Tammy Tutterow

On a personal note: Ten sweet years. . .

I don't normally post much here on a personal level but today I want to make a little exception and share a little personal something. . .

Ten years ago today I made a special vow to this man and I have been so thankful each and every day since to have him in my life.  His love and support have filled me with joys that I never knew existed.  I find myself still feeling that rush when I look into his eyes just as I did on that very first blind date 11 years ago.  I am so blessed.

Meeting Mary. . .

Day one of the Home Companion Workshop is done.  Wow.  Amazing.  There is nothing quite like being in a room with 150+ people who share a passion for creativity.  They may all vary in their craft a bit but they all share the passion and the dream.  You can not leave that type of moment and not feel energized and inspired to create. I would love to share more thoughts, but my bed is calling.  I have a super early morning for day two.  But, I was so excited that I did want to share a quick photo of me with Mary and Barbara Martin, who is Mary's right hand gal and was the editor of the Home Companion Magazine, which I still believe was the greatest magazine ever.

Busy days, busy days.

I feel like it has been forever since I had a crafty day in my studio!  I am hoping that at the beginning of the week I will finally be caught up enough to just sit and play.  I have some awesome new supplies that I am itching to play with and just haven't been able to find the time.  I have been glued to my computer writing class stuff and making Powerpoint presentations for classes.  I got an awesome new projector to use in classes so now I have grand plans of Powerpoint presentations in all of my classes. So the start of a busy weekend starts today.  I am headed into the city to work at the Mary Engelbreit's Home companion Workshops event.  I am super excited.  Long ago I had a dream of being an illustrator.  I think I first saw some of Mary's art when I was in high school and fell in love instantly.  When the opportunity came up to be able to work at it, I jumped at the chance.  I am hoping I get to meet Mary!  I saw her once shopping in Red Lead and I about passed out!  I couldn't even speak.  I wanted to respect her privacy but would have loved to have said at least hello.  So I am hoping to do that this weekend.  I will be busy working though so we'll see.  For the most part, I will be the teacher's assistant for Claudine Hellmuth.  I adore Claudine and love her product line.  I can not wait to spend two full days in her classes soaking up a bit of her mad painty skills. Then, on Sunday, I am teaching at For Keeps Sake.  I *think* that this class is sold out, but am not positive, if you are interested you can always call to check. Come Monday I plan on getting in a serious crafting groove.  I will hopefully get the tutorials for the Bazzill Flower Pot flowers photographed and then hopefully get the print outs for them posted and ready for download by {fingers crossed} midweek.  I have new classes I am working on for stores so I am thinking if all goes well there will be sneak peeks of those in the coming week too.  Whew!  That is a lot!  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I will manage all of that and more!

Time in the garden in is time well spent. . . a garden tour.

For my Sunday play day, I decided time in my garden was the way to go.  I really wanted to be crafty, but my garden was in desperate need of love and it was a beautiful day, so I spent the whole day outside.  I am paying dearly for it today as I think I used muscles that have never been used before, but it was well worth it. I managed to get all of my beds weeded and about half of them mulched.  It would have been easier to mulch a few weeks ago before everything was sprouted.  My whole front bed is all hostas, hydrangeas, and coral bells.  The hostas are getting so think I had to dig a few up and split them.  I still need to get to the garden store to get plants for my washtub and pail.  I am thinking of going with mostly pink bedding plants in them this year. The other front bed is filling up nicely with more hydrangeas, miniature hostas, and Solomon's Seal. My little side bed is looking a little bare.  You can't see it, but there is a new small hydrangea planted there to the right of the large one on the left.  I have been saving the open space for planting another hydrangea this year to mark mine and David's 10th anniversary.  Almost every single hydrangea I have has been planted for one of our anniversaries or to mark some other special occasion. On the other front corner I have peonies and siberian iris coming in.  The peony on the left is from my grandmother's garden.  She passed away before I was born.  About 12 years ago the area where my grandmother lived flooded and the homes were condemned.  My mom got permission from the city to go on the property and dig up some of her mother's plants that were still there.  My mom, aunt, sister, and I all now have her peonies growing in our gardens.  I will have to share a photo of it in bloom.  It is absolutely beautiful.  The neat thing is that none of got the same variety, they are each different and very lovely. The curved area just beyond the bird bath is my trouble spot.  I had the bright idea a few years ago to plant an ornamental grass to hide the gas meter.  It went crazy and I have been pulling that stuff ever since!  The area near the sidewalk was hit particularly hard with it.  I have been battling wild violets in that spot forever also.  I decided to just start from scratch there so I dug up everything that I wanted to salvage and sprayed weed killer all over the rest.  I am going to dig it out a bit and then fill it with a low ground cover, maybe more Creeping Jenny (the yellow ground cover just beyond this patch). Here is another problem child, my honeysuckle.  It is almost 10 years old.  We planted it on our first anniversary and was able to dig it up and move it when we bought our current (and forever) house.  That thing has a trunk as big around as a half dollar!  I cut it back drastically last year after it got so high it started growing into the overhanging Red Bud tree.  You can see that it rewarding me by growing like crazy.  Just think, if it is this big in April. . .  so the big problem with it is that my metal arbor under it is rusting badly.  With every big windy day I am sure it is a gonner.  If and when it gives out, I am going to have a mess to contend with. Right now, I think the most breath taking thing in the garden is this tree, it is a Kwanzi Cherry.  It is so packed full of blooms that it looks like a bing pink pom pom in the back yard.  We planted it 5 years ago in honor or mine and Emma's birthdays.  It never fails to come into full bloom the week of our birthdays.  It is like a gift. Ahhh, the aforementioned honeysuckle.  It sure is pretty and oh how the hummingbirds love it! I call these Virginia's Irises because we inherited them with the house.  The previous owner (who lived here 30+ years is named Virginia) had a huge bed of these.  If you remember from a previous post about my garden, you will remember that I thought the bed of these needed thinned and moved from behind the garage so I dug them up and planted, and planted, and planted more.  They rewarded me greatly until every single bed was over run with iris.  I feel bad pulling up plants and throwing them out, but finally I did, I had to.  Three trash cans and a wheel barrow later, I had removed the iris with the exception of a few clusters of them.  I clearly did not get them all from the areas I didn't want them since I had them popping up in every bed.  They are very persistent! Okay, and finally, the dogwoods.  Spring just isn't spring until the dogwood trees in our front yard bloom.  This year they were a little light on the blooms, I am thinking one of those late cold spells got to them, but still, the blooms that came are so pretty and smell so good!

Tales From the Yellow Bungalow: Busy, Busy, Busy Days

This past week has been so crazy busy!  It didn't leave me with a single moment for creating!  Since I don't have anything crafty to share, I thought I would share a few glimpses from my week. On Thursday, Daddy and I had lunch with Emma for Parents Lunch day at her school.  No matter what they serve, the child picks PB&J and chocolate milk.   Daddy and I had the popcorn chicken.  It was. . . well. . . okay.  But the HUGE fudgy brownies ROCKED! After lunch we got to enjoy recess with her.  Good thing they have recess after lunch to burn off that brownie! On Thursday evening, I got to have dinner with my super sweet friend Sally Lynn who was in town to teach.  We had dinner with Amy Coon and her sister-in-law who were in town for the Creating Keepsakes Convention.  On Friday I headed to the convention to shop and take a couple of classes and hang with my friend Christine.  It makes me a terrible scrapbooker I think that I didn't take pictures at dinner or at the convention! On Saturday we celebrated Emma's 6th birthday.  It was also my birthday on Saturday.  If you follow me on Facebook, you know what number it was for me since some of my "friends" took delight in posting the number. Anna came home from college for the weekend to celebrate the birthdays and to see one of her high school girlfriends get married.  She was thrilled with the new swing set that Emma got for her birthday.  My son Jacob managed to stay out of every picture I took at the party so no shots of him to share.  He somehow has a radar for picture taking and manages to escape me every time! On Sunday I headed to class again, this time for Copic Marker certification.  Yes, I was already certified, but I couldn't pass up hanging with Sally Lynn again and refreshing my Copic skills.  I got to hang with more of my favorite creative gals.  Yes, again, I left the camera at home so no pictures of us all working on our marker skills! All in all, an awesome week, but one that left me longing for some time to sit and play and create, especially with some of the new things I got at the convention.

Tales From the Yellow Bungalow: St. Louis Spring!

I officially declare it spring time in St. Louis! It was beautiful out today so I escaped my basement studio for a bit and headed out to the garden to rake out all of the leaves and debris from my flower beds.  In the process, I unburied my treasured White Lenten Rose, a gift from a friend's garden.  I am always ready to declare it officially spring when I see the white of her petals starting to emerge.  As you can see, they are there and on the verge of blooming so I am happy to proclaim "Welcome Spring!"

From my studio: A Peek Inside My Studio

It isn't a terribly fancy place, but I thought I would share a peek inside my little creative space.  It is in our basement, which is only partially finished.  I have one finished wall and the rest are white wall board that is part of our waterproofing system.  The down side is that I can't hang anything from the walls except for the one wall.  We are getting ready to work on another phase of the finishing project which should bring me a finished ceiling and flooring, which right now is painted cement that is sooooo cold!

Our family room is an L shape with my space the lower part of the L.  When I am sitting in my work spot, I can watch the tv in the family room.

This is my main work spot.  My tables are all 6ft folding tables.  I made white covers for them with green toppers.  The toppers are easy to take off and clean if needed and can be replaced if I decide I want a new color.

I plan to make curtains with the bird egg fabric and maybe a slip cover for my desk chair.

I plan on putting some risers under the tables to lift them a few inches so for now the covers are a bit long.  This is the one finished wall in my room and has shelves that are packed with some of my favorite things.  I have several collectible bears and books and figurines from when I was a kid.  I also have part of my Tammy Doll collection and Tammy memorabilia displayed here.

Next is my computer desk that is also covered with tons of "stuff".  I am a bit of a stuff collector.  Next to that is my very favorite chair in the whole world, my hydrangea chair.  It is so comfy and perfect for bumming in with a good magazine.  I have debated slip covering it to make it match more but I'm not sure if I have those kind of sewing skills.  Besides, hydrangeas are my absolute favorite flowers so I would feel a bit sad to cover them up.

You can see a lot of my hand collection here.  I have a thing for the symbol of a heart in the hand which lead me to collect hands.

The next side is my wall of shelves and more "stuff".  Tons of stuff!

One of my favorite collections on this side are my Holly Pond Hill figurines.  When David and I were getting married, I spotted a Holly Pond Hill figurine of a bride and groom bunny.  It was so cute that I got it for our cake.  David continued getting them for me for gifts.  They ended up being kind of prophetic because the bunny family consisted of a mom and dad (the same one from the topper) with a older daughter, a son, and a wee baby girl.  A few years into our marriage, David and I were blessed with a wee girl to go along with my daughter and son making our little family match the little bunny family.

More stuff.

My Sally Jean collection.

And last but not least. . . . the ultimate in scrappy and crafty supply organization.  Remember years ago when all of the scrap stores, Micheals, etc had these big monsters full of die cuts?  A few years ago a friend who owned a scrap store was hoping to get the monster out of her store and offered it to me.  I can't even venture a guess on the weight, but it is a monster and both my husband and his brother who go the task of moving it to our house and into our basement were not thrilled with me.  It rotates and has bins and drawers on all four sides.  Someday I am going to sit and remove all of the old labels.  It holds tons and tons of stuff which makes me really happy.  Everything has its own little place and keeps it all so tidy.  Pure organizational bliss!

My word, well actually wordS, and a doodle to boot!

Picking a word for the year, One Little Word is a really popular New Years thing in the scrappy world.  I guess the credit for the idea goes to Ali Edwards back in 2007.

I am not sure if I have ever picked a word for the year or not, if I have, I can't say I stuck to it.  I am not so good with resolutions and vows to do things all year long.  I try, but I just never stick to any of them.  This year though is a big year for me and one that brings a lot of change to my life.  With new changes and new directions, I decided that I needed a word to focus on and hopefully continue to focus on all year.  But what to choose. . . Today is my last day at my job as a 911 dispatcher.  I have been dispatching for 15 years and have been at my current department for 13 years.  There are a million reasons why I decided to leave, but the main one has to do with my kids.  I have missed a ton of things in the lives of my two oldest kids because of shift work, weekends, day sleeping , etc.  I had no choice.  Five years ago our family was blessed with one more sweet baby.  I am just not prepared to see another one of my sweet children's life speed by while I miss it all because I have to work every weekend or sleep during the day.  My husband and I vowed to get to a place where we could change that and we are finally there.  It means that there will be a ton of sacrifice but I know the pay off will be the sweetest and most rewarding ever.  That leads me to my word, FAITH.  I am going to live in faith that our needs will be met and that the right opportunities will present themselves to help sustain us. So what am I going to do with all that time besides being a full time mom?  I finally get to live the full time artsy crafty life that I have dreamed of forever!  I am going to be playing with paper and fabric and such from sun up to sun down.  I will be teaching at my local scrap store (For Keeps Sake) and hitting the road as well as a Prima Endorsed Artist Educator.  I have tons of classes in the works for my online classroom here and have tons more vintage images and doodles to share as well.  I will be sharing tons of projects and ideas here too.  I will continue doing design team stuff with old friends and adding a new friend or two.  I will be adding tons of new things to my Etsy shops too.  I am very excited to say the least! For a long time I have had a favorite quote from Howard Thurman that talks about coming ALIVE.  I feel that this coming year is going to be my year to come ALIVE.  I am closing the book on excessive stress and sleep deprivation and missing friends and family and opening a new one on living the life I have dreamed of, being a wife, mother, and artist.  I am going to come ALIVE. And that my friends is my second word for the year, ALIVE.  I simply couldn't choose one word.  I felt that they go together hand-in-hand with my hopes and vision for the year and that I can't do one without the other, so I chose both.  Just call me a "One Little Word" rebel rule breaker!! To celebrate my second word, as well as what I consider my life quote, I created a lettering doodle to share.  If you would like to download it, click on the link below the image.  A new window will open.  Right click on the larger version of the doodle and save it to your computer.

Click this link to download.

My very best wishes to each and every one of you for a wonderful and blessed New Year.  May all of your hopes and dreams for the new year come to be!

Tales From the Yellow Bungalow: Now that is a trophy!

When you win an award called a "Kick Ass" award, you just gotta imagine what the trophy looks like. . . .

Wait, what is that on top?

Why yes, it is what you thought, a trophy guy kicking an Ass.
Last night I was really honored to be one of the recipients of this year's Kick Ass awards.  The Kick Ass Awards in St. Louis are sponsored by 52nd City and seek to honor people who are doing things to make the city great and a more interesting place to live and play.  When you look at the people who have been nominated, they are all people doing really great and really important things; things for the environment, teaching, developing the community, ect. They selected me for my work on St. Louis Handmade site.  If you aren't familiar with it, St. Louis Handmade is a website I run which features and tries to promote handmade artists, products, and events in St. Louis.  Don't get me wrong, I believe in what I am trying to promote on St. Louis Handmade, I believe in arts and crafts and truly want to celebrate the people who are embracing the dream to create.  I believe in it and believe it is important.  But still, when surrounded by people working to save the environment and live eco friendly, to shelter abandoned animals, or teaching others how to grow organic foods, well, I just felt unworthy.  Honored, extremely honored, but so unworthy.  I think that was kind of the jest of what I said when handed my award.  I am not sure.  All I could hear was my heart racing in my ears, it was a very weird and loud roaring sound.  I am so not a public speaker.  I think I said that too.  I am not sure.  David assures me though that it wasn't anything too doofusy or goobery.  I hope he was telling me the truth and not just being kind. Okay, so aside from having to speak in front of this room of people, I have to say this was one of the absolute coolest nights of my life.  The people there who shared were so inspiring and funny and just all out cool.  It was held at Joe's Cafe which is hands down the most unique, fascinating, and odd places I have ever been too.  Bill Christman, who owns it is the artist behind Beatnik Bob's Museum of Mirth, Mystery and Mayhem at The City Museum.  I wish I had words to describe it . . . but there just aren't any.  The Cafe and art gardens are just full of curiosities and wonder. Ohh, and lest I forget to mention, we saw a little stage show with girl wrestlers. . . you had to be there, trust me.  I laughed until I cried and then walked out with a big grin and a huge Kick Ass trophy.  A very kick ass night indeed.

A special little fairy-

This little fairy melts my heart.  My sweet little Emma as Tinkerbell, Halloween 2009.