Quilt finished!

We got the quilt finished and we love it! The quilt pattern on it is a skyline, but it is subtle and done in variegated thread.

Two New Pillows for Couch

We got a new couch recently and I had been trying to figure out what kind of pillows to put on it to make the couch a little less "elderly folk" and a little more "us". I converted one of Alec's band t-shirts into a pillow. The other pillow mimics the pattern on the couch, but in a more modern interpretation. I like them both very much. I also learned that Wonder Under is a fantastic product. It makes anything into an iron on, which is fantastically useful.



Yes, I do still have Christmas decorations up from Christmas season. Don't laugh. I'll take them down, I swear. This is my first vacation since January.

Crafty with Eric!

My awesome friend Eric came to visit after Christmas and we had some time to be crafty together. It was a craft explosion in my dining room and so much fun! I wish he could live nearby.



He made me this beautiful card. The scan really doesn't do the colors justice. I keeep it on my desk so Eric can make me smile every day. :)

Things I Made This Week

I got quite a bit done this week in spite of not feeling super well. The first project was spray painting this little metal basket to hold keys, wallets, sunglasses etc. at our by-the-door landing place. The basket came as the base of a gift basket, but red was a little more my style.



I finished both Alec's and my stockings this week. I forgot to take a photo before I stuffed his full of stuff so the ankle looks a little wonky. He has mine hidden away somewhere so you'll just have to appreciate his and know that mine is a variation on this theme. They're made of fleece so they'll stand up to all of the heavy gifts inside!



I had seen a wreath like this awhile back on someone's blog, but I don't remember where. I thought it looked pretty easy to do. I used my old streetfinder map that is obsolete with the advent of GPS. That makes me a little sad because I bought streetfinders shortly after learing to drive so I could find my way anyhwere. Now it seems too easy. Working to find things was part of the fun! I cut the map into strips and applied them to the wreath form using mod podge. What a fun craft! You get to have glue all over your fingers just like elementary school!




I wanted more room than what I had for hanging Christmas cards so I chain stitched two colors of yarn together to make a pretty chain. I hadn't chain stitched since i was about 8 years old and luckily it came back, just like riding a bicycle. Back then I chain stitched an entire skein of yarn and never learned how to go back and forth to make it into a blanket. Did anybody else do that?




Hopefully more crafts to come after Christmas!

Needlework from Travieso

My awesome friend Travieso made us this awesome needle work as a wedding gift, but it took us forever to figure out to how to frame it! I ended up sewing black fabric around all four sides so it now has a fabric mat in the frame. You can't even tell when you look at it! Anyway, Travieso is so cool. He knows tons about astrology and he made us this artistic interpretation of our star charts combined into one. We love it! It is now displayed on the mantle above our fireplace.

Estate Sale Finds!

It's pretty amazing how many folks will turn up to an estate sale in the pouring rain. I found two super cool things to bring home. I got another pretty Pyrex to add to my collection towards my goal of having a turquoise and red kitchen and a cool old globe.

Awesome Quilt Wedding Gift

Alec's cousin made us the most awesome and thoughtful wedding gift. I have been wanting to post pictures of it but a day of sunshine and my memory and schedule haven't coincided for awhile. Anyway, she made us a lap quilt in the colors we had for our wedding with a monogrammed message on the back along with a really cool red stripe for interest. I love the back just as much as the front. Just in time for cooler weather we have a blanket with style! We keep it on the back of the couch, but we never have any natural lighting indoors because we are surrounded by so many trees so I took it outside so you can see it better. I love love love it!






Thanks, cousin!

Black and White Afghan

I wish I had time to learn to make this and actually make it.

Men at Beach

This pattern was included along with some others I picked up at the thrift store. I have yet to convince Alec that this is the must wear outfit of the season. I think today might be a good day to start working on him though...

Tara McPherson embroidery patterns via Sublime Stitching

Jenny Hart is so awesome. I love Sublime Stitching. They rolled out four new patterns and I was so excited about the Tara McPherson patterns my little mouse starting clicking! Go check them out here!



Go check out Tara McPherson's website while you're at it. She is AMAZING!

Old lady chic

I love wearing my old lady chic clothing, but I never thought of putting them together in a polyvore style mashup. Here is attempt #1 using SAS classic shoes and an afghan jacket pattern I found at the thrift store.

Wedding Album : I <3 Freckled Nest!

I had such a hard time deciding what to do with my gorgeous wedding pictures from Whitney Lee Photography until I found Leigh-Ann from Freckled Nest . I saw samples of some of her other albums and I knew she was the right person for the job. She was so easy to work with through the design process and she really understood my style and what I was looking for. She did a great job of incorporating my papers and our quotes and I absolutely LOVE the way it all turned out! I'm so excited about it!









Click the title of this post to see her blog post + tutorial on how to make the cover. Click any of the photos to link to the flickr photostream containing more pictures.

Handmade Nation

I am so excited Handmade Nation is finally opening in Austin, Texas! I got my special VIP tickets from Sublime Stitching and I can't wait! It makes me even more happy that I get to go to the Alamo Drafthouse for the event. I don't like regular movie theaters anymore because the Alamo experience has me SPOILED!




I'm also super excited to see these people at the event.



Made With Sweet Love

Purse tutorial

I want to make this awesome purse I found on the Ric-Rac blog:

Selvedge dress

This just might be the cutest dress ever. I love the cut of the dress as well as the fact that it's made out of the selvedge of fabric! I need to start working harder on becoming a master seamstress so I can make one!







Found on Ric-Rac blog

Music Art Journal + Scat in the Dark

I've been taking a class in art journaling that combines music with art journaling from the lovely Kara. Note I said "taking" and not "participating". I hope to finish the simple five day class sometime before September. It's been really cool to see the prompts and spend time thinking about them (when I should be studying) and to see everyone else's awesome work. When I finally finish I'll post all of them.

This is the day 5 prompt for nonlyrical music. I cheated and used music with lyrics, but they are all in Japanese so I have no idea what she's actually saying, so this is still my interpretation of how the music feels without guidance from understanding of words. I think this is the happiest music I've ever heard. It makes me think of young love, sunshine, butterflies, puppy dogs and raindrops on my face.







(You can click to make the picture bigger)

Quilt Project Sneak Peek

I'd been wanting to replace the duvet cover on our guest bed forever, but I never like anything in the stores. I got this idea, drew it out, got it approved by Alec and the two of us knocked out the top for it this weekend. Hopefully, Alec's mom can help us get it quilted, bound, and finished!

Here are some of the detail fabrics (They're not really crooked, I took the picture from an angle):

Here is the top for the quilt thrown on the bed:

Fancy Rolling Backpack

I'm never much of a fan of sporting name brands on my clothes or other possessions that the public sees because I feel like it is backwards for me to pay for something that advertises for someone else. Shouldn't they be paying me for advertising for them? Anyway, I need this huge rolling office bag for all of my heavy school books, etc and the best one had a brand name on the front. I covered the metal square with the name brand with spackle used for walls to fill in the engraved parts of the brand name. Then I used that metal square as the base of this cupcake. I didn't photograph with the name brand showing but here is just the spackle on the metal:







and here is the final product.




I feel much less dorky rolling this around now.

Ipod cozy

You can see that I am on a last minute San Francisco crafting mission. I'm trying to get felt cases made for all the electronic gizmos and sunglasses that will be bumping into each other in my travel bag. This one is for the ipod that we plan to use to listen to episodes of the "This American Life" podcast while we're on the plane. We're going to be so romantic using one ipod and a headphone splitter on our honeymoon. Neither one of us has ever wanted to listen to the same thing as another person before. Awwwww. We may also download an entire audio book, but haven't come to a consensus on which one. I'm so excited! Can't you tell?!

I used a button for this case that makes me so happy. It was my grandmother's and when I was about 8 years old I remember digging through her button box and wondering what each button would end up on. I'm so lucky I inherited that box. This particular button always reminded me of a bowl of mac-n-cheese and I couldn't imagine what kind of clothes would look good with a mac-n-cheese button. It makes me happy to be sewing and thinking of my grandmother while I sew on my mother's borrowed sewing machine. Happy Mothers' Day!

Scarf made out of old T-shirts

This is another Red Velvet Art class project that I'm about 3 months late on. I never intended to be on time though. I used two old t-shirts I had in my closet but couldn't wear anymore. One was too big and one too small so I had some trimming to do! The black shirt had this cool pattern at the bottom that fell in a very unattractive place on the shirt but I think totally makes the scarf. I can't wait to wear it in San Francisco later this week!