Create a Board Book Gift and Score Major Points!

Well it's been a while! Much has happened in the last months and I'm checking back in thanks to some shout outs my family sent this way in response to a fun give I was able to give my wee nephew Wyatt this Christmas. Many have emailed me asking how I made this book, and I feel the need to expose that my lack of real creativity. With a little Facebook stalking, a credit card and a healthy fear of writing sentences that would forever document your poor use of the English language, you too can give a sweet board book to someone you love.

Here's the cover page of Wyatt's book, to see the whole thing, visit my brother's ridiculous blog:
My Kid Is Special

While on one of my daily Pinterest perusals I stumbled on a sweet gift idea from Pinhole Press, flashcards and memory games made with the faces of a child's family. I loved those and then was all over their site and found the board book. A little pricey for a 15 page book, but I knew it would be something the whole Gilchrist side of the family would enjoy if I did it right. I considered doing both sides of Wyatt's extended family in the form of memory cards, but realized that would make a lot of work for Cara's sister and mom so I decided to go the more simple route.

Thankfully, my roommate Kaela Lee had taken some beautiful photos of Grant, Cara and Wyatt so I knew I had a solid 4 or so photos to work with.  Then I sweated it out trying to find the best photos of the rest of us that would be easily recognizable to Wyatt, would flow well and would somehow go with the coordinating colored page with text. That's the only hitch, you can't change the order of the pages, so it's nice to find photos that don't clash with the colors.

Really beyond that, it was a matter of making sure I didn't botch any words or punctuation and made it simple enough so that Wyatt can use it to learn to say our names and eventually read some of the captions.

After I quadruple checked the text and made sure the photos were placed where I wanted, I placed my order, handed over my credit card and a little less than 2 weeks later it arrived with plenty of time to spare! As a side note, I had ordered a personalized iphone case for my mom as well from Shutterfly, only to find out the next morning after I'd placed the order that she had upgraded to the iphone 5 the day before. Of course she did. Shutterfly was great enough to cancel my order the next day, however I still received 2 cases, the old and the new, identical except for shape, lucky mom!

All in all, it was a gift for the whole family more than for Wyatt, and I'm so thankful it was as big of a hit as it was. Wyatt actually honed in on it when he first opened it and loved turning the pages, and then Grandma read it about 50 more times, so yes, I'd say it was a success! If you'd like to score big points at your next birthday or holiday, make your very own board book!

Pinhole Press-Mini Book of Names and Faces

I've had some other great projects that I've loved completing this last year, so I'll post more about those in a few days as I reflect on 2012!

Happy Lazy-week-after-Christmas,

Ashley

Why I Love Hunting

I think like most people I have a hard time pegging exactly who I am sometimes. I know what I like and what I don't like, but that doesn't always narrow me down into categories. Even when I'm choosing things to surround myself in my home or when I'm deciding what to wear, it tends to run in moods and themes, nothing really concrete and hard to nail down. I have a crazy bright chrome chandelier within 10 feet of an elk antler shed in my living room. I think that works, but I can't tell you why exactly.

When I recently posted a picture on FB of my dad and I posing with an deer he'd shot while we were hunting a few weeks ago, the feedback was funny. 

People from my past were shocked, people from my present laughed, and people who've just met me were confused. That's fun. I like that my interests can vary and not always align, it makes me feel more well rounded than I probably actually am.

This morning I was supposed to go Turkey hunting with an older friend from church who wants to teach me to call. We went out scouting and shooting yesterday, it was an amazingly beautiful day with a bit of fog and trees full with colored leaves. He makes these incredible calls that sell for thousands of dollars, truly it's such a treat to be invited. Sadly I came down with a nasty cold this weekend and didn't think sitting in the rain at 5am was a great plan, so we'll plan for next week. 

I love the idea that I could help provide some yummy, fantastically natural meat for some special gathering. I helped clean and butcher the deer above and have a freezer stocked with lean venison for the coming cold and dreary months, a constant reminder of that beautiful, refreshing and spirit lifting week in the woods with some of my favorite men. I'm planning a party next week with venison stew, fresh bread and apple pie and that makes me happy, it's fun to think of sharing hard work with people I care about, and to celebrate the life of that beautiful deer. 

Hunting is a tradition that I've learned to love, and it took some getting used to. It's much more about being outside, in the middle of nowhere, some place beautiful taking in all that you can with people you love and on a really really lucky day seeing one of the amazing creatures you're looking for run by. And for this girl who loves shopping, and magazines, and every sort of electronic device possible, it's become a special sabbatical to refocus and thank God for my many blessings. It requires me to practice patience, to appreciate silence, to ask my body to traverse new territory, and to not look at a screen.....well unless my kindle counts when I'm back by the fire. It's more refreshing than just about any vacation I've been on, and the souvenirs can't be topped.

And as an aside, it's nice to have limited clothing options for a few days.

The Postman

I have a postman who comes to my front door everyday to drop my mail in a little slot. He's always kind, and ready to chat  if I happen to be outside when he comes by. Our favorite topics are the weather, football, new home projects I have going on and trips he has planned. He walks around the neighborhood smiling and waving with the same cadence to his step every day. There's something iconic and charming and even comforting about the dependable neighborhood postman.

When he goes on vacation, his sub always comes up to the front door if she can see that I'm home. She usually asks to see what new project I have going on, and we've been chatting chickens recently. She lives in my neighborhood and her kids went to the neighborhood elementary school I attended. When they were in school I worked at the school as a receptionist my senior year of high school.

I stumbled upon this vintage, elementary teaching aid on ebay the other day and had to snap it up in honor of my favorite mail carriers. I went home at lunch today, and it was sitting at my front door, delivered by none other than Mr. Mailman. It's printed on card stock and about 10x12 in size. I'll be on the hunt for a frame and a good location for it to live.

Teaching aids are so fun, the pictures are charming and the descriptions on the back are normally a time warp. I love this one however, because despite email and Fed Ex and my iphone, the way stamped mail is delivered to my tiny ranch hasn't changed much in the last 60 or so years that it's been standing. Though, I don't know if they iron their pants that compulsively any more.

Loving the Laundry Room

So this has been a LONG time coming. After a couple of years living in fear of each load of laundry that needed to be sent to the dreaded utility room, I'm happy to announce that I am one very blessed and happy girl.

When I first moved into my home, there was green indoor/outdoor carpet all over the patio and into the utility room. Well needless to say neither of those locations were well suited to carpet. One night, a couple of months into living at my tiny ranch, I was filling a bucket in the utility sink and some friends came over to surprise me with a little party. Of course, I forgot about the water and three hours later.......my poor roommate and I were dealing with a house flood. The carpet had to come up and out and here's what was left.

Can you say Asbestos?

And I'm embarrassed to say it stayed this way for 2 years. It was hideous, never clean and frankly a danger every time you tried to sweep, up until a few weeks ago there were still exposed carpet nails on the sides.

And here's where the new floor enters! Yesterday a crew came and safely covered the asbestos tiles and installed some inexpensive vinyl flooring and it's wonderful. I chose to go with the graphic black and white because of it's vintage appeal and clean contrast. I did have a bit of fear that I'd feel like I was entering a hot rod shop every time I went in, but as the room came together it toned down and in the end ties in well with the rest of the black/white and pops of color theme in my house.

Scout can hardly contain her enthusiasm!

While the guys were installing, I went and did a little thrifting to pick up some goodies to make this room more functional. My first stop was to BRING Recycling, a place full of junk that other people dropped off after they remodeled, but you know the saying....their trash, someone else's treasure. And this time I found lots of "treasure"!

I knew I wanted a peg board to help organize some of my sewing and crafting supplies. I'd seen a ton of great ideas on Pinterest of course! And was planning on going to Jerry's to buy actual peg board and ask my handyman Dad to whip something up for me. Instead I found this jewel for $10! It's some sort of metal pegboard display cap from a shop and who knows what the weird little display thing with all the arms held, but I had visions of sewing thread and twine spools sitting pretty on it's appendages. I also found a great upper cabinet that I hoped to put in above the utility sink but decided to return the following day when it would be 1/2 off. Why pay $30 for a cabinet when I could bay $15?! By the way, the cheapest I could find a cabinet at Jerry's or Home Depot was $100, so BRING it on. (Ew, that's bad)

The great thing about BRING is that when you're paying, the cashier always asks what you plan to use the item for, because remember most the time you're buying junk so of course they're curious. Well it's like a game now, because I'm pretty sure you could say "oh, I'm just going to hang some cat carcasses I have lying around from this thing" and they'd say "oh, what a great idea"! Because in Eugene, when you recycle, it's always a great idea.

Ok, let's focus on the good stuff now. Please excuse my bad pics, and it's all still a work in progress, but it's fun to see what a difference a day makes!

New craft/workspace

And here's the cabinet that we picked up, I was trying on paint colors. And no, it won't be green,  I'm thinking gray?

Random artwork that didn't have a home inside, now makes a "unique'" gallery in the utility room 

Peg board, all purdy with blue spray paint and ready to load up 

The decal on the window is literally one of the first things I did when I moved in....odd I know.

A little vignette for your viewing pleasure

The weird arm thing holding some thread.

What a treat to have a functional room I now love to enter!  Many thanks to my handyman dad for all of your help hanging and moving, literally couldn't do this without you.....because I'm what you'd call a panicky mover, meaning I tend to freak out and drop things mid move.

Other thoughts for this room:

• Jute rug in front of washer and dryer
• Natural blinds, roman shades etc. on windows
• Fun cabinet hardware
• New utility sink or skirt for current sink (Like this?)
• Pendant light above back counter
• Some sort of folding desk for sewing to post under pegboard (Like this?)

Vanity

Big news people, today I did an updo and it worked!

After seeing many a braid tutorial on Pinterest, I decided to give it a whirl with my very thick and yet very fine hair. Seeing as I wasn't raised with sisters and my mom had the darndest time braiding my silky fine straight hair as a little girl, this was somewhat unchartered territory. So after a good half hour with very sore and out of shape arms, 500,000 bobby pins and half a can of hairspray I'd like to present............

The updo! 

A little swoopdy-doo pinned on top with my awkward bangs, two french braids on either side and a whole lot of crazy business in the back. It started to get too big, like Victorian big, so I threw a headband on to keep the whole thing under control.

Since I work with about 27 men and nary a woman can be found in our office on a Wednesday, I felt I needed someone to appreciate my toil, so I marched into the Starbucks down the street where I know all of the baristas and was able to chat hairdos for a good 5 mins before heading into my little back room at the office.

I was a half hour late because of my vanity and of course none of my coworkers cared, so that's why I now share it with the 5 of you.

Happy "hump day", or "lumpy hair day", or Wednesday, whatever you call it!

Ashley

A bit of today

I thought I'd do a bit of holiday shopping, thinking it would be fun to get some previously loved goods for some of those near and dear to my heart. I decided to just pick off one great antique shop today, I had other errands to run as well, so I went straight to the Oregon Antique Mall. This place is one half well curated, organized vendor booths, and one half crazy cold dark warehouse. Both are always an adventure. I found a few fun little vintage Oregon frosted souvenir glasses that'll be a fun gift for a few friends who are out of state.  They're sitting pretty in my kitchen right now, waiting for a little trip.

Penny, the owner of this fine establishment really wanted the glasses just right for a photo. She's a crack up with horrible taste in art.....

Case in point......I was in the creepy crazy cold warehouse half of the shop when I spied these pics faced backwards and my first thought literally was, "I wonder if there will be some sort of crazy clown pic when I turn this around?" And guess what?

Guess.

Guess.

Guess......

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

The MOST horrible clown I've ever seen. Even Tom, the eccentric little old man who's always lurking in the back warehouse hates it. Apparently the story is that this dysfunctional mother and daughter brought it into the shop, and the girl was telling everyone that her mom made her keep it in her room. Ew. Penny forgot it was back there, but Tom and I never will. 

I've never seen a clown in there before, but today I just had this sense. Some other rather odd finds in the warehouse include this random photo on foam core that was blocking some stairs. I have no idea who this guy is, or where this was taken but he goes by many names. Fred, Hank, Jim, George, Willy, whatever we decide to introduce him as. Anyways, the day I found it, I took it up to ask a price and they said it wasn't for sale, I asked why and they said because no one would want it. I said I'd give them $10 and Penny just shook her head and let me walk out with it. The lady with the clown painting thought I was crazy.

I also stumbled upon these chrome, cork and linen lamps on another excursion. They were sitting in a corner collecting dust and were priced at $250. I made sure Penny knew I was interested in them that day, but I had a plan. I was betting they wouldn't move because they were pretty much hidden so I made a big deal about them a few times but waited it out for about 5 months and then finally walked in and offered $90 for the pair. At that point it became pretty obvious they weren't going anywhere so I got them without a counter. I love them!

Anyways, back to today. There was this wonderful mid century Rand McNally map for $95 that I would love to put in a little boys room. It has all these fun pictures of industry at the bottom, including trains, planes, constructions machines. Things little boys would love! If I were going for the map I'd offer $75 and see where that got me.

After a successful shopping trip I was hungry and decided to stop by this new Southern food cart downtown. I wanted to try it before I took my very southern mother to get some grits and sweet tea. She's "discerning" when it comes to her southern food.

Delacata was delicious! I wasn't disappointed and I finally got some good sweet tea! Here's a good review.

I had some cajun shrimp and cheesy grits and loved every bite. A nice downtown bike cop joined me at the table and we had a good chat. We had lots of friends in common, and he knew all about University Fellowship because of some work we'd done in partnership with the department. It was a great afternoon.

Then I somewhat stupidly decided to brave the streets to do some more shopping, and spent the next 3 hours looking a little something like this. Oh there's truly no place like home for the holidays.

Pendleton Win

I have a crush on all things Pendleton, especially the national parks blankets and souvenirs.

I love the weight and colors and the history. They're so iconic. Some day I think it'd be so fun to have a screened in porch with beds each covered in a different park blanket. A perfect place for family slumber parties in the summer!

I was trolling ebay the other night and wanted to see if there were any crazy great deals on the "glacier" blanket. It's the ivory one with the primary color stripes. The cheapest I found that night was $135 which is fine, but I wasn't itching to buy it that moment. I did however find a vintage glacier sweater, the likes of which I had never seen before, and that, I was itching to buy! Boy howdy if I didn't get an email last night saying I'd won it!

It's on it's way and I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to look fabulous with these babies!

Can you say cozy cabin chic! Or as my coworker Todd would say "she's available!"