exciting news + a giveaway!

I am pretty darn pleased to announce that my little crabby pillow has made its way into a book!! The soon to be released book Seaside Home will contain one of my very own original patterns. I can't hardly believe it :D

Did you see my crabby cover girl in the upper left hand corner? Here is a bigger picture I took in case you missed it.

There are so many wonderful sea-inspired projects - don't you love that little beach house?! To roll out the red fabric for the book, I would love to giveaway a copy of the book. Just leave me a comment on this post to enter. There is also a blog tour in the planning stages. More details to follow; I will draw a winner on March 14.

put a pin in it...

Just a little post to prove to everyone that I am still alive! I have been traveling through one of those almost-too-busy-to-breath periods of time. Life is good, just a little overwhelming. I wanted to share some cute wrist pin cushions I made to sell a little while ago.

Fairly simple and straight forward: They are a 2.5" strip of fabric and some batting, folded in half wst, stitched and turned. Add a circle that has been basted, stuffed, and tied shut. I used a felt circle to cover the opening after I added the thread and buttons. [also, there is a cardboard circle in the bottom of the pin cushion to prevent pinning yourself] Velcro does the job of keeping it on your wrist and offering a custom fit.

This is a tutorial that I find pretty helpful, offering basic pincushion instructions. I do have some exciting crafty news to share with you! Check back here in the next few days :)

copy cat holiday...

Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? I hope so. I fell in love with this beautiful wreath that Angela put together. Normally I am not into making exact replicas, but I liked the color choices, the positioning, and the types of flowers she used. I also got to experiment with some felt flower tutorials. Specifically, I used rolled, circle, and rose bud flowers. I am so thankful that she shared her project!

This was a wonderfully economical project - the yarn I used was some I found when we cleared out my grandma's farm before the auction, I had some of the felt, and of course I had spray glitter [how festive, don't you think? :] Normally I prefer 100% wool or wool felt, but all of the greens in this wreath are plain old regular craft felt. The bright colors are just not readily available in wool felt. Since this won't receive any washing and only light wear & tear, I am certain it will hold up.

It is hanging on the door to our pantry in our kitchen. Though I had dreamed that it would find a home on our front door, the doors are too close together and the flowers ended up smooshed. [at least it is hanging on the front door for my pictures]

Here are a few of the crafty Christmas gifts that I actually finished. I made a few festive tea towels; this deer is a copy of one I did last Christmas, which was a take on a paperchase design.

I also made some string block hot pads. I like the scrappy look of them, hopefully their new owners will enjoy them as well! I hope that you all had wonderful holidays - and perhaps there is still some holiday merriment in your near future)

** perhaps an important note: this wreath is just for my personal enjoyment, it's never proper etiquette to copy someone else's ideas and then sell them :)

around the house [in way less than 80 days]...

This post goes out to those home dec/improvement projects that [sadly] do not warrant a whole blog post all to themselves. Above is the last of my outdoor-furniture-recovering-extravaganza. Again using my crazy low priced JoAnn's fabric.

My New York Beauty is finally quilted, bound, and hanging in its rightful place in our dining room. I still love the 'I-Spy' of it all - seems like a treasure hunt every time I walk by it! I have the pattern and the fabric stack for a pickle dish quilt, but it has to get in line behind my pile of UFOs. Also not quite ready for another intensive paper piecing project. [You can read all about my adventures with NYB blocks here]

New curtains for the bathroom! The former curtains were faded and on their last leg, so it was definitely time for a change.

This is the first time I have made a shade that operated like this one - fairly simple, but looks and works well. I used the same book that I did to make my roman shades in this post.

Currently have some top secret Christmas projects in the works. Hoping to share an update on my quilt swap blocks this week.

yes, my house is aqua...

Did you ever [temporarily] forget that you live a small rural community, with traditional little houses painted white, tan, or grey? Where even a yellow house is a bold move? Only to drive home and see the 2" swatch of color you chose is now the entire side of your house? No? It's only me that thinks beach houses can exist in the midwest [hours from a lake, let alone the ocean]?

This summer our house underwent a transformation from unnoticeable to unmistakable. The house has received mixed reviews - but we get quite a few compliments and people seem to think it 'looks like me.' [hopefully this does not mean I look like a 2 story aqua house]

These are just a few of the before and afters I took. We had the front porch completely ripped off and rebuilt to look like the original. [on a funny note - at the 'porch ripped off stage' one of our neighbors shared how nice the house was looking... hmm wonder how bad the house looked before :]

We only intended to replace the floor, but apparently the two bricks serving as a 'foundation' do not meet current construction standards. It was fun to see the porch come back to life!

It may be worth noting that the 'before' pictures were taken after our house was power-washed - so we the paint was definitely in need of a new coat, but not as bad as in these pictures.

Lookey, lookey - no more suicide door! The former owners ripped a decaying balcony off the house. So for years we have been living with a door to nowhere.

We are enjoying our porch - as is Miss Sophie :D {new cushions for our wicker furniture made with my 60cent/yard home dec fabric courtesy of JoAnn's moving sale!}

past presents [aka aprons i made]...

Here I am - blogging; astonishing really... Between two full time jobs, a part time job, technical issues, and a variety of other things [known as life] I have sadly neglected my blog, as well as my online persona. So let's give this a try - really, I have things to blog about, heck, I even have pictures edited of things to blog about :D Let's ease back into this, a few pictures, brief descriptions, nothing fancy...

I like aprons. I like to wear them. I like to make them. I like to gift them. The folks in my FCS classroom [I am long term subbing currently] think aprons are a strange, foreign concept reserved for black and white pictures of grannies. I however, know better - they are clothes savers and even fashion statements in their own right. Above is the one I made [for myself] that I wear when we cook in class. I love those crazy veggies! The Emmeline Apron is easy, fabulous, and reversible! This one has a Sweetwater floral print on the back.

Yes, it is another Emmeline Apron [I actually made 3]. This is my best pal Jordan - she works at a coffee shop and needed an apron [though she decided she didn't want to bleach it up, so she doesn't actually wear it to work...]

Nope, I don't know what pattern I used to make this apron for my sister's housewarming gift. I think it's super cute with a vintage vibe.
Well, that wasn't so difficult - hope to be back online Friday with some more things to share! Thanks for sticking with me :D

back online!

for the past few weeks I have had a 6" black line running vertically down the screen of my computer... a new display later and I am back in business! It was incredibly hard to do anything, let alone edit photos in photoshop, so I am excited to share what I have been up to! talk soon :D