tray,headboard and bookshelf oh my!

So today I went on a little adventure with Katie of Possibility Springs Forth and her sister Mary. We started out at Building Resources, a great building supply salvage yard. Its got everything you could think of in relation to building things. Doors, windows,sinks,tile,marble and granite counter tops, tumbled glass,furniture,lighting fixtures on and on and on. This place was huge, and makes me want to own a home even more just to have a legitimate excuse to go there

We went in search of knobs. Katie for a little desk shes refurbishing and me for this hutch:

I found it at a yard sale for 10 dollars, I just couldn't pass it up

Katie found some that would work for her but I didn't find any that I liked. The true triumph of the day though was an oak headboard Katie found. I thought I got a picture on my phone unfortunately not. It's engraved and beautiful and will be quite the project as it doesn't have all of its pieces . Once the puzzle is put together though it's going to be fabulous

Then I saw an adorable book shelf, dismissed it quickly as not having any room for it, but sitting on top of it was a tray. Just the kind I've been looking for to put on my ottoman that is doubling as a coffee table. well it was attached. Now it was hilarious Mary pulled it right off and decided to take the book shelf for herself.

I went to pay for my tray and unbeknownst to me there had to be a 10 dollar minimum for cards and the tray was only 5. well Katie was just going to pay for me and I was going to pay her back when I the guy who was helping her with the headboard just said to throw in the tray for free. Score!

the best part of all was trying to get most of the head board, 4 dining chairs an associate at building resources threw in for free, the book shelf and 3 people in my car.

we did it though and it was great fun.

Take II

Take 2 on the headband as well as another birthday present. This is for a good friends little girl, she is 4 as of today. She's currently obsessed with Hello Kitty. Alas no hello kitty fabric, but I think this super girly headband will do the trick.

Overall I'm happy with the results. don't quite like the way I edged the pink fabric but that's easily remedied. I also need to find some white headbands. I only have black and it's peaking through the pink ribbon I wrapped it in. Doesn't look bad, I'm just a tad type A like that.

note cards

It's a very dear friends birthday today and I just had to make her something. But I kept struggling with what. First I was thinking embellished dish towels, but that seemed so blah, then it was something else that I cant remember right now, maybe a tote? but then I remembered I had plain white note cards and I just knew what I would make. Personalized note cards.

These turned out to be the perfect gift. They were pretty quick, about 3 hours start to finish with quite a few coffee/cleaning/phone breaks thrown in. Plus I had never done anything like this before so I had to figure out just how I was going to do them. The hardest part being cutting out the letter V.

I'm really happy with the results, I will definitely be making these again. It's a great use of scraps and/or charm packs, they go quick and who doesn't like stationary?

I really hope she likes them. She's always so good about sending people little thinking of you notes, is totally on top of thank yous and is just generally good at correspondence.

The pictures didn't turn out too great because the foundation fabric I used is a bit shiny and I didn't think about it. There's 3 different backgrounds/V colors: pink, blue and green. Here's a pictures of the little bundle of finished cards

As always I love the Ric Rac :-)

Oh and see that Pink dot fabric? thats the fabric I couldn't find that led to me dumping all my fabric in my living room. It was worth it though, I love it. Oh and all the V's are fabrics from a charm pack I had of Tula Pink's Hushabye collection

What was I thinking?

my fabric has been a mess, long before we moved. I've been avoiding it like the plague.

until tonight and then I couldn't avoid it anymore.

I decided to make a little present for a friends birthday dinner I'm going to tomorrow and couldn't find a fabric I needed. So I decided to bite the bullet and just do it.

So I started dumping fabric, 2 bins in I found the fabric I needed but it was just too late. well now I've sorted and returned 98% of my fabric back into the bins. but now I'm stuck. How to organize the remaining fabric? Mostly it's fabric that is either already being used in another fabric or is ear marked for a project. then there's my notions, patterns,books and other such things.

and I'm stuck with stuff all over my bedroom and bins of fabric in my living room, and I just don't want to work on it anymore. But it's waaaayyy too late for that.

hence the, what was I thinking?

I forgot

Its almost September and I forgot about this post. I had such good intentions, and I guess I still have 3 months left. but the holidays will be here before I know it, and I need to start making things for that. I'm already starting to think about planning for Thanksgiving. That fact adding more fuel for my husband thinking i'm crazy.

I'm a planner, what can I say?

But back to the UFO's, other than the table runners and napkins I haven't finished a thing. But boy have I started projects. Last week I got all the fabric cut for a cute little kitschy table topper for everyday use. I got a gift certificate to Britex and found this fabric and I was filled with inspiration. I knew exactly what I was going to make. I tried to sketch it and I got mostly there, I just couldn't quite figure out how to do one part. I'm hoping by the time I get to that part it will just become clear.

oh well, I wasn't as productive as I had hoped but I'm ok with that. they'll get done eventually,right? right.

Wish List Wednesday

It's been quite some time since I've done a Wish List Wednesday, so I thought I would reinstate them.

Starting with a pattern from Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.I fell in love with this bag instantaneously. oh my that fabric! too bad its not out for the masses yet (it's a hoot from Momo for Moda). But just look at it, is there anything not to like?

Oh The Favorite Bag, how I heart thee

Summer Day

It's a beautiful lazy summer Saturday. I have a project almost ready to go from my head/sketch pad to the cutting mat and sewing machine.

we ordered pizza for lunch, the leftovers will probably turn into dinner. A girl has to have her priorities some days, and today is one of those days. the priority being fabric shopping and sewing over grocery shopping and cooking.

the curtains are open and the sun is shining. I just may finally conquer the fabric organization issue,maybe.

first things first a quick trip downtown to purchase the perfect focus fabric for my project and enjoy a little fresh air

Fun with Felt

I've had this idea floating around my head for a while now and I finally did something with it. It's not exactly how I envisioned it, but I'm happy with the first try results. I'm going to give it to a friend as a belated birthday present

Lamp Shades

Like I said a couple of posts ago I'm on the hunt for fabric to recover my lamp shades. I have 3 lamps as our living room doesn't have any over head lighting. they all have drab off white shades now. But I don't know what colors to go with.

Here's the one I'm currently leaning towards. My problem is I think I have plenty of brown and green as it is. After going through my fabric stash with my mother-in-law I've decided on a tertiary color of pink, so now I'm like well maybe I'll cover the shades in some sort of pink. the problem being I don't have an exact idea of what shade of pink or if I want a floral,solid, geometric print or what? I think a trip to the fabric store for inspiration is in order.oh darn

Here's the other fabric I was considering, I pretty sure its out though. It's too dark and too busy

So blog world, what do you think? Brown/Green color combo or Pink? I am excited though. Whatever I decide to go with, I get to buy fabric at Britex. A friend of mine gave me a gift certificate from there as a house warming and it's burning a hole in my pocket!

For a point of reference here is my living room. ignore the mess this was few weeks ago when we were still getting boxes and such organized but you can see my green couch, the ottoman of the mossy green love seat and my lovely rug that brings it all together

I'm a winner!

Thanks to The Happy Housewife and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association I am the very happy recipient of a $100 visa gift card and look at the other great stuff I got:

a cool apron and an insulated shopping bag. The bag I'm really excited about as I always have groceries that I want to keep cool. Or sometimes when I go to farmers market there's cold stuff I wont buy because I don't want to haul it on bart with no way to keep it cool.

Now the next question is, what to make for dinner?

old project, good colors

Here's a couple of photos from a pillow I made for a friends birthday last year. She has these colors in her living room which is why I chose them. Recently Ive been drawn to these colors myself and remembered this project. I got the green fabric at Joann's and I have a little left but wish I had more. I'm on a hunt for just the right fabric to recover some blah lamp shades and I think this could be a contender

The blocks are from a charm pack, some Sandy Gervais line, gobble gobble maybe? I don't think that's right.Awesome! that's the line, I think.Oh well, I love the colors.