St. Patrick's Day Accessory (and not a tacky Kiss Me I'm Irish pin)

I love St. Patty's day and always make sure to wear green every year. Mainly because I have some Irish heritage (maiden name O'Neil). I am also known to pinch those who are green-less. This year I decided to make my pop of green an accessory rather than looking like the Leprechaun from the Lucky Charms's box.

By the way, I love the new-to-me technique of ruffling the edges of chiffon or chiffon like fabric by using candle.

Vintage Brooch Headband

For my wedding, (over 2 years ago) I made this hair piece to wear with my veil for my "something old." It is my grandmother's brooch from the 1940's. I had yet to wear it since the wedding because it was stored in a box that just sat on my dresser collecting dust.

Then I spotted some vintage gold and feather bobby pins at a local boutique and took that idea and ran with it. I grabbed a dollar store headband and wrapped it in ribbon. I then used a pack of feathers and added a few directly to the headband. After those were in place I gathered ribbon and fabric to make a spot to pin the brooch. I originally didn't plan on adding feathers on top the ribbon, but I felt like it needed something more. I just love the vintage look of headband, and how the neutral colors lend itself well to almost any outfit. I have already worn it a few times!

Please ignore the ratty hair, must have been a rough day.

I'm Sadd??

So I have come to a very important conclusion as to the reason behind my crafting slump...I'm Sadd. Well its more like S.A.C.D (Seasonal Affective CRAFT Disorder). The cold, snow, and gloomy days just do not lend themselves well to crafts, at least not for me. This past weekend it was beautiful out, I'm talking somewhere in the 60's, in Colorado, in FEB! It was glorious, and I had a sudden urge to go to all of the local thrift and antique stores to scavenge for my next project. Reality check, my next two projects are sitting in my sewing nook/craft space waiting patiently to be spray painted.

I haven't been completely un-crafty though. I joined a few of my close friends for a virtual quilting bee, and I managed to make a cute headband using my grandmother's brooch from the '40's. It is still sitting on our new camera because I am afraid to load the huge size pics on my little ol' Mac that slows down if more than one program is open.

I hope to have some pics and tutorials up soon...if only Spring would hurry up and get here!

Closet Turned Sewing Space

I know the blog postings have been sparse, but I blame that on the winter. You just can't spend as much quality time spray painting as you can in the warmer months. I have managed to complete one pretty big project this winter though.

A couple weeks ago I was browsing other blogs and found one on small space make-overs. I was inspired. I have been wanting a sewing/craft space but didn't want to take over the 3rd bedroom for it. I decided our bigger than necessary guest room closet would be the perfect space to make mine. That night I found an absolutely gorgeous vintage desk on Craigslist to go with the $7 chair I found at Restore during the summer. I added a peg board, shoe rack for material, recovered the chair (I plan on painting it Heirloom White once it gets warmer out), and some decorations crafted with my sis-in-law. Add a Reveal light bulb and I have a new space all my own! It came together at the perfect time because for the next year I'll be participating in a quilting bee.

Before...storage for all of our junk, that should have been thrown out or in the garage.

After

I changed out the knob with one I got at Anthropologie

Before

After

I thought it would be an ingenious idea to use a shoe holder for all of my material scraps.

Hand-Crafted Christmas: Checkbook Covers

Here is part two of my "made from the heart" gifts, haha. My mom really wanted a new checkbook cover once she saw the one I made, so I figured, hey I'll make them for both moms. Again this was one of my first attempts at ruffling, and I never realized you were supposed to pull out the basting stitch when you were done. Oh well, hopefully no one will look too close!



A definite benefit of my Hubby working at a bank is that he was able to snag me a couple of those plastic checkbook covers for me to cut apart.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Hand-Crafted Christmas: Sunglasses Case

So here is part one of the intense (well at least for me) sewing I did while I was unemployed. Because of the unemployment issue I decided to make as many gifts as possible. I took the sunglasses case idea from this awesome tutorial over at My Blond Ambitions and made a couple for sunglasses and two smaller versions for reading glasses. My mom and sister gave me these really cute tags that have my name on them and I finally got to put them to good use! These little pouches also gave me the chance to finally try making a ruffle. I have been so intimidated by ruffles that I have refused to try and instead would pawn off the task to my mother. I really don't know what I was so terrified about, yes they take time, but they aren't nearly as challenging as I made them out to be.

The details

Christmas Card Wreath

In the December Martha Stewart Living magazine I saw a really cute idea for a Christmas card wreath holder. She made it out of an embroidery hoop and clothespins. While at the dollar store the other day I was looking at the frames and the idea popped into my head to make the holder out of a frame. I grabbed a frame, clothes pins and a snowflake ornament, and for $3 + some ribbon I had laying around, I have a new Christmas card display to hang on my coat closet door.