destination: omaha

have you ever thought about taking a vacation in your own city? We haven't really been anywhere this summer, so last week we went to the henry doorly zoo, which we live 5 minutes from but I haven't been there in like 3 years. It is the biggest tourist attraction in our state, I think.



So the other nite I spontaneously suggested that we take a walk by the riverfront, and my daughter got really excited. (It's so boring at home) For $3 each, we took a boat ride around the fountain that changes colors, and you can see the downtown skyline from there also. I can't figure out my camera still, so all my shots of the skyline won't be shown here :)



who needs to leave town? I think I'll save gas and stay here this summer.

rest

after church I took a 2 hour nap. Even though I slept about 10 hours last nite. Lately I've been choosing to sleep over crafting. I guess sometimes we just need to rest. It has been a restful summer for the most part. Happy napping dears!

dog days of summer

You'd think I'd have more time to blog since it's summer break, but sometimes I don't want to post because I don't want to end up complaining. No complaints really, except health ones. It's kind of funny actually, because I went to the doctor yesterday, for some strange symptoms... heart palpitations, head fuzziness, stomach issues. Of course they don't know what's wrong, so they try to attribute everything to stress. I'm like, HELLO! I've been on vacation for the last 8 weeks, I sleep in every day, I love what I do and I create on a daily basis. I have an awesome daughter, a loving husband, and friends who care about me. I'm not stressed!
Anyway, they drew blood and they are going to check my cholesterol, etc.
On my end, I'm going to continue to try to eat healthy foods only, and exercise more. Also, I actually hit a sales record in July, between the 2 shops. Amazing, really, because July is known for not-so-great-sales. May was horrible, June was better, and July rocked!
The new shop has taken off much better than I even expected, and I'm wallowing in vintage seam binding over here. My daughter helps me wrap the bundles and puts a little flower on each one. I'm still crazy for fabric and ribbon flower brooches:

and I'm really enjoying the childrens clothing also:

and yesterday was an old friends birthday, and I can't find her email anywhere. We don't stay in touch all that much, but I've been trying to find her info forever! Happy birthday, Alice!

more flowers!

I'm a little obsessed with these flower brooches! I had to try them with one of my favorite fabrics~


I want to make more of these in more fabric colors on velvet ribbon belts~

new pretty things

I've started my new shop, bustle, and it will be a variety of European and vintage inspired clothing and accessories. I've had quite a few requests already for my flower tutorial pdfs. Also lots of layered ruffled eco friendly bridal dresses will be available soon.




and some gorgeous ruffled collars:

U-G-L-Y

you all may remember me complaining about the floor job in the kitchen:


We had 'run out' of our reclaimed maple, so there was a really weird 80 sq. foot area where toes got stubbed alot, and the old old linoleum tiles under the old linoleum we had pulled up looked U-G-L-Y.
so now, after a few days of uncomfortable positions that pretty much destroyed my neck for about a week:

so we still need some baseboard type things under the counters, but I was pretty proud of my first tiling job. I was a bit of a control freak and didn't let my husband lay down any of the tiles, but by the time it was ready to grout, I could barely move my neck, and he did a great job of finishing up with the lovely "latte" colored grout. Still need to go over the wood floor with some murphys oil soap and make it look a little prettier (it's distressed, so it's not going to get a whole lot better), and it's so nice to walk to the fridge without hurting myself, and it's so much easier to sweep when the floor is all one level!
Also, I'm thinking of putting some bundles of seam binding into my new shop, since I've been going a bit crazy for it lately:


I ordered some huge rolls of it, and it is vintage so smelled really musty, so I rolled a bunch of it off and washed it, and now I'm going to have to spend an afternoon on the porch untangling it. There must be a simpler way to get it all clean...

It's such an amazing material to work with though. I'd been trying to find an original way to make a 'fabric' flower, after seeing so many tutorials come out over the last couple of years, and this idea just hit me. They are coming out so beautiful, and I can't wait to make a zillion in all different colors. I want to put a green one on my purse, and the espresso brown is to DIE for (you all know I have a thing for brown)
Happy 4th tomorrow everyone!

petit patchwork

so...tired...
I shouldn't complain about being tired, because actually I'm really excited we're finally putting ceramic tile in our kitchen. I'll post pics tomorrow after it's done, but I'm sore from sitting on the floor. The last floor project we did led to this project- we installed reclaimed maple floors that go from our front door almost to our back door - I wanted it to look like an artists' loft, and since our living room, dining room and kitchen are all one big rectangle, I really wanted to do wood all the way. Now great rooms are all the rage, so even though my house was built in 1910, we are so in 'vogue'.
Sooooo, when we did the wood, we ran out before we made it to the end, so we had a 2 foot area on 3 sides of the kitchen. About 8 feet long on the left and right sides, and all across in front of the kitchen counter, sink, and stove. All in all, about 80 square feet.
So I'm glad it's finally getting finished. I've stubbed my toe on the exposed edge of the wood more times than I care to count (and maple is REALLY hard!)
While I was taking a break from the tiles, I finished a little purse for my kids' shop:

and the back:

I created a pattern for this for myself because I needed a new purse, so I've had an idea to make a super small one, and it finally came together. I love the raw-edged patchwork, and it's just 4 x 5 1/2 inches. I think it would be really cute to create a little softie animal to put inside. We'll see... after the home improvements...

lazy...not so much... days of summer

wow, 2 (?) weeks or so into summer vacation, and I kind of feel like I haven't rested yet. I got sick on my last day of work, and it turned into sinus infection/bronchitis. Then I finally dragged myself to the doctor, and the antibiotics I got gave me hives. Since I don't have a 'family doctor' who knows me and my health history, they said I'd have to come back in, pay another copayment, have another appt. and get a different rx. I said no thanks. I lived with the hives.
So now I'm full speed ahead, working on both shops. I still want to name 'carnivale' something else before I start making sales, but I don't know what. Maybe something with the word 'blue' because I love aqua so much, maybe something with the word 'forest', I don't know. I have had a really hard time coming up with anything good.
I want to work on some academic stuff with S. while she's out of school, but it seems like she's been out and about a lot, and I've been behind my desk. I also want to take her on some photo-shooting excursions since she has the photography bug.
I've been a little obsessed with covered buttons lately - I've wanted to make them for a long time, and they are great for instant gratification. Very quick and easy:

I still have lots of itty bitty scraps of all my favorite fabrics, so it's perfect.

I've also been planning on some more clothing for myself this summer, because all of a sudden it was like- "I have absolutely nothing to wear" every time I needed to leave the house. That seems to happen about once every 3 years or so.
Then I got SUPER frustrated, because I'd find a cute dress at Target or something, and there were lots of XS, S, and XL, but nothing in the middle! It has happened to me so many times in the last few shopping trips, I ended up buying some things online, but the rest will be made by me! Soooooooo frustrating. Why don't they order more of the 'normal' sizes if they know that's what is going to sell the most?
I've had so many people email me and thank me for making 'real woman' sizes in my shop, but really, I just make the original sample my size, and then offer customs (if I have enough of the fabric). That way if it doesn't sell, I can wear it. Sure I'd like to be a size 2 or 4, but I'm not, and I don't foresee that happening anytime in the near future.

2 words: too cute!

I finally got the first photo shoot accomplished today, and my model is just too cute~

what a sweetie!
Thank you Julie, for a beautiful day at your beautiful farm, with your adorable children!

trial and error

well, I'm full swing into creative mode for summer (yay!), and you all know I love to make hats -see my sold items from last summer, because I lost all of the photos from the mac I had to give back :(
So I've had this idea for awhile to make some newsboys caps for kids, and since I have my first photo shoot with the little one this week, I decided to get down to business and make one. I should have started with muslin, but I thought, "Oh, this will be no problem, and it will come out perfect." First attempt:

doesn't this remind you of something?

exactly. My daughter and I were watching a movie around midnight as I was experimenting with my shapes. So my models head would have to be about the size of a doll in order for this to fit, and the onion dome architecture shape would me more like Santa's elf style than cute-sassy-little-girl-style.
It gave us a good laugh, though:)
So this is how it looked an hour later, with wider panels in the cap:

aaaahhhhhh.... much better. If only I were 5 years old, I could wear this :)