fresh picked whimsy

Christmas Pop Up Wrap Up!

 

I know, I know...it's January and I'm just now posting pics from our Christmas Pop Up.  I'm trying to play catch up.  There's so much going on in the studio right now, but I don't want to bypass all of the great stuff that happened over the holidays.  So, I'm going to show you all of the fun things I made for Christmas and how amazing our pop up was!

I had never had my pop up over the Thanksgiving weekend, but I decided to give it a go this year.  I kicked it off with a midnight madness opening on Thanksgiving night.  It was insane! There were people waiting at the door when we opened and then in a matter of minutes, we were wall to wall customers.  Truly, the line to check out was to the door!  I couldn't believe it!

I asked Katie to decorate my front door.  I gave her the words I wanted it to say and just gave her free reign to do it up.  Seriously, she's amazing.  My niece Megan helped her fill in some little snowflakes.  How cute are they?

Then, I asked her to create something on my chalkboard wall in the kitchen.  I wanted it to say 'have a holly jolly Christmas', but again, told her she could do anything she wanted for the design. My jaw hit the floor when she was done. 

I loved it so much that I asked her to make it into a print. 

We gave the prints away to everyone who came for the midnight madness and then sold them for the remainder of the weekend.  They're also available in my etsy shop.  They are my favorite!!!!

I was incredibly inspired this holiday and incredibly busy! It was kind of nuts. These are a few of the fun wood signs I made.  They were all different sizes and shapes...

These were 2.5 feet long!...

and these were my favorite...made to lean on your front porch or entryway.

I found that yummy plaid fleece and it inspired me to make these...which I've made a few more of for Valentine's...again, in the shop!

I thought these were kind of fun...

We had a yummy hot cocoa bar set up for the weekend...

I invited my friend Jenny Elkins to join me for this sale.  We love working together.  I think our work complements each other.  We're both on the whimsical side, but definitely each have a unique style.  We had to capture this moment when we realized that Katie, Jenny and I were all wearing black and white stripes...

These were my new ornaments this year.  The wine glasses were a big hit!

Santa was a jolly addition to the collection this year...

and who doesn't love a giant candy cane?

I added a few new designs to my prayer candles this season.  Ones for your loved ones and ones for world peace...

I created a few new magnets/pin back buttons, too...

This guy came about because I had a piece of scrap wood sitting on my table and I sketched it out while I was on the phone one day.  He just makes me smile...

Phew! Last picture, I promise.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I told you I was inspired this year! :)  I'm already busy working on fun things for spring and summer.  This was the last sign I made before Christmas, but I think it works year-round.  Everyone needs a little sparkle in their everyday life!  Don't you think?

 

 

 

2015 Yummy October Pop-Up Shop was magical!

Dreamy, Lovely, Cozy, Octobery

Yes, yes, I just made up that word.  But, it describes our weekend sale perfectly! The weather on Friday was grey and chilly, which made our pop up shop so inviting! But then on Saturday, the weather was crisp and bright and the sky was a vivid blue...which also felt like autumn perfection!  Everyone who came seemed to be ready for the change of season.  We're definitely feelin' all the good feels after a very successful and fun Yummy October Pop Up Shop!

My parents lovingly made all of the paper chains we had hung up on the studio ceiling! Definitely added to the festivity of the room! I had a lot of fun making the glittered magic wands...they came from a magical place...the back yard! They were a fun addition to our tablescape!

Had so much fun doing this with my friends Jenny and Stacey.  Our artsy stuff seems to really complement one another...my art, Jenny's art and Stacey's antiques, furniture and upcycled home goods.  We work really well together.

Come in, grab a hot cup of coffee or some cider and a few sweet nibbles and take your time browsing...oh how I wish all of my sweet friends from the blogosphere could have come...

Stacey made fun Halloween garlands from vintage bingo cards, I sold quite a few of those dotty horseshoe door hangers and how cute is that skull canvas from Jenny?

Stacey found me some really great old books and I hand painted over the covers and spines to turn them into spooky spell books...

I kept Mark busy once again, in the workshop making these fun hats...

 

and these sweet ghosts... {that's a brand new print, too! You can find it in our shop}

Jenny made these amazing witches' brooms...so creative!

 

and some really fun hand painted pillows, too.  I had to add this one to the McDonough family Halloween décor collection...

Just like last year, I painted tons and tons of these striped monogram pumpkins, too.  This year I had more orders for the faux pumpkins than real ones!

 
these tall signs were a hit, too.  I should have taken a pic of them before the sale day...there were lots of them in lots of colors.  This is all I had left at the end of the day!

and finally, probably my favorite new item from the Pop Up Shop is our Family Rules sign.  This is something that I've had many requests for over the years.  I've seen them all over the place, but I wanted to make it my own in my own style.  It's also available in our etsy shop and I'm taking orders for them until Dec. 1st for Christmas delivery.  It's totally personalized and I will help you compose your family rules...

and, I had to do it, friends...a Halloween version of our Daydreaming Yard Signs!

 I am jumping right into Christmas making this week.  I'm not ready to transform the studio into a winter wonderland yet, but I do have the Christmas music playing! I'll be announcing the date for my Christmas Open Studio very soon.  In the meantime, thank you to everyone who stopped by this weekend and for all of the supportive messages and comments from those who couldn't!  I got to meet so many new friends and some who have been long time facebook and instagram followers! That was awesome! Thanks to Stacey and Jenny, too...same time next year?! xo  

Enjoy this beautiful season, friends!

{Stacey supplied the bushel baskets and I painted them!  Mums by Costco!}

summer blurrrrrr

Well, that went fast. Summer, what was your hurry? I thought we were having fun and stuff and then you had to go and run off...

there was a brand new firepit to enjoy...

and family fun at an Indians game...

a cousins visit to Indy...

and my first time meeting up with The Peach Truck...

the time we spent under water...

 and by the sea...

and swung by Georgia on our way home for brief, but quality time with my sister and brother in-law and nephews...

stopping to smell the flowers...

and getting up earrrrrrrrrrrly to watch the hot air balloon race out at the State Fair with my Katie...

a friend spied us on someone else's instagram feed {who I don't know!} that day, which was super funny!...

we loved the race so much, we decided to go back that night for the "glow"...

loved watching the balloons and loved watching sweet, young love grow between Riley and his girlfriend, Jen over the summer, too...

 we love you, summer! 

 Why can't winter go by that quickly?

Macaroni and Meatballs

This is the meal that we had every single Sunday night when I was growing up. {minus the wine} Yes, we call it macaroni and meatballs. We call all pasta 'macaroni'. We also call the tomato sauce 'gravy'. Most Italian families are divided on this.  They're either sauce people or gravy people.  And they're adamant about it.  It's not an east coast thing or a New York thing...it's a family thing.  It's how you were raised. And, I was raised on this gravy. And it's amazing.

My Mom is not Italian, but her Italian cooking is perfection.  Truly, everything she cooks is perfection. My grandmother taught her how to cook Italian when she married my Dad. 

I don't love to cook. It's not my favorite thing to do. But, I have always wanted to learn how to make my Mom's gravy.  It's the key to so many of our family favorites like lasagna, chicken parm, stuffed shells, etc...  Truth is I've always been intimidated by this dish, because it's made in a pressure cooker.  I mean, just the name "pressure cooker" makes me nervous.

But, finally, after all these years...I spent the day with my Mom and she taught me her ways.  Sorry, this isn't a DIY, step-by-step recipe blog post...there is NO recipe.  It's a lot of "a little of this" and "a little of that" and "stir it, watch it, taste it". 

She was super patient with me...I wrote everything she said and did down...and took a lot of pictures.  It's a process...a labor of love.  There's a few hours of prep work that goes into this.  She makes her meatballs from scratch first...they're heavenly!

The meatballs, along with sausages are the base of the gravy.

 But the real magic is in my mom. ♥

It was a fun and delicious day.  Then came the real challenge: to make it at my house, by myself, the next week.

I carefully followed all of her directions...

and made a few {okay, a lot} of phone calls to Mom.  I faced my fears of the dreaded pressure cooker...

and, success!

Mangia!

So, I won't be making it every Sunday, but it will definitely be on the menu at least once a month.

Thanks, Mom for helping me continue the tradition!  Love you! 

a dreamy country wedding

Last weekend we drove down to Georgia to attend the wedding of my sister's stepson Nathan and his lovely girlfriend, Audrey.  I was honored to make their invitations at their request...

It was held on a beautiful farm deep in the country, and every detail was Pinterest perfect! 

The only flaw in the day is that it was hotter than the surface of the sun.  Thankfully, it was an evening wedding and we didn't have long to wait before the sun to set.  They gave us fans which doubled as their programs...

The bride's uncle fabricated the iron around these doors for her grand entrance.  I know, right?

She arrived in a convertible vintage car driving slowly down that hill behind the doors.

Mr. & Mrs. Urquhart!

Time to party!

The barn held the food, bar, lounge, cake and photo booth...

i didn't make it over to the cake until the topper was all that was left! A friend made it for them.  It was key lime cake...so yummy!

the kids loved being with their cousins...

selfie with my sister and my katie...

My sweet parents...

and me and my love...

 Congrats, Nate & Audrey!  Thank you for sharing your day with us!

Love wins!!! 

 

This is what it's all about

Growing up, my parents worked hard and made sacrifices throughout the year so that we could go on our vacation to the Cape every summer.  It was very important to them that we would have those two weeks of uninterrupted family time each year.  It was a priority. 

Because this is what it's all about...family.

{MawMaw & PawPaw with all of their grandkids}

I'll admit we wondered what it might be like to all live together for a week.  Eight adults, eight kids...4 families... 

But, it really worked.  And we really loved hard for that week. 

We kicked it off with Father's Day! 

We celebrated by heading to the fish market and buying lobsters.  We brought them home alive and cooked them.  None of the kids had ever experienced that.  We ate on the deck as the sun set.

I hope the kids will always remember it.  I hope one day Griff will say to his cousins, "remember that time we were eating lobster on the Cape..."

"and i broke the wooden mallot trying to crack the claw..."

good times...good times.

These cousins have been raised more like siblings than cousins...

these two were born 9 days apart and they've been partners in crime ever since...

 
they're all goofballs

the littles had no trouble hanging ten with the bigs...

love is sharing your earbuds with your cousin...

enjoying sundaes and cones on the porch of The Ice Cream Sandwich...

and midnight games of spoons...

One of our vacay highlights was the mini family reunion we had with our Massachusetts family while we were there...

Lots of love, laughter

 

 and lobster!

It's serious business learning how to eat steamers (steamed clams)...

like this...

 

it was a night we'll never forget.

This week was precious time with sisters...

and re-living cherished memories at the penny candy store in Hyannis we adored as little girls.

there was quality family time in the sun during the day...

and around the beach fire by night...

 

We made s'mores and sang sitcom theme songs and laughed so hard!

   

Do you like pina coladas?...

or can i interest you in something else?

Our accomodations were ahhh-mazing. 

And, staying together there was a wicked pissah.  (We all had fun trying to talk with a Boston accent)

We even threw in an extra little adventure on our journey home.  We stayed overnight in Buffalo, NY and made a late night run to see Niagara Falls.  The kids had never seen it before.

This entire trip was a big family fest with a heaping side of nostalgia most especially for my parents, sisters and I.  The Cape is magical for us.  Nothing but happy, lovely memories...going all the way back to my parent's honeymoon here and then years and years of family summers together here. 

The original 5, back at the Cape...

We are so blessed!  Thanks, Mom & Dad!

Back to the Cape

Growing up, i spent every summer vacationing on Cape Cod with my family. 

that's me...and a crab

We lived on the east coast and the trip was easy.  We went for 2 weeks and met the same families up there year after year.  So many amazing memories. 

with my sisters...

my parents...

 

we used to jump off this bridge with all the kids!  Right off the two lane highway!  A bridge!  Wha?

and had beach bonfires with everyone.  That's me with my parents.  I think i look just like Riley when he was younger...

We moved to the midwest eventually and still managed to make the trip for a few more years until everyone started college and jobs and it just got difficult to do.  So, it was so emotional bringing our own families back to the Cape last week with our parents. 

It had been 26 years since we had been back. 

We drove all the way from Indiana...we caravanned!  My sister and her family flew in from GA.

We broke the trip into 2 days, stayed in a hotel overnight and stopped for lunch at a rest stop...

All told it was about 1,000 miles/16+ hours (not counting stops).  It was so worth it to get to this!

that was the view from our backyard.  We rented 2 beach houses in East Sandwich...

The grown ups stayed in the big house...

and the kids stayed in the little house.  They were about 10 feet apart.  It was perfect!

We played hard and packed so much into this one week...

and of course, we feasted on lobstah...

and made awesome new memories together...

There's so much to share, so i will be blogging for a few days about it. 

It was epic! 

If you've ever thought about a vacay to Cape Cod, i hope my posts convince you to do it.  It's such an incredible place!

We ♥ the Cape!

 

You had me at "barn sale"

Indy area peeps....you have to get out to the Resyled Barn Sale!!!!

My sister Susan surprised me with tickets to the preview night last night and it was AMAZING! It was a beautiful autumn night with white twinkle lights everywhere and we were surrounded by so much creative goodness! 

{junkey monkey's gorgeous booth}

Our mom was originally supposed to go with us, but has just recently had hip replacement surgery and our other sister Kim would have wanted to be with us but she lives in Georgia!  So...because we wanted them to feel like they were with us, we got a little creative...and brought them with us in our own way!

People kept asking us about them and laughed when they saw us taking pictures with them.  We even scored two extra drink tickets just because the lady at the gate loved that we brought them with us...in spirit!  Love!  Thanks, Mom & Kim!

A couple of my friends had booths here and i couldn't wait to see them!  This is Jill Broadhacker of Jilly Jack Designs.  She has a letterpress lab and art studio.  Her work is fabulous!

i bought this print of hers for Susan's birthday...

i was also excited to see my friend, Lindsay Clark of Seven Lemons.  Her paintings and illustrations are so fun!  I bought this one for my own collection...

There was live music at the farm...performing on a haywagon.  Don't you love it!?

and the Flying Cupcake food truck, which is just too damn cute...

There were not one, but two mobile boutiques!  This one, which was made from a vintage school bus...

and this one, Bizzy's Boutique, which was originally a bookmobile!  Oh my gosh, how i loved bookmobile day in elementary school...

Tuns out, this beauty is owned by Amy of Bizzy Buckets...someone who i had been in a holiday pop up shop with a couple of years ago.  Amy saw me in the truck and said "hey, you look really familiar!"  I immediately remembered her. 

 She and her husband completely and adorably renovated this bookmobile and turned it into a mobile artisan market.  It's genius and i wish it were mine!  So so clever!  Amy asked me to get in touch with her about putting some of my art in the Bizzy Mobile Boutique.  I will definitely follow up.  I am so inspired by creative people!

The sale continues today and tomorrow and it's out in Westfield among some really beautiful farmland.  Get out there and support small business owners, friends!  I did buy a pretty fabulous new industrial work table desk for the studio, but let the gal who sold it to me keep it until Saturday because it was a major part of her display.  I'll share it with you when i get it all set up!  I'm so excited about it!!!

Thanks, Susan for such a fun night.  Love you!

deep fried fun

For my family, it just wouldn't be summer without a trip to the Indiana State Fair.

The older the kids get, the harder it is to find a time when all 5 of us can get out to the fair together.  This year, that time was early on a Sunday morning.  We got there when the gates opened and the crowds and temps were low.  It was fantastic! 

We've never been in the morning before.  But, elephant ears are just as good for breakfast as they are for dessert...

Don't have a cow...

mooooo.

at least we skipped the doughnut burgers...

ewwww.

Griff was happy to find the Lego Road Trip at the fair this year.

We all made our own racers at the hands on experience.

then the boys headed over to the real racers...the go-carts...

 
We love the animals, too.  especially the babies...

and the chance to get up close and personal with a dairy cow...

i thought this cow was the cutest...

and, what's not to love about state fair kitsch.  Like the giant cheddar cheese sculpture...

and the world's largest popcorn ball...

and why not one more deep fried treat?  deep fried oreos anyone?...

  Summer is fading fast.  This one heads off for her sophomore year at Purdue in just one week and the boys start back to school in 9 days.  We're savoring every last minute of our time together!

Thanks to the Indiana State Fair...for more delicious family memories in the books!

 

friday funnies

Remember the days of film photography?...when you had to be selective about what you took pictures of because it was expensive to buy and develop it?  That's probably the thing i love most about digital...i snap pics ALL THE TIME...of even the silliest things.  Here are just a few of the funny shots i found in my camera recently...

the day one of our beach chairs failed on Griffin...

Culvers may want to rethink this flavor...

Found this on the kitchen counter one morning...

we seek out the silly hats wherever we go...

 

isn't this a lovely picture of katie a pineapple?

i bake a pan of brownies and this is what my kids do...

really?

Finally...this was a snapchat that we sent to our Georgia family.  We were sending individual goofy pics back and forth and then decided to get together for one big one.  It was griff's bday and he was the only one who didn't make a goofy face...which is funny because he's usually the goofiest of all.

i love my family.

♥
Happy Friday, friends! Go have some silly fun!