Happy Birthday to me! (giveaway)

I won't really have a birthday this year (I'm a Leap Year baby), so the weekend becomes a celebration of it's own type... still, that doesn't mean that we can't have a party on the blog...
You're Invited!

a happy, lovely tea cosy... oh, and other fun goodies, too.

I've been making new notecards and other fun stuff...

do tell me your favorite birthday memory...

Fabric covered teapots

This is so something I would attempt, other than thinking it is a little insane... And anthropologie has them marked on sale for $68. Okay, okay, I'll try to do one... I do actually have a random garage sale teapot sitting around... Just have to figure out HOW, now...

Another day to say, "hi"

Hi.

Draft Snake Infestation

I now have decided that when it comes to making draft snakes, the very best filling is going to be those teeny trash-bound scraps that I had no use for - so I have a sewn snake, waiting for filling - right near my serger - and as I am making other projects - (you thought that I wasn't sewing, just because I wasn't posting?) - I take a few minutes at the end of each night to fill a little more in the waiting snake....

Oh, and yes, I did find that after I spent 4 days trying to locate every stray sock in the house - when I was left with a whole basket of strays... well - they ended up in there, too. =)

So these snakes are my new answer to the smallest of all scraps - and random other things and threads that would have been thrown away otherwise. (It's been fun) What I like is that they are heavy without costing any form of value (when you're buying beans like I do for beanbags, it still does add up!) - oh, and in a 90 year old California bungalow - without insulated walls - they work, too.

Later, this week, I'm going to post more of my tea cozies that I have been cranking out - and I forgot to take photos of the 6 totes I made for my 6 table-mates at my MOPS group - or I'd have happily shown those - they were a fun project to work on while J was out of town on a shoot. (I did finally get a lead on how to post a pdf. so expect a tutorial coming!)

Did I mention that I have been potty training this week, down with a sinus infection, researching preschools, planning a formal event that happened the same night as the awards show AND missing J while he was out of town for 5 days? Phew - I need a break.

Hopefully this weekend will be fun... for Christmas, I bought J tickets to a fun play in Beverly Hills at the Greystone Manor and they are for this weekend (on my quasi-bday)... so we've got a big weekend planned.

Pottery Barn Kids ideas (1 of a few...)

Look at this adorable idea for cute canopies or curtains... Ribbon scraps and panels. I mean, does it get easier?  If you don't have hundreds if types of ribbon scraps lying around like
yours truly, send me an email, we can figure something out... :)

keychain

This is super silly, but I made the cutest "bar-code" recently and had it made into some fun products... I have to show you the fun keychain that arrived at my house today...

it makes me so happy...

Night on the town

J was nominated for (and won!) an award and we got to be all gussied up... Woohoo.

Snow Day - Love Day

We spent Valentines' Day in the snow.

It was technically one of those days where J could have surfed in the morning and gone sledding in the afternoon, and it was such a great day that he spoke about wishing how he could do that someday.  

Mimi was unbelievably happy in the snow. She didn't even notice how cold she was and we had to drag her to the car. Last year, when we went,  my next door neighbor suggested bringing a thermos of hot water for hot cocoa in the car - that's our new favorite item to bring along.

What a fun time we had. 

Though I don't love LA - there are days and moments where I feel grateful for certain aspects of it... and driving an hour to the snow was one of those sweet times.

Inspiration a la H.D. Buttercup

The other day, after getting my haircut, I figured I'd use the last hour of my child-free time to go through H.D. Buttercup (which I'd heard about, and driven past hundreds of times) - for some inspiration. What a great place for eye candy. They've taken the old Helms Bakery in Culver City and used the rambling space for stacking stores and showrooms of amazing furniture and furnishings. Lovely stuff. It felt like the combination of an antique store, shopping along La Brea (north of Wilshire Blvd - in LA, about 10 minutes from home), and an art gallery.  If only I'd been actually looking for furniture... but maybe the beauty was that I wasn't. And the result really was pure and simple inspiration.

You can see that I still love patchwork couches of all kinds... like the one I covered. What I found so elegant and palatable about this one was its worn grey denim with intricate hand stitched patches in the same color. I'm so loving the worn, loved look these days.

Happy Heart Day!

We have a little girl here who claims Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday... Which oddly, made the holiday take a turn around here to focus on her more than Mommy and Daddy. I spent last night up late at my sewing machine, making a shiny pink superheroine cape with a heart (reversing to her initial)... And of course, Ze Artiste needed one too. (will show those later)
She also "decided" about 6 weeks ago that we were spending V day in the snow, and since it was a good idea to us, we actually did go to the snow... (more about that later, too)
All in all, it was a fun day - not so romantic other than a few stolen kisses, but we have our sitter lined up for Monday night instead...
I hope you and yours found a way to celebrate love today... I hope you have gotten lots of snuggles and kind words today.... And let me take this chance to give you some of my own.
Thank you, for being a reader of my humble little blog... It's not the fanciest out there, it's written on the run... In my car as I wait for appointments, from random coffee shops, and at the side of many playgrounds... But it is from my heart, and I love that I have friends with whom to share my happy little inspirations and projects. When I finish projects, I often can't wait to post them... And I know I've promised a bunch of tutorials, I'm still hoping to get better at that
in 2009 (figuring how to post them!)... But please know, in the most appropriate way for me to say... I love you!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Oh, and pictured here... The Design Director's new cape, a happy felt heart and another of my friend (and previous Milliken design mentor) Holly's sweet holiday collage ornaments...

The big cut

I didn't set out to cut off 7 inches today, but I'm impulsive, and I
love it...

Another book bag

I'm a book bag addict. They're my favorite gift item right now! So I made this one for a friend of mine who happens to love orange. she's getting it tomorrow.

Move over, beanbag

It may not be Chicago, but California bungalows were not built for cold weather and this old 1922 house is drafty... So tonight, my newly-crafty friend, Kelly came over and as she used my scraps to make some sweet Valentines placemats, I made this little draft snake to keep some of the cold air out. The best part is that I stuffed it with other fabric scraps and selvedge edges and the weight is perfect... Less than a beanbag, more than polyfil... And crazy Eco-green.
Now, if only I could keep Ze Artiste from using it as a baseball bat.

Another tea cozy

The design director also made a tea cozy for her little teapot, which also gets a lot of use when momma's is in good use.... She came up with this design all by herself. I came back to the table
and it was done! Hooray for crayola's fabric markers....

It was a cold, rainy day

So our teapot and French press got jackets... I can't take full credit for the witty words on the tea cozy... There is a tea cozy in "bend the rules sewing" that also says the same.... Though I did the trim, artwork, and quilting of my own accord.... Fun project and I enjoyed my first stab at a quilted project!

Thank you, Anthropologie!

February is my birthday month, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, I dread it every year. I can't explain it, every year, I resolve that I will attempt to love February - and though I am getting better at it, it's hard for me.
I try to make as small a deal out of my birthday (Leap Year, literally) when it does come around - as I can, so I hadn't been thinking about the month being my birth month until a sweet letter came in the mail today.
I'm serious, Anthropologie, you've got me pegged... I walk slowly by your windows every time I pass one of your stores, I carry your catalogs around in my sketchbook, I walk in for inspiration when I can... all of my birthday and Christmas money goes to special treats that I find in your store - and your Christmas wrapping finds ways to hang around my house all year. (did anyone else love the strands of cotton with tons of buttons sewn on them as ribbons this year?)... but today, you sent me the sweetest little letter in the midst of bills and other random items - with this lovely little fabric envelope inside and a coupon for a birthday discount this month. THANK YOU! I literally sighed - and I smiled - as if a store really could care about me - hey, I know how this world works, but I also know that someone in your ranks thought the extra money it would take to send this out was a genius. The inspiration continues.

I love it. Thanks for the birthday smile... 27 days early.

New charm shapes

We need to get these up on the site, but here's an image of our new Vintage Profile shapes (available in boy or girl) cute, huh?

Messy Monday

In the interest of being fair to all - one of my favorite bloggers, Ruby, has suggested and begun a Messy Monday post.  She's posted her big messes in her home, so we all can maybe take another look at the pedestal we place each other on, and remember that we're all just people.So here's my messiness... kid insanity in the living room (please note, though I have helped them clean up this mess already... it will be back later today)

... the serving bar in the dining room is a scary catchall for us

... the dishes at the sink?  they're done now, but we don't have a dishwasher - so they'll be back soon, too....  

oh, and the drawers hardly close to begin with! (they're original to our 1922 house)

the two scariest, scariest photos are of my studio/sewing room - where ridiculous amounts of fabric fall out of the lovely cabinet my parents gave me for said purpose, and the laundry basket next to my machines is full of scra

ps that I have projects in mind for.

Every once in a while I get to a place where the studio is so messy that even I (the Queen of the "creative mess") get freaked out and can't work. 

Oh, I forgot to get a photo of my desk in there... (ah, here it is)... awesome. no excuses. it's horrible. The inspiration wall is intended to be slighty crazy, but the desk.... oy vey.

Once I asked J why he was a little upset and seemed like he was "off" - he replied, "your office! I can't think straight when I know that room is over there, just that messy!"

So here you have it. I once wrote a list on this blog as to all the things I don't do well... 

Keeping a clean house? I give up.

(actually, I don't. I try every day, every week... I'm just not successful)

Winter Song

I was poking around blogosphere last night and found some new blogs (to me) and sweet inspiration.

Click this link for another dose of sweetness. (i.e. "Winter Song" - by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson)