Welcome to my Blog!! I will chat about embroidery, sewing and gardening!

Friday, August 12, 2011

What's inspiring me right now!


     I'm so excited to have just mailed off my first custom ordered sunglass/eyeglass cases!!!  I had so much fun working on them for my customer.  After doing her order and working on a couple of wristlets for my gal pals, I was free to become inspired and think about new creations.  Fabrics tend to inspire me a lot!  Vintage embroidery patterns inspire me too.  My kids are starting school pretty soon and my daughter requested a pencil pouch.  So she and I got our wheels turning and came up with this cute vintage dog embroidery pattern for the front of her pencil pouch. 

This dog resembles our dog Coco♥


The fabrics Hanna picked out.
 I hope to finish her pencil pouch this afternoon.  Yeay for school!!!  I recently bought some really cute earthy fabrics: mushrooms, brown polka dots, green gingham....you get my drift.  Not my normal color palette.  But I love this palette.  It inspired me to make a wristlet in my shop with a cute little embroidered deer on the front.  I think this mushroom will be next.  It goes great with the fabrics.

 I drew these arrows along time ago and I keep going back to them.  I love them.  So I'm going to stitch them up.  Maybe on a sunglasses pouch?!  Hmmmm.
Have a fantastic weekend!!  I hope to be busy stitching :)  But we are putting up a new chicken fence so we'll see!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Vacation photos and stuff!


Well first the stuff!  What I'm working on.  I'm making a quilted/embroidered wristlet.  I'm going with a woodland theme I guess you could say!


Well this is Mount Lassen!  We weren't expecting so much snow.  But it just made hiking a little more interesting :)  We hiked half way up this mountain 1.5 miles up.  But the top half was closed.  We still had gorgeous views.

Then we hit the sulfur pits.  Hey who cut the cheese!?

 How pretty is this stinky pound?!!!
Oh yes!  And here is Cinder cone, that dead volcano I was talking about before on the last post.  We hiked up it, in it and then back down and around it. 

 Here are my kids down in it!
The beautiful Bassey falls

 Our family pic half way up Mount Lassen.
This is just a short post.  Back to work for me :)  Have a great weekend!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Coupon ya'll!!!!

     Holy cow!!!  We just got back from camping at Mount Lassen.  Oh boy did I need some R & R in the mountains.  Don't get me wrong, we hiked our buns off!  We climbed Cinder Cone which is a dead volcano.....yeah you heard me.....Volcano!  Pics to be posted soon.  We climbed, hiked and had lots of fun.
I wanted to let you know that my shop www.vintageandwhimsy.etsy.com has a coupon summer11 available now until September 22nd for 15% off total purchase!  In celebration of my new shop and a thank you too!
Now back to laundry, laundry and more laundry.
~Hillori
p.s  I'm working on some super cute wristlet zipper pouches for my shop and will be adding some more sun glass cases!......tissue holders too :)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sunglass/reading glass pouches!!!

What I've been slaving over for the last couple of weeks! My own design and I'm very excited!
Now available in my etsy shop:
www.vintageandwhimsy.etsy.com
I've put together cute vintage inspired fabrics, some hand embroidery and voila!
Let me know what you think!
Hope your having a great weekend :)

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Things of New!!

Well hey there!!!  I just finished stitching up this super cute pattern from Sew Lovely Embroidery!
Oh man do I love it!  Wasn't quite sure how the colors would go, but they worked out.
Well whats really new around my parts is that I have opened up my own Etsy shop!!!  Well I love shopping for old vintage stuff any way and I love stitching any way :))  So why not sell some of the good stuff too!  So that's what I'm going to do.  Here is a link to my shop:

So I haven't put up anything I have stitched yet, but I'm working on it!  There are a few great vintage finds in my shop though.  Hope your all having a great weekend!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Summer!!!

     Oh Goodness it's been awhile!!!  I've been in summer mode!  Well to begin with, the second week of summer I came down with strep throat of all things.  UGH!!  I don't think I've ever had strep throat before.  Well to say the least I was not a happy camper and was pretty sick.  Of course I'm better now and glad to be done with it.  I've got summer things to do, no time to be sick!  We went camping!!  Nothing my kids like more to do every summer then camping :)  We never stay long enough, nor do we ever make enough smores.  Lots of fun and hiking.  There was even still a tiny bits of snow around the campsite.  We've been filling our days with sleeping in, working in the garden and I've been trying to squeeze some time at the gym.
Not so easy to do during the summer.  Most people gain weight during the winter holidays.....not me.  For me its summer.  Our schedules go out the window, and my self discipline gets lost some where.  I seem to find it right when school gets started again.  Something that was really fun this year was harvesting our little crop of red potatoes and Idaho potatoes!  It is truly like an Easter egg hunt, but in the dirt!

Miss Princess Coop was there to eat any worms that might be in our way!

      Our garden is pretty happy this year!  Here is our bed of squash, watermelon, sunflowers and some Zinnias.
 Bee Balm!!  Such a pretty flower!  My girlfriend gave me some of her plant, it's a perennial.  It's quit happy and spreading out.
 Oh my the pumpkins are taking over!  I dream of owning lots of acres and growing lots and lots of pumpkins.
They just make me so happy.  And then to fill my house with pumpkins in the fall, it's the best.

 My daughter and I have been having lots of fun with succulents this year.  My chicks grew out of this feeder and so we planted it with all kinds of succulents.  Super cute!

 Well we have a new hen Sunshine!  She's in the front.  She is a Buff Orpington.
In the foreground is Blossom.  Don't you love those fluffy cheeks of hers!  A common trait for her breed.
 This was our other chick Cornflake.  Well Cornflake grew into a very handsome rooster! He is so pretty!  We can't have roosters in our little suburban neighborhood.  But we found Cornflake a home in the country, were he will tend to 15 hens.  A big job but I know he'll be a great rooster to those hens.

Here is a picture of Bear River Reservoir, our first camping trip of the summer.
 Some fishing and hiking!

 Lastly, my stitching has been far and between this summer.  I've been doing a little here and there.  Most of my time has been spent in the garden, especially in the evenings.  But I did draw and stitch this sewing machine!  I very happy with it.
 Also I've been playing around with watercolors.  I first drew this owl as a template to stitch.  But then I painted him.  I still plan to stitch him :)

I hope to start blogging more frequently!!  Have a great week!!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

4 More days until schools out!!!


Yahooo!!!  Love the summer time off with my kids!  Looking forward to a nice break from our busy routines.  Time to take advantage of the lazy days of summer :)  Of course the dreaded sibling fighting will ensue....but I'm going hardcore on them this summer..we'll see how it goes and I'll keep you posted.
What I've been up to lately!  Always stitching something.  I just finished this cute little vintage cottage pattern that I found in the Vintage Hoop Love flicker pool.  Love all the flowers, it's happy and cheery.
This lettering was my first attempt at any kind of cross stitch....wow much more difficult then I thought!

I made my first Sprocket pillow!!  I found a super easy tutorial here:

I added this cute ribbon, like a little tag:)  This pillow is for my daughter.  But I am
also making one now for my living room sofa.

I just started stitching on this vintage peacock pattern last night.  I just love this pattern.
I found it in the Vintage Hoop love flicker pool as well.

My daughter and I made some fun signs for the garden!!


Well I have an up date on my poor baby chicken Cornflake and her injured foot (she's on the left).  Well I am sooooo pleased and thankful to say she is recovering nicely!!!  Hardly limps at all now.

This is their coop.  They seem to really enjoy it!

My garden is so happy right now and blooming like crazy!

My pumpkin patch is doing it's thing:)

We had squash with dinner last night!

Green beans are happy too.
We have had the craziest weather here in Northern California this year!  Very cold and wet, this is not typical!!  Usually our weather is hot and dry.  But the garden is happy with all this moisture and I haven't had to water at all.  So that's it for now!  Have a fantastic week :))