Plaza District Festival

Exciting news!



I just found out I will be one of the vendors at OKC's Plaza District Festival!!!!! It is September 29th, from 12pm to 10pm so put it on your calendars and come out and see me. If you haven't been to the Plaza District you should . . . it is a cool little area that seems to be getting continuously cooler!

YIKES! I have a lot to do between now and the Sept. 29th. Wish me luck.

Is anyone else participating or attending anything fun this fall?

Dustbowl Arts Market: Recap

Well all . . . last weekend was finally the Dustbowl Arts Market at Norman Music Fest 5! After a month of doing nothing but working and sewing I got to set up my booth and sell some stuff. Some being the operative word. . .meaning there was more looking than buying but I got some great responses, gave out a million cards, and had some good chats with people. With this being my first market I learned a few things and would rethink (or restructure) this or that when doing one of these in the future but all in all I had a great time and am anxious to apply for more shows and give this making/vending thing another shot.
So here are some pictures of my booth: 

This is a full shot of the booth. Again there are a few things I would change but I think it looks pretty cute

and a lot like me! Also it was VERY overcast when the day started so my pictures are a little drab due to the low grew light.

 

A few of my pillows.

some bits and pieces. . . Oh. . .a couple (three) things 

1: I used, as it was recommended by friends and the Dustbowl organizers, Square. Which allows you to run credit cards on your iphone or android. It is great, a little finicky, but so cool! You can text or email receipts and include a photo of the product on the receipt. Super handy, Super cool. 

2: Last minute I decided I wanted some cheap little extras to jazz up my table so I whipped up some cute little flags with fabric scraps and skewers (see picture below). Crazy easy and so cheerful. 

3: I also wanted something wearable in the mix and thought some classic friendship pins (see picture below) would do the trick. These are a tiny bit annoying to make as you have to unwind the safety pin. . . but aren't they happy. I think I may have to wear frequently now.

Little and big buntings or pendant flags or hanging flags. I am going to have to think of what I call them going forward. It seems people either know them as buntings or are completely confused by the term.

My birds. These were the big seller and got the most attention in generally.

I would like to take a second to talk about my cards and my labels which (in my opinion) turned out GREAT! I got quite a few comments on the cards and a number of question on how I did them so here it is. . . I ordered custom cards with black text on plain brown kraft paper from Modern Typography's Etsy shop. To give a little plug Modern Typography was extremely helpful, got my cards to me quick as can be AND she has lots of other adorable stuff in her shop so check it out. Back to my cards. . .once I got the plain cards I ran them through my sewing machine using a decorative stitch and bright thread.

I didn't do any additional work on my fabric labels but think they turned out great so. . .I am going to show them off. I ordered them from Inked Papers on Etsy who also has tons of great looking products (especially the labels). 

. . .And that is my Dustbowl experience.

 I do need to say that Jerod was a great help on Saturday (man can he load a card when he needs to [you would have been impressed Dad]) and is always my biggest supporter and bought me curry on Sunday and put up with me not being the most fun person this last month and is encouraging me to make and do more. . .so . . . thanks to him.

And thanks to everyone else who had to listen to me talk only about this.

More Dustbowl-ing

Dustbowl progress is being made although, I did have a little freak out on Tuesday and per the suggestion of my husband I went to bed at 9 o'clock!!I woke up feeling MUCH better. . . I was in one of those spots where everything is started and you are working but nothing seems to be getting done. . .I am going to assume everyone knows what I mean. Luckily, I am now feeling like (some) things are moving in the done direction. Here is what I have been up to:

Little bird bodies waiting to be stuffed and sewn shut. . .

Stuffed birds getting grouped into families. . .

STRUNG BIRDS!!! Don't they look like they want to live on someone's porch or wall or where ever? Granted, they still need a tassle on the end but . . . THEY ARE ACTUALLY READY TO HANG!

Pillow front (pieces) example #1. . .

Pillow front (pieces) example #2.

I have all of the pillow fronts designed and cut out now I just need to sew and sew and sew and iron. I am getting excited to see them all put together and backed.

Hopefully I will make big pillow progress this weekend.

Where Crispin likes to "help" me sew Sweet Keith decided he is more of a bird man and got in on the stuffing action.

Dustbowl Progress

So. . . I have been hard at work prepping for the Dustbowl Arts Market (April 28th). I have spent the evenings and weekends cutting, sewing, ironing (my least favorite part) and planning. Jerod refers to this state of things as "the Belteau sweat shop" and threatens to lock the door, feed me speed and just give me food once a day (in actuality he has done the grocery shopping, helped me clean and let me monopolize the Roku). I don't have any finished product to show off yet but I have made some headway.

I have bags full of various size bunting pieces all stacked, sorted and ready to sew.

Bird bodies. . . .

A bit of sewing done! (Crispin was so exhausted from supervising that she took a quick nap. . .I think it was 2 hours)

AND. . . a couple almost done buntings (size large) they just need their finishing touches.

Although, it is a lot of work I have been having tons of fun and am more excited than I have been in ages (I hope I am not getting my hopes up too high).

I will keep you all posted on my progress and hope that everyone is up to something of their own that is both fun and fulfilling.

The Ottoman Empire

During the first couple of weeks we owned our house (early September 2010) I bought a torn up, green leather ottoman at a garage sale for $5. It was a great size, shape and price and had cute brass feet. . . all in all it had a lot of potential but was in no shape to be out for people to see it! Since its purchase the poor thing has sat, or more truthfully, been shoved under the table in our laundry/craft room until last week. But let's start at the begining. . .

Here it is in it's original state. . .torn up but waiting to be cute.

I began by removing all of the leather and setting it aside for pattern pieces. Removing the original leathe was probably the most time consuming part of the whole project.

Once the leather was removed I suplemented the original batting (which was in pretty good shape) with a little more just to even things out and give it a little more cushion.
Oh-I will also say at this point, I decided to eleminate the piping around the top and bottom of the ottoman and only keep some along the center seam. I tried it a couple of ways but decided that the piping was a bit fussy when mixed with the plaid fabric I was using to recover it.
One more note. . . This is the same fabric I used on our dining room chairs. I think this ties everything together nicely PLUS this fabric was donated to me from my lovely friend Amy. Making this a super cheap fix up. All told I think I spent under $10 on the whole project, how is that for frugal?

Okay. . . back to the upholstery. After I added the batting, I sewed the top and side pieces together and slipped it over the top half. Once I made sure everything was in it's place and fitting snug I tacked the edge down with upholstery tacks making sure everything was pulled evenly and securely.

Next I attached the center piping and lower fabric, covering the raw edges of the top half and piping. I attached all of this with my trusty staple gun.

With all of the visible parts being finished and pretty I stapled the remaining raw edge to the underside of the ottomen and called it done. . .well almost. . .

In it's original incarnation the ottoman had cute brass brads finishing the fabric around the legs I went ahead and bought new brads hammered them in and watched them shine!

The cats, as always, were a huge help every step of the way.

Here it is in the living room! Don't you want to kick your feet up and cuddle with a cat?

Baby Gift

A few posts back I mentioned that I was working on a gift for some friends and that I would put up pictures after I had sent them their package. . .well. . .here they are.
Our friends, Kate and Andres are having their first baby, a boy, any time now! They had a celebration/shower last weekend. Unfortunately, for us, they live in Miami so we couldn't attend but wanted to send something special to mark the occasion; I whipped up a blanket, bib and burp cloth .
The bib and burp cloth are knit in cotton, from patterns in this book. The blanket is based on some swaddling blankets my sister received as a gift and swears by. I used a light-weight vintage cotton for the blanket as an attempt to offset the Florida heat and humidity.
I have said before that I use this hat pattern for winter and cooler climate babies. Do you all have a go to baby gift or diy item you like to give?

Happy Daylight Savings Time!!!!!!!

I will start by saying I had other plans for this post unfortunately they fell apart but more on that later. Yesterday was a beautiful day, combine that with the time change and I have decided that winter is over! I'm sure it will get cold again but for now I am ignoring that and soaking up the good spring vibes.
I feel that Jerod and I got quite a bit done yesterday but don't have too much to show for it, picture-wise that is. Jerod raked and cleaned up the back yard and also got a lot of info from our neighbors on both sides (he discovered that the house behind us use to be a crack house, it's very cute now, and some interesting bits on different incarnations of our house and yard). . . so we are slowly but surely getting ready to start all of the yard projects.
I made some new pillows for the living room couch but am waiting to show them off until I finish them all. . .Do not worry I WILL post pictures. I almost finished a couple of small projects but they are gifts so I won't post about them until I give them (you can see part of one in the above photo).
I originally planned to post about the sweater I have been knitting which is/was going really well. I have 2/3 of the body and one sleeve done. Well. . . . all I can say is mistakes have been made. Everything I have mentioned is knit correctly and looking good but either in haste, distraction, or just plain old not paying attention (I began this sweater at the airport during a semi-stressful time)I have made this sweater about 20x to big for me (by misreading the pattern I am making and XL instead of a Medium). What I am trying to say is I am going to have to start over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can re-use all of the yarn which is good but YIKES! Needless to say, I am a bit frustrated with myself. I am/was enjoying the pattern and really love how sweater is going to look so I will start over BUT I need to take a few weeks off before I do this. In my experience it is often best to step away from a project for a bit after a major mess up. Oh well. . . below is a sneak peek of of what it was looking like. If something is worth doing it is worth doing right. . .Good Lord I am annoyed with myself though.

For today I think I will work on pillows some more and finish up those gifts. Maybe I will watch this while I do it:)
I hope everyone is doing something fun, relaxing or both this weekend.

Bedside Manners

I know you all are excited because this post is two for the price of one. . .when it comes to marking things off the to do list! We are going to take a look at the bedspread & bedskirt, I made for our bedroom and some night stands Jerod spruced up for me.
Let's start with the bedside tables!
Along in September Jerod took an old, worn out bedside table, we already were using and a rusted typewriter stand and gave them a sanding and a coat of paint and . . .Voila! Fresh, cute and mismatched (while still related) tables.

Ignore the taped together alarm clock on the first table, I am aware it needs replacing.

Now we will move on to the bedspread and bedskirt. There is not too much to say, except that I sewed diagonally cut strips of fabric together, backed them with cotton batting and solid colored cotton and then machine quilted it (sort of). I also made some matching pillow cases and a contrasting bedskirt. I am quite pleased with the results. I would like to make drapes for the room and possibly add a couple of decorative pillows but compared to what it use to look like, it's a 100% improvement.

Oh. . . and Crispin helped me during the sewing process.

Manly Aprons (A Suprise Sewing Project)

A while ago my sister suggested that I make my nephews (4 1/2 & almost 2) washable aprons with lots of pockets. I thought it was a great idea and made each of them kid sized, canvas aprons. On both aprons I used snaps to make the neck and waistband adjustable and easy for my older nephew to get on and off himself. Also, the large and long pocket combined with the tall pocket should provide room for tools, cooking utensils and or both!


Somehow I only ended up with a picture of one of the boys modeling his apron. . .I will have to try to get a shot of the other one later.