Inspiration Celebration

Inspiration Celebration

When you gather beautiful things around you, it’s pretty easy to think up more beautiful things to make.  Here’s what I’m especially enjoying today.

I know that things, when you look at the big picture, are pretty meaningless.  What I do like about things, however, is that most of the time they remind me of special people or special times.  Being fun to look at in their own right is just a plus.

Here’s what I’m looking at/remembering today:

1. A picture of my sweet dog taken by my sweet friend Sammy.  Adorable. (Both friend and dog, but in very different ways!)
2. A teacup given to me by my dear friend Mary.  It’s fun and elegant just like she is!
3. An owl necklace.  Okay, this I bought for myself.  It was one of those pendants you can buy in the jewelry making section at hobby lobby (2.47! a steal!) and I put it on a chain I already had….the special part is that I was shopping at hobby lobby with my grandmother after we had lunch and saw a movie together, which was so much fun. 

Seersucker, rick-rack, and ribbon, Oh My!

As I’ve mentioned before, I am soon to be an Aunt.  I already told you about my Christmas present for my little niece, but now I’ll share with you what I made for the baby shower!

Her loving parents have already painted her nursery lavender, so I made some wall art to complement their already very tasteful room.  The flowers are made of yo-yos, which is a cute, quick trick you can do with just a tiny bit of fabric.  I would show you, but just google "yo-yo tutorial" or "how to make a fabric yo-yo" and you'll get more results than you can shake a stick at, so why add to that?  As for the rest, a few stitches here, a few dots of glue there, and ta-da! You've got art!

Materials:

Wooden Frame

White Paint

Green and white polka dot fabric

Lavender plaid fabric

Blue and white seersucker fabric

Pink Buttons

Green Checkered ribbon

Needle

Thread

Glue

White rick-rack

Love!

Manly Crafts: A Solution

Manly Crafts: A Solution

Some of you may have seen my video post in mid December, when I was bemoaning the lack of proper handmade gifts to make for men.  I was trying to come up with something to make for my Dad at the time, and the internet was suggesting some real gems, like “ribbon belt” and “wolverine sock puppet”.  Well, I did end up coming up with some good ideas for my Dad.  Here is one of the gifts I made for my Dad for Christmas this year.

NOT a sock puppet

Yep!  A UGA frosted-glass beer mug.  I have since found out that this is actually called a beer stein.  Shows what I know, huh?  Well, my dad is quite fond of interesting beers (in a completely responsible and appropriate way, just for the record, ok?) and very fond of the University of Georgia, so I combined these two interests into one handmade Christmas present.  I got a plain glass beer mug thing (must remember: beer stein) and some frosted glass spray paint (that stuff does NOT come cheap, just for the record).  Then, I made my own stencil of the Georgia G.  I taped the stencil on the mug and covered all exposed areas which I did NOT want paint on with saran wrap.  I sprayed on the paint, waited for it to dry, and then pulled off the wrappings.  For a finishing touch, I used silver paint to outline it.    Now, I know you might be thinking “Golly, Courtney.  You could have bought a similar product at the UGA bookstore for the low price of 19.95.”  Probably true. But then I would have failed my Christmas mission of homemade gifts made with love.

Craftspirations

Here's what is catching my eye today:

This....

http://www.sovintagepatterns.com/catalog/item/1657255/8512006.htm

and this....

http://directfromdeb.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/tutu-fabulous/

and this.

http://christys-thriftydecorating.blogspot.com/2008/03/shabby-chic-decorating.html

Snowbirds

“Snowbirds” often refers to folks who flee to warmer climates to escape the chilly months of their more permanent homes. In this case, however, it refers to birds who are in the snow.

Last night, to borrow a phrase from a friend, Narnia exploded where I live.  For those of you who aren’t as Chronicles of Narnia oriented as myself, that means it snowed.  It snowed quite a lot, really, and way down south here in the land of cotton (which is the number 2 agricultural export according to a USDA 2009 fact sheet, so I suppose we should be the land of broilers, which is the number 1 export.  That means chicken, by the way.)  that is a BIG DEAL.  I enjoyed playing in the snow this morning, took care of the necessary academic responsibilities, and have now settled down to update my little corner of the internet.  

It was so much fun watching the birds in the snow this morning.  It’s so much easier to see them when everything is white.  Our porch was visited this morning by Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, and they looked quite stunning.  I do feel a bit sorry for Mrs. Cardinal, whose plumage is not as bright as Mr. Cardinal. However, in the bird world, it seems to be the males who are responsible for dressing up all fancy and drawing attention. Go figure. I guess that’s good for Mrs. Cardinal, she gets to wear sweatpants all the time if she feels like it.  Anyway, the birds inspired me to share with you another project I worked on for Christmas. It’s kind of perfect, because this project was inspired by a BIRD in the SNOW!  This one was for my Mom, who has a love of birdhouses (If you ever come to my family home, you could practically play Where’s Waldo with the birdhouses.  There is at least one in almost every room). In keeping with a bird-oriented theme, I made her this little…um…I don’t know what to call it.  Let’s just go with “art”. I would detail the steps for you, but I think it’s fairly self-explanatory.  I LOVE crafts with birds, I think. Looking over some of my past crafts, BIRDS and TEAPOTS seem to be my number one muses.  That’s sort of unusual.

Chirp Chirp.

This is an unrelated picture of my dog on a day when it was not snowing.

Starry Night: Or, How to Re-imagine a famous Van Gogh using flannel and polka dots.

Starry Night: Or, How to Re-imagine a famous Van Gogh using flannel and polka dots.

Or, more accurately:

A Flannel Reverse-Appliqué Baby Blanket.

Little House, anyone?  Call me half-pint.

 (more pictures as you go, I promise)

I am about to become an Aunt (That’s pronounced “Ant” by, the way.  I have little interest in being an “awuhnt”, and a lot of interest in being able to lift 10 to 50 times my body weight)  So, for Christmas this year I decided to make my brother, sister-in-law, and future niece this cuddly-soft blanket.

Last year my friend Mary introduced me to the world of reverse appliqué via a book she had called The Alabama Stitch Book.  We made super cute reverse appliqué over-the-arm pincushions out of old T-shirts.  I liked the concept of reverse appliqué so much I decided to employ this technique on a blanket.  

So, I got 2 yards of red flannel and one yard of red cotton with white polka dots.  I took one yard of the red flannel and laid the red polka dots beneath it (right side to wrong side) and quickly stitched them together around the sides with my machine to make it easier to work with.  Then, I drew stars on with chalk, using a stencil I made, and free-handed a sweet moon sliver in the corner. 

Now comes the epically time consuming part.

Using extra-thick white thread doubled over on it self (to make it thicker and stronger) I stitched around all my chalk lines by hand.  I used an embroidery hoop to keep the fabric taut while I worked.  It did take quite a while.  I tried to do one or two stars everyday so as to not get burnt out, but if I happened to be watching a movie or something I would do quite a few (which is how I stabbed myself in the leg with an embroidery needle whilst watching a French movie with subtitles).  After I stitched all around a shape, I would tie off the thread and clip it.  

Now comes the joyful, liberating, and fun part.

Grasping my sewing scissors (more accurately, my mom’s which I have been borrowing for lo these many years, time to get my own because she took them back over Christmas for her own use! Can you believe it?) I carefully cut out the inside of the stars, not too close to the thread so as to not unravel the whole project.  That part is the most fun, because it’s much quicker, and so rewarding to see the polka dots peeking out.

I'm a star, I'm on top, somebody bring me some haaaammmm! (liz lemon, of course)

After I finished all the stars and moon, I took the other yard of red flannel and sewed it to the other to layers around the edged, right side to right side like you would a pillow, leaving a little hole to pull it through and make it no longer inside-out.  Then I stitched up the little pull through hole and used more of my extra-thick white thread to stitch a decorative little border around the edges.  

I hate it when carpet gets in my pictures. Oh well.

See, this way the front side is pretty and could possibly be interpreted as a flannel interpretation of “Starry Night” (which it really wasn’t intended to be, that is totally just a joke, for the record.  I don’t aspire to replicate Van Gogh in flannel quite yet), while the back side is just flannel and feels oh-so-soft to little baby’s rosy cheek.

Now comes the joy of giving part!

I gave this blankie to my brother and sister-in-law, and they seemed quite pleased.  Hopefully years from now, my little niece will be all cuddly and warm in bed with it one night and think “Wow, my Aunt Courtney loves me bunches” and not “Good grief, this is very folksy.  We young people these days are into hologram blankets, you know.  Where’s my hover dog?  Of course, even if she does think that and has a hover dog, I’ll probably have moved on to actually making hologram blankets by then, because goodness knows I’m very hip and with it. 

Ant not Awuhnt