Everything has a place

I do have a theme for this year and that theme is "Everything has a place." We have officially been moved into our home for 16 months and we still had boxes just jammed into an upstairs bedroom. Our household nemesis is books. In particular, we may have an problem with collecting cookbooks.

So here is the dilemma.

• A crazy amount of cook books.
• Storage near the kitchen is key.
• Limited budget.

So check this out!

I love it! Don't hate me either when I tell you I got it for FREE! My husband's company is renovating their offices and updating all the furniture. They offered the employees a chance to buy back the old desks, shelving, etc... So my husband calls me. I drive down for a look. We were looking for some metal shelving for the garage/basement, when as I walked through the sea of cubicles I turned the corner and saw IT. "Be still my heart," I said. Turns out a co-worker of his brought this in from his own home. So don't go thinking there was a plethera of oak furniture around for the taking. Try to imagine a basement that hasn't been cleaned in 30 years, drop ceilings, florescent lights, and late 80's laminate furniture. So, yeah. Clearly a gem. In an effort to make this long story shorter, I begged my husband to speak with the owner of this bookshelf to see if he still wanted it. Weeks go by and nothing. I ask husband again. He says it was thrown away! I almost died. I immediately asked if he checked the dumpster! Little did I know he was just pulling my leg and he surprised me with it around Xmas. Little stinker. So anyways, it is exactly what we need.

(I'm not usually a OMG kind of gal but "OMG look! It has a working key!")

Am I the only grown women that still has a childhood thing for things that lock and secret places? Because I really want to build a secret passage way in my house.

Etsy Update!

Just an FYI for those who might be interested. I've pictured just a few of my favorites. Click the photos to link to the listing.

{this fabric inspired me to make a sweet little girls dress but I had to steal a tiny bit for a pin cushion}

{Ah! I'm still going crazy over the fabrics used in this tote. Must buy more of this linen. This purple vintage fabric was a great score.}

{I finally decided to sew up some Japanese linen swatches I purchased on Etsy years ago. Love the origami theme to this fabric. Wish I could find more.}

{Lavender sachets. Need I say more. So handy and they go with everything!}

{Can you look at this Lecien fabric and not think of spring? I may hoard the rest of this 1/2 yard cut I have of this print.}

Sofa Progress

It's slow going, but it's going! I seriously have pulled thousands of staples and there are thousands more to pull.

Lots of beads!

My local bead store, The Potomac Bead Company, held a huge clearance sale right after the New Year. For a while now I have been contemplating new jewelry to spruce up a few outfits. I want a new three strand black necklace to go with some of my professional attire. The little pearl-esque coins will also be assembled into a classy necklace. The purple bead will spruce up an old steal chain I found at the thrift store. And the others, well, I thought they were pretty.

I also found this cute little silver charm, not on clearance. I have to go back because I spied some opaque, gray czech glass beads and I haven't gotten them out of my mind. I am thinking a three strand (I'm sensing a theme here) bracelet with this charm on the clasp.

In other news, I am on track to reopen my Etsy store this weekend! Be on the lookout for that!

Hand sewn

Did I ever tell you guys that I acquired a 17lb bag of feed sack scraps this summer? I'll have to take a picture sometime. I still am an awe every I look at it. I have plans to turn much of it into a quilt, but that will take some time. Many pieces are the negatives of previous clothing patterns. So every time you hear someone tell you about a time when their mothers made them clothes out of old feed sacks, I have the "extra parts".

A few weeks ago I sorted through the bag again and found some tiny scraps. I washed the small pieces with Eucalan in the sink. (I also use this product to wash all my wool and cashmere sweaters. I love it.) I was in desperate need of a sewing fix, so I grabbed the newly washed scraps and some linen and took it with me while I babysat for a friend one evening.

I don't really have a plan for these. ^The one above^ may be turned into a pendant. Or maybe I'll add a hair clip and use it when I put my hair up. I left enough linen around each one so I could also sew then up in little pouches. But either way, they make me extremely happy! I have to research rules for air travel. I have a business trip coming up and the destination is half way across the country. So lots of time at the airport and on airplanes. Wouldn't it be nice to take this project along with me? But I can't imagine they'll allow small clippers/scissors or needles as a carry on. I might better stick with a book and my iPod.

**EDIT (1/24/11)** Looks like it's my lucky day! Check out the TSA's rules for Transporting Knitting Needles and Needlepoint.

Which reminds me... what podcasts do you listen to? I'm a big fan of anything public radio, so I already subscribe to many of them. But I don't know of any related to sewing.

Just a few random photos

Over Thanksgiving I scoured a couple thrift and consignment stores for some new books. Since our Xmas present to ourselves was a vacation (just got back!) I wanted a few new books to read. I read through Three Bags Full in a day and a half. Throughly mindless entertainment which what I was going for. I rarely read fiction, so it was a nice escape and had me laughing out loud at times. And I am over half way on the Handmade Life. I stopped flagging recipes in the book since I was flagging every other one! Lots of cooking inspiration in there. I didn't read as much as I thought I would. The hot tub and massages took up a lot of time!

Before we left for vacation, Jeff hung up a new coat rack in the mudroom. I found it Ikea and just tried to find a link to it, but had no luck. I wanted extra hooks to allow guests to always have a spot to hang up their coats but it had to have a slim profile to not interfere with the door opening and closing from the garage. It is a perfect fit! And to our amazement, the predetermined spots on the back of the coat rack where it is suppose to attach to screws mounted in your wall were actually spaced to accommodate mounting into wall studs. So it is very secure!

And I spent a little time in my cashmere stash and made this sweet broach using this tutorial located on Holidash. I made use of my glue gun with this project because I decided I just had to have it made in one evening. I used my most favorite vintage sparkling button for the center. I want to make a few more because they would make super sweet gifts. And I'd like to make a smaller one for my hair. After completing this project, I decided I need to grow dahlia's in the garden this year. The root stock is crazy expensive, but I ran into a local gardener over the summer that says each year she digs up her dahlia roots and they double in size each year allowing her to split them and have free plants each year. Too bad I didn't get her number! If any gardener is reading this and finds that they have too many dahlia plants, I'll trade you some canna lilies for them! :P

And because my husband is amazing he also surprised me with this and this for Xmas!