orange you glad

Here is something special that I made for my September Glitter and Grunge. I was over at Beverly's fabric, looking for who knows what! Oh yah, yarn!!



And stickers for my girl :) And I love looking through all of their fabric since they carry some of my favorite designers like Michael, Heather, and Amy.

And I have been in such an orange mood lately too!



When I'm thrifting for treasure:



When I'm working on a baby gift set:



And when I am looking for fabric:



And well, look for my mostly orange one-of-a-kind item on g&G on the first!

take a look around

Thanks Rebecca for the blog award. How fun!! Now I get to tell you about some of my favorite blogs! Most of them I talk about all the time, and I already have them on my blogroll. So, I thought I would tell you about a few more that I really like looking at. They are always great inspiration for me!

butt naked baby
everyday beauty
objects of affection
oliver and s
pretty little things
sweet peas and snapshots


And here are the rules for those of you (if you so choose to accept your award! :) who are nominated:

1. Add the logo of the award to your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.

3. Nominate at least 5 other blogs.

4. Add links to those blogs on your blog.

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

shopping

Now that my boys are back in school, it was time for me to catch up on some of my shopping! The girl and I went to see some of our favorite girls at The Tin Thimble. You know they are always an inspiration to me and this time was no different. I went there to buy some cute vintage Christmas fabric with poinsettias on it that I had seen before. I needed to make some Christmas stockings of course! But after talking with Sharon she helped me decide on some beautiful less traditional fabric.



I think I love them even more than I would have because the stockings turned out kind of fun and quirky! The fabric looks like stained glass, I think.

While there, Sharon also showed me some of her own most recent finds. And this one is beautiful!



It's all yo-yo's made using bark cloth. It's just in fabulous condition and the colors are all so beautiful. It would be really pretty in a post modern home, hung carefully on the wall like a piece of art.



And they also are selling my spec cases. Each made using vintage tablecloths. Nice, huh?

workin'

Here is a little bit of what I have been working on lately. I love it when I get to use some of my older fabrics and some of the fun newer ones too!

This should be updated to my etsy site by the end of the week.

[caption id="attachment_324" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="dia de los muertos"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_326" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="tot toys"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_327" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="vintage red poppy"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_328" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="vintage flowers"][/caption]

pillowcase challenge

I have some great news to share with you! Two of my katie jean creations are going to be published in an upcoming book from Lark books!! I am really excited about it and can hardly wait to see that it is real.



Claire, from Handmade Parade, was hosting a pillowcase challenge. Then Beth, from Lark, saw my fabric covered match box on the pillowcase challenge flickr group. She asked me to submit pictures of one, for their new book. So I made a nicer fabric covered box then the one on flickr (which looks really awful) and I also submitted some coasters. All made using thrifted vintage pillowcases.

Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase will be released in March 2009.

[caption id="attachment_317" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="part of my stash"][/caption]

welcome back

I went to Target today and spent too much there as always. But it was for a special cause...my kids go back to school next week! Can you hear the cheering and see the dancing. Picture me doing the hustle, or better yet, don't!

During the summer it goes by so slow and it is so hard to keep my kids off of each other. I always have so much planned to do but there is so much that doesn't get done. Calling those old friends to get together, going to SF museums, surprising daddy at work. These are all simple things, but they were missed.

So I thought I would (should) look at things positively and share some more of the things that we did do this summer.


Went to the Alameda Flea Market first Sunday in June.


Did some sewing with William. He picked out this fabric and it turned into a blanket for his dog. He also got a real big boy haircut.


Picking blackberries with the kids just before July 4th.


Finally getting some work done! yah!!


Getting to do a full day of thrifting. Orange was calling my name all day long!

And now that I am seeing the end of summer, I wonder where all the time went. It really did go by fast! Welcome back to school! I hope your kids are looking forward to it too!!

i'm home

You know I like to travel, right? Well did you know that my traveling is usually spur of the moment? That's what happened to me this time too. On Friday I bought my ticket. On Monday I bought William's ticket and on the following Friday we left for Massachusetts. I just came home yesterday in time for dinner.

My two sisters just moved to the east coast and one of them is in MA. And since my Uncle Paul just turned 70, off we went for ten days of fun. It turned into an unplanned family reunion. Mostly cousins, and my cousins kids. It was great to see them all and to visit the state where my dad grew up. I haven't been there for 14 years and it didn't seem that long ago, until I say it was 14 years, then it has been a long time.

Here is some of the great stuff that we saw and/or did:


The Louisa May Alcott house in Concord where she wrote "Little Women". This is a cute house. It even has some drawings on the walls that her sister made. Did you know this family was vegetarian?


Found some gardening inspiration there too.


Went to a really neat consignment shop in this building where I spent 50 cents. It was upstairs and we went up some really old worn out steps.


We just happened to walk by this large Irish Famine Memorial in Boston. Doesn't it look sad and painful.

I will be posting more pics to flickr of course. So keep an eye there for more. And thanks to everyone here at home for taking care of the rest of my family while I was gone. Especially my hubby who worked a few half days so he could take the kids to their swim lessons. A tough job!