by Amy | Jul 31, 2012 | Blog, Crafts, The Art of Projects
I’m a 10 year 4-H member. I’ve been to a lot of fairs in my day. Yet…I’ll be honest. I’ve never seen a better display of projects and crafts than that at the Elkhart County Fair. Seriously, there are great projects. I’m always inspired by what these student come up with.
Here is a selection of my favorites. I’ll start with my absolute favorite category: Recycling. In this category you enter things made of upcycled objects. Just take a look here.
I’ll start with my favorite. {Left} Bask in the beauty of this lamp. It’s made up of vintage books that have been glued together. Then a hole was drilled through the center and it was wired with a lamp kit. The shade has been decoupaged with book pages. Genius.
Remember those Golden Books? Check out this cute-as-a-button bird house. As far as I can tell…you could decoupage pages onto a pre-fab bird house. This one must have been custom made though, since the roof is made solely of the book. Take note of the little vintage clothes pin perch! I love it.
How about this bird feeder made of melted vinyl records? I think it could be a bit cuter…but boy do I adore this notion.
I’ve seen this before…but it doesn’t make me any less impressed. An old salvaged window, turned into a gorgeous end table.
I love being inspired.
Amy
by Amy | Jul 24, 2012 | Blog, The Art of Living, the house
Well, it all happened so fast. Allison and Scott got a call that there is a house available for them on base. Last night was a flurry of packing and dropping things off to the new place. They stayed here last night, and this morning they took off to unload in their own house.
And I leave for Indiana tonight.
The full house quickly became a nearly empty nest. Derek and Panda Kitty will be here on their own for a while. I know PK will appreciate it.
When I was a kid I remember reading a story called: “Too Much Noise.” It’s about a man who thinks his house is too noisy. The doors squeak, the floors creak, the windows shake. He can’t get any sleep. So he goes to the village wise man for advice. The sage tells him to get a cow. And the story progresses…the cow just adds to the noise, the sage then tells him to get a donkey…a cat…a dog…a sheep…and the list goes on and on until his house is a zoo.
Finally, at his wits end he goes back to the wise man one final time, pleading for a better solution. This time, instead of telling the man to get another animal, the elder tells him to get rid of all the animals.
When he gets home, the doors still squeak, the floors still creak, and the windows shake…but all seems quiet and peaceful.
I’ve been thinking about that story lately. When I first saw the house {Derek put the offer in before I was in Minot, so I’d only seen photos before we bought it} I thought “My, oh, my…this place is small.” I just didn’t know how everything would fit in here. Then our furniture arrived and we managed to get things in order. But it still felt small. Then we added two more adults, a dog, a baby…and a very scared cat. The house seemed full but not crowded.
Now that everyone is gone and all the toys are picked up this house seems like the coliseum. Isn’t it funny how perspective changes like that?
I’ll miss the full house. So I guess I need to start peer pressuring the family to come up and visit!
Amy
by Amy | Jul 23, 2012 | Blog, The Art of the Moment, the house
Hello there. I hope this welcome will be well received by old readers and new readers alike. I’m thrilled to be launching the all new amy allender {dot} com today.
So, have a look around. Here’s what’s new and why I made the shift.
My lovely husband pointed out that I had a few too many online presences for one little girl and one small business. I had a personal blog, a neglected business blog, a website, and two facebook pages… and a personal facebook page. I think he was right. It was too many for little young me.
So I took his advice and melded everything I love into one place. My business, my life, my home. They are all here, living in harmony.
If you have read for a while you know I’m more play than business…so I like to think that this will be a place where my business can be roommates with all my fun projects.
Why I think you’ll love the switch:
- Everything you loved about Aprons & Ambitions is here. The awesome content, the misadventures…they’ll all be posted here on the new blog.
- The blog address has been simplified. Now you can find me here at amyallender.com/blog…not a jumble of dashes and blogspots.
- Derek and I just moved into our new {old} house…and I’ve got loads of projects coming up.
- Since I’m merging business and pleasure, you’ll get to view all the sweet eye candy and awesome videos I produce at work.
- I’ll be simplifying my labels, so your favorite posts will be easy to find…but you can always go back to A&A. There is a link under the “blog” menu in the navigation bar.
Here’s what’s new and awesome:
- Amy Allender Productions is growing a focus for awesome family/lifestyle photography. So you can bet you’ll see more of that in the coming days.
- Much. Many. Long is my new motto. After lots of prayer and consideration, God spoke to my heart and let me know that doing as much as I can, for as many as I can, for as long as I can is the most important thing in life. I’m working toward that goal and hope you’ll come along with me. I think we can all make a difference if we employ our natural skills and interests to change the world.
- You can now follow me here. One place on Facebook.
- My services are more comprehensive, my rates are more simplified.
- I’ll continue to post free printables…and now they’ll have a category of their own, easy to spot.
So yeah. I think it’s a good move. Please stick with me as I finish up the switch. {The RSS feed is giving me fits.} In the next day or so I’ll have all the follow buttons you could want and we’ll be off and running!
I’m planning to post again tonight. So grab your friends and check back soon!
Amy
