New Mood Boards

'Serious Times Call For Serious Beards' 

:{) A little fun with BEARDS!

Collage Diamond Shi... likedaang $70.00	Luke thewheatfield $15.00	Beard is Beautiful ... supastarr $12.00	Triangle Beard - 5x... heatherfuture $12.00
Beetle Beard Fabric hollizollinger $8.00	Green Man Bird Hous... mulberrymudd $65.00	Seaescape 8x10 prin... sadlyharmless $15.00	The Thinker - repro... fricdementol $20.00
Lumberjack, Crow, a... nativevermont $36.00	THE CHOICE treasurefrey $20.00	Gnomey pulls the ca... therunnybunny $30.00	Now 8x10 - Grow A B... poppyandpineco... $18.00
Seaman/Tiny canvas ... tushtush $20.00	tiny village - 8x10... laurageorge $20.00	Bearded Lady Hellomarine $55.00	Kai, limited editio... windylanestudi... $20.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

'Softly Saying...' 

A soft palette of pretty pinks. :)

Handmade Eco Friend... ecofriendlybea... $60.00	Epattern for 12 inc... SashaPokrass $16.00	N93....Original Abs... ChristinaRomeo $35.00	Pale Pink Handcraft... Roltinica $29.00
Poppy Garden Fairy ... StephanieFizer $6.00	Sweet Bird of Youth... HerbstKind $25.00	4 Silver Macaron ca... fromsoul $12.50	dish number 19 laurageorge $25.00
Mustard Yellow, Dus... SparrowCollect... $38.00	Vary ... Brown Coc... aftershowersho... $45.00	B is for My Breath ... rosewong $7.00	Prairie Letters Pos... thewheatfield $22.00
Brown Bird - Limite... Cabin $15.00	C'mon get happy... irenesuchocki $30.00	Ultimate Girls Line... TutusChic $95.00	The Love of Bubbleg... bradcollins $15.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

'Feeling So Chevron' 

I think I maaaay like Zig-Zagged patterns..... :)

Aztec Removable Thr... leahduncan $34.00	Yellow and Orange C... IbbyAndRufus $30.00	geometric shrink pl... BrooklynBags $22.00	Jess Clasp 6 cheekyleopard $18.00
Black and Mustard D... BlankStairVint... $16.00	Rainbow Zig Zag Qui... noahandlilah $125.00	Zigzag Pillow - 16&... sarahfoote $140.00	Cabin Crafts Lavend... alorasadorable... $16.94
Card Set - Technico... witandwhistle $7.50	CHEVRON PATTERN PIL... plytextiles $109.00	Bow Feather 8X10 Di... PuffedPeonies $15.00	Premier Decorator Z... maisonboutique $122.00
Number 10 V Vase in... jillrosenwald $158.00	Wooden folk art col... mooshoopork $25.00	Rainbow Peasant Dre... UrbanTot $35.00	Arizona Print LARGE... SISTERBATIK $35.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

♥

The Good, The Bad, and The Queen

♥

New Foo + Mood Board

{Edit}Ok. I switched my song b/c I truly am excited for the new Foo Fighters cd.  ♥ 

Everything Is So Slightly, Calm

Peach Purple Triang... Brokenghostcou... $52.00	Vintage 1913 Treasu... calloohcallay $17.00	Squid Ink Earrings ... bionicunicorn $16.00	Inner Spring Limite... LouisestArt $27.00
Zig Zag Chevron Pin... redtilestudio $28.00	Push- Art Print jkldesign $28.00	Pirate Ship at Sea ... kharaledonne $38.00	A Time for Lemur rabbitblast $14.00
vintage VERA autumn... sosovintage $20.00	Gorgeous Pink and R... mikibaby $15.00	Lavender sachets --... namolio $18.00	DRESSED IN SILK /In... kristensimons $10.00
Spring Bouquet, Flo... GoodFlorist $30.00	Lido/ Original Pain... SarahGiannobil... $350.00	Romancing The Stone... itsastitch $12.00	The Bicycle's D... judythejazzcat $50.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

♥

DIY Zippy-Pouch Purses

If it hasn't been apparent yet, I love making stuff for people. If I'm lazy or run out of time, perhaps I'll buy something store-bought. But when it comes to kids, seriously how much junk do they really need?

I wanted to create something for my cousin Kennedy's 7th Birthday this past weekend. She's of the tom-boyish sort so I was having difficulty thinking of what she might like. After a quick conversation with my Aunt Patti (Kennedy's Mom) I decided to make her a little zippy-pouch purse like I had made her sister Alison a year ago. It turned out beautifully!

I also created a cute little drawing book for her to doodle around in:

Finished Product: Zippy-Pouch, Personalized Notebook, & Pencil

TO MAKE A ZIPPY POUCH PURSE:

First you need to assemble all your materials you will be needing:

• 1 Zipper (I used a 7 inch zipper.)

• 4 Equal sized fabric squares or rectangles. 2 for the lining, 2 for the outside. Cut to the full size as your zipper (This will make everything niiiice and eeasy).

• Other essentials: Thread. Scissors. Sewing Machine. 

1. Place one piece of your lining fabric right side up, facing you on your workspace.

    Now place your zipper edge to edge with the lining:

2. Take one piece of your outside fabric and lay face down, edge to edge with your lining and zipper.
So you're actually making a sandwich: lining face up, zipper, outside face down.

Pin together BELOW your zipper teeth. (You don't want to get stuck in your sewing machine, do you?).

3. Pull both pieces of fabric back, revealing zipper again. Repeat EXACTLY as you did already: fabric lining face up, zipper, outer face down. sew together. What you get should look like this:

 

4. Invert each matching side together: OUTER TO OUTER/ LINER TO LINER. Unzip the zipper at least HALF WAY (Don't forget or you'll have a really tough time trying to turn out your pouch).

Pin the middle with teeth facing lining side. You can match the ends together and press with an iron, if you like.

Line up all your sides. With a 1/4" seam allowance, start sewing at the bottom of your liner. Go up and all around in one large rectangle. Stop 2" from where you started.

5. Through the 2" hole, walk your fingers inside to grab one of the inside corners of your outer fabric. Pull all the way through inverting everything.

Use a knitting needle to straighten out your corners.

6. Sew up your 2" opening. Tuck in the lining and give yourself a pat on the back- You've officially finished your Zippy-Pouch Purse! Now go fill it up with pencils, pens, make-up, notepads, money.... :)

{NOTE} If you'd like to embellish or monogram your pouch, you should definitely do this right between steps 3 and 4.  That way, any threads or knots will be all sewn inside and invisible to the eye!

For the monogrammed letter I used a 40% wool felt applying it with Heat-n-Bond adhesive, like an applique. Then I used french knots to embellish and keep the letter on completely and securely (I don't totally trust heat-n-bond by itself). Tie a ribbon to the zipper tab. Voila! Fancy-Shmancy.

I hope you've found my directions easy to fallow. And! I'd love to see how yours turned out :)

Happy Crafting!

♥

Ode for Spoon

A little Ode for Spoon.

{I was superbly excited to see them on Austin City Limits tonight.}
{Plus the addition of a White Rabbit in there!} 

♥ Yesss ♥

You Say Toe-Mah-Toe

I've been missing my sewing machine as of late.

It hasn't gone anywhere per se. But our relationship is that of a troubled one. If we were two people trying to live harmoniously together, we'd have separate bedrooms. Or Mr. Machine would wake up one groggy morning and wonder why he was laying in the front yard amongst all his belongings.

I've been keeping him locked up in the complete darkness of my art room closet under consequence of his  'misbehavior'.

Two weeks before the beginning of December 2010, my Aunt Laurie signed me up to 

   have a table at a local   elementary school craft show. I was a CRAZY person at this time. Literally. I moved basically everything from my art room into my dining room. It was a clausterphobes NIGHTMARE and it began to be mine as well. 

I've been to many-a-craft show in my days. I know exactly what I am looking for and what I completely dislike (borderline HATE) seeing there. When less than a handful of days til the craft show came up- I began calling my process, or dining room rather, The Megan Factory. If my children could shred through sewing like Susie Homemaker or Martha Stewart, I would have put them to work in the basement; 

along with any foreigners I felt deemed to fit the job. But no. 

    My children are still too young to work in a child-labored sweat factory and foreigners are scarce. So it       was all me. Me in my own sweat factory. Sewing and sewing and sewing til all hours of the night, until my fingers were so raw and sensitive to the touch I thought perhaps I couldn't go on making anything else. 

      This is when Mr. Machine decided to pull his same old tricks.

      Loop de loops, frizzle frazz, and bird nesting every stitch. No matter what I did, he dug his foot down and said "NO".  48 hours and counting. I called my sister in a tizzy- I NEED YOUR SEWING MACHINE!! 

She willingly gave it up. Although I was completely unfamiliar with the knobs and dials on this thing, I had a new found hope. I was A-l-m-o-s-t finished. 

WRONG.

Her's was WORSE than mine. Good Grief. Now I truly was becoming the crazy lady on the block known for chucking sewing machines on her lawn. (almost). Thank goodness most of my machine sewn projects were 99% finished. I had to rely on my hands. My poor, damaged, dead fingers to finish the job. I glittered and hot glued. Searched wilderness for pinecones, mixing and matching fabrics, cutting, measuring, and slandering all I was getting myself into. Turned out the day of the craft show I had enough for fill a whole weekend affair- if it had been such. Instead it lasted about 3 hours. I could have taken up 3 tables instead of the tiny 6'x2' I was supplied with. Lesson learned. I went in blindly and found a few good tid-bits of knowledge through out of my cursed days in the Megan Factory. 

Now if that wasn't even enough- I had Christmas laying upon me like a ball and chain. Since my fingers weren't dead yet- Why don't I bust out some knitting. Hmm? Sounds good. I celebrated when Christmas was over. I swore off crafting forever.

Saying goodbye didn't come fast enough. From now on I was going to leave myself to the leisure of Fine Arts; Cue in the cards, bird houses, paintings, and other drawings and workings of such.

It's been a fine time. It really has. But I've begun to miss my old buddy, Mr. Machine. 

The fabrics, stacked neatly on the shelf have been calling my name. 

So out he came, all dusty and sorry. As I set him down on the dining room table I said, "Now you behave". And guess what? He did. Working in his utmost, best behavior. We're a happy couple again. 

Now I feel we're in our honeymoon bliss, today was a great day. The girlies happily helped separate fabrics and with little odd jobs. We accomplished a lot. 20 tomato and 30 strawberry pincushions. As I was making them, I thought- how cute would these be as a wedding favor, or place card favor at a Summer dinner party!? L♥O♥V♥E IT!

After sewing, the girls and I made a batch of Meringues. Inspired today by SisterBatik who was also chewing meringues today.

I admit I burnt half of them. (...My patience for waiting was running low). The browned ones tasted like toasted marshmallows. The perfect ones tasted, well, PERFECT. YUM! These don't last long either. Highly addicting I say. Highly addicting. 

{Very well worth and easy to make}

Happy Weekend Everyone!

♥

The Secret Garden

Monday's thunderstorm was a small and welcomed surprise. The temperature turned warm with the oncoming storm, rain danced in fat drops on the little heads of Snowbells growing in my garden. It was in fact a pleasant day, the girls read quietly with their new stack of library books while I worked on some projects. When it came time to take a break, Sophie asked if I could read a 'BIG book' to her. We went to the over-stuffed bookcase to choose, immediately my eyes fell the the pale green children's classic  

The Secret Garden. Oh such love ♥ As a child I ADORED this book. 

I was even more stoked to see Design*Sponge featured the 1993 movie as their title for Living In .   

When I think back to my childhood, roaming free in Kemenyffy's gardens I was the epitome of Mary Lennox. In the strangest way, she is a total part of who I am today. A character so loved and cherished that she has been instilled on my being since the time I was 8. So many distant memories come flooding back. It's from the movie (which I can safely say is one of  my top 5 favorites of all time) that I've become fond of skeleton keys (I have a collection of about 20 or so), my love for rainy/foggy Spring days, my obsession with plants and seeds and secrets of the outdoor world.

I can only hope that one day my girls will find the love like I did for this lovely book while I read it aloud they are playing and conversing amongst themselves, almost too young to understand it all, but I read on anyway. The re-introduction of it all seems to be mostly for me, a passageway from past to present.

♥

I'm feeling good about this week. Even though it's a rainy Monday, we're having the first thunderstorm of the year ♥. {I LOVE thunderstorms}. Something about them just make me feel so cozy and productive. I suppose it's the fact I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything (weather wise), no sunshine tempting me to bask in, no children begging to go to the park, the house work has all been taken care of before our party this weekend....It's the perfect day to 'live' in my art room. 

I cherish these days.  

My weekend was spent throwing a surprise birthday party for Jamie's brother (turning the big 3-OH!), making cupcakes, making cards, and working on some new bird houses for the shop.

These were SO YUMMY!!!

Birthday Card for Brennan

I was wondering if any of you use the Etsy App Craftopolis? Somehow I've come out from under my rock, was introduced and now am obsessed with using it. (Maybe everyone's known about this for a long time- but not me! No, Sir. Brand new). It's fantastic! It tells you when your items need to be renewed, how many people have been looking in your shop, hearts, favorites, purchases.....(can you tell I'm excited!?) You can even edit EVERYTHING. And so, I did. I'm having a SALE on my winter items, the Cutesy Rag Dolls and Don't Be Catty (Sold).  

In the account of my shop, I always like to give extra when someone makes a purchase. I like to wrap it nice and neat with pretty paper and yarn or ribbon. I'll throw in an added bonus, and a thank you card that I've made specifically for that individual buyer. To me, that's how it should be. 

Maybe in this modern world we're so used to being snubbed, or feeling like a number when we make our purchases. I like opening the things I order from Etsy and seeing that care and thought went into not only the product but the packaging as well.

Thoughts on this? How is your customer service? :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday!

♥