Summer sewing

How About Orange has compiled a list of skirt tutorials for ladies and little girls. I think my favorite is this one by Angry Chicken. She says it takes 5 minutes, but it'll probably take me a few hours. We'll see!!

Tea towels!

Whip up has compiled a list of resources on how to make your own tea towels here. This sounds like a fun project I could do this summer. Maybe screen print my chickens on towels? What would you do?

Makerfaire Recap

Here are some of my favorite shots from Makerfaire. I'm so glad that Paul and I made the trek to San Mateo. There were so many cool demonstrations, crafts and talks, and I left feeling inspired by so many things. We had the greatest time, and can't wait until next year!

hand knit breakfast hat!

Diner doggies

train that went around the fairgrounds

Marshmellow man made out of Legos

The view in Expo hall

Paul chowing down on a polish sausage

Drummers big and small

Makerfaire!

Makerfaire is coming to the bay area this weekend - wahoo! Paul and I are so excited to go again this year (here's my recap from last year). I'm excited to be around so many creative people, to browse the Bizarre Bazaar, to attend a panel discussion on "Crafting your Online Presence" (for makers of all kinds of things!) and meet the folks that run Dog Island Farm, an urban farm in Vallejo! I'll be taking lots of pics and notes, in hopes that this stirs my creativity for things to do post-NWP (last day is June 1 - it's coming up fast).

There's also a workshop on urban goats...sign me up!!

Summer of crafting

It looks like I'll be watching my niece this summer while looking for a job - wahoo! I love my niece and I can't wait. I have lots of plans for us - going to the beach, gardening, crafting, swimming, napping...etc. etc. While making a list of the cool things we could do this summer, I spotted a great list of kids crafts on thelongthread.com. Check out the link here!

Hank and Hunt

Hank and Hunt is my new favorite website. Really, you should check it out.

How cute is this free font?? It makes me wanna make something pronto.

E-reader Case

Loving this DIY e-reader case over at thimble. I too, have resisted the e-reader craze - mostly because I love the way the pages of a book feel, how they smell, the fact I can write in the margins, or stare at its cover. An e-reader doesn't offer any of that, but as many of my e-reader-owner-friends say, it offers a whole lot more than that. If and when I do purchase one, this is the cover I will make:

DIY business card holder

Spotted at Blue Cricket Design - A DIY business card holder. Since I'll be out of work soon, maybe I should make one of these for my new business cards?

Must Make

Felt peeps for Easter - aren't these the cutest? Made by Megan.

Fashion model!

Yay! I just got this pic from my dearest friends who recently had little baby C. Here he is, modeling the onesie I made him!

Project complete!

Hi folks! Just a quick update with pretty pictures of my latest completed project:



Made for a soon-to-be-born nugget. I won't mention who, so if you're my friend and you're expecting, this may be yours! Sorry to blow the surprise, but I was just so excited about how cute it turned out...

Ladies that Craft

Knowing I had some serious crafting to complete before my spring travels, I held a "Ladies that Craft" lunch/craft session on Saturday. I invited 2 of my craftiest friends, and we sat around my table, ate yummy food, drank wine, and crafted away. Erin made a delicious Lemon Pound Cake (which we had for dessert) and was working on a few knitted items. Jenny and I worked on a few things for her sisters upcoming baby shower:

Awesome streamers from Oh Happy Day

Poms from Martha Stewart

A make-your-own-onesie station

Can't show pics of our final projects, as it's supposed to be a surprise for the mama and papa-to-be. Additionally, I worked on a new quilt for another mama and papa-to-be (those pics to come soon). This is definitely going to become a permanent "Ladies that..." event. Wanna join us??

Most productive day off EVER

Today, I finally tackled a project that's been a thorn in my side for many months - the craft room. About a month ago, I painted a few walls a beautiful color called "Solitude" - I couldn't decide what new furniture I needed, what I already owned that I would repurpose, or how I would arrange it all. Well, my friends, I'm so excited with the results! I can't wait to start crafting away in this space!

Closet Before:


Closet After:



Ikea table for crafts:



My sewing space:


Bulletin board up close:

Tackling Circular Needles

This post from Whip Up motivated me to (gasp!) try circular needles!! I've been really wanting to make a cowl neck scarf, and regular (even long) needles would be too cumbersome to use, especially since I do most of my knitting on the bus. The pattern came from Ravelry. Look how great it looks (so far!)

Stitch Nation's Alpaca Love in Peacock - who knew the lady from Stitch n' Bitch had a line of yarn?
I thought that the circular needles would be harder to maneuver, and that I would get confused and lose all of my stitches - but I was so wrong! Why didn't I start using these needles long ago? I must admit, I've very proud of myself. And only a few mess-ups so far (though they are hardly noticeable). I'll post pics when it's complete!

What I do after 2 glasses of wine...

I make a kitty quilt! I mean, what else do people do when they are stressed out about getting CT scan results*? Yes, I'm cracked out. Let's just leave it at that. This is where I got the inspiration:

Craft: How to make a color spectrum cat bed
Now, I already had the squares cut out from a past project. Add some leftover scraps an voila! Kitty quilt heaven.

It's no pillow, but it will keep the cat hair from accumulating on the couch/cat scratch post/any other comfy spot a cat likes to sleep

*The CT scan I had Monday to see what's wrong with my ears. I'm sure I'll be fine, I just keep chanting in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice "it's not a TUUU-MA!"

Posted: Make video!

Dale Dougherty, (genius behind Make, Craft, and Makerfaire), has blogged about the work we did at the 2010 NWP Annual Meeting! A few posts back I featured a few pics from the Make session that I led - well, you can read Dale's thoughts on the day right here!

You can also check out this video that includes footage from the Make. Around 5:50 you can see the bags that my group made:

Who loves Dottie Angel?

I melt when I see anything that Dottie Angel puts together. I wish I could make stuff like her, and I wish our house looked like hers. It's kind of an obsession. A few days ago I was sifting through some of her images and came upon this:


One day, this will be my backyard. Chickens running around, kitties lounging, forest and grass for all to frolic in, and pennants and flowers decorating the porch. A girl can dream, right?

Crafts and Work and Fun oh my!

The NWP are Craft Magazine and partnering up to host a small Make! at the 2010 NWP Annual Meeting! It's like, my dream come true - my work and crafts together!

The whole idea behind the Make! is that creating and writing go hand in hand. When you create something and want to show someone else how to do it, you write about it. As I've found out, writing instructions for projects is actually pretty hard! (I sometimes wonder how Craft and Instructables do it). Anyhow, I've been invited to be a teacher at the Make, and so I've had to develop a small project that can be done and taught to folks in 1 hour. After that, we'll write about the process, take pictures, and create a tutorial. Here's what I came up with:

Market bag
This bag is made from a pillowcase and decorated with fabric. And did I mention, there's no sewing (the seams, at least) involved? I had to adapt what I would usually do to the environment we'll be in (i.e. a huge conference room) and the materials we can use (i.e. no sewing machine, just irons). I can't wait to report back on how it goes and share with you the tutorial!

Dreaming of Fall

You would never know that fall is here in the Bay Area – for the past 4 days, we’ve had record high temps in the 90’s/100’s! It’s WAY too much for me, since I’m beginning to get in the fall mood. Everything in blog-land is fall inspired – pumpkins, plaid, and comforting. Fall is my favorite season, and to me that means cozy scarves, soup, and cuddling in front of a fireplace (and now we have one!) We’re going to be hosting our first Thanksgiving in our house this year, and I’ve already found a cute tutorial for place cards over at Twig &Thistle. Check them out here!

The difference between house and home...

I really love the stuff that Cox & Cox carries ("the difference between house and home"). There are many unique items that you can't find elsewhere, or can't make yourself. For example, this cute compost bucket for your counter top:



But a button heart? Really? I can make that for 50 cents. 6 british pounds? With shipping, that's like $15! For buttons!



I'm just sayin'. It's cute, but I think I may make my own for the upcoming holiday season....