Monthly Archives: December 2010

Selfish crafting.

Posted on December 29, 2010 by SewTara| 2 Comments

The kids went for a sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa so we had some time to ourselves, went to a movie, had some sushi and came home to goof off!!  I spent some time reading about screenprinting VS purchasing a YUDU.  I think I’m going to try setting up my own little screen printing nook.  Everything should go well.  I also decided to make myself a purse organizer!

I ordered this pattern from The Crochet Diva a few nights ago. It was really easy to follow and I love the results.

I used some awesome Japanese fabric I have with a Wizard of Oz print. Having a fabric addiction is sort of horrible. I was so torn between, “I don’t want to cut it!” and “Well what’s it here for if I’m not going to make something with it?”. I took the plunge and decided to cut into it.

And now for the action shot!

I also ordered the modernish messenger bag pattern.  Perhaps I’ll get to making that in the next little bit.

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Preparing for the new year.

Posted on December 27, 2010 by SewTara| 2 Comments

I’m slowing making my way through cleaning up in the basement. We’ve been purging things for a while, my son has been very excited to “share” his toys with other kids who can use them. I’ve taken things into my school for classrooms, to the consignment store and off to donate. I’m doing everything to avoid making garbage. The other day I spent a load of time sorting my scrapbin. Since I’ve changed my cup cozy design a bit there were some pieces previously too small that will now work. Usually I make pin cushions but I’m getting a little tired of that. I’m going to make some of these pouches, with Wesley’s help, for some of the important women in his life. I also want to make a cover for my bodem so I’ll quilt the little pieces into a larger piece of fabric to make that. Plus I really want to try Keyka Lou’s technique.

So I cut what I could into 2 X 2 inch squares. Not entirelly sure what I’ll make with them yet but I’ll figure something out, or ideas are welcome!

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Posted in repurposing, sewing

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Tree tour show and tell. Wanna share?

Posted on December 26, 2010 by SewTara| 2 Comments

I should have thought of this sooner, I’ve already started a 2011 “don’t forget to blog” list, but most people should still have their trees up and I thought we could have a show and tell.  All of the ornaments on our tree are special in some way.  They’ve been bought while travelling in other countries, or given to us as a momento of some occasion, or are handmade by me or the kids.

For years I would buy those plaster ornaments at craft stores and spend time painting them.  I’ve built up quite a collection.  This one’s my favourite.  Makes me chuckle every year.  I picked up about 5 when I found it and attached them to gifts and such.  It’s so silly.

Picked this one up while in Germany pregnant with Nate.  He was due December 26th so I didn’t really know when his first Christmas was going to be and most ornaments seemed to have a date on them.

Last year I picked up 2 little soldiers for the boys on Boxing day.  We were foolish enough to venture into London that day.  It was insanely busy.

Here’s my cute little Happy Sew Lucky ornament.  It turned out really well and I think I just might have to get a few more for the tree next year.

Sooooo if you’ve got some time and a special ornament with a story to share post a comment or, better yet, send me an email and I’ll post the story and a picture.

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Posted in other crafts, sewing

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Just wanted to say,

Posted on December 25, 2010 by SewTara| Leave a comment

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Organizing galore!

Posted on December 23, 2010 by SewTara| 8 Comments

Last weekend I procrastinated from completing some last minute orders by organizing my craft area. Time well spent I must say.
When Nate was born I gave up my sunny upstairs craft room to move down into the basement, known as The Man Space at that time. First I had 1 table and my IKEA computer desk/wardrobe thingie. Then I had to buy another table . . . Then piles of things started to form. Then because my husband wasn’t using his desk down here I sort of started to rely on that space, ironing and such. He wasn’t happy. So I’ve been hard at work purging and tidying and cleaning up so we can both have a much more workable space that isn’t an eye sore.

These are the pretty parts. I can’t show the rest of the inside of the wardrobe, it’s a bit of an avalanche of disaster. I took this advice and folded and wrapped my pretty and larger pieces of fabric onto comic book backings to make these little mini fabric bolts. It was $10 for 100 so they went pretty far. For some I used 2 pieces of cardboard just to give it a bit of added stability. Definitely one of the best little pieces of advice I stumbled upon this year. Beats stashing them in a fabric crush drawer!

Now when you look through the little windows in the top of the doors to the wardrobe you can see my lovely fabric, books and the basket looking all ready to go. Luckily the windows end before the messy madness can be seen.

Sorry for the less than stellar photos, I really need to crack the code about taking pics in my gloomy basement.

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Posted in fun finds, repurposing, sewing

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Crafty British imports part 2

Posted on December 22, 2010 by SewTara| 19 Comments

Behold the other fun little book I ordered from waaaaaaay over there!

Now for the ridiculous part (aside from ordering it overseas and then having my Mother In Law carry it all the way here) is that I can’t knit. But I totally plan to learn now. I mean how cute are these?!

Good thing I work in a profession that is mostly women. I’m sure I can bribe someone at work to teach me the ropes!

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Posted in crafty books, fun finds, gifts, knitting

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Glimpse and waves!

Posted on December 22, 2010 by SewTara| 8 Comments

I didn’t mail my package quite on time and I’m sure it’s stuck in the pre-Christmas mail nightmare so I thought I’d just post a little teaser for Amy!

Here’s a little piece of one of the items I made and shipped off, knowing her love of all things owls.

Yeah, I’m a meanie.  Mail it late and then post teasers.

Hello if you’ve popped over from Freckled Nest.  Thanks for stopping by and saying lovely things.

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Posted in embroidery, sewing

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Counting book frenzy.

Posted on December 22, 2010 by SewTara| 3 Comments

Since my Etsy shop rush was over I  turned to the pile of counting books I had lined up to get them finished in time for Christmas.  Here’s one I did for Clare.  I was trying it without the numbers, I liked the look of the pages without them.  In the end I did end up putting them on, these pics are pre-numbers.

1 puffy owl and 2 rubber duckies.

3 mice and 4 triangles on a kite.

5 fingers and 6 wheels.

7 colours in a rainbow and 8 flowers.

9 buttons and 10 bows.

I also made one for Griffin, which I was really proud of. It had a puppy like this for the first page and was super cute. In all my rushing I left to hand it over without taking pictures first. Silly me.

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Posted in gifts, kid fun, repurposing, sewing

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Stop! Barter time!

Posted on December 21, 2010 by SewTara| 5 Comments

Bartering is one of the super cool things about spending your day sitting at a craft show.  It’s usually pretty easy to work out some sort of deal with someone and walk away having given and recieved something handmade.  Recently I’ve been contacted by some fellow Etsy sellers asking if I would be ineterested in doing a swap.  Enter Alison of  alisonostertag.etsy.com.  She lives in Philledelphia, blog here, and asked if I would be interetsed in some ofher photography in exchange for a cup cozy. Apparently she challenged herself to gift shopping through swapping. How cool is that!?

Rather than count pennies and figure out what item in her shop was equal to my cozy I just told her I was in and gave her permission to surprise me with whatever she wanted to send. That said, I am now the proud owner of a lovely print turned card and this great shot of a statue. Lovely pictures follow to disguise my lack of knowledge about the subject matter!


Wow, ignore my tattered old university sweater sleeve!! Yipes, how’d I miss that while cropping!?
Also, her photos are impeccable I didn’t do so well taking my own photos of her photos.

I love her shots of bikes and the doors of Fairmount! She also has a ceramics shop on Etsy.

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Posted in fun finds, gifts, other crafts

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Crafty British imports part 1

Posted on December 20, 2010 by SewTara| 3 Comments

A little while ago I stumbled upon some really fun looking craft books I wanted to order.  For some crazy reason I couldn’t find them here but I did stumble across them on Amazon UK.  Lucky me my in-laws live just outside of London right now and so I ordered and had them pile them into their ‘returning home for a Christmas visit’ luggage!

This first one is absolutely PACKED with information.  I’ve only flipped through it once so far, and the kids were around so it wasn’t exactly a ‘deep’ reading but I love it!  It’s called The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam of U-Handbag and has a forward by Amy Butler.  I have to admit, despite my newfound love of creating bags, I had no idea about her site.  It is also fabulous just like her book! Sadly it seems the book won’t be available this side of the pond for another month or two so hope you can wait (or have a British connection).

I *must* make this one, it’s like a grown up messenger/laptop/purse/bag/awesome thingie.  I need it.  The instructions are fantastic in this book and it really explains in detail how to use all sorts of fun hardware that really enhance the appearence and functionality of the bags.  Some of the things I don’t even know the names for, so I guess the book will help greatly!

Here’s another glimpse inside.  The fabric choices are fantastic too!  I think I might have to make another tea and go curl up with this book again.

Lisa also has a section of free tips on her site if you’re in need of some info or if you’d like to preview her informative and entertaining writing before you rush off to try and get your hands on a copy of this gem!

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Posted in crafty books, fun finds, sewing

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