Butter Fingers

Well, I had hoped to bring you pictures of the lace top I'm knitting or maybe an update on that scrap blanket I was working or or maybe even pictures of my new haircut (about 5 inches off!)...but in the process of taking some blog pictures, I dropped my camera on the ceramic tile floor. Below is not my camera (obviously it was be hard to take a picture of my broken camera with the broken camera), but it's a pretty good representation of what mine looks like. I'm not sure what this all means for the near future of my blog given that I don't see a new camera coming home soon (we take FOREVER to make decisions around here). But, I'll do my best to do some highlights of blogs I like, Etsy stores I enjoy, and overall random crafts on the Web. Bear with me. And now a moment of silence for broken camera. R.I.P

Shoe Break!

It was like Christmas here the other day! I had found some great deals on shoes through a store on eBay, and they all arrived on the same day. Did I need all 3 pairs? No, of course not. But I got an extremely good deal...and they were all in my size! With size 11 feet, you don't know what that means!

Lookie how cute they all are. So sweet and wonderful. Welcome to my closet, ladies. I can't wait to wear you all!

See...just like the good parts of Christmas. Boxes, paper, and happy stuff everywhere!

Craft Room Chair Makeover

Now that I have an actual sewing table, it was due time for a chair to go with it. I had been just lugging a dining room chair in, but that gets old.

I found this chair at Goodwill for $4. It's comfortable to sit in and very sturdy, but the denim seat cover was grossing me out.

I found some pretty upholstery fabric at JoAnn's to recover it. It would've been a simple project had my staple gun not been such a jerkoff, but overall, I'm very happy with the results.

And for my the sake of my physical therapist (well, really, my aching lower back), I used the leftover fabric to make a little lumbar pillow. It's only attached with Velcro at the moment, but I'm looking for a more permanent solution.

Another Bully

Remember all my big ideas for what to put over the bed? Decals? Painted hoops? Others that I can't even recall? Well, let's just say I never got around to those. I had the day off last Thursday, so I decided it was finally time to do something with big plain white wall. Come hell or high water, I was bound and determined. I spent hours scouring resale shops looking for something "blah" that I could turn into something "wow." And just when I was about to give up, I found a 3-foot square frame in white, just sitting hidden in the corner of this huge resale warehouse. I had no idea what I would put into it, but for $2.50, I couldn't pass it up.

When I got it home, I considered framing a piece of fabric or even just a cool piece of scrapbook paper. But really, I had no clue.

I was surprised to find all these messages on the matte when I opened up the frame. From what I can gather from the little notes, a teacher was leaving and the students were saying good-bye.

Shane said we should put a picture of a bulldog in there, and then it dawned on me. I had ripped out the above picture from W magazine months ago for the very reason of one day framing it. However, it had completely slipped my mind. The picture, which is of Angelina Jolie's legs and her bulldog and was taken by Brad Pitt, fit perfectly. I framed the outside of the picture with some scrapbook paper I bought months ago (also for use in the bedroom).

I wasn't planning on painting the frame at all, but the white on white on white, was too much, well, white. So I spray painted it orange to match the quilt. I threw yesterday's bully pillow on the bed and called it a day.

Embroidered Bully

I'm sort of ashamed to say that I've never really embroidered anything. I've always loved the look of it, but just never really got around to giving it a try. I cross-stitched a little when I was a kid, but I never really stuck with it. But then after looking at sites like Feeling Stitchy and Sublime Stitching, a magnetic force seems to be pulling me toward stitching.

So I did a little bulldog pillow in honor of the bulldog Shane and I will someday have.

I found a photograph of a bulldog on Flickr, and traced the outline onto wax paper. I made a few drawing adjustments to make her look super cute and kind of silly.

I then used double-stick tape around the edges (the part not drawn on) to attach the outline to my fabric. I layered my fabric on a piece of leftover quilt batting and then put them both in my embroidery hoop.

Then I just backstiched all the way around her. I used three different colors of embroidery floss: a light blue for the body, a black-blue color for the face features, and a coral for the floppy, sloppy tongue.

When I was done, I carefully peeled the wax paper off. I used tweezers to pull out the parts that got trapped under my stitches. It's not as time consuming or tedious as you'd think.

And there she is, all done. I sewed some fabric to the back, did a light stuffing, and threw the little pillow on my bed. It was lots of fun and didn't cost more than $2 since I had everything but the hoop. Now I can't wait to do more of it!

Happy Fourth!

Some very good advice to remember for today's festivities!

Drunken Tags available in Farouche's Etsy shop.

Ignore this: 96i8udt3xs

Baby Moose's Church Outfit

Knowing how to knit really comes in handy when you have umpteen-million friends having babies. However, when those babies are primarily being born in the summer, knowing what to knit is not very easy. It's usually then complicated further when the parents wait to find out the sex. So I thank Miss Shelley immensely for finding out she's having a boy! It made knitting for her July baby SO much easier! Plus, she goes to church, so I knew I could dress that baby up a bit.

A sweet little cabled vest and bow tie. The buttons at the top are functional.

Daddy Reed is a lawyer and wears bow ties all the time. It seemed fitting that his first born son should have a baby version. I didn't have a pattern for this, and really had no clue either. So I basically just sewed a rectangle and then a little strip to go around the middle. I fastened a clip-on earring to the back, because I didn't want to be held responsible for anything being too tight around the baby's neck!

The code name for Baby Boy Cornia is "Moose." I found a little moose button and sewed it to the bottom much like Abercrombie does with their appliques.

A baby tweet card to go along with the gift.