My Own Things About Me.

When I was younger, I had dreams of being an architect or interior designer and you could tell by watching my bedroom change frequently. My patient parents put up with my requests to repeatedly repaint my room, my begging for new bedding and curtains and my bizarre excitement entering the sections of a store featuring organizational containers. I never had dreams of a big career, fast car, fame or fortune but simply my own little place-a little home I could have reign over, to decorate and create as I found fit. As a homebody this is an extremely important factor in one’s well-being.
I’m a lot like Maureen O’Hara’s character in The Quiet Man. She said: “Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of having my own things about me.” For quite a while now I’ve desperately wanted to move out into my own place but it just hasn’t been financially feasible. So to avoid getting down about unaccomplished goals, I need to focus on making the best of and being grateful for what I have now.
First of all, I remind myself constantly how lucky I am to have such an awesome and loving family to live with. Growing up, even through the tumultuous teenage years, I never wanted to move out with as much fervor as my peers did. My family knows just how much space to give me while still showering me with love and warmth.

I also have to find creative and inexpensive ways to make a small room work as a studio and a bedroom. Organization is key. I am a bit of minimalist so that helps. But stuff does manage to pile up if I am not careful—thanks to the studio aspect of it. I’ve tossed around the idea of commandeering the spare room in the basement as a mini studio but I think I’d miss the natural light too much. My brother is in the early stages of building a room in the barn as a painting studio and I must admit I’m a little jealous. But I’m too afraid it’d be an unreliable space for fabric as well as too much money for something so temporary.
This post is brought on by the fact that I took my first trip to an Ikea on Friday. I had gotten two tall white Billy bookcases on eBay for twenty bucks a pop a few years ago but recently my books have been unattractively overflowing the shelves. So, finally after a bit of hemming and hawing, my Dad agreed to take me to get a third bookcase.
I also got the Snille swivel chair. I hated my old chair with a passion. I don’t think of myself as super obsessive about cleanliness but the fact that the old chair was made with typical office-chair-fabric that attracted dust like a magnet always bothered me. Even vacuuming it never seemed to satisfy me. Now I can easily clean the new chair with a damp cloth and make a comfy bum cushion that’s washable.

I have a lot of organizing to do still. (And a lot more books to buy to fill those shelves.) One main things is that I’m looking for a clever and convenient way to store my sewing patterns. Any suggestions? I’m big into white photo boxes and wished they fit. I’m leaning heavily towards making fabric containers like in Amy Butler’s In Stitches or the tutorial over at JCarloine Creative.

Another Sleek to Cute Conversion

I realized my water bottle, while a pretty color, isn’t all that cute either. So I converted it. I simply patchworked some cute cottons and slapped on a strip of Velcro. I also added little dabs of hot glue to the lining for a better grip, to keep it from slipping out of my hands.
I may be drinking more water from now on.

External Hard Drive Cozy

Let’s face it: External hard drives may be sleek, but they aren’t cute. So I’ve fixed that and made a cozy for mine. I may sew on some Velcro or a button with string closure, or perhaps a snap in the future, but for now I’m just tucking the top flap in like an envelope. It’s made with a patchwork of Harmony Art organic cottons, yellow linen and a layer of cotton batting.

Berries and Bags

Blue, Goose, Black Cap and Rasp…berries.
Yes, the berry patch is getting tasty looking.

And I’ve been super busy working on a handful of new make-up bags. Some are already in the shop, the rest will (hopefully) be listed tomorrow.

I also made up a very cute little make-up bag as a custom request.

Gifts for Moi.

I recently received all these lovely gifts from my super sweet cousin in Michigan who was here in Jersey last week to be with her sister when she had the baby girl I mentioned in the last post. Anyway, she brought me these gifts to say thank you for helping her out with the baby shower back in April.

She knows I love black, white and red so everything is color coordinated. There is a super sturdy craft-toting tote bag (there is a pin-cushion on the side—very clever), as well as some fat quarters which I am planning many things for, including a shirt version of the most recent dress. Some very wide ribbon I thinking of folding in half and weaving into something like this.

And a sewing magazine. Just like I mentioned about craft books, it’s not something I spend my money on. So this was a nice treat. First of all, I want to make those shorts! And there is a clever, easy alternative to setting in a sleeve (which is a task I’ve always found tricky.)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice.

I’m pretty sure no one in my family reads my blog—my mother asked me recently what a ‘blog’ was—so I can safely talk about this here. Besides, even if my cousin does read my blog, this new Mama is much too busy being a new Mama to see what I’m working on.
There have been a lot of little boys added to the family in the past five or so years. But in this last year we’ve had two new little girls join us. The first was born in September and I’m almost finished with hand quilting a pretty little pink quilt for her. And just last week my other cousin had a baby girl. So I dug out all my cute pink fabrics and a gray cotton and started brain storming. I’m thinking it’ll be similar to Parker’s quilt.
I’m a huge fan of hand quilting. I love how it looks softer than machine and the way it puckers perfectly. And every stitch is sign of dedication and love. But it takes ages so for the first time, I’m seriously considering machine quilting this one. It sure would be a lot quicker. But I have very little and poor experience machine quilting. So, I’m stuck. Does anyone have any suggestions, preferences, advice, or opinions?
I have to admit I’m losing a little interest in making things for my shop. I miss how I started—making things for friends and family, and myself. I don’t do that that much anymore. And now that my skills and ideas have gotten so much better I can offer them much, much nicer items. And I wish I had more time and energy for gift making because even though there is no sign of babies in my near future, there are perfect little recipients of all these cute things I’ve been dreaming up and finding (like this, or this, or this).

Happy Father’s Day

(Card via The Paper Peony)
And Happy Summer Solstice.

June Gloom And New Dress

June has been a rather gloomy month so far. I don’t think we’ve had more than two consecutive days without some rain. And they say this rainy weather pattern will continue for quite a while. (Excuse me Mother Nature, this girl needs more sunny vitamin D.) While this rain makes everything a lush and beautiful green, it also makes it soggy—and bad for getting pictures.

For this reason, I’ve been avoiding taking and sharing photos of a new dress I made. Every time I got the time and the inspiration, it was rainy and icky out. And of course whenever it was bright and beautiful I was too busy. However I did manage a few shots on a sunny day but they came out somewhat sub par. So I took this shot inside, standing on my bed by the glow of an overhead light with the rain pouring down outside. It’s not much better but it’ll have to do until I can get better shots. (The painting in the corner is by my amazingly talented twin brother.)

It’s an absolutely adorable dress, maybe even too adorable for my taste. I’m not so sure the baby doll style suits me. But I’m in love with the fabric pattern—it’s the same as my make-up bag. I only wish it wasn’t a cotton-poly blend. (The eBay listing said it was 100% cotton, but there is no way 100% cotton smells like that under the heat of my iron.) It’s got pockets in the front and a zipper in the back. It was made from McCall’s 5313. It’s super easy too. I don’t even think I looked at the directions, just cut out the pieces and sewed it up. There is a bubble version I may try too.

Custom Request

Things may be a bit quiet on the blog and shop-update front for a little while. I was asked to make twenty-five, yes, twenty-five of my little card keepers. So, yeah, I’ll be super busy over the next week.

And Your Kitchen Smells of Elderflower

I do have a lot of crafty things going on right now, including a recently finished dress to share, but I wanted to take a brief intermission to talk about what else has been going on in this house. Namely, the fact that the kitchen smells of elderflowers.

Every spring my brother picks a ton of elderflowers and makes up a huge batch of elderflower water. Last year’s batch was super good. It is steeped like tea for twenty four hours with water, lemons, sugar and vinegar. Then bottled and matured like wine. The result is a deliciously sweet and subtly floral drink.

And of course nothing is complete in this house without the dog and the cat lying right in the middle of everything.