Craftyminx

A little spruce up.

The south wall of my studio has been bare since I finished the re-design because it was meant for a peg board. However, time and money has not allowed this to happen yet, so I needed something on the wall. Especially since I was going to film some craft segments in there.

I painted a thirfted cabinet and hung up the artwork I bought at Renegade Austin. I love that the wall of Elsie's comic matches my studio :) I had to have Amy Hevron's "Woody the Bison" because it reminds me of my days at OBU.

I added some woodland creatures scrapbooking paper to the back of the cabinet to add a little something. I want this cabinet to be turquoise, but I haven't had time to paint it past the white.

Vintage Flair

There are so many awesome things at my parents' ranch that I could share with you, but it would take a lifetime. I told you about my dad's love for antiques and keeping everything he's ever owned, but it's pretty extreme. Their ranch is full of odd bits and baubles and crazy awesome antiques that I want to ahem "borrow" every time I go visit them. These are a few of my favorite things I found in the garage from this visit...

This hook is one of three on these cabinets my dad removed from a horse trailer before he sold it.

My great grandparents' rocking patio chair. Part of my inheritance... he refuses to give it up before then.

I don't even know where this one came from. My dad might have cut it from the metal himself, but who knows. I still love it. :)

Weekend Finds

While participating in Sunday Funday with my friends Patrick and Levi, we happened on a great little antique store that I had never been in, which is like 5 blocks from my house. Sad I know. We also went to a thrift store close by that I had yet to venture into.

We walked into the antique store about 20 minutes before closing. It was a huge place! There was a whole wing of it that I didn't even get to see. But here are a few of the things I found there...

I didn't buy any of the above because I'm saving up my pennies for an iphone, but you can bet I'll be going back to check up on those vintage kitchen toys. They are sooo awesome, but a tad pricey. :( They would be great for my future Blythe, even if they are a little to big  (I think).

I did buy this great super gay paper doll. They boys insisted that I buy it and make it into magnets for their fridges. I had too. It's just too ridiculous, look at that stance...

I also found some treasures at the thrift store...

That plant stand is definitely my find of the month. It's pretty awesome. I kind of wish we had a screened in porch area for it. I'll probably just use it as a display at shows.

Treasures

 I've been shopping a lot lately. It's the only thing that can calm my stress of school. Some of these were found in thrift stores around town and others were bought on vacation in Louisiana. I'm almost done with school! I have one assignment left :)
 
1. Vintage Sheets, 2. cute vintage fabric, 3. Embroidered Pillow Cases, 4. Table Runner close up, 5. Mod Cocktail Tray, 6. Owl Necklace, 7. Vintage thermos trio, 8. some vintage patterns, 9. Doll case

Apples 2 Apples

I love fall! Sadly, Oklahoma has decided to skip over fall and go straight into 50 degree weather, cloudy and wet--it has not stopped raining for days! We had about 2 weeks of good 65 degree weather. Oh well, even though the weather is not cooperating, I am thoroughly enjoying fall for what it is.

This week has been the week of apples. Apples are available year round, of course, but the variety is more substantial in the fall. A coworker recently became excited that honey crisp apples were now available. I had never had them before, so I went to the store and bought a huge bag.

They are delicious! Crisp, sweet, and slightly tangy. The perfect taste of fall.

 With my new favorite apples in the fridge I decided to make this apple cake.

BEST IDEA EVER! Make it, you will not be disappointed.

Now take a gander at these beauties...

I'll give you a moment. I needed one when I saw them in the store.

 I want to eat everything out of these!!! But I'm also afraid to touch them because they are in perfect condition and don't want to hurt them.

*sorry the photos are soo dark that just shows you how horribly cloudy it has been here. Even after editing them I couldn't get them much better. I really need to get lightroom.

Sewing madness...

The sewing frenzy I have been in lately continued last night. I finished the posie quilt like I said I would (I know that is a rare occurrence around these parts.) I found the tutorial to be very helpful. There are a few things that I did differently, because of some hints my mom has shared with me. And I think I might redo the binding with her help. I guess it's pretty damn good for a first try. Eh I don't know. I'm kind of a perfectionist so I'll probably redo it. 

I also went ahead and made the towel into burp cloth.

These are so cute, I want to make a hundred of them now, or at least finish off the pack of diapers I bought.

Recent Finds

I have been doing a lot of thrifting lately. I find it so exciting searching for cool things at super cheap prices. Here are some recent finds...

1. Afghan, 2. brown polka dot glasses, 3. Minnie Pearl mug, 4. mug and pitcher, 5. vintage sheets, 6. nesting canisters, 7. Cute flower shop mugs, 8. flower mug, 9. melmac mugs, 10. brown and pink mug, 11. beautiful fire king mug, 12. flower mug, 13. Green melmac mug set, 14. scalloped shelf, 15. cute green purse, 16. expanding peg rack, 17. polaroid impulse, 18. Polaroid land camera, 19. small shelf, 20. Mustard Yellow mug rack, 21. expanding peg rack, 22. Kodak Colorburst Camera, 23. mug rack, 24. Buttons!, 25. suitcases

I really love finding colorful mugs that will grace my kitchen once it is remodeled. I have also been collecting a lot of vintage sheets. When I find a really colorful vintage sheet that hasn't been used so much it is faded in the middle, I do a happy dance. Sheldon is worried about my sheet hoarding. He laughs it off though and says if we have another depression, we'll at least have fabric to make new clothes. "Hey Sheldon I love your new flowered sheet suit."

It's finished! Plus some extras...

The Bella embroidery is finished! I'm pretty happy with the results, but not happy enough.

She just looks kind of bored...

If you've ever met Bella in person, you probably realized that she's really not a dog at all, she's her own weird breed of cat/pig/alien baby. And since I can't embroider her infamous Bella yell, I had a hard time making this embroidery 100% Bella. So I went back to the drawing board... literally. I came up with this.

For some reason, this one captures her essence just a little more. It's weird, because the first one looks like her. I'm pretty sure I would be happy with it if it weren't going to be tattooed on me. I want my tattoo to look exactly like my baby girl. And really, it only took about 6 hours to make a new one.

What do you all think? Which do you like better? Sheldon insists that they are both perfect. I think he just wants me to stop embroidering her so he doesn't end up with a couch full of Bella pillows with ball trim edges (because you know that is what these are turning into).

Side note - don't you love my new $1.50 afghan from the thrift store?!

Ok, so now for a shameless plug...

I'm teaching a class on creating and transferring your own embroidery patterns at the Deluxe Craft Weekend. So if you want to make a dog portrait for yourself this is the place to be!  (like my segway?)

If you sign up for the craft weekend, you get Friday to Sunday from 9am-9pm full of crafting, socializing and fun. All your meals are provided and you get to leave your stuff out for 3 days without having to clean up. I know those of you without a studio would probably love that idea (and so would your household). 

But wait, there's more... If you can't do the whole weekend, for any number of reasons, you can sign up to take a la carte workshops, like the one I'm teaching. If you don't embroider, take my class to make your own design, then take the embroidery 101 class to learn the basics. There are tons of workshops on everything from whittling to serger basics. Take a look.

The weekend is September 25th - 27th at okcCoCo. This is also the place that has a crafting get together once a month. I'm super excited to finally make it out there and have some fun with crafters!

My new crafting skill and Saturday finds

Sheldon and I spent the weekend with my parents at their farm. My mom had scheduled herself and me for a shuttle tatting class with her quilting guild. We were two of the three that were able to learn that day. I have to say, tatting isn't hard, but it does take patience to learn the two stitches needed to begin. I think it took at least 4 hours for me to fully "feel" it. This is what I came home with.

I think I'm going to practice some more before I start an actual project. I don't see myself making lace doilies or anything. I mainly wanted to learn so i could make tatted trims for dresses and pillowcases. That and it seems to be a dying craft that I needed to learn, bring back the tatting! Do any of you know how to tatt? How long did it take you to learn? hmmm... While searching tatting online, I found this wonderful pattern resource! http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/completelist.htm It has patterns for knitting and crochet as well. I'm intrigued.

Ok now on to my antique store finds. I swear I'm addicted to finding good deals lately. It also seems like I have a favorite antique store in every town I frequent. For me, these are usually the "junk store" antique places. I've told you about Green's Corner, the best place to visit in Shawnee. This weekend I was in McAlester, OK so that means hitting up Main Street Junction. McAlester really has a lot of great antique stores in old town, but this one is my favorite. If I'm running short on time, I'll go to this store before any of the others and usually end up not having time to go anywhere else. I'm ok with this, because I always come home with some fabulous things. This is what I found this weekend!

This isn't really vintage but my mom let me steal it from her and I am sooo ready to have room on my counter for it. Details about that later.

And my wonderful boyfriend bought me these!!!!

I cannot tell you how long I've wanted a full set of these pyrex bowls. My mom has a set she bought a year ago that I just drool over. She had the full set that was my grandmother's and after so many years of use she only has the big yellow bowl left. My love for colorful pyrex runs much deeper than hers. She still refuses to let go of them until she dies. Apparently I couldn't wait that long and these were priced pretty low ($25 cheaper than what my mom paid) and 10% off. I was able to walk by, but Sheldon snuck them in to his purchases at the last minute. Have I told you how much I love this guy? I mean how could I not love someone that understands my love for old things as much as he does. In fact, this weekend when we go to his parents' in Muskogee, we're going a day early just to hit up the antique stores there. And that was totally his idea! Swoon. :)

Awesome shopping day and a winner!!!

I got the urge to go to an estate sale today. So I found the listings, made a loop of places to go in north OKC, called a friend to join me, and jumped in the car. I ended up spending 45 bucks and I'm pretty sure this was the most successful shopping day I've had in quite a while. Here are a few of my favorite purchases but you can see them all by going to flickr (if you click the right arrow you can go through all the stuff I bought).

This metal shelf was 5o cents! it needs a little repair and a fresh coat of paint, but it will be perfect for holding my sprinkle collection.

LOVE these scalloped edges! And those little spice jars to the right? soo cute!

So I dropped my camera while taking these photos, so the lens was out and got all kinds of f'ed up,  so these pictures are pretty bad quality, esp. if you go to the bigger sized pictures.

Ok... are you ready to see who won the orange apron?!

I decided to go the old fashioned route this time, since I had an entry over on facebook (I have these posts fed onto my profile) and there weren't very many of you. Be prepared, these pictures are very very bad.

Congratulations Amanda!!! I'll email you to get your mailing address. Everyone else, enter the drawing on monday to win some jewelry. I guess I get to go camera shopping now.