I'm still here

Friends. I'm still alive and breathing. Although it might not seem like it. I miss you. I miss writing and posting and all that. Somehow life has crept in and sneakily claimed a lot of my time and attention. BUT I have lots of new stuff planned for the blog and will be posting more again, I promise. Pinky swear.

Life lately...

:: Mother's Day ~ was a sweet day with husband taking care of the kids most of the day, serving me breakfast in bed (he snuck out and bought it from the local cafe), and he gave me a lamp (in the pic above) that I love.

:: I painted the family room last week and I am head over heels with the new color (you can see a sneak peek in the pic above). I'll show you more pics soon. It is fresh and perfectly gray/blue and just right for summer.

:: I also painted the porch floor on Saturday. STRIPES, my friends. Gray stripes on an old wood floor. Perfection. I know it's annoying not to see pictures, but I will show them soon.

:: Some flower planting going on but more needs to be done. The garden is giving us lettuce and spinach for salads. We took out pretty many trees in our back yard in the past few years and are finally getting around to removing stumps and making things look prettier.

:: I've been working on updating my website and have a photo shoot planned this week with Michelle for website photos. SO excited to work with her! I'm also working on a new look for the blog. Lots of techy things that take so long to work on, because I don't have a clue and I'm learning as I go.

:: My oldest turned seven yesterday. I took her shopping to the craft store and she was in heaven. She is a girl after my own heart.

:: Tonight is a girls' night with my sister, sister-in-laws, and mom. Cannot wait for some crazy girl talk.

Have a great week, friends!

Real Life

So, as you've probably gathered from lack of recent posts, things around here have been busy. Good, but busy.

Last week I took some pictures of my studio so you could see how organized and uncluttered my life is. (hopefully you are hearing the sarcasm)

Pretty much my studio was imploding on me and I couldn't breathe. I had ordered a pallet-load of art supplies that came on a semi-truck and I needed to put them somewhere. Thankfully, I have a husband who thrives on organizing, so he created some more spaces for me to store my things and today it looks much better. 

How lucky am I that I get to order art supplies for my job?? I'm still pinching myself.

Spring has arrived and things are looking so beautiful outside. My roses are on the verge of blooming and this makes me a little bit giddy.  I gathered flowers to create some bouquets for a Spring banquet I helped with for our church ladies.

I pretty much just emptied my house and used my decor to decorate the banquet. Super-easy and pretty. Here's what I used to decorate the tables:

:: brown kraft paper as a tablecloth

:: paper doilies

:: old blue mason jars filled with freshly picked flowers from my yard

:: random old things to create variety like an old scale and old books

And, of course, my world revolves around signs right now, so I had to show you my latest creation. Isn't the color just perfect? Siiigh. Totally wanted to keep this one.

~    ~    ~    ~    ~    ~

Want to stay in touch with me? Follow me on Instagram @aimeesweaver or Facebook.

Nursery Artwork

Our friends Neil and Melissa are expecting a little girl very soon and they asked me to create some artwork to hang above their crib. Melissa wanted me to use the verse from Jeremiah 1:5. 

I was really pleased with how the artwork turned out. These pics are taken in Violet's bedroom, one of my favorite spots in the house.

A few mini-makeovers

I worked on a few little projects this week that I thought I'd share. Here is a lamp I bought from HomeGoods a while ago. I LOVE the base but thought the shade needed a little something. This is a photo from Christmas...

I wrote the wording onto the shade using a Sharpie paint pen (my favorite kind). I printed out the wording I wanted to use, then traced the lettering onto the shade using carbon paper. Then I painted over the tracing with the paint pen. It is a few of the lyrics from the song "The love of God".

Yard sale season is upon us, and I am LOVING it! Not only does it give me a few hours of "me" time on a Saturday morning, I also usually get to hang out with my sister-in-law/yard sale sidekick Andrea, while scoring some great deals! Awesome.

I bought this bench for $1 at a yard sale on Saturday. We needed a little bench for the kitchen and this was the exact shape that I've been looking for.

After a coat of white primer spray paint (I almost always use Rustoleum Ultra 2X Coverage - it is the BEST), then several coats of blue spray paint (Krylon in "Blue Ocean Breeze"). I also sanded the edges with a sanding block to bring out the white color underneath.

I was trying to get some photos of the bench but my littlest thought she should model for me. So there you go.

It was SO fun to run into a blogger friend at a yard sale last weekend. It was the first time we met, and I was thrilled to be able to give her a hug in person! Her name is Clarita and you can find her here. I promise, you will love her as much as I do.

Monday Randoms

The creative part of my brain has been so used up with my painting that I feel like I haven't been able to put much of my creative juices into the blog or the house lately. So, I apologize if my recent posts have been a little bit stale!

Here are some randoms on a Monday in April...

:: My kids are in love with all things Richard Scarry, especially these DVDs of old shows that I bought from Amazon. The kids never watch TV, so I like to keep DVDs on hand that they enjoy and that don't irritate me. These are really cute and a little bit educational too.

:: My tiny vegetable garden is ready for some planting. I'm all ready to go - just need to put up the fence around it to keep out the bunnies. I mostly just plant stuff for salads like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and herbs.


:: I found Pam's blog over the weekend and fell in love with Paris all over again. She and her husband and four children moved to Paris last year and she writes about their experiences. What a dream.

image source

:: I enrolled in Jeanne Oliver's e-course called Building a Creatively Made Business and I've learned SO MUCH from it. If you have a small, hand-made business or are thinking about starting one, I highly recommend it. There are so many valuable things you will learn from Jeanne's first-hand experiences as a clothing designer and artist.


:: Someone is taking over my job and I'm not sure how I feel about it. This girl could craft and paint all day long.

:: I am ACHING to paint our family room. After seven years, the yellow is now getting on my nerves and needs to be replaced with a more neutral color (I think I've found the perfect one, but we'll see). If only I could add an extra 24 hrs. into my week. One of these days...and this time, I'll paint when the kids aren't at home so they don't leave footprints on my wall like they did while I was painting the kitchen. Lesson learned.

:: Our traditional after-church lunch on Sundays is pancakes. And it's impossible for me to make them without listening to the French Cafe station on Pandora. It's just the way it is. This is my favorite pancake recipe. They are perfect every time. And I am a maple syrup snob. It has to be the real stuff.

So, there you have it. My deepest, innermost thoughts. Aren't you impressed? Don't answer that...

Hello, my name is Aimee

and I'm addicted to scarves.

I just LOVE 'em. Don't you?

I'm always on the cold side, so wearing a scarf is like wearing a blanket around my neck.

Don't you just love this chevron patterned one? Rhonda from CarterJade sent me one to review and I've worn it so often. It is soft and comfy and I don't want to take it off. Did I mention it feels like a blanket around my neck? LOVE that.

You can find Rhonda's Etsy shop here. Her scarves are really affordable and well-made. And they add a fun pop of color to an outfit.

Here are a few more that she offers...

Happy Monday, friends!

dress: kohl's  cardigan: h&m  belt: forever21

A few custom signs

Whew! There are lots of exciting things happening with my little business, and I'm feeling like I'm trying to keep my head above water this morning. Lots of new ideas, loads of projects to work on, orders to process, and, of course, old stuff to paint! And, thank goodness, I happen to LOVE it all. So, no complaining here. 

Today I am thankful for the sunshine, a husband who totally supports me, and kids who keep me grounded in reality.

Here are a few custom signs that I've been working on in the past few weeks. This one is for a wedding, and I am loving the old weathered wood paired with the fancy lettering. So fun.

And this is a very special sign given from a mother to a daughter at her bridal shower. So sweet. It is part of the lyrics to the bride & groom's first dance.

Hope you all have a great week! It's back-to-work time for me...