My husband the artist...

My husband is an artist with many interests. He plays the piano, guitar, native american flute, drums, sings beautifully, paints, draws and has a great eye for photography. If he puts his mind to it, he can pretty much do, make and create anything. His latest project is probably his most amazing feat of art to date.

He had been drooling over this Saddleback bag for the past 12 months.

It costs $519 bucks....not exactly in our budget for many, many years...

So, he decided to do what any good artist would do...make it himself! And luckily he happened to marry a wonderful woman who was an artist who got it from her mother...and that mother-in-law happened to have been an art teacher for 30 years and happened to have taught leather craft and still had leather and all her tools...following me here? He studied the bag inside and out and made his own paper prototype. Then, he took mom back to her house where they gathered up all the leather and tools she had. After making a pattern he started cutting into the leather to start his bag...

He cut, died and hand worked the leather and then hand sewed and built the bag all on his own! He created the design, made all the elements and put it together in FIVE DAYS!!! It was his guilty pleasure during his week off between semesters and he worked on it non stop till it was done.  I am so proud of his piece of art!! I would never take on a project like that...but he did and he mastered the art of leather on his first try. Here is the finished bag which he uses every day for school...Isn't it beautiful?

And because of this new "art" the kids were inspired to work in it too and grandma was happy to give lessons. Lucas and Eli both made a belt buckle.

I LOVE our huge art room and that it gets lived in every single day! 

It's even nicer when you have a resident artist to give lessons!