Return to Creativity

Last year was a dismal year for my creative pursuits. I blame moving and a one year old... and my own propensity for laziness,choosing netflix over my sewing room. Since I included a craft room on the list of musts for the new house I suppose I better use it occasionally. Also, I ought to get sewing seeing how my son is one month away from his second birthday and his baby quilt is still a pattern and a stack of fat quarters.
Settling into this house has given me a couple opportunities for creative brilliance. My favorite is Owen's bathroom. With a little orange paint I was able to transform a hideous yet awesome mushroom embroidery into and awesome yet still a little hideous masterpiece. It really helped me embrace the "vintage" blue 70's bathroom, and now the upstairs bathroom is one of my favorite rooms in the house.

Easter

No...I did not fall off the face of the earth, although I am not sure how I went through the whole month of March in an instant. I had some unexpected things arise, such as my grandfather passing away after battling Alzheimer's, the run of the mill colds, and the general laundry and cleaning that can consume a mother. Of course there was a spring break and finally playing outside with the kids, which always makes me smile.
These Easter dresses were inspired by a need to be a little more frugal. So instead of running out to the store, and buying a reasonably priced dress, I made these for free. The idea came from here and it was simple and fast and done in an afternoon! The brown dress came from fabric I had picked up at the local thrift store and the green dress came from what I believe used to be a tablecloth, found at a garage sale. I made a matching headband for the brown dress which I think finishes it off. The girls love them and can't wait till next week, I have to admit I'm pretty happy about them too. I foresee a few more of these type of dresses for the summer.

My Creative Space

A lady in town has asked me to make a few things for her vintage shop that is opening up in a few weeks so this is the start of my productivity. Headbands with some vintage yo-yos I purchased at an estate auction. I love when things turn out how they look in my mind!


For more creative spaces please visit Kootoyoo.

Vintage Monday....A Day Late

We're back from our adventure! We had a great week visiting friends, eating great food and going on a great hike. It then took me a week once we got back to tackle laundry and general house chaos! I finally feel like I've gotten a handle on the schedule again and so it's back to regular programming.

On Mondays: a photo of some treasure I have discovered in the deep recesses of a thrift store or estate sale, either listed in my shop or now part of my house...
Join along and show me some of your great finds.I purchased this great portable pub for my hubby as an early birthday gift from TroupDuLoup on Etsy. He has really gotten into mixed drinks since we've found we are addicted to Mad Men. This little set is perfect for taking his passion to friends and family!

*Photo by TroupDuLoup

Adventuring...

Manta, Ecuador for my sister's wedding

Spring break is around the corner and I'm getting everything in order around the house. I'll be missing in action here in the blogging world but I'm looking forward to seeing friends and taking long walks. Unfortunately, not in Ecuador like the picture above, but it will be fun nonetheless. Have a great few weeks!

Vintage Monday

On Mondays: a photo of some treasure I have discovered in the deep recesses of a thrift store or estate sale, either listed in my shop or now part of my house...
Join along and show me some of your great finds.



A "detective hat" I picked up somewhere along the way...now perfect for examining small mysteries, such as "what is in my fingernail" and other wonders of the world.

Reality

As I'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows I'm a tad bit sick of winter. This has caused general laziness and lack of motivation...at least that's my excuse! But I can post a hundred beautiful pictures of crafts and vintage stuff and the reality looks a lot more like this.


And not to get philosophical but isn't that how life works too? Outward beauty, organized house, and put together family when inside it might look a lot like my craft room. Messy, chaotic and in need of a good spring cleaning. Here's to the blessing of being able to wake up every morning to a new day and a chance to start afresh.

My Creative Space

I am having a hard time getting into crafting these past few weeks. I think the cold weather and incessant wind is making me cranky and lazy.
So just some small knitting markers I made to help me think of spring! Spring I need you to come quick before I lose all semblance of sanity!


More creative spaces at kootoyoo.

Vintage Monday

On Mondays: a photo of some treasure I have discovered in the deep recesses of a thrift store or estate sale, either listed in my shop or now part of my house...
Join along and show me some of your great finds.

No thrift shopping for me this weekend, so something from the shop today. A great toddlers mid-century coat!
The family went on a small vacation and enjoyed a reprieve from snow and frigid temperatures. It was wonderful to play outside and enjoy the sun! Now I'm enjoying some snow and cold weather again. Here's hoping you get some sun today.

Bleh..

I have had one of those weeks where all things mechanical in my life have decided to start making all sorts of horrid noises. This topped with general exhaustion and lack of motivation has me looking fondly toward the weekend and a small trip away.
Last night my husband, the musician aficionado, played this glorious music video for me and did a great job of lifting my spirits. Adele: Rolling in the Deep.

There may be hope for some small accomplishments toward the end of the week if I just listen to this song on repeat!

Vintage Monday

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We keep it pretty low key at our house but I do have a strawberry poke cake, (signing up for the free trial is worth it for this recipe from Cook's Country), planned for our family dinner tonight. Yum!

On Mondays: a photo of some treasure I have discovered in the deep recesses of a thrift store or estate sale, either listed in my shop or now part of my house...
Join along and show me some of your great finds.


I found these great aprons at the thrift store this weekend! I originally had bought them to reuse the fabric but now I'm torn and I'm thinking I need to get some cute hooks to display them in my kitchen. Any opinions, reuse or display?

My Creative Space

The girls are really getting into Valentine's this year and we have some card making planned for this evening. In an effort to be a bit more frugal for class parties I opted for some homemade crayons instead of Valentine candy.
I got the crayon tutorial from here. It worked perfectly and did a nice job of using up all of our small crayon pieces.



Please head on over to kootoyoo and check out some fabulous creative spaces.

Vintage Monday

On Mondays: a photo of some treasure I have discovered in the deep recesses of a thrift store or estate sale, either listed in my shop or now part of my house...
Join along and show me some of your great finds.
While at the thrift store this weekend, looking for a dress for myself, I found this great vintage Liberty of London tie. I fell in love with the soft cotton fabric, the colors and the pattern. So even though I've never actually known my husband to wear a variation of pink I quickly purchased it. Unfortunately, I was unable to convince him that he could swing the tie. Sigh I guess I'll have to put it up in the shop, darn it!

My Creative Space

A peaceful morning with the boy; me with stamps...him with play dough. The perfect way to start a creative day.


Check out kootoyoo for more great space.

Shirt Sew-Along

Today is Day 1 of the Men's Shirt Sew-Along. I have to admit I am a bit nervous about it all and I'm just hoping to have a shirt with only a few errors and it will fit well enough to actually be worn.
Here is the fabric I picked out. It's flannel shirting and when I touch it I just want to wrap myself up in it, which I hope bodes well for a cozy shirt. I am doing the pattern with muslin ie: vintage sheet, first to catch the mistakes I am bound to make, so hopefully by the time I get to the real fabric I have worked out any bugs!
Anybody else out there doing the shirt sew-along?

Vintage Monday

On Mondays: a photo of some treasure I have discovered in the deep recesses of a thrift store or estate sale, either listed in my shop or now part of my house...
Join along and show me some of your great finds.


I have a lot of typewriters, more than one person in the 21st century really needs. But I find some small pleasure by their aesthetics and the look of a typed note. This one is my favorite and sits in my sewing room. The color is what really makes it for me.

My Creative Space

Working on a double pointed needle holder for a friend. I love this fabric, just looking at it makes me think of spring and things blooming!

Pop on over to Kootoyoo to see some amazing spaces.

Kestrel

Today I have to highlight the amazing quilt my mother hand pieced for my son. I know I've mentioned this before but all three kids of my kids have a bird for a middle name. My oldest is Wren, middle is Jay and the youngest is Kestrel. My mom has made a quilt for each child and is finally getting to my three year old. Because she hand quilts EVERYTHING it's taken her some time to get to his, but it has been well worth the wait. She goes through the whole process on her blog if you're curious how she pieced it together. I can't wait to see it quilted and as always I'm amazed at her creative talent. Thanks mom!

Normalcy

I don't usually make you look at pictures of our pets but I thought this accurately portrayed the peacefulness that is now our house again. No more illness, everyone off to school, and a small bit of what our family calls "normal". Happy Monday!

Patience...

I've had sick kids stuck in my house going on five days now and as much as I love my kids we're all going a tad bit crazy. We are now at the "still sick, but feeling good enough to fight stage" topped off with frigid weather and no chance of getting out of the house. I need my sanity back.

A moment from today...

Fantasy: Two kids playing happily together, using their imagination, and being creative.
Reality: A constant disagreement on which block should go where and what knight sits on what horse.
My Reality: Putting on Swell Season, taking a deep breath, and pounding kneading some bread.

My Creative Space

This picture is apropos after taking almost a year off from blogging, a daily journal....
An idea from Design Sponge.

More Creative Spaces at Kootoyoo.

The Ultimate Hat

I have a confession...I am not a great knitter. I just picked up knitting a couple of years ago and I'm still stuck in the hat-scarf phase. Honestly, there's just a lot of terms and patterns that intimidate me. But when I found this hat pattern on Ravelry, I thought "I understand all these terms and it looks more complicated than it really is, perfect." I knitted this over a couple of days and I absolutely love this hat. Mostly because it actually looks good on me. I am not a hat person, most hats make me look weird or downright ugly, this hat however does not! So really what more could you ask for in a hat, fairly simple and attractive.
For those who care the pattern is by Sleepy Eyes and the yarn I used is Malabrigo-Milonga.

On a side note all three children have come down with some fever, cold grossness and so now my day is being filled with administering medicine, juice and comfort. Sometimes being forced to slow down can be a very good thing.

Men's Shirt Sew Along

I've been wanting to make this shirt for my husband for a little bit and now I have the perfect excuse. A shirt sew along, which will be very helpful to me since I've never sewn a mans shirt before. I'm off to buy the pattern and figure out fabric. I'm thinking something flannel because with the frigid temperatures and high winds we've been experiencing around here keeping warm is constantly on my mind!

Head Scarf

With the new year I've been feeling like I needed some changes and what better way than to do something new with my hair. But since I'm trying to grow my hair out I settled on hair decorations. I found this great tutorial here by AlteredCloth. The site had a couple of different tutorials for scarfs and headbands. I made the version 1 head scarf and love it! I made mine 13 by 16.5 inches so mine is a little long. However, I did discover that I could fold it in on itself and make it shorter and then expand it when needed. So really it's like two head scarfs in one. The picture below is my attempt at a self portrait showing the scarf folded in half. And you can also see my retro 60's wallpaper from my bathroom in the background....
The fabric is echino, bird and berry. It's double gauze and it is really wonderful as a head scarf because it's not too bulky.

BACK

It's been a whole year since I last posted and I decided to get back on the band wagon so to speak and start posting some of the crafty things I've been up to. So this post is really just to say "hi" with a random picture of buttons....because buttons make me happy.