Craftstravaganza!

I can't believe it's time! We have so much to do before the big day! Pack, label, signs, sewing,and the list goes on...

Come visit us, along with more 70 other talented artists at the 6th annual Craftstravaganza 

at the State Fairgrounds - Fine Arts Building - Saturday April 30.

Hope to see you there!

The Farm

Last weekend when we were "up North" we visited my dad. He has a big heart for animals and has opened his home to many creatures that needed a home. Horses (big and small), doggies, kitties, geese, goats, chickens, cows, donkeys, did I miss anyone? It's become a "retirement home" for the furry and feathered friends.

I appreciate the opportunities and conveniences we have by living in the city, but there is definitely a part of me that would love to have a little farm with lots of furry friends.

Spring Flowers for Easter

Last weekend we traveled "up North" to visit Country Mouse. We also helped move my grandma from her lake home into an apartment. She has so many memories packed into boxes and of course several of those boxes came home with me. More treasures for me. I could tell she was a bit sad, this will be a change for her. It was just too difficult for her to keep up with the work of having a house and yard, yet she really enjoyed being on the lake.

Country Mouse made a tasty egg dish for all of us Sunday morning before we headed back to the city and set the table all nice and pretty. It was a wonderful weekend. Friends. Family. Sunshine (part of the time...we're trying to forget about the snow on Friday night).

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, friends! We hope you celebrate earth day today and are nice to the earth not only today, but every day. In honor of this special day Country Mouse and I have included a little collection of earth inspired and repurposed finds for you:

clockwise: Things I'm Thankful For,  Northshore Waves - metalwork earrings, Chalkboard Horse, Screen Printed Reusable Organic Cotton Produce Bags, Vintage Replogle World Nation Globe

And a few more earth day links for you:

- Winners of the Art of ReUSE contest

- Ideas for some Earth friendly activities

- Tips to lower your waste at home
- Click here for more ideas and to pledge an act of green 

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter!

Bird Watchers

Yep, that's us. My husband and I set up two bird feeders the other weekend and we can't stop watching the birds. I'll be making dinner and he'll say, whoa - what's that? And I have to stop what I'm doing, walk over and then we try to identify the bird. We both have a degree in Wildlife Biology and had to take Ornithology, which was one of my most favorite courses - lots of walking outside looking and listening for birds.

We cleaned out our storage area under the stairs this past weekend and one of the boxes contained my binders from college. I ended up recycling a lot of papers (I'm never going to need to go back to Finite Math or Short Calculus, at least I hope not!) but I kept my bird notes out and am going to refresh my memory. It's become a competition in our house, who can identify the bird first and I don't like to lose.

Above is a picture of us on my husband's birthday a few weeks ago. See the bird feeder in the background? I thought it went with this post and one of my goals this year is to take more pictures of my friends and family. I have no problem taking tons of photos of the furry ones or the sewing room but I totally neglect taking photos of people. Don't worry, I'm not going to post a bunch of photos of my husband and I here, but I just wanted to document his 31st birthday with the one picture of us I took that day. He's not into posing for pictures, but that's one of the things I have to get better at - just pulling out the camera and snapping one whether he wants his picture taken or not, someday he'll thank me right?

And isn't this one of the most stylish bird feeders? It's by Studio Liscious in case you are looking to feed your birdies this Spring :)

Ikea Shelving in my Sewing Room

My helpers worked hard this weekend! Well, more accurately my husband did. The furry ones just watched us and sniffed boxes for the most part. But they did their job in being cute at all times.

I returned home from a successful Ikea trip Friday night with a trunk full of projects to keep us busy for most of Saturday. We installed shelving, put together a drawer unit, and a wire basket on rollers.  I'm using the drawer unit for all of my little packaging items, tissue paper, ribbon, etc.  I want to spend more time arranging the items on my shelves, but just needed to get things in order for now.  I love arranging things by color, just ask anyone who has ever seen my closet, I'm a little bit OCD when it comes to those things. So that's my plan with the items on the shelves, to arrange by color so it's easy for me to see what I have to work with when packing our orders and photographing our items. 

I must say that I really appreciate how patient my husband is with me and my ikea shopping. He stays really calm when assembling everything and doesn't get too grumpy when things don't go together quite as they should :) I think everyone needs a calm partner when assembling furniture. Hope you had a fantastic weekend and your week is off to a great start!


ps...head over to the Polka Dot Bungalow to enter to win an ironing board cover from our shop!

Decorate this weekend!

It's the weekend!!! I'm so happy because my copy of Decorate just arrived and there is nothing I would rather do than spend time with it this weekend! Decorate is written by Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick with photography by Debi Treloar. It's packed full of inspiration and ideas to help you decorate, no matter what your style or budget may be.

I've followed Holly's journey as she has gone through the process of writing the book and know that it's her dream come true, so it's very exciting to see the final product. Country Mouse and I usually share books between each other, but this is going to be one that we both want on our shelves! 

One of the things Holly always recommends is keeping a mood board for your rooms. This would include things like paint chips, fabrics, tear outs from magazines, etc. So I've pulled mine out and am going to work on those as well.  

 

What about you? Do you have anything fun planned? I think I may try to sneak in a weekend trip to ikea as well :) Have a good one!

Puppy Dog Eyes

Can you please stop messing with that noisy machine and take us out to play???

They sit here, anxiously waiting to go outside and play as I walk back and forth from the table to the sewing machine. Every time I glance their way, they give me those eyes. Don't you pups know we have two craft shows coming up in a few short weeks?!

Sample Sale - Mother's Day Gift Sets!

 

We're offering a few sets of samples we created when we developed our sewing patterns. Aprons, craft carrying cases, tape measures, and scissors sleeves would make a lovely Mother's Day gift. Just add a pair of scissors, her favorite sewing book, or magazine and you have a lovely gift set!  Sets are available in the shop now!

Chair Stealing

 I leave my chair for one minute and look what happens!