step 1

Tomorrow we check out the Freret Street Market to see if I want to get a booth there next month!

Stay tuned....

And then it dawned on me

I must apologize for the long absence of posts. I'm going to throw some words at you and let you come to your own conclusions for said absence: back to work, 3 1/2 month old, 4 flights in 2 weeks (with 2 1/2 month old at the time), husband out of town for a week, etc. Sure there has been a lot going on, but it really comes down to the fact that I felt Led to take a step back for awhile.

And then I didn't.

I was able to meet some old friends for lunch one day a few weeks ago, and we didn't even talk much about crafty goings on, but it hit me that local art walks and fairs are where I should be right now. That's what I wanted to do a few years ago when I started fusing plastic bags. When I couldn't take anymore melting plastic fumes, my art walk booth dreams went the way of my plastic scraps. That is really where my passion was, and apparently still is. So, I'm gonna go for it.


Plus, an Anthropologie opened here!! It is such a wonderful place to visit. My husband was even willing to go and he was very impressed. I will be working just down the street from the loveliness starting this week, so I'm sure there will be many Anthro up-dates!

Local fairs and art walks, here I come!!

delinquency and embroidery

So way back when, I mentioned I had a project that was due July 1, that needed some love...

It was Will Rogers that needed some love.  Through the Sublime Stitching blog, I found out about this project.  I'm not from Oklahoma, but it sounded like fun AND when I signed up for it this winter it seemed like such a long ways away... then all of a sudden we had a newborn and I had barely started!

Fortunately Sara, from the project, sent me a link to this fabulous poster to use as a guide.

Well, it bears somewhat of a resemblance.  Hindsight being what it is, I would probably use less than 6 strands of floss and start earlier so I could fill things in!

But, it got done and sent in by July 1st!  Hooray!

I love the quotes I found when doing some research on Will.  The one on the mat is my favorite: "I never met a man I didn't like".  What an axiom to live by!

Graduation gift set

Here is the graduation gift I finally finished (it was only a few weeks late!).  I didn't know what the lovely young lady who received it "needed" for college, so I put this little number together as a "fun" gift instead.

She has a great sense of fashion, so hopefully these accessories will come in handy.  I had so much fun putting this together.

The set includes a flower brooch that doubles as a hair clip (when pinned to the felt covered clip) or a flashy little belt (when attached to the included ribbon).

The flower was constructed in the same way the Mother's Day flowers were, but with more tulle between the second to last 'petal' and the backing petal.  It also features a pearl from a vintage necklace in the center.

When my parents were here to help with the baby my Mom and I visited Michael's (a few times) and I saw these great containers.  Our graduate is an excellent baker, so the packaging doubles as a re-usable baking tin!

Now, how fun is that?

I've got so many ideas in my head (and unfortunately those don't make it very long unless they're written down...so they're in my notebook too!) for this blog.  Implementation will begin soon, so stay tuned!

Some catching up to do

Not much has been going on craft-wise since the Little One got here, but I can tell you about some things I did while waiting for him!

These were Mother's Day cards for all the mothers in our lives.  The flowers were removable brooches!  With 6 to be made, I'm afraid the outside of the cards all looked the same, but each one had a personalized flower and message inside!

We've been looking for something to hang in our living room to cover a huge empty wall (there would be a TV there, on top of the TV stand...but we don't have a TV so it's just a nice big empty wall).  I think I started this the day before we went in to have the baby.  Needless to say, it's still sitting in the messy Croffish. (Note:  Croffish is the name we've coined for our craft room/office.  While I would gladly just call it the Craft Room, my wonderful husband reminds me that it is his space too!  So we combined the two words and came up with Croffish, which works here in Southern Louisiana.)

Current state of my work table.  When I've had a few moments here and there I've tried to do some hand sewing (more to come on that soon!) which I LOVE!  I realized about day 5 of life with a newborn that some craft time was needed or things were going to go south soon.  My amazing husband made sure I had and hour of un-disturbed craft time and it was wonderful!

But I digress, back to hand sewing.  Maybe it's the fact that hand sewing makes you slow down and enjoy the process or that it's so portable or the imperfections that are bound to come and the skill that is gained, whatever it is, I enjoy hand sewing immensely.  My machine gets used quite a bit and it has its merits too, but I feel like I have so much more control and rhythm when I sew by hand.

Flowers are SO easy and fun to do!  

And in the midst of this (while it could be construed as a yawn, it is in fact crying)...

I was able to take a few shots for a sneak peak at what will hopefully be in my Etsy shop soon.  (Perhaps when the Grandparents are here???) :)

Now, a graduation gift to get working on before Saturday (!) and a project due by July 1st that needs some love!  But first...it's eating time for the babe...

Blessings!

Baby Love

We welcomed our handsome little man into this world on Thursday, May 13.

Needless to say, it's going to take a few more days before we get a schedule down and I can get back to this space.

What is that I hear???  Cloth diaper to baby Wyatt, stat?  On my way...

New material!

Saturday was my last day at work before our Little One arrives and it's been pretty busy!  As a "congratulations on being done with work for a little while" I stopped by the thrift store on my way home and found some really fun sheets!

Lilly pads in yellows and golds

A sweet white sheet with small clusters of white flowers

The first thing I saw on this one was a little cottage (the ones above the border).  I LOVE cottages.  And then I saw the border and the cows did it, I just couldn't walk away from cottages AND cows! 

I picked this one up and carried it around for a little bit, then I put it back on the rack.  I decided I would probably regret it if I didn't take it home though.  Snow White is one of my favorites and I can definitely see some cute bags/pillows/??? coming out of this one.

Any ideas?