Bazaar preview

Last year was my first experience selling at holiday bazaars. I did two, and loved them so much! I think because it's like playing store. Half the fun is setting up my table display, making it all pretty and organized. I was hooked. So I've officially signed up for one this year, and tomorrow I'm mailing my registration for another. 

The first one of the year is this coming weekend! And it's two days long! I love that idea. Same amount of work setting up, but two days worth of sales! Here are the details:

St. Paul of Damascus Lutheran Church

24510 SE Hwy. 212

Boring, OR 97089

Friday Nov. 4th 1pm-8pm

Saturday Nov. 5th 9am-4pm

Here's a link to the flier with more information.

So, naturally, I've been getting very crafty. I'll be bringing lots of new things to see how they sell! My absolute favorite things to make so far are wreaths!

I've always loved wreaths for all seasons. Especially unique ones. I have a fall one hanging on my door, a feather one in my living room, and usually we have several displayed around Christmas time- my favorite is a lavender beaded one. I know it doesn't sound Christmas-y, but it works with our decor! 

These twig wreaths are embellished with a variety of leaves, glittered pinecones, satin flowers, feathers, beads, buttons and tulle. 

These were such a refreshing creative outlet for me! Something different than my usual sewing. I've been having a blast with my glue gun.

This is a shabby chic fabric scrap wreath! Embellished with a bow and flower. 

I've seen tulle wreaths on pinterest lately and fallen in love with them. I just so happened to have a fair amount of peacock colored tulle lying around... thanks to my halloween bunco costume...

And you all know I love repurposing! So here is my first peacock tulle wreath. 

I just love it. I think a peacock Christmas would be fabulous.

While I was having fun making satin flowers I decided to make some hair clips. Here they are, clipped to my fall garland. So fun and glam!

Of course I'll also have my usual items: reusable snack bags, stuffed owls, tons of coffee cozies... and most likely ducks and beavers embellished onesies, super cute ironing board covers, embellished wipes cases, pretty sleep masks, maybe even a diaper cake or two! I just love making them. 

A great friend will be joining me and bringing her gorgeous knitted hats, baby headbands, and possibly little girls peasant blouses! 

Should be lots of fun. Come stop by if you're local! I'd love visitors! 

A few new baby crafts

 A sweet friend of mine recently asked if I could make a few things for her new baby girl~ who will be born tomorrow! Super excited for her and her family. Congrats to you, J & C!

Here is what I came up with, based on her ideas and preferences. 

This is something I would never have thought of, but what a fun idea! They are personalized luggage tags, with baby's name on them (blurred for the family's privacy). Mama plans to use them on her diaper bag and baby's carseat/carrier. 

 Mike helped with the design of her name; I chose several fonts I liked, and he worked them together to make these look great! Then I inked the edges and added some pretty ribbon. I just love how they turned out. 

 Another project I had never attempted but always meant to: pacifier clips. So much prettier than store bought ones, and very inexpensive to make! Plus these were just so fun, once I learned how to set the snaps (so simple! why have I never used snaps? they look so much nicer than velcro!).

This one is made with cozy, soft minky and grosgrain ribbon, plus a bow so it looks pretty clipped onto baby's outfit. 

I just used a combination of fabrics and ribbons (all nice, sturdy grosgrain), snaps, and suspender clips. I may be adding these to my etsy store soon! I love making them!

I've made these stretchy baby headbands before, but I always just sewed on a little fabric yo-yo (like in the 3rd picture below). My friend was hoping for bows on alligator clips for some mixing and matching. I think that is such a great idea! Then I can make bigger bows as baby girl grows, and she can use them as hair clips separate from the headbands. They also work for the big sisters! So versatile.

The bow clips were more time-consuming than I thought, but very fun. I wanted the metal parts to be covered in ribbon for comfort, so I used grosgrain again for a bit of grip on baby's fine hair. Plus it just looks pretty!

These also may appear in my etsy shop at some point; although etsy is saturated with baby headbands and hair clips. 

I really haven't put as much time and effort into my etsy store as I'd like, but I do intend to focus more strongly on it eventually. Perhaps early 2012. For the last year (almost) I've been using most of my spare time to brand and promote what has turned into a wholesale coffee cozy business. With tons of hubby's help. It's all been very exciting, and I'm thrilled to be able to finally share more with you very soon! Check back!

And best wishes to you, J & C, for a happy, uneventful birth tomorrow, and a speedy recovery. Mia is such a blessing from the Lord and I can't wait to see what she brings to your family!

Beckham's rag quilt

I've wanted to attempt a rag quilt forever. I love the way the frayed seams look. This was one of those accidental projects, completely unplanned. One day I was killing time at one of my favorite craft stores and saw this line of cozy flannel fabric as I was walking by. I didn't need it for anything, and wasn't even shopping for fabric, but I fell in love and had to buy some fat quarters. 

I envisioned it as a rag quilt right away, but really thought I'd make a baby gift or something. But I loved the fabric too much and decided to make it for Beckham. As if he needs another blanket...

He loves it though!

He wouldn't leave it alone long enough for me to snap some pics! Oh well. They are cuter with him anyway. 

I backed it with some dark gray satin, and used the satin quilt binding as well. He loves satin blankies. 

I kept the quilting super simple- just two concentric rectangles. I wasn't really sure how to quilt around all those fuzzy seams. 

I love this funny little guy.

Can you see the ragged edges here? I washed it so they would fluff up a bit. I imagine it will get fluffier with each wash. I love this look!

My newest crafty attempt

Hello. I'm back. For now, at least. 

Summer was great, Ty has started Kindergarten (!), and I've been crafting up a storm. So much craftiness around here that I haven't wanted to take the time to share any of it! I am completely hooked on sites like Pinterest and CraftGawker, both of which have handy iPhone apps, so I can get ideas constantly. There are seriously not enough hours in the day to try all the stuff I'm dying to try. 

My latest attempt. which I am now obsessed with, is embroidery. It is so fun! I've been googling all kinds of different stitches to learn. 

Recently I bought a box of Kleenex tissues, not because we needed them, but because the box was so adorable. It had the cutest monsters all over it. It occurred to me in the grocery store that they would make an awesome embroidery pattern... and so they did!

These were my four favorites. 

Love these silly little guys. I intend to sew up something for one of the boys out of the embroidered gray fabric, but have yet to decide what. Suggestions?

This owl I saw on craftgawker, and had to give it a try. It's a bit crooked because this was before I learned to trace the drawing onto the fabric, so I drew him freehand. He's perfect for Beckham's room. This wall with the wooden owl art was always missing something. 

I love his eyes. 

Becks loves him too. He loves "counting" all his owls before bed. "one, two, two, one."

Front porch makeover

Busy, busy summertime + camera memory card on the fritz = long blogging hiatus. But I fixed the card today! So here is our front porch makeover. This post isn't as fun as it would be had I remembered to take before pics... But I'll just paint ya a little picture:

Imagine shapeless, faded cushions and throw pillows... no cute curtain... and horribly stained Trex decking since I'd never pressure washed it before!

Can I just say how much I love pressure washing? Best thing ever. I did the porch and the driveway, then halfway down the sidewalk before I realized I had to stop somewhere. What a difference! 

In the background you can see the curtain I sewed to make our little porch feel cozy and private, since our neighbors' house is rightthere. We spend a lot of time out here, since it's east facing and gets lots of morning sun. It's our breakfast and coffee spot on sunny days. 

We bought these outdoor fabrics so I could sew the curtain, then the two throw pillows on each chair. They are actually the existing pillows that I just recovered. Saves some money not having to buy new pillow inserts. The seat cushions we just happened to find on sale at World Market and I love the way they look with these fabrics.

I even sewed piping for the first time! It was so much easier than I thought! And really gives the big pillow a finished look.

Hubby got a set of four of these chairs on uber-clearance at Target a while back. One fits perfectly by our front door and gives us a little more seating. We've started another project out back that may make room for these chairs at some point... but for now the other three are still in boxes in the garage. 

And... off the subject but here is my test photo from when I was attempting to fix the memory card:

Quinn got all cozy on some recycling I was sorting. Isn't she pretty? Love these kitties of ours. :)

Check back tomorrow for another project! Lots of catching up to do, now that I can actually import photos. 

Curtains for Beckham

My perfect sleeper went through an unwelcome phase a month or so ago, when the sun would beat through his many bedroom windows (2 of which face east) and wake him promptly at 6am. This does not work for me. Nor for him- he would be ultra cranky all morning and need an earlier nap, which made for a longer and crankier afternoon... not a good schedule for us. 

So I decided to sew some curtains to help darken his room in the mornings. Also for bedtime, since it's still light out at 7 when he goes to bed. 

I found this adorable owl fabric quite a while ago and bought a yard of it, knowing it would be perfect in Becks' owl room but without a plan in mind. One yard isn't enough to cover his three windows but I thought this owl fabric would make a great accent for curtains. So I headed to my local fabric store in search of something sort of neutral to complement it, and also match his room. I wanted something heavy to block the light, but not too expensive... tough criteria!

My husband stumbled upon this celery green fabric on the clearance rack... it was home deco weight and width, and lined- just what I needed! Plus it has this great velvety texture, almost chenille-like. And the best part? There were exactly 4 yards, clearance priced at around $3 a yard!

So here is what I put together with my fabrics: 

This is his single window, and I could've used a bit more than the 4 yards of fabric to make the curtains more ruffly when closed, but I think it looks great as is. Beckham loves these owls. He points at them whenever I change his diaper and makes hooting sounds. 

Here they are opened. 

This is the double, east-facing window wall. This heavy fabric really does block the light- completely solved the 6am problem.

Aren't they cute?! Most owl fabrics I find are super girly. I was thrilled when I saw this one in neutral, woodsy colors. It's a pretty heavy, canvas-like texture. 

Lined! You can see the texture of the green fabric pretty well in this pic. It almost looks like some kind of upholstery fabric to me. I could see a fab vintage love seat recovered in this. 

I had a couple small pieces of the owl fabric left over so I sewed up a simple little pillow for Beckham's chair...

...and backed it in green with a little appliqued owl.

My baby loves it. I love when I can sew things for my boys; it's so much harder to find cute handmade ideas for boys.