I know I have a wide range of people who are readers here. Raise your hand if you are a chicken person (okay… leave a comment?). If you aren’t sure, you probably aren’t. A chicken person doesn’t necessarily have chickens themselves, but they want to. And not all people who have chickens are chicken people. (Am I right?)
And of course, among chicken people there is a wide variety as well. Some just love the birds and others make fancy coops and decorate them seasonally. (Someday I want that to be me.)
We have chickens in a quarter of our garden with a somewhat ugly but functional coop. I made it myself with the help of 3-12 year olds (6 of them). I guess you could say that I’m a kid person at this phase of my life. 🙂 Anyway, I digress.
While I dream of what I would do if homeschooling and gardening, laundry and occasional house cleaning didn’t take up all my time, I made some really cute (sorry, I’m biased) chicken coop signs for you to decorate your chicken spaces with!
They are in my Etsy shop now. Head over to grab the bundle for yourself for 30% off this week. Coupon code COOPSIGNS30 or click here.
Frame them and and hang them under shelter if you have it. I think they would be cute mounted to wood and sealed from the elements and hung on the outside. Your call. What would you do with them? Let me know in the comments! 🙂
Did you see my Mini Chicken Calendar and love it, but not care so much about the chickens? I hear you. Chickens aren’t for everybody. And while trucks aren’t for everybody, I know that a bunch of you do love old trucks! I hope you love this little calendar with all their whimsical illustrations just as much!
I love to tie these little cuties (mini size) onto a package or plate of cookies for a Christmas gift. It’s what I’m doing for our pastors’ wives again this year. The first year I included a mini easel from Hobby Lobby. They make a great stocking stuffer too and fit perfectly. If you prefer the larger sizes, place them in a frame and switch them out, clip them to the fridge, or slide them in the front of your school binder! So many options!
Whether they are for you or for gift giving (both?), you can find them in my Etsy shop right now!
What do you think? Do you like them? Which month is your favorite. Tell me in the comments!
Back by popular demand, I have illustrated new mini doodle calendars for 2023! I did a couple of them years ago (here too) to sell at our Christmas market. They take a lot of time to create, though, so it’s been a while since I’ve done one. This summer I took up the challenge with my mini illustrated chicken calendar.
While I am hoping to sell them at our Christmas market next month, I also have them in my shop as digital downloads. They are downloadable as a PDF with three different sizes: mini, 4×6, and 5×7.
The larger sizes can be framed for display or clipped up, but I love the mini size on easels and tucked on a shelf or in a windowsill above the sink or stove.
I have dreams of posting a second design before the end of the year, but I haven’t decided what the design should be. Any ideas? Flip through some of my past content to see ideas of what sort of artwork I’ve done in the past and post your suggestions in the comments.
This is late being posted. I was sick for most of August, so now, with just over a day left in the month, I wanted to share what my kitchen shelves have looked like all month.
Thankfully, for most of this sickness, I was not down completely. On my good days I had time and energy for a few extras like changing the decor from patriotic to sunflowers. I don’t have many spaces in the house I can decorate (long term renovation and many unfinished spaces all over the house), so it doesn’t take long.
Unfortunately, blogging was the last thing on my mind. I haven’t done much on Pinterest or Etsy either. How thankful I am that these sorts of things wait in the wings when real life gets hard to do.
Bottom Shelf: Greens from Hobby Lobby, purchased a couple years ago. Love it and use it all the time all over the house. I’m thinking about getting another. It’s very versatile. The house is a 2×6 cut into shape, painted black and modge podge buffalo check scrapbook paper on it. The kids and I made them last year (also in my winter shelf post). The bird and pedestal are from Hobby Lobby (noticing a trend?). The truck wasn’t originally on the shelf, but a couple weeks ago my mom picked it up at the Dollar Tree for me and my 12 year old son put it up there. The negative space that was there before was nice, but I like the truck too, and he was just too delighted with his decorating for me to take it down.
On the counter: The sunflower bowl was a gift for my birthday last year. I love it! We painted the jar with grey chalk paint for a bridal shower a a year or so ago. We made several for the tables and gifted one of them to the bride (it was just like one on her registry). I got the other two! 🙂 The flowers in it were also from Hobby Lobby. The plates are too cute to put in the cabinet. They were part of a gift basket from my husband’s boss last Christmas (more for me than for him I’m sure!) and are from, you guessed it… Hobby Lobby. I took all the junk that usually sits here off the counter so that it could be cute for a change and am guarding the space for the most part. It makes me smile!
What space is making you smile these days? Leave a comment and let me know! Leave a link so we can see if you have a pic online somewhere! 🙂
I took my boring old books lists (reading logs) and I kicked them up a notch… mamasbrush style! If you are new here, that means changing things up seasonally… sometimes even monthly (as is the case here)!
If you’ve been around here long, you know that before I’m a blogger, designer, artist, or small business owner (check out my shops in the sidebar), I’m a mom… and a homeschool mom at that… to 6 kids. Any homeschool moms reading? Leave me a quick comment and tell me how many kiddos you have! 🙂
Where was I? Ah yes, homeschooling! Always homeschooling! (I know for most of you, school just ended, but we homeschool all year, so we are getting ready to kick off a new school year at the beginning of July.) As such, I have a number of tools I’ve developed over the years. With my younger set, the ones learning to read and practicing to be more fluent, I started using book lists several years ago. I make a list of the books I want my littles to read through in order to practice what they know and to push them just a bit out of their comfort zone. When they finish a book, they put a sticker or a check mark or a smiley face in one of the boxes after the title. I encourage them to read the shorter books (not the chapter books) multiple times for fluency, so there are several columns for stickers. When they finish a list, I pick books from the next level up and start a new book list.
All this said, while fully functional, they aren’t especially cute. That is to say they weren’t especially cute. Well, one of the reasons it’s been a little quiet around here lately (other than all the gardening and asparagus… oh, the asparagus!) is that I’ve been overhauling my book lists. They are now, officially, cute. — At least I think they are cute! 🙂
There is a different page for each month with unique artwork that fits the theme (northern hemisphere only, sorry if your seasons don’t match!), plus a few extras for holidays and good measure!
I also created a chart for older kids/ adults who would rather have a place to put the date finished instead of stickers.
These charts are great for summer reading logs, assigned or free reading records for school or homework, or homeschool families. I love how it helps me record what the kids were reading for our portolios and evaluations at the end of the school year.
Some of my kids use them in their binders, others on a clipboard or taped to the wall. Keep them handy for best use!
I’ve finally got these digital downloads in my etsy shop. You can print them as many times as you want for as many kids as you have.
Pop over and take a look, then come back here and let me know which month’s design is your favorite!
This new Harvest Journal Bundle is just one of a few items I have listed recently in my shop. I love to keep track of how many pounds of this vegetable I bring in or how many pints of that fruit.
Though I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks, I have been working when I can and have some new things in my shop. With the arrival of spring comes a lot more time working outside in the yard and garden. We’ve been digging, planting, raking, and even harvesting already! Asparagus is the plant that keeps giving year after year!!! (anyone with me?)
With the addition of outside projects, there is not much time left over for blogging… especially with my new Etsy shop. So it isn’t hard to understand that I’ve gotten behind in the blogging department. I do want to share with you, though, some of the new things in my shop.
From the beginning, this blog has been about sharing the things I am creating, putting myself out there for you all to see. I want to keep doing that, and if you should want to purchase something… well, I won’t complain about that either. 🙂 (wink, wink) So I’m going to try get some posts written up to share what I’ve been doing, all while continuing to create some more. 🙂 Thank you all for your support on this creative journey! (Coupon codes to come!)
I designed most of these pages to coordinate with my Chicken Egg Counting Sheets. They will fit nicely in the same journal or binder. The artwork on some of the pages are specific to one crop (like this strawberry page), but really, you could use any page for any crop.
Others have room for several crops on one page (as seen at the top).
This is one of three bridal showers I did last spring for ladies in our church. This bride is the one I designed wedding invitations for (I shared those here.)
The bride is one of the adopted daughters of our pastor and his wife and I was delighted to have the opportunity to do something special for her. She loves farmhouse decor (as do I, so it was perfect!), so it just seemed natural to use that as her theme.
The invitation was designed to be emailed to the church. (I’ve changed all names and numbers to protect privacy.)
Would anyone be interested if I were to list invitations in my Etsy store? Let me know and I’ll see what I can do!
I used my trusty chalkboard (love this thing!) and a pennant banner my oldest daughter and I made for her 11th birthday (several years ago now). I just love using it when I get the chance!
The center pieces were fun. I ordered a bunch of mini rolling pins (I’d wanted them forever and found a great place to buy them on Etsy!) for this event and my own use. For the party, I used fabric to cover them and taped it on. This was a great way to temporarily dress them up, but leave them for me to do something else with later. I also decoupaged and added vinyl we cut on my cricut to the wood wood pieces for fast and easy signs.
The jars were painted with chalk paint. We made three of them and I gifted one to the bride. I took the idea right off her registry. She had registered for one exactly like it, so I just DIY’d it for her. (Thanks mom for your help in that project! We all know you did all the work!)
No two tables were exactly the same. Many other elements used for the center pieces were taken directly from my house. That’s my cake plate, my cute blue truck from Hobby Lobby, my “abide” wood block (part of my home spring decor), and those beads were something I wanted to make for myself anyway… just used the party to get it done. 🙂
Oh, and that’s my cute little tiered plate piece. (More beads I made for myself… these were part of my Valentine’s decor.) I keep the church party budget down by using decor and making decor that I want for myself anyway. 🙂
These pallets really make this dessert table, if you ask me. They are painted grey and fit perfectly with the pink. Of course more of our pennant garland to finish it off.
The tiered tray is from home also, as well as all the decor on it. My son made the “LOVE” blocks for me years ago (it actually spells “SNOW” on the other side. The little houses, the cupcake stand, the Rae Dunn mug I styled re-styled myself in this fashion, the mason jar plate and all the hydrangeas were right out of my kitchen.
All the little details were so fun to pull together, right down to the gingham ribbon on the rice krispie treats and the “R” I placed on the drink table as a nod to her new last name.
Was the event perfect? No. No event ever comes together just as it is in my head, but we enjoyed a time of fellowship, ate some goodies, watched the bride and her fiance open gifts, and bowed in a time of prayer for the couple and their coming marriage. The couple and their families felt the love of God poured through the church family… that makes the event a success.
These dandelion prints make me smile. You’ve seen the artwork before here, but I wasn’t done. Before long I began working on these prints that would be fitting in any child’s space.
I love whimsy in my home decor, but especially in my children’s rooms. I don’t know how much of my home decor taste is because I have so many children in my home (six kids age 15 and under) and have for so many years, but I can’t help myself. I love making spaces that my family can enjoy. And they make me smile too.
And I love white space. This is something my husband and I don’t always agree on. I show him something I’ve created and he wants me to make a background. “NO!” I reply, calmly. (ahem) I just love how the focus is brought to all the right places with plenty of “negative” (that’s the fancy way to say white) space.
I included all the phrases, the dandelion fuzz blowing in the breeze, the little boy gifting a dandelion to his sister or friend because I think they carry the whimsy of the whole set. I really love the “D is for Dandelion” print. I was aiming for the simplicity of the outlined flower and the yellow “D” just sitting in the corner. I picture this set in a homeschool room, or even a preschool. On the bathroom walls or one or two of them sitting on the dresser in a nursery.
I finally got them added to my shop today. Your coupon code for 33% off is DANDELION33. Or you can click this link to have it taken automatically. Discount is only for a week, so head over quick! (I usually offer a discount for new products in the shop to my readers, so if you don’t want to miss a discount, sign up to follow and receive notifications in the sidebar!)
Last year I had the joy and privilege to design the wedding invitation for a sweet couple in our church. I brought out my paints and paper and went to work. It was so fun! With some back and forth between us, I think the end result was beautiful! Shown here are the two options for the RSVP/Registry card. She picked the back one, but I wanted to share both with you.
In the last 5-6 months I’ve been working on a big project. One of my biggest so far, in fact. I’ve turned Anna’s wedding invitation into an entire design collection, complete with a second colorway. I’m working on the finishing touches to the collection for fabric, but while I’m waiting for that, I’ve followed this line of inspiration to some new places.
These stickers are designed for use on your tablet’s digital planner/calendar/bullet journal in your note taking app, but they can also be used on any computer where PNG files can be used (not suitable for printing). They aren’t just for weddings, but add a romantic and beautiful feel to your everyday digital world.
As always, I want to offer my readers an opportunity to get these stickers at 33% off for the first week I have them in my Etsy shop. Enter coupon code ANNASTICKERS33 or click this link to have the discount taken automatically through April 15, 2022.
Like it? Please pin the image below! Thanks for your support!
