I am a lucky girl

So when we moved into our new apartment, and furniture and things began falling into place, I had a few things in my mind that were ideal. Things that I had wanted for awhile, or things that made more sense than things we had before.

And I am lucky, because at the Vintage Bazaar, I found two of those things:

Chris insists that we have a fan in the bedroom. The one we had was a sad, black, plastic eyesore in our mostly-vintage room, and I was on the lookout for a vintage fan. We found this beauty within 2 minutes of walking in the door, and it works! It's a lovely seafoam green, and was $30. A pretty good deal, if you ask me.

I have wanted this headboard for years. I swear, I have been thinking of this exact one - one of my best friends in college was staying in a friend's basement, and he had a similar headboard for his bed in a deep gold color. It was awesome, but I wanted a green version. And somehow, some way, I found it at the Vintage Bazaar. It was a mere $45. Incredibly cheap, considering how similar looks are selling at Urban Outfitters for $350!

It was incredibly packed at the bazaar - there was one point where I literally could not move - so we left right after buying the headboard. Overall, there was a lot more clothing than I expected. I thought it was going to be mostly home stuff, but it was about 60% clothes. I am still looking forward to the next one - which will hopefully take place in a bigger room.

Vintage Bazaar!!

Today I am going to this:

Link

It is right across the street from where I live. I am hoping to find some awesome stuff for the house. I am just so excited that someone is doing something like this! Right at the time that I need to furnish my place! Wish me luck!

yellow & grey

I am so inspired by yellow & grey together. After my new couch turned out to be such a lovely gold color, I knew I would love to go yellow & grey. The other chairs in our living room are slightly modern leather recliners in a putty color. Pretty blah. But then I bought a grey rug from Target and everything made sense!

So I started this:

Although it doesn't look like it - it will be a pillow - I promise! I am making two with these colors. A rectangle pillow will be covered with these lovely crocheted octagons, and a square pillow will be covered with a big granny square.

I feel like these colors are a great indication of my current surroundings - grey with small peeks of color. Maaaybe spring is on the way.

la moustache

I've been busy! When I think about what I would want on my wall - I think "facial hair." I made four of these little mustaches mounted on wood plaques.

The mustaches themselves are felt and embroidery. The wood plaques are the kind you get at any craft store - I'm sure you've seen them all over etsy. If you look closely, you can see the black and the blonde mustaches have little nails as well - like they are really mounted. I'm not sure which I like better - with nails or without.

In other news - I just watched "Bright Star."

It was really fantastic. Check out doe-c-doe and mr. x-stitch for more thorough info and pictures. The whole film is breathtakingly beautiful. Plus a lot of sewing and a good love story. sigh.

Now what excuse can I find to make this dress??

I cut my hair

Ok, so it's mostly just the bangs. I am done with my show, and therefore have complete freedom! So last night I cut some bangs. I'm still getting used to them.

Things have been a bit quiet around here, but no worries, I have been working and I will have some fun stuff to show you soon!

Happy Valentines Day!

It's Valentine's Day!

(frosted cookies courtesy of my mom)

I made this little v-day themed embroidery... but now I'm unsure what to do with it. I was going to hang it on the wall - but I don't know. Maybe a pillow? What do you think?

Thrift Store Find!

I found this little guy a few weeks ago:

I loved the image, and immediately recognized vintage milk glass. The back says this:

!!! What?! It is so random, so funny, so cryptic! After I got it home, I did a quick search on the interwebs. It turns out this was a promotional product manufactured by a company called "Federal" for different corporations in the 50's. I even found a yellow one! I cannot imagine what the motivation for giving these out would be. Rewards for the worst idea? The "baddest guy?" Either way, there are a lot of them out there, so keep your eyes peeled, and maybe you too could own your own "I had a bad idea" mug.

Craigslist Finds

My boyfriend and I moved into our apartment just over two months ago. We both lived with other roommates before that, and had very little furniture to call our own. No table, no couch, cheap dressers, etc. It was a dire situation.

I turned to the Craigslist.

First find: In December we found this gorgeous "credenza," which we use as a dresser in our bedroom.

Ok, it's a bit small. But I had to have it. It is really beautiful. Definitely the highest quality of all our new furnitures.

After that, I was on the look out for a similar piece to serve as an entertainment center to set the tv on. I didn't really find anything I liked until we stumbled across this unique cabinet:

It's a cabinet for holding records! Inside there are two shelves with wires to stand up your records. We put dvd's in there. Modern times, you know. I really like this piece because it is a little bit smaller. Our apartment is big for us, but it is still only a one-bedroom. Small things make more sense.

Chris needed a new desk, as his old desk had died a pathetic death as only a cheap particle board desk could do. It literally just pulled apart.

After searching many places online (Target, Ikea) and scouring the CL ads, this baby popped up. Happy Birthday, Chris!

Last, but not least, the sofa.

I search for a good long time for this one. I considered buying an "expensive" couch from a store. Did you know that couches are really expensive?! But then, about a week ago, I found this: vintage, brocade, gold, with wood accents! It's really much more gold than the picture shows, which means it is my favorite color. I am planning on doing the room in gold and grey, a current color combo obsession. Also, we bought this for $150. It was so cheap because the springs were all popped out underneath. The woman we bought it from explained how to fix it, and Chris did so! So far it is holding up...

One thing I have to say about all these purchases: buying from Craigslist has treated us really well. Not only is it good for the environment (reusing!), but there are some really cool, quirky things out there. On top of that, the people are genuinely interesting and interested in you! Of these four pieces, two were bought from independent furniture businesses, one from an artist working in a garage, and one from a professional furniture maker. All these people were very kind and fair. Many of them gave me first dibs (because I had responded first), even when offered more money! All-in-all, I would reccomend the Craigslist.

Valentimes!

After seeing them all over the interwebs, I recently purchased a Fuji Instax Mini Camera.

I looooove it! For those of you who do not know, it takes small instant photos. Like a polaroid, but wallet-sized. They are from Japan, but can easily be found on the web. I bought mine off ebay, and it came with 10 packs of film (10 pics each). I used it to take pictures of the cast of my current show, Johnny Ten Bones.

I decided to use these photos to make them personalized valentines! Ok, if you are in the show and reading this, act surprised on Sunday!

It's an easy project that you can do, too.

Step 1: Take pictures. Of you, your kiddies, your bf/gf, etc

Step 2: Scan the pictures into the computer and print out on regular ole computer paper. You could try to use the actual photo, but it would be really hard to sew through.

Assemble tools: Card stock (I used Mat Stack), rubber cement, paper print-outs of the pictures, thread and stamps.

Step 3: Use the rubber cement to paste the picture print-outs to the card stock. Let this dry.

Step 4: Cut out a heart shape, making sure to cut through both layers. If you are unsure about free-handing it, draw one on scrap paper first and use it as a template.

Step 5: Use your favorite stamps to dress 'em up a bit. I used my trusty "Birds & Nests" stamp set and stamped on both the front and the back.

Step 6: Use thick embroidery thread to stitch around the outside of the card. Where the photo print-out touches the edge, stitch through all layers. I did a blanket stitch, but you could do any sort of decorative stitch or just a whip stitch.

Step 7: Write a cute message and you are done!

Quick Little Monster!

I made this little guy yesterday from this kit, which I received as part of a Secret Santa back in December. It only took about a half an hour because there is no sewing required. The body is already sewn for you and you seal it with "magic tape" aka velcro. All the little felt circles have sticky stuff on the back, and you just stick them on your monster wherever you wish. Pretty cute, but I thought he could use a few stitches. So add 10 minutes for stitching time.

This kit would be a great gift for a child who has not mastered sewing yet, but wants to create.

Also, it looks like a 5 legged cat, but the kit claims it is an octopus. Hrm...

a little commission...

I was commissioned to make these pretty little slippers!

Pattern: Felted Clogs from Fiber Trends

Yarn: Shepherd's Wool from Stonehedge Fiber Mill (they're in Michigan!)

Overall, these turned out very well. The pattern is fun, and this is my most successful felting project to date! The fabric is nice and thick, and held a good slipper-ish shape. Fairly successful, except that I felted them a bit too small for the recipient! Negative points for that.

Ok, pictures of new apartment furnishings to come!

Giftee!

I got a ball winder for Christmas! So I spent some quality time this weekend winding my entire stash of yarn into lovely little yarn cakes. Mmmm... looks like an ice cream cone.

Holiday Making, Part 3

Sewing!

To start us off, a cute little reindeer ornament friend:

This is based on a pattern I came across awhile ago for a felt lamb. It is tiny - about 3" tall. The horns are made of wire and painted brown. It was gifted to my boyfriend's parents.

My sister in law is very fond of requesting gifts. For her daughter, my two year old niece, she sent me a picture of a felt lunch. (No source! I'm sorry! If anyone recognizes this, please link me.) The lunch that I made for my niece turned out very well. A sandwich, bag of chips and a cupcake.

After making the piece of lettuce and tomato for the sandwich, I was inspired to make...

A felt BLT!

This is actually a magnet set. Five little magnets - two pieces of toast, tomato, lettuce and bacon. Because of the magnets, they stick together like a sandwich. This was gifted to my best friend. I plan to make a few more for the selling soon.

I also made some pins using this tutorial. A great way to use up some extra fabric scraps. I used a glue gun. Much faster, and I really loved the results. These were gifted to my friends and sister in law. Very cute!

In the past few weeks I've found quite a few awesome things on Craigslist and at thrifts stores, so I'll show you those soon!