Getting back to my clothing design roots with some linen and cotton tops for spring. I’m working out the details in muslin. I usually go with a pretty print fabric for my accessories. But I think for these tunics, I’m going to use some nice spring inspired solid colors for starters.
I finally have a IKEA Fira drawer storage unit! Happy dance!! Silly I know, but they discontinued this unit several years ago. I acquired it via my good friend, Dawn. During a major attic de-stash, she found her Fira and decided she was letting it go. I didn’t blink!! It was in near new condition and had been stained a nice shade of fern-ish green. (sorry, no picture of the before… bad blogger.)
Since I tend to like light or white colored paint or birch wood for desk accessories and whatnot, I knew I was going to paint it. Heading outside on one of our crazy warm mid-60′s winter days, I got to spraying.
I opted for a can of Valspar enamel matte white spray paint to do a first/base coat.
IKEA Fira Drawers
I love the after! I decided to stop painting with just the one coat. It ended up have a snazzy shabby chic effect with a really really light hint of green stain bleeding through. I haven’t transferred all my small craft supplies that are going to live in the Fira yet. I think I want to spray paint the inside of the drawers with metallic paint, I’m feeling the silver.
Look who came out to admire my handy work. Or bark at the yard squirrels. 
Source: etsy.com via Nicole on Pinterest
Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life – Pablo Picasso
Art work from Lettered Threads on Etsy
Source: outcamethesun.tumblr.com via Melissa on Pinterest
2011 seemed to fly by and 2012 snuck up on me and tapped me on the shoulder. I’m not going to make a list of resolutions to ring in this new year. 10 days into it, the only resolution I have for the year is to Do Better and Finish. As it pertains to me – For better: make better choices, keep a better schedule and stay on task. For finish: I’m an ideas gal. I live for plotting and figuring things out and usually with multiple ways to get to the outcome. But to actually finish a project I feel “the angst”. The creeping doubt that the bag, skirt, whatever is utter crap. So for me the resolution is to finish the damn thing anyway.
Pendant by speakingyourtruth on Etsy
Handmade Holiday 2011
Time for holiday cheer! The Richmond Craft Mafia yearly Handmade Holiday Craft Show is this Sunday. I’m busily sewing away on more pouches and may make some new items to throw in the NLD mix. Here is a sneak peak of what I am working on.
pouches in progress
I’ve been keeping busy this summer although a bit on the quiet side. Working on projects, patterns, sewing, sewing and then some more sewing. It’s hard to find the mojo when all you want to do is have a mojito in a hammock and chill out.
Someone I marvel at where she gets her energy from is my friend Kelly McCants of Modern June. Let’s see… she has a groovy husband, two great kids (that she home schools!), runs not one, but TWO businesses (Modern June and Oilcloth Addict) and just wrote a crafty how-to book Sewing with Oilcloth!! I have a dog, one business and chronic insomnia. 0_O Oh well! Good thing I have good friends that spur me on and show me that big things can happen if you persevere.
Sewing with Oilcloth book by Kelly McCants
Check out her cute book trailer on youtube.
Sewing with Oilcloth book shout out to the pattern testers
Wait a minute! Who is that last name listed? Oh – That’s me!!! 
I got the honor of being one of the project testers for Kelly’s book. It’s a bit thrilling to have my name in print floating out there in the world. Perhaps it will happen again with my own crafty book in the future. Hmmmm…
Did you know you can enter to win a free copy of Sewing with Oilcloth and all the fabric you need to make her Oilcloth Market Tote? Well, you can! Head over to the Wiley Craft website http://www.wileycraft.com/?p=1215 and enter. You should do that today!
Time sure does fly. I’ve been “officially” keeping a blog for 6 years. When I look back at my old blog and the first posts, I cringe. A lot has changed, thank god. New business name, an ever evolving design style, new perspective of things, life and new goals.
There is something about June that I always find myself doing a check-in of where I’m at and where am I trying to point myself. Most people probably do this at the turn of the New Year. June is my January.
I totally love behind the scene workshop/studio videos. I stumbled on to Grain and Gram, a very cool blog that features crafters and artists, all guys! Awesome that crafty dudes are getting featured for a change. Shout out to Dude Craft for finding this blog gem. One of the newest posts on G&G is on Roy Slaper, the man with all the cool toys *ahem* specialized sewing machines used to make Roy Denim.
behind the scene at Roy Jeans
So, I went digging because I like to read about small clothing designers, because I am one and nosy. On Roy’s website, he has a couple of neato videos of the workings of his workshop. http://www.roydenim.com/video
I’ll admit I’m a nice shade of lime with envy of the workshop gadgetry going on at Roy headquarters. Now bring on to the machines!
Have you been pinning? I have! Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com) is new-ish social catalog started in 2010. Think of it as a cyber corkboard, “pinning” up favorite finds as you surf the web and sharing with friends. You create your own collections, called “boards”. Boards generally follow some sort of theme, such as birthday wish list, bunnies, movies to see, etc. And to make things interesting (pinteresting, har-har!) you can in turn follow other interesting collections and “repin” cool items to your boards.
My pinterest boards
