PHEW!! Finally August is over.  The last two months have been straight out and insanely busy.  I have never wished for summer to be over.  And, I must say, now that September is here I am fully enjoying having an entire long weekend with the Mrs. lounging, taking the pups to the park and relaxing.  

This summer has been busy as a whole, but what's been taking up the biggest chunk of time was a large sewing order for my friend Sarah.  

My fantastic friends Sarah and Mike got married last weekend. (The Mrs. did a reading during the ceremony and looked pretty darn cute if you ask me :) 

 So wanted to have some handmade A Retro Remedy items made for the gift baskets for the wedding party.   As gifts for her brides maids, the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom I we decided I'd make embroidered tea towels.  (9 of them - each different)

And for the two flower girls I made embroidered flannel blankets. 

I was told that the youngest of the two flower girls had a pirate themed bedroom and LOVED the color pink.  So Sarah and I decided to make a blanket of polka dot flannel (grey with pink polka dots on the backside and white with pink polka dots on the front) with a bright pink skull and crossbones sewn on  (and of course my A Retro Remedy logo sewn onto the back corner). 

And for the older flower girl was a blanket that may be my favorite blanket so far.  (Though it's a close tie with the rocket ship blanket my made last winter). 

I was told this flower girls loved fairy tales, dragons, and purple.  So what did that become?   The front of her blanket has a background of blue flannel with small white polka dots and had a large purple flannel dragon flying by a fairy tale castle floating on a cloud. 

While it took a lot of time, I couldn't be happier with how the order turned out.  

And as a bonus I was there when Sarah gave everyone their gifts and they all loved them (even before they knew I made them).  I even got a hug from the flower girl who received the dragon blanket and got to see her run around wrapped up in it for the rest of the evening. 

And before I go I'll wish congratulations again to Sarah and Mike. 

 I hope you both all the happiness The Mrs and I have.  

Now - on to more projects!! 

Loading up the Etsy shop!

Well I have had a very productive weekend.  

A full day of sewing on Saturday (including finishing a commissioned fantastic 50's style waist apron from left over vintage fabric),

 a baby shower Sunday and more sewing, 

and a whole Monday of taking pictures and listing items on Etsy.  

There's still more to come - I'll be adding new items regularly.  

So check it out.  Maybe you'll find something perfect for your home :)

Have a great week!

Invasion of the Babies!

Lately it seems almost all my projects (commissions especially) are for incoming babies.  i guess it's the age - the last few years it's weddings weddings weddings and now onto the babies!  Thank goodness nursery decor is fun to make. I mean when else do u get to put rockets and robots and baby birds on everything? :)

This week I finished that fun pink blanket to add to the shop and finished a present for my friends baby shower.  I wanted to make them something built to last - decor meets keepsake.  And, of course, I wanted it to be cute and a little retro.  

So I made some adorable wooden alphabet blocks.  

For so many of the kiddos I know, the decor of their room and their favorite color changes as often as the wind blows.  So in wanted to make something that will last the test of time I didn't go with the exact nursery colors now.  

I found this fabulous little pack of scrap book paper (70% recycled paper - bonus!!) patterned with little critters and wall-paper-like patterns (and I'm sure I've mentioned my obsession love for wallpaper)  in pale blues, warm reds, creams, faded browns, and greens.

For this set I also used pre-cut felt letters, but for future sets I think I'm going to print and cut my own from a thicker paper instead - it was hard to find letters in the color and font I really wanted.  

To finish them off I sanded the edges to soft rounded corners and sanded the edges of the paper for a look of age and wear.  Then the whole things was sealed with my favorite non-toxic sealer - matte finish mod podge. 

I think they came out just as good as I imagined!

Oh, and that finished blanket?

That came out pretty good too :)   

Hope everyone had a great week!  Until next time...

Some news and some sewing.

Well May has come and gone and even with a large amount of rainy days here in Portland it's really beginning to feel like summer. Everything is blooming, the apple blossoms that line my street smelled amazing, and now the city smells like ocean and lilacs (my favorite smell) and I've already had one terrible sunburn! And I ended the month with my 28th birthday - celebrated with fabulous friends, a show at the Empire, and dancing into the wee hours.  All in all it's been a pretty good spring.

Also in May  - A Retro Remedy was the featured blog over at Making Jewelry Supplies.com.   They have some great blog suggestions - not to mention the shop itself.

I have some orders coming up to work on next - tea towels, toddler pillows, pressed flower cards - as well as some gifts to work on. But for now I'm finishing up unfinished projects and filling up the Etsy shop.

The latest project was inspired by the material itself.  Sometimes when I'm just perusing the bins of fabric ends and remnants, with no planned project i'll just see something that needs to be made .

So I found this super soft, adorable flannel fabric - one piece was pink with white polka dots, another a marbled pink, and the 3rd (perfect for the edging) was stripe of pink, green, and white.  So they became a little throw/ baby blanket embroidered with "sugar and spice" and a big cupcake topped with a cherry. 

Once a take some finished pictures it's heading right to the Etsy shop.  

Until next time - have a great June!

Playing catch-up

With all the beautiful sunshine the last few days it seems strange to try to post pictures with snow on the ground, but it was really only about two months ago and I am  rather behind with my blogging - so I've got a bit of catching up to do.  

This past February Megs and I finally used the weekend getaway gift we received from our truly fantastic friends back when we got hitched.  So we hopped the ferry here in Portland and rode over to Peaks Island - staying at the Inn On Peaks Island.  

 Being that it was still winter and snow covered there wasn't exactly a lot going on on the island - but a weekend of quiet relaxation is really what we both were in need on. 

And relaxing wasn't exactly hard to do cozy in front of the fire in our HUGE room.  (I'm pretty sure the room was bigger than my apartment! )

Part of my relaxation was to get a commission done while I had time and no distractions.  A friend of mine just welcomed to the world her first nephew.  So she wanted a toddler pillow and blanket made for the little guy - involving the color red and robots.  

And the result:

A blue fleece blanket with a bright red rocket ship (piloted by an adorable little robot) soaring through the stars! And a matching red flannel pillow with the robot embroidered on.  

All the pieces added to the fleece blanket are supper soft flannel - all sewn on with a  running stitch used as decorative line work. 

And rather than sewing in one my my ribbon labels, I opted for a softer version for the kiddo  - 

and embroidered flannel heart. 

In other news, the Etsy shop is pretty barren right now while I figure out a glitch in my paypal account in the receiving payment section.  But there is a stock pile of hand made fabulousness waiting to be listed!  As well as another good size order of toddler pillows and tea towels to come.  So I suppose I should get back to it.  

Have a great week!