Posts Tagged ‘adventure’

Calligraphy: Micro Letters From the Tooth Fairy

January 29th, 2015
0 Comment

Penelope started losing her teeth recently. The first tooth she lost caught us off-guard and unprepared. So we totally botched that one. And THEN the ‘Tooth Fairy’ totally fell asleep when the second one fell out. She didn’t have a chance to visit or anything. Penelope was crushed.

melissaesplin-tooth-fairy-notes-1

Chris was thinking quickly on his feet and said that the Tooth Fairy must have been busy. So the next night I wanted to make up for it.

UNFORTUNATELY, this happened:

melissaesplin-tooth-fairy-notes-3

I lost my tooth in the drain.

melissaesplin-tooth-fairy-notes-4

It was like we were doomed! Thankfully Chris saved the day and was able to retrieve the tooth in the trap underneath the sink. So I made sure to write her a letter explaining what happened.

melissaesplin-tooth-fairy-notes-2

Dear Penelope, 

I’m sorry to hear that your tooth went down the drain! I bet that you felt sad. Luckily, I’m small enough I was able to find it! Thank you! Be sure to tell your mom and dad to clean down there. It’s stinky. 

You have some great teeth! Keep brushing and flossing. 

Love, The Tooth Fairy

She was thrilled. Over the moon, in fact! She sent a second letter to the tooth fairy and made her a little house.

melissaesplin-tooth-fairy-notes-3

I liked the little card. It was funny. I wanted to give you something. (She attached a $2 bill to the note)

So of course, the Tooth Fairy slept over when it was a little too windy one night.

melissaesplin-tooth-fairy-notes-2

Dear Penelope, 

Thank you for making me such a beautiful home to visit! It was too windy last night for me to make it home safely, so I slept over. 

I hear you have a couple of loose teeth! I’m excited to see those when they come out. 

You are a very sweet and caring [girl]. Thanks for looking out for this old fairy. 

Love, The Tooth Fairy

She loves her relationship with the tooth fairy! I wanted to make sure that she kept this documentation so I got matching Amac boxes. One for her notes and one for the teeth that the Tooth Fairy collects. It’s been fun. Now I’m anxiously awaiting her next loose tooth to fall out!

Done with an Esterbrook 355 and a sumi/walnut ink mix on blank Rhodia paper.

Summer Adventures

September 1st, 2014
3 Comments

It’s been pretty quiet around the blog this summer. We’ve been busy and I’ve been tired. All of the plans I had made have shifted drastically to accommodate for my energy levels. I wanted to re-landscape my backyard, finish decorating my front room, organize all kids clothes, clean out the garage, sew a swimsuit, sew a bunch of maternity clothes and sew clothes for Penelope. A teeny tiny fraction of that actually happened. Sad, but true.

altsummit-2014-1

I had a lot of fun working with Bing at Alt Summit to provide attendees a fun little DIY distraction during their sessions. We made hand-lettered cards and tees. It was a blast!

altsummit-2014-2

Photo by Brooke Dennis

I even got a shout out from Martha Stewart on her blog (see image #34). Ummmm….. WHAAAA? Super cool. 

altsummit-2014-3

Photo by Izzy Hudgins

While at Alt, I also taught a group discussion on landing pages and their importance for conversions. I may blog about it, but I might not. Give me a shout out if you’re interested in the hand out and I’ll send it your way.

Since this Alt Summit was less than 6 months after the January session, I kept things simple. No new handmade wardrobe, no new business cards (just a repeat of January’s). I tried to keep it simple. As simple as I can make things, which is inevitably complicated.

Seeing old friends and making new ones was the highlight of the event. And being able to sit behind a desk for most of the conference, practicing my letters was pretty awesome, too. I love an excuse to sit and practice my letters.

Outfit details:

Easter Sunday

April 1st, 2013
7 Comments

Easter was a little bit hectic for us, but I still managed to do a couple of special things for the kids and get our family photo.

melissaesplin-easter-2013-1

I had planned on making easter coordinating outfits for everyone, but I only got around to items for Penelope and Me. I still want to do for Chris and Felix what I had originally planned, it just may take a few more weeks. I’ll be sure to share those with you when I’m done. We still managed to match perfectly for our photo!

melissaesplin-easter-2013-2

We call this the Gene Simmons tongue. Felix does this regularly. Also, do you see the buttons on the back of Penelope’s dress? Those are my first button holes. First ones with my current machine (it’s been about 5 years since I’ve tried). I’m pretty proud of how they turned out. Having a nice new machine with automatic button holes makes a huge difference.

melissaesplin-easter-2013-3

Getting these pictures for the family was a bit stressful – when are family photos not stressful? – but we got them. The photos aren’t magazine perfect, but the most important thing was that we got together and took a picture. Last time we had our family photo taken was nearly a year and a half ago! I keep thinking to myself that we should do this more often, I do have this photo corner permanently set up.

melissaesplin-easter-2013-4

I love this shot of Penelope. She was so excited to find her Easter basket and this was about the expression on her face when I showed her her dress and my matching skirt. She always knows when to make me feel appreciated.

At the same time, she’s in this phase where she likes to manipulate Chris and me with her love (or in my case, the lack of). I’ll take any of these sweet moments I can.

melissaesplin-easter-2013-5

Felix is still not walking or talking, but we may have figured out the cause of his developmental delays. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but it feels right. We will be visiting a specialist in a week and a half to find out for sure what’s going on.

He’s still so affectionate and cuddly at 25 months, I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself if he ever grows out of it.

melissaesplin-easter-2013-6

Penelope and Felix are getting along much better now. Now that the weather is nice they ride outside together; Penelope on her bike and Felix on his fire truck. It’s so rewarding to see them interact nicely together.

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend! And happy April Fool’s (sorry no pranks here today).

I’ve got some great posts coming to you this week – an easy DIY with one of my favorite Target dollar finds, the only way I want to eat my Asparagus and how to make a Kate Spade inspired skirt. What are your  plans this week?

Fabric provided by Kollabora.com.

Learning, Teaching, Design, Etc.

October 16th, 2012
15 Comments

It was a crazy weekend last week! I attended the second Sewing Summit. There were no nights between Wednesday and Saturday that I went to bed before 3 am. I was either working feverishly to prepare or having too much fun sewing and gabbing with new and old friends. It was definitely a weekend to go down in the journal.

This was part of our amazing group of thrifters on Thursday afternoon. We all scored some amazing finds! From left: Maria, Lisa, Heather, me, Katie, Veronica and Carrie. Photo by Katie.

I taught a design principles for bloggers lecture while I was there, sharing with fellow attendees my personal must and must nots of blog layouts. I had a great turn out (60+?), but several couldn’t make it due to scheduling. So I thought I’d do a ‘quick’ 28 minute recap for so you can glean from that lecture as well. If you want a personal design consultation, I’m now offering them here.

Basic Design Tips for Bloggers from melissapher on Vimeo.

While at Sewing Summit I made a table cloth, a skirt from a top, a maxi skirt for Penelope, two maxi skirts for me, I refinished the insides of a few of my handmade items, I made a pillow with an invisible zipper and four perfectly pointed quilt squares. I stayed BUSY! I took a serger class (maxi skirts with Leanne Barlow) and took advantage of the precious serger time and finished a bunch of outstanding projects with the Babylock sergers. They were dreamy and now I lust after one. I’m not sure that purchase will be in the near future, but at least I’m not so afraid of them anymore. Or invisible zippers (thanks to Miranda).

I had some awesome roommates, Miranda, Mim and Rach (not pictured). I could totally bust out my inner 12 year old around these awesome women. I definitely looking forward to next year.

And in other news:

Babble posted my blog as one of the top 50 design blogs for moms. I’m pretty excited about my major award and being listed among some really top notch reads. I discovered quite a few new-to-me reads there as well. You should check it out.

Valerie from DIY Bride interviewed me as part of her real DIYers series. I feel honored to have participated.

I share my current reads and obsessions in Mom’s Best Fall Mag (page 49).

Find Your Art

July 10th, 2012
6 Comments

This post is sponsored by Art.com. Find your art and love your space with art.com’s prints and museum-grade framing.

Art.com just relaunched their website (in the most amazing way) and to celebrate, they invited 25 bloggers to San Francisco to eat amazing food and talk about art. I was just thrilled beyond the moon to be included. The trip to San Francisco just so happened to fall on the weekend before we made our big move, which was perfect. I left the stress of packing house behind for my favorite city. The city that first inspired me to pursue art.

lush garden by kim parker

We were all asked to pick out a favorite art piece for our homes. While together, we each took turns talking about why we chose our art, it’s amazing how deeply personal art is, no matter the genre or history.

I find it quite ironic that the art major girl (me) chose her painting based on looks and how well it would go in her new home. I know. Upon finding out more about the artist, Kim Parker, I found out about the mission behind her work. She creates paintings that are beautiful, accessible and from the gut. I’m a big believer that art shouldn’t be aloof, or unreachable by the uneducated. I love art that draws you in with its beauty, but then keeps you interested longer by its meaning, history and symbolism.

What kind of art do you gravitate towards? If I were to put any one genre in my home exclusively, it would likely be abstract expressionism and the works of Kline, Rothko and Calder (who may not have been technically in the genre, but whose work is stunning).

To me, the new Art.com is a brand that helps you reach for more meaningful experiences with what you hang on the wall, not just to help you find something to match the pillows.

Check out the cool video above. We got to see and hear about the behind-the-scenes work to make this bit. It was amazing how much work went into it!

Beyond having a new fancy-pants design, Art.com now offers a much easier way to browse through their hundreds of thousands of images. Search by genre, movement, color, subjects and collections. You can make your own collections using your facebook login and arrange them on a wall or even your own if you have an image! Great things are going on over at Art.com, I suggest you check it out.

Get Inspired • You + Art • Craftsmanship • Art Apps • Photos to Art

mobile site