A BEAUTIFUL "SEWL"

See this little guy? His name is Deyton Kash Sorensen.

He is the nephew of my friend Shelle over at Blokthoughts.

Here he is with his proud papa minutes after he was born.

These are his courageous parents.

Deyton had a heart condition called Hypo Plastic Left Heart syndrome. In his 5 days on earth he touched a lot of people including myself.

Sunday, the 26th of July, Deyton Kash Sorensen passed away peacefully in his parents' arms at home. He left a remarkable impact on a lot of lives. Never has anyone so beautiful reached the hearts of so many people so fast.

The pain I felt for his family was immense. I wanted to help but didn't know how so I made this for his parents.

It is a "sweetheart tree". His initials carved forever in his tree.

There is a lot of symbolism in this painting.
The tree represents life, and it is not rooted here on earth, but in the Heavens.
The exposed roots represent his strong family that he is eternally tied to. His initials will be etched forever for all to remember and of course the heart has such meaning.

His heart may have failed him in this life but the thousands of hearts he has touched, will forever be changed.

This song is what kept playing in my mind as I painted this.

Keep them all in your prayers would ya?

The painting is on it's way and hopefully will bring a little bit of peace to his parents.

It did for me.

xo Emily xo

See how my garden grows...

NATURE'S WAYS

Slowly, gently, multicolored blooms appear
Peppering the air with a sweet fragrance,
Ripening buds, on each a dewdrop, a tear
In which the sun's rays perform a dance.
Nature's way of showing that she can
Govern herself without the help of man.

Sunny days now bring about the heat
Unveiling her powerful force of re-birth,
Moving, with a pulsating yet gentle beat,
Man and beast and all else on Earth,
Ever forward and yet following the call
Recorded at the beginning of it all.

And then her vital force begins to weaken
Unable to sustain the original pace,
Trembling as if by some disease stricken
Unsure of its will to complete the race.
Maimed, weak, and ravaged by time
Nature still retains her dignity sublime.

When the struggle ends and all seems lost,
Into the dark realm of death Nature slips
No cry is heard, no counting of the cost,
Total silence is all that escapes her lips.
Earth, too, doesn't mourn nor does it weep
Realizing Nature isn't dead, but just asleep.

Slowly, gently, multicolored blooms appear
Peppering the air with a sweet fragrance ....

LETTERS, LETTERS...WHO NEEDS A LETTER?

I couldn't wait to show you all my newest project. Monogrammed paintings.
Aren't they adorable?
I have created a few different styles of 8x10 canvas monograms to sell.

They are all hand painted with love and sealed for use outdoors or in.

Each one has a ribbon hanger that can be used or you can tuck it behind if you want to prop it somewhere to display it.

I have used old book pages with a gorgeous patina to make this style.

Now this one I adore. I used old pages from a dictionary with pages that correspond to the letter.


This is a treasure. Whoever has a last name that begins with a J better hurry and snap this up. This is the back of a book from the 1880's. I used a metallic gold paint to paint the J.
So sweet huh?

I LOVE these paintings in wreaths on the front door or just hung alone they look fantastic.
How classy does this look?

I can do anything custom for you. You can pick the colors and add more letters for all of your initials. Something like this for example with my initials

EAL

I think these would make awesome gifts for weddings, a new baby, a friend, Christmas...you name it, it would be a perfect gift.

You could also spell entire names or words with the plaques.
Ask me and I can figure it out!

I hope you LOVE these as much as I do.
I am adding them to my Etsy on the right momentarily.

xo Emily xo

A FUN PROJECT AND A QUESTION

Have I got a fun project for you guys today. I realize I have been lacking in the sewing department of late, so here is a fun, easy project. You could actually get away without sewing this though. If you have an iron and some Bondaweb you could avoid sewing all together.

For those of you who are not familiar with Cath Kidston, let me entreat you.
I LOVE this English designer. Look at her fresh, but vintage designs and housewares.


I was introduced to Cath Kidston by this cute lady below. My adorable mother in law Denise, all the way over in England. She just sent me a picture of her in her cute kitchen with her new picnic basket. This has been something she has wanted for a long time and she finally found the most beautiful picnic basket I have ever seen.

She was the one who sent me this book "Make" by Cath Kidston. It is fabulous if you want some quick easy projects.

This is the project. I have included the template of the roses for you to sew or iron on anything. An old bag like this one could be transformed, or a cute sweater for the fall. Limitless possibilities.

Click on the template and save it to your computer. You can resize it to whatever size you like.

Have fun making something and send me a link if you do. I'd love to see what you do!

Now to my question. Dun dun duuuun.

I was very fortunate this last week. This blog of mine was featured here on "Just a girl". It is a FABULOUS blog to check out. One of my fav's.
Thanks you Chris! It was fun gaining some new readers. She was so sweet but didn't get my blog name for a few days :)

Which brings me to my question. Do y'all get my blog name?
This was my thinking for those of you who don't get it.

Heart-n-Soul became Art-n-Sewl because of my love of art and sewing.
Get it? Got it? Good!

Now go make something!!

xo Emily xo

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

This is your mission if you choose to accept it.

Make this space beautiful. Oh, and you have a $50 dollar budget.

!?!WHAT!?!

Seriously, this was my task.
I was asked by ladies at my church to help decorate for the final evening at girls camp. It was based on the parable of the 10 virgins in the bible. So basically this final evening was to look like a wedding feast.

Loved the concept, but was overwhelmed with how to basically pull off a wedding reception on $50 bucks.

I had to get REALLY creative to accomplish this and after pondering what I needed to do, the thought came to me that nature was free. So, on the day of the event I was picking magnolias for my centerpieces in 90 degree heat and bugs EVERYWHERE.
.
I had to use taper candles instead of pillar candles because of the expense, but actually I think it looked better.

I couldn't find taper candle holders that were low like tea light holders, so again, I had to get really creative. Votives and sand did the trick and looked amazing. It added to the simple, rustic theme I wanted.

We borrowed lights and hung them with tulle to create a "tented" look.

What do you think?

I borrowed rustic pots and used a lot of my home's decoration to create a focal point on the beautiful stone fireplace.

It was an honor to be involved with this special night. It created a fancy evening for girls who had "roughed it" all week.

Many of the leaders who had been at camp all week were so kind and helped for all of the 5 hours it took to get things done.

Here are just a few of the many helpers I had.

Words cannot express my gratitude.
Thank you!!!

I would say ~ mission completed.

xo Emily xo