Eye Pillow Gifts

I don't think I ever posted this, but these were a really fun craft to make. I made them this past spring as a goodbye present for a group of women that I was meeting with for a few weeks as we did a Bible Study together.

The study was of the Bible book "Esther" which is where the quote on the eye pillows came from. They are made from a fun corduroy scrap that I used to make Libby Dibby skirts from on one side and the reverse side is a simple satin. They are filled with a mixture of flax seed and lavender.

The label with the words was a new thing for me. I just love words so much, that it was a great project to try out as I am sure it has many applications. I used basic letter stamps that I had in the deep dark (read: never sees the light of day) recesses of my scrapbooking supplies. (insert sigh of frustration here for my kids' unfinished baby albums) I stamped them with an permanent inkpad that I bought through my favorite weird textile design outlet - Dharma Trading Company. They are a delight to work with and are really really knowledgeable on textile dying, patterning etc. I've been buying from them for about 12 years now.

This took me one night to make all of them and they were a big hit with my friends.

If you want to make some, and I left anything out, feel free to make a comment with any questions.

Stealth inspiration photos.

Or maybe not so stealth, but I love my iphone for making it easier to capture pictures of inspirational things much more discreetly. When we were in Italy, there were so many clothes and women dressed in things I wanted pictures of - and as a tourist, it was easy to not offend - people wouldn't know that I was taking their pic. But here at home, it's nice to be a little discreet.

Regardless, here are some pictures from all over the place of clothing that has inspired me this summer.

Look at this gingerbread house purse... isn't it so fun?

I am not a purple fan, but I did love the drape of the dress and the combination of the mint color with the purple was really striking as we walked down the street in Venice.

Everything in this store looked like something I wanted in a bad way.

It also looked like I'd be paying it off the rest of my life. But someday, (you know, next week, when I return to Venice in my dreams!) I would love to go shopping in this lovely place.

Why can't I get enough patchwork? I think this was in Florence.

This one is my favorite of all the dresses I saw this summer. It's in a shop called "God Save the Queen" in Florence, Italy.

This was on an older woman in Seattle. Maybe that's why I liked it even more. A bold choice and she was no fashionista, but I liked the skirt a lot and I liked her for wearing it.

I don't do white. But I'd love to make this for myself in a different color.

We have a barrette winner!

Okay... as you can see from my attached pic from a "random number selector", comment #6 was chosen as the winner of the Barrette Giveaway. Which means that AMY BLUESTAR is our winner... congratulations, Amy! (please send me an email with your address, so I can ship it out to you)

A Little behind in my game

I guess summer means that more time as a family = less time to blog. I have a list so long about the things that I want to blog about- but we'll have to wait until the stars align for me to get some time to share them.

In the meantime... Today will be the last day to write your comment down for entry into the free barrette giveaway. (This has been fun, I am thinking that in August we need to have a spinny skirt giveaway for school shopping, don't you?

So go ahead, write in your thoughts about the barrettes, and we'll draw a random name tonight!

thanks again, everyone!