i heart linen

Les Miserables

Yup, that's what my family and I are right now. Miserable.  Hubby came down with a fever Wednesday night and whatever bug he has, managed to work it's way through our little family system.  Being sick with a sick husband, 2 year old and 10 month old, added into the equation is no fun right now. So there won't be any crafting or blogging happening around here until all is/are well again.  Well, I'm off to go check temperatures again!

Two!

Can't believe my little baby girl is two today....TWO! *faints*
I feel like I just brought her home from the hospital yesterday!

Time really does go by far too quickly....*sigh* 
Happy, happy birthday mon petite bebe!

Yellowing

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone's weekend was divine!  Mine was busy, busy, busy! Ikea run, grocery shopping, spring cleaning, laundry, rearranging some of our rooms, worked on some projects, and the weekend is over.  *sighs*  Weekends should be 3 days long. Maybe I can start a petition to change that.

Huge thank you to you all for your comments on my last post!  Some really great suggestions as well, I took some notes! Thanks! And thanks to the folks at Craftzine for posting about my calendar. If any of you make a calendar I'd love to see it, let me know!

Sssoooooo.  I've fallen for yellow!  I know how can you not when it's all over the place these days.  I guess I'm a little late, but I'm finally hopping on the yellow bandwagon.  We even painted one of our walls yellow.

Some newly acquired 'yeller' stuff. The pot and the plant are from Ikea, I chose a succulent because my thumb is every color in the rainbow but green. Please don't fear for this little plant's life! I'm keeping my fingers and even my Technicolor thumbs crossed that I can keep this plant alive. 

The fabrics are mostly from Sew, Mama, Sew from a few weeks back so I'm not sure if they're all in stock still.

I think I've been so apprehensive with it because it's such a hard color to pull off.  I just can't bring myself to wear yellow clothing just yet, I mean I'm 5' 10". I feel like I'd look like a big ol' giant walking banana or something!! Not cool.  I'm sticking to fabric, accessories, and housewares for now. 

Prairie Girl, Calendar Girl

Hope all you awesome Mom's had an awesome Mother's Day!  Being a mom has to be one of the greatest gifts in the world.  But I think the second greatest gift is being at home by yourself for a couple of hours.  Thanks honey, it was grand! Not exactly what we had planned for the day, but that's how it worked out. The silence was wonderful but almost deafening I must admit.  I spent much of the day watching old movies, finishing a project, and reading this lovely book that my hubby bought for me for Mother's Day.  "The Prairie Girl's Guide To Life" is the title and I absolutely love it!

Right up my alley I must say.  Such a sweet and charming book that I think should be in every crafter's library.  Learn to lay a fire, spin yarn, make candles, make rock candy, knit a shawl, bake a rhubarb pie, braid a rug, and heaps more!  What I love most about this book is that it almost gives me the feeling that I'm getting the chance to chat with my great-great-great grandma and learn all of the wonderful things she knew how to do.  It's a nice little read to say the least, my only problem with it is that there aren't any photos in this book.  I'm guessing the author is trying to stick to the old time charm of the simple pioneer life by doing that, which is wonderful.  But I'm a very visual learner and like to see how things are done.  So if you're like me and like to ooh and aah and pictures, then this book might not be for you.  I still find it so endearing and encourage you to swing by the bookstore and check it out!

So, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to do some creating this weekend and managed to crank out this little pretty.  It's one of those ideas that's been in my head for a while and I just had to get it out of me before I popped!  It's a calendar! Weeeeeee!

I've had this idea in my head for quite some time now, so I went ahead and got all the supplies that I thought I would need........the stamps, the inkpad, the buttons, the velcro, the glue, etc.  I had everything I needed by Wednesday. 

I actually started making this at 2am Thursday morning!  I was tossing and turning and just couldn't sleep because I had this silly idea dancing in my head, so I got up and started picking fabrics, covering and stamping buttons, pulling the stems off the buttons and gluing velcro coins to the backs like a mad woman.  I finally went back to bed at about 5 am, satisfied that I started something worthwhile.

I finished it all up yesterday and here are the fruits of my crazed and frenzied late night labor!  I know! I'm a nut!  I'm telling you there was steam coming out of my ears from all of the wheels and gears turning in my head! Sometimes you just can't hold yourself back from creating when the notion really hits you!

I made enough buttons for 31 days + 7 blank ones for the "other days" of the calendar and for leap years. 

and then I stamped up some linen ribbon for the months!

I left the back very simple with some waffle fabric and some gentle embellishments.

I like my projects to be things that would be useful and not just sit around a collect dust.  Is this just fun to look at or would you actually use this?  You know I always welcome your feedback!   I love this so much, but I plan to pass it along to someone I know loves red and blue very much.  I hope she finds it useful! I think I'll make one in some colors that are a little more me next round.  I'm off to buy more buttons!! Ciao!

Planning

Hey there, happy Wednesday!  Two more days until the weekend! *does the robot*  I'll be sitting at my little workstation busy being a mad sewing scientist all weekend though. Fun when it's not work, but unfortunately it IS work.  I've got heaps going on right now and I can't talk about any of it!  Isn't that the worst?  I'm absolutely bursting right now, bursting I tell you! *kapow!*  But I'm going to be a good girl.   

I've been doing some planning for some upcoming projects and I think it'll be okay if I share some of that.
Picking fabrics and combining colors is my favorite part of the creative process.  I think I like it even more than the actual creating!

I always tend to combine the colors and such first, and decide on what to make with them after and start making sketches. Maybe it's a little backwards, but it works for me.  I'm usually pleased with the results.

The first two photos are for projects that need to be vibrant and bright.  The last two are needed to have a more "wintery" feel. I'd love to hear your feedback on my color choices. 

I'd also like to hear how everyone else's creative flow works.  Do you make sketches, do you make up a color palette, do you just sit down and start sewing and see what happens?  Tell me, tell me! How do you make your works come to be?