paper and stitch

baby birthday bunting

2011-02-08T20:44:00.003-05:00

Baby birthday bunting... say that five times fast! Here's my latest little craft project made for my favorite little just-turned-one-year-old. We were lucky enough to join our dear friends, Jim and Logan in CT for their daughter's birthday last weekend.

In my own quest to simplify/declutter/minimize my surroundings, I started thinking about the gifts I give in the same light. Though I'm not one, my guess is that most moms grow pretty weary of the toy mountain that has slowly encroached on their living room. Here's hoping Brooklynn and her parents can enjoy this gift for some time to come! Plus, it did double-duty as a party decoration!

This bunting was pretty easy to create... the options are endless for this. Customize for baby showers, weddings, birthday parties, room decor... oh the fun! I learned one thing for sure - adhesive felt does NOT adhere to fabric. I probably should have thought that one out better before trying to save myself some time. I thought the adhesive felt would be a great alternative to applique. Well, I was wrong. So instead I had to applique sticky felt. Needle was not happy, but it got the job done. Lesson learned for next time - go old school applique.

Isn't she just precious?! Such a beauty!

Me and the birthday girl... the morning after the first-birthday cupcake rager party.

5/52 Muse

2011-02-08T20:37:00.004-05:00

"Digging for Snow Treasure"
After a walloping snow storm hit Vermont, Sam had fun playing with his toys while Mom and Dad shoveled the driveway... for the umpteenth time this winter.
See this photo on Flickr.

I am participating in MCP Actions' Project 52.
Find out why and see other participant photos.

4/52 Soothing Repetition

2011-02-08T20:34:00.006-05:00

"Flicker"
There aren't many things more beautiful, soothing and relaxing than the warm glow of a flickering candle on a winter's night.
See this photo on Flickr.

I am participating in MCP Actions' Project 52.
Find out why and see other participant photos.

3/52 Shades of Grey

2011-01-21T18:24:00.004-05:00

"Aging Fireplace"
See this photo on Flickr.

I am participating in MCP Actions' Project 52.
Find out why and see other participant photos.

2/52 Illustrate a Song

2011-01-11T13:06:00.004-05:00

"Warm Whispers" by Missy Higgins

Your warm whispers
Out of the dark they carry my heart
Your warm whispers
Into the dawn they carry me through
And I'm weeping warm honey and milk
That you stay surrounding me, surrounding me

See this photo on Flickr.

I am participating in MCP Actions' Project 52.
Find out why and see other participant photos.

1/52 Around the House

2011-01-07T16:38:00.002-05:00

See this photo on Flickr.

I am participating in MCP Actions' Project 52.
Find out why and see other participant photos.

Project 52

2011-01-07T16:33:00.001-05:00

New year. New project. New photos.

Last year I gave a good valiant effort at a 365 photo project, which I logged on my personal Facebook page. Well, I shot photos everyday until sometime in May/June when things just got nutty. The project felt more like a burden then an enjoyable journal of my year. That's when I knew it was time to give.

I do love the idea of chronicling a year in photographs, but I wanted to do something more than that this time around. I wanted to challenge myself artistically and put my new camera to work, learning the in's and out's of this gloriously complicated machine. I decided this would be the year of 52 - one shot a week... MUCH more manageable. Then I came across a photo challenge, well several actually and ended up choosing the Project 52 Challenge over at MCP Actions. I've been a big fan of MCP's awesome Photoshop actions and photography tips and tricks for a long time. I love the challenge of a new theme each week, yet you have the freedom to explore and be noncommittal with the theme too.

I only have one Intro to Photography (film) class under my belt, so thankfully, I understand the basics. I'm still a beginner. A newbie. And I'm ok with that. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the other participants and the comments/critique I receive on my photos.

All of my photos can be found on my Flickr set. To look at everyone who is participating in this challenge, go here. New themes are posted each Saturday.

make this monday :: revitalized recyclables

2011-01-03T09:00:00.001-05:00

Betty Crocker frosting. It's a beautiful thing. What's even more beautiful? Re-purposing and reusing those darling little plastic containers. Now, before you go and think I downed these 3 containers of frosting all by my lonesome, I'll have you know I've been collecting them for a good long.... *oh, excuse me, gotta wipe some frosting off my lip*... time. Just kidding! Save up your cans, plastic tubs, Crystal Light containers, whatever. Here's a quick little project to cheer up your desk or craft area.

I like to use frosting containers the best because they're white and clean looking and have no sharp edges. I use metal cans too, but just watch your fingers. You could easily cover the cut edges with washi tape or a strip of paper just to be safe.

Take plastic containers, wash thoroughly and rip off the label.
Round up some purdy paper.
With a ruler, measure the height of your container. No need to measure the circumference unless you're using a really large or small container. These frosting tubs are perfectly wrapped with a 12" long strip of paper (the standard size for most scrapbooking paper).
Cut paper to size and use double-sided tape to adhere.
Ta da! Be amazed at your crafty self!

I added another strip of paper just for kicks. Play around! Use pretty paper punches, stamps, ribbon... go nuts!
Here's my collection of newly revitalized recyclables on my sewing/crafting desk!

tree skirt: mission complete

2010-12-30T17:52:00.004-05:00

In my last post, I showed you the new modern elf-style stockings I made just in time for Christmas this year. Well, I wanted to finally make us a tree skirt as well. Who cares if it was a post-Christmas project. There are 12 days, right?!

Here's the old one, modeled Vanna-style by Buster Pickle Wiggles the cat. Alas, it IS Martha Stewart but it just wasn't cutting the Christmas mustard anymore. Pretty enough, but I much prefer a less glitzy look (you can't tell in the photo, but the snowflakes are glittery) and the material was pretty chintzy feeling too. Light blue snowflakey tree skirt looking for a new home!

Continuing the same theme and color palette with the stockings, here's our new tree skirt!

I used a pattern from Sew4Home (yet again... that place kicks!). This was my first experience with any sort of quilting (layers, batting, binding)... whoo! I learned as I went and have a whole new appreciation for quilters... and I didn't even do any real quilting! Kind of makes me want to try... look at THIS one! Oooooh ahhhhh. Then again, maybe I should stick to simple squares first time around.
The pattern calls for making your own bias tape and quite frankly, I wasn't about to spend 3 days making my own, so I happily bought some double-fold and used 7/8" rather than 1/2" because I wanted it to look more substantial. I also did not add ties. While that would look pretty, it would be one more thing for the cat to bat around under the tree and let me tell you, he has plenty of fun under there already!

I hope you had a splendid holiday season and spent time with those you hold dear. Did you do any holiday-ish projects this year? While I love making things for others, a little part of me was giddy to make something we get to keep all for ourselves!

old stockings get the boot

2010-12-21T15:36:00.004-05:00

A "little" Sunday project to fuel my holiday spirit. Made using Sew4Home's Citrus Holiday Elf Stocking pattern and instructions. These really are easy to make (if you don't count turning out the tip of the toe piece... ha!), just a little time consuming. I wanted something modern and funky in a nontraditional color palette. All fabric for this project was purchased at Sew, Mama, Sew!, home of a fabulous fabric selection and excellent customer service. (Honestly, they were so responsive to my emails when I had a question, it was amazing!)

A few slight adjustments to the pattern - I made the stocking bodies with home decor weight fabric and double stitched the seam so they'd be nice and sturdy, since we actually plan on using these stockings. As you can see by the bulges, they're already full! Also, I "Stitch-Witcheryed" the pom-poms on cause I wasn't about to sew all those little babies on by hand. I am still swooning over Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush collection and that beautiful Queen of Hearts pattern.

My inspiration for this color palette actually came from the sewn stocking gift card holders that I sold this holiday season. I loved the paper that I used for that project and wanted to translate it into my holiday decor.

Next on tap, a coordinating tree skirt! Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season! Oh, and if you're wondering why we have four stockings... the dog and cat each get their own. Yup, I'm one of THOSE people! ;-)

holiday ha-ha's

2010-11-26T22:21:00.013-05:00

Getting in the holiday spirit over here at casa Jerger!

xo,
Sarah, Jay, Sam dog, and Buster kitty

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Queen City, here I come!

2010-11-19T17:03:00.006-05:00

Well, the lack of blogging lately has been due to three major things: 1) we went on an amazing family vacation to Arizona, 2) I was finishing up training for and running my first half marathon (phew! glad that's done!) and 3) I've been chug-a-luggin' away on making goodies for the Queen City Craft Bazaar.

And now, the day has come... Queen City Craft Bazaar is tomorrow!! Saturday, November 20th from 10am - 5pm at Union Station, 1 Main Street, in Burlington, VT. Here's a little snippet about the event from the QCCB website: The Queen City Craft Bazaar - Vermont's Alternative Craft Fair is an indie craft fair showcasing unique handmade goods from local crafters, designers, and artists. It started in 2007 in hopes of giving indie crafters in Vermont a place to call their own. Products seen at our events tend to be a bit hipper, punkier and edgier than your typical VT craft show. Vermont has many venues for "fine craft" but Queen City Craft aims to promote and support indie craft. To find out more about Queen City Craft click here.

I spent the day today finishing up final details: running to the bank, picking up my banner, making price tags, gathering goods, setting up a practice display (I was awed by how much time this took!), and packing it all up. Here's a pic of the stash before I loaded it into the car... don't mind the extreme messiness behind. My craft studio looks like a tornado hit it after today.

I can't wait to meet all the other crafters and artists tomorrow. This is my first "real" craft show, so I'm a tid bit nervous, but mainly just excited! Come visit me and the over 40 other crafters tomorrow!

For my cherished blog, twitter and facebook followers - if you come with the code word "CRAFTALICIOUS", you'll get 10% off your purchase from Paper + Stitch!

my queen city debut!

2010-09-29T22:46:00.000-04:00

I'm super excited to announce that Paper + Stitch will be at the Queen City Craft Bazaar this fall! I love the Queen City Craft Bazaar (you can see my past posts about it here and here). I'm beyond ecstatic (and honored) that I got into the juried show. This was my first year applying, so when I found out this morning, I was all kinds of giddy.

Queen City Craft Bazaar ain't your grandma's craft show -- QCCB, located in Burlington, Vermont, is focused on local indie craft and is akin to large shows like Renegade Craft Fair and Bazaar Bizarre.

Now it's time to get my rear in gear and beef up my inventory! QCCB is Saturday, November 20th at Union Station (bottom of Main Street in Burlington). Save the date and come visit all the great artists, crafters, and designers!

(As the date gets closer, look out for QCCB specials offered to blog/facebook/twitter followers!)

make this monday :: DIY lamp makeover

2010-09-27T19:55:00.002-04:00

One of the easiest (and cheapest) ways to breathe new life into an outdated accessory or piece of furniture is spray paint. For around $4 a can you can choose from a surprisingly wide array of colors and finishes. I've been on a spray painting binge recently and am having fun hunting down worn items to make them look new and modern again.

Case in point - this lamp. That brass! That honey oak wood grain! This lamp came our way during a recent yard sale we were hosting. My husband's family brought over some stuff to sell, including this lamp. Poor thing is so ugly, no one bought it at the yard sale. Then, it went out to the curb with our leftovers and a free sign attached. All the other stuff went - not this lamp. I couldn't see the sense in throwing away a perfectly functioning, albeit hideous lamp. It was time for a makeover!

I was inspired by this little beauty...

:: image courtesy of all*you ::

I went and bought myself some primer, glossy yellow and chrome spray paint and went to town. Sanding, tacking, priming, painting and drying complete, plus some wrangling to take off the lamp harp - this is what it looked like afterward. Oh, and I did outfit it with a snazzy new lamp shade from Target. There was no saving that other pleated jobby. Quite an improvement, eh?

It now happily resides in our guest room, replacing a lamp that was tiny in comparison to the size of the room. I'm not usually a yellow person, but the cheery vibe this gives off makes me happy. I love the textured sand dune-like lampshade.

I won't lie, the inspiration lamp is far cuter by design, but I think my little DIY makeover gave a whole new life to this exhausted lamp. I'm not 100% sold on how the metallic turned out, but I think it would look funny if it were yellow all the way down. What do you think? I could really use some fresh eyes. What do you want to run off and spray paint now? I'd love to hear your ideas.

a walk with autumn

2010-09-22T22:10:00.002-04:00

Sam and I took a walk through the woods the other day, just as autumn was showing her face.

p.s. Do you have any free photo collage applications that you like? I've used ShapeCollage for a while, but I'm interested in hearing about others!

make this monday :: pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting

2010-09-20T15:41:00.008-04:00

I'm going to try to keep a weekly feature going... "make this mondays". I got the idea after last week's post and figured why not? If anything, it will help me blog regularly. Today is another food post, but I promise to include crafts and quick DIY makeovers as well. What would you be interested in seeing?

This post from Remodelaholic popped up in my Google Reader and the title alone was enough to sell me. We're on the brink of fall here in Vermont... leaves just starting to change and there's a cool crisp breeze in the air. Pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting seemed just the treat! Cassity from Remodelaholic originally found this Ina Garten recipe in a House Beautiful email and I love how she tweaked it to be a tad healthier and more nutritious. The original Ina Garten recipe can be found here, but for the makeover version from Remodelaholic, click here.

The makeover version includes whole wheat flour, agave nectar, and applesauce. (Remodelaholics's version makes 24 cupcakes instead of Ina's 10. The cupcake recipe is sized up for the 24 cupcakes, but you'll notice the frosting recipe remains for 10 cupcakes - don't worry about it. The frosting is plenty to top 24 cupcakes! And I'm a frosting lover!)

These cupcakes are so, SO yummy! I don't think I've ever made cupcakes and frosting from scratch (Gasp! I know... Betty Crocker from the box just makes it so easy), but these babies were a cinch. Autumn in edible form.

What fall favorites are you cooking up lately?

make this :: corn + bacon chowder

2010-09-13T21:01:00.005-04:00

(image from Amazon.com)

This cookbook has been my savior over the last several months. It, combined with a handy weekly meal planning chart has kept me sane, organized, eating healthy and saving money - and for that, I'm uber thankful (and so is my husband). Yes, we still slip in the occasional "I don't feel like cooking, let's get pizza" night and I'm cool with that. Pizza is, after all, close to the heavens.

This cookbook centers on 3 simple words: fresh food fast. *Ding Ding* Yes, please! These recipes include all fresh food and pantry staples, without processed garbage, and they all take about 15-30 minutes. They have time saving ingredients like pre-chopped peppers and onions, but I'm a sucker for chopping my own fresh veggies, so I'll take the extra few minutes and pennies in my pocket. Plus, I feel chef-y when I chop onions all fancy-efficient-like. I've made dozens and dozens of recipes from this cookbook and every single one has been delicious and on my make-again list.

Without further ado, here was tonight's dinner. Worthy and befitting of the fall-like days we've been having lately: corn + bacon chowder (or chowdah depending on where you're from). It was so delish, I want to share it with the world! Ok, with my handful of blog readers, but you are the world to ME, so here goes. Make it and revel in it's simplicity and yumminess! Plus, it cooks so quickly, you'll have more time for crafting (or watching re-runs of Glee), whatever floats your boat.

+++++++++++++++++++
Corn and Bacon Chowder (from Cooking Light: Fresh Food Fast; also found online here)

To capture the freshness of yellow jewel-like corn without the fuss of shucking ears or cutting kernels off the cob, use packages of frozen baby gold and white corn. This chowder is so wonderfully sweet with the frozen corn that our taste testers gave it our highest rating.

Prep: 2 minutes; Cook: 14 minutes

Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Ingredients

2 bacon slices (shhhhh... I used 6!)
1/2 cup refrigerated prechopped celery, onion, and bell pepper mix (chopped my own, used more than 1/2 cup)
2 (16-ounce) packages frozen baby gold and white corn, thawed and divided
2 cups 1% low-fat milk, divided (I used skim and it was still thick and creamy)
1/2 teaspoon salt (eyeballed)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (eyeballed again... who measures?!)
3/4 cup (3 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese (such as Cracker Barrel)
Freshly ground black pepper (optional) (Um, yes! Not optional in our house)

Preparation

1. Cook bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp (I used medium sized stock pot, worked perfectly). Remove bacon from pan; crumble and set aside. (Eat a nibble of bacon JUST TO MAKE SURE it's cooked properly!) Add celery mixture and 1 package corn to drippings in pan; sauté 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

2. Place remaining 1 package corn and 1 cup milk in a blender, and process until smooth. Add pureed mixture to vegetables in pan; stir in remaining 1 cup milk, salt, black pepper, and cheese. Cook over medium heat (do not boil), stirring constantly, until cheese melts. Ladle chowder into bowls. Top each serving evenly with reserved crumbled bacon. Sprinkle with additional black pepper, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 215 (24% from fat)
Fat: 6g (sat 3.1g,mono 1g,poly 0.6g)
Protein: 10.8g
Carbohydrate: 33.6g
Fiber: 3.8g
Cholesterol: 15mg
Iron: 0.8mg
Sodium: 402mg
Calcium: 208mg

+++++++++++++++++++

I call this the "money shot". Gratuitous, really.

coupon code for the Paper + Stitch Etsy shop

2010-08-05T14:47:00.002-04:00

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step by step: stool makeover tutorial

2010-08-03T23:16:00.005-04:00

Reupholstering sounds scary, doesn't it? I know. Hence why I thought I'd start out with a stool. I mean, I should be able to recover a stool, right?! How hard can it be? Turns out.... easy peasy! A perfect beginner's project. Here's a step by step tutorial to turn an old tattered stool into a gleaming new seat!

Here's what you'll need to get started:

Stool
Pliers (something to pull out the old staples covering the seat)
Sanding block
Tack cloth (or damp cloth)
Primer
Paint
Brush
New fabric (amount depends on your stool, but for a standard size you'll need about an 18" square)
Staple gun
Staples
A few hours (includes drying time)
DIY gusto (you've got that!)

Here's my stool. Basic. Old. Worse for wear. Not to mention, not my style. But it was free and I like free. I like easy home projects even more! Let's go!

1. Remove fabric from old seat by removing staples and tearing away fabric. Make sure to get out all the old nasty staples to avoid any sharp metal clutter.

2. Your stool should look something like this. Many people would get a new piece of foam for the seat, but this one still has plenty of squish and I hate to throw away something that's perfectly useful, so use of old foam it is. Feel free to get a new piece at the craft store if you need.

3. Lightly sand legs of stool. Just enough to scuff it up for primer and paint to adhere.

4. Wipe with tack cloth or damp cloth to remove dust. Don't skip this step!

5. Prime and paint! Since the wood is dark and I'm painting it a light color, I chose to prime first. Two coats in fact, cause I'm that silly. Let dry. If you're painting your stool a darker color, no need to prime. Then paint! I also used two coats of paint to ensure even coverage.

6. Laugh at your dog who spent the afternoon "keeping you company".

7. Gather supplies for the reupholstering. The paint color is actually a light aqua, but it's hard to see in the harsh light.

8. Lay out your fabric right side down. Center the foam and the stool. This is where I winged it. I gathered fabric from two opposing sides first and stapled them down, always ensuring to fold under the raw edge of the fabric. Pull taut, but not tight when stapling. Then just fold up sections of fabric around the stool and staple. Chances are no one is going to see the bottom of your stool, so don't get too caught up in making it pretty. Keep folding under raw edges of fabric... this keeps it looking a little cleaner. I wasn't chintzy with the staples either... go to town to secure your fabric!

And you're done! Voila! See, wasn't that simple?

Have you done (or are wanting to do) an easy, quick furniture makeover project? If so, what is it and how did the process go for you? Any reupholstering geniuses want to give us some tips for "real" furniture?

happiness: puppy love

2010-07-09T15:38:00.009-04:00

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

- Roger Caras

Sam and I had an impromptu photo sesh today. He's a ham for the camera. Well, he's actually a ham all the time... an all around happy dog. Not a day goes by where he doesn't make me smile.

The simple life...

I often wonder what he's thinking. I'm pretty sure it's along the lines of "Pet me! Love me! Feed me! Ooooh, a WALK?! I love you!".

Who else is a pet lover? Doesn't it remind you that life truly is simple and wonderful? All it takes is to be surrounded by people who love us, allowed to run free, get muddy, bask in the sunshine and every time is as good as the last!

p.s. Thanks to the ever-wonderful Pioneer Woman for the use of her Photoshop Actions which make life a million times easier. Not a Photoshop pro? Me neither, but these are super easy to use and install. On these photos I used her Black & White Beauty along with Boost, with a little by-hand dodging and burning.

p.p.s. New rule: no apologies for the gaping hole in between blog posts. Life is busy for us all, right? So I'm cutting myself some slack. I am, however, making a promise to myself to make more time for the things I really enjoy - one of those being blogging. Kind of a mid-year's resolution. :-)

it's the most wonderful time of the year...

2010-05-02T09:15:00.004-04:00

... time for the Queen City Craft Bazaar! For anyone who loves a little indie craft in their life, you're in luck. The Queen City Craft Bazaar (QCCB) is just around the corner on May 8th. This is one of my favorite craft shows to visit. I admit to not getting overly excited about the big craft show in Essex, VT... while the artistry is great, it's much too much craftiness I don't personally care for. But QCCB? That's where it's at.

My trip to the QCCB last year lead me to pick up fabulous goodies from great local designers which you can see here. I can't tell you how many compliments I receive on what I picked up last year. There's a wide range of artistry - jewelry, paper goods, kid & adult clothing, groovy accessories, pottery, woodwork, the list goes on - all with edge & funk you won't find in any department store.

To boot, you can pick up delicious yums from August First bakery. If you live in the Burlington area and haven't visited August First, you're missing out!

Queen City Craft Bazaar

Saturday, May 8

10am - 5pm

Union Station, at the bottom of Main St., Burlington, VT

Have fun! Shop local!

flyin' the coop to NYC

2010-04-08T14:41:00.008-04:00

When @JetBlueCheeps came through my Twitter feed a few weeks ago boasting $20 tix to NYC from Burlington, I was on that like Tiger Woods and Jesse James on... well, everything. Sorry, can't help it. It was a Monday and the flight was for that Saturday. We decided to live in the moment and take a spontaneous trip to New York! Jay had never been to NYC and my handful of trips have always been with a specific purpose (to see a show during high school or for work functions), so I've never spent much time just exploring the city.

I really need to boast for a minute about what a powerful tool Twitter is. First off, it's the way I found out about this stellar deal and secondly, when I tweeted out into the Twitterverse that I was looking for affordable accommodations in Manhattan, I can't tell you how many immediate responses I got. And I'm not talking spammy responses. These were honest-to-goodness people out there just waiting to help somebody. It was swell.

The best tip, however came from a local tweep @MissMagpieFGS. She recommended I check out airbnb. Never heard of it? I hadn't either, but wow, am I ever glad she told me about it. airbnb functions as a sort of house swap service, except you actually rent out people's apartments, houses, spare rooms, tree houses in VT (no lie!) or even... air mattresses ("airbed-n-breakfast"). Most popular in metropolitan locations all over the globe, I felt like I hit a goldmine searching for places in Manhattan. airbnb's slogan is "travel like a human" and my goodness, we did.

After some trolling for the best location and deal, we settled on Kelli's "Charming Apt. in the Heart of NYC" and we're SO glad we did. Kelli was uber responsive and so nice. It was her first airbnb experience too and I think it worked out well for both of us. After staying at her place and admittedly checking out her bookshelf (I've got many of the same books), I think we could be friends! :-) Now wouldn't you rather stay here than at some overpriced, stodgy hotel where you're just a number checking in and checking out? I could do a whole post (or two) about her great style and eye for design... maybe I will another time. For now, enjoy this little peek!

:: She has these sweet elephant trays in several locations...

I adore them! ::

We stayed for two nights and two very full days in New York. We walked everywhere but down to the Financial District and I had the blisters to prove it. You'll see in the slideshow below some pretty new Pumas that I had to buy to get through day 2. I consider them my souvenir!

We did many typical touristy things like Times Square, the Empire State Building, saw a show (Avenue Q - AMAZING!), Macy's, MoMA (*swoon* - Tim Burton exhibit rocked our socks), visited Ground Zero & Battery Park, cheesecake, pizza, hot dog street vendors, walking, walking, subway, walking, and walking. We also made a point to visit a few stores we don't have here in VT like Whole Foods, Pinkberry, Sephora, and Kinokuniya Bookstore (where I scored some washi tape... yay!). Jay was really impressed at how clean and friendly the city was. I have to admit, it's not the same New York City I used to visit as a kid. Go Rudy!

It was so nice to get out of the daily routine and spend some fun time enjoying new adventures with my hubby! We only took a teeny tiny bite out of the Big Apple on our short trip, but we savored the taste and can't wait to go back again!

painted pegboard love

2010-03-16T20:31:00.007-04:00

So, I suppose it's a good problem to have, but when our new set of cookware arrived, we realized the one kitchen cabinet that was housing our cookware wasn't going to cut it anymore. The cabinet door would barely close, and that was only if you were really strategic about fitting the pots and lids in just the right way. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm far too anal about organization to let that be the case. A few days later, the light clicked - a pegboard wall!

:: Julia Child's kitchen, image courtesy of The Kitchen Designer, also a great article on Julia Child's kitchen ::

With recent Julie & Julia inspiration and reinforcement from Design*Sponge, I was convinced this would be a perfect solution. I love the practicality and the sense of utilitarianism that comes from a pegboard wall. I mean, isn't that really what a kitchen is all about? At least a kitchen where people cook? We have a wall in our kitchen that was completely underutilized and for the most part, wasted space. No longer, my friends.

Here's the before photo. See? Just a towel rack and a cute Charley Harper print (but that could find another home). A door opens right in front of that wall, so certainly no furniture could go there. We have a very awkwardly laid out kitchen, but it's ours and I love it. Some day it'll get a big overhaul, but not today. Today was about a dash of creativity and a bunch of DIY.

Because of the door and the tight space, we had to remove the wainscoting. Delicately... very delicately. This also made the wall one flat plane for easy installation of the pegboard. No need to paint the rest of the wall; the shadow the pegboard casts makes the back wall color indistinguishable.

We measured - measured again - made our cuts and installed the framing. You need the pegboard to stick out from the wall at least 1" in order for the pegs to maneuver properly. Seems like common sense, but I see how it could be an easy thing to forget. The old owners of our house did - we've got mostly unusable pegboard in the basement stairwell... oops.

Sam supervises and gives us plenty of kisses to counteract the inevitable swearing that comes with any home project. :-)

After cutting out a little jig-jag where our countertop extends (again, more measuring), we rough fit the pegboard. Since owning a home and doing mini projects like this one, we've learned to have the patience to always measure twice! Yay, a perfect fit! We spent $2 more on the white tempered pegboard, which saved me from having to prime it first.

Then followed two coats of paint. We stuck with the same sage green that was in the rest of the kitchen for a seamless look. I thought about using some fun, bright color, but hey, we already had the sage green and I like it, so sage green it was. Then we installed it... Here's where we ran into our first big snag. Screws did not work. Nope. They chewed up the pegboard as the screw went in, leaving a gnarly mess of particle all around the screw.... ew. I suppose we could have screwed into the pegboard holes, but we didn't want to compromise the security and strength of the pegboard.... those pots are heavy! Instead, we nailed in (ok, I only did 1, Jay did the rest) about a million and one paneling nails. These were great and sit nice and flush. Again, we used A LOT to ensure strength. I just went through and dabbed over the nail heads with paint and then rolled on one more coat for good measure... And here's the finished product!

We have a pretty kitschy 1950's kitchen (notice that lovely scalloping over the kitchen sink?), so the pegboard fits in perfectly I think. Probably wouldn't fit in so well if we had a new, contemporary, clean-lined stainless steel of a kitchen. Now our pots and pans (and other kitchen accoutrement) have a happy home and a place to proudly display their wear and hard work. This was a cheap and easy DIY project and I am still swooning over the results. If you want a great step-by-step DIY tutorial for a painted kitchen pegboard check out this post at the haystack needle.

yuck. my closet threw up.

2010-03-12T16:52:00.007-05:00

My friend Colleen of Truly Noted recently introduced me to the amazingly wonderful Young House Love website. I can't get enough. I'm hooked on their beautiful aesthetic and commitment to a simple, uncluttered, green lifestyle. (Look at their house tour right here.) And while I want our house to represent who we are and not look straight out of a catalog, I envy the catalog-like beauty of perfectly organized closets.

That is why when Sherry and John of Young House Love blogged about reorganizing and uncluttering their closets, I was right on board with them. I have been on "stay-cation" this week, so it was the perfect opportunity to spend the day in the hot mess that has become my closet.

I present to you, my disheveled, overflowing closet...

Now, there is NO excuse for this. Jay has so graciously let me have the entire master bedroom closet AND half of HIS dresser, plus my own. I should also mention I have off-season clothes and shoes stored in the basement. *sigh* Yes, I own a lot of crap. My intent is to weed out the crap and only keep what I like, what fits, and what I actually wear the most.

Behold, the after. Ah, I can breathe again.

No more off-season storage in the basement. It's all here. My drawers have breathing room. What, you mean it wasn't normal to have to squish my clothes down every time I closed a drawer?!

And this is what my closet threw up...

Yes, that amounted to the equivalent of 7 (count 'em s-e-v-e-n) huge trash bags worth of clothes, shoes, coats, bags, and jewelry (some only worn once or with price tags still attached - cringe!). I am still hanging onto all this stuff for a little while longer until we have a yard sale this summer. What can I say, I'd appreciate just a few bucks for those dresses with the tags still attached! Whatever is left will happily be donated to Goodwill!

:: this is perhaps my favorite little organizing doohickie ever. So simple and such a great use of otherwise unused space in the guest room closet. ::

Thanks, Sherry and John for inspiring me! This wasn't just an exercise in organization, but in simplifying! I still consider myself far from living without excess, but this was a major step and something I'm vowing to be continually conscious of.

floptastic is a fun word

2010-03-06T16:59:00.005-05:00

So much to catch up on! It's been over two months since my last post. Oh well... not gonna beat myself up over it. Someone said to me recently, "at any given point, we're doing the best we can." That totally struck home for me on so many levels.

Anywho, things have been good! Busy, as always, but good! Much of my spare time has been devoted to a photography class since the beginning of the year. Between shooting photos, developing film and spending (loads of) time in the darkroom, I've been keeping myself entertained for sure. I absolutely love this class... black and white film photography. Really learning the fundamentals and operations of a camera, which is important to me. So many people spend gobs of money on beautiful DSLRs but don't really know how to use them or keep them on automatic mode. Not me... I won't do that! I can't justify the cost until I can really manipulate the camera to make it do what I want it to. This is turning into a longer update than I thought. Basically, I'm loving exploring this art form and am excited for the rest of the semester (and to get a DSLR soon... hmmm, my birthday IS coming up!?).

In other news, not much crafting has been going on lately - and my Paper and Stitch Etsy shop has been completely neglected. *sad face* I did manage to squeak out my first bag towards the end of January though. I would deem it a success for my first try. I learned a lot and hope to apply my learnings to making more bags soon! This one took me 8 hours, so I'm hesitant to try another, but I know it will only get quicker the more I know what I'm doing.

Notes for next time:

Stiffer interfacing. The interfacing I used felt SO stiff when I was working on the bag, but now that I've worked it in some, it's too floppy-floptastic.
While I made it more complicated for myself by adding the outer/inner pockets and dual-fabric liner, I liked the look. Maybe next time I'll forgo those extra options to save myself the extra math, pressing, cutting, pressing, sewing, and pressing. ;-) Darn that pressing (it really does make a huge difference though).
Reinforce the strap bases. Not that this one is ripping, but sometimes I worry it might when I weight it down. Bad habit of overloading my bag!
Add reinforcement (thick rigid cardboard) insert into the bottom of the bag for rigidity and stability.
Add canvas for the base of the bag... feel like the cotton will get worn quickly.

My first bag was a great learning process and lots of fun. It's been so gratifying to get compliments on the bag from random strangers and then they ask me where I got it. ;-)

Other new discoveries since the beginning of the year:

Roller derby. Rocks. Period.
Green smoothies and raw food (courtesy of my friend and college roommate, Tracy and her husband Davy over at Incredible Smoothies.)
I'm ready for spring and sunshine.
Adele
Having a dog has changed my life. For realz. Is it crazy to say I'm a better person because of my dog?!

'til next time

reflections on 2009

2009-12-30T12:53:00.004-05:00

Wow, can't believe the year is gone already. Time for a new decade! Wow! It's been a busy year and a busier last 3 months since I "soft-launched" Paper and Stitch. It makes me so happy to share what I love with others. I am so grateful to have found welcoming, creative, energetic and helpful communities to be a part of and help me along in this journey. I plan to launch an official grand opening of Paper and Stitch in early 2010. These last few months have really helped me hone in on the process of it all and what it takes to be a one-woman show. It was easy to list items on Etsy, but then when I got my first sale, it made me think... ok, NOW what?! There is a lot to do between drawing patterns and shipping an item out the door! It allowed me to understand the steps and get a real grasp of the time demand on a handmade business.

I've been working diligently at establishing a brand in the social media sphere. You can find me here...

facebook
twitter
flickr (which I admit to vastly underutilizing)

But there are obvious avenues I've been neglecting... Like, I don't know... an email to friends and family would be smart! Hello?! Sometimes I admittedly forget that not everyone is hooked into social media. It's just the most convenient and quick way for me to reach people, but that doesn't mean I'm reaching all the people who may be most interested. Slap on wrist... lesson learned! :-)

I admit, working a very busy full-time (plus) job and finding time to devote to a business, let alone just sitting down to create is very difficult. Oh yeah, I have a husband, some semblance of a social life, and two adorable four-leggers who need my attention too. Some people think I'm nuts. Sometimes I agree. But mostly, I think I just like trying new things, keeping busy, and exploring my capabilities. I am so very grateful to have an amazingly supportive husband and ring of family and friends who keep me sane (that also means all of my online friends who I have never met in person, but are a steadfast source of energy and support!). I'm constantly (sometimes contentedly, sometimes not) searching for my place in this world and this mix keeps me going. I'm certainly not doing this to get rich, but I know that it feeds my soul and that's what it's all about, isn't it? I've learned so much and I look forward to learning more in 2010!

Cheers, 2009! It's been a good run!

big holiday shop update

2009-12-13T16:32:00.003-05:00

Check out all kinds of new goodies! There's a lot more in the shop, but here are a few teasers...

:: fabric circle calendars for 2010 (back by popular demand!) ::

:: snuggly patchwork fleece scarves ::

:: tweet-tweet bird ornament ::

:: sets of paper + stitched holiday cards ::

:: and a gratuitous picture of my table at the Champlain College craft fair last week. Thanks to Steve Mease for this picture and thanks to all of you who visited and supported my little business :-) ::

if you're a wallpaper chameleon like me...

2009-11-27T21:46:00.004-05:00

I am constantly changing the wallpaper on my computer. Constantly. At least once a week. Not sure what the fascination is, but my theory is that there are so many pretty and wonderful creations out there, how can I keep the same image up for more than a week?! I like to share the love.

Today I'm sharing my latest wallpaper catch from the uber-fabulous Vecteezy. This cheerful holiday wallpaper design was created by Clarice Gomes. It makes me happy! Until my next wallpaper A.D.D. moment, this beauty will grace my desktop.

le scoop

2009-11-24T22:10:00.013-05:00

Some exciting things have been abound recently. Here's the long overdue catch-up post!

1. I've been working really hard on creating lots of goodies for Champlain College's Craft/Bake/Book Sale on December 8th. (Sneak peek previews are throughout this post.) If you're on Facebook, you can find the event here. If you're not on Facebook, well by golly, why not?! Just kidding. The event is from 11am - 4pm in the Hauke Conference Room (Hauke building, Maple Street, Burlington). You'll find lots of crafts made by Champlain Staff, Faculty and Students, plus a bake sale with delicious treats, a book sale for delicious reads, and a raffle with delicious prizes! Stop on by if you're in the area and come visit me!

So far I've been working on patchwork scarves (on warm, cozy charcoal fleece), sewn gift tags, greeting card sets, and button tacks & magnets. Up on tap to work on over Thanksgiving break are more 2010 calendars, pillows, fabric covered notebooks, and more holiday paper goods.

(Making this list public helps me get it all done, so bear with me!).

2. I absolutely love having my Etsy shop and selling my goods. Packaging up orders has got to be one of my favorite parts. I have such a weakness for cute packaging. I'm really jonesing for some sweet Japanese masking tape. Maybe Santa will put some in my stocking. :-) After the Champlain College craft fair, I will be stocking up my Etsy shop again for the New Year. I had big hopes of doing an official grand opening of my shop in October and a big push for the holidays, but alas, I ran short on time and energy. I decided to not stress out about it and just do what I

can. I think I'll do an official launch mid-January to coincide with my two year blogiversary.

3. Today I was featured in a Treasury for the first time. Well, not me per say, but my 'ho-ho-ho' button greeting cards. It feels so awesome to have my stuff recognized this way. You can find the Treasury here until Friday. Thanks, NumericDesign for featuring me! (Really cool stuff in her shop, check it out!)

4. I discovered Nido in downtown Burlington last week. I walked in and felt instantly at home... all of my favorite things in one place. I felt how I imagine I would feel if I walked into Ink & Spindle (I have a huge crafty crush on Lara Cameron). Anyway, all I will say is that it is beautiful and I cannot wait to take a class there and hang out with modern craftistas! Who wants to go with me to the fabric printing workshop January 17th?!?! If you live anywhere close to Burlington and love designer fabric and lush yarn in a hip setting, this is the place to be.

5. I'll spare you all the puppy-love, but by God, I love our dog. He's the best. Nuff said.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I know I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I hope you can spend some time with those you love and are thankful for within the following days.

four-legged frenzy

2009-10-19T22:08:00.005-04:00

Ok, so I've been a bit MIA recently. Take a guess at why...

:: photo taken with Auntie Mary and Uncle Seth on Snake Mountain ::

Everybody, meet Sam. Sam, everybody.

:: on the car ride home to Vermont, coming from Connecticut ::

We just adopted Sam last week and he's quickly become an endless source of smiles and snuggles in our household. Sam is a 3-almost-4 year old black lab sweetheart and also our first dog, which means lots of adjusting for mom and dad.

:: more Snake Mountain fun with Seth & Mary (and Fisher, Kaisey, and Beaufort) ::

It's been a hectic week getting up to speed with taking care of a dog again for the first time since childhood, but what a fun week it's been. Lots of trips to the dog park, walks, meeting other furry friends and trying to make peace with Buster kitty. We're still working on that last one. Making progress everyday. If Buster would just stand his ground, Sam would get over him in a heartbeat, but alas, our kitty is a sissy.

:: at the dog park. super excited = super slobber ::

I'm excited for all the fun to come with this big lovable four-legged fur ball. He is just the sweetest and most well-behaved dog we could have possibly asked for. We got so lucky!

Happy tails to you!

fall into vermont

2009-10-04T21:53:00.005-04:00

I seriously do love this time of year here. It makes the harsh winters seem somewhat bearable when you can bask in the beauty that is Vermont in September and October.

Today we took a drive up to Boyden Valley Farm (home of my favorite local winery... maple wine, anyone?!) to the Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival. Yep, you read that right. We had high hopes for what sounded like an awesome fall festival, trebuchets and all, but perhaps our hopes were a little too high as we were a bit disappointed. Oh well. It was the first year, so we'll give it a shot again next year maybe. At least the $5/person entry fee was going to a good cause. We did have the opportunity to stock up on our favorite wines however and venture into quaint little Jeffersonville for lunch with our friends, Brian and Karri, who we see far too infrequently.

Here's Karri examining our ketchup, or lack thereof.

We decided to take the long way home and drive up through Smuggler's Notch to play "fall foliage tourist" for the afternoon. Stowe is always a pretty drive.

Gotta love driving through this part of the Notch.
One car at a time; wait your turn.

Days like today make me stop and think, "whoa, I live here," and I love every second of it.

the call of fall

2009-09-27T21:05:00.004-04:00

This rainy, chilly fall Sunday in Vermont inspired me to spruce things up a little for fall. Our hiking trip today was canceled, so amongst a long list of errands and chores, I managed to sneak away into the "craft cave" for a bit.

I've been longing to make some patchwork towels for myself since I first made some last Christmas as a gift. It's rare that I make anything and keep it for myself, so this was a treat!

I used my new batch of Moda Arcadia fabrics... perfect tones for fall!

They are now happily adorning my now very off-white looking cabinets. (Honey, is it time to paint the kitchen?) :-)

Which reminds me, I also used these delectable fabrics to make two linen pillows which got snapped up right away in my Etsy shop. I really do love this graphically bold line of fabric.

Here's to the beginning of crisp days, crimson leaves, bumpy gourds, sweaters and clogs! How I do love fall in Vermont. (Oooo, we also picked up some apple cider today from Cold Hollow Cider Mill... mmm.) What are your favorite fall muses?

so much fun, it's ridonculous*

2009-09-23T21:21:00.004-04:00

*"ridonculous" - courtesy of my coworker Ray (check out his gorgeous photos from a recent trip to Scotland!) :-)
-----
Yep, it's true. I am having so much fun with my paper and stitch Etsy shop, I can hardly take it. I'm sure there are tons of tips and tricks I haven't figured out yet, BUT the one I found today is a goldmine! For anyone who has an Etsy shop and doesn't already know about this splendid little hack - take note: http://www.etsyhacks.com/greasemonkey/copy_listing/ (Thanks, Ian! I'll be following you @etsyhacks on twitter.)

The ability to duplicate a current listing and still make changes and add new photos! Brilliant! Why Etsy doesn't offer this as a regular feature, I don't know. If you're a Firefox user, the add-on script is easy peasy and worked seamlessly for me. Such a time saver!

In other Etsy related news, here's a peek into my shop and what I listed tonight. Button greeting cards (some even for Christmas - ack!). Only 92 days... don't panic.

(Ok, is it me, or does that picture look like it is at angle?! I've checked over and over and it's not... the pesky angle of the cards is playing mind tricks with me.)

fabric, goats + geese

2009-09-20T22:04:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago, Spoonflower was doing a fundraiser/promo - they were giving away two free fabric swatches (of your own design) so customers could test out quality, printing, fabrics, etc. As part of the promo, they were fundraising for Heifer International, an organization that provides livestock, training and services to small farmers and communities around the world. Since I've always thought designing my own fabric would be awesome, this was the perfect opportunity to give Spoonflower a go and give a little charity at the same time!

I designed my first swatch in a new colorway of a design I made over a year ago and was previously in my blog header. Instead of using the creamy yellows and muted greens of the original design, I made this colorway more fall-like with a rich brown, deep blue, golden yellow, and popping orange... sure feels like fall to me. I ordered this sample in a bamboo-cotton blend- super soft and silky.

Because I've been having a rough time finding the just the right way to produce my own labels, I used this as a way to test out printing labels directly on fabric. I chose a nice thick upholstery weight cotton. Came out pretty spiffy - text is clear, colors are great, and I love the hefty feel of the fabric.

I couldn't believe how quickly the samples arrived and how high quality they were. I'll definitely be using Spoonflower in the future when I get up the gusto to make more designs. They also did a great job raising money for Heifer - see a video wrap-up here.

p.s. - my Etsy shop is up and running! Not fully stocked yet, but up and running nonetheless. I'll be listing new items frequently, so be sure to stop on by every now and again. Think about handmade for the holidays! :-) There is a link on the left sidebar of my blog, as well as a showcase of some of my items.

can it already be September?

2009-09-03T21:25:00.007-04:00

Scary, but 2010 is just around the corner... and you know what that means?! Snow? Yes. The very beginning of a looooong Vermont winter? Yes. The time to start fresh and make new goals? Yes. The need for a new calendar? Why, YES!

:: linen cardstock + fabric calendars, packaged in a cd jewel case which flips into a stand ::

I have a feeling 2010 is going to be a good year. I should refrain from getting ahead of myself here. It's still the beginning of September and summer just arrived a few weeks ago in Vermont, so I'm going to soak it up all I can.

September is prime celebration season in this household. Within just this one month are Jay's, 2 of our close friend's, my grandfather's, brother-in-law's, dad's, brother's AND mom's birthdays, our wedding anniversary, and anniversary of having our kitty (he deserves a "birthday" too!). I'm not kidding; it's pretty ridiculous actually. Good thing is, I get April all to myself. :-)

I don't think I've mentioned this on my blog before, but after helping organize last year's Craft/Bake/Book sale on our college campus, I vowed to have a vendor table this year. Last year was far to hectic, what with going to South Africa, opening a new Center, buying a house and life in general, but THIS year, I'm on it! Much of what you see here will be available at the Champlain College craft fair, for those of you locals (date TBD). After that fair, I'll be restocking and opening up my Etsy shop. I'm so excited for both!

Oh, and P.S. - yesterday I received my official business name registration from the State! Silly as it seems, it's rather exciting to have a piece of paper with a seal on it that says I own "Paper and Stitch"!

love me some leaf

2009-08-17T19:00:00.000-04:00

What does a girl do when she needs a new watch? Browse Etsy and buy a necklace, of course. Naturally.

I had an extreme case of impulse buying when I saw this gorgeous piece of jewelry, but I was good... I "sat" on it for over 24 hours. That's an accomplishment. I do have an addiction to pretty little things and Etsy is like crack.

Head on over to the very talented Darrah's shop and browse the other gorgeous designs of Otis B Jewelry. This one is a genuine Aspen leaf dipped in sterling with a freshwater pearl. Isn't it delicate? I LOVE the pearl detail at the clasp.

Simply divine... Seems I still haven't outgrown my leaf love. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those wear-all-the-time necklaces. Now, about that watch...

:: all images courtesy of Darrah Sikora/Otis B Jewelry ::

faux pro

2009-08-14T22:05:00.000-04:00

Yippee! I jumped on this deal the moment I saw it. I've been wanting to get a portable photo studio for a long time now and this was just too good to pass up. The kit comes complete with portable light-diffusing box which folds up into handy carrying case, reversible background, camera stand, 2 lights, and editing software. Score! Check this baby out:

And look what it can do! Hopefully this will help in getting a professional look to my photos.

:: vintage spools from mom's collection. sweet find, huh? ::

Lord knows, I would love to learn actual photography, but unfortunately that's not in the time or money cards right now. Cheers to being an amateur!

:: bucket o' keychains... for sale soon! ::

babies galore!

2009-08-10T20:23:00.003-04:00

Must be something in the air - lots of babies this summer... or maybe I'm just getting old and that's the norm these days. Hmph. Well, either way, I've been busy creating new designs for more appliqued baby onesies. Enjoy! (Sorry, again, for the craptastic photos. I just got a new toy (read: portable photo studio) so that should help!)

Pixel Pac-Man design is for a pair of twin boys. I couldn't help myself... just thinking of them sitting next to each other made me giggle.

Tutorial: Fabric-Covered Button Bracelet

2009-08-05T15:36:00.004-04:00

:: image courtesy of sew-mad ::

Found this amazing tutorial via CraftZine on Facebook and I just had to post. Made by the talented Katrin at sew-mad. My love of buttons grows more and more everyday. I love making fabric covered buttons and using them for all sorts of things, but never had I thought of a bracelet. Beautiful.

:: image courtesy of sew-mad ::

This is genius. Since I'm on a leisurely, few-plans staycation this week, I might go whip one up. You can find the tutorial here: sew-mad: Zugeknöpft?

late night smorgasbord

2009-07-30T00:14:00.005-04:00

Here's my first go at modifying a pattern similar to the passport covers; this is for full size composition notebooks. The fabric covers can be filled with new notebook inserts when you've filled up the pages of your first one.

There is a large pocket that runs all along the outside of the notebook, and smaller pockets on the inner front and back covers... perfect for holding business cards or little notes. The notebook cover is fully lined in brown twill and has pretty Amy Butler fabric and natural linen on the exterior.

I'm pretty happy with how this test run came out, however next time instead of adding the label to the inside of the notebook (which will most likely not always live with the cover) , I'll just slip a card into the inside pocket of the cover.

Which brings me to another dilemma... tags. I really want to be able to tag/label my items with my logo, but haven't found a sufficient resource for doing so yet. I've seen some tutorials about printing on twill tape or doing iron-on transfers, but I'm not sure those will stand the test of time, wash, and wear. Buying woven labels is pricey and not worth it for this stage in my business. Anybody have any ideas or resources they can share? Hoping to get an Etsy shop rolling by fall!

Other ideas for these notebooks could be adding applique to the front similar to the onesies (see posts here, here, and here), adding some sort of other embellishment (buttons!?), and maybe adding some interfacing to make them a bit stiffer and more "rugged". Thoughts?

Oh, also... thanks to the generous Clarice Gomes for the vector art in my new blog header! If you are looking for some great (free!) vector art, you can go to Vecteezy or to her website.

small bounty

2009-07-18T23:09:00.003-04:00

After all the rain we've been having here in Vermont, it was glorious to hit the Burlington Farmer's Market on this sunny Saturday morning. City Hall Park was buzzing with life and I overheard many a tourist saying, "Burlington is so cute" and "Isn't it awesome how many people buy local food?". Yes, on both accounts. It's mornings like this that remind me why I love it here so much.

Since Jay is away this weekend, I only needed to pick up a few things for myself. Behold my small (but beautiful) bounty.

Ginormous and sweet blueberries from Adam's Berry Farm, deliciously creamy goat cheese from Does' Leap, and wonderful red new potatoes, tomatoes, and fragrant basil from a farm whom I've forgotten their name...darn. To top it off, I treated myself to a little flower bouquet (with dill!), complete with tin can vase from The Painted Tulip. Love it. I had a skip in my step and a smile on my face after buying this... fresh flowers will do that to a girl.

If you haven't made the time to visit your local Farmer's Market yet this summer, hop to it... it's a morning well spent and it only gets better as the summer goes on. Oh, and it rained again later this afternoon. Figures.

new onesie designs

2009-07-10T14:42:00.005-04:00

I just love making onesies for not-yet-born little bubbies. They're so teeny and cute. These are some new designs I made for a custom order (thanks Corinn and Ray!).

The turtle, ladybug and dragonfly set was for Ray's sister, Jina (who is due ANY minute). Best wishes for a happy, safe and quick delivery!

I'm a bit late in posting these, as I made them months ago, but I wanted to make sure they were received first. Yeah, like on the off-chance they would have read this... hahaha, oh well. ;-)

All packaged up and ready to be loved...

something is fishy here...

2009-07-10T13:50:00.003-04:00

dessert sushi! sugar sushi! candy sushi! Whatever you wanna call it, it's yumm-o and super fun to make. I made these for a party this week (celebrating all the hard work of our team at the EMC on the Empowering Play: Preventing Violence Against Women project... *shameless plug* to help spread the word or donate, click here).

I found inspiration for these little pretties years ago at not martha, but had forgotten all about them until recently, when I also found great posts at Evil Mad Scientist and cucumbersome. Pardon the tres horrible photos... my kitchen has awful lighting.

Here's a list of supplies I used:

Twinkies
Zingers (Those raspberry Twinkie-like things with coconut on the outside)
Ladyfingers (SO glad I ran into these in the bakery; they worked awesome)
Marshmallows
Vanilla icing
Shredded coconut
Fruit Roll-ups/Fruit by the Foot (Good luck finding green; it wasn't as easy as I'd hoped)
Some sugary sour apple rope stuff (dunno, found it in the candy store)
Swedish Fish-like knockoffs
Dried fruit & nuts (mango, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, choc. covered sunflower seeds)
Colored nonpareils

I'd highly encourage you to give these a shot. They were pretty easy once you do a couple and wicked fun to make; not to mention shopping for all the "forbidden" sweets! You can totally let your imagination go crazy with ingredients, combinations, and presentations. Have fun!

These little babies were my personal favorite (probably cause they had the most icing!). I was skeptical, but pleasantly surprised at how good everything tasted all together. I confess, many fish were harmed in the making of this recipe.

if i ever have a kiddo...

2009-07-02T18:35:00.004-04:00

... THIS will be his/her nursery. Seriously. Is it not fabulous?! Done by Megan Carty from Megan Creates; found on Design*Sponge today. Click here for 'Before' and more 'After' shots.

:: image courtesty of Design*Sponge ::

I love everything about it. And oooh! I just noticed! I have those Charley Harper memory cards. Yeah, it was definitely meant to be. ***filing this away in the inspiration vault***

10 reasons why i love my job

2009-06-24T21:07:00.002-04:00

we want YOU

2009-05-16T09:49:00.003-04:00

For the Craft Corps. Craft Corps is a site and community which celebrates the modern craft movement and each week features a different crafter. Craft Corps is also a book by Vickie Howell which will feature over 30 influential crafters and their stories, to be released in May 2010. Join!

queen city loot! woot!

2009-05-09T23:00:00.008-04:00

Happy day! (rainy day, but happy day) First and most importantly, today was Champlain College's graduation, so a big, huge congrats to all the graduates today!!! Secondly, today was the Queen City Craft Bazaar. I have always been meaning to go but never quite got around to it, so I made it a point to go this year. Impressive! I love seeing tons of local indie craft in one handy place for my shopping pleasure. I scored some great loot! Check it out:

This card is dedicated to all of you seniors (ack, alumni) who I will miss so much!

:: wood type notes by May Day Studio ::

I HAD to have these fabric earrings. It was love at first sight. The print, the stitching, the grommets... yes!

:: by the talented Kacey Freel-Boone of subsixstudios ::

I couldn't decide between these and the fabric earrings, so I picked up both! I couldn't help myself. They're so snaz!

:: also by Kacey Freel-Boone of subsixstudios ::

Me and buttons. I can't get enough. After the strenuous project that was the button coaster, I vowed never to weave buttons again. I was glad to pay for this fun and quirky bracelet and snagged up the sweet hair elastic as well.
:: by Stacie Mincher Designs ::

My only regret is that I couldn't splurge more! The show displayed a great pool of talent and I'm so glad I made it down this year. I honestly could have bought something unique and amazing from every single crafter there! Too bad money doesn't fall from the sky like the rain did today. Thanks to all the crafters and organizers for putting on a great show!

thanks a button

2009-05-07T19:26:00.004-04:00

I made these note cards as a customer 'thank you' gift a couple weeks ago. I've been lovin' on purple and green a lot lately and I'm always lovin' on buttons, so I thought why not?

You can download the file here, just print and add your own snazzy button (stamp, photo, paper, bead, candy, mini-Oreo cookie... whatever!). Have fun!

truly noted giveaways

2009-05-04T12:22:00.004-04:00

A couple of awesome giveaways over at the Truly Noted blog. Check 'em out and enter. Yay for Made in Vermont!

Beautiful notecards by Colleen Kuerth of Truly Noted :: see post for details on how to enter.

:: image courtesy of Truly Noted ::

A gorgeous watercolor painting by Kelly Todd of All Things Simple :: see post for details on how to enter. Wahla! I just entered myself by posting this link... you should too!

:: image courtesy of Truly Noted ::

think (summer) tank

2009-04-28T22:18:00.004-04:00

The tease of summer has been upon us with 70- and 80-something degree days lately. Normal temperatures this time of year in Burlington are around 60. Needless to say, we've been spoiled... and me - lacking in summer attire. I endlessly get tired of my clothes. It's a bad (and expensive) habit, I know. I've gotten a lot better in the last several years, but the change in season always gets me pining for something new. Forget thinking spring, I'm thinking summer!

I saw this over on CraftyPod during her review of the book, Sew Darn Cute and the necklace tank just called to me. You can see my obvious inspiration for this one. Prettied up with a mish-mash of limey, bluey, and orangey Amy Butler prints.

This was a super easy and fast project. Done just like the applique onesies - heat n' bond, stabilizer (that's the secret weapon!) and sewn for good measure. My only (but big) oopsie on this project was that my iron had a chunk of heat n' bond still left on the plate and when I went to iron for the first time, it left a nice plastic-y mess all over the tank. Oh well. I scrubbed and washed and dried and it still didn't come off.... so, I colored it with Sharpie. Ha! Less noticeable than a whitish plastic film, no?

I just finished up a couple of other projects which I'll post about soon. Work has been wicked busy, as it's the end of the academic year and there is tons of stuff going on. Fun stuff, but time consuming nonetheless. That, plus I am readying myself to start up my MBA program in 3 weeks and head to San Antonio for a conference at the same time. Trying to get as much crafting done as possible before I officially no longer have a life. xo.

la vita bella

2009-04-14T22:16:00.005-04:00

Alas, here is a snippet of the amazing times, beautiful art, rich history, natural wonders, tremendous food and unforgettable people we encountered in Italy. This was truly an adventure of a lifetime. I'll sound like a total sap if I go on and on about what a truly fabulous, fabulous time we had and how awesome it was to be integrated into the culture and people, of Cortona especially. It meant so much to me to do this with my mom and a million thanks to Patty for giving us the opportunity to do so. I'll spare you all the details, but know this: if you ever, EVER get the chance to visit Italy, do it. In two weeks, I know we only scratched the surface, but it's a surface I will always remember.

I took well over 1000 photos, so picking a select few to post here was difficult to say the least. A complete collection (with organized sets and some captions... whoo!) can be found here if you ever find yourself home alone, on a Saturday night, while your cat is sleeping, facebook is boring you, and there's nothing good on tv: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperandstitch/

ciao italia

2009-03-17T13:09:00.006-04:00

Well internet, it's time to say goodbye for a couple of weeks. Off to Italy I go! Mom and I are taking a mother-daughter trip to visit Tuscany and Rome. Our flight leaves first thing tomorrow morning from Albany, but Jay is being a dear and driving me down to mom's house this afternoon. Thus, much packing and last minute coordinating ensues! I couldn't help but get one last blog post in before I left.

Due to the overwhelming generosity of my mom's friend, Patty who is living in Cortona for the winter and my popop, who so graciously bought my plane ticket as a Christmas/birthday gift, I am a very, very lucky girl. Of course, I'll miss my hubby dearly, but he has plenty of good friends and Call of Duty to keep him company while I'm away. :-)

Here is a sneak peek of the villa Patty is renting, where we'll be staying for 8 days in Tuscany. Amazing, right?! We'll be taking day trips to Florence, Pisa and Siena.

:: images courtesy of rentvillas.com :: see more here!

Then Mom and I will take the train back into Rome and spend 4 days touring the city. So far on tap is an Italian cooking session (including market shopping, meal prep, and eating of course!), a tour of the Vatican/St. Peter's Basilica/etc, and a trip to the Colosseum. We're leaving the rest of the time open for exploration. Design*Sponge has a great trip advisor on hip, crafty, designerly-like places to visit, so you can bet those are high on my list! Of course, there are a million other places to see in Rome, but we just won't have the time. We'll save the rest for when Jay and I go.

So, I'm signing off... I'll be back in the groove on April 1st. No internet for 14 days... phew. That's by choice, not lack of connectivity. It'll be nice to break away from the computer screen and hustle bustle of technology for a while. I'm sure to have tons of pictures and stories to share when I get back. (Remember this beautiful journal that's coming with me?!) Until then... ciao!

cutest t-shirt ever

2009-03-12T21:49:00.000-04:00

I totally had to snag one of these the moment I saw them! Thank you, Craftster for bringing the awesomeness once again. All of my friends know my "I Heart Craftster" sweatshirt is my weekend staple... It's totally coming with me to Italy, no matter how totally non-European it looks.

Cuteness abounds! Run out and grab one. Wait. Don't run. Walk your little fingertips right over here. Other designs available too: Sew in Love, Knitting Takes Balls, I'm the Shiz-Knit - Crochet is the Cro-Shit! Viva la handmade!

:: Images courtesy of Craftster Online Store ::

winter walk

2009-03-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

The weather last week here in Vermont was beautiful... sunny and mid 40's. Perfect for an afternoon walk. Luckily right outside our windows at the Champlain Mill is a great river walk.

I looked at this and all I could see was.... "huh". Huh. Snow typography.

Followed by some defacing of public property. (But I loved the pop of yellow in the gray landscape!) Anybody know what this means? It's not some gang sign or something, I hope.

i love a little ric-a rac-a

2009-03-09T20:17:00.005-04:00

Fun, quicky little project... good for when you're watching movies (or want to be in the same room as your husband when he's playing hours on end of Call of Duty 4). ;-) Ric rac dahlia brooch tutorial found at madewithlovebyhannah.

All you need is felt, ric rac, thread, needle, pinback and your choice of center piece (pom pom, button, etc). I covered a button in some cute fabric for this one.

I want to make more! They are so fun and easy to make. I can imagine lots of applications for these. Give one a try.

design + print your own fabric

2009-02-27T17:25:00.004-05:00

If you haven't yet discovered Spoonflower, it's time! I have read mixed reviews so far, but I can't help but want to give it a whirl. It would make me feel all Amy-Butler-like. Fancy. With no minimum order (bonus!) and $18/yard, it seems pretty reasonable.

Watch this little diddy and visit their website for more info:

The Fabric of the Week feature is pretty fun too!

sproost it up

2009-02-22T20:03:00.004-05:00

I found this fun quiz on How About Orange and thought it was fun! Check it out to learn about your decorating style. It's pretty on point - how did they know I love flea markets?!

What's your decorating style?

the wonder-webs

2009-02-15T21:24:00.003-05:00

So, judging from this post you might think that webcams were just invented yesterday. Seriously. We had a wonderful trip to visit my Aunt Joanne, Uncle Tim, Cousin David (hi guys!), and Dad and Nancy. Unfortunately, my Cousin Andrew couldn't make it home from college but we chatted via video online.... Do you see where this is going?! Yes!

You would think Jay and I have been living under a rock to not know exactly how cool it is to be able to have video conversations with people over the interwebs. Jay had the brilliant idea of seeing if our PS EyeToy could become a webcam. A driver download later and some finagling and we were in business! We Skyped my Aunt and Uncle and because I had everything hooked up to the laptop, I was able to give them a tour of our new house. It was the bee's knees.

Anywho, I messed around with Movie Maker some and now I'm just making really silly stuff. Like this. Coming soon to a computer screen near you, "Buster Machine... Doo doo doo".

P.S. - I highly recommend this "new fangled" technology! If you're on Skype... add me!
P.P.S. - On a crafty note, the fam was cleaning out the garage and I was generously donated a HEAP of delightful fabrics, yarns, glitters, wood, and other goodies. Yay!

love is in the air... love. and cupcakes.

2009-02-13T23:02:00.006-05:00

While I'm not big on the consumerism hype of Valentine's Day, I AM a big fan of red and pink.... and love. Yeah, that's pretty good stuff too. ;-) I am up way too late right now, when I should be sleeping because Jay and I are leaving bright and early tomorrow to head down to my aunt and uncle's house for a weekend visit. I spent the evening baking strawberry cupcakes to bring with us. The house was filled with an unnatural scent of strawberry Nestle Quik.

All sorts of pink yumminess! I didn't have enough muffin tins to bake all the cupcakes at once and I'm far too lazy to bake two batches, so I poured the extra into a cake round (that one's for us....shhh!). We indulged around 10 pm and now we're pretty wound for sound. I must say, it came out moist and delish.

Even though we decided not to "do" Valentine's Day this year (we're saving for a bunch of other expenses right now), Jay brought home this cutie patootie little frog from Lake Champlain Chocolates. White chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, delivered by my handsome husband - a perfect treat! A perfect treat that didn't last long. Thanks, sweetheart. I love you more each and every day. You are my absolute best friend and if I keep on going, I will sound like a Hallmark card. xo.

Check out this sweet site, iloveyoumorethanblank.com (found via oh joy!). I submitted one in honor of Jay: "I love you more than Double Stuf Oreos and cold milk." And that's a WHOLE lot. Hope you are spending some time this weekend with those you love... we shouldn't need Valentine's Day to remind us of that.

what is this world coming to?

2009-02-03T21:42:00.004-05:00

http://www.craftypod.com/2009/02/02/paris-does-cha/

Paris Hilton is starting a craft line. Yes. You read that correctly.

Please don't throw up all over your keyboard.

:: image via www.craftypod.com ::

video games live

2009-01-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

If you're even a remote fan of video games and the Video Games Live show comes to a town near you - go! Although I'm not a huge gamer (I prefer simple classics and all things Mario), my husband is a big gamer and I work with college students studying game design, art, and programming... you could say I'm exposed and "know the lingo". Hence, I was pretty excited to hear that this show was coming to Burlington.

Video Games Live is a muse for the senses. Live orchestra and choir, light show, video and interactive audience participation all make up the show and leave you wanting more. Ok, enough of my "review jargon". Visit the website and see for yourself. Unfortunately, my photos don't do it justice and my recorded videos are huge files, so here I've decided to post some pictures of the beautiful lighting designed for the show. The way they used the intricate styling of the Flynn Theater's walls was awesome.

See? I luuuurved it. And if you're skeptical about video game music as an art form... take a look and listen. (from the Burlington, VT performance 1.17.09)

corinn's birthday bash

2009-01-26T19:31:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Corinn!

Yesterday was our friend Corinn's birthday and Saturday night her hubby (and my co-worker), Ray organized a group of friends for a birthday bowling outing! The evening started off with ice cream and a freakin' gorgeous cake, homemade by Ray. Isn't it beautious? It was an extra bonus that it was delish too.

"You see guys, it's all in the spin. That's what separates me from you mere mortals."

We had a great time completely sucking at bowling. Jay and I have come to realize that a high score in Wii bowling is far more attainable than the real-life stuff. Regardless, the games were good and the company was better. No wait. The SHOES were better.

As a small gift, I made the old lady (just kidding!) a set of fabric magnets in Amy Butler prints and a fabric cut-out birthday card. These are some of my favorite gifts to make. I hope she enjoys them!

A tutorial for these fabric-covered button magnets can be found here. Except I don't use hot glue... I use E6000, the best glue ever. That stuff could adhere a sumo wrestler to a mack truck.

charley harper-licious

2009-01-25T19:54:00.005-05:00

After hearing much buzz about the Charley Harper memory game at Old Navy several weeks back, I made my way downtown to seek out the box of little chipboard beauties. Lo and behold - none. Darn. I scoured the interwebs and Amazon saved the day.

:: image from barnesandnoble.com ::

This arrived in the mail a few days later. I was ecstatic, yet feeling rather torn. Do I open the box, swoon over all the cards (36 pairs of different illustrations!!) and then bury them away like stolen treasure? Or do I actually play with them and run the risk of denting/scratching/dirtying them? In the end, I decided to at least give the cards one good run before I squirreled them away for some future crafty use (like this great idea from another blogger named paper and stitch - ironic!). Jay and I played over dinner and now comes the gloating - I kicked ass. I coveted 32 out of the 36 pairs by the game's end. I guess that whole memory thing isn't really his strong suit. That's ok. He makes up for it by washing the dishes.

Just so happens that on my way down to Old Navy that day I stopped at Silver Maple art shop in Burlington and much to my delight there was an oh-so-cute Charley Harper greeting card that I scored cheap with a post-holiday sale. Sweet! I ended up framing the card and the little cardinal now sits on our kitchen wall.

I've had my Charley Harper fill now... at least for a while... until I save up my pennies for this.

happy day, america!

2009-01-20T11:14:00.005-05:00

History is made today...
No matter what side of the fence you are on. Be proud.
:: image from http://www.obamainauguralprints.com/# ::

giveaways galore

2009-01-14T22:22:00.004-05:00

Two of my favorite bloggers are holding awesome giveaways this week. I'd tell you not to sign up for them to give me better odds, but that would just be mean now, wouldn't it?

Check out Anna Maria Horner's new collection, Good Folks. Tell her what you think of as "good" and you'll be entered to win a stack of her new fabrics... like some from this beautiful "adriatic" palette. You've got about a week or two to enter.

:: image from annamariahorner.blogspot.com ::

Another awesome giveaway is over at Shim + Sons. Sally is offering up THREE copies of Handmade Hellos, which features one of her projects. This book looks perfect for a greeting card junky like me. Drawing is January 18th!

Now, off with you! Win some schweet schwag!

bird is the word

2009-01-10T18:06:00.000-05:00

Birds have been a big deal in design lately. They're everywhere... and why not? They're beautiful, classic, and somehow lend a sense of comfort and calm. In my grandma's craft stash, I found a magazine page torn from a November 1997 issue of Women's Day. Ok, not the most intriguing of finds... until I gave it a closer look and saw the beginnings of a cool project. The page laid out a craft project creating a garland of flat felt birds and stars strung with beads.

While the garland idea didn't really strike my fancy, the bird did. Feeling inspired, I massaged the existing pattern, added a gusset, layered wings and gave it my own style. Thus, after much frustration in creating my own gusset pattern, this little birdie was born.

I think he's rather charming. Right now he's flying overhead in my craft room, but I see definite potential for Christmas ornaments, package embellishments and who knows what else.

time sweet time

2009-01-02T17:49:00.001-05:00

Holy cannoli, blog! How I’ve neglected you so. I have no good excuses for not updating, other than the fact my life has been pretty nutty as of late and has just recently calmed down. I hope to keep it that way… tidal waves can be invigorating, but also downright draining. Here’s a sampling of what’s been up over the last 4 months. I’ll spare full details as this post will be entirely too long anyway.

Traveled to South Africa for a week to conduct research for the EMC Game to End Gender Violence Project. There are not enough words or pictures to describe our amazing experiences, but we tried.
The EMC uprooted our small garage-band operation and moved to a stellar custom-designed space in the historic Champlain Mill in Winooski. You can see Ann's blog posts about our move and new space here and here. We also held a huge Grand Opening celebration that was a huge success.
Jay and I bought our first home at the end of September, sold one vehicle and I became a fan of public transport. The location is super convenient to everything and we love the house and all of its kitschy 1950’s quirks. Plenty of room for the two of us and Buster kitty (and a puppy in the spring!). Projects were abundant, but most of them are completed now (yippee!).
Celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary mid-move, covered in dust and paint, eating take-out seafood on our new dining room floor. We were exhausted and sleep-deprived, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Lots of dinner parties and entertaining at the new digs, including hosting our first Thanksgiving. Complete with 17 guests it was awesome but a hella-lotta work. I truly love hosting people in our home... all the prep and presentation, not to mention the company, is always so fun!
We rounded out 2008 with our signature whirlwind Christmas schedule… logging over 13 hours and 800 miles in the car, hitting 4 states, and 8 gatherings in 3 days. Needless to say we were pooped, but it just wouldn’t be Christmas without our amazing family and friends.

Ok, are we all caught up now? Good… on with the show. I should mention two things – 1) I’m lucky enough to have a big craft room in our new house and 2) I’ve had the last two weeks off from work to celebrate the holidays and recoup. So, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in my play space and here’s what I’ve made.

Baby Onesies: These were actually made a while ago, but I haven’t posted about them yet. These two sets were made on custom order… one set with yummy foods, the other with cute insects. I love making these.

Dishtowels: Patchwork with Heather Bailey Freshcut fabric on microfiber dishtowels. A gift for my stepmother.

Apple Stuffie: Just because I felt like it.

Oreo Truffles: Made for a bake/craft sale at work (which I am determined to have a table at next year). These are delish and super easy!

Holiday Goodies: Cranberry Almond Bark and White Chocolate Crescents for family and friends.

Stocking Gift Card Holders: Because if I’m gonna give a gift card, it had at least be cute.

Table Runner and Napkin Set: This is a housewarming gift for friends of ours. Logan, if you’re reading, these are SO not for you (*wink*). Heather Bailey Pop Garden fabric and natural linen.

Ok, well I think that about does it. I have a ton of other projects on my to-do wish list and I vow that I will be better about updating in 2009. It’s going to be a great year! I’m resolving to slow down, to take more time this year to take care of myself and appreciate the people and things I have surrounding me which I so often take for granted. Here’s wishing you a heartfelt 2009!

check it out

2008-08-28T21:15:00.002-04:00

Ok, I don't have much internet time... I'm in South Africa. Check out our blog for awesomeness. Trust me.

http://emc-gamestakeonvaw.blogspot.com

awestruck and exhausted

2008-08-16T00:59:00.004-04:00

(Sorry folks, no pictures tonight, just rambles…)

So here it is, 1 a.m. and I’m writing a blog titled “awestruck and exhausted”. If you’re so exhausted, Sarah, why are you not SLEEPING?! The answer is simple: my mind is racing and pacing in 101 different directions. So much to do and think about and 1 a.m. is a rather quiet and calm time to garner some focus. I passed out on the couch for a cat nap around 8 p.m., so I'm good to go. So far, I’ve tried to keep this blog focused on my crafty endeavors, but I just can’t hold back my ramblings on other aspects of my life anymore. Personal and professional blahdy blah to follow. Lucky you.

I am in awe of how much my life has changed since assuming my role at the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College. I LOVE it. L-O-V-E it. In the past, I have only imagined being one of the lucky few to say that I loved my job, but here at 26 years old, I am able to say I have found meaningful, exciting, and utterly gratifying work. I won’t go into details about what the EMC and our mission is all about. For those of you who don’t know – its freaking awesome, so check out our website for the background info. The guts of our work (and by “our” I mean a MASSIVE amount of student effort and dedication in addition to us staff members) is so powerful, so full of heart, and at the risk of sounding totally cliché – so world changing… life changing.

It all sounds too good to be true, right? I know, but it’s not. Case in point – a team of 18 of us (students, staff, and faculty… and Corinn – Hi Corinn!) are traveling to South Africa to conduct extensive research for a project that is being funded by the United Nations Population Fund. The EMC has received a grant to create an electronic game for young boys in developing nations targeting at preventing violence against women. See what I mean? Life changing. This is a complex and very difficult challenge and we know that. It’s not going to happen overnight, but the power of the students is incredible… something you have to witness to really understand. Without rambling on too long, I’ll end the topic with this… Countdown to South Africa – 6 days!! Over the weekend I’ll be posting awesome blog link sidebars regarding this project and other projects at the EMC. And on the crafty front, I can't wait to see what is in store in South Africa!

Next on my mind… (without jinxing myself here) we are in the process of buying our first house!! Excitement abounds! Not to give out too many details, because we’re still crossing our fingers, you never know what could happen until it’s a sealed deal at closing. All I can say is that the home buying process is a lot of work and you’d better have a flexible work schedule for all these meetings! (Thanks boss for being super!) Haha. Pending all goes well (send positive vibes our way PLEASE!), we’re set to close on September 22nd, our one-year wedding anniversary… isn’t that sickly sweet?

So, ya know… not much on my mind other than events of earth-shattering, life changing proportions. Oh and we’re uprooting the EMC and moving to a brand new space (which is amazingly fabulous and built just for us)! Ann and I picked out the color palette today and its going to look ridiculously splendid.

So much happening… so many things to think about… so many things to do… SO many good reasons to be awestruck and exhausted.

project office-beautify

2008-08-03T15:33:00.008-04:00

See that lovely floral mousepad in my etsy bar to the left? Yes? Good. Now, look below. Ah, yes... the same floral mousepad somehow jumped off the shim + sons etsy shop page and right into my hot little hands. The magic of the internet.

I love this gem. I love just about everything ever created by Sally Shim. Her style is beautifully delicate, simple, modern and clean. I love it. Did I mention I l-o-v-e it?

One must admit, the oh-so-aesthetically-pleasing gray Dell mousepad is classic, but I was ready to rebel. This colorful beauty will accompany me to my new office space next month (pending all goes well with construction and the move, but that's another story). I figured if I have to look at a mousepad for 8+ hours a day, at least it could look nicely back at me.

summer sweats

2008-08-03T14:11:00.005-04:00

I've finally succumbed to the practicality of coasters. I'm usually not a really big coaster person. It doesn't bother me if our wooden table tops develop a few rings. We're young marrieds saving our pennies for a first house and all of our furniture is either secondhand, re-purposed or inexpensive. What does bug me is a sopping wet puddle left on the side table just calling for me to cluelessly set my book or magazine in it. Instead, I thought cute coasters would save the day. And indeed they did.

Alexander Henry "apples + pears" :: light pink ticking :: fusible interfacing :: backed with natural linen

Easy, fun and completed in one sitting... my kind of project.

cinched up and ready to go

2008-07-27T09:37:00.007-04:00

In my quest to find a good jewelry bag for upcoming travel, I stumbled across a tutorial I had kicking around in my craft room for an Origami Drawstring Bag. The tutorial, from mylittlemochi, was super easy to follow. If you're a beginner and you want to whip up a cute handy bag, give this a shot.

The major benefit to this origami style bag versus a regular drawstring bag is that it creates pockets automatically - simply because of the origami folding technique. I made the variation that has the pockets on the inside of the bag so I could make sure all my jewelry will stay neat and organized.

how wonderful life is

2008-07-22T00:38:00.004-04:00

So this is not my typical crafty post. I did, however, get the chance tonight to witness a man who is a true master of his craft. Elton John, live in concert, here in little old Vermont. Vermont rounded out his mission to perform in all 50 states by pulling up the rear. We may have been last, but those of us in the sea of 10,000 strong certainly didn't get the short straw. You may notice it's almost 1 am as I write this post... that's how jazzed and energized I still am after seeing him. On a normal night I would have long since been asleep.

I spent the evening with two of my favorite ladies, Katherine and Donna, dancing, laughing, and singing at the top of our lungs. It's always sure to be a fun night with those two. For the beginning of the night we somehow assumed atrocious French accents and must have been horribly annoying to anyone within earshot, but... meh. The night progressed with Sir Elton himself, decked out in red tuxedo stripe pants and a sparkling flashy black coat with tails. He truly is a remarkable performer. He brought the crowd from near tears performing "Candle in the Wind" to full-on jumping and shouting to "Bennie and the Jets" - all in a matter of seconds. You know it's a good concert when you pay 100 bucks for a seat you never actually sit on.

The night came to what seemed like a quick close, although Elton had performed for a full two and a half hours already. It was pretty amazing to see how one person can affect so many people. I stared around, smiling, looking at all the faces of young and old who were laughing, crying, singing, staring on with deep connection to a man they didn't really know. Wow. It was quite a magical evening. For what was supposed to be a rainy night, it turned out absolutely perfect... calm and cool, with one star shining amazingly bright.

(Oh, and Katherine may have gotten stuck in a fence while trying to squeeze through it as we were searching for our car. And I may just have a picture of that hilarious incident coming soon... emailed from the camera phone of the security guard who helped get her unstuck. Just maybe.) ;-)

:: Update :: There she be!

not your average piece of pottery

2008-07-19T20:15:00.007-04:00

Our field trip to Shelburne Museum last week yielded so many cool photos and amazing sights. There were a few artists and exhibits in particular that peaked my interest and plain ol' amused the hell out of me. Here's something from the Growing Green exhibit at the Kalkin House that gave us a good chuckle. Ok, no. More than that. A belly laugh.

After much Googling, I found these are the works of designer Tristan Zimmerman. They are part of a 4-piece collection of planters displaying scenes you could stumble across while roaming through a city park. The scale of the figurines elevates your normal sized houseplant to have the feel a full grown tree.

The full collection features a mugger, a flasher, a lost salesman, and um, a couple having some fun. Check out the other planters here. Classic.

The contemporary art in the Kalkin House was awesome to say the least. In fact, the entire Kalkin House (which is made out of trans-oceanic shipping containers and other reused warehouse materials) was sweet.

I would love to live in a funky space like this... modern, clean, semi-industrial, yet surprisingly liveable and made mostly out of recycled products. Very cool. Work by plush artist Joshua Longo, which is showcased in the Kalkin House, is totally awesome (at the risk of sounding like-totally-80's) and I will feature it in an upcoming post.

pretty pretty passport

2008-07-15T19:33:00.014-04:00

I stumbled upon a great passport sleeve tutorial from the clever Jessica of bunnybum. I modified the pattern a bit and added a pocket which extends around the outer and inner parts of the sleeve... and added some buttons, because buttons are love.

Her tutorial is clear, concise and very easy to follow (and in very cute paper + photo format). And her measurements are spot on. My passport is now cozily snuggled and protected.

what a week

2008-07-12T22:54:00.008-04:00

As I previously mentioned, I've had a rather extended fourth of July holiday. It has been filled with marvelous doses of summer and free time...

barbecues with friends :: long walks :: bike rides :: sorting through grandma's craft stash :: picnics :: comfy summer dresses

margarita lunch with girlfriends :: lots of sewing :: Flight of the Conchords :: amazing art and architecture at Shelburne Museum

summer flowers :: Snowfarm concert :: Boyden Valley Winery (with the best dessert wine I've ever tasted) :: bloglines catch up :: real ice cream :: new friends and old friends

Raving Rabbids II :: long chats with far away family :: lots of laughing :: s'mores and bonfires :: lakeside summer reading

Just one day left and then it's back to work... which is actually ok... I kind of miss it. It's the first time in my life I can say that. I like it.

ciao bella

2008-07-09T18:02:00.008-04:00

Check out these gorgeous handmade journals I bought on etsy. Aren't they absolutely divine? I am lucky enough to be traveling to Italy in the spring with my mother... so excited!! A very generous friend of hers is renting a house in Cortona, Tuscany for 3 months and invited us to come stay. A girls trip to Rome, Cortona, Florence... lots of memories to be made for sure.

I decided an experience like this needs to be documented. What better way than with high quality handbound journals depicting the trip destination?

This beauty came from the very talented kissandtellcards. She also creates extremely well designed wedding invitations.

Just what I wanted to capture all my musings and adventures. Can't wait to put pen to paper!

Why two journals? Well, this one is for my mom. This was crafted by Beetlelady Books. She specializes in handbound journals and does beautiful work. Although I ordered the book with straight stitching, she coptic stitches all sorts of neat designs like zig zags.

I ordered them both with heavy blank paper so they can not only be written journals of our adventures, but visual as well. Sort of a scrapbook on the go is what I'm envisioning.

I surprised my mom with it so she can start to record her excitement for the trip as well. She loved it! Thanks again to both of these very talented crafters for creating these amazing pieces of art that will be much loved in and out of Italy.

summer stitchery

2008-07-05T10:00:00.002-04:00

It was time to freshen up our same old boring couch pillows with some new ones, dressed up with a summer flair! I'm kind of neurotic about changing decor in the house (hubby just doesn't understand). Things need to fit right with the season and I get bored looking at the same stuff all the time, what can I say?!

Made with simple, crisp natural linen and a bright heavyweight cotton print. They're not as fluffy and comfy as I'd like, but I just recovered some really old extra throw pillows that had lost their bounce. I think they'll do just nicely... for now. :-)

buzz buzz

2008-07-01T17:25:00.012-04:00

Busy, busy. But what else is new, right? I have been keeping a *wish list* of fun projects I want to get to someday (including things like bookplates, bookmarks, flat notecards, magnets, everyday cards, new onesie designs, packaging ideas, etc, etc). It looks like I'll get to tackle a fair amount of them next week.

Why? Because this girl is going to be on vacation for 10 straight days... that's right, 10! Woohoo! My darling husband has taken a couple of days off too, even though it's not easy for him to do. We're going to stay local (and save gas!) and travel to some touristy places we've never been to, because, well... we're locals. On the docket is Shelburne Museum ,which is now harboring some beautiful Mary Cassatt pieces until October. Also, I'm particularly excited about this exhibit and this exhibit! We're also thinking about hitting up the Echo Lake Aquarium and Science Center; basically because we're geeks and I like their gift shop. (oooh, I just looked at their current exhibit - the physics of human body movement! I can dance with my shadow and email it to people! I love interactive exhibits!). I'm link-happy today, can't you tell?

During my non-tourist trampsing time, I hope to be logging some joyful hours in my craft room and on the computer. I've drawn up patterns for two custom orders of some new onesie appliques, which I'm excited to start picking out fabric for. I also can't wait to spend some time drawing some new graphic design ideas for bookplates and notecards in Illustrator.

In other news, a quick trip to Connecticut this weekend yielded 4 bags of craft supplies from my grandmother. They've downsized and were looking to give it all a good home. Cue me, stage right. After a quick glance through, there are some promising prospects - beautiful beads, shells, lace, ribbon (oh, the ribbon!), and tasteful faux birds (which are just begging for a project like this!). Some supplies might travel Donation Road, but I'll be happy they're in a good home. :-) Let the sorting begin!

Happy Fourth of July to you! Hope there is a yummy barbeque headed your way! (Lucky for me, mine involves the little one down below!) And if you're one of the many on vacation this week, enjoy... do the things that bring you joy and satisfaction!

cute kid update

2008-06-21T18:09:00.004-04:00

Remember these onesies that I made for a friend's baby shower? Well, now baby Ryan is gooing and cooing his way around this big world... and in high fashion. Congrats Rob and Jamie! You sure did good in the cute kid department.
And a newer photo, just because he's so damn cute.

etsy buy: the beautiful project

2008-05-30T11:22:00.007-04:00

While browsing etsy (which is dangerous in and of itself), I stumbled across the whimsical shop of Jeannette at the beautiful project. I love her designs and especially her smart wit and snarky humor. I couldn't resist snagging up a couple of her "smart n' sassy" greeting cards.

i heart japanese goodies

2008-05-30T10:18:00.007-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the "country" of Japan at Epcot was my absolute favorite. I probably spent at least an hour in the main gift shop of Japan, but could have stayed much longer if I wanted to max out my Visa. Anyone who knows me knows I have an extreme love for office supplies, especially cute ones! I came away with all of these darling goodies, plus some Pocky and gummi candies. Mmm, mmm, mmm... delicious!

cheeseburger 3D puzzle... I couldn't pass this up.

this is one of those papers that I never want to actually USE!

love these darling pointer post-its.

...and sweet apple clips.

beautiful handmade Japanese paper

perfect for my work keys, id card and a few bucks... I was a bit bummed when I got home and realized this one said "made in China", but oh well, it's still cute.

Ahhhh, love all of it to pieces. Too bad there's no place to shop for anything like this in Vermont. I guess that's what makes it all the more special.

around the "world"

2008-05-30T09:21:00.005-04:00

Ok blog world, I apologize for my lack of posting (1 month to the day to be exact). You see, I work at a college. Therefore, the months of April and May are uber busy. Between travel, end of year events, and kick starting our summer program... not much time has been left for crafty endeavors. This week, however, I am on vacation and will be relaxing and crafting up some goodies. In the meantime, here are some pictures of lovely sights while on a trip to Orlando for work. We were privileged enough to have a day to play... so Epcot saw the likes of us... all... day... long. It was wonderful and beautiful and all together an amazing experience. The conference was mind-blowing as well, but I'll leave the details of that on our EMC blog.

Enjoy a small peek into the beauty of traveling around the world in one day....

(salt and pepper "shakers" - really just covers.... I loved these!)

That's all for now... next up... the awesome goodies I picked up from the store in "Japan"! I could spend a whole day in there!

soak it up

2008-04-30T11:09:00.007-04:00

This caught my eye, especially because of my current leaf love, but also because it's so simple yet so smart... I just had to make a quick post about it. Found on swissmiss's blog via bloglines and I think it's totally brilliant and beautiful (so are all the things on her blog, so check it out).

The Growing Calendar by Oscar Diaz
(text below taken from Senorita Puri)

Óscar Díaz has developed an amazing technique were a specific paper absorbs ink gradually. This way he creates "living" calendars, where numbers get ink-filled daily, or plants grow. It was showed under the Gradual category, in the London Design Festival in 2007. (Via Cuarto Derecha)

currently loving: leaves

2008-04-17T22:14:00.013-04:00

+ Beautiful etsy finds: Clockwise from top left. "Green in Blue" from ara133photography; "Triple Fern" notecard set from oh man creations; Little Leaf bottle from leaves of clay; and Little Leaf earrings from joanne tracy designs. Simply gorgeous, all of them.

+ These beautiful fabrics from repro depot. Clockwise from top left: Merimekko "Metsanvaki", "Simple Forest" - Japanese import, Merimekko "Sarastaa", and Merimekko "Lehtimaja". I must have a thing for Merimekko's (from Finland); oddly enough, all picked by chance. Love them. They'd all make great stretched canvases.

+ Magnetic leaves from up to you found here. They are simply marvelous and I want a whole slew. Found via swissmiss.

hands off that wristlet

2008-04-06T17:52:00.005-04:00

Yet another awesome tutorial find on Craftster... A few weeks ago, we were going to visit good friends of ours who moved out of state and I wanted to bring a little gift. I gave this wristlet tutorial a try a while ago and I remembered that Logan was itching for one. I altered the basic instructions of the tutorial a bit by adding a silver bangle and changing the dimensions.

I think it came out pretty swell. It was only my second try with a zipper and the way this tut is written, it actually makes sewing a zipper relatively easy. If you're scared of zippers (like I was), try this to calm your fears and create something wicked cute to boot! Here is Logan and her husband, Jim (all happy and excited for our impending Cracker Barrel breakfast).

Aren't they cute? I loved the way the wristlet came out... I almost didn't want to give it away, but she's worth it. :o)

everyone needs a tissue holder

2008-04-06T17:31:00.005-04:00

Because everyone must have something pretty to hold their travel tissues, right?! Of course! I made this fun little number from a great tutorial I found on Craftster. If you don't already spend hours on Craftster (and you're into anything handmade) and I mean anything, Craftster is the place to go.

This was supposed to be a quick, one-sitting, "satisfy my crafty urge" project, but botching up my measurements the first time lead me to create a mini version (oops!). After that attempt, I tried again, this time with better results. I jazzed it up slightly with a button and elastic closure... completely not necessary, but fun nonetheless! These would make great additions to stockings at Christmas or included in a "pamper me" gift basket. Give the tutorial a try... you wouldn't want to have naked tissues, now would you?

mix it up

2008-03-31T22:10:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite things to experiment with is the mix of mediums using paper, fabric and thread... hence, paper + stitch. I think adding a "textile feel" to a normally everyday item adds an unexpected touch of fun. These are a few in a series of 'Thank You' cards I created as a custom order.

Pretty fabrics make me happy! I plan on making a bunch more of these and putting them up in the shop. Yay fun!

monkey see, monkey do

2008-03-30T10:49:00.008-04:00

Quilling is so fun! Have you ever tried it?! My awesome friend, Mary gave me a quilling kit that had been collecting dust in her house. As a thank you, I thought it would be fitting to create her a quilled thank you card. This was my first time quilling and I had a blast!

Haha... it makes me giggle. The monkey is slightly wonking, but at least you can still tell its a monkey (right?). I never really knew how the process worked, but come to find out it's pretty easy...if you're patient. Give it a whirl! Pun intended.

oh baby

2008-03-28T21:49:00.010-04:00

Well, sticking with the love theme, here's some baby shower love. Here is my dear friend, the beautiful and very pregnant Jamie. As her baby shower gift I made her several onesies... a kid can never have too many onesies.

I sketched out the designs, made patterns and appliqued onto store-bought 100% cotton onesies. I had fun making a tree, bird, elephant, fish and polka dots.

In addition to the onesies, I really wanted to try my hand at a taggie blanket. This was so easy to make! I cheated and bought the pre-pieced quilting material for one side. The other side is a super soft light green yumminess and I sewed ribbon loops of different textures in between the two. So easy and so cute. I don't know if the baby will ever get to use it though, as their cat seems to have taken first claim at it.

Congratulations to Jamie and her husband, Rob... their little bundle of joy came into this world on Tuesday and I can't wait to meet him!!

love fest

2008-03-28T20:03:00.007-04:00

Our friends, Jim and Logan (the ones who moved away) were married in January. For Logan's bridal shower in November, I wrapped her gift in this cool paper and made a coordinating card. Why? Cause I'm a geek like that.

I love this polka dot paper. I got it from my young neighbor who was making the rounds doing catalog sales to raise money for her school... of all places. I also love buttons to pieces and adore the play between the brown dots and the brown button. Geekdom and all, the martha-esque wrapping was a big hit at the shower.

For their wedding, which was beautiful and wonderful and a blast beyond all blasts, this card made its way into the card box. A fun mix of fabrics is sandwiched between the paper and stitching. I love the different textures of this card.

I found a touching poem to print inside the card, which was new to my eyes although very well known, i carry your heart with me by e.e. cummings. It is one of the most beautifully and visually unique pieces I've ever read. The full poem can be found here.

this blog's back in business

2008-03-28T19:47:00.008-04:00

Thanks to Sprint Mobile Broadband, this chick has internet access at home! Albeit, it's not lightning fast because we technically live out in the middle of a lake, but I am grateful for the modest speed we do have. Whoopie! Onto posting once again... Now the fun can really begin. I have several projects to post about that will come in the following days. I'll catch up and once I do, posts will happen as ideas are formulated and projects are created. Onward! I'll leave you with a ridiculously cute photo of Buster... this is just moments before he pounces your face:

tag, you're it

2008-01-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

Tracking back to Christmastime, I made some of these gift tags to coordinate with a great vintagey wrapping paper I had picked up. The sweet snowflakes came from confetti in centerpieces from a friends winter wedding. Yay for re-purposing! Oh, and she did give me the centerpiece. I wasn't caught picking up all the confetti pieces from the guest tables. Although maybe next time...

Fun polaroid frame via Big Huge Labs.
+Thanks to How About Orange +

party hearty

2008-01-10T16:36:00.000-05:00

(click to enlarge)

Here is an invitation that I created for a party I am co-hosting. It was a bit of a struggle coming up with a name for the party. The couple (and us) were too busy with the holidays to have a shindig pre-wedding, hence the "congrats" and then they found out they'll be moving out of state shortly after the wedding (boo!), hence the "goodbye". Could have done better had it not been for total brain fart, but I suppose "Congrats & Goodbye" is right to the point. As you can see via this design and my blog design, I seem to have completely fallen for the font Blippo Light SF.