Beautifying

 We're working hard and having fun beautifying our outdoor spaces....lots of trips to the garden center and hardware store and an ever-growing pile of muddy shoes and clothes in the laundry.

 Daniel has the vegetables covered, I'm working on herbs and flowers. I pretty much don't know anything about taking care of flowers. I just know I want something pretty and hardy because I will undoubtedly forget to water them. Any tips?

 And Jude, as always, is such a sweet little assistant and full of encouraging words--- "Those are beautiful flowers, mommy, you did a good job planting them.", " I like your skirt, mommy, it's just right for my heart.", "It's a wonderful day, mommy, I so love you." He really says this stuff...all day long! He's my own personal, pocket-sized self-esteem booster.

 All the fun and hard work makes for some pretty tired boys (and parents) but we're loving it!

How are your outdoor spaces coming along? If you got any photos, post the links in the comments and I will be sure to check them out!

Arian : )

First hats : )

 I crocheted my first baby items--two little baby hats that I'll be taking to one of the plethora of baby showers I'm attending in the next couple weeks. So. Many. Babies!!

Cute, right? I had a ton of fun making them and I recommend this pattern (that I mostly followed) to any beginning crocheter like myself.

 Suuuper busy weekend planned--- 2 baby showers, 1 birthday party, 1 dinner party, 1 baby dedication/baby dedication party, and leading worship with my sis in all 5 services at Crossroads! Back to back to back good stuff!  And I'm sure I'll be toting along a ball or two of yarn and a crochet hook just in case I have a moment of downtime. : )

 Happy Friday!
Arian (and Jude) ; )

Best Job Ever

I am LOVING the current music video project we are working on.  The musician is one of my FAVS so collaborating with him like this is so fun and such an honor!! Plus I love, love, love working with Daniel. And now we've got a new team member, our illustrating/animating friend, Luke!

(Sidenote: Check out this music video Luke created. He wrote the song, performed it, illustrated and and animated the video. Talk about multi-talented!)

We had our first team meeting via skype (Daniel and Luke at their office and me at home) to work out the details of the main two characters. Here's a shot of my screen during the meeting. It's truly a collaborative process with all three of us contributing sketches and ideas. Fuuuuun stuff!!

And Daniel and I spent our weekend evenings nestled in our cozy bedroom, listening to the song on repeat and painting/drawing away!

 And here are the stars of the video! I won't show you too much along the way so as not to ruin any fun surprises when the video comes out in June, but I thought it'd be fun to introduce you to our father/son duo.

I think we're gonna really enjoy working in this style....it's a fun combination of real painted textures and digital color. So I'll get to wear my paint smock and get messy with paint and big sheets of paper and all kinds of brushes.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Arian

The sun!

Man, I'm so grateful for yesterday's blue skies and warm weather!! We jumped right out there and got to work preparing for our summer garden! Hudson loves mowing with our new reel mower and we love that our 6-year-old can mow the whole lawn by himself without inhaling gas fumes or chopping off a valuable appendage.

We're so excited to be in this rental HOUSE with a YARD!! The yard, however, was left uncared for for awhile and there are a lot of dead trees and crazy overgrown bushes to be cleared to make way for the garden and all the lawn parties we hope to have!

So we rolled our sleeves up, called our good friends and garden partners, and got dirty! Loved it. It's going to be a good summer in the backyard.

(Taking a break to talk to Pop Pop on the phone)

We took a break to enjoy our first picnic of the season and our latest batch of home-brewed kombucha. Have any of you guys tried or brewed kombucha? Good stuff!!

Looks like those little feet had a pretty great day--flip flop tan lines and lots of dirt : )

Arian

And the winner is...

 Kim said...

I have two-one is crochet kids-it's similar to this one but kids in impoverished countries make hats and sell them and my other is 140 million orphans. Both great causes! Kim(who Andrea used to live with ;)

So, Kim, head to Sperantsa's site to pick your hat and then drop me an email at arianarmstrong[at]yahoo[dot]com to let me know which one you'd like and where to send it!!

The rest of you should head there too and get a hat or bookmark it for later! I think I might have to add a hat for myself into the order...can't decide between these two though...hmmm

Happy shopping!

Hats for Hope--GIVEAWAY!!

 I pretty much wear hats as long as I can...anything less than 85 degrees is still hat weather to me. A tank top, breezy skirt, flip flops, and a hat is pretty much my fav outfit to wear. And I LOVE products that help people so I 100% support my young friend, Arthur's, attempts to sell 400 Dece hats made by impoverished moms in Romania in the convenience of their own homes. Yay for "work at home moms"! His shop is called Sperantsa.

The hats are awesome, high-quality, and come in tons of styles and colors and I'm GIVING ONE AWAY!! Leave a comment below letting me know your favorite fair trade/non-profit type business. I'll randomly pick a winner on Monday and the winner can pick ANY HAT THEY'D LIKE!!

Here are a few pics from Sperantsa's website...

 (awww, Arthur) ; )

 Crazy cute, right?! So leave a comment, spread the word, and get yourself (and a friend!) a sweet hat!!

Arian : )

Home print

I finished the print I started working on last rainy Friday-- a cozy print to match a cozy evening.

It's available in the shop if you're interested!

Did you guys watch any royal wedding footage today? I have to confess, I spent probably an unhealthy amount of time pouring through the video clips and photos of the wedding day and teared up more than once. I thought I was pretty indifferent to the whole occasion. But it turns out I'm a sucker for a beautiful bride and her handsome prince.  It's not often that the headline news on cnn is a love story. Kind of a nice break from the usual wars and disasters. Blessings to the royal couple! May their marriage be loving, life-lasting, and full of children : )

Arian