Happy New Year and other stuff!

     Helloooo!  What a crazy couple of weeks it has been for me.  Nothing like starting off Christmas break with a horrible virus.....Ugh.  I was so sick.  Thankfully my 9 and 11 year old were home to take care of me :)  They really did!  My kids were so sweet, making sure I had fresh water and medicine.  I made it through and am finally feeling better.  Geesh!  Before I got sick, I started working on an idea for a embroidery pattern.  Something to sell on Etsy.  A fun stitching sampler.  Well I finished stitching it up last night, did my final edits on the pdf pattern and VOILA!  Bright and cheery, an altogether fun stitch.  I know when I'm stitching that I am cool calm and collected.  Mostly just content.  Family gathered and snuggled up on the couch.  My favorite time of the day.

  Wishing all of you a Happy New Year!!

Fun with felt!

Fun with felt!, a photo by WithWhimsy on Flickr.

A little fun with felt yesterday and today :) Ornaments for an exchange coming up. I may have to keep these and make another pair....I like them so much. Christmas vacation has officially started!! Kids are off for 2 weeks...oh boy! Here goes nothing! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your loved ones!

Sunglasses and eyeglass pouches Oh My!!

What I've been working on lately!  Anticipating spring things and my love for oilcloth has inspired me  to make these charming little sunglass/eyeglass pouches.  A bit of a new design for me because these pouches include a Velcro closure.

I just love the different colors and am on the hunt new oilcloth fabrics.  I like it when you can mix and match.  I have also made some wallets.  I will be adding them soon to the Etsy shop.  All I can say is that they are pretty yummy!

  Some new embroidered pouches as well.

I love the pouches with linen, they have a real classic and clean look to them.

So now I'm wanting to get started on a new project.  I really have been wanting to make a purse!  So

I'm on the hunt for a pattern.  I hope your all having a great week and finding inspiration as well :)

Craft Fair Success

We did it!!  Our first craft fair was a success.  I only wish that craft fairs had more reasonable space prices like this one.  This was a non-profit craft fair.  So I felt good about it all even if I didn't sell enough to pay for the space.  Well I did sell enough.  My daughter did well too :)  She sold 5 items.  We will definitely do this again.

We finally decked our halls with all of our Christmas decorations!  I am excited to start my week getting back to old routines.  Things that did not sell will be listed in my shop within the next few days.  Have a great week!

Cr♥ss Stitch on Wood!

I've been feverishly trying to get crafts finished up, inventoried and priced.  Very excited for my first craft fair this Friday!!!  In preparation I wanted to make a sign with my shop name.  I wanted something different, so my sweetie pie husband drilled all these darn holes for me so I could cross stitch part of the sign.  A fun project.  Note for next time, paint first then drill so holes don't swell and then have to be re-drilled....

I appliqued some letters and ironed on my little vintage tea cup head gal!  This sign is very whimsical :)

So as the date approaches I know that I will be more prepared!  I will be sure to take lots of pictures of my booth.  My little dolly is making stuff for the booth too!  Check out this super cute snowman holding the bunting.  Man he is cute. 

Have a great week!

Playing around with props!

Never mind the garage clutter....jeesh!  Makes for not so great pictures.  I was fiddling around in the garage yesterday  trying to get a feel for how my craft table would be set up.  My daughter says, "It looks a little cluttered".  I told her it will get a lot more cluttered once all of our stuff is on there. 

So things are progressing!  I felt a little better after this little mock set up.  Inventory is coming along.  I would love any feed back or suggestions!!    I hope your having a great week :)

Countdown to Christmas Craft Fair

Hello!  And Happy Veterans Day!!  I recently just signed up to do my first craft fair.  Holy cow!  Now I am a nervous about the hole thing.  Do I have enough stuff on hand to sell.  Props...table cloths...Christmas-sy stuff to sell.  Jeesh!  I have 3 weeks so I'll be fine :)  What I just finished up just today is this vintage embroidered ornament hoop.  I didn't have a clue as to were I was going to go with this ornament, but it turned out pretty cute! 

Added some glitter and sparkly embroidery floss.

Any way, I'll be feverishly crafting my buns off until December 1st!  I hope you all have a great 3 day weekend :))

Wall Mounted Deer and other stuff

Hello bloggy friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween.  This year my kids did not want to do as much trick or treating, they were excited to hand out the treats.  It was a great evening and lots of fun.  I was so excited this week to actually sell a couple of my embroidered hoops!  I'm still new to Etsy. I mailed my sweet stitched up babies to Canada.  I was nervous and excited.  I have more confidence now with shipping internationally.  Love learning new stuff even when it comes to mail ;)  So I have a few more new embroidered hoops in the shop.  My favorite of the three is the deer.  A vintage embroidery pattern, probably meant for a pillowcase.

Owl is trying to read so please Shhhh.

Lots of stuff I need to get done around the house this week.   Ahhhh but I just want to work on my stitching...I hope you all have a great rest of your week!



Owl plush made with vintage bed sheets

Hello!  What I made yesterday :)  Owl plush made from vintage bed sheets.  This guy turned out pretty cute but.......next time I will only use the vintage bed sheets for certain parts of the owl.  Because the sheets are thin and transparent they do not layer well.  I will try again hopefully with a better outcome.  I think details are lost on this feathered friend.  No worries, we still love him and he will happily live on my daughters bed.

Hope your having a fantastic week!  What are you working on?!

Clothespin wreath

I love this idea!  A quick and easy enough craft I'm just going to have to try using a embroidery hoop. You can find the tutorial here: http://www.pollywantacrafter.com/2010/11/vintage-clothespin-and-embroidery-hoop.html

Have a great week!

Hoop L♥ve

  What I've been working on the last couple of weeks. Lots of hoops and vintage sheets going on here.  My new obsession....vintage sheets!  I love them.  They're faded and polyester usually, but yet I still love them.  The pretty floral motifs.....and if they are embroidered....for get about it.  I'm all over it.  I have found a couple of great Etsy shops that sale fat quarters of vintage sheets. I have also been checking out my neighborhood thrift store.  I did score a really cute pillow case this week and a fitted/flat sheet combo.  I was really excited about this find never having looked for them before.  I've also got an obsession for vintage Pyrex, but who doesn't?  Plus that's a whole other story :)

I'm ready for the weekend!  Looking forward to our soccer Saturday tomorrow!  Chill time with the family:)
Have a great weekend!!

Halloween festive!

   So we are starting to really get into the Halloween groove around here.  Lots of decorating happening.  Pulling out some of the old decorations, which I have a ton of.  The kids don't understand...."Why can't we put it all up?", I try to tell them it would be waaaayyy to much stuff.  Needless to say the majority of the decorating happens when they are at school ;)  They love coming home to the house done up Halloween style.  My daughter said,  "Now it feels like Fall!".  I also tried a new decorating idea as well.  That is pretty lame only one new decorating idea because there are so many cool ideas out there.  One is better than none and some times that's what gets the ball rolling.  So I have some pics, a little tour of some of the Halloween stuff around our house.   I love the prints of vintage images on old book pages.  I also love how inexpensive it is!  Visited the thrift store for an old vintage book and then found some great free vintage Halloween clip art here http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/01/vintage-valentine-clip-art-gorgeous.html .  My favorite is the owl.  He is just so cool looking.

Skeleton!

I didn't notice until already framed and hung that she is riding her broomstick backwards?!



I just had to trim down the pages to 8.5x 11 to fit my printer.



I found these frames for super cheap at the thrift store.  I thought they looked old.  We drilled holes for jute rope to hang them.

Other creepy corners around my house!  These pics aren't the greatest due to lighting issues.  Oh well!  I must share any way :)  Little coffin mummy,  a handmade little dude with creepy critters crawling about.

A favorite for my kids!

Got this guy at a craft fair way back, I still love him.

Our entry way.

Hand me down vintage pumpkin light.

Kitchen window full of pumpkins.

Vintage paper witch.

Pumpkins we grew ourselves.

Little pumpkins scattered all around our house.



My daughter made a bunch of these little ghosts and we tuck them here and there all around the house.

So that is some of our Halloween festive decorations!  I love to see how other people decorate their homes too.  I hope you all have a great week :)) 

Oilcloth g♥♥dies

Well I've been wanting to sew with oilcloth for awhile now.  I've been intimidated by this cloth.  It's only $8.99 a yard.  For some reason I've put this cute table cloth on a pedestal.  Well I went for it this weekend.  I found a book "Sewing with Oilcloth".  It has a range from difficult to not so difficult step by step projects in it.  So I made the makeup bag and the wallet.  I thought those were two small projects that seemed easy enough to start with.  So I bought 3 fat quarters to make these two projects per the books instructions.  I have plenty of oilcloth left over to make more!  I'm happy about that :)  So take a gander at my first attempts with the oilcloth.

Back of make up bag.

I love how the inside is lined!

Zipper detail

These pearl snaps were little boogers to put on!  I may use Velcro next time.

Lots of space for cards and cash.

Inside of wallet.

The book!

I must admit the oilcloth is a bit difficult to work with, or maybe it just takes some getting used to.  I'm definitely making more stuff with it!  It's just stiff.  I'm really happy with what I've made and excited to make more, like the super cute buntings on the front of the book.  So that's the crafty stuff I did this weekend!  I hope you all have a great week!