A Big Thank You!

A huge thank you! to Jenn Kirk for posting this last week. She's full of fabulous ideas and inspiration, we loved having you.

guest post: friday farewell

Thanks so much to Brittany for having me post this week!

And I know this is the goofiest picture to post of ones self, but this also known as keeping it real. Meaning, we are posing outside because our place is untidy. My oldest child is anti-authority, therefore, anti-pictures, therefore, probably clogging up our bathroom sink. My eyes are closed here because they are closed in most my pictures. My children are not wearing clothes, but still manage to look like absolute angels. This is us! (or, at least, half of us) So make sure to come by AmbrosiaGirl to say hello sometime!

guest post: natural art supplies

My friend Dawn always sends me some great links to natural art and craft supplies. There is something about colors, pigment, and paper that gets my heart beating faster.

1. Ecojot sketchbooks
2. Colored smencils
3. Crayon rocks
4. Watercolor paints
   

guest post: spring/summer jean trend

I'm pretty excited about women's fashion trends this season. For one, showing less skin is in vogue (according to this LA Times article I read recently, "skirt lengths [are] falling in concert with the stock market") and clothing is comfortable again. Really comfortable. Maybe even baggy. And when I have to chase my 18-month-old up some crazy, grassy hill at the park, I am down with the baggy. So, to the new trend that is called 'boyfriend jeans,' I give you the thumbs up.



What do you think of this trend? Pass, or fail?



If you feel compelled to loosen your style, here is a collection of boyfriend jeans, all under $80:

BDG Ripped Boyfriend Jean
501 Boyfriend Jeans Cracked Blue
Charlie Low-rise Boyfriend Jean
Calvin Klein Cropped Cuffed Boyfriend Jeans
Hydraulic Boyfriend Jeans
Levi's 501 Boyfriend Cut Jeans (jean at top of post)

guest post: tiny toms

My friend's son was sporting a pair of these shoes last weekend, and I just had to share the cuteness that is Tiny TOMS.

And for every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair to a child in need. One for one.

guest post: foods with moods

This is day 2 for me trying to kick a flu bug, so I'm taking it easy with a simple post today about one of our favorite books, How Are You Peeling:


I ordered a copy for myself after coming across it in the waiting room at my doctor's office. And this was when I was in college -- before I even had kids.


Fruits and vegetables are styled to express emotions. Set to a simple rhyme, children learn that it is normal to possess a wide spectrum of feelings; anger, sadness, embarrassment, shyness, love. All through anthropomorphic fruits and veggies. Clever, huh?

Authors Joose Elffers and Saxton Freyman have created an entire series worth checking out.

guest post: diy personalized retro kid shirts

When Kai, my three-year-old, was very little, I had a hobby of stenciling tees for him. But then #2 came along, and t-shirt making time was quickly replaced by napping-on-the-couch-if-I-had-the-chance time. But all the great freezer-paper tutorials floating around right now have inspired me to finally make Dax his own personalized shirt, and I thought I'd share my take on the process. So, to make your own retro personalized tee:

Step 1: Download the font 'Candice'

Step 2: Print out the name you'll be using for the design directly onto a piece of freezer paper trimmed to 8.5" x 11."


Step 3: Carefully cut out each letterform using a craft knife, saving the inside pieces of your letters (like the inside areas of my 'D' and 'a'). Take care to have clean cuts, resisting any urge to tear away any pieces that may be attached. Because a stencil with crisp lines = a crisp paint job on the shirt.

Step 4: Lay out the letters you just cut out onto your shirt. This is for placement purposes. So you know exactly where to lay down your stencil (second pic below). And I highly, highly recommend American Apparel tees. Here is a link to the ones I used, and link to baby onesies and lap tees.


Step 5: Remove the letter cutouts so that all you are left with is the stencil. Lightly run over the stencil with a hot iron. Add in those tiny inside pieces of your letters and iron again, making sure the inside edges of the stencil completely adhere to the shirt.


Step 6: Paint!


Now this is where my tutorial differs from the ones I've seen online. I'm only able to get my hands on the "cheap" fabric paint locally. And since I'm too impatient to order the good stuff, I settle on these for instant gratification.


Roll or brush on the ink, painting away from the edges of the stencil. You don't want to push any ink under the edges of your stencil, otherwise you won't have sharp edges. I find that I have to use a considerable amount of paint to get it really solid. Just add the paint gradually and make sure a piece of paper or cardstock is under that t-shirt to prevent any paint from soaking through.

If you have the patience, you may want to do a couple practice runs on a test fabric before you paint on your pretty shirt. Of course, this means cutting out more stencils because each stencil is a one-time-deal.

Step 7: When dry, slowly and carefully, peel off the stencil. Using tweezers, pull off the smaller stencil pieces. I've also done this part successfully while the paint was still wet. I actually got a cleaner line because this type of fabric paint tends to dry thickly, almost like a thin layer plastic. Just be careful not to smear the paint if you go the wet route.


Step 9: Set the paint by lightly ironing the backside.



My head was in the shirt stenciling game when I put together this tutorial, so I went ahead and made an age one for Dax. The font I used here is Rosewood (you'll have to purchase this one). Quite a bit of cutting involved, but I think it turned out pretty awesome. Even big brother Kai really liked "the shirt with the number on it."


And lastly, I wanted to add a download of one of my very first t-shirt stencils, bird on a branch. Hope you can find some fun applications for this! I plan to add another stencil download at my blog Ambrosia Girl next week, so make sure to stop by.

guest post: the prettiest kites of all

I'm very much into kites these days, and some online browsing led me to some beautiful designs. In all honesty, my three-year-old is perfectly content with his $5 Spider Man kite. But I like to daydream about going on a picnic lunch date with my husband and sending one of these into the sky. Then taking the longest nap ever known to mom-kind.

I got my eye on the Chinese kites made of bamboo and silk.

1. Yellow Silk Butterfly Kite
2. Karner Blue Butterfly Kite
3. Delta Rainbow Kite
4. Chinese Colorful Eagle Kite
5. Clown Fish Kite
6. Red Big Dragon Kite
7. Bali Dragon Kite
   

how do you do?

Hi there! My name is Jenn Kirk. I am a graphic designer, mother of two little boys, and wife to BFF Ryan Kirk.

About me: I like to think I'm decent at baking chocolate chip cookies, designing invitations and paper goods, and choosing boy names. For certain, I know I'm not so great at Facebook, remembering birthdays, or staying reverent at church when my 18-month-old chucks a toy car at dad's head.

I grew up in San Jose, California, but Ventura -- a cute little beach town situated between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara -- is now my home.

I run a pesonal blog, AmbrosiaGirl.com, but am excited to be guest blogging here at Tangled and True this week. I hope you enjoy my posts!

vanessa out

Thank you, Brittany, for having me guest post this week. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! Stop by I Never Grew Up and say hello!

P.S. I really tried to get a good photo, but they were not having it today :)

P.P.S. I couldn't help myself with the title on this post, Tina Fey is my girl crush and I love when she says that on 30 Rock.

the perfect doll

For the past month I have been searching for the perfect doll to give my niece this year for Christmas. Dolls are very special in my house, both of my daughters have a certain doll they sleep with every night and talk about throughout the day.
I wanted the doll to be unique, funky, cuddly, eco-friendly, handmade and colorful. To my surprise I found quite a few that fit all of the things I wanted.

Poot & Boogie dolls were my top pick, I fell in love them instantly. The dolls are individually handcrafted and prewashed and shrunk with 100% cotton and 100% wool materials, stuffed with Eco-friendly fiberfill derived from EcoCraft corn. They are “handcrafted with love and smiles” in a small house on a hobby farm in Aldergrove BC. They accept custom orders and you can purchase the dolls through Natural Pod for $34.95 each.

These Modern Rag Dolls from the Etsy shop IkdDesigns are being sold to raise funds for the owner’s upcoming Ethiopian adoption. I love how colorful and cuddly the dolls look, the owner has quite a collection of dolls that are priced at $40 each.
Here are just a few of the other wonderful dolls I found on Etsy:

Doodle Girls from Bit of Whimsyprims $32

1. Beth Ann from Madison’s Craft Nook $25
2. Fiona from Baby Bomb $35
3. Mermaid Dolls from Tiny Green Apples $30

ABCs

For the past few months in our home we have been working on learning the ABCs. The first thing I did to introduce my daughter to the alphabet was read her numerous alphabet books. Our library has rows and rows of alphabet books. We checked out quite a few over a several weeks and soon found our favorites.

We liked Kippers A to Z: An Alphabet Adventure by Mick Inkpen so much we bought it online along with the book on tape so we could hear Kipper's cute British accent read it to us. :)

Each illustration in ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book by Alison Jay will keep you entertained for quite awhile. Every page is dedicated to one letter and has many different obvious and not so obvious items in the picture beginning with the letter. If you pay attention closely while reading the book you will notice a love story unfold in the pictures.
Baby Einstein Alphabooks are perfect for when you decide to start introducing the alphabet to your kids. The box contains a book for each letter that has real life photos along with great works of art that go along with the letter. The box and little books are very durable by the way :) Eric Carle Alphabet Flash Cards are the best resource to review letters with your children and play fun games with. They are quite durable as well!

At my blog you can follow along with our Letter of the Day where we incorporate reading, music, art, gratitude, exercise, nature, touch, and a family activity into teaching the assigned letter.

the arts

Taking time to appreciate the arts improves the mood in my home. I don't know where we would be without it.

Music
My husband and I have extremely different tastes in music and the only artist we can agree on(which ends up being the only thing we listen to while driving together) is good ole Jack Johnson. However in the past six months I have found two children’s albums that every person in the family enjoys.

Elizabeth Mitchell has put out three records You Are My Flower, You Are My Sunshine and You Are My Little Bird. Everyone of them contains songs that have hints of folk music, reggae music, American blues, gospel, drum music and many more styles.

Baby Mine might be the most beautiful album on the planet. It has a collection of artists that have re-made classic lullabies. Here is where it is available for purchase and download.

Artists
For the past six months I have been teaching my daughter about an artist and accompanying it with an applicable art project. I had the author Mary Ann Kohl contact me a couple months ago who then sent me a copy of her book, Great American Artists for Kids. Now tons of my work has been cut out because I take almost all of our lessons from this book.

Pride (the good kind :) )

Whatever my daughters create I always try to instill a sense of pride and accomplishment in them. Their favorite place to hang their “masterpieces” is of course on the fridge for everyone to see many times a day.

Lindee Shoppe sells these adorable handmade marble magnets that are perfect to help showcase your children's art.

A fridge only holds so much so we have three different inspiration wires downstairs in the playroom where we hang up all of our beautiful creations. When it gets to full I scan or take a good picture of the “masterpiece” and add it to a book I am making from blurb. That way we can keep a record of all of their pieces of art in a neat little book instead of my home becoming over-run.

well rounded kids

There are so many things you can do to raise well rounded kids. These are three things I do with mine.

Creativity

Creating as a family is something I try to do every day and for us lots of the time it comes out in cooking. The sense of pride and accomplishment they have when they create something from a few ingredients is priceless. Our favorite cookbook is The River Cottage Family Cookbook. The book itself is a piece of art with all of the beautiful photography it contains. The author takes time to explain why you do things a certain way while cooking and the recipes inside are excellent.

We also have a silly tradition of getting all dolled up before cooking, we put on our lip gloss and put on our prettiest aprons. Cottage Road Designs has the most beautiful aprons, we feel like princesses while we cook.

Nature
Every day no matter what the weather is we have a rule to spend time in nature. A quick walk to a hike to running up and down the street in the rain. We have been prepping our backyard for our fairy garden. We planted about 200 bulbs, bought a humming bird feeder and after the holidays we are going to start working on our fairy houses. Recycled Milk Glass Hummingbird Feeder at Uncommon Goods

I think it is really important for each child to have their special spot in nature and go there often. If you live in Utah I put together monthly nature days, be sure to contact me if you are interested in coming along with us!

Appreciating The Arts
Every week we take time to appreciate the arts in all of it's forms. My daughters and I host a monthly art group with eight of their friends which ends up being a fun time for them to pass along everything they have learned. We only hold them outside because I am not THAT brave to have eight kids creating art IN the house:) We have all the kids wear these cute art smocks from Jessica Leman’s Esty Shop.

vanessa i am

I am super excited to post on Tangled & True! As my daughter would say, “It is my favorite and my best!” I often don’t know where to tell people I am “from” because I have never stayed in a place for long and don’t have to much interest in doing so yet. Maybe I am gypsy at heart :) For the time being I currently reside in Utah with my husband aka Ty the Dog Guy, two daughters (ages 2 and 1) and two dogs. My goal for 2009 is to have a family picture taken so these will have to do until then.

I thrive on being a mother, writing, photography, creating, cooking, reading, enjoying the arts, taking time to spend in nature every day and “trying” to craft and sew. I just started training for my first marathon (wish me luck) and love to host the best birthday parties :) I also love to shop and have a small obsession with visiting cupcake shoppes with my girls.

Things I have indulged in lately are:


This Count the Stars Jacket from Anthropologie because it hides those last pounds of baby weight very well for the time being :)




After 13 years of wearing makeup just this past year have found what works for me, Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Compact is the best money I have ever spent on makeup.


I am loving my subscription to Kiwi Magazine which promotes an organic family lifestyle.



Belle & Boo and Sarah Jane Studios are my favorite places to buy stationary. I love giving and receiving hand written notes to loved ones.


The girls and my new yoga mats from LotusPad Yoga Mats which are very affordable and eco-friendly.

My blog is I Never Grew Up where I write reviews and ideas to help parents entertain, care for and educate their children. I am also a weekly contributor at Little Window Shoppe and Blissful Kids.