Bartlett & Craft

Bartletts 2024 Greetings, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! A physical card in the mail happened not again this year, my apologies to all, but between getting a puppy (yes, a puppy!), renovating our kitchen and all the rest (waves wildly at the chaos around us), it just didn't happen.  BUT, I bring you an update with pictures of our year; a summary.   (Shout out to Signal Return in Detroit for hosting a lovely workshop where this artwork above was made.  If you are in the southeast Michigan area, I highly recommend signing up for a class!) And now for an update on the family :)  Peter - He celebrated his 15th year at the same workplace this year.  We are very thankful for a job that allows him to work from home (although he says he misses the office life a little bit) and close to family.  And 15 years means some extra, extra perks in the form of being able to take off almost every Friday from October- December! Woo-hoo!  He has been working hard, bu...

 In an effort to be more environmentally friendly this year (and because we ran out of time to send anything before the New Year), we have transitioned over to a e-Christmas Card!  And now you get to see more pictures of our beautiful faces (a win, win!).   Enjoy our Bartlett 2023 by the numbers and a few photo favorites. The kids took up rock climbing lessons this year, and it has been fun for the whole family!  Here we are 'topped out' on the bouldering wall. The kids have been enjoying their 1st and 4th grade years, its been smooth sailing so far with some pretty awesome teaching staff. We had our first family ski trip this year, we are hitting a sweet spot with kids enjoying activities that challenge them and us at the same time.  Eli lost his first tooth! Our 2023 garden at its peak! And a new pantry designed by yours truly to showcase our bountiful squash harvest :) Happy New Year!

A Collection of Christmas cards I have designed over the years for my family 2017 2018 2019  

I'd seen a number of DIY projects for children's play kitchen on Pinterest and thought I would take a stab at making one for my daughter for Christmas.  Thankfully, my husband and I don't ascribe to any traditions about WHEN we give each other gifts (before, on, or after Christmas) so I asked him to get me a jigsaw this year to help with cutting.  I'm sure it will come in handy for other projects down the road.  So Merry Christmas to me about a month early :) Next I have to find a nightstand.  Craigslist was being no help (people don't know who to sell/barter/etc on there, it was frustrating!).  So I went to Goodwill on a whim, thinking they probably wouldn't have what I needed.  But low and behold, there it was.  A perfect nightstand to tear apart and re-use, and at the sweet price of....$3.99!!! Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it when I bought it, but here is a similar design. I stripped the nightstand of all the ornamental trim, s...

Had some extra time today to add the next few photos of baby girl into her artifact uprising photo album that will be complete once we celebrate her first birthday.  Can't wait, but can wait.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from each month so far... 5 days old One month Two months Three months Four months Five months Six months Seven months

 

For the past two of the three Christmases that my husband and I have celebrated while married we have debated about whether to get a real or fake tree.  Last year my husband surprised me with a real tree and we got the tree stand, tree skirt, ornaments, the works!  One move into a smaller apartment later...and we don't exactly have room for a tree, fake or real.  So I have been coming up with creative ways to make the house look more festive.  I thought I would share one of the ideas with you.   And it is easy as pie (if pie were easy).  All you need is a glue gun, about 20 sticks of glue for the glue gun, three (or four, or five!) foam cones (I chose three different sizes), and two boxes of pine cones (I found them for 50% off at JoAnn Fabrics!).  And, start gluing!  It will take a while, so don't expect to get them all done in one afternoon...unless you have incredible amounts of stamina.   this is about how many pinecones y...

Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!