Pink-a-Boo

Placemat Swap

I LOVE SUMMER!!  And I'm loving summer in our new house.  I know it's not officially summer yet, but it sure is warm around here, and hubby's last day at school with the kids is today. He's so excited.

Hubby and I got brand new bikes to ride around our neighborhood and to the nearby lake.  I'll have to show you pictures of mine - sooo cute!

Anyway, when I was brainstorming for a placemat swap I just participated in, I couldn't help but be drawn to the bright and sunny yellow.  And I've always loved yellow and blue together, so I found this great yellow and blue floral to pair with a dark blue denim.  I used my embroidery machine - yay! - to embroider some cute little cups on the placemat pockets (they're handy for holding napkins and silverware).  I came up with this design when I was making Christmas presents this last year, and it just worked out so well.

I'm really happy with how these cute yellow and blue ones turned out - I wish I had made some for myself!  They make me feel like I've brought a little bit of summer indoors.  I really hope my partner enjoys them as much as I enjoyed making them!

I just love the little cups!

Hope you're enjoying some warm and sunny weather where you are!

One Brave Chick and Happy Birthday Mom!

I wanted to share something that I made for my mom's birthday, which was this last Saturday.  My mom has been a wonderful inspiration to me and she is the most corageous and faith-filled person I know.  She's had to go through a lot of hardships in her life, and yet she maintains such an amazing spirit and such an inspiring belief in God's purpose.  It just astounds me!

Anyway, she and my dad live in a smaller space, and the last thing either of them need is more stuff!  I wanted to give my mom something meaningful in honor of her birthday (which she still gets sooo excited about!), so I decided to share with her something that has been a great inspiration to me recently.

One of my co-workers has recently embarked upon a wonderful side business with five of her friends.  It's called One Brave Chick and is a company born upon hardships and cemented with courage.  Please check out their website - www.onebravechick.com.  What a hearfelt and genuine enterprise this has turned out to be.  Each of these ladies are so very brave to share with everyone their stories and design their space to be somewhere everyone can share their "Brave Chick" tales.  I applaud them and wish them the best of success.

On their site, they sell these great "Bravery Kits."  Each kit consists of a great tee, and inspirational card, and a "bravery bead" bracelet.  However, I knew that my mom is not a fan of graphic tees, so I wanted to bring the "brave chick" mantra to her in the form of art.  She loved it!

My Take on Vintage

I wanted desperately to find a great vintage hat for my Kentucky Derby Hat Swap partner PinkieDenise, or at least find some great vintage items to use in its construction.  However, I unfortunately live in an area that used to be a mecca for antique-hunters but - due to the construction of a major highway that re-routed all tourist traffice (think the plotline of the movie "Cars") - all local antique stores have now closed :-(  How sad is that?

Anyway, since I couldn't find a vintage great for PinkieDenise, I did my best to re-create one for her.  I really hope she likes it.  I'm a little nervous after receiving the wonderful crown she made for me (see post below) - it is just sooo artistic and creative.  I'm afraid my Kentucky Derby Hat may be a bit too literal. Oh, well.

What I love is that we both used pinks and greens as our main colors.  And after reading Pinkie's blog and learning a little more about her, I knew I was on the right track.  And I hope my hat reminds her of some of the lovely vintage hats she used to decorate above her window.  I hope you love it, Denise!

I feel like a Queen!

So guess what arrived at my doorstep yesterday?  My partner in the Kentucky Derby Hat Swap - PinkieDenise from Pink Pomegranates - sent me the lovliest crown I've ever seen!  It's so perfect - I just love the green and pink - and the velvet flowers are delicious.  I've posted some pictures below, but you must visit her site - the pictures she's posted of the crown are soooo much better than the ones I've taken (mine don't do the crown near enough justice!).

Thank you PinkieDenise for all the effort, care and creativity you put in to my crown - I just love it!

I deserve a demerit for being this tardy!

I feel awful for having been so tardy with my thank you to Tammie at craftytammie.  She got my name as part of the Flirty Apron Swap.  I received the best little apron in the whole wide world from her!  It's pink and green - a favorite color combo of mine!  And it has a flirty little ruffle at the bottom.  And it's made out of this great retro-look fabric.  And - it's reversible.

The apron came with a hand-made discloth, a hot pink hot pad, and two yummy recipes!

Thank you so, so, so much, Tammie!  I love everything you sent my way!!

The Apron Swap

Ack!  I can't believe that - when I finally decide to start my own blog- my life decides run in super fast forward!  So much has happened since I posted last.

But, since I'm limited on time right now, I just want to post some pictures from the "Flirty Apron and Accessory Swap" I participated in.  Sewing the apron for my partner is the first time I got the chance to use my sewing room since my husband and I moved into our new house!  Not that it's much of a sewing room now - just a folding table with my sewing machine and a TV placed on top of the boxes that line the wall.  But, it's all mine!

Anyway, my partner was Emily at ChiknGirl.  After reading her blog for a bit, I decided to go with a chicken patterned fabric for Emily's apron - how could I go wrong, right?  She said that she liked a full-bib apron, so this is what I came up with:

I used a towel material for the bib - with a cute rooster pic right in the middle, and made the skirt fabric a little fuller, but not too full.  I used the same towel/rooster fabric for the pocket.  I really hope she likes it...

And I can't wait to see who my secret partner is and what she made me.  I'm so excited for my package to arrive!!!

WooHoo!!!

Yay!  We sold our condo, so now I can get really excited about our new house!  Man, what a weight off of our shoulders.  A couple weekends ago, we had a particularly busy day with three showings, one of them a second showing.  And they ended up putting in an offer!  They just had the home inspector through a couple days ago, and they didn't find anything.  Woohoo! 

We're settling on our new house in less than three weeks, and I am soooo excited about it.  We walked through the house this weekend, and it was so great to see what all the design elements we had added actually look like when the house is up!  I already know that my favorite part of the house is going to be the morning room we added to the back of the kitchen.  It has windows on all three sides, and a cathedral ceiling with a beautiful semi-circle window at the peak.  Oh, the light in that room is just gorgeous!  Can't wait to post pictures!!! 

I plan on spending my lunch hour looking for design inspiration for my new sewing room, so I might be back with a post a little later on. 

Seriously, could you please go slower?

I'm not being sarcastic here.  My husband and I are in the process of building a house, and they are building this house super quick!  I mean, they have regularly had five crews on our house the whole time.  Four weeks ago, they had just started digging the hole for the foundation.  Now?  It's all built, with siding, shutters, drywall and all (the picture to the right shows how it looked last week pre-drywall - that was only three weeks after they broke ground!).

What's the problem, you ask?  Well - we haven't quite sold our condo yet.  By yet, I mean not even close to selling.  So now, we're facing the fact that we'll be moving into our new house, and still having to pay for our condo.  Which stinks.  But it could be so much worse, right? 

I'm not really complaining.  I'm super excited to be getting a house.  And each night when I wake up in the middle of the night (which I seem to be doing a lot lately), you know what I think about?  My brand new sewing room.  That's right - I get to have a dedicated space just for me and my sewing!!!

It's not large - in fact it's quite small (see diagram to the left - it's blurry but the measurements say 10'0" x 10'11").  But it's all mine to decorate how I want, and design and dream of great new projects!  Yay.  And I got brand new inspiration yesterday while I was blog reading - take a look at Pam's amazing closet - I'm in love!!  I hadn't even thought of putting all my shelves in the closet!!!  That would free up so much space.  What a great idea!  I think I've visited the Ikea website about a million times dreaming of all the organizing stuff I'm going to buy!

Anyway, I've never really have a room to use just for one purpose, and it's been years since I've had enough room to actually store all my stuff - we currently have a storage space that holds all my fabrics (I hope I can still salvage some) and my patterns.  It's going to be like Christmas unpacking all my dearly missed sewing items!

See Jenny Blog!

I've been lurking around the blogging world for little while now, and have finally decided to take the leap into setting up my very own blog. Yay!

Here, I hope to regale any potential readers (or just myself, 'cause I'm not really sure how many people will see this...) with musings and pictures as I prepare to embark into "My Very Own Business" realm.

You see, I haven't quite figured out the direction that I'll be going, or exactly how my efforts will focus themselves. But, I do know that I sometimes feel ready to explode with my very own creative energies. Energies that aren't quite fulfilled by my 9 to 5 corporate job. Energies that are yearning to utilize my 20 years of sewing experience and the design talents I've cultivated over time.

Plus, I just got a brand new embroidery sewing machine that seems destined for greatness!

Oh, and I'll also be sharing some little nuggets on my life - especially since my husband and I are in the process of building a real, live grown-up house!

Anyhoo, hopefully this blog is my very first step in taking a more creative leap in my life. And I hope that anyone who happens to stumble upon it will enjoy my musings...