Making Things

Look what Russ and I made:

Isn't it beautiful?

I am pretty proud of this. Russ' family all paint and they all have these beautiful paintings hanging in their homes that they've painted and I've always wished I could paint like the Henrys.

Russ is an awesome husband though and his love language (verbal encouragement) comes in when he encourages my creativity in different ways. I may not be able to paint but give me some twine, mason jars, and a hot glue gun and I can sort of maybe make something.

Russ put the wooden frame together. We went to Home Depot and–yes, I am going to brag a little–it was attractive watching him pick out wood pieces and actually know which ones should be used. It's handy having a handy man around (pun intended). He nailed it all together and stained it. I came in only close to the end when the plants were involved. I mostly just hot-glue-gunned my fingers together and complained to Russell that the hot glue gun was hot. I also bought the fishing line.

But the idea behind this Succulent Plant Frame was something we saw in a coffee shop once on a lunch date. We tweaked it a little and made it our own. Also, Russ has a hobby of building things with his hands and gardening. This included both and it was nice being able to do this with him.

Arts and Crafts

We've had a couple of weekends free lately which means we've had a lot of time at home. Which also means artsy fartsy days! (Also known as arts and crafts)

About a month ago, Russell decided to build a coffee table. I came home from a girls' weekend trip in Santa Barbara to see a pretty cool table built and painted in our living room. Russ likes working with his hands and building things which I guess is a great hobby, along with his gardening. He also paints you know, as in no big deal. And he wonders why I get so self-conscious around his artistic family–I neither paint, garden, nor build things.

However, I did take up knitting/crocheting again. Take that art world!

Left: First Table Russell has ever built
Right: First crocheted circle I've ever done

Last weekend, Russell's project was to build a planter for his ever-growing garden. It came out nicely. The red paint was my idea so I want a tiny bit credit ;)

The herb planter

While my husband was building that, I decided to knock a few crafts off my list. I used to journal a lot, still do but not as much as I would like, but needless to say I still have a fear of forgetting. I love capturing memories. And if I can't write them all down I keep momentos. From all the trips Russ and I take, I keep the ticket stubs. These range from movie dates, museums, plane tickets, train rides, etc. I finally made a frame to keep them all in.

Placed right above our sweet little H decoration

That's what we've been up to. This is what happens when you don't have a TV and are tired of playing board/card games and don't want to drive anywhere.

'Till next time.