Let's Talk Weather

The weather in Cleveland this past week has been H.O.T. They were steady in the mid 90s for 4 days straight with high humidity. Unfortunately, when its this hot my creative mojo just disappears. All I feel like doing is sitting in front of the fan and watch a favorite show or read a good book (thanks to having no air conditioning in this old house). There was one good thing that came from the heat... the first water park trip of the year! I love lounging in the wave pool, people watching with my sunglasses on, and soaking up the sun.

During the heatwave I did get a little cross stitching done.

It's a Cath Kidston pincushion pattern. I love anything Cath Kidston and I can't wait to have a little pincushion to add to my supplies box :)

I'm happy to say the heat broke and I'm happily enjoying temps in the high 70s. Let's hope the creative bug bites again soon.

How has your first week of summer been?

Thrift Store Finds

I am very lucky to have at least 10 or 12 thrift stores that are at least 35 minutes away, but there is one that is the all time best! I have never left there once without some kind of treasure and I consider my last visit the best score yet! 

These gorgeous wicker cases were the first thing I spotted. The large case was $2.00 (it is in brand new condition!) and the little one was only 90 cents. They are the perfect little containers to store my WIPs (better than the grocery bags they were in).

Here is the inside of the smaller case. I have lots of crafty embellishment plans for this little one!

After I found those two along with three wicker baskets for my plants (each 50 cents) I spotted a birdcage behind the counter. This is where they keep all of the "high end" items. I have to admit that the cage did not look at all like this picture now. Sitting on the top shelf behind the counter it was embellished with so many beads, silk flowers, birds, and glitter. Very tacky indeed, but I asked to see it and knew it would be easy to take all of it off (it ended up taking me a half an hour). So it came home with me for $8 ( a little pricey for a thrift store item, but it is so hard to find large birdcages and this one completely made of wood.) It is currently all aglow with a few strands of white twinkle lights!!

There is something so exciting about thrifting! You never know what treasures you will find. I'm officially addicted!

Embroidered Bunting

This is one of those projects I finished awhile ago but neglected to blog it. Which is madness because I am crazy in love with it!

The patterned fabric came from Charlotte Lyon's etsy shop. She is amazingly talented and her designs are the cutest! The fabric comes printed with the design so all you have to do is stitch, cut, and sew! How awesome is that?!

I used perle cotton and a lot of filler stitches so that the embroidery would not get lost.

 

This little banner probably gets moved around twice a week as I adore it and love moving it in different spots so that I can enjoy it everywhere.

New Fabric

To me supplies are the most inspirational part of crafting. 90% of the time I will buy supplies without a pattern or idea in mind then will match the supply up with the perfect project later.

It didn't quite work out that way this time. I bought 18 fat quarters of Tanya Whelan's beautiful "Delilah" fabric. I know I want it to be a quilt of some sort,but I can't decide. I'm leaning towards simple patchwork. Any ideas?

Tah Dah!!!

It's finally here! The grand finale of my paper crafting weekend! Are you ready?? Are you sure? Here they are....

Ta dah! Houses!!!

Aren't they fun! Have you ever seen those chipboard/cardboard houses at the craft store? Thats what these are. I bought five in 3 different sizes. For ages they sat around painted in solid colors- a little boring. After I found the fun scrapbook paper I knew these houses had to be covered in it some how.

I can't take credit for all of these houses though. My mom joined in the paper crafting and together we created a cute little village that we are calling "Hopscotch Lane"! I think our two different styles make these houses look so unique and look as though they belong in a cute little town.

                            Aren't these little chipboard figures fun? The kids are just too cute.

I added an extra little surprise inside. They aren't just cardboard houses, oh no, they light up!

 

I just cut a hole in the back of each house with an exacto knife and added a light bulb. I found a strand of 5 c7 lights that were made for a village at the craft store. How lucky was that find?!

                            I love love love anything that lights up so this makes me insanely happy.

So I hope you were inspired to pick up or use some scrapbook paper you have been coveting and have fun making some cute projects for your home!

Paper Bunting and a Simple Crochet Flower Pattern

So what did you think of that wreath? Pretty cute huh? :)

You can't have a wreath without some sort of garland and the bunting banner is probably the cutest of all garlands.

Again a very simple project. Make a bunting banner template and trace it on your different papers.Cut out with scissors ( I used scallop craft scissors). I ended up making 2 different sized banners because my first  triangles were just too big.

Attach together by hot gluing solid white ribbon to the top of each triangle.

 

Of course I had to add something crocheted so I made some colorful flowers. The two colored ones are a free pattern from mollie makes. I just followed the directions for the 1st 3 rows and changed the half double crochets on the first row to single crochets.

The smaller flowers are my own pattern. Here it is. It is only one row!

ch 5, join to make ring.

In the ring ch2, 2 dc, ch2, slip stitch in the ring. Repeat until you have 5 petals. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Glue the flowers between each triangle and your done!

I'm nearly bursting with excitement to show you the grand finale paper project! What could it be???

Yarn and Paper Wreath

The other day we were out and about and stopped at Archivers (a really cute scrapbooking chain store). I'm not a scrapbooker or a paper crafter, but I saw this "dear lizzy" scrapbooking paper and fell in love. I decided to pass because I had no idea what to do with a stack of  paper. 

A week passed and I was still dreaming about the paper and while on pinterest I realized I had a board titled "paper crafts". Well duh! Now I had a board full of inspiration and a reason to buy paper. Yay! So that day out we went again and I bought 2 of sheets of each design in the collection.

When we got home I instantly new what to make with all of this paper. I am really excited to share with you over the next few days what I came up with. The last day will be the big finale:)

Here is the first project. At Michaels I found these really cool wooden flat wreaths in the floral section.They had nice big sizes (I think this one is 20 or 22") and the price ($2!) was much cheaper than the pricey styrofoam ones.

This is so simple to do: 

Just wrap the entire wreath with yarn adding some hot glue here and there. I used sugar n cream cotton in a medium shade of pink. Then make different size pinwheels using scrapbook paper and add some buttons or any embellishments you wish. There is a great tutorial for the pinwheels here. Then simply hot glue the pinwheels to the wreath, I like mine grouped together in the lower corner. 

Weave a piece of floral while under the yarn on the back of the wreath and make a secure loop to hang, and there you go you have a bright summery yarn and paper wreath!

Summer Doily Blanket

Have you ever started a pattern that is just so addictive that you can't stop? This is one of them. I had every intention to take in progress pictures and do a wip post, but this little blanket worked up so fast that by the time I had the post all ready I was finished and was ready for the reveal post.

 

So here it is... my summer doily crochet blanket! What do you think? Very granny chic is it not? :) 

The pattern is anya from goodknits. It is written very well and easy to follow. I highly recommend her patterns.

I decided I wanted a super colorful doily, I love traditional white doilies, but I really wanted to make it as modern as possible. I used Hobby Lobby's "I love this yarn" in a variety of colors. If you have never tried it, it is a wonderful acrylic. It is soft but it still feels sturdy and that it won't break at the slightest snag. You can't beat the price at $3.99 for 355 yards and many a times they have it on sale. I will definitely be using it again!

I'm thinking up next should be some smaller projects. I'm a little blanketed out for now (2 blankets in 18 days!Phew), but I love it!

weekend wrap up

Happy June everyone! I had a great first June weekend. It involved a major amount of relaxing, crocheting all kinds of new cuteness for my reopened shop, and a baseball game (Go Tribe!).

Oh my, I think I have to crochet up another set of these for myself. I want to stick them on every inch of my wall, they make me so gosh darn happy. I'm thinking I might make a wreath will all of the different appliques attached. Do you think it would be too much to include the bird, owl, and butterfly?

Two Potholders

Potholders are one of my favorite things to crochet. They are fast, colorful, and as simple or complicated as you want. I finished both of these potholders in a day and had so much fun playing with colors.

This first pattern uses attic 24's hexagon how to, but I used HelloYarn's modifications to make the potholder shape. The yarn is sugar n cream solids with hook size US G. The hexagon pattern is super simple but the assembling together became a little complicated as more of them were joined. I am sure it was just me making these harder than need be as usual.

The second potholder is also a free pattern that you can find here. This one was such a joy to crochet! I loved doing the petal outlines in white, it was great fun watching the circle become a flower. It is also made out of sugar n cream cotton with a size F hook.

I have plans to make one more potholder with these colors to have a complete set.  I am thinking a simple granny mandala with a shell border will fit the bill perfectly!

May 2012