Ooooh, nice little shout-out on the wonderful Print & Pattern blog this morning…
…but then again, if you’re here, you might have already known that by way of navigation.
All things come full circle. Woohoo! Thanks P&P! xo
When you’re busy working on projects and need a break, what do you do?
If you’re me, you’ll consider eating chocolate like it’s a qualifying round for the next Olympics, possibly take a nap because the baby needs one and you need to keep him warm (even if it’s summertime), or do more work, but on a completely different project.
So when I’m knee-deep in a design and just don’t want to deal with a difficulty it’s presenting me, but I’m still in my feverish must-keep-making mode, I’ll pop over to another design I’ve started or take a wild stab at a fresh one (you know, because I don’t have enough windows open on my laptop as it is). It’s like the freestyle portion of a dance competition and it affords me the license to release the reins, play and experiment.
That’s what I did here. Taking a break from a batch of ongoing work, I jumped over to see what I could come up with for Spoonflower’s latest design challenge. With the random theme of a Midsummer Night’s Dream coupled with a restricted color palette, I figured, hey why not see what perfect strangeness I could get up to.
After briefly quizzing my husband, our resident theatre expert, about the play, I messed about long enough to come up with this pattern … ta-daa! Quirky, a little odd, and a perfect design distraction interlude. Done!
And now, back to regularly scheduled programming… :)
I think it’s a tie. Nope, nope, actually, I think SK Brain wins for Most Messiest Possession.
I have so much going on at the moment that I can’t think straight. Designs and projects and emails and whatever else I need to keep up with.
My studio isn’t in top shape yet either. *Collective gasp.* I know, I know. I’ve slowly brought things out from boxes and really haven’t tended to organizing things completely before plopping myself down at my desk and carrying on with my to-do list.
I’m so used to not having a studio space that this is working perfectly fine, although it’s not the most inspiring to look at. First off, the room is a hideous baby blue, thanks to former tenants. I have a can of white paint to cover it, but it was delivered after my shelves and furniture were put in place, so I’m lazily ignoring the fact that I have to move everything out of the way to paint. Between you and me, I’m not sure if I’ll actually do it or not. We’ll see.
Until then, there are at least small vignettes in my room that are pleasing to look at, so I’m just focusing on those for now…
These guys are from my childhood. After rediscovering them and finding a shelf to put them on, Mister Baby Pants has taken a liking to them, so they’re now on a lower shelf where he can reach them and walk around with one in each hand for as long as his heart desires.
A top shelf assortment of odd things I’ve collected. My big S goes everywhere I do, but come to think of it I need a K to match. *I’m looking at you, eBay.* P.S. Ignore that baby blue wall. Repeat: Ignore that baby blue wall.
An impromptu stack of yummy fabrics that are waiting to be whipped into a finished project. Magically would be nice, but otherwise, when time allows.
The only thing on my desk aside from an unsightly stack of drawings and other papers and my laptop. Oh no, these are certainly not all the pens I own but they’re my current favorites.
That’s about all the current excitement there is in here, which makes me realize I need to get on with sorting and arranging things. I’ll leave that til tomorrow, since today is my birthday and the sunshine is calling my name. Woohoo!
Happy Friday, good people!
I need more fabric like I need rabies.
.
.
.
…um, so I got a stash of fabric the other day. What?
Fine, whatever. Judge me.
But I couldn’t resist the potential of scoring at the annual More Than Just a Yardage Sale hosted by the Textile Museum of Canada.
Turns out, it’s a two day event eagerly anticipated by many people who, usually nice and demure, get their “Fileen’s Basement” sale behavior on, elbowing, shoving past and grabbing at as much juicy fabric they can.
I knew the sale started at 11am on Friday and heard later that there was a line out front and at least one woman who was taking more than her fair share of some fabrics, pushing otherwise docile Canadians into yelling at her for taking more than she should and not leaving anything for others.
I would have loved to have seen that go down, but was more than happy to have missed the chaos.
Instead I chose to meet up with my friends Michelle and Steff at a civillized 4pm, after all the mayhem had died down.
I’ll show you what I walked away with in a minute, but first I thought you might like to see just a few of the gems that I, shockingly, left behind.
I’ve been paying extra attention lately to only buying things I’ll actually use, so the things that fascinate me but fall outside of that ”use & need” realm, get captured photographically…
I actually really wanted this needlepoint book on classic cars. It was truly awesome and I held onto it for awhile. But I know full well that I’d buy it and it would sit there on my shelf for another 15 years.
This is all aside from the fact that I’ve had zero interest in needlepoint and, I ain’t gonna lie, just wanted someone else to whip these up *for* me. (read: zero patience as well).
I just loved this book for its cover.
It was a book on silk-screening and seemed to have been produced in the late 60s. The inside was filled with yellowed pages of black and white text and photos. I think if there had been more riveting content, this would have made it home.
But I’m perfectly fine just staring at this picture of the cover pattern. I love it.
Behold. Seriously. Just behold this.
My friend Michelle spotted it and although there was no way in crocheting hell that I was going to purchase this, it was a clear winner in the OMG, Take a Picture of T-H-I-S! category.
So what did I come away with?
This great little stack, some binding business and zipper action! All for just about $5 buckaroos total!!
Most of it came from under the scrap tent where a volunteer was selling $2 dollar plastic bags that we could fill to our hearts content.
Steff and I shared that loot bag and shoved tightly wadded up pieces into it until its tiny plastic molecules screamed for mercy. Listen people, we are ruthless when we need to be.
I especially love the Italian cotton velvets and that red/linen floral jacquard print (which is interesting because I don’t usually go for reds or really florals for that matter).
Although I do not care for animal prints either, I couldn’t pass up on that tiny swatch of leopard-esque fuzziness. It might just make its way onto a pair of kid pants in dire need of a knee patch. R-A-W-R!!!!
End result of the day: big score and I’ll do it again. I never learn. And clearly I want rabies. Okay no. Just more luscious fabric to drown in. That’s not going too far, is it?
As the US goes into a long holiday weekend, (I don’t get one this week but will instead be trying to play catch up; don’t most of us?), I thought I’d share a quick glimpse of a WIP I’m currently tinkering with…
Somebody seems a bit sour about something, wouldn’tcha say?
I’d steer clear until the dust settles cuz that’s some kind of stink eye. I’ll go ahead and ignore her and finish up the surrounding illustrations. Maybe that would make her happy! We can only hope…
While I do that, you go and enjoy your weekend, ya hear! Take an obscenely long nap and eat just a bit more than your fair share of ice cream.
Enjoy and happy Memorial Day weekend!
Did you happen to attend International Spring Quilt Market in Portland, Oregon this last weekend?
I wasn’t able to make it but my latest collection for Timeless Treasures was busy showing itself off to all the people who were in attendance.
I love seeing all the photos posted online during the event and squealed with delight when I spotted this picture.
Um, how cute is this dress? Modeled by Hayden at the Timeless Treasures booth, it’s such a fun way to use my cursive handwriting design.
Love it! Want it! Need it!
Yay, Hayden! Yay, Spring Market!
Well, that pretty much took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get from the back burner to the front and to actually complete…
What am I talking about, you ask?
Without further ado, please say hello to the sorely-overdue redesign of my main website!
Ta-daa!!
Out with the old (flash) and in with the new (smart device-friendly)!
If you’ve ever taken on the task of creating a website or redesigning one, it can be a hideous beast that just refuses to do anything nicey-nicey. It can go on and on and on and on, like the ramblings of a small deliriously tired child who just won’t quite go to sleep after an exhaustingly long day.
Full disclosure: my husband is the real star here as he’s the Patient Programming Wizard behind the site. I’m the Micromanaging & Overly-Dramatic Art Director who wants her inner vision to just upchuck itself out of her cranium and transform instantaneously into functioning HTML jibba jabba.
Anyway, it’s done. Phew! Just in time for the weekend.
Go check it out here. I hope you like it!
Got the Monday blues?
How ‘bout now?
Awwwww, yeeee-ahhhhh!
*I looked for the creator’s name all over the internetz to give proper credit but found nothing. :( If you know who made it, let me know! In the meantime, well done, anonymous pattern dancer maker, well done.
A year or so ago, after Spoonflower unveiled a custom decal printing option, I made up an entire alphabet based on the same look the NYC MTA subway system has. Why? Uh, hello, because my children love trains and love the subway, of course.
Knowing we would eventually move, I stuck them up temporarily in The Bub’s room with donuts of scotch tape.
Now that we’ve moved and the kiddos are sharing a room, I brought the decals back out as I had a new master plan for these unsuspecting circles.
A few months ago, I had spotted these fun DIY ways to decorate rooms with washi tape. Really cute stuff. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to spend the extra money on trendy washi tape if I could find brightly colored masking tape that would give the same effect I was after. There. I said it.
I searched around online and did find one multicolored pack that would give me the most colors for my buck and the lower price point made it easy to commit to. After all, it’s paper tape that’s just gonna be crumpled up and thrown out eventually, so why waste good quality college-fund pennies on something so transient?
I bought two packs and I’m glad I did.
I mean, they *look* pretty substantial, right?
Bwhahahaha, S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E!!!!! They’re totally Liliputian-sized rolls of masking tape!
Almost criminally small, but I chose to ignore that and plow ahead with My Big Idea, making double-widths of every color.
So, I taped and taped…
And taped and taped some more…
It was incredibly fun to do, I might add. Removable defacement of property. Freestyle drawing with tape. Going hog wild. I highly recommend it!
Anywho…
Are you still with me? I hope so, because it’s payoff reveal time!
Behold, good people!
Ta-daa! Presenting my loose rendition of the MTA subway map.
Sure, I could have reproduced the lines more accurately to their real-life counterparts, but the fun of this was morphing that idea to fit these peculiar wall angles and have it all come together in a neat way that the kids would enjoy.
It was really fun to do (I know, I said that already. I mean it that much) and I, personally, would have called it complete at this point.
But then the kids entered the room…
…and excitedly offered their help.
First, The Bub showed off his masterful sticking skills…
…then Mister Baby Pants lent his keen artistic eye to the project.
They added more and more and more of what I would have deemed *leftover* decals.
But hey, it’s their room and what’s more fun than putting sanctioned stickers all over the place? I’ll just ignore them being wonky and off-kilter and focus on the spirit of collaboration.
Must. Resist. Compulsive. Desire. To. Straighten. Everything.
They added every last decal until the box I had them in was completely empty.
Part of The Bub’s design vision included thoughtfully pairing up “the babies with their mamas,” as it were.
The time flew by and after all that peeling and sticking and sticking and peeling, our new DIY room decoration was complete!
Subway wall art, ah-yesssss! Job well done and we love it!
Sometimes I like to float about the internetz checking out what people are making with my fabric. Here are three fun things I spotted late last night when I really should have been brushing my teeth and heading to bed.
I have my priorities.
Check it!
I mean really, excuse me, but how outrageously CUTE is this!?!?
What a wonderful way to use my Writing fabric. I love how fan-folding this particular fabric makes the bow tie look paper-like. Score one for All Things Clever!
Head over to Toma’s Tutus & Things to see more cool creations like this cursive cuteness.
Hello, most awesome geekiest wallet! This will go smashingly with my pocket protector! You heard me right.
Linda, from Linda’s Creative World, calculated everything just right and took my Math fabric to new level of spectacular. Looks like it’s got just about all the compartments you need to hold all your most valuable personal effects.
Too bad I’m just too darn lazy to google-translate Linda’s post and glean exactly how it all transpired. I know. Sad. However, taking a page out of Mister Baby Pants’ book, who needs words when you can be just as pleased by all the pretty pictures!
And for our last bit of today’s cuteness, here’s a darling dress donned by its darling little owner, Noa.
I think somebody’s H-A-P-P-Y!!! <——makes me happy seeing it too!
Featured over at Pink Chalk Studio, there are even more great photos of this stellar peasant dress, using my Wildlife fabric.
Shoot, now I want one! Grandma Becky? Are you reading this? Grandma? *is this thing on?*
Thanks to Toma, Linda and Pink Chalk Studio for showing off some really fun projects! I love seeing what you guys come up with! Woot!
Happy weekend everyone. Get to makin’ something!
