Give peace a chance

I finally got some sewing done that had nothing to do with our new house, and it felt really good.

A new tote!

The fabric store had a yummy display of new corduroy, and I just couldn’t resist. Hello Autumn.

This will go in my Atomic Holiday Bazaar stockpile, because the big, bad craft fair will be here before I know it. I can’t wait, but I have a lot of work to do. A lot. I don’t want to think about it.

In the meantime, this tote is for sale in The Boutique here.

Guestroom after and…after

I’ve been working on decorating our guestroom, and while I would normally show a “before” photograph, the room was basically just a small white box. So picture an empty room with white walls, and you’ve pretty much got it.

Since the room was a blank canvas and all we had to go in there was the bed, that meant I got to start from scratch and do whatever I wanted in the there.

Our guestroom is small — about 9 feet by 10 feet — and the queen bed is about 5 feet by 7 feet, so we really only had room for the bed and side tables.

I love how this room turned out. It came together very organically, one piece at a time, each piece chosen based on the piece before. When I decided to paint the side tables that minty shade of green, I thought that red would be a good accent color. But when I tried it, the red was just too harsh for the room, so I decided to go with a soft peach instead.

We still need a few more things for the room, specifically lamps for the side tables. But I don’t want to rush it and buy something we don’t love, so the lamps will happen when they happen. 

I found the side tables at the Salvation Army and painted them “Cool Aloe.” I made the curtains and the throw pillows — the green and blue flowered fabric is Amy Butler. I’ve had the two small shelves for years. They were white, and we painted them with the leftover pale aqua paint from our dining room and guest bath. The white duvet cover is from Ikea.

Shimmer

Nola had a moment with a lizard today.

It’s all the way over to the right, perched on the edge of the deck. She’s eyeing it up, but she’s too fat and slow to ever catch it.

I finished a new market tote, which I’ve posted to The Boutique.

I usually work with bold, contrasting colors, and I wanted to try something more monochromatic and subtle (at least on the outside). 

I stacked three appliqued circles and finished each one off with a single stitch of shimmery gold thread.

I decided not to go subtle on the inside, mostly because I love how well red, black and white work together.

Check it out here.

I want my Barbie back

Well, apparently, I’m like a small child. A toddler, if you will.

What do I have to do to make myself want to sew again? Pack up all my sewing supplies into boxes and then stack several heavy boxes on top of them. I’m like a kid who ignores and doesn’t want to play with my Barbie until my sister picks it up and starts playing with it. Then, suddenly, I want to play with my Barbie BAD. And NOW. Like, RIGHT NOW.

The day after my fabric was packed up, I suddenly had the urge to start sewing again. Instead of denying myself, I dug out the fabric box, opened it, and rummaged through it to find the fabrics I needed. And then I sewed.

(By the way, I worked to Mandy Moore’s new album called Amanda Leigh, which I think is fabulous.)

My favorite part of this bag is the inside.

I mounted my label to a green patch of fabric in order to give it a little more prominence and make it part of the design.

Or maybe it was because I nicked a tiny little hole in the fabric with my seamripper after I had already sewn the pockets on and didn’t have enough of the pink polka-dot fabric to start over again, so I securely covered the tiny hole with a patch of fabric. Yeah…maybe that’s why. But sometimes small mistakes end up being a blessing, because I love how the label and patch look, and I never would have thought to do this unless I was forced to come up with a creative solution to a stupid little problem.

The two pockets are lined in the hot pink fabric and finished with a decorative strip of ric-rac.

For sale here in The Boutique. Check it out!

PS — Twenty days until we move into our new house!!!!

New market tote

Bonjour my blogging friends! Although I’ve already packed up much of my fabric for our impending move, I was in the mood to sew the other night, and I realized I already had a market tote in pieces, just waiting to be sewn together. So I finished it up and posted it in The Boutique.

It’s my standard market tote design, but I used a thick cotton fabric instead of corduroy, which I think is more suitable for summer.

The applique design on the front of the tote is chocolate brown and white polka dots. The whole bag is lined in a gorgeous red and cream toile, which is yummy enough to eat and makes me want to decorate my entire house in it.

Oh, and a pocket! An internal pocket! I used to struggle with pockets, but now that I’ve figured it all out, I’m going to start including at least one in every bag.

The new bag is for sale here. (Edit: Sold!)