Valentine's Day 2011

This year I decided to play with crochet thread for the Valentine's Day cards. I just drew little lines with plain Elmer's glue and then stuck the thread right on. It looks like the glue will be really obvious but it flattens out a bit as it dries and it's fine. The balloons are just red felt hearts.

{valentine's day card 2011}

I was searching through my archives to see if I've adequately explained my Valentine's Day thing (obsessed, platonically) and I think I've covered it. In 2009 I gave it a whole week, complete with garlands, cookies, and cards. Oh, and I participated in Amanda's swap and Lauren and I became instant internet friends.

Last year Circe got a new bandanna and I sent goodies to Lily and became obsessed with her work (and eventually purchased two paintings that I treasure) and we became friends and I got goodies from cevd, who was already a friend. I can't find any record of my cards, but I definitely made brownies. Shaped like hearts.

In summary, Valentine's Day is good for friends.

Also, I haven't decided what to bake yet. But I still have several days for that.

Felt clouds

Just for fun, because I have lots of things that I actually should be doing and I like to procrastinate ...

{felt cloud}

I made some cloud ornaments out of white felt and some leftover silver vinyl from the wreath project. I just sketched out some clouds, cut two of each out of felt and one slightly smaller out of the silver. Handstitched everything and stuffed it with a bit of cotton batting.

{mini cloud}

Clouds don't really have anything to do with Christmas, of course - I just like the shapes.

{tree with clouds}

Christmas wreath 2010

It's December 1st, officially open season on holiday crafting. We'll ignore the fact that I made this wreath in November, well before such a thing was appropriate.

This year's wreath started, as all good things start, with a large cup of tea. Also, wool felt.

{christmas wreath 2010}

I traced over some olive leaf pictures and created a black and white file in Illustrator, then printed them and cut each one out. I traced around the cut outs on green wool felt (of course, polyester craft felt works but it simply doesn't feel the same - if you aim for at least 60% wool, you'll be much happier) and also on some metallic faux leather (wanted real leather, but it could not be had) that I purchased from the local upholstery store for $5 for a quarter yard. Black sharpie worked best on both, although I was a little woozy from the fumes. Make sure you trace on the back of the metallic material so you don't have to worry about the lines showing!

Then I cut and cut and cut. This part made me very thankful for old episodes of This American Life.

Pieces all ready, I protected my coffee table with wax paper, set down my wreath frame ($2 at the craft store) and started hot gluing. I attached the ribbon first, because I wanted the leaves to go over it.

{christmas wreath 2010 - assembly}

At first I tried to come up with some kind of logical process, like applying the metallic leaves first and then adding the felt. In the end, I just ended up gluing like crazy, adding leaves wherever I thought they looked right. This was the fun part.

{christmas wreath 2010 - gluing}

Adding leaves to the back as well gave the wreath a fuller feel. I initially imagined it as being more sparse, but sparse is actually a lot harder to do and I would have needed to be much more precise with my placement.

{christmas wreath 2010}

And here it is, hanging on the wall in the grey winter light. I'm probably safe to move it to our front door now, without risking anyone defacing it out of sheer annoyance.

{christmas wreath 2010}

{christmas wreath 2010}

If you'd like the leaf file, it's right here. You only need to print and cut out the leaf pages once, but you'll want to trace at least two sets onto your materials. I traced each leaf onto the wool felt twice and then made a half batch using the metallic vinyl.

Here's a little shopping list, if you'd like to make your own ...

Felt (wool or wool blend preferred), ~1/2  to 3/4 of a yard
Metallic leather or vinyl (optional), ~ 1/8 a yard, probably much less
Marker for tracing on fabric (Sharpie is fine, or fabric marker)
Leaf templates (you can use my file or a picture or you can trace actual leaves)
Sharp scissors
Wreath frame (mine was about 14" across)
Ribbon, for hanging
Hot glue gun

Thankful

Little paper leaves that I printed on neutral cardstock. I traced over the gray outlines with metallic paint pen, for subtle shimmer. Punched a little hole in each one and then cut a slit so they can be slipped on and off a string.

{thankful leaves}

The idea is to hang them on the mantle and people can choose to write down little things they are thankful for on the back. Over the top cheesefest? Maybe. We have a tradition that we go around the table and share something we're grateful for before we start eating, so it isn't completely unexpected for us. They'll be decorative even if they are left blank.

{thankful leaves}

Here is the file I used, if you'd like it. I didn't draw the leaves myself, so don't get impressed with my art skills. They are traced and slightly modified from a coloring book page (found here).

{thankful leaves}

More quick paper projects:
Punched out paper napkin rings (Thanksgiving 2009)
Super simple printed paper napkin rings (Thanksgiving 2010)

Super simple printable napkin rings

I starting thinking of this paper napkin ring design while I supposed to be working on something else. Naturally I dropped my other project and made a quick template for these instead. I'm picturing these on the Thanksgiving table - they'll take you 20 minutes, tops.

{thanksgiving 2010 paper napkin rings}

Download the template here (go to file and make sure you select download original so you get the printable version). You'll need Acrobat Reader. Type the names in the provided fields (font is embedded for you) and print out on nice paper. I used 68 lb cream cover stock. Cut out, slightly around the printed outlines.

{paper napkin rings}

{zots!}

Add some Zots. You could use double stick tape, but Zots are the absolute best, in my opinion.

{paper napkin rings, finished}

Voila!

{paper napkin rings}

Add a sprig of fresh herbs for extra points. Yours will probably be less dehydrated, because I went out to my balcony to get that rosemary and realized I haven't watered my plants in several weeks. They're mostly dead. Whoops. Why is life so hard to get right?

New skirt!

I have been meaning to make a skirt forever. Lest you think that is an exaggeration, I scrolled through my archives to see when this fabric was purchased. January. Maybe not forever, but way too long for a project that takes less than two hours.

{print skirt}

The fabric is silk twill (was marked down from $20 a yard to $5) and it feels amazing.

I used the wonderful Freshly Picked elastic waist skirt tutorial but made a few changes of my own.

The tutorial calls for the length of your fabric to be double the width of your waist. This gives you a very full skirt, which looks adorable. On everyone else. I tried it on while it was pinned and quickly realized it wasn't going to work for me. I ended up using 1.5 times the width of my waist, and I love it.

I didn't have elastic quite as thick as I'd like for a defined waist band (3" would be ideal, I think). I was worried that my 1.5" elastic wouldn't really make a statement and would look lazy. So I made a simple fold over pocket and hid the elastic altogether.

To get the most out of my fabric, I cut two pieces for the skirt panel rather than one. I wanted the skirt to be a bit shorter, to wear with tights. My fabric was 45" wide, which meant that folding it in half gave me enough  length (22.5"), even once I allowed for the upper pocket for the elastic. That meant I could use the entire piece of fabric, rather than cutting off something twice as long and narrower. Sewing up one extra seam was definitely worth it.

{click here for PDF}

For a quick summary of the steps I used, you can click on the link below the picture. Please note that I'm 5'6, so if you are very tall or very modest, this might not work for you. However, I had enough length to easily make the pocket for the elastic and I had a relatively deep hem, so you could certainly make a skirt a bit longer than the one pictured here using the same technique.

EDIT - I just noticed that if you're a newbie sewer, you might want a couple of additional tips, because I don't go into great detail on this step by step.

1. The iron is your friend. Every time you make a fold that you're going to want to sew, press it well. Every time you sew a seam, press it. For an open seam, like in step 3, you should press it twice. First press it flat to strengthen the bond between the top and bottom thread, then you should gently open the seam with your fingers and press it open, so that it lies nice and flat when you wear the skirt.

2. Pins. I hate pinning because it always seems like a tedious waste of time, but it was useful here. When you need to sew a folded seam, iron first to get a nice crisp fold, then add a few pins to keep it all in place. As you sew on the machine, pull each pin out just before you sew over that area. Once you're experienced, you won't need to stop the machine or even slow down much to do this.

I think that's it. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments! I'm certainly not an expert on sewing clothing though, so don't expect too much.

Mini banners for Halloween

I have a guest post up over at the Irreference blog which is run by Quirk books, the wonderful company that published Witch Craft.

I made some simple mini banners for Halloween - they're a quick last minute project and you can download the file to print out at home.

{trick or treat banner}

Hop on over and check it out.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who entered in the super short giveaway for Witch Craft last week. The two lucky winners have been notified and the books are currently winging their way to them. Enjoy!

Lace tape

Crafting borne of desperation can sometimes be the best kind. There I was, sitting at my computer with $80 worth of Japanese washi tape in my shopping cart. Trying to convince myself that I'd been thinking about purchasing it for a long time, it would be so useful in so many places, the holidays are coming up and I'm sure it will come in handy, really it isn't that much money ...

On the other hand. $80. for. tape. That's kind of hard to justify. Yes, I could have picked a couple rolls. If I had any restraint. Instead, I made lace tape.

{lace roll}

 I feel almost silly mentioning it, because it barely qualifies as a craft. Take some lace trim*, preferably about 3/4" wide and a variety that doesn't have large holes in the pattern (mine was mesh with embroidered designs). Get a roll of double sided tape (I used poster tape) - you want the kind with paper covering one side. Lay your lace out on a piece of wax paper (otherwise it might stick to the table) and then start adhering the tape to it, sticky side down, paper side up. Press down and smooth it out with your fingers, to make sure the lace is securely attached. 

{lace tape}

Now you have a roll of lace tape. When you want to use it, cut off a piece, peel up the adhesive backing (carefully, so as not to separate the lace and the tape) and stick it somewhere. Press firmly to get it to adhere. I made a 12 inch piece to start with and I've just been cutting bits off as I want to use it.

I'm loving it, but in all honesty I'll probably still buy myself some washi tape. Just maybe not $80 worth.


*Olivia Rae asked about my source for lace trim in the comments, and I realized I probably should have shared it! I have a great collection of vintage and new lace trim that I picked up at a local fabric store that specializes in bridal fabric (Fabric Land, for those of you in the Orange area). Most of it is fairly inexpensive - some of the older ones I got were less than $1 per yard. I wouldn't do this project with anything that cost more than $5 a yard, because good lace is precious. If you need an online source, M&J Trimming is usually a good bet, although you could probably find better deals in person and you wouldn't get stuck paying for shipping. I think that this 3/4" Cluny lace trim would work really well and it's $2.98 per yard.

Dumpster chair

Our latest adopted chair ...

{dumpster chair}

Ages ago, D found two beautiful chairs in the dumpster outside our building. Technically, they were next to the dumpster outside our building, which is more appealing but sounds less exciting. They could both use some restoration, understandably, but one of them was in good enough shape that I am using it for the time being.

They originally had black (fake) leather seats, but these had since been covered in maroon fabric and both the fabric and the underlying leather had been torn and badly abused. I pulled off the maroon fabric and covered the leather with a simple green and white seersucker I had lying around, securing it in place with the aid of a staple gun. Our eventual plan is take apart both chairs completely, sand and refinish (not paint!) them and then choose a sturdy fabric for the seats. Hopefully we'll get this done sometime in the next decade.

Pegboard garden center

A DIY project I had absolutely nothing to do with. D rescued an enormous empty frame from a job site. It is the largest frame I've ever seen and it had a truly hideous paint job. He repainted it with some sage green spray paint we had lying around and then added pegboard. I love it.

{tools}

There are no before pictures because he is a normal person who doesn't think about taking pictures of ugly frames for posterity. He didn't even say anything when he finished it. I went out to water the plants and found it waiting patiently in the dwindling light. Pretty amazing.

{balcony pegboard}

Cleaning the work room

I haven't really shown you many pictures of our (now not very) new apartment - we sort of got to that point where everything was more or less put away and then we stalled out. I've been incredibly busy ignoring my work room lately. Having the luxury of a space where I can stash all my supplies and projects is new to me, and I think I've gotten overly dependent on the "close the door" method of cleaning. After all, if you can't see it, it really isn't there.

Sunday night I was exhausted from the weekend and I had pictures to edit and we hadn't even thought about dinner, so naturally I decided the room had to be cleaned. I walked in and had that moment of panic and despair, where I thought oh, there is so much to do and I'll never get it done so there's not even any point and ohmygod I need a drink and a nap immediately. Seeing the (strong) potential for a meltdown, D suggested putting in half an hour every day this week, which is eminently reasonable and smart, so of course I disregarded it and dove in. I didn't take a before picture, because I'm not a masochist. And it still needs some work, so maybe we can consider these as the starting point.

{work room, treasures - see sources below*}

I know, you're thinking it's totally clean! Um, not quite yet.

{work room, north wall - see sources below**}

But it's so much closer.

{work room, east wall - see sources below***}

{work room, work space}

The work room also needs to be a guest room on occasion, so the giant fold out couch is on the opposite wall, beneath our seriously outdated school map.

{work room, south wall - see sources below****}

The wardrobes on either side of the couch provide extra storage space. I would have loved white, but these were repurposed from our old apartment and painting them seems like an onerous task.

{work room, south wall}

It's amazing how much more motivated I feel when the space is cleaner. Almost like I want to go mess it all up again.

Sources (I think this is pretty comprehensive, but let me know if you're curious about anything I've missed):
* - ribbon organizer on wall, adapted from Ikea, see previous post
   - white shelf - Ikea Ribba shelf holding a linocut by D, a homestead by Lily (not the permanent location), a cactus from Jamie, vintage thread spools, a calender by Lynn.
   - wire racks from Ikea, filled with used tea tins, some with chalk label areas (see previous post)
   - lamp from Ikea
   - desk from Ikea (would love to trade this in for a white one, but it's also repurposed)
   - awesome tray (barely visible on the desk) from Ikea

** - everything above +
     - filing cabinet from thrift store
     - chair from dumpster, recovered
     - sewing machine - Janome special edition - most similar to this one
     - white framed display on wall - made from a thrift store frame
     - small under the table cabinet from Ikea, a million years ago

*** - white frame display - made from a thrift store frame
       - lamp from Ikea
       - standing ribbon holder repurposed from old lab equipment
       - Command hooks on the back of the door for the totes
       - easy access tissue paper holder made from this rail in the kitchen section at Ikea, spray painted glossy white

**** - couch, hand me down
         - map, rescued from an elementary school (that thankfully was finally given a map without the Soviet Union, a mere 10 years after it was defunct)
         - Ikea wardrobes in birch
         - contrasting pillow made by me (see previous post)

So yes, almost everything is from Ikea and in an ideal world I wouldn't have completely mismatched wood finishes all over the place. But there was no way I was going to buy anything new if I had something that would work. I keep my eye on Craigslist, with the goal of eventually trading out some of these pieces to make it a bit more coherent. For now, it's functional and I'm happy.

Mother's Day printables

My favorite mother's day tradition is the flowers. I go to the thrift store a few weeks prior and pick out vases or fun containers for all the special women in my life and then fill them with flowers.

{last year - mother's day bouquets}

Add a pretty little tag and some ribbon and you're done.

{last year - mother's day brunch}

Here are the tags I designed last year, but with empty spaces so you can sign your own name. Print the file on cardstock, using a color printer, cut out the tags you want to use and punch a small hole in the top to feed the ribbon through. Tie around a vase of flowers or a gift. Let me know if you have any trouble accessing the document - this is my first attempt at linking directly to one of my PDFs.

{clicking on the image will take you to the PDF}

Details from last year - I purchased thrifted vases, made croissants and set up a simple brunch.

Quick choker re-do

Lately I've been looking for vintage chains at the thrift store. You would think they'd be easy to find, but you actually don't see them that often, so when I saw this three chain piece I snatched it up.

{thrift store choker}

Sadly, my sense of scale failed me completely here. I got this out of the store before I realized that it is a choker. A serious choker, as in, I put it on as a joke and then started to have a mild panic attack when I realized it was inhibiting my breathing and I couldn't get it off quickly enough because man, that clasp is sturdy. Thrifting life is exciting, you guys. Full of drama and adventure.

I let it sit around my house for several months, which is sad because 10 minutes + a couple feet of silk ribbon remedied the problem nicely. I don't have a picture of me wearing it because it is truly difficult to take a picture of your own torso if you are too lazy to get out the camera tripod.

{finished}

DIY details: I just made a long braid out of the ribbon and then tucked each end through the clasp ends of the choker, folded them over and secured them with a few stitches (you could use hot glue if you're sewing averse, or simply knot it if your ribbon isn't too thick). I ended up cutting the braid in the middle, holding the entire thing around my neck and then tying it back together so it was the perfect length for me.

New bedside "tables"

Our old bedside tables didn't fit in our new bedroom. Instead of looking for new ones, we decided to try a really simple option. We purchased some scrap wood from Ikea in the same finish as our bed and closets (they have scraps in the as-is section). Dustin cut some pieces to size and suspended them between our bed and our closets with framing angles (A-35s, in case anyone handy is reading).

Voila!

{new side table}

The floating bookshelf is made by Umbra. We have a tendency to let stacks of books pile up next to the bed, and this is a sophisticated solution.

{new side table}

I'm really happy with the clean lines - it encourages me to keep my side neat. My clock is from the flea market and my lamp is an old one that we used to use in the lab.

Heart day goodies

Circe got her Valentine's Day gift from me. I've given into the bandanna fixation and I made her a reversible one* for maximum styling potential. It has a delightfully cheesy print on one side (I woof you!) and a more refined white heart on red background print on the other.

It received a much more enthusiastic reception than the cowl.

{circe, wagging}

She knows what she likes, clearly.

{circe, ears back}

And I got the sweetest little swap package! From cevd, so naturally the card was awesome. I shared the bacon chocolate bar with D, just to be nice.

{swap goodies}

And my swap package went out to the lovely Lily. The theme was salt, which sounds a bit strange, but you know how much I love salt and she is a fellow salt enthusiast. I didn't manage to snap any pictures because I was in a god-awful rush trying to get to the post office before it closed, but Lily has some up on her blog.

Many thanks to the genius Amanda, for being the arranger of Valentine's swap delights!

*Making the bandanna was even easier than the cowl. I just layered the fabrics, right sides together, cut out a triangle (make sure the long side is long enough to tie around the canine neck) and then stitched around the edges, leaving a small opening to make it possible to turn it right side out afterwards. I find it easiest to leave the opening in the middle of the longest edge. It's tempting to leave the opening on a corner, but that tends to look wonky at the end. Push the fabric through your little opening so that the right sides are out. Use a pencil (or a crochet hook) to stick into the very edge of each corner, so that they turn out all the way. Then press your bandanna with a nice hot iron (making sure the opening you left is tucked in nicely) and stitch around all the edges again, without leaving an opening. I used pink thread on the printed side and white thread on the more subtle side, just by using different colors in my bobbin and spool.

Various hearts

Little paper hearts, scattered on all surfaces...

{little paper hearts}

Delicious brownie hearts, waiting to be nibbled...

{heart brownies}

(brownie recipe from Deb - I cut them out with a cookie cutter instead of slicing them)

Neckwear for the dog

Okay, so I am really not the kind of person who dresses up animals. I swear.

But this little terrier has a mind of her own. And she's obsessed with neckwear. The bandanna was a Christmas joke, but now she wants to wear it constantly. If we try to put it away she finds it and brings it over. We pry it off to wash it every week or so and she gets giddy with excitement when it emerges from the dryer.

{inspector circe}

Feeling sad that she's still wearing a jingle bell bandanna in February, I crocheted a little cowl for her. If we must have a dressed up animal, she might as well be hip.

{circe, cowl}

Her reaction was less than enthusiastic. She will wear the cowl with minimal complaint, but she continues to beg for her bandanna. And she resolutely refuses to pose for photos.

{circe, cowl}

If you'd like to try to put a cowl on your dog, this is just a simple bobble stitch alternated with single crochet. Rather than putting fastenings on it, I just crocheted it as a single piece, so it slips over her head.