J is for Journal

Tonight I made some very simple journals to give to a group of young women I teach to use for taking notes. To make the journals; I folded a stack of paper in half, covered the stack with a piece of white cardstock and sewed along the edge using a zigzag stitch. Then I cut the girls first initial out of some leftover oilcloth and glued them to the front to personalize each one.

More Valentines Day Goodies

I really like these felt heart Valentine holders from Plum Pudding. They are simple and sweet and would be fun to hang around the house or give to friends.


I also love these felt play cookies for Valentines Day from Chasing Cheerios as well. What little chef wouldn't want to bake up a batch of these. Aren't felt cookies fun?


And here are some free printable Valentine cards:

Love Circles from Anna Maria Horner


Zebra Valentine Cards from Bunny Cakes


and Sweetheart Valentine cards from Bunny Cakes

Monday: Art Day

I am designating Monday as Art Day at our home. Since Jane does not have preschool on Mondays, I am trying to spend some time with her while Clark naps doing an art project each week.

Today we borrowed an idea from No Time for Flashcards and made a rainbow collage using torn paper scraps.There are lots of great ideas for Childrens arts and crafts at The Crafty Crow, The Write Start, and Plum Pudding as well.

For Your Valentine

Valentine's Day is approaching and look what I found at Target yesterday! This great set of vintage Valentines from Golden Books. The book includes adorable punch out Valentines with sweet little envelopes you cut out and assemble. I don't know if I can bear to send these out; they are so cute. I may want to make a little Valentine banner to decorate for the Holiday. You can also order the book online here for $4.99.



Jane got an early start on her Valentines and has spent the last week gluing and decorating a stack of cut-out hearts her grandma gave her, and some heart shaped doilies I had stashed in my craft box. She's made about 50 so check your mailbox.



If you want to buy your Valentine's this year; check out this great Valentine round up at Poppytalk.

And if you are feeling crafty and want to make your own Valentines, you can print out this cutie snail cards from Zakka Life and add lollipop "shells".

For a Rainy Day

Are you familiar with the little dress up dolls you can buy from Woodkins that use fabric scraps to create outfits? I love dressing up these little dolls as much as Jane. She always wants my opinion on how her doll's outfit look. The answer is always "fabulous". I was excited to come across this homemade version of the dolls at The Long Thread. It appears that she uses two pieces of cardstock sewn together at the top with binding. The top piece has a body shape cut out and the bottome piece includes a cut-out photo of her daughter's face. You can use different variations of fabrics to create pants and shirts for the doll and dress her in different "outfits".



I am also really excited to about this version of the game Memory I came across at Inchmark which was made with leftover fabric scraps. You can print the template here to make your own.

I borrowed a large circle paper punch from a friend and made my own version for Jane's friend using images from some of our favorite Children's books. I scanned the illustrations and printed them out using Picasa. (Excuse the horrible photo; I was in a hurry to pack them up and head off to a birthday party).

Elsie Marley 2009 Mobile Swap

Elsie Marley is accepting sign ups right now for the 2009 Mobile Swap she is coordinating. You can send an email with the particulars for the mobile you would like to receive (for a boy/girl, color preference, etc.) and you will be matched with someone who will make a mobile just for you. You in turn are given information about someone else and you will make a mobile for them. Just sign up via email by Friday, January 30th. Here are a few of my favorite mobiles from Elsie Marley's 2008 Mobile Swap.

2009

I came across this simple modern 2009 printable calendar from A Little Hut awhile back and didn't give it much thought. However, when I saw the pages printed out at Wise Craft I realized how pretty this little calendar is. I love the fact that you can personalize the letters by adding fabric or paper to give it a color of feel to suit you and your space. Wouldn't this look nice hanging next to my new craft area?

Featured Blog: A Quilt is Nice

Now that Jane has her own room and we are planning to buy her a twin size bed I have been planning a new quilt fitting for a little girl. So far, I've picked out a pile of 1930's feedsack prints in pretty, girly colors. I want to use a lot of white and make the pattern simple and subtle. I have been laying out all kinds of designs and haven't quite figured out the right pattern just yet. I did stumble upon the lovely blog, A Quilt is Nice, and I am in love with all of the beautiful quilts she has done and I am completely jealous of her fabric stash. You can purchase some of her baby quilts and quilt kis at her Etsy store, Nettiepete, as well as other cutie hair bands, hair clips, and pushpins.

Jamie's Red Quilt


Stacked Coins


Zig Zag Quilt


Colorful Coins

Feeling Artsy Craftsy

What I've been up to...

I've been using some of my little fabric scraps to make these quilts for Jane's dolls. It is so fun to make doll quilts. I could make one for every doll we own.




What Jane's been up to...

My little artist is always drawing pictures these days. Here are a few of my favorites from this week...

WALL-E


A Prince


Charlotte (from Charlotte's Web)


Rupunzel (notice the long blue line of hair)

House Tours

I am totally into re-decorating mode so I've been searching for inspiration and I absolutely love all of the homes featured in the House Tours at the Cookie Magazine blog.

A Few More Favs: Decorating Details

I really love the idea of framing fabric in little embroidery hoops of various sizes. This idea has become popular these days and the Purl Bee gives a how to on making your own. I would love to make a little collage for Jane's wall.


I also have to mention this ingenious idea for a little cupcake liner garland. Petunia came up with the idea of stringing together pastel cupcake liners and circles of pretty paper to make a garland to hang over her daughter's bed.




I also just love this simple owl mobile created by an OhDeeDoh user who followed the pattern found at Moonstitches. This mobile is super sweet. I want to make a few owls of my own.

Since we've created our new little work space we've had to do some re-arranging with the children's rooms. We've gone from one shared room for Clark and Jane to two individual rooms which need their own organization and decor. I've picked up a couple new pieces of furniture from IKEA and I'm trying to put together their little spaces so the kids can feel at home in their own rooms. I'm also planning out a new quilt to fit Jane's upgraded twin sized bed and I'm getting anxious to get started. I've been doing a lot of looking at OhDeeDoh and other places for children's room ideas and inspiration.

These are some of my favorite children's rooms I've come across:

Lola and Sadie's Room from Aunty Cookie's Flickr Photostream



Sebastian's Blue Delight featured at OhDeeDoh



A Shared Room with Vintage Flair featured at OhDeeDoh



Swedish Bedroom featured in Cookie Magazine



Sam's Zen Toddler Room featured at OhDeeDoh



Oscar's Room at Wee Wonderfuls



True's Room at Cakies (one of my new favorite blogs)

Work Space

So this is my new sewing and work space so far! We have plans to cover two magnet boards with fabric to hang behind the desk; add some baskets/organizers for bills and mail on the wall above the computer and incorporate a few more finishing touches.

Thanks to Santa for bringing me the new red chairs and desk lamp and the IKEA gift card I needed to buy the tabletop and legs and shelving to create a workspace for my sewing machine and computer. This has been quite an undertaking since putting this space together required us to take apart our original office/guest room and move the kids into two separate rooms (which required taking apart and re-assembling one large daybed and one baby crib). Good work honey!

I'm so excited to have my own place to sew and work on projects without hauling out my sewing machine and supplies and taking over the dining room table. Yay! My first project was to make this little sewing machine cover following the pattern I found at Spool. I had to adjust the pattern to fit my machine and it still turned out a bit too big. Oh well, it looks a lot nicer than the alternative.

Luckily we have a hall closet next to this space which holds some of my other fabric and supplies and the ironing board is just around the corner in the laundry room. Our goal is to make a family friendly work space so that we can all work on creative projects whether its sewing, coloring, gluing, blogging, whatever. Santa brought the kids a new easel which we've placed in the work area as well and the children have a small chalkboard to color on or play magnets while we work. We are trying to figure out a way to include a little school desk or small shelf desk into the space for the children to use as well. I'll post another picture when all of the final details are in place.

Tiny Tots Object Book

I was at the Fabric Store last night and discovered this cute fabric book kit by Red Rooster Fabrics. The design was inspired by a 1940's object book for pre-readers. I love this little retro cloth book. The kit includes a front and back cover and ten cute pages with the instructions printed at the bottom. I'll show you the finished product once I put it all together. It is so adorable. I want to make one for all of the new babies I know.

Journal

I am a list maker so I absolutely love the journal my husband bought me for Christmas titled, Things to Make and Do. The journal includes sections titled: Plan, Wish, Dream, Build, Explore, Learn, Make, Grow, Give and Find. I have a million ideas to write down already but the journal is so beautiful I almost hate to use it up. Best of all, it was created by an artist from my hometown, Nikki McClure.

You can buy products from Northwest artists and others at BuyOlympia.com. They sell artwork from The Black Apple, these adorable flashcards from Lisa DeJohn, the Happy Birthday Keepsake Album from Adrian Johnson that I've had my eye on and my favorite illustrated children's travel books from the 60's by M. Sasek.

Homemade Gifts Big and Small

Happy New Year! Now that the holiday season is ending, I am excited to share some of the handmade gifts I made this Christmas to give to my family.

1) Monogrammed handkerchiefs for my grandpa. I followed the tutorial from Grosgrain to make this matching red set.



2) An oilcloth lunch bag for my sister. The black and white toile fit her perfectly. I used a very simple pattern from Martha Stewart and cut the top of the bag with my scalloped fabric scissors to finish it off. I also added Velcro to snap it closed it.



1) A throw quilt for my mom and dad to put on their couch and snuggle in. I made up my own strip quilt pattern and used shades of green, brown, burgundy and gold to match my parent's living room decor. There is a similar quilt pattern ( the Easy Lap Quilt quilt) found in Bend the Rules Sewing. I used this quilting technique and quilted by stitching in the ditch and adding another quilted row to each horizontal strip. I used my own machine to quilt on which proved a bit tricky with a quilt this size.