Tuesday, June 28, 2011

An Entire Weekend of Inspiration

This weekend I spent with my parents camping in Massachusetts.  Not only was it a great and relaxing weekend, but it was a weekend of inspiration.  Just being in nature and looking at the way the trees grow and the water falls over a rock gives me so much to consider making.


This is one of the pictures I took of the water.  I love the way it blurred.  It almost looks like snow!

I hope to get working on some new projects in the next week.  So, stay tuned...and you should be seeing something with that dress from the other week soon...


What has inspired you lately?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A Fancy Bachelorette

Next month a friend of mine is getting married.  My sister is the Maid of Honor and asked me to create a fancy and fun sash and blusher for the bride-to-be.  So....I did!

There was one stipulation, the bride-to-be is going to wear a pink dress to her bachelorette party, and it needed to match.  Instead of doing the traditional wording on the sash, I had a bit more fun with it and decided to go with something that still says, "this is my party" without screaming "I'm a bachelorette."  Here is what resulted:


Here's a close up of the blusher...beads, fabric remnants, feathers, and sparkles...doesn't get much better!


And just to make sure that it fit the bride-to-be perfectly, I made a little pin so she can pin the sash together, and even pin it straight to her dress if necessary throughout the night of fun!


I hope she enjoys them and has a great time in the next few weeks as the best part approaches!!!!

Love you D.!!!!


What kinds of random crafty projects have you been asked to create?

Monday, June 13, 2011

A Great Week, Followed by a Great Project

The past week has been super amazing.  I spent the majority of it at the Costume Society of America's National Symposium.  It was up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the last day of the conference you could go on a post-symposium tour of your choice.  I decided to head to the vintage market in Boston's South End.  It was cold and dreary, but well worth it.

While at the vintage market, I found these fabulous 1940s dress patterns. 

 

I plan to make the two on the ends at some point in the future.  But the one in the middle...that one you will see sooner rather than later. 


 

Make sure and check back to see what becomes of this amazing red fabric, and beautiful pattern.




Do you have any fun and exciting projects in the works right now?

Monday, June 6, 2011

Naked Mole Rat...Gets Made

One of my nieces turns three this month and this year she received an Aunt Karen original :-)

We found this adorable book by Mo Willems entitled Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed and thought that the perfect way to complete the present was to make a Naked Mole Rat that my niece could dress while reading the story.

 
So, after shopping around for the perfect Naked Mole Rat materials (a very difficult task if I may say so!), I went off of Willems fabulously illustrated Naked Mole Rat...with a few personalized modifications...added a few inventive felt garments so Naked Mole Rat can "get dressed"...and arrived at:

 

I love how he turned out.  I think he managed to be so ugly that he's cute!  So, he can be casual in his pants and tie-dyed shirt, or professional in his suit with fun red tie.  I made one horrifying discovery, however, after taking these pictures and looking at the book....I forgot to give Naked Mole Rat a tail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yet, it is fairly quick and easy to fix...


 

The picture is a little blurry, but you can see the new tail, and you get a glimpse of the Midwest Nutmeg tags I made.


And, there is no way to spend an entire afternoon sewing without a little snack.  Vanilla and Lace put up this yummy recipe for peanut butter chocolate pretzels on her blog; to find it, go here.

 

I hope everyone had as happy and productive of a weekend as I did!!!



Have you created with inspiration from a book lately?