make a little birdhouse in your soul

Pretty much, I just want to say, "I love making things!" I usually don't succeed, and then I am disappointed... but still... I get a certain kind of joy that is difficult to explain when I have made something that I like, it is different than when you buy something you like. The fun is in the process... in making some really not-so-great stuff, and then finally triumphing.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Accomplice: FOUND

I have made a friend who enjoys the splendors of creativity! OH JOY! AN ACCOMPLICE! I am SOOOOOO happy to have a friend to project with now! Yeah! Check out some of the onesies we tie dyed for our babies.




I was going to just dye my onesies bold single colors... but then my friend started doing all this crazy dipping and wringing... and I couldn't help myself! She made it all look to good, and classically Grateful Dead-ish, I just had to join in the fun. Hooray for fabric dye!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

not-so-cute jeans to FABULOUS Skirt!!!


A few weeks ago I decided to google how to make a denim skirt out of old jeans. There were A MILLION results- with a million ways, all cute and easy, to do it. Pretty much I just cut the jeans about how long I wanted my skirt. Then I ripped out the crotch seam, and pinned it together. I filled the gap in between the legs towards the bottom with fabric from the legs I'd cut off already.
I sewed it together, and hemmed it using thread the matched the original stitching.
The tricky part was folding over the crotch area, especially in the back so there wasn't a cook-a-loo bulge...
Anyway... I'd do some things different next time... but this was SOOOOOOOOOO easy, and totally fast... maybe like an hours work? AND... you know how expensive denim skirts are- this cost me about $1.oo for the thread, (as I had these jeans already, and they looked hideous on me). Hooray for repurposing!

Monday, August 3, 2009

The Stars Aligned!!!!!!!!!
















This is a project I've been dreaming of..... and I'm IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't she THE best thing I've yet created? It's like the stars aligned, and I found THE perfect vintage scrap of my life, and buttons combinations which accentuated the beauty within.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Dreaming of Projects....

Tonight I had a lovely moment to sit in a rocking chair with my eyes closed- and think. Moments like those are rare indeed.... I began to brainstorm future projects... I'm DYING DYING DYING to take a soldering class. I have done a little of it... but I'm aweful. I need training.

BUT... once I get that training I want to make tiny glass boxes within which I will place vintage buttons, broken jewelry, old pictures, bits of broken glass from old dishes, scraps of stained glass... you name it... then, I want to stick a metal loop on the top and slide it right onto an awesome chain, ribbon, rope, whatever- gorgeous necklaces...

I also want to make a bracelet COVERED in buttons- vintage buttons, fabric covered buttons, bright buttons, sophisticated buttons....

I want to make a few pieces with neon yellow mingled with older colors...
I want to decoupage buttons, or maybe small round discs or some such with inspiring, or amusing words to buoy me... and then stitch them to an awesome leather band making knarly awesome bracelets....
Then what if I somehow tint the decoupage colors...? Can I do that?

I want to make coasters. Tile, on which I will adhere old family pictures, or fun collages, and then decoupage or resin on top of....

I want to get a bulletin board, and spray paint the cork a bright fun color or colors... maybe even stencil some.... can I do that?
I have an old Montreal map that is falling apart from use... I want to put that on and end table, and pour resin on top- or some kind of thick glaze to make the bar table look ...

I want to make placemats and napkins
I want to make drapes for my house
more awesome onsies for my baby
more hair things
AND.... I want to get about 10 different colors of spray paint and go to town...( not literally of course!) I just want to give old frames and such some serious makeovers.

I want to make AWESOME headboards...or things that hang above the bed that just ACT like headboards... maybe like 3 or 4 old barn windows hung... but first I'd have to paint them because plain white wouldn't do.
Maybe I could just use a huge peice of particle board, staple batting on it, and then fabulous fabric...

All this and so much more.... sigh

Good night!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Project: Finished



... and just in time. Check out how much thread was left.
I made this skirt with absolutely no pattern... a fact, I'm sure, which does not surprise you by seeing it's poor quality! Oh well. It was not made for greatness... All things considered it isn't half bad. Hooray for me.




Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Create: An inspiring, and short video- a must watch.

I just watched this- it gave me chills and brought a hot potato to my throat. :) Please please please take 2 minutes, and be creatively and spiritually inspired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

chair cover fixing....

The chair... The chair with the problem cover: the top is too long...

After the nip and tuck... things are much improved.



From the side...


A little over a year ago my husband and I bought our table, and chairs at IKEA- man I love that store.

The table, is divine.... but the chairs we found in their sale area for $5.00 a peice, (they were being discontinued) which was, for bargain hunters like ourselves, a deal we couldn't refuse. It was awesome- instead of getting 4 to 6 like we planned, we decided to splurge and get 8 because, why not at that price, right?

The catch: they weren't upholstered. So, we bought some chair covers there... but since our chairs were discontinued, they didn't have covers that fit. We bought some anyway, deciding that one day it wouldn't take much to make them fit...

FINALLY, we got up the nerve to take the scissors and seam wrippers to them, and fixed them. They aren't perfect, because as always, I didn't really know what I was doing, but with seam wrippers in my husband's hands, and a sewing machine at the ready, I think we did a pretty good job.