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!

Hours of embroidery.

I've been working pretty steady lately, but at some slow going embroidery projects.

The first one is a set of place mats that are actually for my own kitchen - so of course I picked an embroidery design that will probably take me years to finish. I bought some adorable retro inspired fabric at my mother in law's shop - a floral design with little line drawings of birds. And fir the back I picked a contrasting print in the same colors - a wild and bold stripe.

 The embroidery comes in as texture mostly - giving the place mats a really handmade feeling. Using thread of the same brown shade as the illustrative line work in the print, I'm following the lines with a simple running stitch. While a slow going process (especially since I work on them in between sellable projects) I am really happy with how they're turning out.

The second embroidery project I've got going is a table topper. Using a piece of sample fabric I was given I'm also using the same running stitch line tracing technique. The fabric is beautiful - Robbins egg blue, soft grey, bits of navy, and pops of lime green. As the backing n edging I'm using a plain navy blue.

Luckily this project is much faster moving (which helps keep my prices affordable when I go to sell things).

Well back to the needle work and a relaxing Sunday evening.

Is back! And so happy the holidays are over.

So it's been a while (almost 2 months I think) since my last post.  And boy do I have a lot to catch up on. 

So I spent all of November getting ready for the Maine College of Art Holiday Sale that I previously mentioned.   The sale went great!  And ended up well worth the work.   Big sellers were the Antique Button Broaches and the Embroidered Cocktail Napkins.  

Then there were the holidays.  Did they seem extra fast and crammed together to anyone else this year?

We did Thanksgiving with my family this year.  Then my family did Christmas early (the weekend of December 11th)  while my sister, brother-in-law, and adorable niece were visiting.  Then I squeezed in a Christmas celebration with the in-laws in between working (it was my year to work Christmas Eve and Christmas).  Crammed in was also poor Megs trying to study and finish this semester's finals.

When her two weeks break finally came around we were both SO ready for relaxation and time together.  

Oh!  And I can't forget New Years Eve!  

Megs and I got all fancied up (along with our fabulous friend Tiffanie) and headed out to a fantastic night at Space Gallery here in Portland for their event Icing.  There were multiple performances including the local Burlesque Troupe The Dirty Dishes

the sounds of Lady Zen

and hey is that the band from my wedding reception?!  IT IS! 

 Over A Card Board Sea performed bigger than ever. 

And the best part?  My new vintage hat had it's first night out (thanks again Greg and Jo ;) 

So now,  a new month - A NEW YEAR! and time to get back to work.  First on the list is photographs and listing all the remaining and new items in the Etsy shop.  

I hope everyone out there had a great November, December and Holiday season.  Here's a preview of items soon to be listed.