Field Journal

Sometimes, while wasting countless hours in cyber space, I come across something that totally inspires me.  Usually because, a) I can't justify spending the money on it OR b)I want it to be prettier/nicer/cooler/more "me", I get the idea that I should try making one for myself.

About 6 months ago, I came across a field journal and I had never seen one quite like this.  I LOVED what he was using it for and the things that he kept in it, and I thought that it would be the perfect gift for a doodle-loving, picture-taking, pen obsessed friend.  So what do I do?  I add it my goals board on Pinterest and let the idea fester marinate in my brain until I can't stand it anymore.  So I sketched it out and gave myself a little encouragement.

Because sometimes these things go really well for me and come exactly the way I planned them to.  Exhibit A

OR they go very horribly wrong....
Exhibit B

And the project is still sitting in the "box of shame" in the back of the closet.....a year and a half later.

So I was a little apprehensive, and transferring the idea from paper to to fabric was a little challenging.  But I am happy with my efforts so far.  

I started out with one version of it and it just didn't work out.  So I adjusted the idea I had in my head and made it work for what I wanted to achieve. The most fun part about this project was filling up with goodies.

I found these calendar pockets a few months back and thought they would be perfect for this so I grabbed them.

As well as these cool business card sleeves that fit the pictures that print out of the PoGo printer and instax mini camera perfectly.

I also put in various types of paper.  Including gridded, watercolor, tracing, and several different colors of card stock, just to jazz it up a bit.

I put some sharpie pens in the pen slots that I made, just to show where they were, but these aren't the pens that will be staying in it.  I am going to put an order in at JetPens.  There is also a hole punch, a watercolor pen, a corner rounder (not shown), and a travel watercolor set (also not shown) that will all fit in this handy dandy notebook-thing.

I wanted to personalize it a bit for her so I contacted Jill over at TabSlot to see if she could help me out with something, and she totally knocked it out of the park!  So thrilled.

To make make the outside, I used some canvas fabric that I hand-dyed myself and the back of the field journal has a zippered pocket to stow away various things that you may wish to carry.

So I am pretty pleased.  There a still a few things that I am going to change for next time, so I am not sure if this is the one that will be sent or the next version, but I just wanted to do a bit of show and tell so you can see what I have been working on.

You guys have a great Friday!!!!

Two Quilt Tops, Two Totes, And a Little Catch-up

Wow, I didn't mean to go this long without posting.  I have been writing the posts in my head, but they just never seemed to make the transition to the cyber universe.  But never fear!!!  I have been sewing and crafting so I have a bunch to show and tell.

I didn't mention this before, but I belong to a quilting bee on Flickr.  The Wonky Bee to be exact.  I usually try to steer clear of bees, simply because I am not very good at them.  But Jacey assured me that she would keep me on track, and she has been true to her word.  I have made everyone's blocks except for this month's, which I will be doing tomorrow, and sent them in a somewhat, kind-of, timely fashion. So here is a quick recap of the blocks I have made for the group.

For my month I asked the ladies to make Giant Bear Paw or rather....YETI Paw blocks for me.  I they amazed me with the blocks that they came up with!  

I wanted to use something non-tradtional for the sashing and teal being my favorite color and Lizzy House being one of my favorite designers.  I thought that the Illusion print in Barsa Blue from her 1001 Peeps line would be perfect.  

I am so in love with quilt top.  I can't wait until it is quilted and I can snuggled up under it.  It is better than I had envisioned it would be.  Thank you Wonky Bee mates!

Speaking of quilt tops......

Hey!, Remember way back when, when I pulled all of my Mendocino out and said that I was going sew with it?  Well, I finally did!  I took me so long to actually cut into it.  But once I finished agonizing over what pattern to do and got started it went fast.  And then after I got all of the blocks made I put them away for 2 months.  Boooo.  But yesterday finally got a chance to put it together when I went to Kelly's house yesterday for some sewing.

WOOWOO!!!  Mendo quilt top, done!!  Love it!  I'll be sending this one a long with the Bear Paw to be quilted by The Sometimes Crafter.  

I've also made a couple of new tote bags for the shop. 

'N' is for Narwhal Tote

and Love Notes Tote

On the back of the Love Notes Tote I added a little hand embroidery. 

So see?  I have been doing stuff.  There is still one more thing that I made that I want to show and tell, but I will save it for the next one.  :)

NerdDocs

Introducing a new item to my shop!  NerdDocs.

Handy little notebooks with gridded paper and newsprint to scribble, jot, write, sketch, or whatever your little heart desires.

These were so much fun to make.  I think I want to many more in the future.  Any ideas for themes?

I have also added some more Vincent's Pouches to the shop, just in case you missed out the first time around.

Hope your week is going well!

A Wedding Gift, A Giveaway, and A Shop Update

Woot!  I said I would be back on Friday and here I am!  Mark it in your calendars, folks.  I wanted to share a gift that I made for my friend Jacey as a wedding present.  She was married back in April, but if you're my friend, then you know know that if you're getting a gift from me, it's gonna be late.

I finally got it in the mail to her and it arrived this week so now I am free to post about it and share it with you.

I am a frequent buyer over at weelittlestitches.  Being the crafty, geek girl that I am.  I cannot resist all of their patterns of my favorite things.  They also do custom pixel people requests.  I thought that it would make a great gift for Jacey and her family.  When I finished the stitching, I googled how to mount finished cross stitch work and I think I did a pretty good job.  I used the matte that came with the picture frame and modge podged the Anna Maria Horner Goodfolks fabric to it to add a bit of crafter goodness to it.  I loved making it for her and I am thrilled that she loves it as much as I do.

In other news, my etsy shop was looking pretty sad, so I decided to make some things and list them.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who commented on my Turning 30 blog post.  It was so much fun reading about your birthdays.
OK!!  on to the giveaway!  The random generator picked number 7!!!  which was Meg.  I will be sending you an email today to get your address.

Happy Friday friends!

On Turning 30, Birthday Loot, and my first Bloggy Giveaway!

WARNING: Picture heavy post   :)

It's been a little over a week since the dreaded day, and I have to say, it was pretty uneventful, but in a good way.  The world is still turning, the sun still rises and sets, and my children still think they know more than me.  I realized that "30" is only going to be as good as I make it so I better make it good.  Here is a little showing of all the good loot I got.

Awesome fabric from Jacey.

Beautiful flowers from Christina.

A birthday fabric shopping trip from my Mom.

SO many lego sets and geeky goodies from my Hubby, my mom, and my sister.  I was an amazing day and I love my family so much for making it special for me.

In all of the silly stress of my birthday, I set out to keep myself busy so I didn't think about it so much.  I decided I wanted to have a "Handmade" birthday.  I wanted special things that I could wear to make me feel better.  Kind of like a hug that I could walk around in. I started with a skirt.  My mom got me a shirt to wear for my birthday and I wanted something to wear with it that I would love but also something fun.  

So I made a denim skirt.  I agonized over patterns for days before I decided just to try and draft one myself.  I am pretty happy with the end result and I am pretty sure I will be wearing it all summer.  Please notice the t-shirt of awesomeness.  Thanks mom  :)

So after the success of the skirt, my confidence grew so much that I wanted to try and tackle a dress.  I had purchased the Darling Ranges Dress pattern back in april as well as some fabric that I loved to make it.  (I <3 Lizzy House)  And decided to dive right in.

The pattern was surprisingly very simple to follow.  The instructions are very detailed and the diagrams were easy to understand.  I was pretty impressed with myself, actually.  lol.  The fit is perfect, although, I better not gain any weight.

I wasn't sure about the buttons at first, but I really love them now.  I think they give the right pop of color that makes for a fun dress.  And look, it has POCKETS!!!!  

After this dress, I wanted to give one more pattern a try that I had already bought the fabric for.  I have to say, that this is my most favorite thing ever.  It is so comfy and looks so nice.  (sorry for the crappy iphone pic)

Maxi dresses are where it's at.  Who knew?!

So now onto the good stuff  :)  Since my birthday was so awesome, I wanted to share little of that.  I made a zippy pouch with some of the birthday fabric I got and I used the letters from the Geek Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery to add a little geek to it.

Just leave a comment telling me about your favorite birthday or...your worst or most dreaded birthday and I will randomly pick a winner on friday.  Make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the lucky winner!

Have a happy Wednesday!

X-stitch and a Quilt-a-Long

So, ya....I've been MIA for bit, huh?  Well the truth is, my 30th birthday is tomorrow and I haven't been handling it so well.  But I am planning some fun things for this week to help take my mind off of it.  So be on the look out.  :)

In other news, the lovely ladies over at The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery have published a cross stitch pattern that I designed.  YES I DESIGNED SOMETHING!!!  I am so incredibly nervous about it.  But I am so excited to see something that I designed for sale somewhere.  You can check it out here.

Of course, it's geek themed.  So if you cross stitch, want to learn to cross stitch, are a geek or know a geek check out the pattern and while you are there, check out the rest of the super cute patterns they have in the store also!

A few weeks ago, my friend Jacey asked if I wanted to quilt along with her and Nicke to make this amazing quilt.  So of course I said, "Absolutely"  and started thinking of fabrics I may want to use for it.  I went through a few ideas before I finally settled on a group of fabrics.

I am pretty excited to see how this comes together and I hope to start cutting the pieces out this week.

On a side note, I was tagged to do a fun little "20 things about me" thing over on flickr, so if you were curious to know a little more about me, click on over and check it out.

On Generosity and Cool Guys

I have been a long time fan of fabric designer, Tula Pink.  I have loved every one of her lines and have purchased the fabric obsessively whenever a new one is released.  So when I saw on Instagram, that Quiltdad was making a couple of quilts with Tula Pink's amazing new halloween fabric line, Nightshade, I commented on how amazing they looked and that he was a lucky duck to be cutting into it already.  Well, being that awesome guy that he is, he offered to send me some of what he had left!

No way could I have said no to this. And look at all he sent me!!!!!  I was so excited when I opened the box I'm sure my husband thought I was having a fit or something. He didn't ask for anything in return, but I felt like I had to do something to show my gratitude for his generosity.  So I decided to make him a hoop bag.  I know that he likes to embroider from seeing all of the lovely Hoop Up! Swaps he has participated in.  I was a little stumped at first as what I would use for fabric, because I wanted it to be manly but still fun.  So I stuck to what I know best, geekery.

I am calling it the "BAZINGA! hoop bag"  because I heart Big Bang Theory and this image of The Flash reminds me of Sheldon.  There was a little dispute as to whether or not polka dots were "manly" or not between my husband and myself.  But I am happy with the way it looks.  Hopefully Quiltdad will be too.

Here is a shot of the back.

I am continually amazed by the generosity of the people that I have "met" online in the crafting community.  And doing things like this always makes me smile.