Thursday, March 31, 2011


Anniversaries are special aren't they? They sure are, and a great blog I read called The Vintage Sheet Blog recently turned one and to celebrate Jen has been hosting a month of giveaways. Some seriously wonderful prize packs have been given away and some are still available!
Because of my roller coaster ride that is/was the month of march, I did not get to do a lot of sewing. But, I did manage to get a small fat quarter bundle together to give away!


These are five fat quarters (18x22")but really they are at least that in size, some are much bigger. And, in case you are wondering, I haven't even had the chance to sew with a couple of these. The top yellow one? I allowed myself that little goody recently (I have been on a very strict no new stash buying policy.) But it was too gorgeous not to pick up, I mean c'mon it is yellow and lacy!
The brooch is a little number I whipped up mostly because I felt bad that it was not a more exciting giveaway. ;)
If you would like a chance to win this pretty little pack, all you need to do is head over to The Vintage Sheet Blog and follow her instructions.
Bonne chance!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wednesday on Wednesday

My camera has disappeared. I am not even kidding, I have not been able to find it for more than a week. Which sucks because I hadn't had a chance to upload the Little Cataraqui Creek Sugarbush photos yet. So, to keep the Wednesday on Wednesday truck motoring along, I'll share with you a moment, that Wednesday herself has not forgotten for a moment since it happened.
What could I be be talking about? Dinosaur skeletons? Halloween costumes? Christmas morning? These all sound most wonderful, but alas, these are not the memories she asks about almost daily.
"Mommy, can we dye eggs again?"
This is what she asks me almost daily since the first time we did it. Don't believe me? Watch the super short video below and listen for the sheer delight in her voice. I had not heard this tone before nor have I heard it since.

"We made eggs! Do you see? Isn't it beautiful? Do you want to touch it? We made it!" The excitement she experienced from dying eggs was awe inspiring. And when spring was approaching I told her we could dye eggs when the snow had melted away (As in when spring was here.) Well, the snow has melted and she asks me every day to dye eggs. But we are brown egg consumers here so I keep forgetting to pick up a couple dozen white eggs for Wednesday to to go to town on.
We just did the old food colouring with vinegar to set it. This year I would like to try the all natural methods with beet roots and onions skins etc.


Well, I am on top of ti this year, this week we'll pick up some stuff and try round one of egg dying. How about you? Do you do anything fun when you dye eggs? Are you one of those ridiculously talented Ukrainian Egg designers? Go au natural? Care to share your tips and tricks?

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

My Crafty Weekend


Good morning my fellow crafties. I am going to make this weeks post super quick as I am suffering from a most horrendous toothache. Seriously bed ridden here, for when the pain killers work, the combination of them plus antibiotics keep me moving fairly slowly due to stomach upset. Anyways, even the computer can be trying at times, so I am going to do a condensed version of My Crafty Weekend. I hope you understand. On with your creations!

This tasty number was made by Kelly of The Rhinestone Beagle. In her attempts to eat less meat and still get protiens she shares with us this Tomato and Corn Black bean Salad. Yum. Picture this on organic corn tortilla chips and sour cream?!

In the spirit of Mend & Make Do I had to share one of Michelle Pacey's most recent creations. Over at Michelle Made Me you can get the full how to on these lovely upcycled paper flowers. I think I might make a garland of them (when I am feeling better of course.)

Selina of Creative Juices shared with us this fabulous plate makeover. She shows you not only how to make this great piece but shows you a super great way to hang them as well.

Wow you guys have been busy! What have you been up to lately? Baking, scrapbooking, sewing? How about papier mache? Distressed any great flea market finds? Share with us your creative endeavors! Feel free to grab and share the buttons below! Also, don't forget to visit the link before yours and leave some good comment karma! Have fun crafties!



 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Mend & Make Do

What's this? A new button? Are you intrigued yet? Good! For those of you that read Cynthia's blog The Sewing Dork, you will already know what this is about. For the rest of you ;) let me share with you this wonderful bit of awesomeness.
Mend & Make do is a sort of 'series' for lack of better word of posts that will focus on repairing, reusing and generally un-consuming in our daily life. Inspired by some vintage war era reading material Cynthia wanted to do a few blog posts (Not of the sew along sort or anything really rigid at all.)that erred on the more frugal side of creation. I thought it was wonderful, being a wanna-be refashionista I was totally up for the challenge.
So, expect some posting about being frugal, great mending and reusing posts and of course, everyone's favourite; refashioning! If you have an idea for a guest post please feel free to contact me via one of the links on my sidebar!

And because Cynthia is much more ont he ball then me, here is her most recent refashioning post!

Cheers and happy NOT spending!

Monday, March 21, 2011

My Crafty Weekend


Happy Monday my fellow crafties! What a weekend, what a weekend! We went to a sugar bush (MMMm freshly boiled maple syrup!) had a date night and did some major Grandparent visiting. Needless to say I did not get a single stitch of crafting done. I still have some pics of what I got up to last week though.

With my machines doing weird things I could only craft, not sew (Beyond frustrating!) And I am desperately trying to make enough stuff for an upcoming craft fair (my first!) so I felt pretty darn accomplished when I made a six brooches and twenty two hair clips! I wanted to show you pictures today but alas, we are having a mid March snow storm so natural lighting in this house is only a fantasy.But I have since worked out my machine issues and will have oodles of fabric goodies to share soon!But, enough of my craft endeavors, what you want to see is yours!

Do these make you hungry? They should. Denise of Extreme Personal Measures
linked to this yummy looking dish. To get the recipe for these personal macaroni pies visit the post here.

Melissa of Those Northern Lights shared with us this wonderful coin box. Made for her father-in-law, she embroidered the image and used corduroy for the coin 'ridges'. So cute, and so clever.

Lori of Paisley Passions linked up photos of her craft space. Serious crafter envy here. I was totally geeking out on all of her storage ideas and solutions. Great job on the deco too. To see some great pics (some seriously messy before ones too!) visit the post here.

Wow you guys have been busy! What have you been up to lately? Baking, scrapbooking, sewing? How about papier mache? Distressed any great flea market finds? Share with us your creative endeavors! Feel free to grab and share the buttons below! Also, don't forget to visit the link before yours and leave some good comment karma! Have fun crafties!



 


Thursday, March 17, 2011

How To : T-Shirt Poppy

You know, this blogging thing is not like riding a bike. I took such a long break that I am having trouble typing things like introductions. I know weird right? It could also be that between My Crafty Weekend and the two Tumblr blogs that I have gotten used to typing quick and informative blurbs about photos and posts. Maybe? So how about I just show you a picture of what we'll be making and move on to the directions?
Every now and then I surprise myself.  This jersey poppy is one of those times. There are a lot of fabric flower tutorials out there. Like, a lot. I know, I have them bookmarked! But this is one I don't remember seeing anywhere and came up with just kind of messing around. I think the best ideas come that way don't they? No pressure to create, just playing. Anyhoo, it is super simple, super cheap (Old t-shirts, scraps and eyelets.) and super fabulous. This is how it is done:
Gather ye supplies.

 
 
 
 Voila! Ca c'est tres bon!
Enjoy your awesome handiwork.
This is what I used mine on. More on that (the pillow) next week!
Now go one with your crafty selves! 
♥♥♥

p.s. I'm proudly linking to: 

 Made By You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou
Inspire Me Monday @ Singing Three Little Birds
 Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping it Simple 
Making The World Cuter Monday @ Making The World Cuter
Tutorial Tuesday @ Hope Studios
Creative Share Wednesday @ The Trendy Treehouse
Idea Sharin' Wednesday @ Women Who Do It All
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
 We Did It Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
Make It & Wear It @ The Train To Crazy
Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Monday, March 14, 2011

My Crafty Weekend


Wow another Monday already! And March break too! Are you psyched? This is our first March break, Wednesday attends a play school twice a week and they close with the schools. I didn't realize it until Friday though so I haven't anything awesome planned. Maybe some Grandma time, a little messy paint and glitter fun and a playdate? Hopefully a dinosaur dig at the local museum as well, Wednesday loves her some dinosaur bones.

Last week I seemed to never be home, so I have a lot of projects planned, and even some begun but nothing finished. I did get around to making some flowers though.

Super fun yes? The felt ones were super fast and the tutorial can be found here. The others were a lot more tedious but well worth it yes?! I followed the tutorial for those here.

Ready to see what you crafty folk got up to last week? me too!

The brilliant Nancy of Nancy's Couture has a tutorial for this cute and clever card wallet. You have to know I am making myself one this week, the little plastic thing I use is falling apart (and business cards don't fit anyways!)

The always inspiring Donna of Comin' Home created this clever seed catcher. To get the full how to visit her blog here.

Over at House To Your Home you can check out this gorgeous fireplace make over. Seriously, the before photo will make you drop your jaw. Isn't his just beautiful?

Wow you guys have been busy! What have you been up to lately? Baking, scrapbooking, sewing? How about papier mache? Distressed any great flea market finds? Share with us your creative endeavors! Feel free to grab and share the buttons below! Also, don't forget to visit the link before yours and leave some good comment karma! Have fun crafties!


 


Wednesday, March 9, 2011

How To : Sew a Vinyl Zippered Clutch


 My latest and greatest creation!
Good morning! I hope your week is going well? Mine has been motoring right along. Between my tumblr blog Storage Geek taking off (447 followers yay!), my sewing space finally being workable, my handmade goods shop looking more and more like a reality, blogger relations (Think sew alongs, read alongs and giveaways!)on the rise oh yeah, and you know, family life I have been kept very busy. And loving it. I forgot how much I thrive in a packced schedule. That old adage "I do my best work under pressure." well that is me in a nutshell. My adage is "If I can't put it off until the night before than it is not worth doing!" (Kind of.) But, during my lull that was December through February I had been saving ideas on my computer, scratching out rudimetary designs in my notebook(s) and gathering my supplies.

Photo Credit: Honestly...WTF
Inspired by this fabulous electric blue zippered leather clutch back in February I have been dying to make one but my leather stash was lost in the move. (No joke, I had a giant soft red leather coat I bought at a thrift shop just vanish in the move it made me very sad.) One day I remembered the faux croc skin vinyl place mat I bought at a dollar store. I had one of those a-ha! moments and now you can share in my joy.

And this is what I made. I made the black and red one last week and used it all weekend as my purse. I made the brown and teal one for the tutorial. Now, making a clutch from a place mat is not necessarily tutorial material, but sewing with vinyl is and also my clutches have no bottom seam, I folded it over which made the zipper sewing a bit tricky. So when you come back looking for the tutorial it will be listed under the techniques section on my tutorial page.

Ok, I think I said the word tutorial enough, lets get on with it!

Materials
Vinyl place mat (Or leather piece)
Zipper (A little longer than the short end of your place mat)
Matching thread
Painter's masking tape (Super low tack)

Modus Operandi

1.
Line tape up with short edge of place mat.I would tell you to do this to both ends now but with the low tack tape it will come off before you get to the second side.

2.
Now it is time to sew the place mat to the zipper wrong side of mat to top side of zipper. Using a straight stitch foot line up tape edge with inside edge of foot. keep them as close as possible while sewing. 

3.

See? Nice clean (approx) 1/8" seam.

4.
When you remove the tape, tear it in half and slowly tear up from the bottom. This makes the seam act like a perforated seam so that you do not rip out your stitching. Same goes with the top half piece of tape, slowly tear downwards to remove it.

5.
MMm, nice clean edge. No fancy zipper foot needed here!

6. 

Now you are going to repeat steps 1 - 3. Because we did not cut the place mat in half we were not able to sew down both sides of the zipper with ease. So when you go to sew the second side, make your zipper is open to the end and the watch the tails.

7.
It is fairly easy until you get to the end of the mat/zipper and you notice that last inch is going to be super tricky, stop there. (Sorry for the blurry photo, I was trying to show how it gets bunched up.)

8.
Pull the mat out and turn it around so that it looks like the picture above. Now you can finish that last inch without wrecking your (very unforgiving) vinyl or serious frustration.

9.
Turn inside out. If you have a label to attach, now is a good time to add it in. I opened up an inch of the seam and sewed it closed before sewing the side seams.

10.

Open zipper a couple inches. Now, line up the sides so that they are even at the zipper. You need to sew from the bottom up. Oh yes, I forgot to add tape the sides again, this time top and bottom because now there will be vinyl along the plate too. (I guess you could just tape the metal plate, that didn't occur to me until just now.)

11.
 When you have sewn your side seams and you are happy, trim off zipper pieces.

12.
Tadaa! Your newly fashioned oversized zippered clutch! What I really want is to make one of these with TWO place mats so that it is just huge. Unfortunately, the dollar store I bought the mats at was out of stock so I have to do some shopping around to find more.

And that is all she wrote folks. It has been a long time since I wrote and photographed a tutorial and it is not like riding a bike lol. Anyway, please feel free to ask me any questions I am more than happy to answer them. If they are tutorial related I'll respond here so that others can benefit from the answer.

I will definitely be linking!




 Made By You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou
Inspire Me Mondays @ Singing Three Little Birds
 Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping it Simple 
Making The World Cuter Monday @ Making The World Cuter
Tutorial Tuesday @ Hope Studios
Creative Share Wednesday @ The Trendy Treehouse
Idea Sharin' Wednesday @ Women Who Do It All
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
 We Did It Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
Make It & Wear It @ The Train To Crazy
Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello