I think I am addicted to Mav's wonderful letterpress cards. I have ordered several months in a row, now, including May's butterflies:



This month she added a little bonus to my package! This wonderful scroll card...



And this bird print (the yellow bird continues onto the back of the card, which I absolutely love).



Needless to say, I'll be watching for her next update! I think she has a project coming up that Lisa helped her on - I can't wait to see it!

For Memorial Weekend Pete and I are taking a day off to spend an extra long weekend in Alexandria, Virginia, with my sis and her husband. I'm using her computer to post this, so I'm going to keep it short - I'd rather be visiting than blogging, if you can believe it! I made my sister a couple pairs of earrings to match the necklace I made a month or so ago...

I wasn't sure which she'd prefer, so I made some simple shorter earrings...



And some longer sparkly earrings...



I get to keep the long ones (they're not really her style, as I suspected), but she loves the shorter ones!

Labels: jewelry

Dacia organized a gift tag swap, and I finished my tags and got them in the mail on time!



I was a little worried I wouldn't have time to do them before my trip this weekend - we're going to Virginia to see my sister and her husband (hi, Katy!). Luckily, my husband and I are playing soccer two nights a week, and the games aren't until 8:30pm - I'm so wide awake after the games I end up staying up really late, giving me plenty of time to get things done!

I made a coordinating card and some earrings to thank Dacia for organizing this...





I can't wait to get tags back in the mail!

Labels: jewelry

Well, I can happily say I have a regular customer! The lady at work that ordered the Mother's Day jewelry requested a coordinating necklace for the small black sparkly earrings. Again she didn't have much input, but said it had to be simple and match very closely to the earrings.



The clasp fits through the chain itself, so this can be anything from choker length to quite long. I really like it!

Stay tuned for some more jewelry, and my tags for Dacia's super fun gift tag swap! They went in the mail this morning, so they'll actually get there on time...

Labels: jewelry

Someone once told me about a reality show that follows a man who does repossessions. Boats, cars, even 18-wheeler cabs. He has to often sneak up and "steal" the item, because if people know he's coming they'll hide the item or take off with it. I never saw the show, but for some reason the idea of this man coming in the middle of the night and hooking up someone's boat... it stuck with me. Maybe that's why whenever I hear about ReproDepot I think it's actually called "Repo Depot" and I picture this sneaky repo man. Yes, I am weird, I've never denied that.

For some reason I've avoided buying any fabric from ReproDepot. I think part of it is because once I start, I won't be able to stop. Well, I started! I saw a post on Design*Sponge about one of the new fabrics there, and had to get it for this super easy dress in Blueprint.



Shipping's the same to a certain cut off (so my justification goes), so I also got a couple yards of this totally awesome animal print:



This will become baby blankets for the twins across the street.

Here are some more wonderful prints that I resisted this time.

Bright Flower (Fruity)



Honeycomb (Sage)



Suma (Green)



Wallpaper Flowers (Pink)



And that's only the "60's and 70's" section!! Let's hope I am able to continue to resist the temptation... Or at least let's hope I stay more within my monthly craft budget than I've been doing lately...

The weather here has been amazing! I have wanted nothing more than to be outside, but of course I've had to go to work. And now that it's the weekend, it has gotten hot. Why do the weather patterns have to frustrate those of us with traditional work schedules?? Gorgeous during the week when we have to be inside, but hot hot hot when we could be outside enjoying ourselves... Argh!

I have once again resorted to jewelry as a quick, satisfying night time craft.



Looking back at my first jewelry posts, though, I feel that I have improved so much, and am finally developing a "style." As usual, all I really care about is that I think it's fun!

Labels: jewelry

For a while I thought we were done with friends getting married, and I was kind of sad. Now all of a sudden we have three weddings in a row!! I broke down and got something from the registry for one of them (shame on me!), but at least I made the bride an apron to go with her shower present (the one I forgot to photograph). For the wedding this past weekend, I made one of my favorite things... an anniversary album!







Click here for the whole album. Can you tell the bride LOVES pink??

I think I'll do something similar in different colors for the wedding we have coming up in July...

On a recent camping trip to the Texas hill country, we did some exploring in the town of Fredricksburg. I find this town so neat. Because of the tourist draw, it has all the "modern" amenities - big new grocery store, cheap hotels, etc. But it has the most adorable main street, with shops and restaurants and beer gardens. Peter and I feel like we could decorate our whole house with things from these shops, all wrought iron and stone, the rustic look we love. I managed to hold myself to only one purchase, a 6-votive candle holder for our kitchen table.

I hadn't run across any candles for it, and I was already hesitant because candles in my house tend to sit unburned collecting dust, when I thought of an idea. I picked up what I needed at the store, and when I got up Sunday morning, I had a beautiful spot of color in my house.



When simple things are so beautiful, it's easy to take pleasure in them!

My neighbor around the cul-de-sac invited me to a Stampin' Up workshop at her house. I'd never been to one, and I'm not that into stamping, but I wanted to go because I don't really know this neighbor very well and it seemed like a good chance to change that! Well, is anyone really surprised that I fell in love with stamping? My stamps came in the mail yesterday (I got to pick up her package because she's out of town, and dig through for my order), and I had to try them out right away!

A card for summer, probably going to my super busy lawyer friend:



Just for fun, a Christmas one:



And the only one with an immediate use, going to my mother-in-law today:



In the future I will probably incorporate the stamps more into my usual scrapbooking style, but it was sure fun to do these, so quick and cute!

And in keeping with that last card, to all you moms who stop by, have a wonderful Mother's Day! Especially my mom, who can't read this because she is exploring England with my dad for their 40th wedding anniversary. I hope you're having an amazing trip!

Ages ago I donated some jewelry to the United Way silent auction at work. One of the ladies responsible for collecting the donations really loved the jewelry, and she contacted me to see about getting some Mother's Day presents for various members of her family. She picked out two pieces I made a while ago, and then commissioned two custom pieces by giving very vague guidelines.

For her cousin, who is a flight attendant, she wanted something sparkly, dainty, and not very long. Voila, swarovski to the rescue!



For her sister-in-law, she wanted something delicate, a little longer, and sophisticated. To me, sophisticated means pearls.



And because I liked the pearl earrings so much, I made some in pink:



Since packaging is fun, too, I made little fabric pouches for each piece of jewelry.



I hope they like it!

Labels: jewelry

I still can't believe I finished this bag in time for my trip last weekend. And with only minimal neglect of everything else!



(Ignore my kitchen chairs that desperately need recovering.)

I'm also pleased that I didn't cheat and just use a single collection of fabric. This has some Flea Market Fancy, some reproductions, and some fabric from my stash. All are represented in the applique, and in various places in the bag, including the outer pocket lining.



I did a zipper on the top like with my sister's bag, and I'm getting better at it:



And there's a zipper pocket on the inside so little things don't get lost:



If I had it to do over again (wouldn't I always change something??), I would use much stiffer interfacing. It's a little floppy. But it fit everything I wanted to take on the plane - book, knitting, iPod, water... - so it is just about perfect!

So. How are you? I seem to be not so good with the regular posting lately. I did finish my spiffy carry-on bag in a mad dash of cutting and sewing, but it was past dark when I finished, and I am leaving straight for California after work today, so pictures will have to wait until Tuesday when I'm back. At least this time I am warning you of my absence! Thank goodness for bloglines - I don't feel that my long absence is really noticed too much.

Just to have some pretty pictures here while I'm gone, I thought I'd share a couple recent web finds...

Konzuk Metalwear - awesome stainless steel jewelry


Blend Creations - more stainless steel, but with some color.


Amy Tavern - beautiful sterling jewelry


Have a great weekend! See you Tuesday.

My grandma's birthday is coming up, and last year I sent her one of my first attempts at making jewelry. Though I think I've improved a lot since then, I decided to send her something different... a lap quilt!!



I've mentioned before her love of red and purple, so I was just thrilled to find these fabrics on my girls' trip to the quilt shops.

Since time was short (I want to take this with me when I head to California this week so I don't have to ship it), I decided to tie it rather than quilt it.



The overall pattern is very simple, but I love it!



The next challenge is to make the carry-on sized bag I picture in my head in only two nights after work so I can take it on this trip, too!

Labels: quilting, sewing