Flyswatter Painting

So the boys have been into arts and crafts lately. With the lack of crafts stores in Germany, it's sometimes hard to find things for them to do. I went to the German equivalent of the Dollar Tree (woefully inadequate replacement) and picked up some flyswatters. I'd seen this idea on (where else?!) Pinterest where you put paint daubs on a canvas and gave the kiddos a flyswatter and let them have at it. My boys are a: fans of paint and anything messy, b: really big fans of smacking/hitting things, so I knew they'd have a blast.

 

It turns out, though, that it's really really really messy. I would have tried it outside instead, which is probably a much better idea, but it was raining. Because it's Germany. And it's always raining.

 

If you look closely you can see the pain on his ear, cheek, eyebrows, hair...

 

It was like instant-gratification art. You get to smack the crap out of the paper and you get beautiful results. Link was a huge fan.

 

I was not a huge fan of the mess. We obviously got a little wild with our smacks, and by we, I mean them. But the fun was worth it. Nothing a little magic eraser can't help!

 

Here's our final results:

 

 

Link used a three color approach, while Drake wanted just red and blue.

 

I sealed the canvases with some glossy fixative and they now hang proudly in my foyer. Beautiful artwork with sentimental meaning at the price of fun. Win-win-win!

 

Photo-a-Day days 4, 5 and 6

So I'm way behind on posting this, we've been really busy lately and then we've had some issues arise (which I'm being vague about on purpose)... so anyway, here's days 4, 5 and 6 now.

Day 4: joyous (totally cheated and took a photo of a canvas on my wall as both boys are sick now and aren't in the best joyous moods)

Day 5: the temp today (34 degrees)

Day 6: shopping (a package bought for a friend's son's birthday)

Photo Days 2 & 3

So I meant to post this yesterday but ran out of time somehow. Day 2 of the Photo-A-Day Challenge is Your Favorite Holiday Movie. I don't really have one. I LOVE all holiday movies. Some of my favorites are: Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version), Charlie Brown's version of course, and National Lampoon's. I do still love Home Alone, Jingle all the Way, and Santa Clause. But my favorite movie of all is the experience: just sharing it with my boys:

Focused on the Grinch

 

 

Day 3 of the Challenge is red. We decorated our house for Christmas this past weekend so we have lots of reds and greens, but I went outside for my inspiration. There's these red berries on a bush next to where I park my car and they make a wonderful contrast to the snow we're getting today.

 

Yes, I know it says a photo a day, but I couldn't decide between the two of the "red" photos, so you get both.

Capturing December

I'm joining in with A Content Housewife's blog to do her photo-a-day challenge.

In her own words, "This is such a fun way to get those creative juices flowing AND you capture memories that will last a lifetime! Even if you don’t want to do every day, this can still be used as a holiday photo checklist to make sure you capture some of those important moments during the Christmas season!"

Sounds wonderful to me! Today's challenge is Your View Today.

 

So I hated picking just one photo for this challenge as both boys were super helpful in decorating the house for Christmas, but I really love this one of Link showing me the ornament. In the photo he's telling me that it's purple. LOVE that he knows his colors now. He even helped choose the correct color-coded branches for our tree earlier (I'd have a real one but I have allergies to them).

 

Linking back up to A Content Housewife

It's an Infographic Christmas!

Inspired by my love for infographics, I came up with a Christmas photo card design that combines the best of two worlds: a photo card with a newsletter! Highlight your favorite moments of 2012 and showcase your beautiful family at the same time.

Love the modern and simple look of this. Completely customizable and available in my store now.

Discipline

So maybe this is a bit ironic of a post to follow my Thankful post, but today was a very frustrating day. My eldest son, now five, drove me nuts at the doctor's office. He was well-behaved until he got frustrated with the iPad. He couldn't beat a level in Mega Jump so he banged it on his forehead in frustration. While I can appreciate his frustration, he needs to find a better outlet for it. I took the iPad away and made him go back to reading magazines in the waiting room. He then proceeded for the next FIFTEEN minutes to ask for it back. In his most annoying whiny voice. Complete with big crocodile tears. Our conversation went something like this:

D: I won't do it again. Can I please play it again?
Me: No. What you did was unacceptable. You cannot play it now.
D: I'm sorry. Can I play it now?
Me: Thanks for the apology. But you're still not playing it. The answer is no.
D: But I waaaaaaaaaaant to play it. I wannnnnnt to. Pleassssssse.
Me: The answer is going to stay no. Quit asking.
D: I wannnnnnnt to play. I wannnnnnnnt the iPad. I won't do it again. (repeat ad nauseum)

I tried ignoring his requests, after asking him to stop asking. I took away tv time, computer time, and told him he was going to take a nap as soon as we got home. I ran out of things to take away. I was very frustrated with his lack of listening. I don't go back on my word. He can earn back privileges for good behavior, but it has to be consistently good behavior out of the goodness of his heart, and not for the sake of earning privileges back. I guess this is what I'm doing wrong. Because the kid just won't take no for an answer. He badgers me until I get so frustrated that I end up just as upset as he is. How do you stop your children from badgering you when you give an answer?

Thankful

This year has been really a very blessed year. Nothing in particular, just everything has been wonderful. I've been really blessed and I'm very thankful. I've been trying to convey that to my children so that they grow up with an attitude of appreciation as well. It's sometimes hard when you're 3 and 5 though. The boys grabbed a flyer from the BX for holiday toys and they circled ALL the toys when I asked them to find ones they wanted to ask Santa for.

My birthday boy and his brother opening gifts on Thanksgiving

So here's the main things I'm thankful for this year: Drake, Link, my wonderful husband, my supportive and loving family and friends, a loving and forgiving God, my creative outlet in the form of my business, my wonderful customers, food, shelter, and comfort. I have them all in abundance so I'm very blessed indeed.

Our Thanksgiving feast: cranberries, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, devilled eggs, mac 'n cheese, turkey, and dinner rolls.. Yum!

Hope your thanksgiving (and year) were just as blessed.

Potato Stamp

So I know this isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but we had a lot of fun with it. We created stamps from potatoes (I had red fingerling potatoes in the house as I am obsessed with roasted potatoes).

What we did: Mommy carved a heart into a few potatoes, then poured some different colored paint into plastic-coated disposable plates (I suppose you could be fancy and use palettes if you have them!), then let the boys go to town.

Perfect indoor craft for little hands, especially if you have a toddler (like me) who lacks fine motor skills. We ended up with quite a few lovely sheets of hearts, so we wrote a short message to Daddy and tucked it into his deployment bag.

Yay! I'm thinking these would also look great this time of year with leaves carved into the potatoes or snowflakes.

Thanksgiving Printable

So there's an awesome (atleast in my not-so-humble opinion) free Thanksgiving printable up over at A Bird and a Bean. You can go check it out HERE. 

Since I created it for Erin as a contributor and I want it to remain on her website before I post it on my own, I won't post a photo here but will tell you that it's a fun, hand-lettered chalkboard inspired design. Fun! Go check it out. You won't regret it.

News

So I have a piece of exciting news... I'm going to be a contributor to another blog. For a wonderful person whom I just happen to love! I love their blog too, so it's win-win! I'm going to be filling in the role of "free printables" so I can't wait to show you all what I've been working on. I'm really excited for it. As soon as it's up I'll let you guys know so that you can go check it out for yourselves.

Anyway, today is Link's first parent-teacher conference. I can't wait to get some feedback. I know that he's been learning a lot (colors, shapes, numbers, etc.) but I want to know more. Since he doesn't have all the words to tell me, our typical ride home consists of me asking how his day was, "Good," and what he did, "Um...play...paint."

Yesterday, for the first time I think, he used an adverb. We were snuggling on the couch watching Polar Express (that movie creeps me out, anyone else?) and it was snowing. He turned to me and said, "I really want snow." I was blown away! This kid hardly ever forms complete sentences and hardly ever uses I and then even threw in an adverb. If it had been within my power I would have made it snow right there and then for the kid! I'm excited to see all of his progress.

Tis the Season

So I'm way behind (big surprise, I know) with holiday designs. I just don't feel right putting out holiday/Christmas designs yet. But since everyone else is, and I risk losing business, I had better hop to! With that being said, I've posted a few in my store.

I really love the rustic feel of this one with the modern spin on typography (it's got some great fonts). Another one of my recent listings:

 

It's got a whimsical feel with the swirly Christmas tree, fun ornaments, and bright colors like coral and aqua blue. Check out my store soon for more additions.

Back into the Fray

So a lot, and I mean A LOT, has happened these past few months. I've been incredibly busy and preoccupied but here's a rundown of things:

1. I quit my daytime job so I can devote more time to my family, including my son who has speech dysarthria and has numerous doctors / therapy appointments

2. My dysarthric son had ear tubes in/adenoids and tonsils out. They seem to be working wonders. I know some people are on the fence about tonsillectomies, but this child no longer has sleep apnea nor snoring. It's improved the quality of the sounds he can produce as well. Win-win!

3. We went to Disneyland Paris and Legoland Deutschland. They. Were. Amazing. Love the memories that we created and maybe one of these days I'll post some information/tips/photos.

4. I realized that I'm frustrated by the lack of information out there about children with speech dysarthria (if you google it you'll find it's mostly in older patients, particularly stroke patients, who have had some sort of head trauma). I'm frustrated that we're not sure what we're in for, nor how far Lincoln can go, and that there's just NO ONE out there. Then I realized, hey, I can blog about it. I can be the start. There might some other mother out there that's just getting the dysarthric diagnosis for her child and she might want to find some answers (I have none) or atleast some camaraderie (I have plenty). So if I start rambling about my child and his speech / motor delays, you know why. :)

Well, those are the main points, I think. I do plan on becoming more active in my blog. I really enjoy reading other blogs, reading comments, etc. so I hope that I can get back into it. Like everything else in life, I think I'll just have to make time for it.

You are my Sunshine free printable

I love the song, "You are my Sunshine." The lyrics are just addictive and sweet. I know there's tons of free printables or nursery art out there in this theme (think Little Miss Sunshine birthday parties), but I wanted to create something too. Simple, modern lines and bright happy colors. Makes a wonderful card or nursery print. Please follow the link to the download for the 8x10 size below.

Download the 8x10 digital print HERE.

Please respect my work and don't try to pass the design off as your own, or resell it. Please don't distribute it in any way, but if you want to share the design, please share this blog post. Thanks!

Designs copyright 2012 by Amy Proffitt.

Long Time Gone

Wow, I can't believe that the last time that I wrote was in May. Well, actually I can. I've been super busy. My youngest, who has been diagnosed with dysarthia (a motor speech disorder) has three appointments a week. I'm thankful that he's getting the help he needs, but I find that I'm doing a lot of running back and forth. It doesn't help that the hospital where he goes has very few parking spaces. I once spent 20 minutes trying to find a spot...but that's another story.

We also went on vacation back to the States to see my family and the hubby's family. IT. WAS. AWESOME. I didn't want to come back, truth be told. It's a good thing we have things to look forward to over here, or else I would have wanted to just stay put. I'll try to post some photos of our month long vacation (since I took over two thousand) but I make no promises.

I really do hope to start writing on a more consistent basis and providing even some more free printables. I love designing and creating items that I know get used, so if you have any suggestions for what ot make, just let me know! Thanks for hanging around and not giving up on me. <3

Flashbacks

Pretty soon I'll be boarding a plane to visit my stateside family. This makes me more happy than you can imagine. I'm a bit homesick. Not for the places, so much, but for the people. Although I will be totally ruining my diet with some good ole American fare. So anyway, I was looking through some photos of mine to use as a filler for a design and came across this one of my dad and my oldest son.

I just love this photo. It's such a tender moment. I think it even looks better that they aren't looking at the camera or even aware of my presence. It's a papa's sweet kiss on a chubby grandson. Man how I miss those sweet moments. Can't wait to make some more memories soon!

Happy Mother's Day

This past weekend of course was Mother's Day. As always, I had an amazing day. I woke up to freshly brewed coffee (yummy chocolate truffle blend) and the hubby made me my traditional omelet. He's the best! I wish I made omelets as great as he does. I didn't have to cook, clean, or lift a finger all day. Man, I love Mother's Day!

Here's my two sweet boys who made me a mommy. I'm so incredibly blessed! It was also Linky's birthday so we celebrated that as well. I can't believe the little guy is three!

My sweet husband even drove both ways to the museum that we went to. I love not having to drive or lift a finger. He spoils me too much, but don't tell him that. I rather enjoy it. Isn't he handsome?!?

We went to this Egyptian exhibit in the city of Speyer (about an hour away). The city itself is worth going to as it has some fabulous architecture, museums, and a lovely pedestrian friendly zone. You know you're spoiled by amazing European architecture when you don't snap photos of every little building anymore since they're all amazing.

Posing with my babies in the main pedestrian thoroughfare.

The shops along the pedestrian way evoke memories of Venice to me. The colors aren't adjusted at all. This is how they look.

We had a delicious lunch at a sidewalk cafe, followed by some yummy Italian gelato (1 euro per cone!). The boys had chocolate, James had nutella, and I had raspberry.

More sidewalk cafes and beautiful architecture.

We stopped at the park on our way back to the car. Too bad the shadows cast have our eyes heavily shadowed. That and the remains of gelato on the little guys' faces...Not a perfect photo, but definitely a perfect day.

Hope your Mother's Day was just as enjoyable!

Long Time, No Talk

I've been terrible about updating my blog. It's not that I haven't wanted to. It's just that I'm going through a bit of a rough patch. That and the crazy busy schedule that my life is currently subjected to is overwhelming me at the moment. It's not a bad busy, just busy.

My youngest son has been preliminarily diagnosed with dysarthria, a motor speech disorder. I say preliminary because it's not an official diagnosis yet, though the speech therapist is pretty sure that's what we're dealing with. For a long time I didn't think Lincoln looked, acted, or spoke like his age. I hate to be right in this case. As a mother, I want what's best for my children, and I'm constantly berating myself lately. Was that fall down the stairs what caused the problem? Was it because I chose to do my graphics business or dishes instead of sitting on the floor playing with him? Was it something I did during my pregnancy? I hate the what ifs. Right now they're tearing me apart. I could have been a better mother to him, I should have gotten him the help sooner, I shouldn't have taken the doctor's assertions that he was fine at face value. I've got to pull myself together and be better for him. He deserves it.

Peeps Bag Topper - Free Printable

Easter is fast approaching and that means it's time for a freebie! This time it's a baggie topper for treats, specifically Peeps treats. Since I live in Germany and apparently all the Peeps are already sold out, I had to photography my baggie topper with cute chocolate bunnies.

Just purchase some Peeps (easier said than done here in Germany), a ziploc baggie (I used sandwich sides and tucked under the extra to make them shorter), and print out the toppers and affix them with some strategically placed staples. Voila. Instant cute treat!

Here's the non-photographed version:

Just imagine them with some cute bunny Peeps.

You can download the single baggie topper HERE

or the PDF sheet of two toppers tiled HERE

Please feel free to pin, tweet, post about these toppers, but please link back to the original posting (ie: this blog post) so that I may receive credit. Enjoy!

A Few Favorite Fonts

So as a graphic designer, I have an affinity for fonts. I LOVE them. Probably a bit too much. I go into restaurants, read the menu and can tell you what fonts they used. It's that bad. My husband likes to tease me about it. I also get quite a few questions from customers about fonts (everyone loves a good font apparently!). So I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Here's a few of them, in no particular order.

Adorable can be found HERE

Champagne & Limousines can be found HERE

Contribute can be found HERE

Pea Breathe Easy can be found HERE

Japan can be found HERE

Sketch Block can be found HERE

Anderson Four Feathers Falls can be found HERE

Just Me Again Down Here can be found HERE

Cookies can be found HERE

Circus can be found HERE



Monday Musings

So I've been absolutely terrible about writing on here. Which is sad. I really like opening up and posting designs and "meeting" wonderful people. There's such a wealth of information on the internet and I meet some of the most amazing people through here. At any rate, things here have been hectic. I guess that goes without saying. I've had two sick boys, a sick husband and a sick me to take care of. You can guess which one got put on the back burner.

I know my last message was kind of dark, well, really dark for me, but I guess you could say I had the world's most horrible birthday. It was pretty awful and I guess the real problem is that I had expectations. Whenever you set yourself up like that, you're bound to be disappointed. It wasn't that I wanted anything amazing or outlandish; just to be recognized. Without two sick kiddoes would have been great too. I hate when my babies are sick.

Speaking of sick, we're finally (KNOCK ON WOOD) over everything, I think. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully. Took Link to the doctor today to check out his rash; in my opinion it should have gone away and not gotten worse over the weekend. They were calling it a medicinal reaction rash, but if that's true and his last dose was Wednesday, why was it so bad on Saturday and Sunday?!

We took him to the doctor today and he's not convinced that it's a medical reaction but he's not convinced otherwise either. Very helpful. (sigh) It's actually looking much better today so we're just keeping tabs on it. The doctor says that it most likely isn't anything else since he just had strep throat and scarlet fever so he shouldn't have any other bug. To me, that's ridiculous logic. I would think that his immune system would be compromised so it's perfectly logical that he could have something else (like fifth's disease). But our doctor is mostly..well, I won't go there because it just makes me upset. Going to go online today and request a new doctor. That should fix atleast some of our problems! Hopefully you all had a much better week of things!

Birthdays

So today's my birthday. I didn't plan on posting anything since the entire household has come down with strep throat and/or scarlet fever and things have been a bit hectic to say the least. That and I don't want to seem like I'm begging for sympathy or just wanting people to say "Happy Birthday." But my husband, who is in Italy for work, was sweet and left me two birthday cards. One was signed by the kids and one was signed by him. The one signed by him read, "You're an awesome mommy and pretty good wife." Am I reading that correctly or am I reading into things? Pretty good? Isn't that like getting a C in a class? You're pretty good, but you're not great. You're not terrible either, just pretty good. I can't say why, but this is just breaking my heart today. Maybe it's everything else compounded on the issue, but the "pretty" is like the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back. Or it was the dam holding back the tears. I'm not really good at analogies right now. This is what dictionary.com had to say about the definition of pretty:

pretty: [prit-ee]  -ti·er, -ti·est, noun, plural -ties, adverb, verb, -tied, -ty·ing.

adjective: fairly or moderately: Her work was pretty good.

Is that the way you would read that? Or am I reading into things? I know I'm not the best wife in the world. I wish I was, but I know I'm not. But isn't it pretty crappy to be reminded of how utterly lacking you are in that department on your thirtieth birthday? Someone please tell me I'm crazy and reading into things.

Valentine's Freebie - Printable

With the passing of the Christmas and New Years holidays, there's not much to look forward to here except for Valentine's Day. It's not a major holiday, of course, but I have fun letting the kids color and create Valentines for their little friends (and their family). I created these valentines for them last year:

They had a lot of fun coloring them and I love the vintage or cheesy sayings.

Here's the already colored version:

Now I'm sharing them with you! You can download the already colored in sheet by

CLICKING THIS LINK.

You can download the coloring sheet version (black and white) by

CLICKING THIS LINK.

I hope to have a newer Valentine's printable soon so stay tuned!

New Designs in Store

It's been awhile since I've posted here. Oops! Things always seem so hectic and then I'm not even sure where all the time goes. At any rate, I've posted some new designs in store. I'm really excited about them.

Have a little one who loves all things that go? I know I have two like that. By plane, train or automobile, however you go, invite your guests in style!

Cookie Monster! How cute is this invitation? I think it'd be really great to actually cut out the top left corner of the invitation, just like he had taken a bite out of it.

Wild thing in your house with a party coming up? Invite your guests with this rockstar inspired design. 

I love this western and rustic invitation. Great for a cowboy or cowgirl.

Have a zoo of a party with this safari animals invitation. Design features giraffe, jaguar, monkey, zebra and lion.

I finally got around to designing an owl invitation. I know the owl theme is really popular so I'm a bit behind the times with just now listing it, but oh well. Better late than never, right?

Also, I just have to say, the first five designs have photos of my boys. Aren't they gorgeous? Yeah, I'm that mom. The one who's always bragging about how beautiful--inside and out--her children are.