Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thankgiving dear blog friends.  There is certainly a lot to be thankful for as we start preparing pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce (or before others start preparing them, thanks Mom!!!)  This holiday season I am most thankful for my family who are always there for me and of course put up with me as I create a cyclone of chaos when I visit!  Oh how I anticipate the coming days spent with family and good food.  Mmmmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about all the goodness, warm, gooey monkey bread amongst them!

On another thankful note, I am thankful that my crafty-mind block has temporarily been lifted and I'm on a roll with sewing projects.  Just in the last 24 hours I have completed a quilt top (60 " x 70"), made a tote bag, and a scrappy pouch for my itouch.   And the ideas are still coming.  I also have some big crafty plans for holiday gifts that I have only started to complete so I hope the mental block doesn't come back!  Although I have been smart about things this time and designed everything ahead of time in case the block comes to haunt me before Christmas!

Oh and I've also create a christmas tree decoration made out of a magazine!  A very time consuming project but I think worth it - I'm planning on making another one while on the plane this week.  Check it out here Martha Stewart .

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let the holiday madness begin!!! 

PS.  Sorry for the lack of pictures. 

Last Minute Halloween

I never intended on making Halloween costumes for my 'kids', but when the ball started to roll I couldn't stop.  Naturally all 3 of them HAD to have costumes!  Of course this all happened about as last minute as you could get (around noon on Halloween!).  I'm sure if my 'kids' could talk they would tell you how ridiculous their mother is, but thats ok, I had a lot of fun and made some good memories.  Next year will definitely be taken up a notch.

Our Fairy

Sir Cat Dracula



Snow "Kitty" White



Anniversary Times 2

Not only has 2 years passed by so quickly since we trecked half way around the world to say 'I do', but just the last few weeks have seemed to disappear all together!  As promised here are some pictures from our absolutely fabulous Indian wedding!  (Better late than never!)  These are only a few of the faves (although there are hundreds of more pictures!).  I am still starstrucked when I look back as the pictures.  Its hard to believe that it really happened; at times I feel like it was all just a dream.  Pinch me!!

Enjoy!

 

Wedded Bliss

One year ago today I said "I Do" to my husband.  After realizing I was a bride, with a few tears of course, the day was just about as perfect as anyone could have asked for.  Well, the ring bearers pillow was forgotten in the mix, but you get the point, happy happy happy day!  Happy Anniversary!

Wedding DIY: Table Decor

I was in awe when shopping around for wedding decor.  From the stationary to flowers to favors, the costs just kept adding up.  But because its every girls dream to have a princess wedding, me certainly not being immune to the fairy tale, I had to deal with the expense.  However, one has to get a little creative in order to have the fairy tale wedding on a paupers budget.  One way of doing so was to scew some of the details (i.e. find cheap ways of doing expensive things). 

The flowers were a huge expense, but for me that was the best part.  I mean, how cheerful are flowers.   By mixing up some DIY with some beautiful flowers you are able to get the best of both worlds.  Here I put a simple lampshade on top of a 3 foot tall clear glass vase.  Then add a candle and you have yourself a pretty classy looking (both contemporary and inexpensive) centerpeice.  Perfect.  Some tables had flowers and others had these lovely vases.

Wedding DIY: Photo Books

I can't believe that a year has already gone by.  Where does the time go.  If I didn't know better I could of sworn that our (second) wedding was only a few months ago.  Ahhh, yes I did throw in a second there!  My husband and I were lucky enough to marry each other twice; two ceremonies, a year apart.  The first one that I will refer to was actually our second.  This is the one I'll be sharing some DIY projects from.  The first ceremony I will share more about in the second half of the month - believe me it will be worth the wait!

Planning my wedding was an experience I would never take back and would certainly gladly do again.  At first I never thought I would feel that way as each decision caused another gray hair to appear!  But as the ball got rolling, ideas and decisions just naturally started to flow.  After picking a theme and sticking to it, life became so much easier.  My theme: purple, gold and peacocks! 

So, lets begin. 

This first idea does involve a little bit of an investment, both in time and money.  But I think it was well worth the time and dollars.  Instead of the typical slideshow of photos shown during the reception, I choose to design some photo books to display at each of the reception tables.  Each book was different and represented a trip that my husband and I had taken in our years together.  Since we had known each other for quite a few years, each table had its own vacation theme.

I ordered the books through Shutterfly and did wait until they were on sale before ordering.  They can be expensive otherwise.  It did take some time to organize all of our photos and upload them, but in the long run, it was very worth the effort.  Not only were they a huge hit at the wedding, we now have all of our trip photos organized and ready for viewing whenever we feel like reminiscing.

I also made a bookmark for each book to let people know to find other books on neighboring tables.  This  gave guests the opportunity to mix and mingle as they toured around the reception hall to find each of our destinations.  As a little extra touch, the bookmarks were enhanced with a stamp I had custom made for the occasion.  The custom stamp turned out to be a great investment as I was able to use it in several settings and it allowed me to carry the peacock theme throughout.  Also, much cheaper than custom printing. 

Next up...table decor.

Carry Me: The Cover Bag

Here is the bag the book was bought for: the Granny Bag.  I had originally thought I would save it for the last one; you know, something to look forward to at the end, like dessert.  But, like always, I have a hard time waiting!  Since I hadn't intended to make this bag at this time, I hadn't exactly had the fabric picked out for the design yet.  I'm still not 100% sold on the color choices that I used here, but its growing on me.  What do you think?  Oh and yes, I made 2 (count them, 2) bags in one afternoon! 

One big pro on this bag, it is HUGE.  Certainly a bag where keys will be lost!  However, the way the top is designed it opens up nice and wide, so will be easy to get items in and out.  Also, a fairly easy bag to put together (hence I cranked out 2 of these bad boys - maybe that should be girls, lol).  I was a little hesitant at first with the split side, but not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.  The diagrams on this one were really helpful. 

There you have it, another bag down with 9 more to go (that includes the one bag that I'm not doing).  Half way there!

Let me know what you think about this bag (style, color, size, etc). 

Enjoy!

Carry Me: Expandable Carry All

An accomplished day... finished a project, started and completed 2 more projects, opened an Etsy shop, took pictures, did laundry, cleaned my craft space, took the dog for a couple of walks and a play date, and now writing a blog post.  Now that is what I call a productive day!  And I still have a few hours left.

As promised here is a very impressive bag (and expensive) from the Carry Me book that I am sewing my way through.  For those new to the blog, I am sewing my way through the book Carry Me: 20 Boutique Bags to Sew; one project a week.  So far, I have finished 8 of the 20 projects.  The projects have ranged in both complication and size, but all have been fun to make.  This particular bag contains 36 sets of snaps!  It certainly is an impressive bag and weighs about 5 pounds!  I don't think that I ever would have been able to finish this bag had I not been gifted a handy dandy set of snap pliers - saved so much time.  As the name of the bag suggests, it expands.  All snapped up its a bag about 4 inches wide and you can unsnap it to an expanded bag of about 8 inches wide.  This was also the first time I made this type of pipe handle - I really like it.  Oh, and LOVE the fabric!

The rosette is also a pattern from the book.  Its kind of cute and I veered slightly from the book instructions and made my own center stems with some beads and wire.  Turned out cute, however think I would start with a longer piece of fabric the next time to make it a bit chunkier. 

So, there you have it, 2 more projects in my attempt to get caught up. 

Oh, and more to come on the shop opening.  Still working on items to add to the shop, but at least it is started.  Wooohooo!

Now onto my last few hours of the day...what more can I accomplish!

Carry Me + Amy Butler

I know, I know its been almost a month since my last post.  Believe me I've missed blogging, but just can't believe how time flies.  Seems like every time I sat down to write a post, something came up that tore me away from writing about my newest project.  Its sad how I feel so busy.  However, not that it makes it any better, I have been keeping up with my Carry Me sewing project (4 more completed projects and 1 more in the making).  So is all forgiven in the blogworld? 

The power of inspiration has made me sit here long enough to finally get a post done for the month of September.  I have been waiting for this day for weeks now and it is finally here!  I'm so excited.  From the time this challenge was posted I instantly became inspired.  The challenge: cut up my Amy Butler fabric!  Find the challenge here.  I have my adored Amy Butler fabric all neatly folded away just waiting for the right project to come along that strangely deserved the warranted attention of Amy Butler.  Well, when a challenge to this degree comes along, I am of course going to seize the opportunity.  So here I am, proudly posting and stating that I finally cut into my Amy Butler stash. 

First off, as you are well aware, I am sewing my way through Carry Me.  So, it was only natural that Miss Amy Butler meet Carry Me.  So here we have it.  A tote adorning Amy Butler.  Now, this tote style is not my usual taste, a bit too crafty looking for me.  However, these fabrics just sang to me when they were fortuitously set next to each other. This tote also recieved a matching project from the book, a book cover. Look at that, 2 projects done from the book!

There you have it, 2 projects completed with some beautiful Amy Butler fabric (plus some other misc fabric).  Now, I have to shoot on over and enter this into the challenge.  If you have a recent Amy Butler project you should certainly head on over and enter into the challenge as well!  Isn't this fun!

Ok, back to sewing and thinking creatively.  Oh and by the way, I owe you 2 more projects from the book to get caught up (still need to get some pictures taken) and I am planning on having a wedding theme for the month of October!  October is a special month for me (two anniversaries!) so what better month to share a bunch of wedding ideas!  I thought it would be fun.



Adding Some Style

Well, you may have expected to see a new bag this week from the Carry Me book sew along, however I had a little mishap this past week.  Somethings just never go as planned!  But this time in a somewhat good way I suppose.  My hubs and I decided to start looking for a new home (YAY!!).  Not only was it fun looking at homes and seeing how others decorate/stage their homes, but it was a great bonding experience for the both of us, at least I thought so.  As you may recall we are somewhat newly married so things like this get us a little bit excited.  I'll keep you posted on the house hunting status as we get more serious about which house will be our next home!

As you can imagine, all I could do was dream about decorating a new home and plan furniture layouts for each house we entered.  Therefore, my mind was not on making a bag.  Don't get me wrong, I did start a bag - I'm determined to stick with the schedule on this project after all!  However, when one's mind gets to wandering it tends to make bad decisions or in this case pick the wrong fabric and not follow directions.  Yup, the bag is kind of a disheveled mess.  The fabric that I chose for the lining turned out to be some wonky kind of fabric that apparently distorts when you iron it and even worse when you try to add some interfacing to it.  Needless to say, the lining in its current state warped - leave it to me to make a bag lining warp!  So, I have put that project aside and began starting redesigning some t-shirts - remember those $2.99 t-shirts I found on sale a few weekends ago?

While on my shopping excursion a few weekends ago I not only found those nice cheap t-shirts, but also got some inspiration on how to style them up a bit.  So, here we have some fun new shirts that, at least in my opinion, don't look so cheap now! 

All I did for both of these was to cut out a bunch of circles - about the size of a 50 cent piece and smaller - and start designing.  The fabric I used consisted of some tulle, lace and netting in a variety of colors.  The white t-shirt was a bit easier in that I just stacked some various sized circles and hand sewed them on to the shirt adding white and silver beads to the center of the circle - kind of giving it a flower look.

The dark gray t-shirt took a little bit more time and a whole lot more circles!  Beware, cats love these circles!  Well at least mine did.  I left the circles stacked on the table while I finished making dinner.  No more than 5 minutes after I walked away from them, I hear this mew, you know, that mew when a cat has caught something.  I look over to the table and here is the cat with a mouth full of tulle circles!!!  She was all excited and acting like she caught the catch of the day!  At the time it was not funny, but now thinking back at that image, I can't help but laugh!  Needless to say, this brought about another project that I'll show hopefully later this week.

Back to the dark gray shirt!  Here I kind of crunched up the circles and then hand sewed them on to the shirt right next to one another - kind of forcing them to stand up.  I kept the separation of "flowers" close along the neckline and then spaced them further apart toward the shoulder and trickled a few back down toward the armpit area. 

There you have it.  Two very inexpensive shirts with a new style to them.  Can't beat that.

I know, I now need to get back to the bag project that I put aside.  Hopefully try number 2 will go much better.

Enjoy.