Contest results are in! (commence jumping up and down in 3 ... 2... 1...)

(that's an ATC I made years ago! Figured y'all have the Moon embroidery burned into your skulls by now)

More than a year ago, I worked the first stitches on my high texture hand embroidery of the Moon. It traveled with me across the country, and kept me inspired and busy for many months and thousands of stitches. Last fall, I entered it in the Etsy/NASA Space Craft contest and was overwhelmed by the generous support and kind words from readers, crafty friends, space geek friends and folks I'd never known before. On Friday, a group of incredibly impressive judges gathered at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn and judged the finalists in the contest.

We were told we'd find out the results sometime today, which meant there was much fretting and wringing of hands over the weekend (ok, just some nervous wondering). Then came the news: I had won the prize for best 2D Original Art. I was honored and humbled to be recognized, especially given the gorgeous pieces of art in my category.

Initially, I was a little bummed - for a couple of reasons (hear me out). First, two of my good Space Tweep art friends, Jen Scheer and Catherine Baker, hadn't won. We'd all been cheering each other on for months, and so I was sad that we weren't able to pull in a Space Tweep Sweep and all get to celebrate.

I also thought that only the Grand Prize winner would have the opportunity to have their work (or a photograph of it) flown on-board the space shuttle, and really ... that was all I cared about. Gift certificates to Etsy are awesome, but mostly I wanted to see my embroidery make its way in to space - where I've wanted to go since I was a kid. Jen pointed out, though, that the announcement article mentioned that all winners' work had the potential to fly on-board the space shuttle. (silly me and my skimming!)

So ... WOW. You guys ... just ... wow. There's a decent chance my embroidery will actually fly on-board the space shuttle in.to.space.

I'm just - well I'm speechless to be quite honest. And I've been talking up this Moon project for so long, I'm sure a lot of you are sick of hearing about it! But thank you - thank you for sticking around, for the support and kind words and voting, for blogging, for the interest in embroidery and space and for creating a creative community in which works like this can blossom.

The hardest part of all of this was saying goodbye to my embroidery. I packed it up (in GOBS of bubble wrap) and shipped it off to Brooklyn for the event, knowing that the only way I'd get it back was if I didn't win. So just as I started to jump up and down and celebrate winning, I got a bit of a letdown to know that I'll not ever have the embroidery back in my possession again. I don't have all the details yet on where it will end up, for how long, who will be in charge of it, what will happen to it after it's been on display (or flown) and so I have a bit of heartache tonight, too. This was one of my first pieces of true, honest-to-goodness, pour my heart and gut and soul and everything in to, art piece. I spent hours upon hours with this piece. I had conversation after conversation over it. I shared excitement and information with people over it. I had quiet time alone with it. It was a huge piece of me. And now it's ... gone. Not GONE gone, but just not here with me. And that's harder than I thought it was going to be.

But I'm still hugely thankful, and excited to find a way to get out to Florida for the launch. I didn't win the trip out there, but I'm already working on a way to afford the trip out so I can see my artwork launch. And believe me, I'll take every word of support, every wish for winning, every good thought/vibe/love you all have sent over the last few months, with me.

Thank you. No other words say it better. Just Thanks.

Moon Update: Judging Event on Friday!

House stuff is going really well, and we're actually getting close to being done. I'll be posting more pictures and progress very soon, but also wanted to give an update on the Moon embroidery project and the Etsy/NASA Space Craft contest.

Friday night, March 18, is the live judging event in Brooklyn, New York. I carefully framed and wrapped up my embroidered Moon and shipped it off. We got word today that the show is all set up, and the panel of judges is ready to go. It's an incredibly impressive (and intimidating) panel.

I'm in very good company. Two fellow Space Tweep artists, Catherine Baker and Jen Scheer, are also finalists (along with 117 others) and have really awesome entries. Just seeing this much space art enthusiasm makes my heart happy. I'm so inspired, and I'm already plotting my next space art project. Thanks again, so much, for all the kind words, thoughts, support and votes. I'll keep you posted on the results!

Making Progress

The quite around here means things have been busy. And boy have they. Even though we are using a contractor, managing this huge renovation has proved to be a wee bit overwhelming. Add to that some new responsibilities at work and helping kids adjust to life in a new town, there hasn't been much time for blogging. My bad!

Fortunately, I have been taking lots of pictures, and that's the fun stuff, right? I'll have to do all the wrap up, detail kind of posting later, because quite frankly ... my brain is fried. But for now, enjoy these progress pictures. The changes are overwhelming and exciting. It's fun to see things moving along, but it's also terrifying to see a place you love so much getting torn apart. When I look back at our original pictures of the house, I think, "awww, but it's so beautiful! What have we done!?" Demo was crazy. Seeing things ripped down to studs freaked me out a bit. Now, though, the progress is getting to the exciting part. We should be (knock on wood) just a few weeks away from wrapping this huge project up.

Kitchen, side one


Kitchen, side 2





Living Room windows

(these just went in today! There will be another window on the right side of the fireplace tomorrow!)

Master bedroom/bathroom




There is much much more where this all came from. Think tip 'o the iceberg here. But hopefully it's enough to see what's been happening, and why I've been so absent lately. More pictures later!

Finding inspiration for the renovations

Don't fret. This isn't going to be renovation-only blog forever. And, actually, I'm going to be documenting some of the DIY projects I do for the house, so the "crafter" in Average Jane Crafter is not gone. I just want to share as much of the house stuff as possible, 'cause I always get a kick out of seeing other folks' befores and afters and because I'd like to have some kind of record for myself.

That said, as the renovation gets down to business, I've been compiling ideas, doing some online and in-person "browsing" and working my way through the seemingly endless list of decisions that need to be made. I never imagined how many things have to be picked out, how much stuff is out there to see and how hard it would be to decide on something as simple as bathroom faucets. My head is spinning.

I thought I'd share some of the resources I've found and am using to get inspired and save and organize what I've found.

Initially, I bought a giant stack of magazines, dogeared and tore out pages and put them in an accordion file. My main focus for inspiration and resources, though, has been online. I'm going to share a few web sites that are inspiring me and then a few online resources I'm using for gathering and organizing my ideas. Here we go:

Retro Renovation
When I started looking for inspiration for mid-century renovations, this was the first site that popped up. I instantly fell in love. Pam posts about pretty much everything related to mid-century design and aesthetic, with vast resources for finding anything you could hope to need in the renovation of a mid-century home. She's a prolific poster, and her readership is quite active, sharing their own renovation projects and resources. It's just my kind of community. And it's broken a habit of mine: aside from just subscribing in my RSS reader, I actually keep the site open in a tab in my browser so I can pop over and refresh and not miss anything. I don't want it to get lost in my bloated Reader. Be warned, when you pop over there, you may as well right off the next few hours, 'cause that's at least how long you'll want to spend there.

The Brick House
One of our designer friends pointed us to this blog, chronicling Morgan Satterfield's renovation of a mid-century cement brick house in California. She does things on a budge, so there's lots of great thrift-find inspiration and DIY projects, and loads of gorgeous pictures.


Aesthetic Outburst
I found Abbey's blog through a post on Houzz (more on that below) and feel in love with the look and feel of her place, especially since it's kid-friendly. I've fallen in love with the crafty side of her blog as well, so that makes it a bonus find!


So as I gather ideas for the house, I've got to put them somewhere, right? It's nice to be able to sort of bookmark things and go back and look at them all together. There are a couple of sites I've used to do this, and I owe my thanks to Diane for turning me on to both.

Houzz
I admit, I haven't spent tons of time on Houzz, but it was a great place for me to start and see lots of pictures of interiors so I could start to hone in on how I wanted things to look in our new place. I've always kind of known what my style is, but it's hard to put it in to words. With Houzz, I can browse hundreds of pictures and add any I like to an Ideabook so I can go back to them later. It's like being able to tear pictures out of one hundred magazines in one go 'round.


Pinterest
Diane posted about Pinterest a while back, and I jumped on the opportunity to grab an invite. I wasn't doing much with it, because of our move, but now it has become my go-to place for bookmarking things I find while searching online. I feel like it's somewhere between Tumblr and Delicious, both of which I've used. I like that, rather than Tumblr, I can divide my posts up in to categories (boards) so I can have something for the house and something for crafty stuff and something for space, etc. And since I'm such a visual person, I love that I don't just have lists of links (like on Delicious) but instead have a big grid of pictures. I need that. It's come in handy as I've browsed literally hundreds (ack!) of bathroom fixtures and lighting. Right now, my "For the New House" board is a mess of crazy bathroom fixtures, because I just couldn't make up my mind. But I did. And I'll share those choices with you soon.
I've set up a temporary home "office" on our back deck by the pool, and can work under the 30-ft pine trees, watch the woodpeckers and be on hand if the contractor or subs need me. These first few days of demo have been kind of hectic, but I imagine things will smooth out more as time goes. Pretty much all decisions/purchases have been made. Almost all the demo is done (pictures soon!) and from here on out, it's just building things back up. Stay tuned!

Awesome finds at the Dream House

We're in a bit of a holding pattern over here for getting going on the renovations. Of course, that leaves me in a bit of a panic, because time is money and we're tight on both. To help ease my nerves a little, I revisited some of the awesome things I've found at the Dream Home, and wanted to share them and the story of the family who lived in this house with you.

Rarely in real estate do you make such an emotional and personal connection with a house. Too often, it's all business, money, negotiating, frustration and any number of crazy-making details. When I walked into the house and knew it was The One, I didn't know that we were about to connect with a wonderful family, and the memory of an amazing artist and mother.


You can see a few of her portraits here.

When we submitted our offer on the house, I included a letter that expressed our love of the home, and my intense connection with the art studio and intention to keep it and use it "as is." I'll spare you all the corny details, but let's just say there were way too many coincidences/signs/connections/kismet-kind of things going on with us and this house and this family. It was one of the nicest and most joyous real estate transactions I've ever experienced or heard of.



One afternoon, after we moved into our rent house, but before we closed on the new house, I took the kids by to drive past the house and visit the neighborhood (we didn't have a key to the house yet, and the kids had only seen pictures of the inside). We happened to pull up as Rosanne's son was loading some items in to his car. Without really thinking, I rolled down my window, called his name and quickly introduced myself and the kids (he and I had exchanged a couple of emails via our real estate agent). What happened next is a real estate rarity: he invited the kids and me in to meet his wife and father and to show the kids the house. We ended up spending almost an hour with them, hearing stories about the house and their family. They'd lived in the house for more than 42 years. Their son (the one who was there that day) was the same age our daughter is right now when they moved in. They bought the house, sight-unseen, from an acquaintance who drove all the way to Peoria, Illnois, to tell them about the place over the dinner table.

I ate these stories up.



Because we were able to get the flat file cabinets included in the sale of the house (I'm still swooning over them) the family decided to leave any in-good-condition supplies inside for me to use. WOW. There is every kind of paper imaginable, from vellum to mat board and more, as well as tons of vintage wrapping paper, cards and other supplies. It's dreamy. They also had several of her painted portraits that they left for me. I plan on hanging one in every room in the house if I can.



Probably my most treasured gift from them, though, was the collection of blueprints, flooplans and design research Rosanne created and gathered when she designed and built the studio addition to the house in 1977-78. Her floorplan drawings are amazingly detailed and so much fun to look at. As her husband of 52 years, Bill, said, "She really could have been an architect." Indeed.

I also came across a file folder case that was filled with file folders in which she collected magazine and newspaper clippings, brochures and booklets, notes and receipts for the addition of the studio. These items are priceless to me. On one level, I just love them for their vintage design and fabulous pictures. More than that, though, I love thinking of her going through the same kind of process I'm doing right now with the house. I'm collecting clippings, making notes, sketching cabinet designs, and it's almost eerie how similar our tastes seem to be.



I find myself simultaneously crushed that I was never able to know Rosanne, but also feeling overwhelmed with gratitude at the opportunity to get to know her through her art and this small collection of notes about the house. I also found many other treasures in the studio that I'll share here (with permission from her family) and as I've spent more time in the space and gone through these items time and time again, I almost feel like she's right here with me, guiding me in some way.

Why, yes, I have gone off the deep end! Thanks for asking!



But, really. Aren't these kinds of connections what life is all about? It is for me. I find great comfort and strength in getting to know this woman who shared so many of my life attributes (busy mom, husband going up into the big city every day for work, keeping art an important part of my life no matter what, creating a home that's comfortable for my family and inspiring to me...). This move was incredibly difficult for me ... until I "met" Rosanne. Thanks, Rosanne. I needed that.

I've posted some of the pics of the flooplans and brochures here. If you'd like to see more, hop on over to my Flickr set. :)

And now to introduce you to the new house

Also known as "why I've disappeared for the last 6 weeks or so" and "what I'll be up to my eyeballs in for the next few months."



As I mentioned in my last post so long ago, we've been in the process of moving. We had a very crazy eight weeks - all right during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays - of getting our house ready to sell, finding a place in Houston and moving. Things rolled out muuuuuuuch faster than we had planned on, but it was good, because everything fell right in to place so seamlessly I can't imagine having done it any other way.



I'll try to sum it up quickly: husband got a job offer in Houston he couldn't refuse, I freak out at the thought of leaving Austin, my family, close friends and great neighborhood/school, we decide we'll try to live close to downtown Houston since that's where his office is, I scope out neighborhoods with Claire, but can't find anything that fits our safe/affordable/good neighborhood schools trifecta, we decide to pursue suburbs, I realize the only suburb I'd want to live in is the one where I can see rockets on the way to the grocery store, we focus our search on the Clear Lake area, we get our house all spiffed up and on the market and head to Clear Lake to scope out the area, our house ends up selling the first weekend it's on the market, we find a Dream Home in Seabrook, everything falls into place with coincidences and "signs" that are enough to make your head spin, we find a rent house one mile from our new house where we can live for a few months during renovations, we move down on New Year's Eve, kids love the new school, we love the new neighborhood, it's all good.

Whew.

If you'd told me three months ago that I'd be living in a new city, getting ready to start renovations on an awesome old house, I'd have laughed hysterically in your face. Oh, life, you're so funny with your curve balls!



And so here we are, in Seabrook, Texas. I'm in Space Geek Nirvana, the kids' school is amazing, we've already made some really lovely friends, and the house we bought is not only totally rad and a "dream house," but we also made a really wonderful connection with the sellers. More on that in another post (or three).



When we started looking down here, we found some great, cozy neighborhoods with fun older homes. One MLS listing had me intrigued. The pictures weren't great, but it was a 1961 ranch with a pool and - most intriguing of all - an art studio and darkroom. I've always wanted to live in a mid-century ranch, so I kept going back to that listing. When I first met with our Realtor, we previewed loads of homes before heading out with my husband the next day. After going through house after house after house, we headed over to this one. Just pulling in to the neighborhood was completely dreamy. Idyllic is an understatement.



When we walked into the house, it was ON. I liken it to looking for your wedding dress: you try on a bunch of dresses, and then the second you put on THE ONE, you know it is THE ONE. This house was THE ONE. It needed some updating, but the bones were incredible, and it had a great spirit about it. And then I walked into the studio. The glorious, amazing, jaw-dropping, can't-believe-it's-real art studio. My creative juices started boiling. I'm planning several posts on the studio alone, and the woman who designed it and worked in it for the last 30 years. Let's just say that I've never experienced kismet as strongly as I have with this home.



So today, I introduce you to THE ONE. We're planning some pretty big renovations over the next two months, so I'll be updating on that as well. We've never done a renovation before, so I'm a little nervous (ok, A LOT nervous) but I'm excited, too. We're taking a place we love and are just making it even more lovable. I'll share as many of the resources as I can, and welcome any tips/advice on renovating a mid-century home. We're working to keep it pretty true to its time period.

I've given you a sneak peek with some pictures here, but I put together a complete slide show over on Flickr. It's easiest to zip through the pictures that way, and I ordered them such that they take you on a full tour of the place. If you are interested in the notes I've made on the pics, you can view them in the set. I'll be keeping it updated as the renovation beings.

Crazy Full of Gratitude

My good pal, Jote, started a most wonderful series on her blog recently called 30 Days With a Grateful Heart. Each day, she's sharing something for which she's grateful, ranging from deep and meaningful family memories and relationships to something as simple as a pair of comfortable shoes. What's been really fun about the series is how a substantial group of our mom friends have started playing along and are sharing their daily gratitude. It's been nice to see everyone's posts especially over on Facebook where we can easily catch up each day.

I've not been able to keep up each day, because our lives are pretty darn hectic right now. I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but our family is in the process of selling our house and moving. We're leaving Austin (sigh ... don't get me started on how hard that is) and are moving to Houston for a great job opportunity for the husband. More on that later (especially if we get the house we're hoping for ... there will be some great blogging on updating the house ....)



While I haven't had time to blog my gratitude each day, I have been feeling it - and in a very big way. The last 4-5 weeks have been some of the most emotionally tumultuous of my life, not to mention just flat out full of incredibly hard work on top of the regular day-to-day work, all while single-moming it since the husband has already moved to Houston.

The gratitude is what has been getting me through. One day in particular a little more than a week ago, I was feeling insanely overwhelmed with some of the house stuff I was having to do. I woke up with my stomach in knots, thinking about everything I needed to get done that day. I fired up my computer and was pleasantly greeted with two really sweet and thoughtful posts about my Moon embroidery from my pal, Paul at Dude Craft, and one of my embroidery mentors, Mary at Needle 'n Thread. Several other friends blogged and shared links for voting via Facebook and Twitter, and I found that my overwhelm of gratitude was kicking my overwhelm of stress square in the face. So nice. (I'll be blogging more thanks about the folks who helped spread the word for voting in another post. My Moon made it to the finals! Hurrah!)



Two days ago, as real estate stress was once again pushing me to my very outer limit (and a bit beyond) I came home to two big boxes on my front porch. I saw that they were from two of my favorite people on the planet, Diane and Pam. They are my adopted sister and mom, and though we rarely get to see each other, I love them dearly. There are many things for which I'm grateful in the blogging world, but these two people and the relationship we've developed over the past few years is at the very top of my list.

My daughter helped me open and unpack the boxes, and what we found left me in a huge puddle of tears. I'd mentioned in a post on CRAFT about Diane's awesome plastic canvas gingerbread house that I didn't think I'd be able to do homemade gingerbread houses this year since I'm so preoccupied with house-selling/buying/moving stuff. In these two boxes from Diane and Pam were all the things we needed to spark up our holiday spirit - something that was completely missing around here.



They sent two gingerbread house kits, holiday craft supplies and coloring pages for the kids, and fabulous teas for me. They also sent several packages of delicious holiday cookies and treats. If you've read Pam's blog for any time at all, you know that she makes the most awesome Christmas cookies and treats, and getting to have some of those yummy homemade goodies just made my heart so happy (not to mention, I was in total awe of their packing techniques. Not a single cookie was broken - it was amazing!)

As I went through each of the things Diane and Pam so lovingly packed up and sent, I just started sobbing uncontrollably. I actually kind of freaked my daughter out. She said, "Stop crying! This isn't sad! This is great!" I used the opportunity to explain "happy tears" to her. It was one of those moments when you are emotionally and physically exhausted and then you get the most wonderful, thoughtful surprise you could ever imagine. The gratitude just slayed me. Flat. Out. Slayed. Me.

Even though I've had almost unbearable amounts of stress the last month or so (and surely more to come) it is insane amounts of gratitude for friends and their overwhelming kindness that are carrying me through every little bit of it. So ... THANK YOU. All of you.

Photos:
Thank you by vistamommy
Gratitude by kateausburn
Thank you by RobeRt Vega
Thank You SEW Much by Heidi Elliott