Christmas Gifts: Part III

I made these magnets for my sister and my step brother's wife.

 Cupcakes

Nesting Dolls

Christmas Gifts: Part II

For the nephew...

It's a bear plushie

 Nana likes him too

Christmas Gifts: Part I

I've been busy making Christmas gifts the last few weeks.

 Yarn wreath

 Map coasters

 

Thanksgiving

 I'm celebrating Thanksgiving with a brand new deer wreath. I got the idea for wrapping a straw wreath in yarn from take heart. I always thought wreaths were sort of mawkish, but now I've seen the light.

 

Feeling Cross

I'm really into cross stitch right now. I've been working on a few designs of my own. But until they're finished, please enjoy these...

from Stitch Duchess

from rugglesstitch

from Gentry Night Studios

from Rachel McKay*

from neawear

*I know that this one makes me a huge dork. But I thought it was hilarious.

School is cool

I've been assigned a few video projects for one of my classes. Here is one of them. I actually have a lot of fun working on them. 

New Interest Alert!

Songs I Like

New Favorite Store

I just found my new favorite store American Science & Surplus. Here's a taste of the amazing merchandise they offer, but there is so much more.

Grumbacher Library How-to-do-it Books

Flintstones Font Pack*

Bike Bell and Bike Horn

The Field and Forest Handy Book

*Super bummed that I own a Mac now. 

Good Things Come in Small Packages

I promise to update more this month. I was swamped with school, work, and projects during September. I have some great photos of Rachel and Justin's (of Rabbits & Snails) wedding. Almost everything thing was DIY and it looked amazing!

I got this fortune last week.

I'm pretty sure I already know what my small lucky package will be. It's top secret and will take a few years to arrive, but it's the best news I've heard in a long time.

France Photo Inspiration

As of late, I dream constantly of escaping to the south of France. I tried to make something semi-worthwhile out of my obsession with this flickr gallery.

France Flickr Gallery

 

 

Photos: 1. Jeep Novak!, 2. alice.lily , 3. Ludovic M. Photography, 4. BEAT NIK, 5. fluer child, 6. Cartorama, 7. Totally random scanned 35mm slides, 8. ToNToN CoPT, 9. sugarpie honeybunch, 10. Anne AJ Jones, 11. ebrowning, 12. Lil'Frits', 13. Cartorama, 14. luz.de_noche, 15. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive, 16. Giorgio Verdiani, 17. Meteorry, 18. Sam Grant

Songs I Like

Fall Fashion Inspiration

from Sugar Lily Vintage

from fanciness vintage

from Anthropologie

from design ARCHIVES

from Katcherrfancy

Songs I Like

Apparently, LCD Soundsystem rules. I don't really know why I avoided listening to them for so long.

Bear-a-chute

I finished my first painting in six years.

Bear and Bison Attend Party

For Christmas, my sister gave me a screen printing kit. I haven't used it nearly as much as I should have at this point, but I did make this tote.

 

Songs I Like

3 Dollar Romper

Last week I found a skirt at the Salvation Army that I thought I could upcycle into a cute romper. 

Here is the result:

An exercise in restraint

As of May, I'm not buying any new clothes for a year. I'm letting myself spend $365 on used clothing and materials to make clothes. So far I've totaled $5.34. I've made a skirt out of an old bed sheet, a tank top out of a man's t-shirt, and cut off shorts out of some thrifted denim.

Lately, I've been seriously coveting a cute romper for biking and some summery shoes.

from storybookvintage
 

from YellowRainBoots
  

from sundaysundayvintage
 

from treeandkimballmarket 

Happy Fourth

Souvenirs

Even though we were on a budget during our vacation, we still managed to make a few key purchases.

Owl Candle from Mystery Mister

Hand Shadows from the store at 826 Valencia
 

know-it-all pencil set from The Curiosity Shoppe
 

Pint glass* from Powell's Books

Fisherman's Soap from Made In Oregon

*We also bought books, but they weren't really exciting enough to post here. Also, note that John K. King Used and Rare Books is still my favorite bookstore ever.

Songs I Like

San Francisco

We just returned from a trip to San Francisco, Redwood National Park, and Portland. Here are some of my favorite photos from San Francisco.

Sunday Funday

As of May 1st, I quit buying new clothes for six months. I can buy used clothes and I can make things out of primarily recycled materials, but my budget is $1 a day. So far I've spent $2 on the materials(a used bed sheet and elastic) to make a skirt. I finally got around to making the skirt today.

Adventures in Quilting

I spent the better part of this winter working on a patchwork quilt for our bed. I had a blast picking out fabrics and cutting and piecing all of the squares. The actual quilting process was a different story. I don't think my sewing machine is made to machine quilt something of this size. I think if I ever make another large quilt, I'll send it out to professionals to quilt it for me.

Here's the finished product.