martha craft

i love martha stewart. she is the woman i will never be...always carving time out of her busy day to create wonderful crafts out of random objects, or bake cookies, or organize something, or garden...or hire someone to carry out her craftiness under a geniously marketed brandname. you know, domestic things.

anyway, on her website, there's this cool section on 'crafts' where they have a 'craft of the day'. you can even get these sent to your inbox...a little dose of daily inspiration! while my husband isn't so excited about the effect of this 'inspiration' on our bank accounts or trips to the craft store...i am VERY excited about the possibilities! there are some especially great gift ideas.

here are some tassel earrings i created based on martha's instructions.
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=56f8c5607a9a5110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=craftcod_pi
stay tuned for more martha crafts!

the first day i wore them to work, a customer said 'well, those are some interesting earrings' to which i happily replied.... oh! i made them! maybe it wasn't a compliment, but interesting is what we're going for...right?

This pillow is....

Mine!

I have a weird complex with sharing pillows.

I also don't like it when pillowcases don't match....

So I decided to stake a claim :)

'yours' to follow....

Happy fall!

So for some reason when I think of fall.. Reds and oranges and
pumpkins and the crisp wonderfulness in the air... I also think of
baking. So, in honor of fall... I made banana raisin bread! From
scratch!

Recipe as follows:

2-4 mashed ripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix mashed bananas and butter in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle in the baking soda and salt...and add flour. Last...add raisins (if you like!). Pour mixture into a 4 x 8 loaf pan, and bake for 1 hour.

today was a bad day.

so i went thrift shopping on my lunch break. here are my finds!! a big fat yellow brooch, some teensy silver shell earrings, and some white metal bamboo hoops. yay! the background is a find from over the weekend...not secondhand but super awesome jonathan adler placemats that i got for- that's right folks- $1 each. better day!

triumph!!

i finally got my sewing machine to work. it has been an uphill battle...usually involving three or so hours, some tears and frustration, and my poor husband trying to fix a sewing machine.

but last night...I FIGURED IT OUT. MYSELF. yayyyy!!

so that little splotch of stitching says 'hi'....my pillowcase project is hopefully soon to be completed and up on the blog!

ban definitely

so i have been peeking in on this wonderful blog for a little while now, and it's fabulously creative author jen seems to have embarked on a new venture.

she has a new site, band.do, full of fairy tale headpieces that i might never have the guts to wear on a daily basis but wish i did. they also each come with their own haiku...fun!

fashion illustration...

I was tooling around on Etsy and came across this shop, which among other oddities is home to vintage sewing patterns.

These could not only provide guidelines to making some fabulous designs inspired by history, but check out the illustrations! They remind me of many that one might come across in a magazine.

Pretty inspiring, no?