Stuffies

Lately my biggest thing to make has been little soft stuffie toys. Whether they are made of felt or fabric, I want them all! I've also discovered a love for hand sewing. For any of you who know me, you know that i've always said that I HATE hand sewing. But recently It feels like all I want to do is sit on the couch and make critter after critter of little hand sewn felt stuffies. So first up is an octopus. I love octopuses! I know they creep many people out, but I LOVE THEM! This one happens to be purple (could there be a better color for an octopus?). He's made out of some wool felt from the shop and little green sequins. If you want to make a little octopus for yourselves it's a free tutorial over here



Next up with my stuffie obsession is an owl pillow! You can find the pattern here if you want one too! I tried to stick with some gender neutral/boyish colors and I took forever picking them out! But i'm so happy with the results and love him!



P.S. Do you like my new curtains. Not much of a view of them, but i'm so happy with them! It's one of my favorite fabrics!

Getting Back on My Feet

Wow. So after feeling like I've been punched in the stomach and knocked down, I'm finally on my way to recovering and getting back up. Sorry if it seemed as if I'd fallen off the face of the earth but I think I may be back more often again! I won't bore you with the silly details of my currently drama filled life, but instead bore you with the drama of my ancestors life! Yay...! So, in my last post I mentioned my family once owning a castle, and today I'm here with proof.

Once upon a time, in land far away (well not too far from me now) there lived a happy swiss family in a happy castle. These happy people called themselves a swiss translation for "bird of prey". A good name for my old family, very intimidating and superior (like me...!). well, these happy intimidating superior people mistreated there peasants who worked very hard for them. Sadly the peasants grew tired of being mistreated and decided to revolt against the poor birds of prey kicking them out of the castle. This made the happy, intimidating, superior, and now poor people very sad. So in an act of desperation the "birds of prey" decided to change there once intimidating name to the very peaceful "peacock"! Yay! With this new name they confronted there once peasants and asked if they would once again work very hard and let the peacocks have there castle back. Sadly the peasants thought this was a bad idea and sent my dear ancestors packing. Filled with shame, desperation, and a keen sense of adventure they soon left for the great America and many many many years later had me. yay again! Because, since they had me, I was able to go to this now crumbling castle of mine to take pictures to share with you. (Are you still reading? because if this was anyone else's story i'd be long zoned out!) So to spare you, on to the pictures!

Welcome to my castle!








This takes you to my staircase...



This is my staircase!



I don't really know what this is, but I shall call it mine!



And finally my view...



Sorry I have no crafty things to post this time, But next time I'll be sure to show something handmade!

Day 5

Today I wore my Amy Butler Liverpool tunic made out of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley. These pictures aren't from today but rather a few weeks back by Jenny .



And the back...



But I switched it up a little today and wore it with these...



And since I got my jewelry all put back away I thought I would show you how I store it and all my headbands.



My brother and sister-in-law gave me a dress form necklace holder covered in butterfly's, and since they're not my thing I decoupaged it in some paper Jenny brought me from Scotland.



I decoupaged and hooked an Ikea mirror for my necklaces...



and combined some Ikea frames lined with tulle for my earrings. I'm a little shamed to show how many pairs I own.



And finally, I've started an online photography class through school and here are a couple of my favorite shots while wandering through the front yard.





I'm off to Switzerland tomorrow to see a castle my family owned a long, long, long time ago, so hopefully I'll be back with pictures and a story to share!

Day 4

Headbands completely count...



Fabric is Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope.

Day 3

Thank goodness for 30 minute skirts! You'll be seeing a lot of these... This ones out of Heather Bailey's chevron stripes from her Pop Garden line.



Finally remembered to have someone else photograph. Thanks Kelly... keep it going!

Day 2

Darn, second day in and i'm already regretting doing this. Today I wore a modified version of the the torii tunic by serendipity studios. It's made out of jennifer paganelli's bell bottom line and accented with Tula Pink's nest fabric.



Note to self: stop taking awful unflattering photos at night by myself, and remember to ask someone whose good with a camera to take pictures. But you live and learn...

Self Stitched September (day 1)

Okay, so while i'm not a "real" participant in the Self Stitched September (mainly because who has time to read rules and fill out questiony things...?) I thought i'd still do it and try to post my stuff everyday this month that i'm wearing. Sadly, today, I wasn't thinking to take pictures until I got home tonight close to 11:00. So this is the best I could do...



(I swear that's the camera angle and wrinkles and not just my huge looking belly...)

It's the schoolhouse tunic I blogged about a couple of posts ago out of the Little Folks voile. Therefore i don't feel so bad for posting an awful photo of it. I did think to lay out a quilt though! That should get bonus points, because it means you don't have to see my thread, bead, and glitter covered pink rug!

P.S. I found my solution to the lamp posted below...! here is how the discovery went.

Me: I made this adorable lamp a couple of months ago, but look... I messed up and it's upside down and unusable.

Mom: let me see... (looks at it)... Katelyn, that's no problem at all. (unscrews light bulb, puts lamp shade on, screws light bulb back in.) see!

Me: (blushing) I feel stupid. And thankful to be living in a world full of brilliant people who can fix these things for me.

So now the lampshade no longer falls off the bulb while sitting on it, and alice is standing up right. Who could have known that lamps really work that way?

A Lot of Decoupage

I finally got around to making my second fairy tale lamp! This time it's Alice in Wonderland.



I love how it turned out!



At least I would have anyway.... But this is why you should never craft with a cold (aside from sneezing all over the project...)



I also had time to redo my Ikea drawer thing.



I had it brightly painted, but decided it would look better with some simple decoupage. I used some of my favorite ever basic gray scrapbook paper (Almost out too... sad).

One Man's Trash...

How on earth could anyone rid themselves of this little treasure?



But lucky for me they did. Browsing the thrift shop the other day I found this for only two measly dollars! So taking off some stickers (that I was able to just peel off with no stickiness left behind) and slapping on a fresh coat of paint, I got this!



Adorable, huh? Wouldn't this just be the perfect addition to a little kids room?

School House Tunic

Luscious Green Yummy Anna Maria Horner Voile came into the shop and I bought some! Amazingly enough it didn't just sit on my fabric shelf... I actually made something with it! With the School House Tunic craze kicking in everywhere I decided to join in. So that yummy luscious green voile became this:



The original pleating in the tunic wasn't too flattering on me, so rather than take the whole thing back apart to omit them, I decided to sew them all the way down. I really love the little bit of detail it adds, not to mention the fact that I don't look like a balloon!



Not too crazy about this last open mouth photo, but it shows how the sewn down pleating looks. The scary laugh is thanks to Corinnea and Kelly who put me through this crazy photo shoot. Lots of fun though!

Aprons

I made some aprons! I love them, and think that they're really cute.



I based them off of the Emmeline Apron but made several modifications, and lined them with some lovely white muslin.




They now live in my old shop that I'm slowing going to try and restock.



Also, after reading this post and becoming super interested in the ladies necklace I've decided to start listing where I've found my jewelry. So first up, I got this little beauty that I'm wearing here.

Little Red Riding Hood.... A Lamp.

I am in LOVE with this lamp! Love it, Love it, Love it!!!!





And if you don't think it's absolutely adorable, then you must be a dead fish!





Because just look at that little wolf on the attack...


The lamp was the last one that I found in the shop. It was old and ugly and in the sale section. But I rescued it! Jenny had made one a long time ago which opened me up to the idea of doing one, but it wasn't until we got these new stickers in the shop that I had to make it.



Oh yeah, can you guess who I went shopping with???

Elephants!

After seeing everyone else make Heather Bailey's adorable little stuffed elephants, I had to give them a try. I used some boy fabrics so that I could send them off to my nephew coming this fall. And as it happens his mom is a big elephant lover!



Now, don't judge. These poor little guys are my first attempts at stuffed animals and I think they turned out pretty darn cute. They're super easy and addicting to make, but they do have lumps and bumps, some showing stitches, and they are a teensy bit crooked.



I couldn't do the whole tiny fabric tail thing, so I stuck some ribbon on their butts instead. I think it's kinda cute, and way easier. So all in all I love them and definitely recommend them to anyone who wants to give some stuffies a try!

Berlin.... Finally!

Since I haven't had a lot of crafting time lately I thought I would post some long overdue Berlin photos. I went with my friend Daphne (no blog) to this marvelous city last month and had an amazing time. So on to the pictures...!

First up is this gorgeous museum we toured that I can't remember the name of (there will be a lot of that because it's been over a month, and I don't write things down...) But isn't it beautiful?



Second is this important building (don't ask me why or for what... because I don't remember...) But it was an excellent place to sit in the grass and look at it because everyone else was!



We saw many gorgeous churches but here's only a couple:



This next one is to show you one of my hundred skirts I've made. It's out of the new Anna Maria Horner Voile. And It also shows my awesomely dorky Berlin hat I paid too much for. But it was warm, and made me feel more like a tourist!



And look who I found while we were there! Jenny! I've linked to her trip if you want the proper names of these places. She has a memory... unlike me.



Then of course I saw Charlie's Checkpoint and the Brandenburg Gate.






Part of the Berlin Wall Remains (Isn't that billboard classy above it? People are great!)



I love street markets, and they were a plenty!



On our last night we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. So a picture of us in our lovely 3D glasses!



I could live like this! Absolutely Gorgeous!



Hopefully I'll be able to post some crafty things and soon as I have time to make them! But in the mean time I have one more trip for you to suffer through!