The Pillow That Never Was

I am suffering from serious blog ennui lately.  I just don't feel like posting.  I think I'm burned-out from all the craziness of June brithdays and the end of school and have caught Summer Fever.  Days are being spent at swimming lessons and movie theaters...and not in front of a computer.  Do you ever feel like that?

It's not just avoiding blogging either.  I'm avoiding housekeeping too, so don't judge too harshly when you see the condition of my stovetop in the photo below.  I'm telling you, I want to lay in the grass and look at clouds and eat popsicles and not do one other ding-dang thing until September.

Now that I'm done dragging my feet and being generally lazy, I'll get to the point of this post.  The pillow that never was.  Remember when I played in a pillow swap earlier this month?  And my partner wanted...gulp!...quilted circles on hers?  Well, I failed to mention that the pillow I showed you here was my second attempt.  The first attempt is what this post is all about.  I struggled and fought with a different circle technique, made two squares, and then decided the fabric combo just wasn't working.  So I abandoned them.  But they sat on my sewing table, a testament to my bad taste and too many hours of struggled sewing.  And every time I sat down at my sewing table, they called me a quitter.  So I turned them into pot holders for my kitchen.  

Although I'm still not thrilled with them, they do jump out at me every time I open my kitchen linen drawer.  A little bright splash of fabric against some dull, over washed linens.  And I think that's not such a bad way for those abandoned blocks to spend the rest of their days,  is it?  At least they stopped calling me names...

The Greatest Tea Party On Earth

Another year has gone by and another invite has arrived to join Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist at her annual Mad Hatter tea party...

Ladies & Gentlemen! Children of All of Ages!  Welcome to the Greatest Tea Party on Earth.  Our little circus has laid out a spread of circus treats to delight and surprise you.  Won't you take a moment to join us for tea?  Don't you love our little tea set?  We bought it while on an elephant-buying trip to Asia.  Since we were purchasing miniature elephants, it makes sense that the tea set is tiny as well, doesn't it?

Would you like to ride the Cupcake Carousel?  It's quite tiny, but luckily, edible.  Just take a nibble and you will shrink down to the perfect size to get on and take a ride.  Tickets are only nickel!  Do I see our famous dog trainer peeking at you as you ride, round & round.  Wave!

A large kernel of popcorn popped into your mouth and you'll grow back to size.  (If you don't, you are welcome to join our little circus as one of our side show attractions.)

Oh!  It must be your lucky day!  Here's the star of our show, Jack Sprat the Wonder Dog!  Want to see him do a trick?  Here is his trainer with popcorn in hand.  Please be quiet as our performers need to concentrate for this death defying act.   Drum roll...

TA DA!  His one and only trick!  Sit!  Amazing!

I hope you have enjoyed our show and tea party.  We must pack up the circus train now and visit all the other tea parties going on.  Please click here to find out where to go next.  Perhaps we'll see you at another party.  Be sure to look for us.  We're the ones in sequins.

P.S.  If you enjoyed this party, please be sure to visit our previous year's tea parties.

2009: Cupcakes, Candy and Pink Canary Cocktails
2008: Flamenco!

Fabric Coffee Sleeve

If you had to teach a room full of active preschoolers you would need coffee too?  Right?  I made these fabric coffee sleeves for my daughter's preschool teachers. I'm very fond of the bee.  I used Tina Givens' fabric for that one.  And I love the button I used for the floral (the fabric is Heidi Grace).  The fabulous button comes from Blumenthal Lansing.

I've become addicted to making these.  They are really snap to make and I'm having so much mixing and matching fabrics and buttons and what not.  I don't buy coffee from coffee houses but I might have to start. Just so I can make myself some cute sleeves. I'll probably add a few to the shop too.  Want one?

Today is my daughter's last day of school.  Finally.  I'm looking forward to two months of slow, unrushed mornings.  Of course, keeping a very social five year old (who is an only child) busy everyday is giving me a bit of worry.  But I'm sure we'll find some adventures that will please both of us.

Hope you have some great summer plans!

Books on Sale!

The famous, Californian "June Gloom" is making it difficult for me to share photos of my current work with you!  The photo above is a Dream Catcher I made out of a doily and an embroidery frame.  I'm not a big fan of the look of the traditional dream catchers-too many feathers and beads for me, but I do love this.  It's a great project for using up those old, sentimental bits of lace doilies your grandmother made.

Do you love craft books as much as I do?  You might want to check-out Interweave's Hurt Book Sale.  They might have a little scratch or two, but at these prices, who cares? Click here to check it out now.

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Material Connection Disclosure:  I am an affiliate of Interweave and will receive a small commission on items purchased via the links above.

Monthly Newsletter Article: Top Tips for Working at Home

In order to save money, many of us have chosen to work out of our homes. The option to work from home is also a necessity for many of us who stay home with our small children. But living and working in the same place can prove to be a challenge. We often find ourselves working too many hours, feeling isolated, or finding too many excuses NOT to work (I'll get to that project once I change the laundry..."). Having worked from home for many years, I thought I would share a few tips for keeping yourself sane as combine your work and home life into one location.

Here are a few of my top tips for successfully working from home:

• Create a designated office space.  I know that not everyone has an entire room to dedicate to their home office, but you need to find a corner or just a desk that is ONLY for you do business at.  If you have a room that you use as studio, put a desk in the corner so that you can do business tasks.  Having everything in one place will help you get down to work right away when you need to.  Keep it tidy and don't let non-work items pile up on it.
• Set office hours.  And stick to them!  If you are (precariously) balancing your life, you might not be able to work traditional hours.  Sit down and be very honest about when you can work.  I can only schedule work on MWF from 8am to 11am because that's when my daughter is in school.  I also set separate "studio" hours.  During my studio hours, I work on my arts and crafts.  I am better able to stay focused on business tasks if I know I will have time later to do what I really love doing; sewing, painting and paper crafting.  Ask your family and/or housemates to respect your work time and promise that you will stick to the hours scheduled as well.
• Keep yourself on task.  When it's office hours time, go to work.  Make sure you are fully dressed, go to your designated area and start working.  I find it's best to have a list of goals in mind for the day.  At the end of my work hours, I spend a few minutes making a to do list of things I want to get done during my next designated work time.  In addition to getting a jump start on my next work day, I also find that making this list makes me feel better about stopping my work.  It allows my to stick to my scheduled work time and move onto other things without guilt or worry.
• Schedule breaks. Just because you work from home doesn't mean you aren't entitled to a lunch break!  Make sure you take breaks during your work hours so that you don't burn-out and start to avoid work.  BUT!  Don't do things on break that will distract you from getting back to work (like that Real Housewives marathon on Bravo TV).  Eat a nice lunch while reading a magazine.  Or go for a walk.  If most of your work is on the computer (which is the case for many of us) don't spend your break on the computer, answering personal emails or surfing around.  Not only could you lose your work mojo, you also won't be giving your mind, body and eyes a rest from the computer.
• Be social.  And I don't mean hop on Facebook! (Which is another time killer for many of us).  Make sure that on work days, you schedule some time to get out in the world and socialize.  I found that simply going to the gym and being around other people alleviated the depression that would come over me if I spent an entire day, alone, in my office. 
• Make yourself accountable.  Find a friend or a business coach.  Tell them your goals for the week.  Sometimes knowing you will have to report your progress to someone else is all the motivation you need to get the job done.
• Remember this is a "real job".  I think that many artists and crafters often feel guilty for taking time to work on their businesses.  By selling our arts and crafts, we are doing something we truly love and find enjoyable and fun.  Because of that, we often feel like we are just "playing" or have been told our work is "just a hobby".  Don't fall into that trap!  Just because you are doing something for living that you feel is enjoyable, doesn't mean it's a hobby.  It makes you lucky.  You will only find success if you start treating yourself like a professional!  Give your "job" the time and respect it deserves and you will surely see your "hobby" turn into a profitable business.

Set up a work schedule and try it for a week.  I'd love to hear how these tips work out for you!

Do you have any tips for working from home?

This article is part of my free, monthly, electronic newsletter.  In addition to informative articles like the one above, subscribers also get special discounts, prizes and other goodies throughout the year.  To receive my monthly newsletter and to view past issues, click here.

Sewing Again

I'm so happy that all my party planning and birthdays and everything else is finally over!  I've been able to play around with my sewing machine again and start working on the list of projects I wanted to do.

I'm in a pillow swap on Flickr right now.  The group is amazing and quite intimidating.  I can't believe the talent of some of the members.  I was scared to death to join in, but I decided I wasn't going to improve my sewing skills doing easy projects, so I took a deep breath and jumped in.  My partner promptly challenged me by requesting circles.  Do you know how hard that is?  Squares are easy-you sew in a straight line.  Just getting the mechanics of creating a circle in a quilt is difficult.  But I did it!  I'm so dang proud of myself!  My partner also asked for red & white & aqua and told me she loved Japanese fabrics.  I tried to incorporate all her desires into the pillow.  To create the pattern, I used a circle quilt tutorial in Better Homes and Garden's Quilts and More magazine.  I just scaled it down for a pillow.  I bought some Japanese fabric from Sew Deerly Loved on Etsy, and I started sewing.  The back of the pillow is white & aqua polka dot fabric.  The pillow is going in the mail tomorrow and I'm hoping my partner will be pleased.

This is the pillow I received in the swap. (Sorry I can't take a photo because of California's "June Gloom", but hop over to Flickr to look at it!)  It's a blind swap, so we all receive and send to different people.  Isn't it the prettiest pillow you ever saw?  It's courtesy of the brilliant mind behind Maricopa Fabrics.  I'm telling you, this swap was quality!  I'm hoping they will let me in next time too! 

Butterfly Birthday Party

Are you sick of butterflies yet?  I'm getting there.  I'm happy to announce that the party is over and a wonderful time was had by all.  I really enjoyed planning this party and was pleased that all my plans actually worked out the way I imagined they would.

I'm so proud of the cake.  I can't believe I made it!  I used fondant, but this time I attached it to the cake with a super rich, butter cream frosting.  This nicely overcame the lack of flavor issue I had with the cookies.  I worked all morning on it and I was very sad to cut into it when it was time to eat it.  I'm glad  I have photos of it!

We played some great games.  If you are having a children's butterfly party, I recommend buying Elefun
It was very popular with the kids and was a great game to start the party with.

We also pretended we were caterpillars, wrapped each other in toilet paper cocoons and then burst out of them and flew around like butterflies.  Very fun!

The table outside was all butterfly sweetness.  I didn't get any photos, but I tied streamers to garden stakes and attached paper butterflies to the ends of the streams.  I placed the garden posts around the table and whenever the wind kicked-up, it looked like butterflies were fluttering around the table.

And, of course, the candy bar was a huge hit.

I spent Sunday recovering and am now faced with the huge task of finding a place for all the new toys that came into our house as a result of this birthday.  I think I need to sneak in my daughter's room when she's at preschool and get rid of some of the things she doesn't play with anymore.  I know that if I involve her in the process, she will be reminded of certain toys and won't want to give them up.  Does that make me a mean & sneaky mom?  I mean, how many toys can one child play with anyway?

P.S.  I got that beautiful, butterfly hair piece you see in my daughter's hair from Lotus Lulu.  She has stunning hair accessories, so if you haven't visited her shop yet, be sure to stop soon!

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Material Connection Disclosure:  I receive a small commission for purchases made via the Amazon links above.

Taste or Beauty?

I made butterfly cookies for my daughter's birthday party.  While surfing around the net, I found a great tutorial for making these cookies on Cake Journal.  

I'm very, very impressed with how they came out visually and I've finally discovered that the secret to really professional looking cookies hinges on rolled-fondant.  (At least if you want to make it easy!)  My only issue?  The taste.  Fondant doesn't really taste like anything.  It's sweet, but it lacks flavor.  This is fine for children because most kids love anything sweet and don't really have refined enough palettes to look for any flavor complexity, but I feel these cookies really fall short in the taste department.  (It makes me wonder what those cakes on Ace of Cakes taste like.)

So my question today is, would you rather have fantastic cookies that look "homemade" or mediocre cookies that look professional and amazing?  I'm thinking I'm going with taste.  I'm also thinking of trying to find a way to achieve beauty and taste.  Maybe royal icing?  The last time I tried royal icing, it didn't work out very well, but maybe after a little practice I could achieve the same impressive results?

What's your secret to great cookies?

Bonjour Butterfly Birthday Party

We are butterfly crazy here.  As many of you know, I live with Super Butterfly Spy Girl and she's turning 5 tomorrow.  To celebrate, we are having a Bonjour Butterfly party.  It was inspired by the book, Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly by Jane O'Connor.  A favorite read around here.  In my planning stages, I found tons of butterfly ideas at Martha Stewart's website.  Most of them are for weddings and showers, but they are easily adaptable to any party.  I have to admit that I recently purchased Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and my wedding was ages ago (14 years ago on June 22!).  It's a great resource for inspiration.  Not just for parties but also paper crafting.  Not to mention it's just plain pretty to look at.

Since the party, isn't until Saturday, I don't have a ton of photos to show you yet.  The photo above is the invitation we sent out.  And here's my inspiration board:

And my work in progress:

I've found Sizzix's Bigz Beautiful Butterflies Die to be a life saver for all the decorations.  If I had to cut out all those butterflies, my hands would be seriously cramping!  (Thanks for lending me the die Michelle!)

There are also plans for a Vintage Candy Bar ala Amy Atlas.  I'm filling the table with candy buttons, wax bottle candy, and gum balls.  At the end of the party, the kids can "go shopping" at the candy bar and fill their bags with the candy of their choice as a their party favors.  Talk about being a kid in the candy store!  If you've never looked at Amy's work before, please visit her blog.  You can spend hours viewing her portfolio and daydreaming about candy and paper-two of my favorite things!  And I'm making Sherbet Punch.  Remember that from your childhood?  That pink, frothy, sticky, super sweet punch?  The taste of it always takes me back to childhood parties.

I promise to take lots of photos of the finished event and share them next week.  Wish me luck in the meantime.  The countdown to party time has begun and I'm feeling a bit stressed.

P.S. Want more party ideas?  Revisit last year's Mermaid Party here.
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Material Connection Disclosure:  I am an affiliate for Amazon and Sizzix.  I will receive a small commission on products purchased via the links above.

Read All About It!

I know I've been a bad blogger.  I do have a good excuse though.  It was just my husband's 40th birthday and we spent the weekend in Vegas.  Now that I'm home, I barely have time to catch my breath as I  have to get ready for my daughter's 5th birthday party.  I tell ya, when it rains, it pours around here!

I do need to announce the winner of Whip Up Mini Quilts: Patterns and How-to for 26 Contemporary Small Quilts.  What?  You didn't know I was giving away a book?  If you are newsletter subscriber (who actually reads my newsletters-LOL!) you knew about it.  That's the added bonus of signing-up for my newsletter, you get VIP treatment.  So....the winner is...Kristal of Tiny Birds Arts.  Please email your address to me so that I can mail the book to you!

And speaking of newsletters, as if I didn't have enough to do this month, I've decided to do one last ecourse before summer goes into full swing.  This time I'm offering a two week, online course where I'll walk you through, step by step, creating your own electronic newsletter (also called Ezines).  This is one of the most powerful marketing tools I use to grow my own business.  Over the years, I've heard a lot of artists and crafters tell me they want to do a newsletter SOMEDAY but they can never find the time.  By taking my ecourse, we'll all work together to get your first issue ready to go out by the end of the course!  And I'll share how I grew my newsletter list to over 1200+ subscribers and how I make money every time I send out an issue.

Since it's an online course, you will be able to work on it at your own pace and will have access to the course for a month after the course ends, but I do recommend trying to keep up in order to get your newsletter out.  I do hope you will consider taking it as I think the skills you will learn in the ecourse can take your business to next the level.  To read more about the ecourse and to sign-up click here.  Hurry!  The ecourse starts June 15 and runs until June 30.

I'm hoping to put up some crafty stuff on my blog later this week, including sharing my plans for a Bonjour Butterfly Party!

Craft Corps Book Review

Last week, I received my copy of Vickie Howell's new book, Craft Corps: Celebrating the Creative Community One Story at a Time.  I received a copy because I have a profile in the book!  Yep!  Right on page 67.  In the very same book as some of my heros, including Mary Engelbreit, Craft Chica, and Amy Butler.

Now, I'll be honest.  As excited as I was about being in the book, when I first opened it, I have to admit that I didn't think I was going to like it.  When I get a crafty book, I want lots and lots of photos and creative inspiration.  And there aren't very many pictures in this book. But then I started reading it and became so intrigued by the text that I forgot all about the lack of eye candy.  The interviews are amazingly honest and many of the creative "stars" talk about their creative business journey in ways I've never heard before.  They talk about their struggles.  They tell you how they hit on a winning formula for success.  I came away from my reading session, realizing that 99% of them didn't "make it" overnight.  That they have in their pasts all the struggles I am going through right now.  They are also very generous (as artists and crafters tend to be) with helpful advice.  They are willing to share how they got through those struggles and are happily leaving markers along their paths for the rest of us to follow so that our creative journeys might be a little bit easier.

So, if you are feeling frustrated or are just wondering how Carol Duvall built her creative empire, be sure to get a copy of Craft Corps: Celebrating the Creative Community One Story at a Time.  You are sure to be inspired.



Can't wait to get the book?  Visit the Craft Corp website here.

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Material Connection Disclosure:  I received a free copy of this book.  I am an Amazon Affiliate and will receive a small commission on book purchases made via the links above.