Art & Soul

I'm back from Vegas.  My mom and I had a wonderful trip.  I always enjoy getting away and spending some creative time with my mom.

As soon as we arrived in Vegas, we went for a late lunch at my favorite restaurant, Mon Ami Gabi.  Located in the Paris Hotel, it has wonderful French Bistro food. We spent an hour or two relaxing, eating and having a few drinks.  We also took lots of photos.

Other diners probably thought us mad as we photographed water, food, chairs...whatever struck our fancy.

The next day we took Katie Kendrick's class, For the Love of Cardboard.  My mom has been wanting to take the class ever since she read Katie's article about the project in Cloth, Paper, Scissors a few years ago. Katie proved to be a generous teacher and my mom and I left class feeling very pleased with ourselves and our little books.

The only disappointing thing about the trip was that I struggled with a cold throughout.  Because of the dry, desert air, the cold seems to have lodged itself in my ears, leaving me with muffled hearing and ear pain.  I'm trying to lay low today and am hoping to recover soon.  If you have any home remedies for ear infections, please share!
________________________________
Material Disclosure:
I have received no compensation for the mention of any brand names/locations in this post.

Tea on Saturday

bird art

It was a complete coincidence.  Two projects.  Two different mediums.  Two yellow birds.

As I gathered my weekend projects to show you today, I realized I did TWO projects featuring yellow birds.  I guess I had birds on the brain.

I haven't painted in awhile.  On Saturday morning, I was overcome by the urge to paint.  Luckily, it was a weekend morning and I could actually sneak away and honor my muse in timely fashion.  That doesn't happen often and I was very glad to be able to do it.  I think my happiness is pretty apparent in the painting.  I'm thinking this little bird painting might get printed onto some fabric for some future sewing projects.

The other project is a small birdcage.  It originally was a dark green, but I coated it with Art Glitter*.  Let me tell you, it was a messy project and I was coated in glitter for about two days afterwards!

I added some button flowers I made using some samples I received at the Blumenthal Lansing* booth.  They have an amazing array of buttons!

I made the little felt hat the bird is wearing and even hand embroidered it.  I'm finding that I've been much more patient about crafting lately.  Taking my time and adding tons of detail to my work.  Maybe I'm slowing down in my old age.  I used to rush through projects because I was so excited to see my ideas become a finished project.  Now I enjoy the journey almost as much as I enjoy the finished project.

I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow to go to Art & Soul with my mom.  I'll schedule a post for Wednesday though and will be back on Friday.  Have a great week!
_____________________________
*Given a Sample

I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period.

Going Local

I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle right now.  I know it's been out for awhile, but I'm pretty slow on the uptake.  Actually, I originally ignored it because I thought it was probably too radical for me.  But I was wrong!  It's a fabulous read and I'm learning so much about making informed decisions about my food purchases.  I've even been inspired to avoid buying fruits and veggies at my grocery store.  Every week, my little family heads over to our local Farmers' Market and buys our supplies for the week.  I'm finding the food tastes a million times better, is often less expensive and is challenging me to cook with whatever is in season now.

I bring a large canvas bag to store all my purchases in, but I found it frustrating that I didn't have anything to put my individual purchases in.  For example, every time I bought oranges, I would have to get a plastic bag from the farmer and fill it with my choices for weighing.  I felt pretty bad about going to the trouble of going to the Farmers' Market and hurting the environment by using plastic bags.

Which brings me to the Goodwill.  In addition to making more environmentally correct food choices, I'm also trying to consume less.  When I do need to buy something, I have been checking the Goodwill and other second-hand stores to see if I can buy gently-used items.  On a recent trip I found some funky, 1970s style curtains.  Orange and brown.  The hot colors for kitchens in the 1970s, but not really hip for today's decor.  As I held those curtains in my hands, I knew they would be a perfect solution for my produce bag issue.  I snapped them up and hurried home to my sewing machine.

I was able to get 6 drawstring bags from one panel.  I think the bags are perfect to fill with produce and pretty whimsical too.  The weight of the cloth probably adds an ounce or two to the fruit's weight, but since that's money going to my local farmers, I don't really mind.  I feel like this is a truly "green" project since I recycled the material and saved a landfill from the both the old curtains and plastic bags.  I'm thinking Barbara Kingsolver would be proud!

I'm looking into making some from netting or organza next for my grocery store trips.  I know the cashiers at the big supermarkets need to be able to see the stickers on the produce in order to ring them up.

I am keeping a few of the bags for myself, but have also listed some in my shop.  If you want to look really hip and save the environment, be sure to pop over and pick-up one or two.

_______________________________
*Material Disclosure:  
I am an affiliate with Amazon books and will receive a commission if you make a purchase via the book link above.
I am the owner of the Etsy shop link and will make a profit from purchases made via the shop link above.
All other brand mentions are my opinion and I have no material connection.

flowers

I love to extend the life of bouquets of flowers by pulling out what hasn't wilted and making mini-arrangements. I had a tea tin laying around and thought the black was a great background for some sweet flowers my daughter gave me a few weeks ago. These photos were taken today and these are the last two flowers left from a bouquet I was given on Superbowl weekend. Those are some hardy flowers!

Much hardier than the lovely flowers my husband bought for me at the Farmer's Market on Valentine's Day. The snapdragons and light pink roses were a bit too delicate to last long, but I took a quick photo today so that I'll have it to remind me of their fading beauty.

I also usually change the water in my vases every couple of days and trim the stems to prolong the beauty of my flowers. Do you have any tips for cut flowers? It's almost Spring and I would like to keep my cut flowers happy as long as I can.

Art & Soul Retreat

I'm getting ready to go to the Art & Soul Retreat in Las Vegas next week.  My mom is coming too.  We try to take a little trip together each year.  We went to Art & Soul in Portland, Oregon a few years ago and are really excited to attend the Vegas retreat this year.

It's a tradition at these retreats to have items to trade with other attendees.  It's generally a good idea to have at least 25 items for trades.  Every time I go, I promise I won't wait until the last minute to get my trades made, but I always end-up frantically working away at the last minute.  This year was no different.

I've been tied to my sewing machine the past few days, surrounded by fabric scraps, making my selvage bracelets and needle cases to give out at the retreat.  Considering I'm doing this at the last minute (as usual), I'm pretty happy with how they are turning out.  I'm hoping that my fellow Art & Soul attendees agree.

If you will be in Vegas next week, let me know.  I'd love to meet-up with some of my blog pals if possible.

lemons

I know I've been a bad blogger.  I just switched from a PC to a Mac and I'm going through the process of moving files and photos and learning new software.  Hang in there with me!  And if you have any advice or book recommendations to make the process easier for me, please let me know.

We are having unseasonable warm weather here in Southern California this weekend.  It's amazingly beautiful and is giving me a bad case of early Spring Fever.  Our lemon tree is producing like crazy, causing me to dream of long, hot, summer days and ice-cold lemonade.  It doesn't help that a recent trip to the Goodwill, resulted in the purchase of these plastic coolers.  They are crazy bright, but I couldn't resist them.  They look like something Lily Pulitzer would love.  (Or my mom in the seventies!)  In fact these bring strong feelings of childhood nostalgia up for me and I'm wondering if we had a similiar print somewhere in our old kitchen.

Do you find you are drawn to items that remind you of your childhood when you are out thrifting?

Heart Shaped Box Tutorial

The 2009, year end issue of Marie Claire Idees had an idea in it that inspired this project. In the magazine, they suggested (I'm guessing here because I can only a read a tiny bit of French and it's just what I can make out based on my knowledge of Spanish) that you put architectural elements on painted boxes to create a faux, porcelain-like relief. I thought it looked incredibly elegant. The boxes looked like something one would give a gift to Marie Antoinette in. But I didn't feel like going to the hardware store to get architectural elements, so I came up with this variation of the project. I think the finished box almost looks like an expensive, delicate piece of porcelain. This would be a great project for Valentine's Day, but you could also tuck a Mother's Day gift inside it too.

Supplies:

-Chipboard box: Mine was already pink, but you can get a plain box and paint it in any color you like.
-Tape. You want something that will be easily removed and won't pull the paint off of your box.
-Pallet knife or small offset spatula.
-Molding Paste: I used Liquitex. I've also had success using plain, old spackle for projects like this one.
-Stencil: Buy one or cut your own.
-Varnish

Instructions:

1. Lay your stencil onto to the top of your box. Tape it down.

2. Using your pallet knife, spread a generous amount of molding paste over the stencil. Make sure the entire design is covered with a thick layer of spackle. Once you have a nice mound of molding paste on the box, smooth it over. It's okay if you have molding paste on the plastic part of the stencil, but avoid getting it anywhere on the box except for in the design.

3. Gently remove the tape you used to secure your stencil and LIFT the stencil off the box. It's important that you grab onto opposites edges of the stencil and lift off in a upwards motion. If you try to peel the stencil off holding one corner, you will also peel most of the molding paste off. This is a tricky step, but the good news is you can immediately scrape off the molding paste if you don't like how it turned out and start again. (This will only work with wet paste though, so don't let it dry and then try to chip it off!)

4. Let the molding paste design dry thoroughly. This can take a few hours or even overnight depending on how thickly you applied the paste.

5. Once the molding paste is dry, gently apply a coat of varnish to the box and the relief. This will give you the shiny look of porcelain.

____________________________________

Material Connection Disclosure: I have no material connection to any of the brand names mentioned in this post.

fortune cookie valentines

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to not wait until the last minute to do crafty things for the holidays throughout the year. I usually wait until the last minute and then my projects don't turn out as well or even worse, I just end up having to run to the store to get the decorations, gifts and cards I need.

Valentine's Day was a big test for me in this area. I was happy with the valentines I made for my daughter to take to school last year, but I wanted to make sure I had I plenty of time to make great ones for her party this week.

Since Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year fall on the same day this year, I thought I would incorporate the two holidays. We sewed cute, felt fortune cookies. (With my daughter sewing on my lap again.) Then I printed out fortunes that read: "I am so fortunate to have you for a friend!" I tucked the fortunes into the cookies, and then packed them in mini, take-out containers. We punched hearts and glued them to the boxes.

I think they are pretty cute. And in my dreams, I picture her classmates using them to have pretend tea parties. After cutting out & sewing 27 felt cookies, please tell me they won't be trashed!

Embroidered Pillow

Do you remember this little girl? I gave you a sneak peek of her a few days ago when I was talking about possibly selling some of my sketches as embroidery patterns? Well, I finished the project I was working on! I used the embroidered piece and sewed a pillow. A pillow I love, but don't really have anywhere to put. I'm debating if I should it put in my shop.


I've found it much more difficult to sell my hand-embroidered and sewn works. When I sell note cards or artwork, it's not as hard because I have scans of everything I sell. I know that I have photos of my pillows, but I still feel like I'm losing something I can't get back. Maybe it's because, as a new sewer, I'm putting a lot of blood, sweat & tears into it.

But I think I need to start putting some of my fabric work in my shop. My house is completely over-stuffed with pillows. And not sewing isn't an option.

No-Sew Elastic Headband Tutorial

Remember the tights I turned into socks? Well, I still had the top of the tights left-over and decided to do another project using the top. This is a five minute, no-sew project.

Supplies Needed:

1. Old pair of tights.
2. Scissors
3. Silk Flower
4. Safety Pin or Hot Glue


Directions:

1. Cut the elastic off the top of the tights as shown in the photo above.

2. Using a safety pin or hot glue, attach the flower to the elastic. I like the pin idea because you can change out the flowers according to outfits, but if you are making a headband for a small child, you may want to opt for the glue option for safety's sake.

3. Place on head and look beautiful.

Helpful Hints:

-I bought my flower pin at Michaels*. The pin came with it and the total cost was $1!

-I discovered that my four year old's tights fit her waist, not her head. Which means: A) My daughter has a big head. (Which wouldn't be surprising considering she spends her days being told how cute she is.) or, B) That's normal and you will need to measure to make sure this project will work for you.

P.S. Raise your hand if you would also like to believe that your waist is smaller than the circumference of your head. I know I would personally need to have a VERY big head!

*No material connection.

sewing with my daughter

About two weeks ago, I decided it was time to teach my four year old how to use a sewing machine. I recently read an article about Marie Osmond and she talked about learning to sew at that age, so I decided it wasn't a totally crazy idea. And it wasn't. When I told my daughter I was going to teach her how to sew on my machine, she informed me she would like to begin by making a quilt! Don't you love how children have no fear? If an adult was faced with her first sewing experience, I'm sure a quilt would be too scary. I didn't make my first quilt until last year and I was terrified. (I'm wondering what I can do to keep my daughter's confidence in her self at the level it is now.)

Well, all that being said, I didn't exactly have the time to work on a quilt with a four year old, so I told her we would do a fabric garland chain to hang in her room. I saw the project in my favorite sewing magazine, Sew Hip*. My daughter loved going through my fabric scraps and picking out her materials. I also let her decide the order of construction and was amazed by her design abilities. Then she sat on my lap and I worked the pedal while she did the sewing. It was an incredible moment and I am so happy I took the time out of my day to do it.

I do think we will make a quilt. I thought I could have her make quilt blocks-one at time. It would be fun to save them and see how she progresses as a sewer over the years. Maybe we could put the blocks together when she's ready to go off to college. Maybe her future 18 year old self will one day wrap that quilt around her shoulders and remember, just for a minute, what it felt like to sit on my lap, comfortable and cared for. Maybe.

________________________________________
*No material connection.