Valentine's Day Coloring Sheet Masterpiece!

  What wonderful composition and use of color! Thanks Kai (and Mama Corinna) for downloading our Valentine's Day Coloring Sheet and sharing this masterpiece!

Kai, Age 2

Coming Soon! St. Patrick's Day Coloring Sheet!!

Yellow Finch.Gray Day on Whole Parenting Family

  We are SUPER excited to have our Yellow Finch.Gray Day product featured on Whole Parenting Family!
  We sent a few fun items (Nugget Wash Mitts, Plush, Finger Puppets and Magic Sponge) to friend/Mom-Blogger/creator Nell for her littles, Super Boy and Sweet Pea, to enjoy! Here is what Nell has to say about us along with a little Q & A session :)  We LOVE how Nell included pics of the product AND especially! photos of little Sweet Pea herself enjoying her new items. Have a look!

Thanks Nell!

check out Whole Parenting Family blog!

stop by and 'like' on Facebook!

+ don't forget to scope out the AMAZING, handmade product for Babies, Littles, and Mammas in Whole Parenting Goods Shop. 

V-Day For All! And to All a Few Smooches!

  So I recently had a go at the "Treasury" function on Etsy - how users can create/curate their own little collection of favorites/themed items - whatever you want to group together from Etsy - and I thought it was pretty fun. Within a minute of created this V-day inspired Treasury, someone "liked" it and added it to their list of fav. treasuries. I guess that's a thing, so...

  Here is my list of V-day items for Home, for Littles, for My Mister, and for Me! (notice how 2 of my Yellow Finch.Gray Day items landed in this list. I think it's poor "Treasury Etiquette," but too bad!)

25 Pink Hearts Paper St... KrazyLadySuppl... $3.88	Coral/Pink Teapot 8&quo... YellowFinchGra... $12.00	Hand drawn mug painted ... JessQuinnSmall... $15.00	EAT Cloth Napkins Scree... ReinventingOrd... $24.00
Baby: Somebody in Minne... toomanysuitors $18.00	Robot Cut-out Craft Pap... ChicSquirrelDe... $3.50	Brown Robit Robot Plush... YellowFinchGra... $22.00	HEART & WINGS Tooth Fai... katagolda $25.00
Robot Cufflinks Men'... CosmicFirefly $24.00	iPhone 4/4s Real Wood C... WOODCHUCKcase $29.99	Star Wars - Darth Vader... LeaseAPenny $4.75	Princess Bride Inconcei... bravocustompri... $18.00
Vintage typewriter post... handz $22.00	Tea bag felt bookmark -... ovejitabe $6.00	Valentine Gift, LOVE Re... nastiadi $25.00	Paper hearts bunting ba... OKIFOLKI $7.50

   It's safe to say that since I launched my shop, Yellow Finch.Gray Day on Etsy, I've been spending a bit of time perusing...and of course shopping...I *may have a few things coming my way in the mail....

  So perhaps I'll make a few more treasuries here and there...

Hello Valentine!

"We"/Yellow Finch.Gray Day has created a fun Valentines Day Coloring Sheet for your littles - featuring Robit Robot - he's always looking for love.

  Visit Yellow Finch.Gray Day's Hello Valentine! post to see the latest Robit Robot Plush "Friends" for sale available on Etsy!

"Save Image As" -> to your computer

Print -> select 'fit to page' option if necessary

And color away!

+ be sure to send photos of your little ones with their coloring sheets, or pics/scans of their finished pages to yellowfinch.grayday@yahoo.com. I would love to showcase them soon!

visit yellow finch.gray day on etsy

Project: Birth Announcement Artwork

  We are less than a month away from welcoming our new, baby nephew into the world. Until he arrives, and his name is revealed, Kevin and I have been referring to him as Baby Francis. We can't wait to finally meet him - and in preparation, I've been working on few different layouts of Birth Announcement style artwork.

   Here's a few of the text graphics that I was inspired by - suitable for framing, hanging in a nursery, or to be sent out as a birth announcement:

  After a few versions - some of which got a little too busy - I scaled back simplified, and stuck with an easy, casual aesthetic: not too modern, not super traditional - along the lines of what I've been doing with Yellow Finch.Gray Day and the "2013 To-Do List"

  Here's what I came up with so far using Brooke and Owen as sample names and info :)

  I've been thinking about preparing a few customizable options to have available for sale at Yellow Finch.Gray Day on Etsy - what do you think?

Oh Rigby

  Rigby sure loves his brother Finch - like on bath day: Rigby went first, and then Kevin took Finch into the bathroom for his turn.

   Here is Rigby waiting ever so patiently for big bro to come out...

  And all Little Riggs wanted to do was snuggle when he came home, after his "fix'n surgery", sporting his lovely new cone (which he broke by day 4, and we had to buy a new one...).

McBrides Gots Leaks

  That's right, the house is leaking...still...  Back when we FIRST moved in, we had leaking {see post} which was "repaired" by the warranty the previous owners had purchased for the house. Then LAST year = more leaking, and after some super severe weather we filed an insurance claim. This time, $9k was paid out from insurance and we had an entirely new roof put on, some insulation replaced, and the venting done properly for a roof with a pitch as low as ours. Deal. Great - no more SUPER severe weather for the year, and no more leaking.
  Fast forward to two days before Christmas - just this past December = leaking. New leaks, leaks in the same places as before, all around leakiness. Perfect. So now we have bowls and paper towels pieces scattered around the house to catch the drops. If we didn't have place mats AND a tablecloth on the table, it would have been ruined when we came from being gone for Christmas. Just lovely.

  "Hey Joey Rooftops, your new roof isn't working out so well" (the guy from the roofing company's name really is Joey, so "Joey Rooftops" is how he is listed in my phone. Like an Italian mob kind of name...)

  "Hey Elisa, the roof we put on is perfect. This "new" leaking is being caused by ______ "<- insert 4 different reasons here:
  Could be...
- need new, foam insulation in there...
- need to replace soffit vents...
- your house is being kept too humid, turn off your humidifier (which we did: still leaking and a few scratchy, sore throats later)...
- the exhaust from your furnace on the side of your house is pointing too much up at the soffit vents,  making moisture up in the 5 inches of "attic" space....

  All of the leaks have a lovely brown, dirty tint - so it's easy to spot when and where new leaks occur...

Lovely. Leaking in right above the front door - waiting to welcome you to our leaky home. 

Coming down the wall right onto to our framed photos. Nice.

What have we here? Oh, that's just the ceiling to the master bathroom we remodeled last year. Not a big deal...

Our main, hallway bathroom now featured these lovely folded paper towels shoved in between the light fixture and mirror - the poopy colored drips have been coming in at the light, running down the wall behind the mirror and show up on the vanity counter top. Sweet.

Rigby let us use some of his puppy training pads to keep in the closet...otherwise, this gross spot would be on the carpet waiting to greet us every time we need clothes...

Leaks not featured:
- onto the kitchen counter
- from the center beam in the living room
- onto the tile in the front entryway
- onto the dining room table
- from the light fixture above the stairs
- and a few more little drops here and there....

And the official verdict is: need to replace soffit vents...but can we get it in writing that this will be the fix? We will see...