Spicy Pillows....so hot right now!

If it isn't already too obvious- I'm a fabric lover...some may call me a hoarder but I prefer collector or connoisseur. I have a closet full of beautiful fabric. Among the many, many, MANY large scale linen prints, I have silks, velvets...even maybe a leather or two. Believe me, I've collected more than my fair share of fabrics. I am seriously concerned that someday my piles and piles will end up in the apartment below us...ok, maybe not...but that gives you an idea of how much fabric I actually have saved up over the last few years.

So what do you do with so much fabric, you ask? Well, besides a handful of hot pads, woven rugs, and bags, I've really enjoyed sewing pillows! As I've mentioned before, I'm a self taught sewer so I jump on anything that helps me improve. I've made monogram pillows for my sisters and my sis 'n law (who also added a few more pillows to her collection a couple Christmas' ago). I've whipped up a set for my Aunt. I've made a ba-zillion (ok...more like 15-20) different pillows for our living room and bedroom over the past few years. They are a simple way to spice up a room. Its always exciting to pull the bins out of the good 'ol craft closet and build a color palette. It helps remind me why I push myself every evening and weekend...it makes me feel creative and alive! 

Most recently, my mother in law, Leslye, asked me to sew some pillows for her. She and her husband, Don, visited last November and we spent some time digging through the piles of pattern and color. 

She brought a few photos of pottery she has on display in her living room and away we went...pawing through the piles of fabrics and here is how everything came together....

Spicy, bold, summery colors...a mouthwatering salsa and guacamole color palette! (am I making you hungry?!) I love this classic but fresh combo. We mixed prints, velvet, dots, stripes, embroideries...a little bit of everything but it came together beautifully!

The pillows I've made in the past have had an envelope closure in the back so the pillow can easily slip in and out. I made Leslye's pillows two sided so she can mix and match until her heart is content!

Side 1 on the left and Side 2 on the left:

And of course a few a group shots for good measure:

And another satisfied customer...and sofa!

More projects to come soon!! :)

Shopping Vintage: The Holiday Party Dress

I know I may have mentioned it before, but I am a sucker for vintage dresses. I've spent hours 'window shopping' for old dresses on Etsy and browsing through consignment stores, searching for that special, one of a kind piece to add to my closet. Don't tell Erik, but my dream would be to open a second Etsy shop full of vintage finds...but that may have to wait until we have a place with more storage...oh, and some start up money.

I can't remember when this love affair started but I have a few ideas...Maybe it was watching Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, in her HUGE ball gown, dance across the screen in The King and I...or ANY of the amazing costumes I fell in love with while watching movies from my Papa's Rogers and Hammerstein collection, for that matter. Thanks to my sister's Judy Garland phase, maybe it was the red velvet dress and sparkly head scarf Judy Garland wore to the Christmas party in Meet Me in St. Louis that sent me over the edge. And Dolly...Hello Dolly...that gold number Barbara Streisand wears while she's singing with Louis Armstrong...words cannot describe how much I love that dress.

Like most little girls, I remember really liking the idea of 'dressing up'...putting on your Sunday clothes (as Dolly would say). Not a lot has changed. I still like dressing up! Every year, I start looking for a dress to wear to Erik's annual Christmas party a couple months in advance. My one stipulation...it has to be unique. I go into this dress hunt knowing that there will be a little work...you can always find a vintage dress that is beautiful but its hard to find one that fits perfectly! I have to go in with an open mind. Its not what the dress is, but what it could be...I know that's pretty deep for dress talk, but its soooo true.


My three rules for finding that perfect vintage piece:

1) Know your measurements...all you need is a measuring tape and maybe some help from a friend (and maybe a helpful youtube video). One tip- I tend to buy dresses that fit my measurements or a little larger because you can always take it in but you can't always let it out!

2) Learn a little about clothing construction...or find a friend (this is an open invite people!! I'm here!)

3) Be creative!!! As long as the fabric is in good condition...go for it. I'm still teaching myself how to alter clothing, so if you are more experienced, the sky is the limit!


And this brings me to my dress of the season...I found the perfect dress a couple of years ago but due to  a bad cold, we skipped out on the party that year. It was a $40 find from a shop on Etsy and it hung on a hanger in my closet for two years. Everytime I opened my closet door, there it was...begging me to wear it. With a few alterations, this dress became one of my favorites!

Here's my 2012 Holiday Party Project...I mean dress :)

The bright aqua and silver brocade fabric is what drew me in...every girl needs that statement sparkly dress, right?

A bit boxy, but, man....that fabric!

A little big and a little too long...I have a short person complex thanks to my younger (but taller) sisters.

I took the dress in 2" on each side and took the hem up about 3.5"...I know, soooo scandalous.

AND.....The After

Paired with black tights, black wedges, a bun and bright red lips!

 

 And a couple model pics for good measure but mostly to make Erik laugh...

And my date for the night, doing his best James Bond impression! :)

Lots of food, drink, and conversation (oh, and my hot date!) made for a great night out. Like I said before, I'm still learning this alteration stuff so I was pretty proud of myself! I received a couple nice compliments but my favorite reaction was when a lady told me (after she'd had a few cocktails) that she like how "it looked like it was from the future but also kinda from the 60's".  Hmmmm...how do I top THAT next year?

How We Made Our New Apartment a Home

Earlier this year, Erik and I made the big move to a new apartment. When I say big move, I mean really big...a whole two blocks away from our old place. Our old apartment had lots of charm- old wood floors, glass knobs, tiny hexagon tile in the bathroom, to name a few things. It was a typical pre-war apartment building. It was cute, full of character, and the perfect first place for us in the city. Eventually, though, the issues that come with living in an older building (like a leaking ceiling/roof, for one) outweighed the charm.

If you know me well, you know that I love old things. I LOVE vintage clothing (check back soon to see what I found to wear to Erik's work Christmas party this year!!!), old furniture, dishes, buildings...anything that has a story and a past. Even the house I grew up in is closing in on 150 years old.  Needless to say, moving from a place that had such history to a place that was still being updated the day we moved in was a little out of character for me. We decided that we loved our neighborhood too much to leave so we took the tiny leap and moved a couple blocks down, into a newly renovated apartment.

It was a fresh start...and a very blank slate.

Choosing the color palette was more difficult than I thought it would be. Since the first time I laid eyes on the red and blue flamestitch (bottom right), I loved it. I was so certain that it would be the perfect inspiration for our new living room. While I dug through my 'collection' of fabrics searching for reds and blues, another palette started to surface. It was softer, lighter, more subtle, more Northwest...what was happening to me?! I love bright colors...I AM bright colors! Why was I being pulled to this neutral palette? I knew Erik would love it...especially because we had pillows with fuchsia, orange, and even flowers in our last place. I couldn't decide so I took the issue to the people who I knew would not hold back their opinions...my facebook friends!

 Right or Left?!?! There was no clear winner! I had to make a decision and just for kicks I chose.....

The Neutrals!!

And here is the before...the blank, bland, cream, living room. AND our new, comfortable, gray Kravet sofa!

We organized the books (a perfect backdrop for any space!)...

Found THE PERFECT coffee table on etsy (click here to see this guy's shop...amazing) and paired it with a simple chevron throw rug.

I slaved away on my little sewing machine...not really...but it took a few week nights and a Saturday afternoon to finish up the pillows. Here are three of my favorites...

And a couple close ups...

One of my favorite movies and a gift from my Papa Garrett...my Casablanca poster is finally on display after so many years.

And after a few months, a little shopping, collecting, sewing, and picture hanging...here is our lovely living room, the space where we hang out, read, eat, and live.

I've learned something very important through this move and this 'make-over' of our living room. No matter where we live, whether its an old house full of stories, an apartment with lots of history, a simple, clean, renovated place or somewhere in between...it's what WE bring to the space that makes it a home (but a few new throw pillows won't hurt).

A Fresh Start

The goods news is, I can feel the craftiness coming back! I haven't started any new projects yet but I will soon. To make sure I'm ready when the creativity starts flowing, I decided to organize my fabric and supplies. We moved into our new apartment at the end of February and I called 'dibs' on part of the front closet.

I sorted my fabrics into 'printed' and 'woven'. The woven fabrics are in a big bin (just waiting to be made into new pillows!) and the prints are organized by color and stacked on the upper shelves. If you can believe it, I went through my fabric before our move and took four to five bags back to our showroom to be donated. What I still have is the fabric I just couldn't live without...

And here is one more photo. This shows MY side of the closet...poor Erik!

Hopefully, this fresh start will inspire me to get back to weaving, sewing, and crafting. In the meantime, stay tuned! I have some fun photos from my amazing weekend in LA with my wonderful friend/bride-to-be, Tina and her awesome friend/maid of honor Anastasia.

 My sis-in-law, Julie, is in town this weekend and then next week Erik and I are finally going to have a weekend get-away to Vancouver, B.C. Many adventures and posts to come! :)

Most Requested Color at the Sunshine Shop?

Green!

Whether its part of a color combo or all by its lonesome, green has been the #1 requested color at the good ol' Savannah Sunshine Shop. I hadn't noticed the trend until just recently. From rugs to scarves to pillows...green has popped up over and over again. Why green though? I'm still trying to figure this one out.

I work in a place filled with the latest, greatest, trendiest colors...I'm over saturated with the colors that are popular and those that are sooo in right now. I've seen the blue and brown combo (a million times), the 'spaqua' (spa + aqua = spaqua), the gray and yellow, the purples, and now the bright orange (or as the Pantone crowd calls it, 'Tangerine Tango'). I know my situation is a little unusual because I'm around these all day, everyday. Color trends, though, are splashed all over magazine covers, in ads, in every clothing store out there. When it comes to color, there are sooooooooo many options....so why green?

Here are a few examples:

My first special request I ever took through my Etsy shop was for a set of braided oval rugs for a nursery. Her colors were blue and green. Soft, sweet, blues and greens...

A little while later, an old friend ordered three 'treasure boxes' for her nieces. One of which (you guessed it!) was a fun, playful green, complete with a fabric flower...

The next custom order was for my Aunt Lorinda. She wanted three scarves, one for each of her daughters (my cousins) for Christmas. We discussed color palettes for each girl, one of which, we decided, would have a Spring color combo. Light greens, light pinks, and cream...

Last fall, I was talking to my sister-in-law, Julie, when she asked me to make a few pillows for her. She said she would order them from me but I decided (without telling her) that they would be perfect Christmas gifts instead. Her apartment was decorated with bright fun greens, with black and white. She described such a fresh, clean color palette. She completed the look with her green plants and black outdoor furniture (but perfect indoors too!)...

You might remember these from my homemade Christmas post!

Just days (maybe even hours?) after posting about my homemade Christmas gifts, I had a message from my Aunt Terry. She saw the pillows I made for my sis-n-law, Julie, and said she had to have a set for herself!

So why green? 


In a world where everything moves extremely fast and is always changing, everything and everyone are connected, and so many colors, patterns, fabrics, aps, ads, you name it, are thrown in front of us...maybe we tend to fall back on what we know. Maybe we find comfort in the soft greens of Spring and the green of the grass we used to play and run around in on warm summer days. You remember those days, right?! I'm having flashbacks of chasing fireflies with my sisters. If we were lucky, we caught them. We held them tightly in our little hands, only releasing our grasp enough to peek in and watch their backsides glow that bright yellow-green.

The color green represents growth, nature, the outdoors...life. Why green? Why NOT green...

I think I may have talked myself into a new favorite color. :)

*UPDATE* A Homemade Christmas

Because we were halfway across the country from each other over the holidays, I wasn't able to give my mother-in-law, Leslye, her Christmas gift until this weekend. I had all intentions of making her a fun tote bag but changed my mind and was suddenly inspired to make her something I knew she would be able to use...an iPad cover! She and her husband, Don, like to go on adventures throughout the year so I knew a cute but also practical iPad cover would be perfect for her. I didn't want to ruin the surprise so I waited until now to share!

The fun polka dot and floral fabric:

The zigzag stitching detail:

The homemade covered button that matches the lining fabric:

And here's the final product...I was so thankful the iPad fit! :)

Hopefully Leslye will get a lot of use out of this cover. Not only will it protect her iPad but it will also add a little color and brightness to her day!

A Special Project for a Snowy Day

It took a couple years and a snow day to finally finish a project that is near and dear to my heart. A winter storm hit the northwest early yesterday morning and at about 7:30am my boss called to let me know we were not going to be open. The second I hung up the phone, I knew what I needed to accomplish. As soon as Erik left for work (he walked in the snow, poor guy!), I dove into the closet in search of my task for the day.

In a tiny bag, in the bottom of a huge storage tub, there was a special project I had started a few years ago and needed to finally complete. It wasn't just any random sewing project. It was something special, something sentimental...a teddy bear made out of patches of Erik's Dad's work shirts. His dad, Julian, passed away almost five years ago and as Christmas gifts one year, I made my mother-in-law and sister-in-law teddy bears out of his old shirts. I started Erik's but didn't finish in time for Christmas and continued to put it off.

With just a little bit of time and a whole lot of love...Erik finally has his bear.

Another snow day (or ICE day!) so we will see what I work on today...

My Craft Corner Evolution

When you live in a small space you have to make the most of every square inch. When you live in that same small space with your husband...you have to share every square inch. Thankfully, my husband doesn't seem to mind that I've claimed a corner of our dining area, including the dining table, as my own. Scraps of fabric, yarn, my sewing machine, my loom, multiple pairs of scissors, and everything else you might need can be found in my corner on any given day. Did I mention I'm somewhat of a fabric and craft supply hoarder? I'm pretty sure I get that from my mom. Her attic was like walking into craft heaven...or a Hobby Lobby.

Behind the piles of fabrics, thread, books, etc, there is one piece in my little corner that means the most to me- my floor loom. I spent most of college sitting behind a floor loom or around a printing table. If I had more space, maybe a garage or studio, I could set up a printing table but I always thought that owning my own loom would be too far out of reach. They can be extremely expensive and being young and a newly wed, I never thought I could justify spending so much on a hobby when there are student loans and rent to pay. I thought it was something I would only dream about. That is, until one very inspiring trip to the Seattle Art Museum. There was a special exhibit of local Native American art and artifacts and in a quite corner, there sat a very simple frame loom with a weaving still in progress. That was the only time I was ever excited to leave an art museum! I couldn't wait to get home to sketch up a plan. With my sketch in hand, Erik and I headed to the home improvement store to stock up on all the supplies we would need to build a simple frame loom. I never could have done this on my own...Erik not only supported me in my crazy creative idea, he actually built it for me. He even sanded and applied a clear coat finish on the wood.

Here are a couple photos of my very first loom:

There was a lot of problem solving when I actually started weaving on it. It was like learning to weave all over again. With the use of dowel rods, household twine, and a ruler, I was able to "Make it work!" (as Tim Gunn would say!)

Here's a close up of a scarf in progress:

Although my homemade, well 'Erik-made', loom will always be my favorite and closest to my heart, there were things I couldn't do on this loom that I would be able to do on a floor loom. I made a handful of beautiful scarves on this one but I was ready for an upgrade. I religiously searched Craigslist and surprisingly found a number of floor looms for sale...but unfortunately, many were way above my little budget.

Right when I thought my upgrade was out of reach, I found this:

 

Erik, again, was pulled into this adventure. Believe me, it was an adventure. I'll try to paint a quick picture of what we went through to pick this monster of a loom up-  the large part of the loom was strapped to the top of our Jeep during rush hour on one of the longest floating bridges in the world while an ambulance trying to pass. I should also mention that it started to rain AND Erik had to pee! It was crazy, but worth it! I made many rag rugs, scarves, even a baby blanket on this extra large loom. It took up so much room though and it still wasn't quite the set up I wanted. To help you relate- its like having a car that drives ok but it isn't that Audi or BMW you've always wanted. At least, that how I tried to make my case with Erik. :)

I held onto this loom for over a year and a half when one day this past November I decided to list it on Craigslist. I thought it would sit there forever but within 48 hours, Erik and I were loading it up to go to its new home. I never thought it would go that fast! I said a quick goodbye but I'll be honest with you, I had already moved on...

And finally, here is the new addition to my craft corner:

I haven't had time to set it up yet so the photos show it folded up. More photos of the loom and new projects to come soon!

This is the Audi of looms for me and its parked right there in my own corner...I don't think I'll need to upgrade for a while.

A Homemade Christmas

The presents have been opened and the wrapping paper and bows are long gone. The holidays are finally over. Now that the gifts have been given and I can no longer ruin the surprise, I can finally share what I've been working on this holiday season!

The past few years I've been obsessed with the homemade gift. My love for making things by hand and  supporting my fellow Etsy shops are two of many reasons my family and friends have received handmade goodies recently. I spent all of December sewing away at a few fun gifts for a few important people. I tell myself that waiting until December to make my gifts is not procrastination...I wait until last minute because I  work best under pressure! I think I know how Santa's elves feel...

My sister-in-law, Julie, mentioned she wanted pillows to match her bright green, black, and white color scheme in her cute little apartment. When I searched through my fabrics, I couldn't decide which patterns I liked best. My solution?  Use all of them! I pieced together stripes, dots, velvet, silk (just about everything) and here is what I came up with.

My Mom and sisters received huge (and I mean HUGE!) overnight bags. My favorite task is finding fabrics to fit each personality. My day job has enabled my fabric hoarding so I have a closet full of beautiful fabric to chose from.

 I'm a self-taught sewer and always want to improve so I chose a pattern that was a little outside of my comfort zone. The pattern is from an Amy Butler book and I have to say, I am proud of myself! I did a test run a couple months ago and enjoyed making it. By the time I was on the forth bag, I didn't need the instructions!

Here is the test run:

Here is my Mom's (who helped pick the fabric!):

My sister Jill's bag has a 'beachy' theme:

A finally my sister Rachel's bag, with a bright and bold lining:

I still have one more gift to give before I can post a pic. Check back soon to see what I made for my mother-in-law, Leslye!

If you like any of the bags or pillows you see, please let me know. Any of them can be customized for you...like I said before, I'm a borderline fabric hoarder so I have a variety of patterns and colors!

Coming soon....pics from a special New Year's Eve event I attended this year!