Fancy Towels

I recently finished roman shades for the bathroom and I had a little bit of fabric left over so I decided to buy some hand towels and sew the extra fabric on to them.


I washed the towels and fabric before I did the project, but I didn't wash the trim. I hope it doesn't fray when I wash the towels. I tried using fray check, but it didn't seem to help much. Hopefully they will hold up. I don't want to end up hand washing these.

Happy Mother's Day

I started working a couple days a week at an incredible florist called Robin Wood Flowers. She has beautiful flowers and the arrangements are wonderful!

This past Friday I got to make my first floral arrangement ever. I was so excited because I love peonies and they are in season right now. It was also perfect timing for Mother's Day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!

Roman Shade Solution

So I think this is my solution to the fabric dilema. I am going to cut two bands of the Robert Allen fabric and piece them against an ivory background. This will solve the problem of being too stripey. I hope it works.

I will make one and if it doesn't look good I will just go with the vertical stripes. I am excited about doing a nice tassel beneath the bands of fabric. Oooooooooooooooh, the possibilites!

Canada Geese

When the wind blows
The creak of the fence
Sounds like far away geese

Fabric Dilema

Right now I am trying to choose between 2 fabrics that I love for roman shades in the computer room. The first fabric is gorgeous and is called Limonia Marble from Calico Corners. Here it is:



The second fabric is called Pierette Mimosa and is a Robert Allen Home fabric from JoAnn's. Here it is:



One nice thing about the Robert Allen fabric is that is has this coordinating fabric that I could use to re-upholster our rocking chair. Here it is:


I decided to try and do a quick and dirty Photoshop job to give me an idea of what they would look like.



From this it seems like I should choose the Limonia Marble over the Pierette Mimosa, but sometimes this Photoshop thing makes things look weird. Let me know what you think!

More Easter decorations!

The other day I was in Home Goods and I just couldn't resist this plate. It was so cute and had that vintage look with the scalloped edge. That place is dangerous!

I added the "Happy Easter" with a nice bevel and emboss effect in Photoshop.

I also promised more chick photos. I promise this is the last of it (at least this year).

Ok. I know it was a bit much, but I couldn't resist putting all those chicks on the chick plate! But the whole time it bugged me that those eggs weren't quite the right color with that plate. I almost Photoshopped them to be a better color but then I thought that was going too far.

Nest Cakes!

We are hosting bridge tonight so I decided to make Nest Cakes! I am addicted to Whoppers and my husband is an orthithologist so what better dessert than Nest Cakes?

They are super easy to make too! I cheated and bought a cake mix and tube icing. It turns out I should have made my own because I went to 2 grocery stores and finally to Michael's before I found chocolate tube icing. For some reason the grocery stores have every color but brown. Michael's had Wilton icing which I like because my icing tips fit onto their tubes. (The cheap plastic tips from the grocery store only fit on the skinny tubes.)

Before I did the nest icing it is best to put a layer of chocolate icing to make sure the whole cake has icing. Otherwise there might be a bare spot below the eggs and we couldn't have that!

I'll let you know how they taste. Hopefully delicious!

Homage to Sloane Tanen

If you have ever seen Sloane Tanen's books you will know where I got my inspiration for my Easter decorations. Her books are so funny! Her books are all composed of photos of mini dioramas with pom pom chicks. They are amazingly expressive little chicks!

I normally don't do a ton of Easter decorating, but when I found these little guys at World Market I couldn't resist.





More chick decorations coming soon!

Another Fabric Project

Lately the white plaster walls behind the book shelves in the family room have been bugging me. So I thought, "Of course! Another opportunity for a great fabric!"

I already made roman shades for this room so I wanted something subtle. This room also has a bit of an Asian flair. So I found this incredible fabric at Calico Corners.



I ended up basically making a roman shade but without the rings. I lined it mainly because I thought it might help insulate a little bit. I left room at the top and bottom for metal rods.


I ended up putting 2 screw eyes into the top of the bookshelves (actually my husband did this part). These supported the metal rods.


I was originally worried about the shelves making the fabric pucker because there is not much space between the shelf and the wall. But it turned out fine.


This is a photo of the final product. It is very subtle and not everyone would even notice, but I am happy not to have the white plaster behind there anymore. Even my husband (who was cursing me when the screw eye broke) likes it.

It's Spring!

Its so exciting to see what pops up in the yard. I know spring is here when the front yard is covered in crocuses. Then the daffodils pop their happy heads up and voila! It's Spring!

Roman Shade Done!

I am so excited because the bathroom is officially finished. Even though I showed you pictures in November of the closet turned bathroom, I haven't felt it was officially finished until I put the roman shade on the door. Some of our guests had complained that they didn't appreciate the glass door when using the bathroom (go figure?), so I decided to make a roman shade.

Originally I tried to make a roller shade. I bought all the hardware and the fusible fabric to give it body. But it was a disaster. I don't know why, but the fabric did not fuse properly to the fuse fabric. Maybe my iron was not hot enough, but I had to give up that project and switch to roman shades. I had wanted to avoid the string hanging down, but I'm OK with it.

I was so excited about this fabric. I LOVE it! I got it at Calico Corners originally to put in the cabinet for the sink. Then I realized that I wanted to make a roman shade. Of course when I went to get more, they didn't have any left and I had to special order it from California. I'm not sure if they make it any more. Its name is Belladonna. I got the wonderful fringe from Hobby Lobby. They were 2 separate fringes, but I thought they looked great together on this fabric.

Now our guests can have their privacy!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

So it all started because I thought I would make my mom a Valentine's Day card. Next thing I know I am printing 20 cards, cutting, scoring, writing in, and addressing Valentine's Cards. I always get carried away.

Anyway, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone!

Snow Storm

We just had a 2 day storm and we are snowed in. At first it snowed about 5-6 inches. Then it rained ice, and then it snowed more. It was so pretty!

White Squirrel

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I have not posted anything in a while because I am working on 20 illustrations for a book about snowflakes. But I did want to post this photo I took of a white squirrel at my mom's house. It was so amazing to see this squirrel. My mom says it blends in really well when it snows.

Happy New Year!

Moose Portrait

This is a Christmas present portrait I did for someone of their sister's cat. His name is Moose and you can read about him at http://www.catster.com/cats/339429/in/stroll/. I had never been to catster.com, but it seems like a great website for cat lovers. I loved reading about Moose's fascination with snakes, rabbits, toilet paper and vacuum cleaners.

I hope Moose has a wonderful Christmas full of toilet paper rolls and wrapping paper.

Christmas Ornaments

I am excited because I actually put up my Christmas decorations the first week of December. I think that's a record. I am cheating because these photos are from last year, but it looks just the same.

This might be my only post this December. I am super busy working on illustrations for a book about snowflakes by Ken Libbrechts. I recently read his Field Guide to Snowflakes. It is a wonderful book about the different kinds of snowflakes and how they form. I highly recommend it! It actually made me wish for snow!

Stay warm and have a very happy holiday!