i worked up this little chevron striped quilt for my niece.  i have only made one other quilt before, so it's definitely got its flaws... but i enjoyed making it, and i think it turned out pretty well.

i made this little dress for my midwife's baby that is on it's way.  when i finished it, i showed paul and asked him what he thought.  he hesitated for quite awhile and then said carefully, "is that for hudson (our baby)?"  when i told him it was a dress, he let out a little sigh of relief and gave his stamp of approval.

i finished one for my new little niece, evie, as well...

 i made a new necklace design for my etsy shop.  want one?  stop by my store...

so, i'm back... maybe!  i have been crafting some and have taken pictures of my projects, but my last step of blogging has not been happening lately!  i did look at my august list i posted on here and was cracking up... here are my results:

august goals:

• write at least one more blog post (completed)
• finish dresses for my upcoming niece spawn, evie (finished one out of three)
• read a book... any book that is not about birthing, breastfeeding, or babies!  (did it, did it!)
• scrabble wall art  (i cut the wood out... that counts for something right?)
• geometric painting (done done done!)
• cook a couple of meals (more than a couple)
• trim the bushes...  (yeah.... still didn't do this... and they are looking pretty bad....)

but i have done some other things since then too, and i am scheduling them in for upcoming posts, i'm writing them all today so there are some guaranteed posts coming up!  here's what i have actually done crafty wise:

• made two paintings
• finished evie's quilt
• made a baby blanket
• did some applique on a onesie
• made two baby dresses
• made a necklace
• and filled tons of orders for my etsy shop

i also set myself some goals to help me out.

• spend way less time on facebook
• work on one, and only one, project at a time so my house doesn't get so trashy
• hire someone to clean my house

we'll see how october and november go!  more posts to come!

i have been seeing some great stuff on etsy lately, so i'm saving my nickels and dimes for:

this lovely ring:

this print:

and this necklace:

oh, and if i didn't know that i would just kill them, i would want these sweet plants:

i also have been salivating over everything in this shop:

i was really hoping i'd be able to do at least one post a week post-childbirth, but i do not think that is going to be happening for awhile!  july flew by and here we are in august.  i have started some crafts, written down some craft ideas, but have finished very few crafts this month!  however, i have really enjoyed my time at home with my new little critter and i am headed back to work on monday, so we'll see how life's balance continues!

i did see this great set of alphabet rocks on etsy, so i made a less fancy set for my friend's son.  i think they are pretty cool, and i'm thinking a boy might like to learn the alphabet with rocks, right?

 august goals:

• write at least one more blog post
• finish dresses for my upcoming niece spawn, evie
• read a book... any book that is not about birthing, breastfeeding, or babies!
• scrabble wall art
• geometric painting
• cook a couple of meals
• trim the bushes...

 

when my brother and sister-in-law were here visiting over 4th of july weekend, becki and i each made mobiles for our babies.  i had seen a similar one to this on etsy and liked the idea of using paper circles.  we set off to cutting out tons of circles and sewing them onto ribbon.  i just got it hung up yesterday, and i used a plant hanger to mount it...  i think it turned out pretty well and it felt good to accomplish something crafty.  i mounted it with my cordless drill and the baby strapped onto my chest in a moby wrap, it felt funny to use a power tool while holding a baby...

well, i took a look at my ambitious list for june... i had written it thinking my baby might come late, so i wanted plenty to do to keep my mind off things.  so that list kind of flopped!  but here's what i did do from my list:

1.  made a blanket for my incoming (or outcoming?) niece, evie.

2.  made the quilt top for evie that matches her room,  but the quilt back and binding has not been started (and i don't even have the fabric for it yet)

3.  read the shack... my opinion?  eh. 

4.  birthed a happy, healthy child in the comfort of my home.  he came a week early, which is why i didn't get most of these projects anywhere near done... not that i would have finished them all in a week...

welcome to the world, hudson!

dear july,
i hope to survive you and enjoy you, even with minimum amounts of sleep.  if i manage to make something, i will feel an extreme sense of accomplishment.  i'm not making you any promises. 
good night,
alyssa

if i had $675 to drop on a lamp, i'd snatch up this handmade beauty:

love. 

it's the end of may... i really did not do a whole lot of crafting this month!  i did a lot of resting and a lot of working, but other than that, i have been a bit out of the loop with making things.  but i have some big plans for june.  i found out my brother and his wife are having a girl (evangeline) due in october, so now i can start making things for her.  i have some things in the works.  and i need some things to keep myself distracted while i'm waiting for this little baby to decide to pop out.  here are some of my goals for june:

to make:

*a blanket of this style- i've made several like it before because they are so quick and easy, but soft and pretty.  i love making them in bright colors like this one.

*a zig-zag quilt from this tutorial that my friend, sarah, showed me- i want to make it bigger and in the colors of evie's nursery

*a pinafore dress- i absolutely love these and love that they can be a dress for a little one, but a top as your kiddo gets bigger.  and they can be reversible!  even better.  here is a pattern for one that i'm going to use.

*i also bought some fabric to make one of these pillowcase dresses for the charity Dress a Girl Around the World.  here is a tutorial if you want to make one too, but they are really simple, if you sew, you probably don't need a pattern for these.  below is a picture of one made by one of my favorite sewing bloggers, emmyloubeedoo.  i first heard about this charity on her blog.

*make a good stock of my vintage beaded necklaces so i can continue shipping them out quickly once i have a little creature needing attention.

to read:
*a little history of the world by e. h. gombrich
*the shack by william p. young (so i can finally give it back to my dad when he comes next month)
*jane eyre by charlotte bronte (off the 100 books to read before you die list that i saw on sunday morning sugar)
*the stack of magazines sitting on the floor by my favorite chair

alright, now that it's in print, maybe i'll be more likely to get this stuff done.  the whole reason i blog is to keep myself motivated, so i'll let ya know what happens!


 

one of the many reasons i love living in arizona is the availablity of cheap and delicious produce.  paul and i made our bimonthly (or so) trip to the fruit store in mesa today and loaded up a cart full.  it is always such a steal there and i always talk it up to my friends, but wanted to show just how good of a deal it is... here's our spread from today:

• five ears of corn
• seven mangos
• rhubarb
• five pounds of bananas
• two large watermelons
• five long green chiles
• cilantro
• a yellow squash
• asparagus
• a sweet potato
• five quarts of strawberries
• a cantaloupe
• two pints of blackberries
• a pound of roma tomatoes
• ten jalapenos
• four pounds of oranges

are you ready for the grand total?  $20.88

love it.  as soon as this picture was taken paul stopped hovering behind me and devoured a mango.  i consumed a pint of blackberries.  yum...

very little crafting has been going on lately, but i'm trying to work up the energy!  paul's mom had a birthday last week, so i made her a necklace/bracelet.  i tried to channel her love of turquoise (like mine).  hope she likes it!  it's up for sale in my etsy shop as well if you want one of your own.  i think i'm going to make one for myself someday...

it's really a good thing i finished my ten projects when i did because a sense of sheer exhaustion has taken me over the last week or so since i finished!  i don't know what would have happened if i had waited any longer.  i am 33 weeks now and apparently that's when the life starts getting sucked out of you again!

needless to say, i haven't crafted this week at all.  so here are some things i've gazed at on etsy instead that are catching my eye. 

i am loving these prints by januaryjones.  i would love it if she made a world one where i could put little red heart stickers on the places i've visited.

 

the tree hugger in me loves that every lovely thing at colorstory designs is made from recycled magazines. 

 

any great finds for you lately?

project 10

10 projects in 20 days challenge:

i'm done.  i did it!  so what if i started out planning to do all this in a mere 12 days.  i'm pregnant and working, and yes, i'm going to pull both of those cards now to justify my use of time.  there were truly a few days were i just couldn't face raising a finger after i got home from work.  but i managed to get 10 rather involved projects completed this month, so i still think that's pretty good.

my last project had been looming over me.  i saw this beauty long ago (somewhere, didn't keep the link, sorry!) and loved the idea and colors... but this person used canvas (expensive) and a $40ish set of vinyl decals.  not in my non-existent decorating budget...

i'm sure vinyl would have made my project much easier, but i figured, i can cut paper, right?  and although today i can barely straighten my finger from exacto knifing for so long, i found that i can in fact cut paper pretty well.

i had the perfect spot in mind, over my bed, so i got a long piece of wood cut to size ($5), grabbed a couple bottles of acrylic paint ($1.50 each), and got to work.

i sanded and painted the board with the green of my choice, then started in on the hard part.

for the flowers, i sketched out some flowers on the back of the paper using ideas from the above picture and from searching for other vinyl flower decals online. 

then i spent a whole lot of time cutting all of them out with my trusty exacto knife.

i flipped them over to get rid of the pen marks and laid them out on the board.  i would have liked to have more flowers and more dimension like the original project i saw, but by the time i got this far, i just couldn't face cutting out any more!  and there is my dog involved as usual.... she kept walking across the board just when i'd get the paper laid out like i wanted...

i glued them down with just a glue stick and am thinking i want to find something to spray on to seal it, but i don't want to change the texture.... any tips?

i'm going to add picture wire to the back and mount it, so once i have it up, i will have our bedroom finished!  i'll post pictures once it is in it's new home.

project 9

10 projects in 20 days challenge:

i had originally put on my list that i wanted to get those last three boxes unpacked from our move almost a year ago... you know how some boxes end up with just your random junk thrown in when you just have a few things left to pack up?  three junk boxes in closets for a year, time to be purged.  except there turned out to be a lot more than three hiding out....

there were a total of 7 boxes of junk...  holy pack rats!  but now they are empty and that is what matters!  note the furry helper present in my pictures.  she can't miss the action.

my last two projects are finished, well, technically i am finishing the last one right now, but it will be done before the night is over. and since it is night 20 that means i met my goal! and i already had the ice cream to celebrate it, just because it also happened to be 31 cents a scoop night at baskin robbins. my friend, sarah, always knows about these types of deals and clued me in! tomorrow i'll get both projects posted, one is a tricky, time consuming tutorial, but is turning out great!

also, my shop, and specifically my copper coil earrings, were reviewed in a vlog at writrams.com, a great blog that makes me laugh out loud about the crazy things that happen to her.  she is doing a giveaway of a necklace or earrings of your choice, so hop over to her blog and sign up!

see you tomorrow with my last two projects!

project 8

10 projects in 20 days challenge:

this project wasn't on my list either... but i have etsy loved it for so long here at and furthermore.  sadly for that shop owner, i am too cheap and decided to go forth and create my own.  i won a bid for three plastic doilies on ebay and they came this week, so i just had had had to make it and hang it up right away.  and it only took me a few minutes to stick together!

ta da!  a long loved doily clock, all of my own.  and for cheap.

project 7

10 projects in 20 days challenge:

this project actually wasn't on my list, but it has been in my head for a long time and i was in the mood for it this weekend!  when we went to paris last year, i had been wanting to find eiffel tower art that i liked, but hadn't found anything that i liked or was in my price range.  so i found a vinyl eiffel tower cut-out and decided to make my own piece of art.  i think it turned out great!  you could use this eiffel tower art tutorial with any vinyl cutout...

you need:
a light color paint
a top color paint
vinyl cutout
1/4" plywood cut to the size you need
nuts
screws
washers
drill
sander


i bought a piece of 1/4" thick plywood and cut it to a size just larger than my vinyl piece.

i sanded both sides and edges down to smooth them out and then put on a thin coat of off white paint.  i didn't worry too much about getting great coverage because this is just an undercoat to peak through in the areas i distress.

after it was completely dry, i put on my top color.  i had a really hard time finding the shade of green i wanted, so i lightly mixed two shades.  i didn't mix them completely to give a little bit of a streaky depth to it.  

after this coat was dry, i took my sander and it the edges and corners to rough them up a bit.  i also went over the whole top to tone it down a little and bring a little of the white through in a few areas.

the next step was a two person job, i measured out where i wanted the vinyl piece placed, and then paul helped me lay it on the wood straight and smooth it down.

 

 i drilled holes in all four corners for the mounting.

then i used self drilling screws, nuts, and washers for the mount.  the nuts went behind the picture to give it some space between the wall and the picture.

i wanted an exposed hardware look and for it to float on the wall, so i used the washers, nuts and bolts to mount the picture (another two person job).

here is a shot so you can see the space left behind by the nuts, i liked this extra touch!

pretty simple and you could use any cut out of vinyl you want.  i wish i had one of those fancy vinyl cutters so i could make more!

project 6

10 projects in 20 days challenge:

this weekend i worked my little tail off cleaning and cleaning and cleaning our house.  and i spent a large chunk of time in my craft room on one of the projects on my list: cleaning it the heck up.  it still has a couple piles because there are projects in the works that i didn't want to totally put away and forget about, but it is a huge, huge improvement!

before

after

before

after

all done!  i have a fun tutorial for my next project that i'll post tomorrow!