Thank You and Happy Friday!

Thank you everyone who commented and read our Crafty Holiday post this week! I heard from several of the shops we featured and they said they had increased shoppers from our blog post! Thank you again for supporting handmade, it is truly appreciated, now let's do the happy dance because it's FRIDAY! 

What are you up to this weekend? My husband and I are going to be cleaning and planning for Thanksgiving. We may have 15 guests at our house! It should be interesting to say the least :) But first my brother-in-law returns from the army next Thursday and will be staying with us for several weeks. We need to get the extra bedroom ready for him and my new sewing area will be right outside of his room so I'll have to put that project on hold until after he leaves. I don't think he would appreciate the hum of the sewing machine outside of his room when he is trying to sleep! I'll keep sewing in my current cramped quarters because No Coast Craft-o-Rama is only a few short weeks away! 

And just in case you didn't see on Facebook, we had two interviews posted this week. One with Melanie from Modern Organic Fabrics and the other with Polly Danger with a giveaway!

Anything exciting on your weekend agenda? Hope it's a great one! xoxo, Jamie

A Crafty Holiday

Hello friends, can you believe it's already November and time to start thinking about gifts?! I tend to get a little stressy searching for the "perfect" gift for each person (and doggie!) on my list. The perfect gift shows that you truly thought about the person and that you think they are pretty darn special, right? 

I started thinking about the gifts I've received or given in the past and I can't remember a lot of them! I feel awful admitting that, but here's the truth...I remember almost every handmade gift I received, even from when I was little. The stuffed animals Country Mouse made me (as well as a big unicorn she surprised me with from a craft show one Christmas), sweaters and mittens from my grandma, photo collages from my friends... 

This year instead of searching department stores, Country Mouse and I along with a group of bloggers are vowing to support handmade. By supporting handmade you are sure to find a unique and meaningful gift as well as support real people in our community. 

Our friend Angela from The Artists' House (we met at the Creative Connection Event this Fall) is hosting a Crafty Holiday blog hop. If you follow along, you are sure to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Would you like to see my list so far?

1. Dog Collar Flowers by Mimi Green
our pups love to be stylish!
2. Antler Dog Chew by Antler Pantry 
better to chew on one of these than my shoes!
3. Blue Wool Capelet by BugDuds
my little Cricket would look so cute in this!
4. Pet ID tags by Make Your Dog Smile 
just in case the pups get lost!

 1. Soapy Sewing Kit by Love Lee Soaps 
fun soaps for the kiddos!
2. Printable Paper Calendar by Little Paper Dog 
 personalize it by writing in special dates for each recipient!
3. Fingerless Gloves by Skylark Dawn 
these were a hit last year for Country Mouse!
4. Tall Ship Wood Block Print by Wayfaring Art
  for those with a fascination for ships and pirates!

I'm taking over what used to be the "man" room in our house, 
it will now be my sewing room and I'd love to see all of these in my new space...


1. Cloudy Hand Embroidered Wool Felt Pincushion by Sea Pinks

2. Crest Mod Cabin Wall Clock by Nice

3. Neck and Shoulder Wrap by Home Grown Pillows

4. Ruffled Camera Strap by Eclectic Whatnot

Everything on my list is found on Etsy which is a wealth of handmade goodness. You can find gifts from artist all over the world! If you prefer to shop local you can even search for shops in your area.

Rather than fight the crowds at the mall, check out your local craft fairs. If you are in the Twin Cities area here are a few upcoming events you should check out:

November 13th 9am - 2pm Nokomis Urban Craft Fair

November 20th 9am - 4pm North Branch Arts Fest

December 3 (3pm - 8pm) Dec 4 (9am - 5pm) No Coast Craft-o-Rama 

(we will have a booth here!)

Hope you're inspired to start your shopping! The next stop for A Crafty Holiday is Prim and Propah. 

Happy shopping!  

Sweater Pillow Tutorial

I came across some cozy sweater pillows while shopping the other weekend and wanted to bring them home with me. I like to change the covers on my pillows quite often so I don't like to spend a lot of money on them (especially when we have a sewing room full of fabrics available!). 

So the other weekend when Country Mouse and I got together we tried making our own and loved how they turned out.

We thought we'd share with you how we made our own sweater pillows. It's the perfect way to recycle some of those sweaters that have been taking up room in your closet since last season (you know you have some!). And a quick project - you can probably finish one in less than an hour.

Materials/Supplies (for an 18" x 18" pillow):

• One old sweater (a cableknit makes a beautiful cover, but if you only have a plain one you can hand sew some kind of embellishment to it at the end like we did with the blue sweater)
• 18” x 18” Muslin or any cotton fabric for backing your sweater piece
• 25” x 18” fabric piece for your envelope backing
• One 18” x 18”pillow form
• Thread
• Sewing machine
• Walking Foot (helpful, but not absolutely necessary)

Instructions:

1.Determine what part of your sweater you wish to use for your pillow front. Be sure you are able to cut it the size of your pillow form! Cut out an 18” x 18” square.

2. Cut from the muslin one 18" x 18" square. From your fabric for the pillow back, cut two 12 1/2" x 18" rectangles.

3. Pin the sweater piece right side up onto the muslin and stitch ¼” seam around all four sides.

4. Take one of the rectangles you cut and fold over ½” along the long edge and press Fold over another ½”, press and pin in place. Stitch down the fold, sewing about 1/4" in from the folded edge. Repeat with the second rectangle. 

5. Lay the 18" square right-side up, then place the rectangles right-side down on top of the square with the folded and stitched edges overlapping in the middle. Pin around all edges.

6. Sew around all edges of the pillow with a 3/8" seam allowance.

7. Turn the pillow cover right side out, push out corners. Insert your pillow form and get cozy! 

Fall Shop Updates

We finished sewing new sets of aprons, towels, and oven mitts for the shop incorporating some of our finds from treasure hunting sales and fall colors. The photo above is a collage of some of the new fabrics and fall color inspiration. I'm trying to put together a little collage of fabrics and textures each time we create a new line of shop items (hoping to do this each season!)

We're also working on a monthly (or seasonal) newsletter - see the sign up on the right side of the blog - which will include news and special discounts for our etsy shop. We'd love for you to sign up!

This past weekend was unseasonably warm and sunny for us. I took full advantage of the sunshine and had a lot of fun playing stylist and photographing the new aprons, towels, and oven mitts. 

I did make time to reconnect with some college friends who I had not been in touch with for several years. We became close after spending nearly a month in Michigan together for a summer field course for our Fisheries and Wildlife degree. It was so much fun to catch up and find out what everyone is up to, it's quite funny that none of us are working in the field of our major! But that's ok, we agreed that we loved learning to identify birds by their songs and to recite scientific names (always a popular topic at a party, right?). I think that's why the little butterfly made it into the shop pictures, I was reminiscing of plant identification and life cycles. 

Funny how that happens, isn't it?

I hope your week is off to a great start! 

Thanks for stopping by, Jamie

Bayfield Apple Festival

This past weekend Country Mouse and I made it to Bayfield for the Apple Festival. Even though the forecast said it was going to be sunny by noontime, it was rainy most of the day. But there was still much to be enjoyed...

Fall Colors! We spotted an estate sale on the way to Bayfield and made sure to make a stop on the trip home, lots of good stuff came home with us including doilies, linens and a miniature dollhouse sewing room.

Lunch: curried chicken sandwich, apple squash soup (I'm going to try making this one) 

and honeybee lattes

Wine! Yes, we brought home apples too :)

And the beautiful Lake Superior

After the trip to Bayfield we spent the rest of the weekend in the sewing room with our fabric and goodies from the estate sale. I hope to get photos of all of our new creations this weekend and have a shop update next week. 

How about you, have you been enjoying Fall?