Birthday love

I have to share some goodies from my blogger friends. Last week was my birthday and some fun mail showed up on my door step!

I'd like to thank Mary Ann for this very pretty fabric. There is plenty to have fun with. I have been reading Japanese crafting magazines and I can use this with some linen and vintage trims to make a couple of cute bags. So thank you very much Mary Ann! And by the way, she has a very cool give-a-way going on. Check it out!

Lindsey's birthday is just one day after mine and she surprised me with a bunch of goodies.

Lindsey challenged me with these squares.

Buttons and puppy prints! Included is also a fabric pendant. I'll be using the little snap pouch to keep my jewelry from tangling while traveling.

All these scraps from her Swell Quilt!

All the frogs agree that this was a good birthday!

Thanks everyone for the emails, phone calls, and well wishes!

Getting back into the sewing saddle

Sometimes a small sewing project can get me thinking about more ambitious projects. I whipped up a set of 6 coasters using the Amy Butler Lotus print and some linen from an up-cycled skirt. I also used some scrap flannel as a absorbent layer.

I used a continuous straight stitch to quilt all layers together. The flannel added a great weight.

I used a hidden stitch to close the turn openings.

I also used some of my scraps to make a large hot pad. No more using multiple pot holders or folding a couple of dish towels to protect your table top. Now you can take your largest pan from oven to table top and it looks pretty too.

I used thrifted bias tape to bind the layers together. This was my first attempt to finish binding by hand. It only took me a 2 hour movie to finish!

This is the reverse side. A more simple design with the print in the middle flanked on each side by linen.

Purple and Gray Swap

Months ago Ann-Margret and I decided to do a personal swap. I decided on a color theme and chose purple and gray. Ann-Margret knows how to pack a box, let me tell you. She gave me many items of inspiration including a handmade card holder that I am now using to hold my Moo Cards. Trims, zippers, paper, stationary, yarn, pens, soap, ribbons, and fabric too.


Ann-Margret chose the colors apple green and red. You can see what I sent her here. I found this awesome piece of embroidery at a thrift store and turned it into a red themed summer bag. I think its one of my favorite reclaimed items.

Birthday weekends

*sigh of contentment*

My birthday isn't until this coming Wednesday, but we started a little tradition of extending the birthday celebrations to the weekend before. You kinda get a free pass to do fun things and spend money (moderately). Like yesterday I went to a Lavender Festival with a good friend of mine and yard saled our way back home. Afterwards, Jeff and I left to find an open thrift store to find fondue forks (found a brand new stainless steel fondue pot a while back for $5!). We left the thrift store empty handed and used our BedBath coupon to acquire a set, which then lead to Thai for dinner, and used my Birthday Coupon from Cold Stone Creamery (birthday cake remix all the way!). But our night wasn't finished yet. We headed to the grocery store and bought lemons for lemonade and salted shell peanuts for snacking.

Now it's Sunday afternoon and I wish it was still Saturday. I don't want my weekend to be over. Right now we are both sitting on our shaded patio after just finishing a bike ride. I threw a vintage table cloth over our small outdoor table. Jeff is reading the paper and I tried to download all my photos from my camera. We are both sipping lemonade. So perfect.

I was only able to download one set of photo's before the camera battery died. That's why we use rechargeable batteries I suppose. I did get a chance to post a new pin cushion in the shop along with another reusable grocery bag. I am trying to finish sewing up all the to-do projects so there may be some odds and ends showing up on Etsy over the next few weeks.

Tonight we are going to enjoy a special dinner out on the patio. Awhile back I grabbed some king crab legs for $7/lb! We figured we enjoy them this evening with butter. I doubt we'll make anything else. Just eat a bunch of crab and that's fine with me. :)

I have a few posts lined up for this week once I get the pictures.
1) A very delayed swap post.
2) Lavender festival
3) How does my container garden grow? Very well thank you!

I am sure when I wake up tomorrow it will be Saturday again.

Where in the world...

have I been? Ah well, there is something called a full time job and sunshine. :) Heh.

Online shopping is still fun. I wanted to share a few Etsy shops I have purchased items in lately.

Funky Fabrics- has the new Anna Maria Horner fabric for $12.50/yard!

Bee Square Fabrics- bought a little flat quarter pack of the My Folklore fabric. Love it. Requested more of it for my birthday!

Bridgeman Studios- I got the perfect pair of tea bowls in a vibrant turquoise color. Beautiful!

Pomadour- Japanese crafting magazines!

Karaku Fabric- Japanese fabric prints!


Here a a few fresh favorites I hope to purchase from in the future...

Cotton Blue - I can't stop checking back just to admire.

Gabriella Fiabane- I love paintings involving large portions of sky.

Marie Fly Fly- Very colorful, very soft, very fem.

Care to share a few of your Etsy favorites in the comments? I'd love to have a look!

Baby Shower Favors

I had to share these cute baby shower favors I made for a little surprise baby shower I attended today. Since there were just six of us to enjoy the intimate party I decided to make the following favors.


Sorry for the photo quality, but I wanted to get one before the sun set. I made them out of scraps I had laying around and stuffed with every inch of their little beings to look pregnant. Each one had a bit of vintage trim tied around to form an empire waist. I then embellished each one hand sewn little beads to form necklaces, broaches, a fancy belt....

Jeff's birthday is tomorrow and he is having some friends over for retro gaming night. I have a bit more rearranging of furniture and cleaning to do to make room for everyone. You know, make sure TP is in bathrooms, toilets are cleaned... standard stuff!

These little party favors got my sewing mojo back and several idea's popped in my head. I will probably take a week or so off blogging and emails to put some of this creative energy to good use. It will be difficult for me not to check email, but when I do I always hit the Reader link and then I am on the computer reading your wonderful blog entries for the rest of the evening. :) One thing I have noticed lately about myself is that when I do read really creative blogs or pounce through Etsy it somehow blocks my own creativeness. Does anyone else feel this way sometimes? Because even though I find great ideas or can really appreciate someone else's creativity it blocks my own original ideas. So we'll see what this little hiatus brings me.

Oh, and my container garden should be finished sometime this week too! I just need 3 or 4 more plants to round out this years theme which is "Texture". Usually its just a color theme, but this is a year for change.

I love my Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mothers out there, especially to my very own!

(Hi Mom!)

I made my Mom this little denim zipper tote. I used the Heather Ross Russian Doll fabric that I bought specifically with my Mom in mind. There is a strong Ukrainian influence/heritage on my mothers side so I knew she would like it. The interior is the same doll fabric and then I added texture with pin tucks on the outside. A pretty standard pouch design you see here all the time, but I can't stop making them. They always turn out so pretty! I also included a bar of handmade soup, organic tea, and a variety of chocolates and a matching tissue pouch.

As I was reading some of my blogs I had to laugh and and comment on my own experience using reusable totes shopping. Check out the post here on decor8. My experiences range from cashiers trying to ring up my bags and even throwing my reusable totes in a plastic bag to carry home! Not to sound snobby, but seriously, have you ever seen a grocery store sell anything close to these crazy print bags? It still makes me laugh! If you think you get the 'stink eye' using your cloth bags at the grocery store, just try using them in more non conventional ways like at the mall. I may have to get a little cheeky and embroider a little saying like "place groceries in here" with a down arrow. What do you think? :)