Etsy Love

It's time for another round of Etsy love!  This coin purse by AIYshop is darling and a great reminder for a spender like me.

I'm pretty much head-over-heels in love with this Plant Feeling Zine by Sarah McNeil.

This knitted mountain pillow by Sootie Limetree is just too good!

Twinkie Chan does is again with this "tart" lemon patch.

Sarah McNeil also has a ton of cute mittens in her shop.  These are my personal favorite.

I'd love for you to leave any links to your favorite Etsy shops or your own personal Etsy shop in the comments below.  Support handmade!

Currently

I haven't done a "Currently" post in quite some time, so here's a little of what we've been up to lately:

*Listening:  I've been listening to music like crazy this winter-- partially because I work too slowly when I'm trying to watch tv or movies.  Things on the docket include: the newest Violents EP, Girls, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, and Hospitality.  Oh, and you can find me on Spotify if you feel like judging how much I (still) listen to Rilo Kiley.

*Watching:  Like I said, I haven't been watching a ton of television lately, but we just saw "Inherent Vice" by Paul Thomas Anderson (who I love, love, love) and I adored it.  I've talked to a lot of people who weren't that into it, but I thought it was great and I can't wait to see it again.

*Doing:  Besides playing shows in our band every weekend, I've been keeping busy with work (duh) and friend time.  I've had an abundance of really great coffee and drink dates recently.  Friends are a really great way for me to keep those winter (or non winter) blues away.  I've had a lot of laughs and a lot of tears over lattes or beers in the past several weeks, and I'm so thankful to have friends who care the way they do.

*Planning:  I mentioned in my resolutions post how ready I am for a vacation, and we've started looking into some potential destinations.  I can't wait to take a little time off with the family and just soak up what's around us.  More short-term plans include traveling for Dr. Dog and Jenny Lewis concerts (and yes, I did just see Jenny in Nashville a few months ago).  I just can't help myself.

*Growing:  When it's too cold to be doing any outdoor planting, I find myself going a little overboard with the amount of plants I bring home.  Actually, I just brought in three more plant friends yesterday.  We only have good light on one side of our living room, so one half is just completely overrun with green things, and the sad other side just gets a few baby succulents.  Oh, I also learned that if you over-water a big, standing cactus it will break right in half.  Learning as I go.  ;)

As always, thanks for reading this little blog, friends.  In the months where I feel less inspired and feel like I'm not on my A-game, I feel extra thankful that people come back to my corner of the interwebs.  Loyalty is something I cherish above all.  You guys are cool.  xo.

**This post was originally inspired by the ever wonderful Dani Hampton. 

Good Memories

I've been spending quite a bit of time digging through folders of photos since my hard drive crashed.  I lost quite a lot of photos and work stuff, but it's been making me extra thankful for what was able to be recovered.  These are just some random photos from the last couple of years that make my heart really happy.

**Some of my favorite records all laid out for a photoshoot for Mollie Makes.
**This photo is from a random rainy day that ended up being really, really good.
**Planting things with the girls is one of my absolute favorite things in the world.
**Pretty little Poesy picking pretty little flowers for me.
**Teaching Hope to embroider.
**A fun photoshoot I had with Allison.
**Destressing at the park with the family.
**A very good Mother's Day.

Happy Monday, friends.  I hope your week kicks off to a good start.

Snow Days // Sledding

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, we finally got snow!  The first day was beautiful and magical... it always is, isn't it?  Giant flakes falling from the sky, powdery snow covering the ground... it's one of my favorite things.  Poesy and I ended up missing the first day of playing in the powder, though, thanks to a super long nap (her) and lack of motivation to bundle, bundle, bundle (me).  We did, however, make it to day two of sledding, and I'm really glad I went.  It's so easy to stay buried under a blanket indoors, but once I get out there, I'm always glad I did.  Here are some photos from our day:


Johnny and I grew up in an area that was all hills and mounds, so it was weird trying to seek out hills for sledding this year.  At our old house, you could sled from the top of our yard, all the way down into the next door neighbor's yard.  It was great for sledding, but terrible for parking.  Anyway, Springfield has a very different landscape, though the cities are only about 1 1/2 hours away.

Some of our friends met us out at the hills, which made the day even better.  Poesy was shockingly brave and was totally great going down by herself.  It was awesome.  Hope rocked the penguin slide, and I fell UP a hill trying to pull Poe in the sled.  Pure grace.  Oh, and since we missed the first day where the snow was deeper, I racked up my share of grass stains.  Whoops.  Anyway, we ended the day with hot cocoa because everyone knows it's the rule after a long day out in the snow.  All-in-all, two thumbs up for a snow day.  Now it can get warm again.  ;)

Weekly Wears: Can U Not

Our Valentines Day was nothing really to speak of this year-- we drove 5 hours to Oklahoma for a gymnastics meet.  Somehow the updated info on the meet never made it to us, so we went to the wrong place for the competition.  Once we figured out we needed to be in another city about 30 minutes away, we high-tailed it to that convention center, crossing our fingers we wouldn't be so late that Hope got scratched.  She did end up making it (barely) and we spent the rest of the day sitting on the concrete floor, watching the girls compete.  It was a stressful/long day, but we did get to finish it out eating at Evil Empire pizza in OKC (and enjoying a much deserved beer) and picking up pie before our 5 hour trek home.  It was a weird weekend, but it made me extra thankful for the super time Johnny and I had the weekend before.

Dress: c/o Black Swan;  Tights: ModCloth;  Clutch: gift;  Necklace: Danny Brito;  Clogs: Lotta From Stockholm;  Coat: Family Affairs via Emerging Thoughts (last year)

Right now we're enjoying a bit of snow over here in Missouri.  I've actually been really hoping for some, so now I'm going to get off this computer and go outside to enjoy it!  xo.

Where You Will Find Me These Days // My Sewing Area

Being that the nature of my business is hand sewing, I've never paid a great deal of attention to my sewing machine area.  It wasn't until last year that I even bought myself a spool holder-- that's how little I machine sewed.  I had some colors of thread in a box and that was it.  The end.  Since I've been putting so much time into this ecourse you keep hearing me talk about (we'll be announcing our release date soon!), I've realized how much I love machine stitching.  It feels so good to create a pattern and sew something from scratch.  I adore it.  Anyway, I had a video shoot this weekend so my sewing area of the studio is sparkling clean (thanks to a best friend and a steam mop).  What better time to share?!  Here's a peek at what it looked like before.  Nothing much to speak of.  Here's where we are now:


I love having a space devoted to machine sewing.  You can see my office area and hand stitching corner right here and here.  Thanks for letting me share!  xo.

DIY Felt Photo Bunting

Lately, I've been trying to think of ways to freshen up Hope's space.  I remember being 12 and feeling very particular about the way my room was arranged and decorated.  No, I didn't have great taste, but it was my room and I wanted it to reflect my loves and interests.  Sometimes it's hard for me to see Hope as being this old, but I have extremely vivid memories from this age, so I've been trying to put myself in her shoes and help her develop a space she loves.

I thought it would be fun to create a personalized piece of art for Hope's room.  The concept I came up with was easy:  send Hope around with my disposable camera to shoot photos of things she really loves and DIY something special for her.  Today I'm teaming up with Canon USA to show you a fun and easy, super personal DIY for any age and any room!

Supplies:
*Printed photos (I printed my disposable camera photos from a disk with my PIXMA iP8720)
*Scissors or a rotary cutter and self healing mat
*Ruler or straight edge
*Felt in any color
*Craft glue
*Needle and thread or sewing machine (optional)
*Quilt binding


First, I chose which photos I was going to use from the photo disc, and changed the size in Photoshop.  My photos were about 9"x13" each.  I doubled up the photos on each page because I was using 13"x19" paper.  I printed them off with my PIXMA iP8720.  I love being able to print extra large photos with this printer.  It saves me a ton of time.


After my photos were printed, I used my straight edge and rotary cutter to attain a properly sized triangle.


I used the first photo I cut into a triangle to create a pattern for the rest.  I used that pattern to cut out triangles of felt in the same size.  After I had everything cut, I used my rotary cutter to chop off the top 2 inches of each of the photo triangles so they would sit inside of the felt triangles.


Next, I used my Tacky Glue to tack the photo to the felt.  A dot in each corner works great if you are planning to move onto the next step.  If you are skipping the sewing part, I suggest gluing the photo entirely to the felt.


If you are, in fact, planning to move to the next step, here it is!  After your glue dots have dried, use a long straight stitch to sew your photo to the felt.  It is surprisingly easy to stitch up photo paper!  I'm brainstorming more paper/sewing projects because I was so happy with the result!  You can also stitch this by hand if you aren't comfortable with a sewing machine.  These would be really pretty with colorful embroidery floss.


Once all of the triangles are stitched or glued together, grab your binding and pin it to the top of your triangles.  Again, if you don't feel like sewing, I suggest gluing this as well.  I think it will still turn out wonderfully!


Using a long straight stitch again, carefully sew your binding to the triangles.  When you reach the end, you're all done!  Find a place to hang this treasure!


Hope wasn't home when I was stitching all of this up, so when she walked into her room, it was a total surprise.  Her response?  "Can I keep it?!"  Of course, silly.  This DIY is for you.  Now to figure out a solution for all those Legos...  xo.

**If you are interested in owning your own Canon printer, Canon is running a special right now!  The PIXMA iP8720 (the printer I almost ALWAYS use) is on sale for $50 off until February 14th, and the SELPHY CP910 is on sale for $94.99 (I used it in this post) until February 14th.  I never realized how much I would use a printer in crafting and gifting until I owned a nice one!