Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! I hope that you enjoy this day with your dads. My husband's company just moved to new digs so I wanted to make something fun. The kids and I brain stormed and put together this fun set of photographs. The kids are finally at an age where they may look at the camera at the same time if I let them go through all of their goofiness first. Hence, the first two photos in the series. We printed them out and framed them. Then, I wouldn't leave things alone so I made him some bookmarks too! Easy peasy. Add a batch of brownies and breakfast in bed. We were all set.

Seriously, enjoy your day with your dad, grandfather, uncle, ...

I miss you, Dad! Love, L

Spring Blossoms

We are enjoying the fresh spring weather. It's time to bring out the bicycles, scooters, and to freshen up the spring wardrobe. I was in Walmart yesterday and I saw this large group of jewelry findings for sale. I decided to have a little fun, bought  a few things and dug out a few things from my stash. I ended up making this necklace for about $13. 

Enjoy! xo, L

A Fairy Tale

A long, long time ago, there was a girl who was just starting out her quilt design career. She met a group of fine ladies at Quilt Connection and they helped her start her quilt design career. The co-owner, Lois Griffin, was [and still!] a funky soul and this girl hit it right off with Lois. 

Years later, the girl continued on with her design career and Lois too, moved on, and changed directions. The shop eventually closed and Lois started to create beautiful things herself. The two met up again for some shopping, for crafty goodness and for a lunch date with Alicia and Tricia.  The girl was inspired by her friend's talent.

Here's Lois in front of a beautiful quilt that was hanging in Pennington Quilt Works today. Now take a look at the GORGEOUS necklaces that Lois made from her own hand-dyed fabric and beads. She's starting a shop soon and I think that all of you need to buy yourself one of these absolutely magnificent pieces of art. 

Who needs to eat when one can oogle fine jewelry on the table?

Here's the girl trying on her favorite necklace. xo, L

Refresh

I think that my undeclared word of the year is refresh. My husband's wondered what's possessed me! I have been tossing things, making changes in my life and starting to do minor renovations. I'm even itching to move but that is not something that will happen soon. [You see, my theory in life that movement, motion or change is a great thing. I think that people need to get out and see things even on a daily basis. I also believe that moving every five years is a great idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen. My husband is warming up to the idea though!]

Instead, I have been refreshing things around here and going the renovation route.  I wanted to make something fresh and fun for the kids' room so I made this little stencil from Little A's photo. We have a lot of photos around but I wanted to put up something a bit more artsy.

After I made the stencil, I thought that it was too boring. I added turquoise. Did you know that turquoise is supposed to be the color of the year? I love turquoise!

It's spunkier, don't you think? I put it in a frame that I had around but I'm not sure that it will be the final one.

Sorry for the bad photo. I was just too darned excited when it was all put together!

There, this photo makes me feel so happy! Is anyone else feeling the same way? Let me know and let me know what you're doing about it! I think that it is going to be a fun year trying to freshen up our lives and surroundings. xo, L

Oh Deer!

After drooling over the photographs in my book yesterday, I found out that my friend Toby from Kindred Quilts is heading to Istanbul for the holidays. Jealous? No comment! Lucky girl!

Today was just one of those days where everything was off. We started with three phone calls from the school to tell us that there was going to be a delayed opening. [Note to self: I have to inform the school that I don't need three phone calls.] Then there was the storm and a doctor's appointment. Not fun but I still accomplished a lot.

I was wide awake by the end of the calling spree. What did I decide to do? I  designed a holiday card. Pop-up style, of course. It was fun to work out the details. I made the shape smaller and added a bit of color to add a lot of spunk to the design. What do you think?

I wanted to show you another card idea that I designed for Sew Sentimental . I made an ornament out of fabric transfer sheets and pinned it to a card. So easy and so adorable.

Did I ever tell you that greeting cards were my first crafty love? I had a greeting card design company, the paper gallery. So interesting how things come around again. xo, L

Playing With Fabric

I just received a small amount of Inspiration. Don't the rolls look so pretty? My head is spinning. What to do? What to make? Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I made this little linen pouch for Big A. He adores elephants so I made a little sketch but couldn't wrap my brain around transferring the design onto dark fabric [hey, it was late!] so I did it freehand.

Get your comments in now. I will be closing the entries tomorrow [Saturday] at 7 p.m. I know, such a long contest. I have had just too many things going on. Plus, I figured everyone was going away. Have a great July 4th weekend! For those of you on Facebook, see you there! I may pop in over the holidays. xo, L

It's A Bird, It's A Plane, ...

No, it's Mr. S!  At night, he's Batman, but by day, he's Mr. S, the Letter People Superhero. Batman can't smile or else the villains won't be scared of him but apparently, Mr. S is your neighborhood friendly hero. 

Have a great day to all who celebrate Letter People Day! xo, L

Miscellany

Here we are going into the last week of school. Whoo! Hoo! I am frantically making these fun crochet squares to make a pillow for our little friend, Isabella for her birthday party. The pattern is courtesy of Rose Hip. They're fun and addicting.

I've been making these little pouches for year end gifts. Fun too and so practical.

Here's a better pic of the hanging. When I took this photo, the rain was coming down hard this morning. Sun's peaking out a bit now. Yeah!

Big A wanted me to show you a couple of his zoo photos yesterday. You wouldn't think that it had poured buckets of rain while they were there.

Have a great weekend! I know that I will. A little birdie told me that I will get my hands on some of my Inspiration line soon. Very, very, soon. xo, L

Actual Proof

Proof that I am actually making stuff. I am making a superhero costume for Little A. They have a Letter People Day next week and he choose the letter 'S' because she is a superhero. I'll show you when the little superhero stops for a split second for a photo op.

Meanwhile, I've been obsessing with little details lately. I am loving zippers and button makers. See how simple it is to dress up a plain ol' pincusion? I had scraps of my 'Funky Flowers' fabric hanging around and decided that I needed a new pincushion. So fun and cute!

I made this little wall hanging [sorry for the bad photo. It has been awful here and getting a nice shot is near impossible.] for my Sew Sentimental book and the little ones to whom I give this hanging to love to store their little treasures in it. It is just a simple 9-patch sandwich with vinyl pockets sewn to various squares for pockets. I used scrapbooking supplies like rub-ons for the lettering and clips to attach a ribbon for hanging at the top.

Oh, I don't know if I ever announced this officially, but I do have an inspiration journal of photographs on my website. Just click My Journal on right sidebar. 

Off to sew my superhero a costume. xo, L

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm still here everyone! I had a few days of technological problems and then Big A was sick for a week. I am back and running. Little A made that clover leaf for all of "Mommy's nice readers".

I am working hard at wrapping up the new web site. It will still be a work in progress but it's fresh and I'm excited to show you!

In the meantime, I'm off to the Crayola Factory with the kindergarten class this morning.  It should be fun and loud!  

Come back tonight. I will have some quilt photos from the New Jersey show last week. They were gorgeous and the workmanship was outstanding. Can't wait to show you!

Look here! I made this large tote for spring. Isn't it fun? I put a pink fabric inside for the lining [lining is from my Funky Flowers line].

Will be back soon!

xo, L

Where, Oh Where Have I Been?

Well, I've been coughing up a storm with cold number "gumungus" [newly made up word by 5-year old scholar]. I didn't want to whine about another cold and scare away all of my readers.

So, I couldn't focus on much but I did manage to make this purse from a Quilter's Illustrated pattern. It was fast and fun. Plus, I needed a diversion so someone else's pattern suit the bill. Now, I need to buckle down and work on some designs of my own.

In the meantime, I made these little photo books. One was for my Mom because she wanted one of her grandkids. She wanted to be able to whip it out of her purse whenever she wanted to show them off to her friends. The other book was for our dear friend, Emily who moved away this past weekend.  I thought that an album of some of the photos that I have taken of her for the past few years would be a great gift. She loved it!

Here's the cover of the two books:

My nephew and Alex:

My boys:

Back to regular programming soon. xo, L

Still Here

I'm back and full well into 2009. I'm not so much for making resolutions but I always have a sense of renewal every year around this time. I go into a cleaning binge and try to de-clutter. I think that it comes from the fact that when I was young, we were always told to have the house clean by Chinese New Year.

We had a rough couple of weeks with a couple of health issues. One of the main ones was the presence of whooping cough in my 2nd graders' class. He was sick with a virus and didn't have the pertussis but he did sit diagonally from one of the classmates who had it. In the end he ended up with a three week vacation [2 over the holidays and an extra week off] and a week-long dose of antibiotics.

I spent some time crocheting. I'm self-taught and I don't think that I've ever really done any crochet except a few granny squares. Well, I ended up crocheting Mario and Luigi softies, starting a lacy crochet cell phone case and finishing this cool scarf. The pattern is actually just a stitch pattern called Queen Anne's Lace and it looks more difficult than it really is. I'll have the pics for the others soon enough.

Meanwhile, I am bracing for the cold spell that will hit the east coast by the end of the week. I hope that you've all had a fab start to the new year. Back soon. xo, L

Here Birdie, Birdie Bulletin

I made this bulletin board for my book The Modern Crafter - Home Stuff. I'll give you some tips for making your own using the Here, Birdie, Birdie bird from my free tote design. I've reduced the image to fit the block. You can find the template here.

First, you need to buy a 16" x 20" framed canvas [back of the frame shown below] from any crafts store. Glue a 16" x 20" piece of cork to the front of this framed canvas and let it dry. 

This is where all of your leftover batting will come in handy. Wrap a 18" x 22" piece of batting around and staple to the back of the frame.  Trim excess batting from the corners.

Sew the quilt top as per the directions in the pattern and center on the front of the board. Pull fabric to the back and staple. For a nice finish, staple a 16" x 20" piece of cardstock to the back of the frame.

xo, L

Aren't We Clever?

Today's Crafty Idea

I volunteered to make some decorations for our school library and as I was thinking about it all, I was told that the fire inspector is making the school take down the drapes. Oh no! I had grand plans to decorate with fabric.

I've seen a lot of retail establishments decorate with yarn balls lately and when I was in Philly, there was a pretty wreath hanging on the Starbuck's door. So, I ran down to Michael's to get some inspiration and supplies. My friend, Joanne, and I made these simple but adorable wreaths. [Thanks for your help!] Aren't they cute? They're easy to make too.

First, you wrap some 2 1/2" styrofoam balls with yarn. You don't need a lot. Just wrap it so that you don't see the white parts. Make sure that you rotate the ball around and start winding the yarn in different directions along the way or else you will get huge lumpy ends.

Glue the ornaments and yarn balls onto this cardboard floral ring. We alternated the ornaments with the yarn balls. You will need 6 each of the yarn balls and the ornaments. Let dry and then hang the wreath with a ribbon. Tune in again for another quick idea.

Here's some more Philadelphia. As we were walking along South Street, we kept seeing ceramic mosaics on walls of buildings along the way. At the end of the displays, it was like discovering the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The Magic Garden is so wonderful.

Here's Jess outside the place. It is like a garden mosaic that takes up a little lot of land.

We didn't have enough time to enter the place but you can take a peek through the gates. There's a lovely path that takes you through the garden.

This is the view of the garden from across the street. You'd enter at the doorway shown at the bottom left of the photo.

See you soon. xo, L