Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Pattern links

First off, I suck at following through. I admit it. I've been promising and promising that I would post pictures of what I've been working on- I will get there! Things have been pretty busy for me, I'm back working my regular schedule now that I'm FINALLY feeling better, I got my wedding dress fitted yesterday and now we're working on finalizing all of our wedding plans. So, as you can see, quite a bit on my plate! I have not forgotten about posting those pictures, it {will} happen soon.

Now on to the reason for my post. Apparently my crafting addiction has not only hit daddy-to-be, but it has also crept across the country to Auntie C. I've been working on some {super cute} clothes for her daughter, my gorgeous little niece, and she was wondering where I've found the fantastically helpful patterns & tutorials for them. I figured she probably isn't the only one looking for some handy (and EASY) tutes, so here are some of my faves!

Burda Style, this site is FULL of patterns and tutorials, the best part...lots of them are free!
Savvy Seams, I have to admit that I haven't tried out anything from here yet- but I do intend to!
FreePatterns.com, this little gem has patterns for allllll kinds of things. Clothes, goodies for your house, gift ideas, etc.
FreeNeedle.com, another site that has a little bit of everything and it's organized nicely- always good.
Grand Revival Designs, not only does this mama design {gorgeous} fabric, but she's got a stash of some really great free patterns.
Grosgrain, this is one uber talented lady. I could spend days looking at her gorgeous designs, plus she's got tons of kick ass giveaways! This link is for a super easy skirt tutorial, absolutely recommend it!
Sew, Mama, Sew, this is a roundup of their Kids' clothes month tutes from a few years back. It's got a ton of really great ideas.

I'm positive those links will give your creative side a big kick in the ass and get all kinds of fabulous ideas swirling around in your head! Enjoy!

Until next time, my loves.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Musette Bracelet GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

You all have to check out this awesome Musette Bracelet giveaway
over at Grosgrain. Who wouldn't love to have that gorgeous bracelet?

I know I promised pictures and more info yesterday... and I slacked. Big time. I will get them up today! Promise!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Just had to share it

Alright, I do actually have quite a few crafty goodies to share with you today, but I'm still in bed and don't care to get up and take pictures right now. I'm lazy. I'm also 25 weeks pregnant, so laziness and I are becoming great friends.
I've been sitting here going through all of the posts on my reader, while enjoying a gigantic bowl of lucky charms (there might also be a baked potato in my near future) and I stumbled upon a post that brought me some naughty giggles. Thought you all might enjoy something to laugh about this morning too.

The mama over at Rockin' the Suburbs shares her horrifying Ohio suburb fashion experience. Here are a few tasty bits to tempt you...
"7. Ed Hardy. Just.Don’t."
"14. Facial Hair. There is no need to be embarrassed by this- just get some Nair and melt it off! A salon wax is around $15. Pick one. 14a. groom your eyebrows. Your brows frame your face, you can be the poster hanging with thumb tacks or the nice matted frame hanging neatly on the wall. Do you want to look like a dorm room or a stylish house?"

I just have to say... I couldn't agree more with nixing the Ed Hardy bandwagon. Hate it.

Be back later with some crafty fun!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I won, I won!

I never win anything. Becoming part of the blogging world has opened me up to a plethora of fabulous give away's. The awesome folks over at Beddingsets.com & Spearmint Baby (if you haven't checked out their site, even if there isn't a baby in your life, you should- super cute) held a give away for a Fauna pillow- and I WON! Woooohooo!


I got to choose which one I wanted, I went with the Fauna Kitten pillow. I think it's going to look adorable in Sophie's nursery. It's such a sweet little kittie! To check out the selection of Fauna pillows, go here.



Monday, July 13, 2009

And he nests too.

While I have been on a crafting binge thanks to my nesting instinct, it seems daddy-to-be can't escape it either. For those of you who don't know, we live in a tiny townhouse with no yard at all. Something that I'm dying for is a veggie garden, but with only a tiny deck, I was starting to think that wouldn't be possible until we move. Enter in the vertical garden and daddy-to-be.

I somehow stumbled across the instructions for a hanging vertical garden from instructables.com, I forwarded the link to my guy with a super short email saying I thought it'd be fantastic if he wanted to throw one together for me. Didn't think that would happen! He headed out to the hardware store Sunday morning in search of the gardeny goodies needed for my 'garden'.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm definitely excited. Here's a pic I snapped without him knowing. Sneaky, sneaky! :)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

The picture show

Picture time!

So for the hemp lamp project, a girlfriend and I glued and wrapped our little hearts out yesterday (while it was 150 degrees out, I swear). Our glue was dry enough today that I deflated the balls we used today. Although the instructions said 48 hours... 24 was definitely enough. I just need to run and get some of the lighting inserts and they're done! SUPER EASY. Messy as hell, but easy peasy.






First skirt attempt.

One of my closest girlfriends lives half way across the country and I hate it. We've been ultra close for about ten years now and have gone through some pretty gnarly things together. Said girlfriend also has a daughter, who's coming up on 2. Since I've been playing around with sewing, I thought it'd be great to try out some simple things for the little lady. My very first attempt at making anything clothing related is in her honor. It might the most simple skirt ever, but I'm damn proud of it.

I simply cut a piece of fabric, made casing for elastic, sewed the hem, sewed the fabric into a tube and added some adorable $1.00 ribbon from Michaels. I then realized I didn't have any elastic and need to get off my butt and go buy some before I can finish the skirt and ship it off. Oops. Here's what the cute little textile looks like so far.

Project list, update

Alright, here's my current list o' projects to be accomplished.

Part 1
- Mural. Probably a tree, like the one seen over on the Rockin' the Suburbs blog.
- Growth chart. Love the burlap one that the author at Cakies did for her daughter's room. I love that it's natural, a more organic fabric. Plus- it can be saved and moved from house to house. Love it.
- Find a dresser and a changing table at a thrift store/garage sale/etc to paint and renew for Sophie's clothes.
- Discover some type of vintagey kids books or clothing for artwork.
- Make the bird mobile @ Spool Sewing with the pattern found here. This will be my first attempt at sewing in quite a long time. Yes, I will be repeating the "I can do this" mantra over and over again.
- Get mason jars for pictures. Again, the mama at Rockin' the Suburbs was the inspiration for this super cute idea. I love that the pictures aren't housed in some boring frame- but still look great and I especially love that you can put special mementos in along with the pictures.
- Make closet dividers. Need to also come up with a cute idea for them.

Part 2
(FYI- not all of these are Sophie related. My craftiness with her room has blossomed in full-fledged crafting fever.)
-Do the Ballard Designs redo with instructions from Thrifty Decor Chick.
-Make hemp lamps with the instructions found at Craftynest. (Started this with a girlfriend yesterday, need to get the light cords and get those set up before crossing this one off the list)
-Sew some fab clothes for my favorite toddling cross-country niece. (So far have a super cute little skirt nearly done, will post some pics in a bit. Just need to get some elastic to finish the waist band.)
-Create the faux capiz shell lamp with instructions at Craftynest. Have already ordered and received the rice paper, need to get it laminated and snag a circle punch to get rolling on it.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

PBK Kids chair- Goodwill super find!

Alright, here's the adoooorable little yellow chair daddy-to-be and I picked up at Goodwill. We totally scored on it- $2.99 there and it was $59 originally. Can't beat that!

I completely spaced and didn't take a before picture, thumbs down to me on that one. It isn't a huge difference, just imagine it all that yellow color, with some sticker remnants living on the seat. All I did was sand it down to distress it a bit (think I might end up doing some more sanding to give it a more distressed look) and Mod Podge bits of fabric to the seat. The fabric was all scraps left over from the birds I sewed up for the mobile.

Love, love, love it.

Want to see some great Goodwill transformations? Check some out over at Thrifty Decor Chick's blog here.

We've been on a shopping frenzy!

This past weekend and early this week we picked up some really cute things for Sophie. We grabbed some adorable outfits- I know we'll end up getting 5,000 outfits for her, but it's just so fun! We did get her a bassinet for our room, some really cute flower lights from Ikea... and... we TOTALLY scored on an adorable Pottery Barn Kids chair at Goodwill! It was only $2.99 and still had the tag from PBK for $59- hell yes! I did distress it a bit and put some fabric on the seat. Pics coming soon!

The dresser has been hanging out in our living room, it's all sanded down but daddy-to-be hasn't had any time to get the painting started- hopefully this weekend!

Our house is slowly being over run by baby goodies, it's a cluttered mess, but I {love} it!

Oooh- Spearmintbaby.com is hosting a contest to win 2 wall expressions from Uppercase Living. Pop over and sign up, I already have!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Work (still) in progress.

The mobile isn't finished, yet. The dresser isn't finished, yet. Both will be soon, probably.





Okay- it's hot, a really gross hot. I do not do well in hot weather at all. I absolutely cannot stand it. The only thing I'm interested in doing is sitting my pregnant ass in front of my air conditioner while drinking something chilly.





So while the projects are on hold, I did strip off my clothes and take a fun belly picture.



Hope you all enjoy your 4th!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Super fast, super easy wall art.




Our condo is on the market, so in the name of making it look great on the cheap and super quickly, I decided we needed some new artwork. I was going through the Thrifty Decor Chick blog and saw a fabulous idea she came up with. She was inspired by a Ballard Designs piece of art- that catalog is FULL of awesome things, but it is super super pricey.

So here's what the Ballard Designs piece looks like:




She took pieces of plywood and just used spray adhesive to glue some pretty scrapbook paper to it. My type of project.... E-A-S-Y.



My finished 'art':



To see her version and get the full instructions, go here.