Halloween Hoot

After I moved apartments this summer, I realized how much crap I have. I'm really not a sentimental person and I clean out my closet every month or so, donating extra clothes and such. But still, I seemed to have collected more than I actually need. Particularly in the craft department. I have multiple chests dedicated to fabric and paper and other craft supplies. I would say I only have a 50% success rate of actually finishing projects that I start. So it has been my goal to start whittling down my collections prior to buying new materials for new projects.

Image from Alphamom found via Pinterest

This Halloween turned out to be no exception. I saw this little girl in costume on Pinterest months back and hoped that I could only be half as cute as her. I really wanted to be a grey owl, like my inspiration pic. But with four days to the big party and being too lazy to go to the craft store for supplies, I decided to go through my closet. Low and behold I found oodles of fabric that could be used for said costume. Instead of being a gray barn owl, I decided to be a lovely, lovely snowy owl. And I used up fabric that has been sitting in my closet for years, waiting patiently to be made into place mats. (Honestly, if I dug a little deeper, I think I could've been a grey owl, but I'm rather happy with this combination, no?)

 

I even added wings to the costume after my friend Katie shared some lovely inspiration via Natty's Birds of a Feather Costumes on BurdaStyle.

As a side note, this is what I made for Halloween Dinner... Rosemary Lemon Chicken with Roasted Purple Potatoes and Roasted Okra and Garlic. The okra was awesome... the others were ok, but I thought the colors were fun for Halloween.

Lotta Jansdotter Fabric Line

Image via Purl Bee Blog

Looks like Lotta Jansdotter is coming out with a fabric line! Hooray, hooray! I think I can postpone new pillows a little longer, right? I'm geeked, all of those colors are so me.

Things I'm loving: Rugs & Carpet

My sorority from ISU needs to be remodeled, it will be a huge project over several years, but it should be a fun one! My roommate had worked on a mood board and I wanted to join in the fun as well. So, on my lunch break at work, I pulled together a little mood board myself. I was so inspired one Friday night, I stayed up super late ordering fabric, paint, and carpet samples. And good thing because shortly after this flood put a kick-start in our plans to replace the carpet in the basement.

Anyway... I discovered the joys of carpet! I have some absolutely stunning carpet samples from Mannington residing in my home.

I've been checking out FLOR for more inspiration.

And now, I've stumbled upon the most beautiful (and my favorite) rugs from GAN, a company based in Valencia, Spain.

Of course, there's always Amy Butler. It's amazing to see her fabric patterns come to life in rug form.

Since grad school has started, I've stepped away from helping with the sorority remodel (there are already many talented alums and active members working on the project), but I'm still drooling over the carpet!

Things I'm Loving: Herringbone

I've inherited a love for the simple pattern from my mother (that, and any tweed or houndstooth). So, to my delight I found this charming fall sampling when I checked etsy for my hourly inspiration:

Lovely, right?

And the peek-a-boo boxes from The Harbinger Co? Absolutely stunning.

Tote Bag 3

A couple weekends ago I decided it was high time I made another tote bag. You see, I made this pledge to myself, the Handmade Pledge. Except I'm limiting it to handbags. I pledged to only buy handmade bags for myself and my loved ones, and request that others do the same for me.

So, I made this little charmer for myself. It's made of a beautiful black and cream striped linen fabric, embellished with light blue vertical stitching, some pleats and jute webbing. I'm secretly in love with the way the exterior stripes go horizontally and the interior stripes are vertical, it's pretty splendid.

I'm pretty smitten with her right now... trying to come up with a name for her. Any suggestions?

(Mom- look how straight the blue stitching is!!! Aren't you proud?)

Clutch: Complete

As much anticipated, I present you with the clutch:

Is it what you expected?

I didn't take the time to add an interior pocket, because I was being lazy (I know I'm going to kick myself later for that)... but I am super excited to use it this weekend! The thickness of the velvet really highlights the top-stitching and it makes a great heavy-weigh piece to hold all my coins. Splendid!

Baby Onesies

A couple weeks back one my friends had a baby shower and I made a couple onesies for their new little guy. Even though they know it's a boy, I wanted to make some gender neutral items. I had to make a turtle design, as it is my namesake... a robot to match some of the room decor... and a whale, because it's just plain cute!

Finito!

I finally finished the baby quilt I was working on for my second cousin. I'm so proud, it looks like a real, actual quilt! And I made it all by myself! All of the blunders that I made in the process have seemed to disappear looking at the finished piece. After attempting machine quilting, I thought I'd never make a quilt again, but seeing the end result I'm not so sure. Only a couple of the corners on the quilt top match up, I probably should have picked a different fabric in a couple places, and the machine quilting was a big failure, but all-in-all I'm really happy with it! I kind of want to keep it for myself. I saw a picture of the baby's room and it will fit perfect in there.

I love the simple, contemporary design of the back.

A close-up shows the tie quilting I did after failing at machine quilting (it was pulling and gathering and looked horrible). On the plus side, I'm pretty sure that my grandma used a tie binding method, so it's even better to keep up the tradition!

I can't wait to give to to my cousins at Christmas and hold little Henry!

Felt Flowers

Lately I've been in the mood to create these fun flower pins from wool felt, it seems to go well with my insomnia. I think I've been up to 3:00 or 4:00 am on multiple occasions making these. If I can't sleep I'll just pull out my sewing kit and get started, which doesn't help me getting back to sleep any faster, but it's turned up some fun results. I've experimented making felt with a couple of 100% wool fabrics, I just wish I could find some better 100% wool prints to felt for a cool effect.


A fav, I lovingly call "Poppy"

Probably my favorite (the colors just scream "Stephanie", right now anyway...)

Another fun modern design, made from hand-felted 100% wool fabric, which creates a nice subtle texture.

One of my favorite "corsage" pins, it's fun experimenting with different flower designs.




Fun collar flower pins


I'll probably be gifting several of these fun flowers for Christmas, one has already made it's home on top a wrapped gift as an embellishment.

Sweet Felt Gingerbread Houses

Happy Turkey Day! As we gear up for Black Friday tomorrow, I wanted to share one of my favorite little plus-ups at Hallmark this year for Christmas. I'm loving wool felt, it was #70 on my 100 Things to be Grateful For list, it was the material of choice for the DIFFA wreath, and there will be more about it in upcoming posts.
This year Hallmark has these sweet little gingerbread houses made out of felt, preciously adorned with rick-rack, glitter, and pom-poms. They're just too cute and so crafty. I think I'll use them for gift embellishments... or I might just keep them for myself!


I'd love to have a small tree filled with felt ornaments and garland. Here are some of my other favorite felt ornaments from etsy shops.

Big Green Acorn from astashtoys
Perfect for the squirrel-lover!

Winter Felt Garland from anastasiajaminhome
Delightful in white or chartreuse!

Penguin with Red Scarf from allthingssmall

Felt Stockings from rikrac
The ruffle ones are super cute too!

DIFFA Holidays by Design Wreath

This year is my first time participating in DIFFA Kansas City's Holidays by Design, where they auction off holiday items created by Kansas City designers. DIFFA-KC supports the prevention of HIV and AIDS by funding education and awareness programs in Greater Kansas City.

I was inspired by the flat, stylized and modern bouquet clocks and other modern graphics that have been simplified to a flat surface, very reminiscent of the modern take on cabriole legs.

Above is my crafty-modern mistletoe wreath. I fused 5 layers of alternating chartreuse and kelly green wool felt to create a substantial base wreath background and cut it in the simplified greenery shape. I added the red felt berries as an area of interest and a cute button on the back for easy hanging. Hopefully I'll be able to attend Holidays by Design this year and see what other designers have created!

Navy Bag

And last in the bag series is the tote. Again, it was made with navy linen and lined with Amy Butler fabric. It's been a nice big bag to carry study materials around in...