My gift haul!

Oh my goodness.... I should have done this forever ago.... but anyway-- be inspired! I just wanted to post about the homemade goodies I recieved from 4 lovely ladies who participated in the gift exchange/ craft forward do-dad. I LOVE LOVE LOVE every single gift! I am still a bit of a novice at uploading pictures in any kind of order.... so here are my adorable gifts....

A gorgeous and inspiring journal for me to fill. I had to post a lot of pictures so you could really get a good feel, and hopefully get ideas of your own!

I have started journaling on this one... a love note from my husband written at work. :) So sweet.

An AWESOME bag made from a jersey... from CANADA!!!! For those of you who may not know, I lived there for roughly 11/2 years.... sigh.... it is so lovely there...

Another true beauty, a serving tray- hand painted and mosaiced!!!!! How did she DO this?

Gorgeous, right? My sister made this! She needs to give us a tutorial! These are the pretties who started this whole thing! Thank you so much Camille! I have never even met you, but I am so grateful you started this! Thank you SOOOOOO much for these gorgeous and classic earrings! I love them!

Let's do this again soon! Except.... maybe next time it will be a true exchange... hummm... yes... soon....

Mass producing earrings!

I've been toiling away, trying to finish up a batch of earrings I've been working on for the etsy shop.... whew.... believe it or not, writing up the discription is the most time consuming part for me! I try to really express how each peice feels to me... which is not an easy task for someone as nonverbal as me. :) Anyway... a picture is worth a thousand words right? Check these babies out! Seriously, are they not perfect for spring and summer?! I love them! One of these days I will post a picture with them actually on a head. :) I'm sure they will look even better then!

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I've got good news, bad news, and some SERIOUSLY unfortunate ugly news.

First off, I sold two of my bracelets in my etsy shop this weekend! I am SOOOOO thrilled! It's weird though.... could it have been a parent of one of my adoring fans? The person who bought them hails from South Jordan, UT.... aka, MY HOME TOWN like 1 mile from my mother's home! Is this a coincidence? Perhaps... but I doubt it. Hopefully I will soon find out if I know this person.

The bad news, which is also good news... I've been making some scrap fabric earrings that look AMAZING, until you put them on. Actually, my friend here just had a birthday, so in brainstorming of something I could make for her, I came up with this idea-- little pillow earrings... but I didn't have any batting... so I stuffed them with little peices of plastic bag. Like I said, they looked great until I tried them on. :( But then, I added a little something-- and voila! Gorgeous! Unfortunately, I gave them to her without taking a picture, but here are some others I've been practicing on... though they are still missing the item which makes them sing. I need to get more of it at the store... but still... you get the idea. Once finished I'll put them in my shop.

Now for the ugly news. I got my hair done this weekend. I was SOOOOO excited, had waited forever, saved my pennies- but alas. My cut is EXACTLY like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. That's a great movie- classic even, and Julie has THE most gorgeous voice in the world, and is a superb actress... but her hair in that movie is NOT my favorite. Not even close.
Also... I'd wanted to go extremely blond again... but ... sigh. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be....

Uh-uh ladies! I am the master of my own fate. I'm not giving up so easy. This next Saturday is the day-- the color at least, I can do something about. I'm just sad to loathe my hair in the meantime.

mass producing...

So, I've been busy as a bee trying to use up old material to put in my etsy shop! Here are some of the fruits.

More bracelets with resin beads, some of which were embedded with hand painted lace, among other things like fabric roses. Each is hand stitched to leather... which can be difficult... I actually punctured my index finger with the dull end of a needle with one of them. ouch.

Some leather and vintage inspired fabric bands I may leave plain... or I don't know... any suggestions?

And some earrings. One pair is like a button sandwich- I flipped one over so you could take a peak. Another is resin embedded with hand painted red lace... the others are pictures, and embedded roses... My favorite are the bright red ones... They dangle from a rustic, thicker chain, which gives them an awesome super-feminine/army-girl or tom boy flare. It's been raining cats and dogs here, so I've been wearing a lot of olive green (rain coat and galoshes...) anyway- they offer THE perfect splash, and hang just below my bobbed hair. PERFECT. (See picture below.)

This is actually an atrocious picture... but oh well. Don't fret or judge me because of my nasty hair. I'm considering going super blond soon... ti's the season.

I think my next project will be adorable placemats and napkins. Isn't it classy and earth friendly to have cloth napkins you ACTUALLY use????

Trying new things!

So, big news for me... yesterday, I created my own etsy shop! I have ONE creation listed... but it's a start right? I'm not exactly sure how to get a link from there on here... but I will, if any of you are interested in taking a peek. :) I'm actually really excited- it's such a small thing, but definitely NOT my norm. I'm really going out on a limb here... but don't get too concerned. I've already decided that if knowone EVER purchases anything of mine, it won't be because they don't LOVE what I've made, because of course they will, right? It will just mean that they don't have the money for it right now-- maybe frills aren't in their budget, as they often aren't in mine. I know. Seriously EVERY day I see things I LOVE LOVE LOVE... things that aren't even overpriced... but for whatever reason, I rarely buy them. So, it's fine! My feelings won't get hurt. It's just exciting to try new things! So... wahoo! Wish me luck!


brittas.etsy.com

Here's a picture of item number 1! It looks similar to the project from my most recent post... using up the leftovers. :) This time, I layered vintage buttons. Go to my etsy to check out the description I wrote up. I'm actually pretty impressed with myself.

I'm keeping this one.

Now that everyone has recieved their gifts, I can reveal the one I made for myself with the leftovers, when all the others were done and mailed. What a pretty. I've worn her almost every day for a week. :)

easy pillow project

Before= BORING!After=IMPERFECT, but MUCH BETTER! So, I've had these brown pillows that I stole from my mom's garage for a long time.... but they've never spoken to me... until now.

I only covered one side of each pillow, with, yes...... an old stained white tableclothe. I love re-purposing. I simply sewed the vintage scraps on the tablecloth squares, and then sewed those directly to the front of the pillows.

I like this MUCH better.

So what have any of you created lately? I LOVE to hear about other projects.