Phineas & Ferb

Dooby dooby doobah!

Starring:

Noah as Phineas

Toby as Ferb

and Miles as Perry the Platypus

(Costumes by Jeana)

Halloween Sneak Peak 2011

Dooby dooby doo-bah!

I just need to find a fedora...

Leaves, leaves, leaves

Remember my beautiful Lace Leaf Earrings?  And how I sold out of the small size in one day?  Well...good news!  I found more leaves and now I have small Lace Leaf Earrings again!

Lace Leaf Earrings in Gold, size small

Aaaaaand  I found some leaves in small and large in...SILVER!  So many people asked me if these earrings would be available in silver but because they were made from pieces of a necklace that I found at an antique store I didn't think it would be possible.  Dreams really do come true! 

Lace Leaf Earrings in Silver, size small

Lace Leaf Earrings in Silver, size large

And just for you, dear readers, if you enter the coupon code LINHART10 I'll give free shipping on anything in my shop for the rest of October!  Go shopping!

Poetry

Geary was excited to get a bunch of cards in the mail for his birthday last Tuesday.  But the very favorites out of the bunch were these two poems by our nieces.  Enjoy!

Analia, age 9 wrote this one:

Karissa, age 6 wrote this one.  We have affectionately titled it The Pessimist.

Linh{ART} Gallery

I feel like I have been working on doing something special in our hallway forever.  It's not even really a hallway.  It's this little space where we have two steps down to the two smaller bedrooms.  I painted the walls chocolate brown knowing that eventually I wanted to fill the walls with artwork.  So for the past year I've been collecting picture frames from thrift stores and yard sales.  I painted all the frames white for a cohesive look and then started filling them up with all kinds of artwork.  There is art made my children, myself, and my husband.  And there is also some artwork that we just like from various artists.  I've also included some of our letter L (for Linhart) collection.  I'm hoping to just keep adding frames in a really close-knit configuration as our family keeps making and collecting art.

What I'm about to show you is only a small part of our art collection.  I have enough frames to make a display this size on the opposite wall (which I plan to do) and then some.  I'm sure this space will never be "finished" so I thought I'd show it to you as it evolves.

 For now we've filled up this much space.  And I basically made swiss cheese out of our walls by nailing and re-nailing as I tweaked where the frames would go.  I did make paper templates like this method but once the actual pictures were on the wall it felt unbalanced because the frames were all different thicknesses.  So then I tried this method which was much better...although I still had to tweak a little here and there.

I also feel the need to tell you that is really difficult to take pictures of pictures.  Getting the white balance right in such a small and dark space, plus the glare of all the glass, and odd reflections from the overhead light...it was quite the learning experience!

On the top left we have an Eric Carle style collage that Noah made when he was in kindergarten.  It's a man standing on grass by a river where his boat is tied up.  His kindergarten  teacher asked if was planning on giving the man hair and she said that Noah just gave her this incredulous look while answering, "You know, some people are bald."

The elephant is another Noah piece.  He drew that the summer in between first and second grade.  It was actually just a pencil drawing but I liked it so much that I drew over his lines with Sharpie and then used a paint marker to fill it in.  Clearly, our family likes elephants. :)

The couple kissing on bicycles is actually a greeting card that Geary gave me for one of our anniversaries.  It has a sweet love note inside and we have really been getting into bike riding so it seemed like a good piece of art for our collection.

The coral lobster is a digital design that I made after seeing a bunch of vintage flash cards at an antique store but not finding any for the letter L.

The seahorse is something Toby painted in preschool.  I cut it out of the coloring sheet he brought home and glued it on top of some scrapbook paper.  The sunshine print is from Katie Daisy on etsy.  Both the little round frame and the small L are from Michael's and the L is painted with metallic red nail polish.

I love this little tree.  Can you see the tiny lovebirds in it?  I found it here on the Feed Your Soul Project which is a website full of free printable art!  The umbrella is another Toby creation.  It's hard to tell in the picture but the raindrops are covered in glitter.

The orange tree is from the artist Colin Whitehurst and is actually meant to be a computer screen background.  But Geary and I both liked it so much I printed it out to frame.  Unfortunately we're out of black ink so the colors are way off.  Once we get a new ink cartridge I'll reprint it.  I was also pleased to see that the artist is connected with Wycliffe. You can see what the print is really supposed to look like here.

The black L is a vintage marquee letter.  According to the sign at the antique store it came from an old movie theater in Portland that was torn down.

There's my little Newberg heart map.  I've had several orders for these and they have been so much fun to make!  Thank you to those of you who've ordered some.  And it's not too late, I'm accepting orders until October 31st.

The white cursive L is from Michael's and I framed it in a shadow box with some Target wrapping paper as the background.

We used this matte instead of a guest book at our wedding.  The silver plaque in the middle says Witnesses. I love reading all the signatures and messages from our friends and family who came to our wedding.

Uh...please ignore the fingerprints.  This is another piece of my digital artwork.  I took profile pictures of each of the boys and then turned them into black silhouettes.  From there I filled the black space with different patterns.  I love how this turned out although I don't know if I'll be able to keep updating it as the boys grow.  We shall see!

In the middle of the whole thing I framed these wooden people that I found in the kid's craft section of Michael's.  The heart is stick taped directly to the wall and the people are resting on the edges of the frame.  I really like my modern little people but I hope others don't think they look too much like restroom signs. :)

I also placed some art on the board and batten in the laundry room which is directly across from our hallway.  I love how it brings more color and life to the space.

My camera batteries died right after this picture was taken so I'll give you a quick tour from left to right.  When I get the other wall done maybe I'll come back to this and show each piece in closer detail.

The green and yellow painting is something Toby did in Sunday school.  It was abstract but I think it looks like two brothers with their arms around each other.  

The peacock is from this artist on etsy.  When Toby saw it for the first time he asked, "Is that a tree?" I thought he was referring to the love bird print so I said yes.  And he asked, "Then why does it look like a bird?"  When I realized he had mean the peacock I said,  "Oh, yes, it is a bird.  It's a peacock."  And he replied, "Then why does it look like chicken?"  Art critics!

The white bunny is a styrofoam carving that Noah made at school but I can't remember which grade he was in. Family sign is from Michael's.  I think I might paint it yellow. The L is from Urban Outfitters and was silver but I painted it "Lagoon" a deep teal color. And finally the brown flowers are another Noah piece.  One of my very favorites.

And there you have a little tour of some of our art!  I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly enjoyed showing you!

Lessons from Parenthood: Three minutes

This morning Miles:

• Took off his own diaper and peed on the bathroom floor
• Spilled an entire box of 500 toothpicks
• Took one bite of an apple and threw the rest of it across the kitchen where it rolled underneath the stove which I then had to pull out (and let me tell you the mess under there was shockingly disgusting).
• Pestered Toby to the point of Toby lashing back at him and pushing him down.
• Hit me.

All before 8am.  So at eight o'clock in the morning I had a swept up pile of crumbs, hair, burnt food, toothpicks, fuzz covered apple, and two long lost matchbox cars plus two screaming grumpy children and a shirt covered in snot and tears.  Some of those tears were my own.

I literally flung my hands up to the ceiling and said, "I can't do this.  You need to take over."

Then I picked up the crying baby and sat down in my desk chair.  I stretched out my right arm to gather my crying preschooler close to my side and we all bowed our heads each with tears still streaming down our cheeks.  Now my shirt and pants were damp from all the droplets.

And there we stayed for one minute.  Two minutes.  Three minutes.  I started rocking.  The baby shifted positions and laid his head on my shoulder.  He quieted.  Toby looked up at me, wiped his tears and gave me a quavery smile.  I whispered, "I love you."  He whispered, "I know."  And then he picked those crumb covered matchbox cars out of the pile and started to wipe them off.

Miles sat up and said, "More here-ree-all.  Waaah-der, peas." Which means he wanted more cereal and some water, too, please.  I stood up and set him on a chair near the kitchen table. He started singing a tune of happy gibberish while I poured a little bit of Life cereal into a small bowl.

It wasn't until I had dumped the dustpan into the trash can that I realized it was three minutes.  Three minutes.  All it took was three minutes of quiet.  Three minutes in the arms of a loving mama and my children were restored to peace.  Three minutes of heads bowed and hearts bared.

And when the broom was put away my heart wanted to race back to that desk chair.  If my Loving Abba could heal all that in just three minutes, what could he do in an hour?  And how long would it take for my heart to whisper back, "I know" to his ceaseless whisperings of "I love you."  And what lost treasures would I be able to pluck from the crumbs of my life once I had been resting secure in his outstretched right arm?  And maybe I could sing a happy tune while knowing all my needs, bread of life and living water included, were being provided for.

All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread;
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way.

(Words by Fanny J. Crosby, music by Dr. Robert Lowry, 1875)

Super Great Christmas Gift Idea

So, I have a this great idea that I want to share with you.  First I'll show you something I made.  It probably won't look that impressive at first.  Ready?  Here:

It's a graphic I made of the state of Oregon.  The heart is on our little town of Newberg.   I printed it out, framed it and I'm going to hang it in our hallway art gallery.  I love it.  It's clean, simple, and meaningful.

Now, this is not my original idea.  Prints like this are all over etsy.  Some people even make necklaces and tote bags and pillows with designs like this.  

This is my great idea. For the month of October I will make a custom print like this for you.  Think of all the people you could check off your Christmas list with a gift like this!

So instead of spending $25 plus dollars for a print on etsy, I will design one for you, completely customized. State, city, colors, icon.  Maybe you want a little house instead of a heart?  Or a map of the U.S. with hearts on every state you've lived in.  Or how sweet would to be to give grandparents a map with hearts wherever they have children and grandkids?  The possibilities are endless!

Here are the pricing options:

$5 will get you a custom design which will be emailed to you as a high resolution pdf.  You can then print and frame it yourself.

$10 will get you a custom design, printed on good quality photo paper in any size up to 8x10 and mailed to you (or hand delivered if you're local).

Now...who wants one?  Email me at jeanalinhart@gmail.com.  I must have your orders by October 31st  and you will receive your designs and/or prints before November 19th.

Highly Educated Briefs

This weekend I put all the summer clothes in storage and pulled out the fall and winter clothes.  As we were sorting through clothes and figuring out what would fit each boy I was taking notes of what they each need.  Noah needs pants.  Toby and Miles need shirts.  Miles needs a coat.  And even though I had done all the laundry in the house I could only find three pairs of Toby sized underwear (which our family calls 'chonies' --Spanish slang for underpants)

Jeana:  Wow, Toby!  You only have a few pairs of chonies.  Where did they all go?
Toby:  I put them in the laundry.
Jeana:  I know, you're really good about that.  But look, I can only find three and there's no more laundry.  I wonder where they went.
Toby:  Maybe they went to college!