she's here...

My sweet little girl arrived earlier this month!

We are so in love with her.

Isn't her hair the best?!

She actually has both a mohawk and a mullet...
not too many people can pull that off. ;)

The delivery went wonderfully, I'm recovering quickly, and my daughter is a delight. Plus, big brother seems to be adjusting well. I have the most darling little family.

Life is good!

baby on board...

Oh goodness...

I recently passed the third trimester mark.

This baby girl will be here before I know it!

I have been EXTREMELY tired this time around. I imagine chasing after a 2.5 year old all day makes it even more exhausting. Oh--and I'm older. ;) 

But I have all kinds of cute girlie fabric just staring at me...waiting for me to get my act together and actually get some baby projects done.

Send some energetic vibes my way, peeps! :)

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

lots of BIG news...

It's been a long, LONG time since I posted...

but there has been a lot going on in my world.

The biggest news?

My belly! :)

I can't tell you how happy & blessed my little family feels to add a sweet baby girl to the mix. It's been a long journey to have kids... Miracles are real, folks.

Also, we finally moved into our brand new house!

Moving while sick & pregnant was a challenge to say the least. Yikes. Thank heaven for my husband, parents, little brother, and a couple of kind friends who helped SO much. The nausea has subsided in the past few days, so get ready for lots of decorating and baby girl projects in the very near future!

Lastly, remember the fabric design dreams that I posted about?

Well, two of my designs were picked to be sold on Minted.com!!!

"Looping Scrawl" Fabric by Kacey Kendrick Wagner for Minted.com

"Tangle" Fabric by Kacey Kendrick Wagner for Minted.com

I got to make a bunch of different color ways that will be sold very soon. Eeeeek! I'm so excited. I'll be sure to post when my fabrics are live on the site.

Yay! Thanks for letting me share my happy thoughts.

(I've missed this dear blog-o'-mine!)

a pretty leaf...

I love that my son is the kind of kid that will pick up a pretty leaf on an autumn walk and carry it all the way home with him.

He stops to look at the color of the sky.

He notices the shape of the clouds.

He is captivated by a bird in flight.

 He carefully watches a bug crawling in a crack in the sidewalk.

He sees things.  

And he helps me remember to see them, too.

every kid loves new crayons...

Ask my toddler if he wants to color and you will see a small boy lose his mind with happiness.  Crayons are so exciting to him.  Recently, I decided to buy him a brand new box with nice pointy tips, thinking that might make it easier for him to get color on the paper.  (Besides--who doesn't LOVE new crayons?!)

Well, he enjoyed those pointy new crayons even more than I anticipated...

(Purple is delicious.)

toddler doodles...

I bought a small magnetic drawing board for my kiddo in hopes of giving him something exciting and new to play with during a plane ride this past Christmas.  It was a wise investment.  He has loved it from the get go.  And I love that I can let him doodle freely without worrying about an incident of mass destruction occurring if I take my eyes off of him for two seconds--it's mess-free!

Whenever I see his one of his darling scribbles inevitably laying on the floor somewhere, I always long to preserve the usually-short-lived cuteness.  As I got my phone out to snap a picture, the artist himself decided to make a bit of a cameo...

I adore this image (and this kid) SO much.

THIRTY!

I recently had a birthday...the big 3-0.

It was a fabulous day that included Chinese food, Harry Potter, new accessories, polka dot Keds, Breyer's mint chocolate chip ice cream (the best ice cream in the land), a photo book of my favorite toddler, a long drive through the valley, an art museum, my cute little fam, and chocolate cupcakes.  I loved it.

Some people freak out over turning 30, but I say bring it on.  I don't wish I could go back to the past...I've already done all that!  I'm looking forward to the future with faith and hope and excitement.  I know there will be hard times, but there will be wonderful times, too.

And you can't feel old wearing polka dotted shoes.
(Seriously.  It's not possible.)

Here's to the beginning of another decade of adventures!

...that shall include countless creative endeavors, I'm sure. :)

a little sewing & a lot of mothering...

Ohmygoodness.

I have missed blogging more regularly, guys!

My darling red-haired boy decided to go on a nap-strike for a little while there, but we've got him back on track (and on a fairly good schedule!)...so I actually had some time to do a little sewing in the past couple of days.

The potholders in my kitchen were getting ratty (and ugly to begin with), so I sewed up a couple of new sets.

I had never made/used bias tape and haven't done a ton of machine quilting, so this was a good little project to practice on.  If you mess up--who cares?--it's a potholder.  :)

Besides that, I've been doing a lot of this...

And even more of this...

(Tiny baby socks melt my heart.)

And I have to say that I am very happy.  Not as much time for crafting, but much more time for baby giggles and singing lullabies.  My life certainly isn't perfect, but it's pretty dang wonderful.

Anyway, baby is napping...better go work on some things while I can.

Hopefully I'll have some projects and printables to share soon!

happy (belated) holidays!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I spent my time before the holidays sending out Christmas cards...

Photo by Mary Clark of DMC Studios

Stitching up new stockings for the three of us...

And sewing a stuffed toy for our little guy...

We're big Despicable Me fans, so obviously our son NEEDED a minion! :)

We had a lovely time eating Christmas treats, playing games, watching Christmas movies, and spending time with family.  The holidays sure are a lot more fun with a kiddo around.  The grandparents definitely spoiled him a bit, but that's what grandparents are for, right?

It was fun to take a break from blogging during our little vacation, but now I'm excited for another creative year here on Stay-at-Home Artist...

Bring on 2013!

I'm baa-aaack!

Holy Canoli!

I feel like I haven't posted in forever...

I miss you guys!

First of all, I've been up to my eyeballs in Expecto Patronum shirt orders.

You guys sure do love your Harry Potter gear. :)

Then, last week I spent Monday-Friday camping with the 12-18 year old girls of my church. (The youth programs are referred to as Young Men and Young Women.  I serve with the YW and my husband serves with the YM.  Just in case you were confused as to why I would spend a week in the woods with teenage girls.  :)  )  I am sunburned and covered in mosquito bites, but we had a blast hiking, canoeing, and enjoying the beautiful aspen groves.

Once I came home (and got some sleep!), the hubby and I got to work rearranging our great room to make some space for this bad boy...

I have an iMac!

(Pardon the poor photo...it's very dark and cloudy today.)

I've had my trusty HP laptop for a number of years, but it was on it's last leg.  We were just going to get another laptop, but I was having a hard time finding one I really loved.  So...we went the iMac route and purchased my anniversary/Christmas/birthday present for the next 5 years. :)

I'm SOOOO excited.  

It has so many features I hardly know where to start!

Are any of you guys Mac people?

What are your favorite features?  

What apps can you not live without?

a highlight...

I don't want to post a travelogue of our whole trip (I'll do that on my family blog), but I did want to share one of my favorite parts of our Seattle vacation last week.

We flew in Saturday morning and the weather was PERFECT.  Barely a cloud in the sky.  In SEATTLE.  Amazing, huh?  We knew we had to take advantage of such rare occasion, so we headed straight to the waterfront and hopped on a boat for a harbor tour.

I took this from the dock as we stood in line waiting to board.

The boat ride was so pleasant and refreshing in the warm weather.  I was also able to snag some further evidence of just how nice the weather really was...

We could see Mt. Rainier!

And the whole city skyline.

We actually had really great weather the whole week.  It only really rained one day.  (And we were glad to have the rain rather than the SNOW they got in other parts of Washington and at home in Utah.)  We were able to do all the touristy stuff--Space Needle, Pike Place Market, museums, etc.--along with some plain ol' relaxing.  It was a much needed break!

as requested...

Oh man.  Spring cleaning is in full swing around here.

I'm a crazy person and decided to empty out and reorganize EVERY closet in our house.  This place looks like it exploded.  We may be spending our life's savings on Sterilite totes and adhesive labels, but it will be worth it.  I should have taken before pictures.  (Just imagine the most jam-packed closets you can think of, full of the most random crap ever and you'll be right on target.)  I'll be sure to share the after shots, though.

I recently had a request for a "He Lives" Butterfly Printable with a white background, so as to be a little more economical ink-wise.  In between cleaning and sorting and purging unwanted items, I was happy to take a time-out to oblige...

Download the watermark free version HERE.

In other news, I did paper character puppets with some of my younger art students this week.  They did Easter bunnies, Tangled, and Mickey/Minnie Mouse.  This is what I came up with...

I occasionally like to walk through the house, waving them around while saying things like, "I'm Harry Potter...Expecto Patronum!!!" in my best British accent (of course).  My husband thinks I've lost my mind.

He may be right.

Now, what's the spell for reorganizing closets again?...

back to real life...

By evening there will only be 8 teams left in the NCAA tournament, so I am no longer compelled to watch basketball games every waking moment and I can get back to some projects around here. :)

(Plus, my beloved BYU Cougars are out, so I'm slightly less obsessed.)

I haven't been a total slacker.  I have been tending to my etsy shop.  Between games I've made some cute stuff.  Like this...

And this...

And this...

And there's even more where that came from.  

So at least I've been a little bit useful.

Plus, I journeyed all the way to Ikea and bought the curtains I've been waiting for them to get in stock for MONTHS.  And I went fabric shopping, too.  So I guess basketball hasn't taken over my whole life...

But I better get back to work!

breaking news...

This is what I discovered in my front yard this morning...

Yes, those are tulips...that have sprouted.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

I know I shouldn't get too excited because I live in Utah and we will surely get more snow, but for now my back door is WIDE open.  (And it feels so good!)

weekend introspective...

this weekend has been a refuge and a respite after a loooooooooooong week.

on friday, brandon burst through the front door declaring, "let's go eat!" we've been trying not to eat out too often, but we felt we deserved a treat just for surviving all of our busy-ness. we opted for thai food.

egg rolls + yellow curry + pad thai = blissfully full

saturday morning brought with it fresh belgian waffles & sausage and the start of general conference. i'm so grateful to be able to watch all the sessions right from home.

later that afternoon, i got to spend some time with my former roommates lindsay, benita, megan, lauren, and amber for amber's baby shower. SO great to spend time with all of them.

while brandon was at priesthood session, i decided not to go to dinner with the girls since we had just eaten out the night before. instead, i watched an episode of say yes to the dress (i thought i'd spare brandon from sitting through it. ha.) and whipped up some sweet & sour pork with crunchy asian salad. it was gooo--oood! and i just worked with what ingredients i had and made some substitutions for ingredients i didn't. nice!

this morning, we used leftover rice from the night before to make what i call raisins & rice. we ate it growing up... it's basically a rice pudding, i guess. simmer some milk with sugar and cinnamon, add rice and raisins. so simple, yet delicious. and it warms you right up! then i put a roast and potatoes in the crock pot and finished just in time to watch day 2 of conference.

general conference is so rejuvenating. as we just finished watching, i've been musing on what i've learned. here are some thoughts...

• don't be afraid of the future. yes, there is an economic crisis, but with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we can get through anything. instead of harboring doubt and cynicism when faced with uncertainty or tribulation, we need to view our trials as an invitation to grow.

• i loved what elder robert d. hales taught about joyfully living within our means. it's okay to say "we can't afford it" or "we can afford it, but we don't really need it."

• elder d. todd christofferson and elder kevin w. pearson gave talks that were closely related in my mind. they both talked about exact obedience, which i thought was interesting, and they both addressed strength--being strong christians through making and keeping sacred covenants and developing strong faith through obedience.
  

• the gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to ALL our problems! you are never alone. there is always help available. God will keep his promises to us if we keep our covenants to him.
  

• SERVE. the Lord offers his help through us.
  

• i feel like this was addressed over and over...don't let anything get in the way of regular temple worship. be worthy. attend the temple. remember and honor your covenants. you are never lost when you can see the temple. there is a sacred relationship between the temple and the home.

• discipleship is a journey. we must practice what we preach. personal righteousness is a choice.

• and simply...God is aware of us, He loves us, He hears our prayers. don't be afraid. things will work out.
  

two is better than one...

being married is the best.

when i was single, i used to love to do things by myself. i preferred to shop alone, go to the gym alone, sleep alone, drive alone, watch tv alone...the list goes on. i was on my own. i could do what i wanted when i wanted to. my schedule was up to me. i loved it.

then i got married, and suddenly all those things i thought i'd rather do alone are so much better with brandon. i had no idea that marriage would improve random things like picking produce or going to the post office.

now, i would prefer to never do those things alone. in fact, i would rather wait for hours for brandon to get home than go to wal-mart by myself. it's not that i can't go alone, it's just that everything is better with brandon.

haha. that sounds like a condiment advertising slogan. "whether you're craving a burger or making a salad--everything is better with brandon!"

turns out, brandon is my favorite flavor. life is just sweeter with him in it! :)

recent happenings...

here's a little update of what's been going on with me lately...

teaching--just plugging along. this time of year is tough because we have no major breaks and everyone is antsy for spring. my art foundations kids have been working on op art and tessellations, sculpture is finishing up some ceramic faces and continuing work in their altered books, and my painting students are doing some monochromatic watercolor paintings. the end of term 3 is next week...just one more to go!!!

church--in relief society, i taught the presidency lesson for march on fast sunday. it was on making friends through church participation and service...i think it went well. and brandon volunteered to teach elders' quorum this last week. his lesson was out of the joseph smith manual...the bitterness of apostasy. last monday, we had dinner/family home evening with another couple in the ward--jordan and amy mccoy--which was really fun. and this friday, some other couples in the ward are coming with brandon and i to do baptisms for some of bran's ancestors. we've really been looking forward to that. besides that, i've just been keeping track of rs stuff...new member visits, making sure teachers and the music co-ordinator are good to go. oh! and our stake conference is this weekend and an apostle (elder cook) is going to be there!

home--brandon and i have discovered that with both of us working all day, we really suck at keeping up with the housework during the week. with that said, we've been house hunting. haha...i guess we'll see how good we are at keeping up with an entire house, garage, yard, etc.

fun--lately, we've been taking it pretty easy...just relaxing at home most of the time. we're kind of homebodies, i guess. although, we went to my district high school art show. we've also had a good/stressful time following byu men's basketball this season. saturday, we went to jason's deli for lunch as a little treat for ourselves :) i've been making plans to get myself working on my own artwork here in the near future, which i'm both excited and nervous about. this week, i have an enrichment activity at the bishop's house, "evening for educators" at the springville museum of art, dinner for aubrey and benji and a chance to meet their new little baby, and...at least 12 other things that i can't think of at the moment...

future plans--hopefully, a house...a trip up to my parents' house sometime soon...a week off of work for spring break in april (CANNOT wait!)...a trip to brandon's parents' house in july...

so that is what's going on with me. in case you were wondering.

25

yes. as of yesterday, i am the newest member of the quarter-of-a-century club. 1/4 of my life is over! however, i'm looking forward to the remaining 3/4. it's gonna be HUGE. :)

i know i just did this at the start of the new year, but i like to reflect on life in between each birthday i celebrate. and SO many big events have happened to me since my last birthday...

• i went through the temple and received my endowment.
• i went on an amazing 10-day trip with my teacher friends--puerto rico and a carribean cruise. best vacation EVER.
• i fell in love!
• i brought this love-o'-mine home to meet my family...and he told my dad he wanted to marry me.
• i got engaged!
  
• i went to san francisco for the first time and met my fabulous in-laws.
• i started my THIRD year of teaching. i feel like i was just in college yesterday...
  
• i moved out of the yellow brick house. (miss you, ybh girls!)
  
• i got married. holy cow!
• i honeymooned at an ocean-view condo in san deigo.
  
• i swam with a dolphin.
• i went to the body worlds exhibit.
• i got to go to the utah symphony--twice!
  
• i spent christmas at my home...just me and the hubby for our first christmas together.
  
• i was called to the relief society presidency in my new married ward. (very different from singles ward RS, let me tell you...)
• i got a new car.
• i explored the SLC library with bran--which i've always wanted to do.
  
• i got hit by a bus. (new car is now less new.)
  
• i went house hunting for the first time.
• i got to go to the draper temple open house.
  

sheesh. that's a lot of life squeezed into one measly little year. but i have a feeling that 25 is going to be even BIGGER.

just you wait.

so...this one time...i got hit by a bus...

don't worry. i'm uninjured, although my spirit is a little wounded. unfortunately, ruby--our red rav4--didn't fare so well.

here's the scoop...

i was waiting to turn right at a red light at the intersection of bulldog blvd. and 500 west (state street) in provo. when the light turned green, i began to move forward until i realized there was a pedestrian waiting to cross at the crosswalk. she had the "walk" sign--and the right of way--so i stopped and waved her on. then her eyes got REALLY big...

...and i got hit by a bus.

i was rear ended by a provo district school bus full of kindergarteners. (okay...it was empty, but wouldn't that make the story even better? haha.) the bus driver told the police officer he didn't see the pedestrian. apparently he didn't notice my glaring red brake lights either...

after i called the police, i called bran. i didn't need help, but he came to help me feel better. and he called the insurance company and the school district's insurance company and took pictures...and hugged me. :)

it could have been a lot worse, but i'm so sad about our rav. we haven't even made our first payment on it yet and it still has temporary plates. now she needs a new rear windshield, back door, rear tire cover, rear bumper, rear windshield wiper, and who knows what else...

there is glass EVERYWHERE. the interior is covered in shards.




i couldn't show the officer my registration because we haven't even gotten it yet...


i'm so glad the spare is on the back. i think it helped cushion the impact.

sigh.

so that's the sad tale of how i got hit by a bus. fortunately, no kindergarteners were harmed...and hopefully everything is fixable.

christmas letter...

i stole this idea from my former roommate, lindsay. she didn't send out one of those xmas letter updates...she just blogged it.

a good idea, i thought. so here it goes...

january- when the year began, it was just another semester in the 69th ward...living in the ybh, teaching, talking with shannon for hours in her little basement room. i got called to be part of the publicity council...so did brandon. little did we know...

february- all of a sudden i was dating like crazy. it was weird. i was never one of those girls who had a million boys lined up...or any at all, for that matter...but several guys i had known for awhile started asking me out over the next couple of months--including brandon. he smooched me on the 15th :) however, i was more concerned about getting my temple recommend and receiving my endowment (i turned 24 on the 22nd!), thus causing brandon some "emotional awkwardness" as he likes to call it.

march- i got endowed on march 1st. best decision i could have made. i was so glad to have my parents and dear friend jennie bingham there with me.

april- oh my gosh. this last april included 9 of the best days of my life. i went on a caribbean cruise with my teacher friends. every day i was just so grateful, frequently exclaiming, "look where we are!" seriously, i spent the entire trip with a prayer in my heart...so happy that i was where i was, seeing what i was seeing... it was PERFECT. i wish every spring break could be that good. the spring also brought new roomies. living with shan, linds, and the lowder girls = good times!

may- the beginning of the month brought about cold feet that led to rekindling things with brandon...and once we got things figured out, it just worked. :) plus, i finished my second year of teaching on the last day of the month. i was a pretty happy camper.

june- brought with it wedding bells...i took brandon home to meet the fam, bran took me ring shopping, shannon and i went dress shopping, and on june 20th i got engaged! (miracles do occur people. i thought i would be single forever, but look at me now. haha.) i spent my days enjoying my work-free life of leisure and my nights enjoying time with my fiance.

july- brandon and i flew to california so i could meet his fam. we had a blast in san francisco and at monterey bay.

august- chris and karalee came for a visit, so i finally got to meet little granty-pants. shannon and lindsay threw me a wonderful bridal shower just before i started my 3rd year of teaching art at pghs. i started teaching a new painting class, too. it was so bittersweet to move out of the yellow brick house once our contracts ended. i loved my little blue room. it was especially hard since shan moved to AZ. i was slightly homeless...i stayed in my teacher friend sari's guest room for seven weeks, while brandon lived in our condo. sari is a life saver!

september- i got sooooooooo sick of the back and forth between pg and provo. i can't even tell you. but i was so excited to send out announcements, take bridal photos, and talk wedding, wedding, wedding with everyone! i kept a countdown on my whiteboard at school.

october- what happened in october? fall leaves, nice weather, halloween... oh yeah... i got MARRIED! and it was nice weather everyday in october except for the weekend of my wedding, but it was perfect nonetheless. brandon and i were sealed and enjoyed a lovely, warm, san diego honeymoon. coming back to work was a beast. :)

november- we spent a lot of time getting settled in our new place and looking forward to the thanksgiving break. we spent the holiday up in idaho falls with my crazy family. dinner was soooooo good. as were the next-day turkey sandwiches. anyway, november was busy... i worked on decorating the house, planning our christmas decor, and dealt with my antsy students.

december- the 3 weeks between thanksgiving and christmas break have been a blur. we shopped for angel tree, worked on making friends in the ward, made plans for our first christmas, and i worked and worked and worked on those drawings... today is my last day of school until the new year. i'm so excited to make treats, decorate a gingerbread house, and sleep in!!!