another one bites the dust...

It's official - I completed another unfinished object [ufo]! Last year I set off on a mission, a brave mission to root through my box of half-finished projects and work on those before starting any new projects.

Happily this lasted for a while until I remembered why I had thrown these projects to the side originally - no longer my taste, ran out of fabric, too tedious, or just plain bored... Perhaps, [and these are the words of a fabric/craft addict for sure] it isn't my fault - it is the blogs, magazines, fabric designers, etc. who flood my world with way too many exciting and inticing projects that I just CAN'T pass up! I press on, though, using the box of neglected and rejected craftiness as my 'go to projects' whenever I need to grab a quick take along craft. But today, today is a good day - this post is about a finish after all :D

Judging by my fabric choices, I put the checkerboards and appliques together about 4 years ago. I pulled them from the ufo abyss, added borders, quilting, backing, and piping... et voila, lovely little pillows [I actually made 2 of them, so yes pillowS].

They turned out well, and I am surprised to see so many elements that are me now as a crafter: little checkerboard, somewhat bright colors, modern tree design. My house is beginning to overflow with pillows, so this little number is in my etsy. [I think my new motto is: a chicken in every pot and a pillow on every chair. Thanks HH :D]

one. two. tree...

Is it really March? No, it can't be - it was just January! My life in the spring is chaotic and overwhelming. Crafting and blogging are two of my sanity savers and it has been hard to get either of them into my schedule lately. [so, basically, I'm without sanity = crazy] I shared my block for the February swap with you here. I liked the challenge of being able to design my own tree and worked on several variations before deciding to send the one I did. I decided to turn the blocks that stayed with me into pillows [my current obsession :]

::tree #1::
This is my first attempt at needle sketching - I drew the pattern onto white duck cloth, then stitched over it with black thread, twice. I like the sketchiness of it [my mil said it 'looks french' which is good :] I raided my scrap box for the leaves and the little patchwork border. This guy is available in my etsy shop.

::tree #2::
This is like the primitive relative of tree #1.

The tree and the leaves are hand-stitched [I used a buttonhole stitch for the leaves]. Then I coffee stained the center panel. I already have a home in mind for this pillow.

Overall I really like how they turned out - I got to use my piping/cording foot and add my twill tape labels to them. They both have envelope style closures so that the pillow form can easily be removed.

note: can we say 'HELLO SUNSHINE!!' Finally the sun has seen fit to shine on Ohio and I am lovin' it! yeah vitamin d [I love when people talk about how hard the winter is because they don't get enough vitamin d from the sun - while I will give you that the sun is a source of vitamin d, the average Ohioan can stand outside all day even in the summer and still not get the amount of vitamin d that the body needs]

swappy...

Finally finished with my February swap block! Melissa asked for a machine appliqued tree block similar to the cluck. cluck. sew. tutorial. I auditioned alot of designs to try and incorporate a little bit of me into the design. I actually drew this pattern out with my tablet [getting a little better at drawing on my computer, yea for me!] She sent along steam-a-seam 2 and I LOVED working with it :] Because of the tackiness of the adhesive, you could play around with where you wanted your pieces until you ironed it to make it permanent. Another plus was that it was much easier to take the backing paper off of the fabric without removing the adhesive in the process - I end up with alot more frayed edges when I use wonder under. I think with my next JoAnn's coupon I might experiment with it some more!

Oh, by the way: you MUST check out the giveaway over at a la mode fabric :] she is a little crazy and it is showing up in what she is voluntarily giving away!

the dog ate my christmas tree...

Well, fortunately she wasn't able to devour the entire tree. We thought we would be really tricky and only put vintage plastic bulbs on the lowest branches... all except for one gold bulb apparently. Which coincidentally happens to be the one Sophia knocked off the tree. Seeing the sparkle and shine of a ball falling through the air, she had no choice but to attack it, and crack went the Christmas bulb. Luckily, no glass shards were ingested (phew!) I should mention this was in the middle of our dinner service at last nights Christmas party. Never a dull moment...

So here are a few more snaps of our tree since yesterday I talked about our tree but didn't get around to showing it to you.

Here is a close-up of my improvised tree topper. I've noticed that the latest trend is to have greens sprouting out of the top of your tree - and I love the look. So I took some shiny, glittery stems that complimented the ornaments and wired them to the top bough. Then I covered the top 'branch' with one of the vintage bulbs (I just took the hanger part off). I think it's fun.

See that snazzy gold bulb at the bottom? Rest in peace little gold bulb...
Hope your holiday decorating is going great - only a few days left!

I'll leave you with a special holiday treat from Late Night with Conan. (yes. I do realize that this clip is not remotely related to anything crafty. You never know, a good laugh could give you energy to go and finish those last handmade gifts.)

beginning to look alot like christmas...

Okay, so it isn't an original title for a blog post this time of year - but it is very appropriate. With a week left, we finally got our decorations out and our Christmas tree put up. Who knew all it would take is a little snow to get me in the holiday spirit?! This week I hope to show you a little peek into our home in all of it's winter glory.

Sunday night we put the tree up. Normally our little tiny Charlie Brown-ish tree is plastered with all of our childhood ornaments. This year (especially since we were so late) we went simple; just using vintage bulbs. They're a mixed lot of my grandma's bulbs and thrift store finds.

One of the boxes we opened had no metal hooks - so we improvised with some wire. (note: this paddle wire is perfect for crafting hooks, if you snip the wire in the center of the flat sides, the bends in the wire are perfect for making a loop on each end)

I'm off for a busy day of prepping for our Christmas party tonight (and watching the snow out the window :)

they're available...

Added a few last minute holiday items to ye olde etsy shoppe...

pink & blue hand-dyed trees


4" & 5" plain trees (ready for you to hand-dye them :)

springy snowman

g-i-v-e away...

Last call for the little tree giveaway... I'm drawing a winner tomorrow (edit: the winner will be drawn around midnight Thursday nite, feel free to enter all through Thursday!). Leave a comment on the last post. Best of luck...

The hubby is out with some guys, so maybe I will sneak away to the craft room!

going green... err blue or pink...

It's the holiday season isn't it? After hosting my very first giveaway, I'm hooked! It was so fun to hear from all of you and to share something that I put together with my own two hands. So, who wants a free tree? Yup, I'm giving away one of my hand dyed trees (see this post if you're not sure what I'm talking about).

Leave me a comment and let me know what color tree you like best. I'll let you know the winner on Friday - that means you have through Thursday to enter. Best wishes and Merry Christmas; I'm off to pack up Lynn's pillow and my secret Santa gift for shipping tomorrow.

p.s. this giveaway is partly because of the MANY wonderful comments I had on the trees; thanks for your kindness :)

o christmas tree...

Nothing says kitchy-vintage Christmas like a pink bottle brush tree! I recently decided to deck out the house using bunches of these little trees. A couple of thrift stores and an antique mall later, I realized that my dream of finding vintage trees was not going to come true. I looked online and favorited a few on etsy, bid on one on ebay... my thirst for little trees was not satisfied. Then it happened, I found a tutorial for dying your own trees! A quick trip to Pat Catans and I was home with nearly 75 trees of all sizes (up to 5" of course).

It is really a pretty easy process: remove the wooden bases from the trees, let sit in a bleach & water bath. RINSE WELL. Dip in dye (I just used Rit powder dyes - you only need a little dye and a very short dip to get LOTS of color!)

These trees are made by limiting the amount of time you leave your little green trees in the bleach bath. I think it really gives them a vintage flavor, it's as if they have been around so long they faded. It might be neat to try a bleach bath after dying.

These trees are just bleached - no dye needed for some frosty white trees!

We thought that the pink ones almost looked like candy!

I may have some of these up on my etsy soon... check back :)
ALSO: I will be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day - so stay tuned!