It really feels like I got a lot done this weekend! I have everything ready to start sewing Wedding Quilt #1, but since the wedding for Wedding Quilt #2 is actually sooner, I went fabric shopping. I picked out the fabric for that quilt, cut everything out, and got all the squares sewn in strips:



The focal fabric for this quilt is so pretty:



I'm really pleased with how this is looking, I can't wait to get it finished! Now I just have to sew the strips together, back it, quilt it, bind it... and then do the next one!

We also got paint for the living room. That was a tough decision, because we're painting it red, and it's very scary to pick out red paint - I had no idea! Stay tuned for before and after pictures.

Labels: quilting, sewing

I stopped by Hobby Lobby to pick up what I needed to finish my favoritest necklace ever, and let me just say I'm going to return to shopping online! Six little jumprings cost $2.50 at Hobby Lobby, but I can get them online with no tax and free shipping for $0.07 each. Good to know I've been shopping the right way! Anyway, enough talk, time for pictures!





One of the coolest things about this necklace is it looks great with just about anything! I wore it last night with just a tshirt and pair of jeans...



Pictures just don't do this justice - it is such a nice weight and hangs so pretty and is so sparkly... Just trust me, it's awesome! This will probably be the last jewelry post for a while. I'm planning to sew, sew, sew this weekend!

Labels: jewelry

Yay!! My site feed finally works! I can finally be added to blogrolls. I'm so excited to finally have beat blogger into submission to get my feed up... I have been playing with the settings for so long, and just today figured out the small mistake I was making that kept it from working. I feel like I've caught up with technology for a little while!

Recently I remembered a little box I'd tucked away with all my fun jewelry from when I was a kid. Some of this stuff was my own, and some was handed down to me by my sister. After sorting through it and reminiscing quite a bit, I realized it was quite a lot of neat stuff!



I noticed a few trends... For one, I liked cats back then, too!



And hearts:



Aren't these telephone earrings funny?



And these bunnies are adorable! They won't be old earrings for much longer.



I also finished cutting out all the squares for the wedding quilt... Really makes me wish I had a felt quilt wall to arrange it all on instead of the kitchen table. Hopefully I'll start sewing on it this weekend!

Labels: beads, jewelry

Wow, I seem to send so much stuff to Virginia these days!! Here are a couple bracelets I made from a necklace my sister sent my way - the necklace really wasn't her style, but the beads are beautiful!





In non-jewelry news, I am working on a quilt as a wedding gift for a friend... Now, I've never made a quilt before, but I'm not one afraid to try new things! I think I'm at least off to a good start with the fabric I picked...



That's all for now! I did make my favoritest necklace ever last night, but I am missing a single jump ring to be able to finish it, so I'll have to post it later...

Labels: fabric, jewelry

Here are some new pieces I've made over the past few days... I've had these mother-of-pearl beads forever, and I haven't been able to decide how to use them. I'm not so sure I'm happy with the result. The light purple and also the red beads are more of the vintage beads I got on eBay, and the coordinating crystals are Swarovski. I love how these earrings turned out, and I think I'll be putting them up on my Etsy shop - though nothing I've listed so far has sold!

    

I do plan on doing some sewing soon, we're just doing a lot of projects around the house - it's so much easier to make a quick pair of earrings when I want to be crafty than to pull out the sewing machine for a project! I'll post as soon as I have anything finished...

Labels: jewelry

It takes me entirely too long to make things like this (it's all I worked on pretty much all day one Saturday), but at least I am incredibly happy with how this came out. I actually made it a while ago, but it was in the mail to my sister and I wanted her to get it before I posted this. Doesn't she get all the good stuff?



One of the coolest things about this bag is I managed to put in a zipper closure!! So if she wants to use this as a carry-on, things won't fall out under the seat or going along the XRay machine. Since she's going to be traveling a lot with her new job I thought that might be a good feature.



I lined the inside with fabric to match the outside, plus one side of Amy Butler for a little color. There are two inside pockets to hold small stuff, and plenty of room for carry-on necessities.



Since it would be easy to lose a cell phone in that big bag, I made this little cell phone holder that can be looped around the strap of the bag and hung inside the bag, or just used to find your cell phone faster. The picture is a little over-exposed, but that button is one of the beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons Hillary sent with our fabric swap a while back.



Finally, to show the size, here I am modeling. The bag is plenty big for books and knitting projects, and I sized the outside pocket to hold a magazine for quick access.



Overall, I am so pleased with this bag. And since his past comments about things have been less than enthusiastic, I wanted to mention that Peter saw this and said "wow, that's awesome!" Since he's my only human critic in the house, that was fun to hear!

Labels: bags, sewing

I find so many things I love that I want to get to make new jewelry, but the truth is I have a lot of leftovers from previous projects. It can be hard to find new ways to use some of the things I've had since I started experimenting with making jewelry. Here are two pairs of earrings I made with things you've seen before:

  

And since I still can't resist buying new things, here is a new pair of earrings I made with the vintage beads I bought on eBay:

Labels: jewelry

Wow, three posts in one day! This one will be short... I've redesigned and "launched" my website!! Mostly because I have also listed two things on my Etsy shop. So, that's all. Short and sweet!

We had a little adventure in furniture buying this weekend! We went "just to look" and I ended up falling in love with an oversized set of living room furniture. "Oversized" turned out to be the key word. It did not look like normal furniture once we got it into our living room.



It's hard to capture on film. In the above photo, I'm sitting on the loveseat. Not the couch, the loveseat. Which is just about the size of our old couch. This comes the closest to describing how I felt:



Luckily, we were able to exchange it for something very similar, but a much more normal size. I am pleased to present, our new living room!!



These will also serve as "before" pictures, since I have grand plans to bring A LOT more color into this room. Just wait! I think I'll actually paint on Saturday, which will help a lot with all the tan.



And just to prove this set is a more normal size, here is Peter modelling our new couch.



I'm off to cuddle up with the model!

Labels: homework

I had an out-of-town class for work a while back, and I wanted a portable project I could take to work on. I had bought some Koigu yarn last fall, intended for a Christmas present that was never made. So I grabbed that, printed out the feather and fan scarf pattern from Wendy and set to work. I had a good bit done when I started second guessing myself...



I consulted my mother (husbands are no good with questions like this) and she agreed it would look good one scallop narrower. So I ripped the whole thing out!!



(Aren't those counters gorgeous? That's at my mom and dad's new house.) By the time I left, I had one pattern repeat done.



It goes faster now that it's narrower, so hopefully it won't take me too long to get back to where I was!

Labels: knit/crochet, wip

Wow, I just read the whole 6th Harry Potter book in about 11 hours yesterday. Needless to say I didn't get any crafting done, so here's something I did a while ago...

This necklace was pretty much designed by my sister - she sent me links to the beads she thought would look good, I just put it together! I made the set a long time ago, but I wanted to wait for her to get it before I posted the pictures.

Here is the necklace:



And the matching earrings:



And the clasp, which I really love:



I didn't put a pearl on the earrings, partly because I wanted them to be simple, but partly because the hole is too small for the size wire I have. I think they work well together, though.

I'm glad she likes it!

Labels: jewelry

My sister commissioned two flannel baby blankets like the one I made for my new cousin. I had just picked up some flannel at the fabric store that I absolutely loved and had to use. Since the blankets are for her neighbors' new twins, I made the binding different colors.



These came out a lot better sewn than my last attempt - using the zig zag stitch definitely made a huge difference! There is still room for improvement, and since I want to make a third blanket by the weekend for an ex-co-worker's new baby, I'll get the practice!

The weather here is so crummy, though I do love thunderstorms. I just wish I could stay home and cuddle up with my babies and some tea, and not have to go into work! It's the going-out-in-bad-weather that's not so fun. Well, at least knowing Houston, it will pass over before too long! And our lawn needs the rain...

Labels: sewing

I decided to combine this into one post, just because I've been making so much jewelry lately! Here are a few things I made the other night. On the left is a new necklace with some of the vintage beads I got on eBay. It's for a swap with someone that mentioned they could use a red necklace! I hope she likes it.



On the right is a remake of a necklace my sister sent me because it wasn't really her style. I didn't take a "before" picture, but here are the beads that didn't make it back on the necklace:



The extra beads include this one which really looks exactly like a human tooth.



And to get that picture out of your mind, here's a closeup of the dangle on the red necklace - a glass bead and red swarovski crystals.

Labels: jewelry

One thing our house still really needs is more things on the walls. We have so much bare wall space. In an attempt to help with that, I've started keeping my eye out for large things I like for on the walls. I also picked up a collage frame, and made a collection of pictures from our honeymoon.



I hope to do something like this for every major vacation we take. Unfortunately, we haven't gone anywhere major since our honeymoon almost two years ago! I'm crossing my fingers that our Alaska trip becomes a reality next summer...

Labels: homework

I found myself wearing my kelly green tshirt once again, and I wanted to wear something besides the long green earrings I made a while back. I had just received these Millifiori glass beads from a recent order, and I made up a quick bracelet and matching earrings.



After I made it, I realized these beads don't have any green in them! I decided it's the blue and yellow making me think they matched, and I do still think they look good with green.



(I think Millifiori is so fun to say! I put on a huge fake and probably awful Italian accent every time I say it in my head. Yes, I'm a little strange!)

Labels: jewelry

For some non-jewelry action, I whipped up this little pouch based on Thimble's awesome tutorial.



The top little section is Amy Butler. I used some green striped fabric for the back:



And some cute lavendar paisley for the lining:



I still think this needs a little something, so I might embellish the outside somehow, with embroidery or ribbon. Wish I'd realized that before sewing it up!

EDIT: I added some simple circles to the outside of the pouch. This would have been so much easier if I'd thought to do it before sewing! Oh well, a lesson for next time.

Labels: bags, sewing

In my latest order, I got some beautiful aqua blue quartz faceted teardrops, which are quite large. They are so beautiful, the way they catch the light, and they have a wonderful weight to them. I made this pendant pretty quickly, just to have a way to wear one:



This is just one of the teardrops, with three small clear Swarovski crystals to keep it company. It's a little fancy for everyday use, but I think it will look really pretty with a plain white blouse for work or with a dress for going out.

And since my journal is in danger of turning into a jewelry blog, I want to assure you I have some non-jewelry posts in the near future! I have a knitting work-in-progress that I'll probably show eventually, and some other things need to reach certain people by mail before I want to post them here. So, don't worry, more variety will be coming soon!!

Labels: jewelry

I received two of my recent jewelry supply orders! Before I'd even been home an hour, I had made the first of many planned pieces of jewelry. I think these earrings are probably my favorite of any I've made yet.



They are made with two gorgeous cherry quartz faceted pear beads and white freshwater pearls. I wire-wrapped all the beads, though as Peter pointed out, it will probably get neater as I get more practice.



For my first try at something like this, I am definitely happy with how they came out!!

Labels: jewelry