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turtle
It’s been a busy weekend, and a busy month all around. A trip home, a root canal, a promotion……but now it’s time to unwind! Today is Boyfriend’s birthday. Happy Birthday to you! And happy birthday to me. We both turned 23 this weekend. On Friday we went to Franklin Park Zoo and saw all the animals (human and non-human…field trippers sure can be a handful). There were giraffes and tigers and gorrillas and something called a pollo or pocco or …..something, and it sure was cute. And I learned that white tigers are actually just an inbred defect, not a separate species! We only saw a couple turtles though, so there’s one from my imagination.
In my ongoing quest to use every tiny scrap of fabric I have (or we could just say compulsion to never throw anything away….), today I made some fabric collage/applique doo-dads. I haven’t decided what to use them for yet? Maybe adorn some tea towels or napkins? Some Easter cards, if I hurry? You probably can’t tell it’s tweed from the picture, but that orange-y fabric actually used to be a pair of shoes I loved to death. When their time had come I chopped them up hoping I could one day use the tiny bit of strange shaped fabric. I’m very happy that that day is here and I was indeed able to prolong the life of that orange tweed. I intend to embroider them in a contrasting color thread…eventually, and I’ll probably add some more fruit and different animals to the collection. At least I know the cat likes them, since she won’t butt out of the picture.
easy pillow cases
I got this fabric on sale at our last trip to Ikea. I’d been wanting to cover my bulletin board with something, and this seemed perfect. I’m a fan of avian themes, and the neutral color palette and simple 
line work tone down the somewhat busy pattern. So, while it’s always hard for me to tear into a piece of fabric, I cut it in half, trying not to decapitate any birdies, and tucked it into the frame of the bulletin board with a piece of cardboard for neat edges. It’s held in place with rows of flat white thumbtacks. And now I have a prettier way to organize my papers. Those former clementine crates on the desk help too.
Aaaand I had enough left over to cover two throw pillows. Thanks to my great love-affair with iron-on hem tape, this took about 15 minutes.
pretty boxes
Now that the blister on my index finger from the glue gun has finally faded, I figured it was time to post about this project.
It’s definitely my kind of craft because:
A) it takes about 5 minutes.
B)it reuses something i already had but would have tossed
C)it gives me an opportunity to use up those abundant fabric scraps i can never seem to part with.
For Christmas, we got some yummy cookies from the bf’s mom. Thanks! They came in some festive red and green boxes adorned with snowmen and Santas. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to keep year-round, but I have a hard time parting with useful things like boxes (ok I have a hard time parting with everything…). So I spray painted them white, which in general is a good first step for anything you’re not sure what to do with. Since it wasn’t the greatest paint job, my next step was digging around in my scrap pile to give them a little more pizzaz. I just whipped out the glue gun, roughly measured and cut some fabric (stiff cotton/linen works well), wrapped it tightly around and folded it into and under the boxes. Just like wrapping a present. Speaking of which, these would make great re-useable gift boxes! I left the lids white because I like the contrast, but you could wrap the whole thing or even use different fabrics.
vintage fabric kitchen stuffs
I love vintage fabrics, but I never know what to do with them, so I usually just end up amassing piles. Thankfully, I recently discovered the many amazing uses of no-sew hem tape, and have been ironing nearly everything I own together. I’ve been holding on to these geometric blue and green scraps for awhile, so I decided to make some coasters, a pot holder, and a sachet out of the pattern. Pretty simple, and always useful. I think they could use some cute buttons/ribbon/contrasting embroidery to jazz them up a bit, but everything is a work in progress. I plan to do some napkins later this evening. Perhaps some of my lucky friends with spring birthdays will get a set, or maybe they’ll make it up on my Etsy if they turn out real good.
paper bag cards
Happy new year! This blog has been a little neglected during the holidays. Soon it will be due for a catch up. Today, however, all I have time for is a quick little project. So check out these cards I made….Perhaps you still have some thank-you’s to write for all those goodies you got for Christmas a month ago? But perhaps you also already blew all your C
hristmas money and can’t afford to buy fancy store-bought cards? In this situation I always turn to that old, cheap, standy: brown paper bags. Cut ‘em up any way you like, stick ‘em to some card stock, and they can look suprisingly sophisticated. I added a little whim
sy in the form of polka dots from white paint on a pencil eraser. Voila!
In an apartment as small as ours, one ugly thing in a whole room can distract me to the point of madness. This dresser, with it’s fake wood veneer, brass knobs, and country wheat carving, has been my arch nemesis for months. But it’s not technically mine, so I didn’t want to paint it permanently, or destroy it, or throw it out the window. Solution? Voila! Contact paper. $4.50 a roll at Rite-Aid down the street and it comes off clean. I like the bird motif because it is organic but still simple. The arches of the wings mimic the faux-claw feet of the dresser, making them seem less arbitrary. So now this Value City piece of furniture could pass for something at least from Ikea. The white brightens up the whole room, and the positive bird images are now adorning our once bland walls. I’m satisfied. And I can now finally accept this room and everything in it as mine.
[The before: if you dare]
fall card
Still no one wants to pay me to do anything. Nonethless, I am still doing things. That will show them.
This card is something I did today. It’s welcoming in the fall! And I think it’s pretty cute. It’s another one made from the insides of security envelopes [see Day 15.]
Fall happens to be my favorite season, and it’s right around the corner. On Wednesday we are going into the country to go apple picking! Which is splendid because I love: fall, apples, orange leaves, pumpkins, petting zoo?, hayrides……There will be lots of pictures to show.
When you’re half way across the country from almost everyone you know, it’s important to keep in touch. Plus making cards keeps me busy while I’m at home all day until I find a job….
I’ve been saving all the envelopes I get my bills in because I like the patterns. With the busy patterns, though, it’s best to keep the shapes simple. This card uses scraps of these envelopes to make a city skyline.
