Sew Nerdy

 G'day mates!  As I type this, I sit in my brand spanking new craft room, I'm giddy over it.  I can't wait until every last thing is in it's place so I can show you! 

So, I never shared the super exciting news that I'm currently being featured in my first professional show, at the Bear and Bird Gallery in Florida.  I could hardly believe it when I was invited and practically fainted when I first saw the flyer.  There are some major names on there.  I'm talking huge!  Check it...

Now can you see why I'm so starstruck?

 

This is my piece.  (This picture is actually from the gallery's flickr account.  Typical me, my hasty last minute photography job turned out terrible.)  I started it back when we were visiting Vegas and it took forever to complete.  I'm aware that it is not my best work but I am happy with it, overall.  I managed to incorporate some nice detailing in the speakers, which I weaved to look more realistic, and the screen glows in the dark!

The wood grain was actually a last minute addition.  I wasn't happy with just the tinting and thought it needed a bit more something.  I'm glad I added it though, it seems to be the part everyone likes the best.  (This photo is from my phone but shows the true coloring a little better.)

I had hoped to complete a few more pieces for the show, but this one took soooo long.  Lucky for me, that mean's that I have rad, nerdy, project that's about three quarters of the way done, just waiting to be finished up.  Yay!  Crossing my fingers that this one sells, that would be so amazing.

Well, that's just one of the many things I've been meaning to share with you guys.  Will my new workspace bring me a new burst of creative energy and motivation to blog?  Let's hope so.  Can't get any worse, right?  Bye, off to finish beautifying the new space and give myself a mani-pedi.

Anyone Out There?

Oh hai!  Remember me?  I used to hang out here all the time.  Seriously though, I can't believe I did it again.  Time is just cruising by super fast and I can't keep up.  Just a flurry of activity around here, so much to talk about.

Hmmm, where were we?  Oh yeah, the desk!  So I finished it and absolutely love it.  It's got me inspired to do the rest of the room, I can't wait until we rearrange (A whole different story.)

So here it is, my beautiful revamped work bench.

Isn't she a beaut?!  I want to do a little something special with the drawers but I'm still so in love with it.  It's just so cheerful and bright.  Exactly what I was going for.

I'm definitely a detail person, can you tell?  I had to add a bit of my favorite hobby and embroider the pegboard.  Besides details, I'm all about personalization.  Bows and vintage buttons?!  Yes, please.  I've never been a very feminine person, but lately I have this whole new girlie side.  Weird.  Just in case it's a phase, I didn't want to do anything too permanent.  Yarn stitches were a perfect choice.  Cute, crafty, and easy to change on a whim!

I used some of my favorite vintage buttons to top off my bows.  Some of which I've had since I was a kid.  Hitting up antique stores and flea markets with my mom, she'd always let me pick something.  Nothing like getting a huge bag filled with tiny treasures- hours of entertainment right there.

  

The only thing that irks me is that I still need to add another coat.  It had solid coverage and I let it dry between coats, but for some reason everything I set on it mars the finish and leaves a mark.  Why?! UGH!!  Oh well, I keep telling myself, it's just a work bench.  Plus, I have more paint to do more coats and paint some shelves, so it's no biggie.  I just hate that feeling of redoing something you thought you had nailed the first time.

Anyways, beside a new workspace, that's about to get even better, I've been up to a lot!  A new job, commissioned embroidery, and a huge lifestyle change.  Just plain craziness.  I'll tell the handful of you still reading just as soon as my head stops spinning.  Bye! 

Lucky Duck.

Since the last thing I posted about was my birthday, I figured I should tell you how freaking amazing it was!  I'm seriously such a lucky duck.  I got some very special surprises, spent quality time with my honey and got to take my aunt and uncle sightseeing.  It was all so much fun, I was smiling for days!

I received the sweetest piece of happy mail from a special lady.  Dillon actually made this for her almost twenty years ago!  She's carried it as a good luck charm for all of these years and wanted to pass it on to me.  I love it.

Then there was fabric.  Beautiful, amazing, fabulous fabric.  My honey did so well with this.  Although, I can honestly say, I will not be brave enough to actually cut it for a while.

Oh, and cocktails!  You guys know that I love a good drink.  This particular one is "The Dude" an extra special White Russian and the house specialty at Lucky Strike in SF.  Easily one of the cooliest bowling alleys that I've ever seen in my life.

 

Speaking of cocktails, I went to what may be the best bar I will ever go to in my whole life.  It was an awesome surprise from my uncle.  Leave it to someone from the other side of the country to show you a place practically right in your backyard.  I would share some photos, but it was strictly prohibited.  It was a speak- easy, you guys!  Not only was that the original purpose of the building, but the inside has been completely restored to be accurate to the Prohibition era.  Secret rooms, passwords to get in, a 50 page cocktail menu....seriously, I'm literally in love with this place.  I really want to have a gangster themed party there as part of our wedding celebrations.

Told you I was a lucky duck!  After all that fun, I had to come back to reality and start being productive again.  Meaning I finished my workbench make-over.  I love it so much and can't wait to show you.  Bye, be back soon!

Birthday Wishlist

Since it's my birthday tomorrow, I thought I would share with you some of things that would be on my ultimate birthday wish list, most of them being completely ridiculous and unattainable.  Hey, a girl is allowed to dream!

I would pretty much die laughing if someone sent me a Sexy Sax Man Sax-o-gram.  It would be the best day ever.       

Some artwork by Lucky Jackson, everything she makes is AMAZING!

 

Don't tell Ol' Bessie, but I've been swooning over the new Singer 160.  Holy Guacamole, it's beautiful.  I would probably just stare at if for the first week before I could even use it.

An amazing pair of glasses for everyday of the week!

Goodness, I really could go on and on- I do a lot of admiring online, he he.  However, I will spare you.  I'm sure you have enough favorites of your own that you are lusting over.  Instead of a bunch of "stuff" for my birthday, I'm looking forward to sprucing up my craft room some more, hanging out with my honey, and showing my visiting Aunt and Uncle a few San Francisco sights.  Alright, I'll be honest, and maybe a Sift Cupcake or two.  They are an amazing presents all by themselves!  I mean, how could they not be?!  They did win Cupcake Wars, after all.  I'm thinking Pink Champagne and Stud Muffin- YUM!

Bye!  I'll probably start the festivities today, even if it is a day early ;)  Any fun plans for today?

Caturday

How do cats manage to pull such big guilt trips by hardly doing anything at all?  On Tuesday, I was continuing with our massive spring cleaning session and cleaned off the tiny cat tower in preparation to give it away.  It had gone unused for so long and was just another thing to vacuum all of the time.  I set it on the back porch to throw in the car and got back to work.  A while later, I cam back to this-

Seriously, Chunk?  Fat cat on a little tower.  Months untouched and the day I go to get rid of it, he's all about it.  At one point, the little girl was even up there with him.  I couldn't find my phone though to snap a quick pic, by time I came back with the real camera she was in a huff that I had disturbed their cuddle time.  Ugh, this thing!  I'm over it.  They've gone back to ignoring it, however, my guy won't let me get rid of it. Grrrrrrrr.  I'll just wait until he won't notice.

Happy Caturday!  I had a great day today.  I thrifted some great crafty loot and can't wait to share with you guys.  Bye, nighty night!!

Snapshot Friday

This lady is stylin'.  Actually, this whole thing is pretty much on-point.  From the awesome floral TV trays to the cat decor behind her, she's got it going on.  She's even got a flower in her hair-do!  I like this lady.  I wish I could have been there to see the colors of everything.  I bet those trays and her top are super bright.  So awesome.

A Work In Progress.

Right now I'm redoing my little craft room.  Like actually redoing it, not just cleaning or organizing, but customizing.  I can't believe it, I've been wanting to revamp it forever and now it's finally happening.  I bought paint and everything, you guys!

Want to see a shameful before picture of my bench?  Please prepare yourself for the frightening image you are about to see.

Ackkkkkkkk!!!!  It even scares me!  No wonder I cant get anything done, it's a hot mess in here.  I started to straighten up and figured, why clean up just to move things when I want to paint?  Heck, I'll just paint the darned thing now. So that's what I spent some time doing on Tuesday.

After one coat of paint.

I'm going with a turquoise and red look.  I love that combination, it's so retro.  The drawers on the bench are already red, and so are my wall bins.  Plus, I found some super cute fabric to accent the room with.  I can't wait to finish this bench!  The third and final coat is drying right now.  Going to add a cute little surprise to it and things should be back in place by tomorrow.  Just in time for my birthday weekend! It's like my present to myself :)

Now it's time for me to go and scratch more things off of my to-do list.  I've been getting so much done lately, it's unbelievable.  Have a craftastic day, friends!

On the Go.

On Sunday, we were on our way to a birthday party and my dress was driving me crazy!  So I threw in a quick stitch to keep the neckline the way I wanted it.  I figured that was a better option than my guy's offer to staple it.  Although that did result in a laughing fit and a new business proposal, Easy Squeeze Alternations- The quickest alterations in town.  You wear 'em, while we repair 'em!  (You heard it here first, folks.)

 I managed to hide a tiny little stitch in a black part of the pattern and I was good to go.  So, yep, this is how I do it.  Altering my clothes while I wear them.  I'm not sure if I would say this is always a good idea, but it worked out this time.

Anyone else do weird stuff like this?

Dropped Dolls!

An update on the little adventurers.  They have been dropped around town and have hopefully found good homes.  I really hope that the new owner notifies me or The Toy Society because it's so much fun to hear about their find.  If not, I'm not going to get hung up on it.  It is what it is, right?

The first one was left at our local supermarket, with Snoopy.

I left the second one at the downtown mall.

I can't wait to make some more toys to drop around town.  I have a few ideas in the works and need to draft up some patterns.  See you later!  Going to eat some food and head back to work...boo!

Little Adventurers!

Hello, Lovelies!  Remember when I told you about The Toy Society?  Well, I had so much fun with it before that I decided to start making things for it again.   I whipped up a quick pattern using some poor man's templates (aka plates) and got to stitching.  I was inspired by a cute pillow I saw on instagram but it ended up looking much different.

The one in the front was from the second time around, but I think I like it better.  Although I do want to experiment with the kerchief idea more.  Just a quick little project, but it gave me lots of practice time with Ol' Bessie.  Perfect for smaller pieces of fabric, too.  I have a ton of fat quarters that I never do anything with, so I see more of these in my future.  I've already prepped some cute little doggie ones!  

These little adventurers will be out in the world soon, hopefully finding wonderful forever homes.  It's supposed to rain for the next few days though, so I'll have to think long and hard about where I'm going to leave them.

Bye, I'm off to play with some new stitchy stuff I got in the mail!

Winging It.

I've been thinking that I need to come up with different templates for my embroidery pieces.  I always end up mounting it in a hoop.  It's great for some pieces, but I need to branch out a bit.  So I decided to make some blocks.

This is my first one.  I've never sewn this kind of stuff before, so I'm taking baby steps.

The corners took me forever since I had no idea that I was doing.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Ok, I'll admit it, I was thrilled.

You guys, I think I have my mojo back!  I've been a making fool the past few days.  More stuff than in the past few months.  I'm super happy about that and can't wait to share my new projects.  Maybe even a tutorial or two.  Told ya, I'm back!  Have a craftastic night, I will!

Caturday

When we got home from our vacation I was happy to ignore the mess we left by packing last minute and just snuggle for a while.  Nothing like coming home to all this love.

Snapshot Friday!

Since it's Friday, I know most of you are winding down and getting ready to have a fun weekend.  Like these guys...

I hope you have a great one!  For me, it's my Monday.  Blah.  Oh well, I can still put a smile on my face- thanks to this photo.

P.S.  Um, yeah.  Loving the shorts with the suit coat.  Or do you think they're laughing because he's partying so hard he lost his pants?  Don't get so wild that you lose your pants this weekend.

I'm Back!!!!

After a long, unplanned, unannounced, and unwelcome hiatus, I'm back.  Not a moment too soon, huh?! I seriously can't believe it's been over two months since I blogged, what a jerk! For a moment, I even considered just deleting the whole thing all together.  I didn't want to be too rash though.  A lot has happened, I'll tell you all about it.  Just as soon as I follow up with these mushrooms I promised...oh so long ago.

The ones I made for my Christmas wreath were yarn wrapped.  Since that's in the tutorial link, I'll spare you the reiteration. However, I will say that I had the best results when I glued the yarn from the bottom to the top. (Meaning, flip it over so that you are gluing from the stem up.)  While making those, I felt that the mushies had so much potential for personalization.  So I had to experiment, typical me.

First up, stake out your corks.  Hannah used empty spools, but I figured I could use painted corks.  Waste not, want not.  Right?  I drove pins through a piece of foam to hold the corks in place.  It helps you paint them quickly while keeping your fingers clean.  These ones are the bulbous end of Champagne corks.  I used the flared side on the Christmas ones, a little cuter that way but these work.

Then cut your styrofoam balls in half, I used the two inch size.  Go slowly or the styrofoam wants to break apart unevenly, I used an old bread knife.  

Next, cut your fabric.  You'll need two circles for each mushroom.  One large and one small.  Cut the larger piece just big enough to wrap around the styrofoam, with it being secured along the bottom edge.  Cut the smaller one to diameter of the styrofoam cap.

I cut slits along the edge of the top piece to help it fold under nicely.  I used hot glue but I sure you could use something else.  I just have no patience for drying time.  With that being said, too much hot glue will cause the styrofoam to melt a bit and smell funky.  I worked near a window for that part.

Once you have all the tabs glued down, add your smaller circle with tiny dabs of glue.  I found this method to work best.  If you cut the top circle to cover the entire underside, it's very bulky and looks sloppy.

Glue on your stem.  Admire your cute mushrooms!  At least one will turned into a silly pencil topper, you know, since I'm really five years old on the inside.  Then I'll still have about ten of these guys, so I'm thinking garland with the rest.  I don't know yet. 

To make them hanging I'm going to sew tiny strips of matching fabric.  Insert a flat head straight pin in one end, bring the other end of the strip around to the pin and cover it.  Sew in a loop, shove the pin in the cap.  Boom, hanging ornament.  I'm sure you could do the same thing with a piece of embroidery floss that's been knotted.  That would show the pin though, which wont matter if you're hanging it up high.  I think I want mine to line my desk though.

Anyways, super easy and really cute!  Great project for recycling and fabric scraps, too.  (Just in case you are wondering what they look like with felt, don't bother! ICKY!  The material was way to thick for this size of mushroom, it may have potential for large ones though.)

Geez, long enough post for?!  Told you guys, I'm back.  Long-winded, silly, sacrcastic me, coming at ya!  And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about "Snapshot Friday" after all this time.

Mushroom Love

After making some for my wreath, I couldn't resist making a bunch more.  I made ten of these little ornaments for my tree.  However, this photo was the last time they were all together.  After seeing them, our friend insisted on buying half of them for his family.  It was a tough decision, letting them go, but he won me over with his incredibly sentimental and touching story about how much they would mean to his family.  I was incredibly shocked that something I was just making for fun for myself was actually selling.

Since I love them and what I have left of these are all packed up for the year, I'm going to make a few more for my craft room. As I type this, I have a few stems drying.  Hey, ornaments aren't just for Christmas!  Like I mentioned before, I adapted a tutorial from Hannah's Blog.  Since I changed a few things, I'm going to take progress shots to share with you guys.  That way you can see a different way of doing it, as well as see some little tips that helped me along the way. 

Bye!  Have a craftastic evening.  I'll check in soon with some pretty ladies, more mushroom love, and a glimpse into my newest obsession.