Craft a day - 27, 28, 29 AAANNNNNNDDDD 30!!!!!

Woo HOO! It's over! I did it!!!

I haven't posted for the last 4 days but I have crafted my tush off!

First, Tuesday:

It's a log deconstructed, on paper. Why you ask. . . well, the logs are going into mass production! Well. . . sort of. . . The lovely Hannah from Made with Love by Hannah is gonna teach me to screenprint! This is the pattern I sent her and she's gonna burn the screens. So exciting!

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I went pillow CRAZY! I went thrifting on Monday in preparation for something I'm really excited about but that I can't yet discuss (ooohhh mystery!) and found a ton of great fabric. One of the fabrics was this fab floral barkcloth ($4 for 2 yards!) and I made 2 fun bunny pillows out of it. Then today I made a pillow that has been sitting in my head for a while and it turned out just how I imagined, which is always nice. Here they are, pillows a plenty!


And finally, the whole kit and kaboodle! A month's worth of crafting, sans 1 thank you note, 1 hostess gift, and 9 logs, all resting quite comfy-like on my lovely daybed!

Impressive!

Most of these beauties will end up in my Etsy shop. Tomorrow I take pictures and then I start listing away!

Thanks so much for following me on this crazy little journey with me. I may just do it again in the near future. It was super hard but it did get me working and sometimes that push is the one thing you really need to create some lovely, lovely crafty goodness.

Hearts and puppies,
erika

Craft a day - 15, Gugh-gugh-duh-gugh-gugh-duh

Day fifteen is pillow day! Yippy!

Boy it's been hard to motivate myself these last couple of days. I've been feeling 10 kinds of gross since Tuesday and the dreary weather here isn't helping. Still I must keep the crafts going! Thanks to all who have commented. . . it really does keep me motivated to keep on keeping on.

Today's craft is a pillow out of the cute French shop fabric accented with a sweet black ruffle. It's got a zipper and it's fully lined (because I'm fully nutty!).


I'm really happy with how this turned out. It will be a hard one to part with!

Hearts and puppies,
erika

Craft a day - 4

Still chugging along. . . barely. . .
Today's craft:

Bike bag! A shopper tote made with the bike fabric I printed last week.

The inside:


I guess that's it, I don't really have much to say today and I'm awfully tired.

Hearts and puppies,
erika

Craft a day - 3 (it's a magic number)

So. . . I actually can't share today's craft. . . it's for someone who reads this li'l ol' blog and I wouldn't want to mess up the surprise. When I know it's delivered, then I'll share it!

But to tide you photo-phiends over I took pictures of my big (slightly early) spring cleaning and closet purge. Today I gave up the ghost of my skinny clothes. It was hard and I now, quite literally, have nothing to wear, though, honestly even when my closet was full I still had nothing because none of it f-ing fit! Sigh. . . Mind you giving up the clothes does not mean I'm giving up the battle against my ever expanding behind, it just means that I finally realized that once I can fit into those size 7 skinny jeans, I won't want to wear them!

So. . . first. . . the closet!

and. . .


The desk!


And, saving the best for last. . . the bookcase! I moved and centralized my fabric and I love, love, love it!!!

and. . .


Yea for organization!

Yea for secret day 3 craft!

Be swift USPS! Be swift!

Hearts and puppies,
erika

Fun Fabric Finds!

Hee! I love me some alliteration! Anyway. . . Just wanted to finally share with you some of the fun fabrics I've found lately.


My finds from JoAnn's. I went there to find bike fabric. . . none to be found, walked out with all of this! I'm particularly fond of the space fabric. . . don't know what I'm going to do with it just yet but I had to have it!

Then there's the fabric from the wackiest fabric store around, F & M, a great local discount place that has a metric ton of the strangest fabrics you will ever find!

And this fabric that made my heart jump with glee!

When I say OOH you say LA LA! OOH! LA LA! OOH! LA LA!

Can't wait to show you what I make with all this goodness!

hearts and puppies,
erika

PS- OH! Speaking of puppies. . . Forget the Super Bowl. . . today it's all about PUPPY BOWL!!! Man, I love the Puppy Bowl. Puppies!

Bicycle race!

So about a few weeks back a lovely customer asked me to make a bag for her friend who loves bicycling and the outdoors. She wanted flowers on the exterior and bicycles on the lining. . . I actually suggested the bicycles. . . I could find bike patterned fabric in the store. . . No problem! Right? Um, well, apparently there is a problem. . . because I could find nothing I liked anywhere.

I looked online and in stores for weeks!

Finally I gave up and made some myself. Check it out!



Pretty sweet, no? I used my Print Gocco to burn the screen and then went to town! Man, I'm so glad they started making Gocco supplies again. . . I'm starting to burn through my stash of screens and bulbs. Here's a closer look at the burned screen:



And a closer look at the print:



This is the first time I tried the Gocco screen printing on a large piece of fabric. It's also the first time I tried it on a fabric that wasn't felt. Man is it easier to print on something smooth! I'm really happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to make more custom printed fabric.

Look at me! I'm a textile designer!!!

hearts and puppies,
erika

Spring Sneek Peak! Fabric!

Hi all!
Yesterday was a happy day over at my imaginary boyfriend HQ. . . fabric came! Happy day! Happy day! I went a little crazy with the tax return this year and bought a lot of new (and vintage) fabrics. I still need to take pictures of my vintage stash but check out all the awesome I got yesterday from Repro Depot:

Look at it all folded and stacked pretty like by the lovely Repro Depot folks! And here it is all spread out:

So much pretty! It makes a girl wanna dance!

hearts and puppies,

erika

The promised bag. . .

Tomorrow is today over here at my imaginary boyfriend HQ! Here are the bags I promised you! First the new diaper bag. . . As you can see, it's a messenger style bag.

I like the idea of a diaper bag that doesn't scream "I'm a diaper bag!! Baby things are kept in me!!!" You know? Just because you have a kid doesn't mean that you suddenly want to carry around totes with child like drawings of zoo animals or bears (which I guess could qualify as a zoo animal, such a stickler!) and so far I've yet to find someone who's developed a sudden love for quilted pastels once they added a life to the world. But then again I don't know that family from TLC's "16 Children and Counting" or whatever it's called, they seem like the pasteled zoo animal type(but honestly, those people scare the living hell out of me!!!).




Anyway. . . more on the bag. I added lots of pockets, one under the flap and one on the back. On the inside there's 2 small pockets for Mom things like phones and lip gloss, a pocket for the namesake diapers, 2 sets of elastic loops for bottles or sippy cups, and a big pocket for the matching changing pad. The strap is adjustable so that it can be shortened and hung on a stroller.

Sarah was happy with it. Which made me happy. The fabric has a story all it's own. I picked it up a couple of years back at a discount fabric store in my hometown of Bakersfield, California. The color and pattern were so wonderfully off. . . I was automatically drawn to it. Bright pink! Clipper ships! Aw yeah! I'm convinced that it was some sort of dye lot mistake (a great explanation for how it ended up in discount-town). I finally used some of it for a few bags over the holidays and I asked my Mom to check to see if they still had it. I wanted more!!! Apparently they did because my over zealous Mom got so excited by the price (a mere $2 a yard!) that she bought me 40 yards! Yes you read right. . . 40 yards. I could make bags, cover my sofa, outfit a bridal party, and still have enough fabric to make 15 pillows! At least! My Mom's the type of lady who when you say "Get all of that fabric you can get." takes you seriously! And I love her for it!

Here's the other bag I made using my beautiful clipper ship fabric. . . my pleated clutch:

and view two:

Any thoughts?

hearts and puppies,
erika