I shall do my own, thankyouverymuch.

Our bedroom has craftsman style furniture so I've decided to make a quilt with reproduction William Morris fabrics. I've purchased 2 focus fabrics, one for the front and one for the back. Then it can be reversible. We have a couple of Alphonse Mucha prints so it just wouldn't do to try to force some other fabric style into the bedroom mold we've made for ourselves. For instance, this is over our bed (minus the text at the bottom):

I personally like the combination of the art nouveau and craftsman styles and I think the colors in the fabrics will work well.

That said, I haven't been able to find a quilt pattern that I like. So, I'm going to make my own. I'll be documenting the process here with pictures and instructions. Hopefully I'll come out the other side with a quilt pattern that other quilters will want to try for themselves. Now, to find that graph paper...

Donations.

Just a quick update: I'm donating 100% of all sales from my Etsy shop to The Red Cross. Spread the word! And anything I add to the shop this weekend will be part of the donations.

Craft fallout.

It's been one of those days where I feel defeated and overly ambitious to a fault. I created my first prototype for the Kindle case - or at least started to - and got discouraged. I didn't think the pattern through and it ended up being a bust. I learned from the mistakes, of course, but I got frustrated and annoyed and put my machine away as quickly as my hands could get her back into her box.

It's a nice problem to have though, not being happy with my crafts. I could definitely have worse things to content with on a daily basis. For instance, I could be without this sweet little face peeking at me from behind the printer!

Luckily, Hazel is a mere 10 months old so she should be around for a long, long time. She'll get to witness more days of crafting fallout, I'm certain.

2010: The Year of OhMyGodIWantToGetSoMuchDone. So far.

You guys, I'm in craft overload! There are so many things coming at me and I don't know what to do with myself. I get excited about too many projects at one time and they all end up piling up on each other. Over the last month or so I've been very focused on quilts. For Christmas I made a quilt for my mom (the pink one) and another for my sister and brother-in-law (day of the dead).

It was nice to have one focus for a while but now I'm excited about all of these other possibilities - excited but overwhelmed! This is what's going on in my busy mind:

Brain-Based Project 1)
My husband and I got a Kindle for Christmas from my dad and stepmother and I LOVE it. They got us a case - a really nice case - but I can't leave well enough alone and I want to make my own. I went to my handy neighborhood quilting store earlier this week for some fabric and I have some chipboard on order so that the case can be rigid enough to support the device. I have a plan in my head for how I'd like it to look and work but it's not on paper yet. I plan on sketching out a pattern later today. If they work out, I might like to get some up on my fabric-based Etsy shop soon.

Partially Brain-Based Project 2)
My mother has a newly revived love of jewelry. Last week I placed a large order with Fire Mountain Gems and the package arrived yesterday. Needless to say? I'm overwhelmed with little plastic baggies in the best way. I ordered some items for myself (duh) for pieces that I'd like to get posted to my jewelry-based Etsy shop soon too. In addition, I ordered some Jax Black so those pieces can be given a lovely patina. P.S. Shipping costs for hazardous materials are ridiculous.

Currently In Action Project 3)
I started an embroidery project in December that is going to have be french-knotting until the next decade.

Should I Even Go There Project 4)
I'd like to make some new candle molds - a tiki statue thing and a matryoshka doll. I have an object I can use for the tiki mold but the matryoshka model I'll have to make. Candles are totally fun and easy to make and I love gifting them. And I have some wax that I'd really like to use up so I can have that shelf space back!


Entirely Brain-Based and I'm Ridiculous For Even Thinking About It Project 5)
My work friend Alix is a quilter. She blessed me this morning with some quilting catalogs. Really? There are so many cool little tools and sweet patterns and lovely fabrics and I want to make another quilt but for who? For what? Aren't there enough things going on without thinking about another quilt? The answer is clearly yes. I'm going to let this one go.


Thanks for letting me work through this. On top of my neurotic need to have a project going on at all times, we're about to start preparing our townhouse to go on the market. We're dreadfully out of space and we want to have a baby so... yeah. It's not a great market for townhomes - any home, really - so I have to cute it up in a big way. We're thinking March or April so the time for making to-do lists is upon us. As if we don't both have lengthy to-do lists already!

Finally, Happy New Year to everyone! I feel good things about 2010. Maybe it's the symmetry of the numbers themselves. So much better than 2009. I hope your year is filled with good people, good food, good times and great accomplishments.

Soap, Candles and Babies.

My trip home this weekend was pretty great. Aside from eating far too many of these (among too many other things) there was a lot of time with family, a little time with friends and a whole lot of time preparing for the upcoming holiday.

The soap party I mentioned before was so fun. Missy, The Cheeky Maiden, sold lots of her awesome soap.

 

I even managed to sell a number of candles - the honey scented ones went fastest. 

Even with all the sweet smelling loveliness surrounding us that day, this was by far the sweetest of them all.

 Missy's newest baby, Evelyn.

Wax, wicks and lost pics.

So, the good news is that I've been doing a whole lot of crafting this week. The bad news is that the pictures I took of my progressive work (plus most of my Halloween pictures of me dressed up as Flo) were lost when I synced my phone. Boo.

Mostly I've been making candles. My sister has a sweet friend who makes some of the most terrific soaps. This weekend Missy, The Cheeky Maiden, is having a soap-selling Open House at my sister's home so folks can come by, stock up on products for themselves and presumably check lots of people off their holiday buying lists. I'm butting in on things by offering the candles I made specifically for the event. I sold candles at the event last year too, so I'm not new to the interloping business.

I made 4 scents of candles, all in these cute glass votive containers - unscented for the sensitive, orange peel, honey and aveda-esque. I plan on taking lots of pictures of the event so I'll post them early next week.

Meantime, I embroidered a little Christmas gift for my nephew who loves the movie Nacho Libre. Big thanks to Ms. Hart for making such great patterns.

Giving thanks.

Since Veteran's Day I've used my Facebook status everyday to say something I'm thankful for in my life. The status updates are below:

• I'm thankful for our veterans. I don't support war but I do support the people who give their lives to defend our country.
• I am thankful for an awesome family. I have a beautiful husband, 3 parents, 2 sisters, 2 brothers, 4 grandparents, 5 nephews, 3 nieces, countless (but not remotely insignificant) aunts, uncles and cousins and I'm proud to be related to every single one.
• I am on day 3 of "what she's thankful for" status updates. Today I'm thankful for the ability to use my hands to make things.
  
• I am thankful for the roof over my head, even if there are idiots on the other side of the wall. See what I did there? I am thankful but complainy at the same time.
  
• I am thankful for music and musicians, whatever genre.
  
• I am thankful for silliness at any and every age.
  
• I am is thankful to have a degree in art history even if it has gotten her nowhere professionally. It's moved me along emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
  
• I am thankful for the inspiring creativity of others.
  
• I am thankful for the life and laugh of Errin Vuley. She will be missed by so many.
  
• I am thankful for the technologies that keep so many of us long lost friends closer than we've been in years.
• I am thankful for quiet Saturday mornings with her hubs, kitties and beautiful weather coming through the open window.
  
• I am thankful for humor. You'll see why when we send out our Christmas cards this year.
  
• I have only hinted at being thankful for friends in the FB status thankfulness exercise, so today it's official. I'm thankful for all my friends, all over the world.
  
• I'm thankful for all the people we lost this year. Not thankful that we lost them, but thankful that we had the chance to know them and love them and learn from them.
  
• I'm thankful my husband doesn't play World of Warcraft.
  

Some days I've stared off into space trying to think of something I'm thankful for. Other days I haven't needed to think for more than the time it takes to click "Update Status". Some days were serious, like the day I recognized my friend who lost her life in a car accident. Some days have been silly like being grateful my husband doesn't play WoW. But each one was true. And I guess it doesn't even have to be done around Thanksgiving. I'll probably work in a few "thankful" status updates now and again, just as a reminder of the love I have in my life, the humor in the every day and the beauty in the seemingly mundane.