Craftiness: Handmade Holidays

Every year I intend to make homemade gifts, but rarely am organized enough to make it happen.... but I am determined to make it happen this year! Some items on my to-do list:

• Rag Quilt Letters
  
• Bath Bombs/ Fizzies
  
• Corner Bookmark
  
• Rag Dolls
  
• Memory Game
  

Friday Funny

I came across this funny picture over at Wonderwall & it made me giggle... I always think its so funny when you see a big strong man walking such a fluffy little dog! Not that anyone in our house looks super intimidating walking our munchkins...!

Letterpress at Home

Yesterday I received an email from PaperSource (and my lovely friend Mara- hi!) about their new QuicKutz L Letterpress Machine... it's essentially a tool that will do for Letterpress what Gocco did (sob!) for Screenprinting.


You can read some great reviews all over the web: I liked this one from One Little Spark and Craft Critique (includes a video). You can also see a promotional video of the machine in action here.


From what I am seeing the tool looks very easy to use & seems to produce a nice finished product. Negatives are that they claim you need to use their ink (though I always bought gocco ink & was ok with it...) & that the process seems a bit tedious, especially if you were trying to produce a lot of prints. Thinking of a letterpress wedding invitation, with all the different pieces... yikes!


There are a bunch of plates you can buy (some come with the kit), but because that would be way too straightforward simple for me, I'm really interested to see if the tool would support custom plates (ex: those made by boxcar press). The question seems to be getting echoed throughout blogland, so I am hoping that means we'll have some testers and answers soon! I also found this thread on the QuicKutz forums that seems to indicate that they're planning to also provide a plate-creation option-yay!

Loving It: Isa Form Prints

I adore these super-cute prints from Isa Form, designed by Swedish artist Isabelle Norman Sällström- these first two would be great housewarming gifts & the final one is great for anyone who loves a little motivation. Most prints can be customized with your own text and/or colors.

No Place Like Home

Welcome

Sky's the Limit

You can find all them on her website here.  

Craftiness: Holiday Stockings

We moved over the winter and for the first time in years have a fireplace... so of course I now need some stockings for the upcoming holiday season! I found the following tutorials - hopefully one will inspire you too!

Stockings to Sew: (Clockwise from top left corner)

• Sweater Stocking from Martha Stewart
  
• Monogrammed Button Stocking (Originally found via Craft Magazine's Blog)
  
• Funky Stocking (Originally found on Craft Magazine's Blog)
  
• Expandable Stocking from Instructables
  
• Strip Pieced Stocking from Purl Bee
  
• Jingle Bell Stocking from Martha Stewart
  
• Super Easy Snowflake Stocking from Purl Bee
  

Pug Love: Have a Snuggly Weekend!

My pugs Frank + Boozer have the right idea.... lots and lots of snuggling!

my little breakfast burritos


Pug Yang



Wishing you a restful weekend!

Happiness = Group Dancing

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but had to share it for those who hadn't... I've been showing it to anyone who will crowd around my laptop & just adore it - its like bottled happiness! Seriously - try to watch without smiling or bopping along.

It was filmed during Oprah's season opening episode where they blocked off several blocks of Michigan Avenue here in Chicago for the big O. A lot of people in the city were upset, and rightfully so, that a celebrity gets such special treatment... but the Wave kinda makes up for it in my book. Sorry but it does.

They apparently got people to come in to learn the dance the day before & then everyone who knew it spread out throughout the crowd & taught the people around them. Oprah didn't know it was going it happen, so I also love her reaction - pretty much the same as mine when I first saw it!

Hanging Planters - Bring my herb garden indoors!

Over the summer I did a bit of gardening... we bought our first home last winter & come spring I was itching to make the most of our new (tiny) yard! First up on the garden's 'must have' list was lots of herbs: I've heard that they're super easy to grow (a must!), plus I'd love to cook more and use fresh herbs. I always hate buying fresh herbs at the grocery store - I never cook enough to use everything I buy before it goes bad & I hate feeling like I wasted it. So growing was the perfect solution: each time I needed herbs, I just ran out back to cut some. (Yes, I felt sooo very cool and often made a production of the whole thing. :)


So now that winter is coming, I'm playing with the idea of moving the herb garden indoors. Our kitchen doesn't get much natural light so I don't know how well any plants would fare, but I just adore these platers I found over on A Merry Mishap... so modern, yet functional! A grouping would look great and bring a nice shot of green come the gray, cold winter.

Gorgeous Word Art

Over the summer my husband took me to the newly-opened Wit Hotel for our anniversary. The place has amazing decor, and its a Doubletree, so isn't crazy-expensive. Our room had this amazing collection of ambigrams by John Langdon up as artwork. An ambigram - featured prominently in the novel Angels & Demons - is a word that can be read from different angles, like or MOW or NOON that can be turned through 180 degrees and still be read as the same words. I love gorgeous lettering, so of course couldn't resist these! You can see more examples of his work on his website (he makes custom ones for couples - how cool for a wedding instead of a custom monogram!)... but for now enjoy these (super-rough, from my phone) closeup pics of some of the items in our room!

Host(ess) Idea - Dress Up your Wine

Its getting to be that time of year... you know what I mean - we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet, and the stores are all brimming with visions of holiday cheer! One thing that comes up again & again this time of year is the holiday party... but what to bring the host/ hostess?!

Of course a bottle of wine (or champagne!) is always nice, but it needs a little something special to make it stand out... and so it doesn't look as though you stopped by the liquor store on your way over (even if you did). I love this idea, found last year:

Originally from 2Modern, this item is no longer available, but would be pretty easy to make either using fabric scraps or old/ secondhand items from a thrift store. How cute would it be to use an old holiday sweater?! I think I'm gonna try & whip up a few of these... I'll let you know how it goes!

Hello (again)!

I can't believe it has been almost a full year since I last posted. Wow. I never intended to be away for so long... things kinda got crazy & I had a mini meltdown-slash-quarterlife crisis (though I'm a few years too old for one) and this just kinda fell to the wayside. In the meantime I have managed to not only get a grip, but also bought & decorated our first place (fun! pictures to come!), learned to garden (some) & took some crafty classes. And of course my outside blog obsession didn't stop, so I have been saving ideas and links like crazy. And now I am back & ready to share it all with you!