Monday, November 24, 2008

Craft-y Inspiration

I really like the idea of sharing with you all my favorite sites for Craft-y Inspiration, so here's another blog I check every day: Craft: Blog or Craftzine.com Blog. This blog is kept up in conjunction with a fabulous magazine called CRAFT that you must check out, lots of great ideas and fun projects and gorgeous pics! The blog is constantly updating with craft project tutorials and ideas found online, and often sends me to unexpected places for inspiration!

For example, today I came across a really beautiful cable sweater pattern that I am going to flag for future use. It's a gorgeous cable pull over that would be very light for Southern weather yet has a really sophistacated look with three quarter length bell sleeves. See here for pic. The pattern made its way from the Lime & Violet blog (also one of my favorites for another day) and Lime & Violet found the pattern from artist Hinke Schreuders! What a tangled web we weave! I love that Craftzine pulls so many great ideas together in one site! Thank you Craftzine!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Chain Links



Like all good nights of craft inspiration, I'd been concocting some earrings in my head all week and finally last night sat down and made two pairs. I'd been thinking about these silver links in circles and ovals that I had and accenting them with dangling chains and earthy colors. These are the two that I came up with. I have a few more ideas to come but I ran out of the fine sterling silver chain that I like, so maybe I'll make a run to Michael's this afternoon to pick up some more. I don't think the pictures do justice to the oval pair, the freshwater pearls have a gorgeous iridescence to them that changes the color from dark forest green to almost copper colored.

I've been Tagged

I'm really excited to have been tagged! On all the blogs that I read I see the bloggers playing little games with each other, but never thought my little blog would draw anyone's attention! This tag asks for 6 random things about me!

1) I'm caffeine intolerant, but that doesn't stop me from eating chocolate or drinking the occasional sweet tea.

2) I own snowshoes and cross country skiis and a plethora of hats and scarves but I live in a town that gets less than an inch of snow every ten years or so.

3) I have a 6-7 month old kitten but I'm allergic to cats so she has to sleep in a separate bedroom.

4) I like to go to the beach all year round, like even when I'm in Maine at Christmas and it's 20 degrees outside, just to hear the waves and smell the salt air.

5) I'm missing the bottom part of my right knee cap from an incident involving a school bus and a bee when I was in middle school.

6) I sleep on one of those foam contour pillows for my back, nothing makes you feel like an old lady like taking you contour pillow to a sleep over! Oh well!

The rules:
* Mention the rules on your blog.*
Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
* Tag six others*
Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they are tagged.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Favorite Site for Sewing Ideas

I know that many of my readers like to dabble in the craft-i-ness, just like moi, so I thought I would blog a little about some of my favorite sites to visit, etsy shops, and blogs I read! My absolute must read every-day blog is the Sew Mama Sew Blog. Sew Mama Sew is a fabric store that also runs an amazing website for sews to learn from and inspire each other. There are forums for discussion and links to photos of others' projects. Its really a great stop for sewing inspiration. I got turned on to Sew Mama Sew last year when they were running special Handmade Holiday blogs, every day for the month of November there was a post suggesting handmade, mostly sewn, gift giving ideas, complete with tutorials on how to make these great gifts! It was an inspiration to me and really opened my eyes to the online world of sewing tutorials! I'm excited that they are doing it again this year and encourage you all to go check out the November blogs for Handmade Holiday suggestions (Here's the direct link to the Handmade Holiday 2008 Archives!)! With this years excessively perilous economy, wouldn't it be nice to spend more time and less money on gift giving?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

New Earrings





Just a quick post to show off the new things I've posted this week now that my camera is up and running!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Foyer Table


Last weekend when my mother was in town, I had a whole list of things I was hoping to do to the apt. many of those things did not get accomplished unfortunately, there is only so much time in a weekend and we filled every minute with shopping and enjoying each others' company. The one thing on the list that we got done was to find a foyer table for the entry to the apt and to hang the very heavy iron mirror above it. We found the table at World Market and it was a little more than I hoped to spend but still within budget and I love the carved design below the table top. As you can see, it is also just the right size, perfect fit! And yesterday I found the perfect vase to go on top. I wanted something tall with a punch of color. I'm not sure the pics do this vase justice, it was difficult to capture the color, its a very dark maroon with a handful of red prints of flowers and asian symbols. Definitely warms up the space! Now if only I could find an armour to hide the TV and end tables and lamps to fix the lighting in the living room...

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Fabric Stash and Sewing Projects




So this afternoon my friend Nikki and I went fabric shopping! Dangerous stuff, I know, but I was on a mission. I want to make some Christmas presents and needed to pick up some patterns, but I didn't end up working on any of those projects tonight. Of course, fabric shopping and talking about sewing projects with Nikki got the creative juices flowing and after sending her the tutorial that I used to make my plastic bag dispenser a few weeks ago (http://www.dioramarama.com/2006/12/grocery_bag_dispense.html) , I was inspired to whip up another one. This one will be a Christmas present, receiver will remain unnamed until further notice for gift giving privacy concerns, but if you know me, you can probably guess by the print :)



I also did a serious combing through my stash (picture above) looking for other inspiration (and just because sometimes you really need a reminder of what you have in that bag!) and I found a small fragment of vibrantly hued pink butterfly fabric, that I just know my niece would love. So I whipped up a drawstring backpack for her.




It's a perfect addition to her birthday package that I've been putting together (which will be a smidge late since today is her birthday, oops, bad Auntie!)

New Camera Batteries!


So... my rechargeable camera batteries finally kicked the bucket. My mother was visiting last weekend and on our trip to the beach I was able to shoot 7 pictures in fairly rapid succession before the batteries died (thats her in the first pic!). Then this week I tried to shoot a few things to post on Etsy and only got 3 pictures taken before it died. Needless to say I was pretty fed up with the camera. I was considering getting a new camera for Christmas, Santa loves an easy Shopping List, but then I thought I'd try to buy new batteries. I picked some up two nights ago and have been itching fo rthe sun to come out to try them out and behold! I took over 50 pics this morning of all the treasures I've made in the past 2 weeks, so I'll be posting them on Etsy slowly over this week, two at a time. Here are the first 2 that I posted today! Now I'll have to think of something else for Santa to get me... any ideas?



Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Power Earrings


Have you ever heard the adage that animals prints are power prints? I couldn't help but think of it when I made these earrings. The lampwork glass beads are a beautiful orange-y copper color with a black polka dot within simulating a leopard print! I think they would add just the right punch to a black suit or dress to add some wow factor!

PS. Hope everyone made it to the polls today, no complaining for the next four years if you didn't vote!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Vampire Kitteh


Happy Belated Halloween everyone! I took this pic this morning and it just seemed quite fitting for the season. I purchased a laundry basket for Annibelle a few weeks ago in hopes of giving her a cozy place to sleep now that I've banished her from my bedroom at night but I hadn't seen her actually get in the thing on her own, let alone sleep in it til this morning! Yay! She was very comfy in it until I got out the camera, which apparently makes a very intriguing sound every time I turn it on. Humph. Anyways, this was actually the beginning of a yawn, the second pic is 2 second later, such a cutie pie!