome to California!

2010-08-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

My sister Heather and her family just moved to Los Angeles after living in lots of fun places like Provo, New York, and then Chicago. My family has been really excited about it because now all of us live in California. I thought that my one year old neice Ella might need a review of all the Pabst family members and their pets so I made her a little book.

I think I am going a little crazy...

2010-08-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

I just bought and moved into my new house and have not had any time to post stuff I have been working on. I have a few new projects I did that I will have to post once everything calms down. To

show you a little what I feel like I took a picture of what shoes I had on to run errands last week...

I didn't even see that I had on different shoes until I hopped in the car after my second errand and noticed that they looked different.

Ventura!

2010-07-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

I went to visit my parents in Ventura last week. I spent a few days playing with my parents and visiting my grandma Mimi. This is the cute house I grew up in. People always called it the leave it to beaver house.

My mom turned my old bedroom into a guest room and used some of my work to decorate the walls. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

At Christmas time I had made my parents a book called "I am Thankful for You" and I forgot to take pictures of it before I gave it to them. I am going to teach a class in August on how to make the book so I thought I should take a few pictures as examples of what you can do.

After I left Ventura I then when down to San Diego for a few days and hung out with my sisters Adrienne and Kim and their kids. We went shopping, had lots of good meals out, played at the park lots, and I got to see my two four year old nephews skateboard which was pretty impressive. All in all it was a great trip.

Flower Felting!

2010-07-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

This is my first sample for my...

Flower Felting Workshop

Paper Source-Santana Row

July 29th

we are going to learn to felt and make flower pins. You can sign up in store or online at paper-souce.com

(I like that it went with my shoes.)

Tree Skirt?

2010-07-03T11:17:00.001-07:00

I made this skirt out of some cool wood grain fabric I bought at the garment district in LA a few months ago. It looks cute on the dress form but on me it looks more like a maternity skirt so I need to either have a kid or do a few alterations before being able to wear it. The second one sounds a little cheaper.

Stencil Kit!

2010-07-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

I just love stencils and always have. I think that is why I studied printmaking in college because there are a lot of similarities. I can't quite figure out what it is that attracts me to them but when Paper Source had this kit I just couldn't resist.

I also love deer. I bought a deer necklace when I first moved to idaho because it just felt appropriate and thats where it all started.

College and Collage

2010-06-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's a little ironic to me that I started as an art education major in college and that after one education class I switched to fine art and decided I didn't want to teach. However, every job I have had during and after college has involved teaching-- I was a sewing tutor, a teachers assistant, and after school sewing and art teacher, and now a sunday school teacher at my church and I teach workshops at Paper Source. It's not a bad thing, I have grown to love teaching and all the students I have had. I know I am a really good pragmatic teacher but now I just need to figure out what to do with this skill in turning it into a full time career.

This was the set up for my fun frames class.

This week is my paper collage art class!

Here are some of the samples I made:

Lorea's Vampire Diary!

2010-06-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

My Friend Lorea just graduated from College and I wanted to make her something special so I made her a journal. Lorea has a fun style, the more glitter the better, so thats why I choose this fun sparkly paper.

close up!

2010-05-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

Oh and here are some of the details close up.

Any ideas of how to improve it?

My Boy's Birthday!

2010-05-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

I went to buy some birthday decorations and all the signs were so bad that I thought I could make one way better... I think it turned out pretty cute.

The collage in the middle is something I have been working on. I put it up a while ago but I just don't feel like it is done yet. I planned on putting a bunch of M's on it but it looked really bad so I took them off and now they are just sitting below. The one thing I do like is I put two M scrabble tiles at the bottom as my signature but you can barely see them in the bottom left hand corner pictured here.

Here is my boy blowing out his tiger candle...

Happy Birthday Ryan!

He is just so great and I am so thankful I have him in my life!

Fun Frame Class!

2010-05-29T21:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday night is my Fun Frames class at Paper Source. I just made this one as a sample and I had never made one before but it was pretty easy to do and was quite enjoyable.

Once apron a time...

2010-05-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

It was my sister Heather's birthday recently and every year she is the recipient of many of my creations. Over the years I have sewn her a laptop bag, a camera case, and curtains... the 's' means two curtains--I learned after making only one window treatment for her baby's room, and then quickly having to sew another after she unwrapped it and told me the room has two windows. This year I decided to make her an apron.

I also gave her the matching sandwich bag that I posted below.

Oh and I just saw the ad for Sex in the City 2 and noticed that they had the cute cupcake apron from Paper Source in it. So cute! I love cupcakes!

Being green!

2010-05-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my newest loves that all involve being green. One is glass jars and bottles. When I was in Spain last month I ordered water from a few restaurants and they always came in these awesome bottles that I wished I could have brought home with me. So I have started a little collection of my own to decorate my craft room with. My awesome friend Victoria gave me this great idea of making paper flowers out of old catalogs and butting them inside the old bottles and jars as decoration. Pretty cute huh?

Another thing is I made these pretty cute reusable sandwich baggies. The polka dot one I made out of this cool plastic material the Lovely Linda (AKA my Boss) donated to me so it will be easy to wash out. Its super cute but it is also the fabric that is used on the break table at work so I don't know if it's too nerdy to match it. I also made one out of fabric with a nylon lining. This one will be easy to wash since it can just be thrown in the washer but I am not sure it will be able to hold much more than pretzels, buttons, or other solids and definitely nothing moist.

Oh and I am obsessed with the Coptic stitch and I have been teaching people at work how to make a book using this stitch and use our old catalogs. I will have to post that picture when I finally remember to take one.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's day to my awesome mother who helped make me who I am.

She taught me how to match and coordinate!

Thanks for being my mom!

Here is my colorful mothers day wreath.

(Haha, Ryan wanted me to point out the photo's not part of it. It's just leaning on a picture frame.)

I also want to thank my three other moms Adrienne, Kimberly, and Heather... Thanks for being my rockin' big sisters! I am lucky to have some pretty great examples of beautiful and caring women in my life.

Thats Number 12

2010-05-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

My sister Adrienne just had a baby girl last week and as a present to welcome the new baby I made her a car seat cover.

Her name is Caroline and she is number 12 on the count of nieces and nephews and I just can't wait to meet her.

Spain!

2010-04-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Europe on Sunday which was quite an adventure. My husband had to go over for work and so I decided to tag along. We were suppose to go to Spain and France but do to the transit strike in France and a volcano erupting in Iceland we never made it out of Spain. Oh well I guess that was meant for another trip. However, after all the pain it took to get home I don't think that will be for a long time.

While I was there I saw some pretty cool things like art museums, the Madrid palace, a few cathedrals, and a convent that held some of Madrid's royal nuns.

This was one of my favorite pieces of art at the Prado. It's Goya's "The dog".

While I was there I also go in a few day trips. One to Toledo and one to Segovia which was my favorite of the two. Segovia has a huge castle called Alcazar, which Walt disney got a lot of inspiration from, and huge aqueducts. This town also has a lot of character because of how all the building are decorated with beautiful patterns. I took a lot of pictures for inspiration.

Booklets!

2010-03-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

These are a few of my samples from my workshop on Saturday on how to make a booklet. It was a short class but super fun. We learned how to make 4 different kinds of booklets most of them sewn together with a needle and thread and one using a hole punch and ribbon.

Can't wait for my next bookbinding workshop!

Some old and hope for some new.

2010-02-24T22:17:00.000-08:00

This was a print I did last summer and never posted. I love polka dots and so I added some white and red polka dot fabric to the piece. I think it turned out pretty nice.

I got some Daniel Smith etching inks for Christmas so I can do monotypes at home and I'm hoping to do some printing real soon. Now I just need to get some good concepts going.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's day!

Album Class!

2010-01-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

My Album class is tomorrow and here is what we are going to make. I just finished this Paris album.

I love my Eiffel Tower end papers!

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Super Easy Book!

2010-01-25T15:19:00.000-08:00

I am teaching an Album making class at Paper Source this Saturday and I'm pretty excited about it. I've been using Paper Source's fine paper and book cloth for about five years now and love it. I haven't really had a chance to use their text blocks and book cloth tape so I sat down this week and gave it a chance and man did that journal come together fast.

Sushi wanted to model the final product!

So if you are new to book binding or just want a fast way to make a cute book I say check it out. There is also a video of how to do it that I watched while putting this journal together.

2am Magnets

2010-01-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

I couldn't sleep last night and at two in the morning I decided that I needed more magnets on my fridge. Here is the final product of my middle of the night craft project.

The M's Made Necklaces

2010-01-21T01:22:00.000-08:00

After Christmas I went and visited my in laws in Idaho and my sister in law Miriam had made all the girls there really cute necklace pendants out of old scrabble tiles. Each pendant had a picture on it that was picked personally for them.

This is the one that was made for me and it has one of my art works inside. Well we all just loved ours so much that we decided that we should make some together. So Miriam showed me and her sisters Meredith and Maureen (isn't it cool how we all have M names) how to do it. For these we didn't use scrabble tiles but wooden oval shapes work just as good. This is my favorite of the ones I made. I have worn it almost everyday this week.

You can check out the rest of them on my sister in laws website Made By Marzapan!

The Holga

2009-12-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at using my holga camera. I got this camera last year but I have always been a little afraid of using it. I took one photo class my first semester of college and wasn't very good at it so after that I stayed away from photography until now. So we will see if I even figure this thing out. Here were some of my photos.

My new Dress Form!

2009-11-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

My parents gave me money all the way back in August for my Birthday to get a dress form and after lots of comparison shopping and ebaying this is my final purchase. I wanted a vintage one because I wanted it to look good as an art piece but also be useful in making clothes.

Sushi was just testing it out.

I tested it out too! This was a sewing apron I made a few months ago.

My Talented Friends

2009-11-15T00:24:00.000-08:00

So I just want to tell you all that I have been blessed with some of the most creative and talented friends and family. They all work in such different mediums and do such amazing things.

This is my good friend Brent Colbert's music The Awful Truth. He just release his Cd last month. You can check out his music here. With this album you can pay as much as you want for the Cd which I think is an awesome idea. One of my favorite things about his music is his song writing which is so honest. You cant really tell its me but I was lucky enough to be part of the cover. My Friend Maddy Lucas who just happens to be the best photographer I know took this rockin' picture. If you have time I would check out her website and blog. She has some really fun stuff on it. I am so thankful to have them both as friends.

Paper me

2009-11-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

At work we have these really cute paper doll kits and I was doing samples of what they look like and decided I needed to make one of Me, Ryan, and our little kitty Sushi.

I also have been decorating my art and sewing room and made this bulletin board.

While I was painting the wood panel Sushi decided she wanted to jump on top of it. I grabbed her before she could get to the carpet. However, her paw prints were left on my art table and I thought it was pretty cute and kept it.

New Home!

2009-10-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

I've been a little busy the past few months with Ryan getting hired by Apple, moving to California, getting a kitten, and starting my new job at Paper Source. Well, I'm am finally getting around to updating. Here are a few things I have been working on.

These are some flowers I learned to make at work.

I wanted to add a little Halloween spirit to our house so I made a skull garland to go around this awesome monotype my friend Amy Royer did that I have hanging in my living room.

This is a stamp I made as a sample for the stamp carving class I'm teaching.

Buttons

2009-06-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my husbands grandmother Beverly came and visited us in Idaho and brought all of her old sewing stuff to share with me and my very creative sister in law Maureen. My favorite thing I found in the boxes were buttons. I have been a collector of Buttons for many years but Beverly's contributions at least doubled my collection. I now have lots of sewing and art to do in order to use all these awesome and unique Buttons. This is one of the pieces I made using my sewing machine with gold thread to decorate the Grey felt I had which I then embroidered the stems and putt button flowers on.

Back to monotypes

2009-04-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well I decided to do some more monotypes recently. It had been almost 8 months since I did my original set for my BFA. These ones are a little different since they are on a 30x22" pieces of BFK instead of fabric. The nice thing is the colors show up a lot richer on paper. However, they will be a lot harder to sew on my sewing machine.

My Socks!

2009-03-03T13:01:00.001-08:00

I have been making lots of sock animals lately...

Happy Valentine's!

2009-02-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

I thought my little apartment needed some cute Valentine decorations so I cut out a bunch of felt hearts and sewed them together last week. They are now hanging over out living room window. Now that its after Valentine's I'm going to have a hard time taking them down because I like them so much. Well I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day. I know I did because Ryan and I found this in Idaho Falls...I think this was Ryan's second happiest day of his life!

My New Toy!

2009-02-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

I just bought a saw and besides my staple gun it is my favorite toy. Isn't she pretty...Well I used my saw to make some frames for my little collages. I just used wood molding I bought from my local hardware store and it was the perfect size. Here is what the finished project looks like.

Our cat Sushi!

2009-01-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

Sushi is a new member of our family. I made him for Ryan. I'm hoping we can get a real one soon.

Im not so good at updating...

2009-01-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

but I'm working on it. A few people have told me recently that I should really post some more so I thought I would. My life has been a little crazy since graduating. It was a little hard finishing school and trying to find ways to work on my art and then to add to that planning a wedding but since then my life has really calmed down. I just started to use the printmaking lab up at BYU-Idaho again so I can try and make some more monotypes. I also have a new goal of doing one little 5x7 collage a week. These are the ones from the last two weeks. I bought some bees wax and tried experimenting with that and melting crayons for the second one.

BFA Show

2008-07-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

The 27th of June was the opening night for the BFA. It was really great to get to talk with people about my work and see it hung in the gallery. I was really thankful I got a great spot to show my work which was right when you go through the doors of the Spori gallery.

This was the piece that got the most compliments. Her name is Betty. It was one of the first monotypes I printed in this edition and originally it wasn't one of my favorites but I'm beginning to see why people like it. It doesn't have as many colors as the rest of the edition but maybe that is why it stands out.

BFA

2008-06-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

I'm almost done! The show starts this week on the 26th and will be going on until graduation which is the 18th of July. Also there will be an open house on Friday the 27th which should be allot of fun.

I have 12 in the BFA show. They are all monotypes printed on fabric and then mounted on 20x28 wood panels.

For my mom.

2008-06-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished making my mom a little case for her mac book yesterday. Shes a brave middle school teacher and uses it for work so I figured she needed something cute to take it to school in. I'm in love with the fabric and I hope she likes it too!

Almost done...

2008-06-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

I finished my BFA final project on Friday and I am excited to have it all done. I decided that since the work was on fabric that instead of signing the work with pen that I would hand embroider my initials on the side of each pannel. I took them to get photographed and when they were sitting in my car I thought they looked pretty cool on there side so I took this. When I get those pictures from the photographer ill have to post a few. Now all I have left is to work on my artist statement... Yikes!

Nina

2008-05-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

I did this print recently to celebrate my grandmother Nina who turns 90 this summer. This is the picture I used in the piece. It’s a picture of her riding a bike for the first time. She told me a boy took her on a date to go for her first bike ride and they ended up going 21 miles.

It’s interesting how I’m starting to notice the artists that influence my style. I have become a big fan of Robert Rauschenberg and I see his Neo- Dada and pop art style in many of my works.

Portraits

2008-03-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

My talented friend Lizzy House who designs fabric and is an amazing printmaker tagged me which means I have to write down seven things most people don’t know about me…

1. I was voted most unique in my high school for the yearbook.
2. If I look a letters quickly I don’t know the difference between the letter b and a d… They look the same to me because I’m dyslexic.
3. My grandma who had severe Parkinson lived with my family for 5 years when I was a kid. I spent a lot of time with her and taking care of her. We were like siblings.
4. I love watching old black and white movies probably due to number 3. Also the men were gentlemen and the women were all so glamorous.
5. I use to have to go surfing for my parents to buy me school clothes.
6. I think it would be fun to be a racecar driver. I like driving fast and for long distances.
7. I once won a hula-hoop contest.

Oh and these are some great portraits done by one of my one favorite people Maddy Lucas. She’s a wonderful photographer and she let me be her model for one of her assignments. It was a little cold out that day.

BFA Monotypes in Progress

2008-03-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

This semester is my first semester BFA and I’ve been working on my final project which will be shown in the schools art gallery sometime in June or July. This is a little of what I’m working on now and what my final show will look like. They are all Monotypes done on fabric that will then be mounted on wood panels that are 28”x20”.

The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho!

2008-03-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, which is a great little museum in Idaho Falls, is having a show on printmaking from now until April 12Th. The whole show is to make people more aware of printmaking and all the different processes. The museum is also hosting some of the work done by my advanced Printmaking class. This is one of the pictures of our class from last Thursday which was opening night. My class was all so thankful for this opportunity to show and even sell our work. I loved just being there with other artist and people who appreciate art and being able to talk with them about printmaking and my work.

This was us a few days before the show when we were bringing our work to the museum and figuring out all the paperwork, labeling, and pricing. If you are ever want to check out the museum here is where you find all you need to know. http://www.theartmuseum.org/

Oh and thanks for the pictures lizzy!

Prints from Fall 07'

2008-02-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

These are some of my newest works done this Fall.

"E4T"

Embossing

"Fortunate"

Intaglio and Embossing

"Mugged"

Embossing

Home Decor Sewing Projects

2008-01-28T10:28:00.001-08:00

These are some sewing projects I designed and created last year.

Monotypes

2007-10-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

This is a series of Monotypes I did this year after taking a flatpattern class. I got really into the shapes of basic pattern sewing sloppers so I wanted to incorporate them into my work. To get many of the interesting shapes and textures I used such items as colored paper, pattern pieces, lace, and fabric. After I had finished running these pieces through a press I decided to try sewing directly onto many of the works with my sewing machine. I really like the look it gives and am excited to try it out again on future works.

(The size of these pieces is 11x15)

Family Monotypes

2007-10-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

This was a series of 12 Monotypes I did based all around my family. Monotyping is a technique where ink or paint is applied to a flat surface such as a piece of plexy glass (that's what I used for these) and then put through a press in order to be printed on a piece of paper. When paint and ink is being applied to the plate you can do different things to it in order to get different effects. In the case of these works I put down fabric to get different textures and block out areas and then ran it through a press where the ink was transferred to paper. I also used colored paper in which I had copied pictures of my family on and Incorporated these pictures into my work along with sewing with my machine on each work.

Mimi at Mormon Temple

Mimi and Poppi

Easter Sunday

Peace (My Mom)

My Grandma and Grandpa Beitler

(These pieces are all 11x15)

Intaglio with Spray-paint

2007-10-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

These are prints I have all made using a technique called intaglio. This is where groves are made into what is usually a copper plate using different processes. In these works I used copper plates on which I had placed such items as kitchen utensils, clothes pins, or pearls and lace. I then spray-painted over these items in order to get there unique Silhouette. The plate was then dipped in acid where the chemical ate away at the parts of the plate that did not have spray-paint on them. After I removed the spray paint with acetone and put ink into the groves I then put the plate through a press with damp paper that takes in the ink and the image is transferred.

Kitchen Utensils

Clothespins

The Dress