New Resolutions for the New Year!

I think 2010 is going to be a big year and if not I am going to try to make it that way!

I hate to make resolutions for the new year because I feel like I might never actually achieve them! I DO love to make lists and so maybe I will look at these new resolutions as just a list instead of a resolution.

Ok so onto the list of resolutions:

Non-blog centered:

• Spend more time at home working on home projects (and cooking and cleaning)
• Spend more time with family, especially our parents
• Try to save some money for basement project
• Have a baby (still a work in progress)

Blog/business centered:

• Try to post more often
• Finally go public with the blog
• Spend more time making projects
• Post prices with new items to sell
• Make sure my business is set up and launch it!
• Possibly start an etsy site...not sure about this yet.

Much love to all of you and see you next year. Cheers to 2010!

Advent Ornaments Part II

We started this tradition our first year of marriage (or was it last year...I can't remember) to put up the Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving and not put ornaments on it until the week of Christmas.

Instead we decided to celebrate Advent and put up a "Jesse Tree" well we really just use our regular tree for the Jesse Tree but it still works. Last year all I had were pieces of paper that I printed to put on the tree and boy did it look sad, you couldn't even tell what they were so this year I decided to make the ornaments. I was already planning to make ornaments out of light bulbs and was collecting them from everyone so I decided to use all of the standard size bulbs for the Jesse Tree ornaments.

I luckily had some images to work from and started last week while I was home sick and managed to get all of them finished (28 in all) on Monday.

Here is a picture of all of them on the "Jessee Tree" and I am so excited to use them next year the way we intend to use them, one on the tree at a time.



For those of you who do not know about the Jesse Tree, it is an Advent devotional that helps you prepare for the coming of Christ before the Christmas season. The Jesse tree represents the genealogy of Jesus and it tells about God's salvation plan from creation to the coming of Christ using readings from both the Old and New Testaments. Each day you put a different ornament on the tree that has a symbol on it corresponding to passage you read from the Bible, it starts in Genesis and continues though the Gospels to the Birth of Christ.

These are a few of them close up, notice the stump of Jesse, the apple and the serpent, Noah's Ark, a shell, a candle, and at the bottom Joseph's amazingly colored coat!

Some ones you might know...the ten commandments and baby Jesus at the top! Not only do we think that these are fun but we can not wait to share this tradition with our kids one day. Who wouldn't love to put one of these on the tree each day!

A Throwback to High School

Do you remember when you turned 16 all of the great things that you were looking forward to? Driving for the first time alone, having a sweet 16 party, and for some of us getting a needle pointed key chain from a friend.

Well I have had mine for 12 years and it is starting to get thread barren so I thought it was time for a new one...plus my name has changed so time to update as well.

Here at top is my old one...love all of the colors but you can see the white backing showing through. Below it is the new one. I am going to wait until Spring to pull it out.



I love Spring and the warmer weather, man is it cold outside! This little purse below is one of my favorites. It has gone through many spring seasons and I hope I can hold onto it a little longer so I can use the purse and key chain together.

It was the inspiration behind the design for my new key chain. I just love the punch of neon yellow/green and pink on the navy blue. I had some help from a friend who painted my new initials on it for me and then I went away sewing the new design. I hope to have someone to make one for in the future. LOVE IT!

Advent Ornaments in progress....

Well it must be Christmas because I am posting three posts in one day!!! Amazing!

I was sick last week so I had a chance to get a few things done that have been on my list. I really wanted to get these ornaments done before the Advent season started 4 weeks ago but instead I was working on my Christmas Cards and those took longer than expected so I am now catching up.

Well thanks to my handyman husband who changes many a light bulb during the day I have finally collected enough to get started. Thanks to all of those who after reading this offered some bulbs....I am still accepting. :) Here they are in my "light bulb box."

Here they are with the first step of just painting the base coat. I have finished this on all of them and now just need to print the scene on the last 10.

I hope to have pictures of them close up and on the tree in the next couple of days. In that post I will explain what I am painting on them and the Jessie Tree concept. Until next time!

Christmas Cards 2009

I have been wanting to post about this for a long time but I wanted to send them out first so they were a surprise.

I started working on these Christmas cards back in November or earlier, getting magazine ads pulled, cutting them up and folding them to make my little Christmas trees on the front of the card. It was a labor of love but I was so excited to do it after having received one of these cards in the mail at work years ago. The time has finally come for me to send them out.

Here is my workspace (dining table) covered with 100+ Christmas cards in progress.
Here are different ones...there were way too many different ones to take pictures of all of them but I loved how different they were, some all green, some all red, and some had more than one color.

When sending them I tried to match the person with the card sending someone who loves pink a pink one etc. It might not be as obvious to them why they got the one they did but to me I was thinking of each person as I sent it to them.

Here is a profile of the tree and the inside stamp. I did not take a picture of it but I had a stamp finally made with this blog address on it that I am excited to use on more of my notecards in the future.

The only problem I ran into was that my computer printer did NOT like me while I was printing and so some of the addresses were not that perfect. Sorry! Something to improve upon.

Merry Christmas!

Bjorn Bib

A friend of mine had a baby last month and asked me back in the summer to make a bib for her Bjorn. So I accepted the challenge I made two of them two different ways and I am sort of happy with them. I hope she likes them. ;)

Here is a picture of what you can buy from them. It is made from terrycloth.
We choose to go with a really soft white fabric that she can bleach when there are icky stains. here is the cover from the inside of the carrier.

Here is a picture of the cover from the front of the carrier.

Here is the cover when the carrier top is folded over like the picture above. The baby can now drool all over this and it can be washed.

First Birthday Updated

Here she is....the one year old! I talked about this cute shirt I helped make here and I just wanted to show you how cute the shirt was with the tutu! She looked SO cute that evening and seemed to love every minute of it.


I asked the mama to give me the link for the tutu in case you NEED to get one for someone you love. I think it is so cute! http://hannahstutus.com/item_396/Pink-Harvest-Tutu.htm

Green and Purple Polka Dots

I just made this cute breastfeeding cover for a friend of mine to give to her best friend who is having a baby. This cover is made from a new fabric that I have not used before. I love polka dots and this is a fresh take on it being green with dark purple dots. Purple is the hot color this year.

Coming up: Another fabric that is for this same friend, but this time for herself not to give away, made out of another new but matching fabric. Stay tuned.

A First Time for Everything

A good friend's first baby is one today! Her first birthday party was last weekend and I helped put together this cute onesie for the occasion.

Isn't it cute?! Her mom ironed on the 1 that was cut out of some fabric that I had left over from work, doesn't it say party? For her name, Gianna, I pulled out my Yudu for the first time and that was exciting and quite an experience. I have learned a lot about how long it takes and now have more confidence to do more.

I think the name screen printed really makes the shirt. I will edit this post soon with a cute picture from the party with the shirt in action. :)

Floral Cover

Here is another cover that I made for a friend of mine. Her shower was last weekend and I was unable to attend but I hope that she liked this cover!



I thought this fabric was fun, purple without being over the top and a floral without being too loud. I think it would be pretty to "wear" while feeding.

I Need Your Trash To Make My Treasure

To all my loyal blog readers (I don't even think I have loyal blog readers...oh well) I need your help!

I am in the middle of making two different projects from what you would call "trash" and I need your help because I am running out of important elements that are part of the projects.

1) I need old light bulbs that you might be throwing away after they burn out! I do not need compact fluorescent for this project unless they have that cover over them making them look like traditional light bulbs, but I will take them anyway to try another project. Any size light bulb will work, chandelier, small round, long pointy, yellow bug lights, or even large flood light bulbs. Anything will work. Thank you!

2) If you have magazines that you are looking to get rid of I would love to go through them before and recycle them for you. I have a few projects I am working on with magazines so they always come in handy.

I will blog about what I am doing with them as soon as I have something finished. If you have something to donate to me please email me. Thank you!

Vintage Owls for a Baby Boy

Here are a few things I just made for one of my best friends and her baby. She is having a baby boy and requested this cute blue fabric for her breastfeeding cover. Good for a boy but also neutral enough for the next baby.

She has a love for owls that another friend clued me on when I found this fabric, so I had to find a way to use it. This is the first time making a Boppy cover and it wasn't too bad but it does not fit as tight as I thought it would. Oh well look how cute it is!

Finally I made a burp cloth out of the same fabric, it is a vintage flannel (circa 1970's from my mother-in-law's fabric stash). It is so soft, perfect for a cute baby boy to head his rest on.

I also made one of these for another friend, who's cover I blogged about here, who loves owls but I could not post about it then because I did not want to spoil the shower surprise.

A tisket a tasket

A donation basket!
I donated a basket to a local charity that was raising money for families who can not afford adoption. I think it is a great cause and I was happy to do something for them. The person that won the basket was a friend of mine who is pregnant so that was even more special.
I made some new items that I have yet to make which was very exciting for me.

This is my first attempt at a onesie with a cute decal on it. I have wanted to do so many of these but have yet to force myself to do it. I love this humpty dumpty as he is falling off the wall. I am excited to do letters, numbers, and other designs as well.


Two of the sachets I made with straps to hang in your closet. The one I made with out a strap I thought would be nice to put in a drawer or on a shelf. The same can be done with the two that have a strap. These sachets have lavender in them which makes them great items for closets and drawers to leave clothes smelling nice.

This is something else that I have not yet made before but have been meaning to for months. How cute are these baby leggings/leg warmers. They turned out pretty cute after some struggling with them and the sewing machine. These seem to be more for infants and I am hoping that they are not too wide. I am going to be working on some longer ones for toddlers and kids soon. Hope to have a real live model of these soon...anyone want to offer their baby as a model?

Again here is a breastfeeding cover with a matching burp cloth made with fabric #5 at the bottom of this blog. I tried to make this gender neutral since I had no idea who was going to get this.

Here is an image of all of the items together before they went into the basket. This picture isn't that great, need to work with a better place to take pictures.
Here is the cute basket ready to be wrapped up. I didn't have a basket the morning I needed to have it finished so instead I wrapped a box with cute gender neutral paper to get it ready. Note: the blanket in the back of the basket I did not make, that was from another friend that was adding a contribution.
Here it is all ready to go home with someone special! Cant wait to see these things in action.

All that was old is new again.

Do you like Plaid? Do you have bad memories from grade school? I love plaid, not that I ever wear it but I never get sick of it like so people, it has its place. Well now it is back...80's and 90's plaid.

This picture below that I found on this blog from the old Domino Magazine reminds me of the family room aka "the red room" in my house.

The walls are red and the carpet is the same plaid as the blanket on the bed. I used to wonder if I was the only person that liked to live in a brightly painted house but after seeing this photos and other Domino magazine rooms I think I am just one of many.

Mod Boy Breastfeeding Cover

When it rains it pours. Not only is it literally raining outside but after some time of not sewing or blogging I now have several projects I am working on, yippe!

I just made this cover for a friend of mine, who requested a "boy print." I like the fabric that I found and so did she! It reminds me of a modern version of an army print. Perfect for a little boy...and it looks cute on mom.

Here is a close-up of the print and the corner with the terrycloth. This is my favorite boy cover I have made yet.

I have found some other new fabrics that I just can not wait to use, just need a reason to make something. I will be posting the new fabrics on here soon-keep watching.

Lavender Sachets

Here is the final new piece that I made to donate to the Church festival. I think they are SO CUTE. (and they smell great)
This is the back of the sachet. Love this sweet printed fabric. Great for a woman's closet with all of her clothes and shoes.
Here is a picture of it hanging in our closet before I sent it off. I am excited to make more of these, for our own closet. How about yours?

Fun Donation

I have not had a lot of time to do crafting like I would like to. It is always a struggle when you work full time, volunteer (what feels like full time), and then try to cook and keep your house clean. Sometimes the crafts take the back seat.

The summer went by rather quickly and all of a sudden it is fall and I have a few more projects I really need to get done. So stay tuned I will have some more things coming soon. A few presents and a few more donation pieces.

I made these pieces out of wallpaper for our Church's festival to sell. There are a few things I have done before and a few new ones.

A journal with matching note cards. I have similar striped note cards to come soon.

Here are more note cards, same pattern I used before on note cards this time with different colors.
Here is the front of the new clipboard that I am now loving to make. It has clear cover on it that helps it become a quasi dry erase board.

Here is what the back looks like, matching pattern.

Here are ALL of the things that I made that I made to donate. I will have a post about the cache soon.

Rugs to Drool Over

I just found something that makes my day! Amy Butler a well known designer of beautiful sewing fabrics now has a line of wool rugs! This tickles me because it combining my two loves, sewing and my day job of selling high end carpet, how beautiful. Now if only I had a space to put this in my home.

Isn't that just so unique and beautiful?! Taken right from her line of fabric (same pattern below in fabric) that looks like this:

Please check out her site for more fun designs that are in the works, I wonder if any St. Louis stores will pick up her line?

Enjoy looking!

Pretty Maids

Here are two aprons that I made for a shower we had for my two cousins last weekend.
They are both getting married in the next four months and they are sisters!! Family fun had by all.

I am sure you remember seeing an apron like the one on the right in a previous post but the one on the left is a new creation. I am sure there will be more to come in the future. I hope to make some that are out of bright fabrics...we will see.

*New* Dressers

Here is the second post with stuff that I did over the 4th of July weekend.

I had these two dressers that were brown with brass knobs that just needed some freshening up in preparation for going in the orange room that was just painted. I think white will look so much better in there than brown, don't you agree! :)

Here is the two drawer dresser before the paint job.

Here is the dresser in process in the garage, good thing we had such great weather so I could sand and paint in the garage without sweating too much.

Here is the finished product in the room. The knobs don't look that different but they are brushed chrome. I hope to one day put colorful ceramic ones on but I am still trying to find what I like.

Here is the six drawered dresser before being transformed. Here you can see the shine of those dated pulls, circa 1070's.



In process sanding to be sure the paint sticks, good thing my handyman husband has a hand sander.


Finally here is the finished product. I just love this! It looks better in person and will look great in the orange room. It won't be living there until we rearrange some other things but it looks great in the guest room as well.