Loveliness in the mail

Today I came home from work and found this lovely package from Tia in the mail. I had found her awhile back and loved the clean, moder look of her work.



I had gotten my ears pierced not too long ago and had a hard time finding earrings that I really liked. There was a particular pair of earrings I had asked her about at the time (but wasn't yet available in her store). I was beaming when I opened the package to find that exact pair.



I'm seriously floored by her kindness. (Tia - thank you so much, you totally made my day!) The earrings are absolutely beautiful - I love them. I love the look of the wood and how the little loops are free to swing to and fro.

Matching stationery

A matching card and gift tag to go with the bunny doll.



Oh the weekend is going by much too fast..

Bunny doll

We're going to a 1-year-old birthday party this weekend, and I really wanted to make something to give to the birthday girl instead of buying something. I've been seeing some dolls floating around the indie craft universe, and thought it'd be fun to try making one. I remember having a little skinny white bunny pin when I was little, and tried without success to find some patterns or pictures of soft bunny dolls online. Finally I decided to just go for it, and even used some of my favorite fabrics - some 100% linen fabric I recently bought at Joann, and some Amy Butler stuff from that trip to Purl in New York a couple years back. I get nervous cutting into beautiful fabrics, but recently decided that I really must start using my fabrics instead of just hoarding them!



It was trickier than I expected because it's so small, and linen tends to slip and slide and frays easily. I ended up hand-sewing some parts as a result and it was actually quite refreshing. I have some vague ideas for simplifying it if I end up making another one.. lots of little girls' birthdays are coming up in the next month!



Also, I am still planning on opening a little Etsy shop with paper goods sometime soon. There are so many things to do in preparation and I don't want to rush into it. Plus I keep getting side-tracked by unrelated projects like this and the ottoman and other life-things. Maybe April.. or not.. we'll see!

Lotta fabrics!!

It's finally here - careful with your wallets! Eeeeeee!

Tag collages & yellow fields

I was at the hospital the other day and spotted these on the wall:





I love the small details, the textures and simple palette. Turns out they are by Sarah Lugg, a mixed media artist from England. I was a little disappointed to find (from poking around on the web) that she licenses her artwork for scrapbooking papers, posters, and even has a couple of books. I think collages like these don't look as authentic when it's been reproduced or reprinted. It makes them look more commercialized or something.

I was thankful for a little lunch time escape today - a friend told me that some papers from the Martha Stewart Crafts collection at Michael's was on clearance, so of course I had to go see. I ended up buying a couple rolls of wrapping paper and vellum for only $1 a roll. I also stopped to enjoy the yellow fields across from my workplace..

Ottoman re-done

Irving had an Ikea ottoman from before we were married that he really wanted to keep. It was covered in this faded blue canvas and just looked very "college-y". So of course it had to be re-upholstered. It was tough deciding what to use, but I finally decided on an Amy Butler home decor fabric. I wanted something that wasn't too loud or colorful, but still modern and interesting.



I love that this ottoman is really a box: the top comes off like a lid, and the inside is great for storing throws and blankets. The upholstery is attached using Velcro all around the edges of both pieces, so it's pretty easy to remove it for washing. (I discovered that Velcro is not cheap, especially since I needed about 5 yards of it -- so I ripped the Velcro from the old cover to sew onto the new one.)



The trickiest thing about this project is the shaping. I had naively thought everything fit together like the sides of a box with right angles, but realized later that some of the corners are actually rounded or angled... so I resorted to some quickie not-so-elegant fixes rather that ripping and re-doing. I tend to be a little lazy when I'm making things for myself. I think it's also a little looser than it should be - I should've taken my measurements in just a bit so that the fabric would stretch over the frame and fit more snugly. The Velcro edges allowed me to stretch it more tightly though. Good lessons for future projects.

Wedding bells

Some good friends are getting married in just a few weeks and I had the privilege of designing the bridal shower invite for the bride. She's a big fan of the color purple and like me, looooves to drink pearl milk tea whenever possible. Mmm..

Anyway, I love pattern so of course couldn't resist adding it to the invite..



.. and the envelopes..

Pebble coasters

The weekend was super busy, but filled with good stuff like friends, family, and good food. Irving is making dinner this week, so I had some extra time last night to make these coasters I've had in mind for awhile.



I'm naturally drawn to organic shapes (though I still appreciate the structure and regularity of geometric shapes at times), so thought it would be neat to apply it to coasters.



And I'm still really attached to grays and yellows. Yum.