Hazy Chevron

Woosh. That was the sound of a month going by. 

So, let's ease back into blogging with these, taken this morning. 

 

 

 

 Oh. And Hazel walks.

Compliments of, the Lazy Blogger.

Happiness is...

This moment happened spontaneously a few years ago as I was digging through fabrics at Joann's. I looked over my shoulder and found this:

 Eli giving Amos a big bunch of love, right there amongst the calicoes.

Fast forward two years. Same spot. Different progeny.

What is it about those calicoes?
I dunno but I like it.

Never too early...

Lemme walk you through it...

Sunday, I went to Fabric Bliss (a.k.a. heaven) to snag a few things from her HHS inventory to send to an etsy customer. As is always the case, I did not make it out without a few small purchases - my favorite of which was an A.DOR.ABLE embroidery pattern by Sarah Jane for my uber bestie - Sunny (whose talents can be seen here).

Flash forward to today - same scenario - only this time I found the above fabric by Sarah Jane. OMW.

At first I thought it was just perfect for a pinafore, which...clearly, it is.

But then it came to me. Can you picture it?
Hazel's 1st birthday party theme is in the bag...and only 4 months to plan (and for Sunny to start embroidering favors)!

And...as a bonus: Sarah Jane has a website of her gorgeous designs and their are even cards with this delightful little parade on them.  Perfection!!!

Now, does anyone know where I can get a pink elephant?

Spoonflower Phobia

So, you guys know about Spoonflower, right? It is genius. It's an North Carolina based company that will print your own fabric designs for you.

See. Genius!

They've used it on the last few seasons of Project Runway and the whole idea seemed so pie-in-the-sky something-only-tv-designers get to do but guess what? That's just not so. Anyone can do it!

And guess what else? The fella, gift-giver extraordinaire, gave me a Spoonflower gift-certificate for Christmas. You believe that? He's a peach.

You'll note that Christmas was 5 months ago. I knew right away that I wanted to design a fabric with Happily Home Sewn's owl logo on it. It's above and it looks awesome in fabric.

But now I'm stuck. Everytime I look on Spoonflower and peruse all the amazing fabrics that people...regular people...have designed, I'm stymied.

So I need some help! What direction should my next fabric design move in??? I can see some lovely florals, vintage-y sewing, vintage-y kiddo, critters, shapes...aaaaaaaaack! Help!!!

Also, I can't decide what to make from my owl color block fabric I've already had printed.

I don't want to waste the Spoonflower opportunity! I need advice from all you stylish, crea-tastic gurus out there!

Suggestions??? Ready....GO!

A Make Over Peek of the Week - January 13, 2012

Ikea...you make my dreams come true. 

I've been dreaming of a sewing room makeover. So this guy:

(The patented Ikea Two Cart Pull)

and I (and Hazel and Yaya (not pictured), and Dizzy in SmalLand) scurried over to IKEA with a $90 budget for sewing room shelving and storage. 

And of course, they had just the thing.

Here is the before:

(Actually this is the during. When we moved in to this house I had a plan to fence off half of the sewing room for a boy play area so I put the giant 8 ft. table on the middle-length wall. Well, the fence plan never panned out, so now to make better use of the space, I put the giant table on the biggest wall, the medium table on the medium wall, and the ironing board on the smallest wall. Sensible, no?). 

And the After:

The cutting table. That's right - a whole table just for cutting!! 

And check out my wood cabinet full of fabric and how it actually closes now!

And look at that beautiful LACK shelf! Perfect for all my loveliest lovelies. 

Hazel likes it too.

But wait. There's more.

Now with the big table on the big wall, Betty is situated right in front of the window. Perfect!

And I have some great inspiration on the new shelves - Photos of my honey, my sisters, and my lady lobster (Sunny B); the lovebirds made for us for our tenth anniversary by the lovely Melinda; the awesome owl plate from potter and Mama extraordinaire, Amy Sanders; and the spool drawing from my craft-sperational friend and ex-roomie Christa (who also painted the J and the "Chaos is Organic" mantra painting hanging on the clothesline in the top photo). She taught me to sew for teeny baby Eli. 

I am so inspired in this new space I have been sewing up a storm. I'll be revealing some of these new projects in the coming days...but this new look is enough for today's Peek of the Week. 

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our regular Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

Ok! Your turn!

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Mama Needs a New Pair of Shoes...

Screw that. Mama needs the new Amy Butler purse pattern book and some fabulous new fabrics.

And, while we're at it, Mama needs that purse on the cover, made out of those fabulous new fabrics. Amos and I have been frequenting a new hot spot. Every day this week in fact. Much much more on this later, but for now suffice it to say that, that this place has all of the above things that Mama needs, 'cept shoes but I think it's only a matter of time.

Yum yumma yum.

I'm super excited. Where oh where to begin?!
Well I think I'll just begin at the beginning. I'ma start with this little peach - okay, big peach. It's the first pattern in the book. I have visited my local copyplex (library) and shrunken it to 80%, since I don't think I'll be needing to carry all three of my children in it.

Can't wait to show you my finished product! I smell a Peek of the Week!

The catch...

No baking neighbors. No secret portholes or philanthropic widows.

Just your standard fishing scam. That was the catch.

Oh well. On to better things.

(Stitch Magazine, Fall 2010 - fabric organization by Kevin Kosbab of feeddog.net that I intend to copy)

We did find a real live house that won't break the bank. It's old and somewhat charming with lots of little nooks and crannies. Hopefully with any luck the application process will be quick and we'll sign a rental agreement early next week.

You know the best part? This house has a sewing room (I said that with a whisper so as not to jinx it).

The top floor is one of those quaint slanted in-the-roof kinds of floors. On one end will be our bedroom, or the other end will be a sweet little sewing/play room. I'm going to section off my sewing area with the gate we used to block off the wood stove from baby Eli. The rest of the room will be for Eli and Amos to play. It has these great little dwarf shelves and closets, which the boys love. It seems that's as close as we're going to get to magical portholes. But it'll do.

So, my mind is swimming with organization and decorating ideas.

But I do solemnly swear not to pack a thing until the following things happen:
1)I finish sewing the Christmas orders on my list.
2)We have secured the house.

Ok maybe I don't swear, but I intend.

Ok I'll try.

Cheerio!

The fella came back across the pond. Thank the baby Jesus.

We picked him up this afternoon after preschool which means, yes, my broken foot and I left the apartment. I booty slid down three flights of stairs with Boogie, and used his milk cup as a carrot to coax him to crawl to the car.

Was it worth it? Oh yes.


He brought me British fabric!

A flirty British girl with pink hair and piercings helped him pick out the perfect fabrics for his wife.
She did a beautiful job! I have four British cottons and this beautiful hand painted silk the color of warm sunshine.

And they smell stuffy and damp, just as I imagine London to smell.

Love Fest in Calico

It would be impossible to list all the things I love about this picture. But let's try shall we:

1)That Dear Dear Dizzle and That Baby Boogie. I burst. I melt. I swoon. Those boys are the peaches and the cream.

2)Brotherly love. When I posted this picture on fb the fella commented, "Awwwwwwwww. Tell the truth...is Eli trying to choke him out?" But he wasn't. That is genuine affection, not remotely goaded on by the Mama. I was firmly engaged in picking out fabric for Christmas jammies when I looked up to discover this little love fest.

3)Fabric. Clearly.

4)My new joann's and their full sized carts. They recently remolded in a new space in the same slightly shady shopping center. The new store is big and bright and well stocked and the staff (at least temporarily) is chipper (why are joann's employees always so grumpy? Being surrounded by all that fabric? euphoria!), but none of that compares to the bliss of coming in the door on opening day and finding full. sized. carts! Finally they realize that trying to tote two children and 14 bolts of fabric in a shoebox cart is folly.

5)Boogie's overalls and how cute-elicious he is in them.

6)My orange blossom bag with the rainy day girl cell phone pocket. That was a stroke of brilliance.

7)How my boys feel about Joann's. Dizzle can spot one a mile away and often requests to go there out of the blue. He helps me choose fabrics, talks about designs he sees, picks a number for us at the cut counter and reminds Boogie not to eat it, and always tells our cut counter person, "Be careful not to cut your fingers." He's a gem and joann's usually brings out his shine.

8)How these boys crack each other up.

9)Boogie's circus shoes.
10) Brother antics that only they get.

11)Anything sealed with a kiss.