Silent Auction items for Addy's Benefit

  Coming up this Saturday, Jan. 19th, is a benefit for my cousin Joe's little girl Addy (3 years old). She is one sick girl: diagnosed last year with Aplastic Anemia- but is on the mend. COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Association) is raising money to help cover costs for the bone marrow transplant Addy received in December - her little brother Cayden (1 year old), was the donor. It was a pretty rough holiday season spent in the hospital, recovering, and going through chemo, but Addy is one tough little girl. I can't even imagine how exhausted Joe, and his lovely wife April, must be: going through all of this with both of their children and living at the hospital.
  Click here to see details about the benefit event and how you can help:

Addy with little bro Cayden + always smiling and making the best of her home away from home

  My Mother-In-Law, Deb, and I both created items that we've donated for the Silent Auction at the benefit - we just couldn't pass up this opportunity to help out little Addy and her family - and what better way than by making things - it's what we love to do! Hopefully our stuff goes for BIG BUCKS! So here is pre-benefit peek:

  Deb created this AMAZING ceramic Fairy House - all built and glazed by hand - all of the little details take so much time and patience + I LOVE the color. THIS Fairy House is already headed to the benefit next weekend (complete with little LED candle to glow-through the little windows), but more stunning ceramic work from Deb can be found in her Enchanted Houses etsy shop.

Deb really achieved these great copper, bronze and teal tones.  So nice. + Love the little snail hidden on the back side next to the little windows with shutters :)

  And I donated a Jimmy Doll with "Jimmy's Tree" book - This stuffed, plush Jimmy Doll is hand-made (with help from my mom - she's the best stuffer and arm-sewer-on-er in all the lands) out of speckled gray plush fabric. "Jimmy's Tree" is a little 8-page story I wrote and illustrated back in school featuring Jimmy, who decides at the end, that things always get better no matter how rough things are.

I hand-covered + hand-bound this hard cover, hinged story book + added a little fun with beads the strings

+ here's a peek at a few of the illustrations inside:

   + My parents have been doing a little fundraising of their own to help Addy. They donated all of the earnings from their homemade Caramel & Cinnamon Popcorn that they sold at Finch's Holiday Boutique last month. Now that is the most delicious way to raise money ever!

Looking forward to next week's benefit + sending prayers to Addy and family.

Red Pepper Eggs = Yum

  ...or more like "Eggs IN Red Pepper"...  This simple, little breakfast is just too tasty not to share and at only 190 calories, we had it with juice and coffee/chai tea, and thought it was a lovely Sunday morning meal :)

Wheat toast, Egg, Red Pepper Ring, Fresh Mozzerlla - Yum!

McBrides All Fired Up!

   Not that our house isn't warm, its our fireplaces that are lacking in the warmth department - and that just doesn't make any sense right?
   Back when we came across our house during the house hunt, we thought the two wood burning fireplaces were a major bonus. Kevin was even pumped about chopping wood! Our home inspection didn't turn up any issues with either fireplace, so we were pretty bummed when we tried our first fire upstairs last winter to find that the downstairs smelled like smoke - REALLY bad. So we tried to master the cross-ventilation and ensure that all the smoke was sucked up the chimney where it belonged and had a guy out to clean the chimney and inspect the flue, etc.
   It was discovered that our downstairs fire-box was cracked and would not be suitable for a fire unless fixed, which would be SUPER costly, and that there was something else going on that would make it pretty near impossible not to have a smokey-smelling basement when using the fireplace upstairs. Lame!
   SO! It's was decided! Gas inserts it is! We shopped around at a few fireplace retailers and were really impressed with Fireside Hearth & Home - not far from our place in Minnetonka, MN.

BEFORE = all that brass!

Left: Upstairs Fireplace with stone ledge hearth, Right: with solid brick hearth
- both complete with big brass surround and good old Chicago Brick

Ripped out!

Installed....kind of...doesn't look the greatest, but it sat this way for a week so the inspector could
come by - he barely glanced at it and said "looks good"

And now!!!

The ALL NEW upstairs fireplace along side our recently hung artwork wall

a look at our mantel - as holiday as it got after the boutique was over

And here is how downstairs turned out. We rehung the mantel - after it fell off and hit me in the head last year... Is my head okay? You can decide.

We hung this great framed print from Society6 called "Lost In Stripes" by Bianca Green + added this fun orange, tin clock I picked up at General Store of Minnetonka, along with a little white ceramic luminary, with 'punched' holes that allow the candlelight to glow through, that we nabbed from Crabtree Ceramics @ Finch's Boutique in Dec.

We went with a black surround for downstairs with a nice double-line frame with curved top.

What do you think of the fireplaces Finch & Rigby?

We're all warm and cozy here at the McBride's now!

Officially: Yellow Finch.Gray Day on Etsy

   Well we've officially done it - and so soon! "Launch Etsy Shop" just graced our new To Do: 2013 list last week, and we've already crossed it off! Sure, there was a lot of pre-work that I had started last year - thinking about shop name, shop 'policies' and the oh so important shop "banner." Of course "launching" the shop is really only the first step...

The Shop:

etsy banner

Name: Yellow Finch.Gray Day

Link to Shop: click here! (might want to add it to your favorites! wink!)

The Plan:
   Yellow Finch for Littles: Fun items + gifts for kids & baby
   - Items like: Plush Jimmy Dolls, Nuggets, Tooth Fairy Nuggets + Finger Puppets + Tea For Two Sets + Wash Mitts + Magic Sponge Sets + Artwork, etc.
   Gray Day for your Home: Cute Decor & Art for everyday.
   - Items like: Pot Holders + Towels + Wash Mitts + Handmade Books + Cards + Artwork, etc.

Product listed so far: 5 Tooth Fairy Nuggets! Hooray!  I have a bunch of stuff leftover from Finch's Boutique, so expect to see lots more very soon!

Blog: http://yellowfinchgrayday.blogspot.com - I figured that a fun way to feature and share some of my new projects, ideas, and items for Yellow Finch.Gray Day could live in its own blog - but wait! there's nothing up there yet except for a blog title banner I made (see below) - you'll have to check back later...

blog banner

Have a look!
Now we just need to get people to visit our shop....

Deck the Walls - Part 2 - Finally....

  Hey - so remember our post from last May titled "Deck the Walls...with SOMETHING! Please!" {see post}? If not: long story short = tired of blank, boring walls - especially in the common area spaces, like the living room - we ordered artwork from Society6 to layer in with some of our other collected items in order to Deck Our Walls.

  Well we are very pleased to share that we finally - literally, just last week - addressed the 'tall wall' in our living room. Have a look!

  We hung two vintage ceiling tiles (that I picked up at a boutique last May - see post )

  + along with one of the Society6 prints we purchased: "Perch" by Eric Fan. We really like the little birdie and nice golden color that we've begun to carry throughout the room.

  + We scored this sweet M - made from a variety of tin ceiling tiles (picked it up at Junk Bonanza - see post). We thought it tied back to the two white tiles nicely, + pushed those same golden tones as the "Perch" print

  + a cute white frame from IKEA - so we can add something more personal - there WILL be a cute picture of Finch & Rigby in there sometime soon

  + and lastly, the wooden gold finch I got from Anthropologie years ago made it's way from the Mpls house and *finally* found a home here. He's one of my favorites.

Our "Tall Wall" is right in between our fireplace and deck doors - 

it reaches up to the point of our vaulted ceiling - so we had plenty of room to play.

+ To finish up the wall, we have the mid-century-mod buffet that I talked about in the guest

blog post I did over at Hammers & High Heels - see that post here.

+ I collected the old chair from a yard sale in Mpls - probably about 7 years ago, 

+ we topped it off with the pillow we had made out of the vintage Bemis grain sacks we picked up also at Junk Bonanza - see post. It's so great to have a little piece of Kevin's family history here as a cushy pillow with brown corded piping.

+ Oh last but not least! The space just wouldn't be complete without the basket of Finch & Rigby Toys - If only we could get them to put them back in the basket themselves next time...

  There's something pretty rewarding about several of our past blog posts come back around full circle and shaking hands :) Next on the list: the new gas insert fireplaces will be finished and then the living room will be SUPER cozy! See you then!

P.S. - Here is how much the pups helped out with the wall.

We wouldn't get anything done if these two weren't supervising....

Looking Forward to 2013!

We are all looking forward to what 2013 might have in store for us,

Best wishes to you and yours in the new year.

  Like so many people, we've been chatting about what we want to tackle in 2013 - some make resolutions, but I just feel bad when I fail. "Resolution" sounds so serious. Keeping with our my love of list making, we've prepared a "To Do: 2013 List." Have a look!

  I think we'll print this out - maybe a few of them - and post them where we can see them: in the kitchen, in the closet, at the office(s)

  Do you have a To-Do: 2013 List? If you would like a fancy-schmancy list, like the one we made, let me know!
1: E-mail me: ebrytneson@yahoo.com with YOUR list of 6-10 to-dos + color preference
2: A special, customized list will be sent back!
* That way you can print your list to stay on top of your to-dos Hooray!

   So! If we achieve our "keep up with blog" goal, we'll keep you in the loop on how we're doing with our To-Do: 2013 List along the way!

McBride's time to relax....finally....

  Wondering where we've been for a while? Oh, we've been here all right, just cheating on this blog with Finch's Boutique blog...
  It's that time of year, when we completely tear apart our house, stash away our personal decor and bring in other people's stuff - 70 local artist and designer's stuff to be exact. Our largest Finch's Boutique to date was a big success - even if Day 2 was hindered by a ton of snow - it's was still a lot of fun, but mostly a ton of work....not sure if it will be happening here again next year..... we'll see....

  Here's what I mean...

We move most furniture out or re-purpose some - like one couch and the coffee table -
and bring in all the display apparatus...

Would you believe we had over 200 visitors come through our place?
That's a few more than we typically like to entertain at once...

This year got so big, we opened the smaller guest room down the hall to accommodate the Kids/Baby/Pets product.

Luckily, we have the two best shop dogs ever....

Okay, 1 really good shop dog....and then there's Rigby....

"This is my 7th Holiday boutique - no big deal" - Finch

Oh Man, being shop dogs is REALLY hard work...

   NOW! We have the house pretty well put back together, people's product is *almost completely gone and we're ready for some relaxing. We're definitely pleased to have finished the bulk of our Christmas shopping before the sale, but that doesn't mean we're sitting still for too long....

Still lots to be done! On to 2013!!

Happy Holidays from The McBride's

Kevin, Elisa, Finch & Rigby