beautiful, clean, and organized. my new craft/art studio.

 

These are the "BEFORE" shots. As you can see it was a MESS!!!! I had been wanting to put up shelves and organize this little, miniature, tiny, itty bitty art room since we moved in. But, as you all know, I had a baby 2 weeks later. SOOOO, I never got around to it! And headbands needed to be made, so I had to make do with the little space I had. There were bags of fabric stashed everywhere. It wasn't pretty. Martin Luther King weekend my husband and I finally got our butts into gear and put up shelves. Afterwards, I felt like a kid in a candy shop, all ready to get organizing!!! I LOVE to organize my materials (well, when there is space to organize them in)! It might not be completely up to my visual standards (like--- I really want to put some scalloped canvas on the edges of my shelves), but it is good for now. I feel SO MUCH HAPPIER when I sit down to make something! and I am getting better at cleaning up my mess right after! take a look!

I love the little vintage card catalog drawers I got at goodwill last year (for $5), and you can see the vintage suitcase table (see tutorial) being put to use! Yes, there may still be drawing boards on the ground, along with my iron and ironing board, but It looks A HECK OF A LOT BETTER!!!!!! That's all I have to say. And if you want to see my old studio (at my last apartment), then take a look here.

(my old studio was bigger, so I could do cool things like make corrogated cardboard trim....)

Thanks for the feature!

Today I was featured on Some Day Crafts, which turns out is a really cool blog where a woman named Michelle posts photos and links to all the crafts she wants to do some day (cause right now she is busy raising 2 little ones)! Thanks Michelle!

Ruffle bottom onesies, boots with the fur.....

Okay, so I received one MILLION onesies from all my baby showers, which was great. Problem is, I didn't want olivia to have all the same clothes as every other baby girl in town! So I sewed and ironed on lots of thing. My favorites? The ones with the ruffle bottoms! Little girls can only wear these for so long, so I am milking it for as long as possible!

To add a ruffle bottom to a onesie, you CAN just take pre-ruffled fabric/lace from the fabric store and so it on, which I've done. BUT if you want that little bottom to look fluffy, and pheasant-like, then here is another alternative!

Materials needed:
-( 1 yard-ish) nylon chiffon or tule, or other non-fraying translucent material
-thread/ sewingmachine
-onesie/bloomers

1.cut 3 strips of the chiffon the lengths you want the ruffles to end up. make the strips about 3/4 to 1 inch wide.

2. next, cut out approx 9-12 circles per strip (depending on how long your strips are. mine were 5 1/2 in. long and I used 9 circles that were 2-3 in. in diameter).

3. Then you take the circles and sew them on. I am going to demonstrate this step-by-step so you can see how to scrunch the circles up. (first, fold the circle in half.)

do you just love my chipped gray nail polish?? J/K!!

(then fold it in half again)

4.Then you put the strip under the foot with one of the scrunched circles. Bring the needle down and sew a few stitches (and backstitch) over the point of the circle. To put the next one in, keep the needle down in the fabric, but lift up the foot. Insert another scrunched circle with the tip of the circle (the part in the photo above that is in between my thumb and index finger) about 1/2 in apart from the tip of the other one.  Sew some more. Continue to do this until you have circles covering all the strips.

5.Last: place the strips on the bum of the onesie and sew it down (over the same line that you sewed the first time)  Then FLUFF!!! and put it on your sweet baby girl! If you want to know how I did the front, here is a peek:

I cut out an oval of felt, and then sewed the circle onto it the same way I did on the strips. Then I sewed on 2 more pinked-edged felt ovals on top of that! easy peasy!

oh how I love this girl. And she is only 6 months so she still wears all the stuff I make for her without a fuss:) baby legwarmer tutorial here.

va-va volume on the walls

Back story: I have really been wanting to add some pizzaz to my apartment walls since I moved in, and well, as you can see on the previous post, I am FINALLY having a little spare time to do so. Now, before I show you what I did to my walls, just know that I used to be a display artist for anthropologie in Illinois and Utah. I might be sorta stuck in that time in my life, because everytime I want to decorate my house, I think of that time.  Oh well. It works for now, with my completely limited budget, and desire to constantly change my decor.

I needed to make something with things I already had, because I didn't have any extra money to spend on decorations. so, what did I have a LOT of, that cost practically nothing?? NOTEBOOK PAPER and DYE.

so here is the tutorial:

MATERIALS:

notebook paper

RIT dye

HOT GLUE

OTHER PAPER, that is long, cut into strips at least 4 inches wide

Nap time needed: do this one after they go to BED!!!!

1.fill your sink with hot water and our in some dye (I like to mix colors).

2. put each sheet of notebook paper in separately, so the dye gets to each one (they will stick but that's okay)

3. leave them there for about 1 hour. then take them out, squeeze the water out, and put them on a crappy towel that you don't mind getting dye on, to dry.

4. turn them horizontally, and then cut into +/-2 inch strips.

5. loop them end to end, and put a dab of hot glue to seal them shut. (see below)

 

6. Then begin hot-gluing the loops to the long strips of other paper, overlapping each row under the last one, like shown.
7. Using thin thumbtacks, hang them up on the wall, however you choose! (I had about 10 different formations, on a totally different wall, before I decided on this last formation around my artwork.-----soooo I would advise taping them up to the wall before you tack them to the wall!!)

TA-DA!!! I told you it was va-va- V O L U M E!!!! Maybe a little much, but that's okay we like to go a little overboard round these parts sometimes. Makes life visually interesting.

I told you I'd make them...

As you can see, I made THOSE pillows!! Only I made mine out of the fabric remnants I had leftover after recovering my couch cushions (the day I went into labor no less). It took a little tweaking of the pattern, but I figured out how to use fabric with the felt (pinking, sewing together petals). Also, you may notice that one of the fabrics in the pillows is the fabric that I covered my dining room chairs with! I ordered WAY TOO MUCH OF THAT FABRIC. so I use it on everything. (I do that all the time, luckily I actually LIKE this fabric.)

 

 

These photos are of my dining room. I FINALLY hung up some of the artwork I made last year, and those red things are these coasters my mom gave me. maybe a little quirky, but I can't do much in an apartment, and I am sick of these plain walls! Also, you'll notice along with the chairs I recovered (while 8 months pregnant), I painted the dining room table. These are all projects from OH SO LONG ago, but there are way too many projects I have never posted on here, so I am trying to catch up here!

Do you see that little metal desk there? It is all banged up from so many moves (like most of my furniture), but I still love it! I kinda wonder if people that come over get that desk, or if they just think its a piece of junk. Either way  I don't care, cause I love my $15 D.I. find.

little by little I am trying to make this apartment cuter.  its just a little hard with a baby. and knowing we'll be out in another year or so.

inspired

right before christmas I was looking at the ban.do website and came across this neckpiece that cost, well too much. I have always LOVED the seventies tie neck look (much to my mother's dismay).  And then I realized, DUH why not just tie one of my sashes around my neck!!! Instant drama to a boring outfit!!! Its my new favorite accessory! Sorry for the shot of me that looks up my nostrils. I was taking the photo in the mirror, and trying to not get the camera in the picture. this nostril shot.

What we wore....

I know this is incredibly late, but I wanted to do a post about our holiday wear. I spent so much time on it, so it deserved a post! So, the dress... I made this dress for Olivia out of cream raw silk, and I think that is is my favorite thing I have ever made for her. I would love to have worn it myself! But it is MUCH easier to sew for someone without boobs, hips, and a butt. So.... how did I make it? I traced another dress she had, cut out the silk and lining simultaneously, sewed up lining and silk, leaving an opening (at the tops of the straps), turned it inside out, and sewed the straps closed. Sewed the already-lined front and back pieces together. Then hand-sewed on some snaps. EASY PEASY!! I added the little tufts by cutting out circles and then hand-sewing each one on to make a big poofy statement around the neckline. She LOVED SUCKING ON IT.

Then these are the shoes I made out of some wool felt. I used the felt because it would be fast, but well, I should've just sewn them out of silk because she loves to rub her feet together, and you can only imagine how nubby and pilled they are now.

 The headband. Maybe the only piece that still looks the same!!! I used the same method for making the headband as I did the dress, only I sewed the circles onto a piece of felt and then glued that onto the headband.

And then there is MY dress. oh wait. it started out as a dress. The bottom looked like what you see below. It took an entire day to sew this bottom part, because I was making it all up as I went. BAD IDEA esp. when you are using expensive fabrics. Anyway, in the end, when I pinned the bottom to the top, well I looked fat.

 SOOOO I made it into just a skirt. which took even longer, because I sewed on ONE MILLION RUFFLES. 

 

  Here we are at the Nutcracker! You can't even see all the ruffles I spent so long sewing on. oh well!

 

 

And lastly... the beautiful baby girl in her dress, before it was sucked to pieces. (Those are my parents holding her.)

SO EXCITING!!!

 

So, a few months back I was contacted by Lauren, one of the editors of this magazine about having my headbands in a feature on all things blue. Well, here it is! And you can see it live and in person if you go to your OBGYN's office or Barnes and Noble and open up the magazine to page 22! yeah!

 

 

 

Aaaannnd..... The designer of ZozoBugBaby used one of my headbands to accessorize her dresses for her new lookbook, photographed by the talented Pascale Nadya Wowak. Don't you just want to eat up that cute little model? And the dresses are adorable!!! Lots of fun stuff happening this month for blueeyedfreckle! Can't wait to see what the new year brings, especially since I have more home time to work on this little venture of mine. It was hard to do much with it once upon a time when I was a teacher (last year).

Gotta make these ASAP

I've been meaning to make some throw pillows for the house for oh, you know a couple years. I have tons of fabric for that specific purpose. Have I made any???? no. why? headbands, headbands, headbands. and baby stuff. But I am going to make some NOW. I will no longer put it off!!! And these are the first ones I want to make. Different colors though. LOVE these colors, but neutrals don't really go with my decor.  ha! I guess I could make neutrals work somehow.

find the pattern (and lots more) here.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN "BABY LEGS" (leg warmers)

When I first got pregnant and started looking at baby clothes (I started buying them when I was only 3 months along... I bought at stores with a 3 months return policy so I could return once I found out what the sex was. I KNOW I am crazy. But I was just way too excited about all the cute stuff I was seeing! Anyway, I happened upon "baby legs." These are super cute little legging/legwarmers that are basically socks with no foot. Great for warming the legs and not having to take them off for a diaper change! Anyway, the REAL things are $12. That is just ridiculous. So I perused the internet and found a tutorial. I was able to get the idea of how to do it, but the images were less than inspiring. SOOOO alas, here is my own tutorial on how to make them! Enjoy!

Materials needed:

Thin patterned socks, or toe socks (i got mine at the dollar store).

sewing machine, or really good hands and a needle

Time needed: 1/2 a nap or less!!!! Heck you can make lots of these in 1 nap!! (aka 15 minutes)

1. cut off a 2.5-3" piece of the sock (if you are using regular socks, then this would be the section where the foot goes. just trim off the toe cap, and the heel, and you have the middle section to work with)

2. Push the little tube through itself, so that the wrong sides are facing each other.

3.Put the long part left from the sock inside the hole created by the little tube you just made. Right sides should be facing each other.

4. Once you sew the 2 tubes together with your machine (or hands I suppose), you may want to turn the entire thing inside out and then sew it narrower if your baby has thin legs like mine does....

Turn them right side out and there you have it!!! Your own baby legs!!! Almost as cute as the little legs you are about to put them on.....

Alternative way to make these: Cut the sock and just serge the raw edge. Done.

 

Like I said ALMOST as cute as the legs you put them on:)