Sophie's Nest

I've been featured!

2009-09-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

I am surprised, beyond surprised! Well... not that people love this gorgeous piece... but, well, I suppose I'm shocked that they picked something made by me over all of the other fabulous things out there. It's a GOOD feeling!

My lovely Meghan Necklace (bonus- it's still available!) was featured, both on One Pretty Thing AND over at the blog youaremyfave.com.

Well, they sure know how to get a gal all a flutter!

Beau Sophie is up and running!

2009-09-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

While I've been MIA the past month or so (eeps... can't believe it was that long), I've been a busy bed-ridden bee. Since I'm on bed rest, I've been pretty limited on which creative muscles I can flex. Good thing I had approximately 9 billion beads, really, that many- just ask my hubby. Now that I have some gorrrrrgeous new jewelry pieces, I have nowhere to wear them! Enter Etsy {swoon}.

I'm now the proud owner of Beau Sophie- my own little piece of Etsy heaven (and it is heavenly, I feel pretty safe saying that damn near everything on Etsy is at least a bit heavenly).

As of now, I've got a few jewelry pieces up there and...

wait for it....

Hair accessories! How fun, right? I've been on a kick of making adorable flower clips (perfect for any little ladies in your life).

Be sure to pop over there and snoop around, there might be a little something you just can't live without!

I'm still alive!

2009-09-04T10:57:00.001-07:00

So the past month has been, in one word, insane. I got married (couldn't be happier!) and have been dealing with a whirlwind of pregnancy related.. things. We're trying to get our house ready for baby, and with me being so sore and exhausted, it isn't the easiest thing to do. But, we're hangin in there. It's a slow process, but the house will be ready- it WILL.

I do have some {super cute} things to show you, but it's going to be a bit longer before the pictures make their way up here. Let's just say, when you're basically on bed rest, you get creative. I've started embroidering!

I'll see you all soon!

Pattern links

2009-07-22T17:08:00.001-07:00

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.

Musette Bracelet GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-07-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

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!

Just had to share it

2009-07-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

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!

I won, I won!

2009-07-14T17:06:00.001-07:00

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.

Thanks Spearmint Baby & beddingsets.com!

And he nests too.

2009-07-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

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! :)

The picture show

2009-07-12T15:27:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

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 instruction s 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.

PBK Kids chair- Goodwill super find!

2009-07-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

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!

Work (still) in progress.

2009-07-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

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!

Super fast, super easy wall art.

2009-07-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Birds are done!

2009-06-27T19:43:00.001-07:00

I got all of my birds done. I believe there are nine.. I'm too lazy to get up and count. But- they're cute! Really cute! I just need to head outside and find some little branches for them to live on. Then the mobile is finished!

I did another little art project today- I'll post some pictures later.

Some of the birdies (pictures taken with my FABULOUS birthday present from my fiance):

Craigslist dresser/chiffarobe.. it's a beaut!

2009-06-27T11:53:00.001-07:00

I was searching through Craigslist this morning, looking for some fabulous finds for hubby-to-be and I to snag tomorrow... and there she was. This GORGEOUS dresser/chiffarobe/amazingingly-wonderful-will-be-mine-piece is coming home with us tomorrow.

I'm going to sand it down and paint it, and ohhhh am I looking forward to it. I know this will be a piece that will be with us for years. {love}

The little gem before:

Bird sewing mania is almost over.

2009-06-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

I've been working like crazy on the birds for the mobile. I've already got seven done and I've got two more to go. Then, I'll get them situated on some branches and get it all put together. I'm so thrilled with them! For someone with ZERO sewing skills, they don't look half bad!

I think I should be done sewing the birds by tonight. Tomorrow I'll head over to the craft store and get the other things I need for it. The whole mobile should be finished up tomorrow! Watch for pictures!

I've also started registering for baby goodies... so much fun! I was trying to find bedding that I liked and ended up finding ten thousand other things, so the registry was started.

More tomorrow...!

New home.

2009-06-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

I know, I'd barely gotten started over at Weebly, but their getup just wasn't working for me. We didn't play well together. So here we are at Blogger! I'll go ahead and move my old posts over- no need to pop in over there as well.

First attempt with the bird mobile.

2009-06-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, keep in mind, this is my first attempt at sewing anything in about six years. My first finished bird definitely has a certain.. home made.. look to it. It's tail is crooked and the seams aren't sewn correctly in a few spots- but it was sure made with love! Good thing babies aren't judgemental.

I've gotten my second birdie done now, as soon as I get a few more done I'll post some more pics. Excited!

The project list, part one.

2009-06-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

I have so many awesome/fabulous/gorgeous projects I've come across for Sophie's room. With my shoddy preggo brain (read: no memory what so ever), a list is much needed. I love the ideas, but without having them in writing, they'll be forgotten in the next five minutes... really.

The list:
- 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.

2009-06-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

I love muted, dusty, airy, beachy colors. If I could get away with doing her nursery in light blues and greens... I would. But, there is no way daddy will let that happen. Plus, I think once I get going with a girly hideaway, I'll be just thrilled with it.

I ran across the site COLOURlovers and it. is. awesome. You can play til your heart's content with different colors, make palettes, patterns, browse through other's creations.

These are the colors I'm thinking I'll be going with for her room:

Just the beginning

2009-06-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sophie's home inside our house. For me, my bedroom has always been much more of my home than any other part of my house. It is the one place where I feel most relaxed, most safe and most... well.. at home. When I was little, my room represented the same sort of haven- it was just much more about imagination and dreaming than rest. This is all about my journey to create the perfect nest for my little one.
Although we're in the process of selling our condo and buying a house, I just cannot wait to get started on all of the gorgeous things I have planned for Sophie's room. I am so, so, SO excited to create this space for her. Her nest.