Now you know your ABC's!

After wanting to learn to applique for years, my mom finally taught me and Sassy, aka Andrea, this summer. Let me tell you- it is so easy! Especially the way I sewed this letters on, I just randomly sewed around the edge, so it will fray a little when washed. I ironed the letters onto the white cotton background using a fusible webbing, then sewed all the squares together. I always use 'warm and natural' batting for in between my quilts and then I got brave and hand quilted the squares with turquoise thread to match the back. My friend who had a baby in November isn't a quilter, so I'm hopeful she didn't notice my very imperfect stiches! I never got a picture of the finished product (as always!), but I was pretty close at this point. I just needed to finish up the binding. Anyway, I loved working on this quilt and was super sad to give it away- hopefully Hannah Rose will love it as much as I do!

Happy 2010

Since some of you know I don't set foot in the kitchen (thanks to my wonderful husband) you'll have to imagine this is what my "work room" looks like. Especially with all of the awesome orders that came my way this holiday season. Those of you who know me really well, realize this is actually how I work except the apron is covered with paint and scissors are usually hanging out of the pockets. David, ever the skeptic, usually stands behind me just dying to jump in and organize my creative mess.

I look forward to 2010 (however you want to say it, two-thousand-ten or twenty-ten) with a new creative eye to the future and all the crafty fun just waiting to be created and shared with my two wonderful sisters.

new bling

I'm obsessed with these flowers! I want to wear them on everything! Headbands, clips, coats, rings, scarves, hats, jackets, bracelets, purses, shoes..... well you get the idea- I am crazy for these hot items of flair! Here is my latest Christmas project, necklace flowers. My honorary sista Brittany makes the most amazing flowers you've ever seen. Check out her site here. I adhere the flower to the necklace using hotglue and felt or add an alligator clip so it's adjustable! These flowers are so amazing they make sweat pants turn couture!

Get your scarf on!

I'm loving screen printing! Well, my version of screen printing anyway. I have my sis Renee print a vinyl image and reverse weed it so it becomes my stencil. Then I use Tulip brand fabric paint and brush it on with a foam brush. Let it dry a few hours and apply another coat. When I peel off the vinyl I'm amazed at how there is little to no bleeding of the paint. My favorite thing and gift to make are these jersey scarves. I buy tons of jersey fabric, around 2 & 1/2 yards and can make approx. 4 scarves from it. Around 15'' wide, 90'' or so long, depending on your preference. So are you ready to get your scarf on?

Cider with Flair

Last minute gifts always stress me out and this year I’ve really tried to do my part to reduce, re-use, and recycle. This year, we finally have a fantastic bus driver, and I really wanted to show my appreciation. Luckily I remember seeing this blog with felted sweaters used for decorating and since I’d just felted some sweaters and already had sparkling cider chilling in the fridge I knew it would make the perfect last minute gift. Within 3 minutes it was ready to go and I even had time to snap a picture before meeting the little boys at the bus stop. I think I’ll call this “Cider with Flair.”

Updated Chandelier

Lest my two little sisters have all the flair fun I decided to get in on the crafty action. One, because I have a couple of days off over Thanksgiving break and two, because David’s out of town and we all know it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

When we bought our house we found this plain old chandelier up in the attic. It wasn’t our favorite chandelier but we really wanted to replace the builder grade light fixture in our main dining room and the price was certainly right….free. ­Lately the boring color has really bothered me and after repainting the kitchen on a whim to my favorite color gray I decided the room needed a little flair. With a little help from my 15 year old son we successfully took the light down without getting electrocuted. 15 minutes and one $4 can of spray paint later it went from boring to beautiful!

I can’t wait to see the look on my husbands face we gets home Monday night to see the changes.

Orange you glad it's Thanksgiving!

I've been DYING to paint my dining room ceiling orange and with 20 guests coming for the big thanks day- we finally got it done! OK- lied about the WE. Just my hubs painted it, which makes me love it more, because I didn't have to do it! Its kind of like the food tastes better when you don't make it. Same goes for painting. I LOVE it!(make sure you sing word LOVE when its in caps, dontcha know) Wish I could get a better overall pic of the room, but this will give you the general idea. Its amazing! I also made my fake canvas' as well. Too cheap to have my pics made into canvas' so I blow up a pic at COSTCO (sing that word as well) and mount it onto canvas using Provo Crafts super tacky tape. That stuff is practically my best friend. oila! A cheap canvas for 8 bucks. $2.99 for the 12x12 pic and $5 for the canvas. Gotta love that!