Coffee Filter Flowers and All Things Pinteresting.

I have a new addiction and I know that I am not alone. Pinterest has captured my heart and consumed more than a reasonable (Shhhhh... Don't tell my husband) amount of time from my days. If you are familiar with Pinterest then you may or may not share my infatuation. If not, you need to get on the pin train with the rest of us. ;)

Any-who, a while back we hosted a family reunion at my house. It was a beautiful day full of homemade ice cream and me avoiding having to play BINGO or any other sort of organized activity, for that matter. And because I have OCD and I like to make stuff, I started preparing for this little party months in advance. Buntings, and tissue paper poufs, and coffee filter flowers; lots and lots of coffee filter flowers. I quite literally dyed 2,200 coffee filters. No. Lie. It was time consuming and oddly soothing. And a little messy. Here is a photo of the scene of the craft:

You can see dyed and dried filters on the right, cut filters in the middle, and also the assembled ones, obviously. And truth be told I hadn't thought too much about my garden of filters until tonight when a certain pinner who repinned a pin I had pinned peaked my interest. It was none other than the great and talented Aunt Peaches, who just happened to be the very blogger who inspired my coffee filter flower extravaganza. I felt like a celebrity for a micro second, which is an unfortunate side effect of living in a very rural area. Another one is thinking that a trip to the grocery store counts as a social outing.

Thank you Peaches, for making my day. :)

One Year Later......

How does one start up with a blog again after absolutely no posts for an entire year? I don't know, but here we go...

So much and nothing really happened in the last year. I blinked my eyes and my son graduated from Kindergarten last may and started the first grade yesterday, my daughter is now walking, and my husband and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary. We still live in a little town on the prairie. I still go to the gas station across the street nearly every day to have some sort of social interaction outside of the house. Since we moved to a tiny town in the the sticks where we do not know anyone, speaking to other living, breathing adults face to face seems almost luxurious.

But that will all change in the coming year as we are building a house in my home town next summer. I am very excited, very anxious, and completely obsessed with every tiny detail! So for the past few months I have been quietly scouring home decor blogs and magazines, getting ideas, trying to pin down my style.

Looking back at some of my old posts is kind of funny. Chiavari chairs? Really? I did not end up buying those, don't worry. Every time I see them on a movie, in a magazine, at a wedding I kind of cringe at the thought that I told the whole world that I wanted them for my dining room table!

I will soon have some updates about some of the other furniture makeovers that I have done, and what I have learned in the past year, like when it is OK to use latex when painting furniture, and when it absolutely is not, and why.

So, if anyone is out there reading this, thank you! I can't promise that I will be posting often, but I will try not to go a year between posts again. ;)

Happy Friday

Just a little post to wish everyone a great weekend. Here is some eye candy to keep us all inspired. ;)

Anthropologie
This is always the time of year when I start obsessing over fall and winter clothes. It is hotter than blazes in my little corner of the world right now, but there are many weeks in winter when the temperature plummets to -40 degrees. That is right, forty degrees below zero. Ouch. But, I have a feeling this lovely little number would keep Jack Frost away.

Anthropologie

That sweater is lovely, but I really need to stay in the clearance section at Anthroplogie. I spied this little frock there; it would be perfect for my "ice cream social" themed family reunion that we will be hosting at our house next summer.

Eat drink Chic

Eat drink Chic posted the most beautiful free downloads for a d.i.y. ice cream parlour buffet; they are the inspiration for my party. Swoon.

Amazon.com

I recently ordered Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings and am very impatiently waiting for it to arrive. Very impatiently. Grrr.

I have also been searching for the perfect fabric for new curtains for our living room and have had no luck. I really would like it to have blues, aquas, and maybe even a shot of pink. Perhaps I am being too picky.

Any suggestions? I would love to hear your opinion!

Have a great weekend!

Coloring on Fabric

My mother was quite crafty, and because her mother was very frugal most of the crafty things that I remember doing as a child made use of things that we already had, or could find in nature. We would sandwich crayon scrapings between two pieces of waxed paper and make "stained glass." We would make etchings of leaves on paper with crayons. My mother had the most beautiful flower gardens in the summer, and I remember folding flowers in waxed paper and pressing them in the pages of heavy books. About a week later, Mom would carefully take them out and seal them into the paper with an iron.

Simple pleasures...... :)

I may be older now, but I am still a kid at heart. I love to color. I love coloring books and coloring pages. After I finished printing out my monogram yesterday I decided that it needed some color; and here is how I did it!

You will need:

• Fabric
• Crayons-plain old crayons
• Iron and ironing board
• 2 sheets of paper

Let's get started!

First, color your fabric. Duh, right?
I like to layer my colors. Just have fun with it!




Now that I have finished coloring, I am going set the color with some heat. As you all know, crayons are made of wax, and wax melts. So, when you apply heat the color will kind of melt into the fabric. This is where the two sheets of paper come in: you are going to want to put a piece of paper under your fabric to protect your ironing board, and one on top of your fabric to keep the crayon wax off of your iron.

(Note to self: turn off the flash when taking close-ups.)



Lovely!

I am not done yet, but the rest will have to wait for another post!

Have a great night!

More Stuff That I've Made

A friend asked me to post more of the things that I have made, so here you go!

This is a whole-cloth quilt made with Amy Butler fabric. I sent it away to be quilted, but I cut and sewed the binding myself.




Not too shabby, not too shabby at all. ;)


Here are a couple of tea towels that I embroidered. They are a gift for a friend, but I have yet to mail them. Woopsie-oopsie!



Naughty Kitty and Snooty Poodle.




Doesn't she just look full of mischief?




Naughty; very, very, naughty.




Now, would you just look at this pampered pooch?




Quite snooty, I say, with that nose up in the air.


Both embroidery patterns are from Jenny Hart's Stitch-It Kit.
I love you, Jenny Hart. :)

Now, what have you made lately? I am dying to see! Please, please, leave a comment with a link!

How to Print Anything onto Fabric

Today I am going to show you how to prepare a piece of fabric to run through a regular old inkjet printer. This is not a new technique, but it is so very handy for many different types of crafty goodness.

Here is what you will need:

• Fabric (solid, light colored works best.)
• Freezer paper (found in wax paper aisle.)
• Iron and ironing board
• Printer
• Printer paper
• Computer
• Pen
• Ruler
  
• Scissors

Let's get started! First, iron your fabric. You will need a piece that is just a bit larger than your printer paper. Once your fabric is ironed, cut a piece of freezer paper just larger than your fabric. Place the freezer paper over the fabric and run a warm, dry iron over it. You may have to play with the temp a bit, the idea is to get the freezer paper to stick to your fabric.

Now, take a piece of printer paper and lie it on top of the freezer paper that you have bonded to your fabric. Use your ruler to make sure you have straight edges and trace the printer paper onto the freezer paper
as so:

Then, cut it to the size of the printer paper.


Now for the fun part! Choose an image to print; a picture, clip art, anything really! Just make sure to respect copyrighted work. I found a beautiful wreath border, and speaking of copyrighted work, I can not remember where I found it. If you recognize it please tell me where it came from so I can credit the artist and link back to their blog!
I have been wanting to make a monogram for a long time, so I uploaded the wreath to Picnik and added an "S" to the center. I also played with the color a bit. Anyway....when you are ready to print, simply place your freezer paper-bonded fabric (fabric side up) into your printer, start printing, and voila!

Perfectly printed right onto the fabric!


Now, peel it off the freezer paper and embroider, embellish, or do whatever you would like with it!

Have a fantastic day!

Lotta Jansdotter Snuggler

I first started sewing in January. I was about 6 months pregnant and nesting big time. Probably the first ten or fifteen sewing projects that I took on were free patterns that I found on craft blogs; here is one of them!

Snuggler by Lotta Jansdotter

The fabric is Amy Butler's Optic Blossom in Linen from her Midwest Modern line.

It's like a little cocoon for a little snuggle bug.

:)