Pursewna

Valentine's Day Decorations in Our House

2012-01-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

I love Valentine's Day - maybe because my favorite color is pink and I think adding hearts and happy colors benefits any home decor? Even if it's sickly sweet your kids are sure to love it!

a little Mommy & Daughter crafting! (see below for the finished project!)

our Valentine's mantle

I was able to do some 'on the cheap' decorating this year - I raided our local Dollar Tree, found fabulous inspiration on Pinterest and rustled up some of the decor I already had from years past.

I'm really happy with how things turned out and I even ended up with a fun keepsake that my daughter and I crafted together.

(this art was inspired by this idea: Crazy Wonderful Subway Art)

The love garland was made using three pink placemats that I found at Dollar Tree.
I just threaded them onto red ruffled ribbon

love this heart garland - here's a link to my what inspired me to make it: Scrapper Girl Photo Strip Heart Garland

I kept the white finial (was up with my Christmas decor) as well as the bird and birdcage but added these AWESOME candy jars! My inspiration:

Source: eighteen25 Pickle Jar Project

My version! I love that they're white - can be used for any/all the holidays!
Just change out the candy and/or the ribbon!

My favorite piece this year - a little birdhouse that my daughter painted :)

love this little area in our dining area... unfortunately I took an awful picture of it. More heart garland that I pinned to the wall, a vintage table cloth on top of a console table, a piece of canvas board painted with chalkboard paint and adorned with a heart and some mercury glass jars with candy!

a great printable that I found on eighteen25
(can you tell I LOVE their blog yet?), a fun candy dish, votives in mason jars with pretty ribbon & ric rack, vintage doily and tin - this vignette sits on my credenza in my front entry....

and what's a holiday with kids if you don't have vinyl clings for your windows & mirrors? my 2 year old put these up.... not that it's not obvious or anything. ;)

I will be linking this to:

No Blog For A Month? Craziness! (Or Laziness?)

2012-01-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

Fans: (i.e. some family & a few friends),
I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last made a post! I'm a bit embarassed but at the same time - our lives the last month have been crazy and hectic and so beyond my comprehension of 'normal' that blogging here was the last item on my to do list. That of course meant it just kept moving down further on the list as new things popped up. ;)
My husband had to leave us for the WHOLE month of December... now a month for many of my military wife friends really isn't much, but December? When we are thousands of miles from our family AND it was over the holidays... it was rough. We sure were glad when my husband got home!

Since then, madness has reigned supreme. My baby, who was a seemingly perfect sleeper suddenly became the worst, so I was up constantly throughout the night. Nap time in our house quickly became nap time for EVERYONE. (Even our dog seemed to know and he was usually in on his bed before the rest of us!) And nap time is usually when I sewed/blogged/crafted.... Then the flu hit. My 2 year old got it first and then a day or so later, my husband and I got it within an hour of each other. It's comical now to think about how we were basically taking turns throughout the night springing up from our bed and running to the bathroom. At the time though, nothing about it was funny. Then we went to Disneyworld. (We are certifiably crazy, huh?) Well, where we live now it's a 3 hour drive to 'the happiest place on earth' and it seemed like such a fun thing to do once my husband had returned from deployment so we went.... not sure if going the same week after we'd all had the flu was the best idea but at least our 2 year old had a blast! (the rest of us were sleep deprived from the 'perfect sleeper who was no more' being awake all night.)

Have I been sewing? Not really. I completed a special project for my cousin before Christmas - he and his fiance wanted me to sew stockings for them. They did turn out wonderful, especially since it was my first attempt making stockings:

I also am half-finished with another custom order for a good friend in Washington. She wanted some decor for her youngest son's room so I started making a personalized banner and a window valance. Then they found out about a (very long time coming) promotion for her husband which means they were going to be moving ASAP! So.... the valance still needs to be made but first they need to find a house, move and then get settled and she'll send me some window measurements. Obviously I'm not going to rush her!

Otherwise, I've been a very lazy sewer. I think I overdid myself prior to Christmas and can anyone else attest that Pinterest - although wonderful at providing new and exciting ideas, it can be a bit overwhelming! There are some fantasticly awesome ideas that I've 'pinned' that I would love to just go crazy making but who has all that time (or money)? A lot of the crafts I've seen are do-able and getting out my trusty glue gun is easier than loading up the sewing machine with thread and a bobbin so I've focused on some small projects instead. Here are a few of them:

a little artwork and color for the 'toilet room' in our master bath!
subway art quotes and fabric stretched on embroidery hoops!

the cutest little jars! saw this idea on pinterest - $1.00 glass candlesticks from the dollar store, jars of pickles & mandarin oranges (also from the dollar store) - spray paint candlesticks and lids then glue jars to candlesticks! Voila! So cute and because they're white.... I can re-use for ALL the holidays!

heart garland made out of scrapbook paper and yarn

subway art using a pre-stretched canvas

Our Holiday Mantle

2011-12-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

My mantle this year has a little bit of everything. Of course I used Pinterest as inspiration (I think EVERYTHING I do lately is Pinterest inspired!) to create some new decor but I also used a lot of items that I already had in my Christmas decor 'stash'.

I incorporated some aqua into the traditional mix of red, white and green... mainly because I use it in my existing decor and because it's part of the curtains I use to hide the bottom cubbies in my mantle surround. It tied in really nicely and I like that it gives the decor a bit of warmth.

The focal point of our mantle is the JOY that I created using a pinterest tutorial I had found. You can read a little more about it in my last blog post. The stocking holders are Target specials and the stockings were on clearance a couple years ago from Pottery Barn. (I thought ahead and bought four even though we only had one kid at the time... smart, huh? ;) I still need to get the fourth embroidered with baby #2's name though - will someone remind me to do that after Christmas please?

The vase is a craft fail that I keep using... so I guess it wasn't as much of a fail as I thought?! The 'berry sprigs' were bought on Black Friday at JoAnne's.

I also crafted this cute pom pom garland using more of the yarn in my craft closet! It's playful and fits in with the rest of the decor well.

To one side of the mantle is a few different crafts and finds. The scrapbook loop trees are a great craft I made last year (you can read about how I created them in this post here). The papers I was able to find have some of the aqua in them so again - it all works out! The white architectural element I found a few years ago at Tuesday Morning. The white bird house is normally in baby #2's room with headbands draped on it's spires. :) The green tree is metal and is one of two I found on Black Friday at TJMaxx! They are so cute and add the height I need in those cubbies.

On the right side of the mantle is two more of the scrapbook loop trees, in addition to some white spray painted pinecones and a birdhouse I normally keep in my bathroom for decor. When I took this picture I had just put some white twinkle lights inside (another Pinterest idea) but unfortunately there's no electrical outlet nearby and it would've looked ridunculous to have an extension cord draped up there to give it power! I actually ended up swapping out the lights for a garden sculpture of a bird that I spray painted white - it looks MUCH better!

And of course there's Bobby, our Elf on the Shelf. He was keeping an eye on my girls perched on the pinecones here when I took the picture. :)

Thanks for stopping by to see how I decorated my mantle for the holidays! I am going to be linking up to the Mantle Party on Home Stories of A to Z!

Go check out some of the other awesome mantles that are featured there! So many great ideas! I need to start 'pinning' away for ideas for next year. ;)

It's never too early to start planning, right?

Pinterest Love & Holiday Decorating at the Pursewna Home

2011-12-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

Have you checked out Pinterest yet? If you haven't - you need to. Or maybe I should warn you that you shouldn't. It's addicting. I seriously do not have enough time or money to do all the things I'd like to do that I've found on Pinterest. From recipes to toddler activities to crafts and DIY projects - so much fantastic inspiration!!!!!
Here are some great ideas/things that I've pinned recently:

The craft room I would give my right arm to have -

Source: via Pinterest

A great idea for our 'naughty chair' -

Source: angiepollsplace blog via Pinterest

An awesome Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake -

Source: Tasty Kitchen Blog via Pinterest

Painting words on wood -

Source: thatsmyletter blog via Pinterest

If you'd like to follow me - click here: FIND ME ON PINTEREST!

Pinterest led me to create some pretty fantastic holiday decor this year - I found quite a few neat/inexpensive crafting ideas to do to add to our 'holiday magic' around the house. Here are a few of those projects:

#1: Yarn wrapped letters - I purchased the letters J, O and Y at JoAnne's and used leftover yarn from one of my yarn wreaths (see my Etsy shop: Pursewna for examples).
The Pinterest inspiration:

Source: www.sarahortega.com via Pinterest

The results of my 'crafting':

Ack! That "Y" is looking pretty sloppy! I did it first... by the time "J" rolled around I was doing pretty good. The trick? Cutting a bunch of 3-4 inch strips and laying them down next to each other to do the ends of each letter. Then snip the excess and wrap around the letter over that. (That probably doesn't make ANY sense - if you're interested in a tutorial, let me know!)

#2: Burlap Ruffle Wreath - I purchased an 18 inch wreath at the dollar store, added quilting batting that I already had to make it a uniform shape, lots of hot glue as well as fabric and buttons already in my stash.

The Pinterest inspiration:

Source: jonesdesigncompany blog via Pinterest

The results of my 'craft-a-palooza':

This was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT! Although burlap is some nasty stuff - I have no idea how people can stand having pillows made of the stuff. Bleh.

#3. Felt Garland for the Tree - using red and white felt and sewing it onto ribbon.

The Pinterest inspiration:

Source: The Contemporary Home website via Pinterest

The results of my 'crafting':

Another success story! I just cut small 'penant' shapes with my pinking shears out of red & white felt, then sewed a straight stitch onto CHEAP ribbon that was 4 for a dollar at Michael's. EASY PEASY!

#4. Rolled Paper Christmas Artwork - I bought a few extra sheets of scrapbook paper on Black Friday to add to the couple of holiday-ish papers already in my stash. Also found some $1 'star' stickers in the impulse lane - perfect for my tree topper!

The Pinterst inspiration:

Source: via Pinterest

The results of my 'crafting':

This might seem silly but originally I had this sitting on our kitchen island and when I was washing dishes (which is a lot with two children under three in the house) I could just see the standard 'backing' of the canvas board I purchased. SO - I used the leftover scrapbook paper and modge podged it to the back in a random fashion. Of course now this piece is in the playroom and the back is against the wall - at least I know it's pretty on the backside! ;)

#5. Book Trees - I bought two books at the dollar store, cut off some branches from a bush in our backyard and added felt stars using my felt stash.

The 'sort-of' Pinterest inspiration:

Source: craftberrybush blog via Pinterest

The results of my craftiness:

This wasn't a direct link but I figured, the pumpkins I did in the Fall turned out so great - any shape should work! I just used a 'tree' template and cut out the pages using an exacto knife. Glued on a branch to the spine and then glued a couple of felt stars at the top.

#6. Yarn Pom Pom Garland - just using leftover yarn from yarn wreaths!

Indirectly, the Pinterest inspiration:

Source: sweetpaulmag website via Pinterest

The results of my craftology:

I made a couple different lengths of garland using an assortment of pom pom's that I made. This worked out GREAT! I was able to use up some of the yarn that was quickly taking over my craft closet and it turned out SO cute! I will definitely be doing this again - so easy!

A Craft Save!

2011-11-27T14:16:00.000-08:00

I recently tried a new craft/DIY project that I found on Pinterest to make a birthday gift for my best friend. I thought it seemed like such a cool idea - a great way to make some inspiration artwork using some simple items that thankfully, I already had on hand. Well... it didn't quite turn out how I expected. That can sometimes be a good thing though - which in this case it was.
Here's an idea and some background on the original idea I found through Pinterest:

Source: website

Source:website

I love how subtle this is - the white on white.

Well.... here's how my project went:

the quote I found to use....

Navy Blue Puff Paint - the downfall of this project?

standard waxed paper

I also used:
a pre-gesso'd board from Michael's

I just handwrote the quote on a basic piece of paper with a sharpie...

as in the tutorial online, I put my waxed paper over my quote and then wrote out the
letters using the puff paint and let them dry all day

then I peeled off each individual letter and mod podged it onto my board...
this was a LONG process!!!!

the finished product - all the letters mod podged onto the board

yuck! green over the blue? boo.... time to find a solution!

Add caption

I'm getting there.... I ended up using a paper towel and wiping off a majority of the green paint. It created
more of a watercolor effect which I was fairly happy about. :) I unfortunately didn't take a picture of the finished product but I added some blue paint and wiped that away and then a bit more to make more layers. It ended up looking really nice! I added a ribbon on the back so she could hang it on the wall - sounds like she's going to put it up in her classroom. (she's an AWESOME teacher!)

Where I went wrong:

I started out with Navy puffy paint. So there I was painting with Navy on white. My plan seemed simple enough - just paint over the whole thing once I had the letters on the canvas. Boo - not so much. Maybe starting with white is a better idea? Maybe the white on white is the best option? Not sure.

I was able to save this project but overall - not sure I'd do it again. Modge podging the letters on was a PAIN! I'd rather use a different effect to make wall art - which thankfully there are lots of other ideas on Pinterest to do just that! :)

Oakleaf Expo - Saturday, November 5th

2011-11-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I participated in my first show in the Jacksonville area. It was a very local show - within my neighborhood here but a great one! There were 100 differents vendors - anything from pet sitting to bouncy houses, Arbonne to Avon and everything in between.... then there was me and a few others with homemade items!

so happy to be inside!

looking the other direction inside...

brr.... it was a cold and windy day! YUCK!

It wasn't my best show but considering the size of the event and it being my first show here in Jax, I'm happy with how I did. I feel like I got my name out there and because it is original, hopefully a lot of people will remember it! :)

this is one of the AMAZING 'coat racks' that my FIL Buzz made me! LOVE THEM!!!

I met some really amazing ladies - please take a minute to look at their amazing products:

Tori with One.Eleven Handmade Bags - she is new to Etsy but has a BEAUTIFUL blog:

Source

I can't wait to see what Tori does on Etsy!

and Maria with Vintage Ooak Designs:

Source

Here's a look at the amazing bib necklace that my MIL & FIL bought for me from Maria:

SO beautiful!!! I love it!

Halloween Decorating Inspired by Pinterest

2011-10-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Pinterest yet? Wowza... I'm pretty new to 'pinning' but I'm already addicted! It's a great 'time filler' at 3:00 AM when you've just fed a newborn but they're not quite asleep. My little girl has gotten used to me holding her in one arm and clicking the mouse with the other! I found so many great and amazing ideas for Fall & Halloween decorating this year.... here's a little peek in our house at what I did:

As I've written about countless times - I have a really hard time with our mantle - the big gaping holes to each side are huge and require some height but unless I want to shell out some big bucks for some huge vases.... they're going to look a bit empty. I'm just going to have to live with it. :)

I made the bunting using halloween scrapbook paper found in the dollar section at Target and a great scallop circle punch and ribbon already on hand... I just sewed it all together.

The weathered pumpkins are ones I wrote about awhile back (read the story here) and the fake birds, glittered haunted houses, die cut birds and bats are all dollar store purchases. (There were some FANTASTIC finds at the dollar store!) Mason jars with candy corn and votives flank a cute pumpkin decoration that I found at TJMaxx.

Do you spy my 'craft fail' that I wrote about last post? Yep - the spray painted glassware/vases... looks cute here though! More about my 'fail' here

Now for a look at the rest of the house....

In our entryway is this Ikea credenza that stores a bunch of my sewing stuff. I made the zebra print runner using indoor/outdoor fabric from JoAnne's, then added the 'vintage' looking items - lantern, buckets and postcard decor.

Near our dining room is this great buffet/credenza. I love how these die cut bats look flying across the wall! I got inspiration for this from here

The 'boo' sign is another great idea I found on-line through a great blog called "eighteen25":

Source & Tutorial

My version:

I used scrapbook paper and then just outlined the lettering and added glitter... the frames were ones I already had. I sewed this runner as well - more fantastic indoor/outdoor fabric. I love me a good lattice print!

This bookshelf is near our dining table - I added the skeleton garland on each end, the cute glitter skeleton decor (found in the Target dollar section - love that spot!) and the fun 'tissue box' monsters!

My inspiration:

Inspiration: gigglesgalorenmore.blogspot.com

I love how fun and festive our house looks! My oldest daughter is only two so I know she's not as into it as she will be in years to come but it's fun to 'build' up my stash of fun decor! Happy Halloween everyone!

I'm linking this post up to:

A Blog Post About A Blog Post

2011-10-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Wow - how cool is this? I was contacted a couple months ago from Luna Bazaar - a great online company that sells great lanterns and other decor items. I had purchased and used some of their paper lanterns to make a mobile in baby #2's nursery, they got wind of it and asked if they could feature my post as a 'guest spot' on their blog! Well, time went by but yesterday I got word that they had it posted:

Luna Bazaar Guest Post

Luna Bazaar reallly is awesome - you can find ALL SORTS of great things for a great price:

paper lanterns in every size and color

glass vases

amazing pillow covers

sauce dishes - how cute to put jewelry in?

(ALL pictures sourced from Luna Bazaar's website)

Custom Owl & Wreath

2011-10-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Recently a friend asked me to make her both a custom owl as well as a Fall wreath for her own door. The owl she said was for a friend who recently had a baby and had a pink/pastel themed nursery - I found some of these cute materials mainly from my stash that I used for baby #2's nursery... it turned out adorable!

My friend's front door is a rust/maroon color so to stand out I used a marled khaki yarn - it has hints of rust and gray in it so I used those colors as accents. I added a gray stripe and then some maroon and gold flowers. A khaki satin ribbon finishes it off - perfect for Fall!

Fall Decorating - A Series: The Front 'Porch'

2011-10-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

To dress up the front porch area for Fall I made a lovely grapevine wreath adorned with felt roses in gold and rust. It really pops against the black front door that we have. I think it's an 18 inch wreath which works really well since our front door is so large.

In addition to the fall wreath I used indoor/outdoor fabric in a 'fall-ish' print to create a slipcover for the outdoor pillow that sits on our adirondack chair. I can't take credit for the design - my Mom came up with the idea for the envelope style and twig closure. Isn't it adorable? Thanks Mom!

A Crafty Failure

2011-10-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

I found a fantastic tutorial/idea on Pinterest recently that I just knew I had to try.... how cool do these look?

Source:Pure and Noble

In her tutorial/explanation she decided to use a hot glue gun vs. puffy paint as the original blogger did... I figured - yeah, let's try it. Unfortunately I was sloppy - all those little strings that happen when you use a glue gun? They are VERY noticeable when you spray paint over the top of them. Boo! This craft project was a MAJOR FAIL! Grade: D-

Here's a better picture - see all the little strings? Yuck. This went into the recycle bin.

This vase was salvageable - I have it as part of my Halloween decor on my mantle but I don't 'love' it

Here are the black versions I did.... the first was a glass vase - I initially tried writing some words on it but that didn't work at all so instead I chipped that glue off and just tried putting on stripes. Thankfully I only did one side! The second version was just a soup can! It turned out much better but only because I didn't use any glue on it! ;)

Next time I'm trying the puffy paint.....

Do you have any 'craft projects gone wrong' stories to share?

Fall Decorating - A Series: Part 2 - The Mantle

2011-09-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun looking on Pinterest to get inspiration for my Fall decorations. I did a specific search for 'mantle decorations' because I feel lost when it comes to how to decorate this area in my house. Here's what I was working with:

What do you suppose the builder was thinking when he left those huge gaping holes around the fireplace? (I refer to them as 'cubbies'. Maybe he has a special affection for silk plants/ivy? Could you just see that tumbling out of each of the upper cubbies? Unfortunately, I am NOT a fan of silk plants so I'm a bit lost.

Here are some of the amazing Fall mantle ideas that I found on Pinterest:

Sweet Something Design via Pinterest

The Lettered Cottage via Pinterest

Parents.com via Pinterest

It's The Little Things That Make A House via Pinterest

Here is what I ended up with!

I incorporated some aqua (it's a main color in my living and kitchen area) but added golden yellow and orange to create a warmer color scheme. The garland was made using silk leaves ($1.99 at A.C. Moore), felt penants cut with pinking shears and then sewn with a zig zag stitch onto brown and red binding tape.

I added some of the silk leaves to the sconces that flank each side of the painting over the mantle

Using some silk Mums that I purchased at Hobby Lobby, I cut them down and put them into vases. The sunflower painting I orginally painted a few years ago as a Christmas gift for my Mom - not sure how I ended up getting it back!

This driftwood was a going away gift from friends when we moved from Washington state - isn't it amazing?

The book pumpkins - aren't they fabulous?

I found the idea for them on Pinterest using this tutorial: Book Pumpkin Tutorial. I purchased books at the Dollar Store, clipped some branches in my back yard and used ribbon that I already had on hand.... did you notice that the pumpkin on the right... the book is upside down? OOPS!

Fall Decorating - A Series: Part 1 - Weathered Pumpkins

2011-09-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Source: homestoriesatoz.com

Using this as my inspiration/tutorial: Blue Pumpkin Tutorial, I created some distressed pumpkins using Dollar Store pumpkins to make a vignette for Fall decorating. I bought eight pumpkins/gourds at the Dollar Store then purchased Crackle Medium from the new Martha Stewart Paint Line as well as some metallic paint in Copper. I definitely got a weathered look but it didn't really 'crackle' like the example above... I'm happy with the final results though and look forward to being able to try 'crackling' other stuff!

This vignette sits on the credenza in my entry way....

My Mom sewed me a 'placemat' using some awesome indoor/outdoor fabric we found at JoAnne's. We also used it to make a slipcover for my adirondack chair on the front porch - look for that in a future post!

Custom Made Patchwork Bag

2011-09-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Awhile back a customer contacted me about creating a custom bag for her. She was this wonderfully nice woman LaVerne who lives in Vidalia, LA.... she had a dress that was her mother's and was hoping to make something special from it. She had previously purchased one of my smaller handbags and was hoping I could make a larger one using fabric from the dress. She mailed it to me and I opened the package to find a dress made of panne velvet - something I'd never worked with before.... thankfully my Mom was visiting soon so I held off doing anything until she arrived. :) Really, she ended up sewing the whole bag and I'm not afraid to admit that! It looked like a HUGE pain to sew the velvet, plus my sewing machine is acting up.... she pulled it off though and the end result looks great:

Car Seat Cover

2011-08-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

I have heard about these covers and was so happy when I found a tutorial to make one. I thought it'd be the perfect 'project' to work on if I found some energy.... three weeks away from my due date I'm not feeling like doing a whole lot of ANYTHING these days but this was a quick one - thankfully! I love that this cover is just two cotton fabrics so lightweight which is important here in Florida - I figure this will deter unwanted touching of my baby but also block the bright sunshine as I'm taking her in and out of the car...

Here is a link to the great tutorial from the blog Cluck Cluck Sew that I used and an example of the cover she did: car seat cover tutorial

photo source: www.cluckclucksew.com

For my fabric I used some of the Moda "Botonay" line - it's fabric I actually won through a contest from "Fabric Chicks" - a fantastic fabric store in Coupeville, WA. They sent me three full yards of this print in three different colorways and I've been trying to figure out what to do with them.... This was a great project to use it on! The lining fabric is a simple green on green scroll pattern that I found at JoAnne's and the 'straps' is from a Fat Quarter also purchased at JoAnne's.

Feeling the Love

2011-08-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

I was contacted through Etsy recently about a giveaway on a blog and ended up sending a few items for it as well as a few items that the blogess (blogster? blogger? Not sure on that one...) could review as well.

She posted her review today and I think it's super complimentary! I received an A- grade which the perfectionist in me would of course love to be an A+++ but the constructive criticism she did give was really good. Check out the post: Graphoniac review of Pursewna

Crafty Lady

2011-08-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

As you saw from previous posts - I have been doing a ton of craft/DIY projects for my 'coming soon' second daughter but I've done quite a bit of sewing and crafts for other areas of our house as well. To give you a peek at some of these - here are some pictures and explanations....

This was a $3 purchase at a garage sale.... (love a good deal!) It had a blackboard on one side and a white board on the other and was framed in an unfinished light wood - which had been well loved by permanent markers by it's previous owner. I decided to spruce it up with some spray paint then used chalkboard paint to paint BOTH sides of the easel. I figured white board markers would be too messy for my 2 year old. I'm super happy with how it turned out!

notice I didn't do a great job of spray painting..... :)

my daughter loved her new toy!

On our beat up adirondack chair on our front porch was a beaten up 'outdoor pillow' from Crate & Barrel. To add some color to the area, I made a simple slipcover/pillow case out of some sunbrella fabric (actually, leftover fabric from re-upholstering some dining chairs earlier this year). It was so EASY and I love the pop of color it adds to the porch.

I also used this fabric in the office to make a pillow cover with a zipper! My FIRST EVER! You can tell it's a first but I am so happy I conquered that fear!!!! (sewing in a zipper.... it's easier than you'd think)

I apologize that this is such an awful picture.... I've been planning on making a cover for my sewing machine for years... I FINALLY got around to it and am so happy with how it turned out! It has pockets on each end (which really, I'm not sure what the purpose would be) and fits really well! I don't LOVE my fabrics but I wanted to keep within the red/white scheme that I already have in my office/craft room. I used this tutorial as a guide for this cover: Sewing Machine Cozy from Notes from the Patch

Baby Girl #2's Room - the FINISHED product!

2011-07-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry - I got a little lazy in posting additional blog posts about all the craftiness in baby girl #2's room but I figure this post will make it up to you. :) Here are pictures and information about the ENTIRE ROOM!

walking into the room....

Canvas DIY art above changing table (see post #2), 'bonne nuit' sign recycled from baby girl #1's nusery, lovely knitted pink throw on glider made by wonderful friend Joyce B for baby girl #1 (she can share....), scrappy lamp (see post #1)

homemade fabric garland using charm pack from Riley Blake's line "Hoo's in the Forest", vintage tablecloth on side table next to glider and changing table

My Mom made this contoured changing pad cover using Tiffany Blue Minky fabric..... she used this tutorial: Contoured Changing Pad Cover Tutorial

Paper Lantern Mobile as seen in post #4 and crib bumper as seen in post #3

Gallery Wall: purple 'hands' artwork I did in high school, three Ikea frames that I spray painted using leftover paint from the scrappy lamp, hoop art as seen in post #5, small floral print found at Goodwill for $2, "Love" print purchased at Hey Day in Bozeman, MT - absolutely drooled over this print for a good 30 minutes before deciding to just purchase it - was only $50 and the colors match PERFECTLY!!!!!!

Would you believe I made the crib sheet? Yep! I used this AWESOME and super easy tutorial: Crib/Toddler Sheet Tutorial. I found the fabric at JoAnne's! The crib bumper is so fantastic... I LOVE how it turned out! The crib skirt is from Land of Nod and went with the bedding that baby girl #1 had in her nursery.

a close up of the bumper and crib sheet

this is a simple white Ikea Dresser (Koppang) but I added gorgeous (and splurge-worthy) knobs from Anthropologie.... you can get yours here: Zinnia Knobs, the white birdhouse was a cute find at HomeGoods a few weeks back

I love this print - by a very talented and awesome Etsy artist: thewheatfield shop, the white frame was on clearance at A.C. Moore for $10, small floral buckets were at Target around Easter ($2 each), white Ikea shelf and ceramic piece is a 'found' piece from around the house

these are AWFUL pictures but gives you an idea of the window treatments: found these 'blackout curtains" at Target ($15 per panel) then added Jumbo White Rick Rack Trim at the bottom and used turquoise ribbon as ties. More of the garland/bunting I made using Riley Blake fabric

slightly better picture of the rick rack detail....

I am really pleased with how well the room turned out and it was so fun to add so many crafty/thrifted/DIY projects!!!! What do you think? Will Baby Girl #2 be pleased when she arrives? Only 6 more weeks until we find out!

I am doing my first link up today to Life Made Lovely!

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 5 (More Artwork)

2011-07-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of hoop art? I hadn't until this year and became a little obsessed with the idea of using it SOMEWHERE in my new house. When we first moved here to FL in April I purchased three different embroidery hoops at Michael's (or JoAnn's or AC Moore.... doesn't matter where, just that I got them) for probably $1.99-$3.99. They are super inexpensive! I remember seeing them at our local thrift store back in Washington too! (Be on the lookout next time you're thrifting..... speaking of - does anyone in the Jacksonville area thrift? Where should I go?)

Here's some examples I've come across on the internet - they can be elaborate:

source: boogaboohomemade.blogspot.com

source: http://epherielldesigns.com

Or they can be as simple as just the fabric in the frame:

source: www.ohdeedoh.com

image via spotlight

Back to the point: after a couple of months of having those embroidery hoops stare me down everytime I opened my crafting closet, I finally got around to making some hoop art of my own! I used some of the leftover fabrics that my Mom & I used for the crib bumper (Part 3) and then some extra fabric I had purchased through Etsy to coordinate with the Riley Blake line. From there I scrounged through my trims and buttons and 'scraps'. It was REALLY easy to put these together thanks to a little time and a hot glue gun!

I used this main tutorial to get an idea of the best way to go about it: CJaneCreate Embroidery Hoop Tutorial. It helped give me an idea of what to do first - stretch the fabric on the frame or start embellishing. Definitely stretch the fabric on first, then you can place your other items on where you'd like them. I did the largest of my three hoops first - even did a little free-hand stitching to write out 'hello'! Then I used a bunch of different antique doilies that I snagged from my Mom. I didn't want to glue these down so that I could re-use them in the future so instead I used small stitches to place them on the fabric.

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 4 (The Mobile)

2011-07-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

I saw this picture months ago and had thought about doing it in my older daughter's room but her room got a bit busy (remember this post? Big Girl Room Decorating) so I held onto it for baby girl #2's nursery.

source: ashleyann photography blog

I love how whimsical and fun this is! Isn't it gorgeous? I love the color combination too - I'm a sucker for coral in any way shape or form.... AND - it seemed fairly simple for me to figure out how to do on my own - also a HUGE plus! (You can see the rest of Ashley's post about her daughter's beautiful room here: Entering the Girl World Nursery)

I figured that I'd start with a grid to hang the lanterns and such from so I purchased three dowels at Michael's, sawed them in half and spray painted them white. I then laid them out in the grid pattern like this:

I used yarn leftover from my wedding favors (yep - I've had that yarn for 5 years!) to wrap the dowels together. From there I started hanging the lanterns from the grid in my sewing room:

Here they are all tied but sitting on my table.... then I tried taking this into the baby's room and hanging. Yeah - as you can guess, it didn't really work out well. So I started again. I cut all the yarn from the lanterns so I once again had the bare grid and hung it from the ceiling. I used simple white eye hooks that I bought at Target - by holding the grid up with one hand on the ceiling, I used my other hand to mark five different spots with a pencil to know where to put the eye hooks. (I'm very scientific and exact about this whole thing, can you tell?)

The grid hanging on the ceiling from the eye hooks. I used yarn 'loops' to attach the grid to the eye hooks.... from there I just started hanging each lantern. The lanterns came from both World Market (the largest aqua/blue lantern that was on sale for $4) and from a great website called Luna Bazaar. I bought five different sized lanterns/honeycombs from them and it was about $22 including shipping. The smallest lanterns which are referred to as "no frills lanterns" were only $0.95! The white eyelet one was more like $5.95.

The pom pom was made using tissue paper I picked up at Target - probably about $1.99 for the pack. You too can make these simple pom pom's using this great Martha Stewart Tutorial

I played around a lot with lengths and placement - I wanted to have it look 'thrown together' but still symmetrical... if that makes any sense at all.

The finished product! (Sorry about the photo quality - these are off of my phone....)

The paper stringed garland was made using a scallop punch, scrapbook paper I already had and then they were all sewn together with white thread! I had them in one long string and was going to loop it but I ended up hanging it in a couple places, cutting and re-stringing on the grid again.

What do you guys think? This is one of my FAVORITE 'pieces' in the baby's room.

(I promise to take better pictures of everything at the end of this 'segment' so you can see everything put together!)

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 3 (The Crib Bumper)

2011-07-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I loved my daughter's nursery at our old house - it was feminine but not over the top 'pink'. The bedding I picked out was gorgeous but I knew for baby #2 I'd want to give her something different - something unique. So, rather than find some expensive bedding online I looked for a way to 're-use' or upcycle! I actually found a couple of different online tutorials for bumper slipcovers and went that route. I purchased a plain ivory Carter's crib bumper* off of Craigslist for $15 and then when my Mom was visiting last month - we did a quilted bumper using the fabrics from Riley Blake's "Penny Lane" collection. As I mentioned in my last post, my Mom is making the baby a quilt using these fabrics so that's the color inspiration behind the room.... many as seen in this quilt here:

photo credit: mygratituteattitudes.blogspot.com

From there we used this FANTASTIC tutorial from the blog Crafterhours: Patchwork Crib Bumper Tutorial. We did end up adding about 3 additional quilt squares as the bumper we were slipcovering was a bit longer than hers but it turned out really fantastic.

The finished product:

We used the pink and blue lines of this collection although there's a really pretty lime green colorway as well. For the sashing we patchworked some different lines - I think there's a Joel Dewberry chainlink dot as well as some small polka dot that we found in the calico section at Jo-Ann's.

The backing fabric was another great find at JoAnn's! I LOVE how it looks and it's a great graphic print for the baby since it's just two colors and large shapes. The ties are extra-wide ivory binding tape.

I can't take credit for ANY of this - my Mom did ALL of the work and for that I am EXTREMELY thankful! :) She's a fantastic seamstress and quilter!!!

My Mom hard at work!

*Yes, I know - a crib bumper is a bit controversial.... some people have strong feelings about them and if that's you.... I get it. But please keep your comments to yourself! :)

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 2 (The Painting)

2011-07-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy is the inspiration behind another element in baby girl's room - a painting! She did a post recently about the entryway in her house and had a great 'knock-off' painting from one she had seen at World Market. I thought it looked like a good idea since I needed more artwork for the baby's room - and fairly easy so I went for it too! Here's a link to the 'tutorial' as to what Lindsey did for her artwork: Pleated Poppy - Inspired Canvas.

Here is what the finished product at World Market looked like:

Because I wanted to keep within a color scheme - I took some of the Riley Blake "Penny Lane" fabric (which is the inspiration for baby's room) seen here

photo credits: www.fatquartershop.com

into Michael's and color matched the acrylic craft paints. Thankfully there's such a HUGE collection of different colors, it was fairly easy to find some that matched. I had a pre-stretched canvas already at home but it wasn't as large of a size as I wanted so I bought one of those at Michael's too.

Lindsey's version of the painting had a more khaki/brown/gold background because she wanted contrast with her wall color but I wanted mine more on the grey side. I ended up mixing a light grey, gold, white and brown together but then dry brushed it then ended up wetting a paper towel after adding a very watered down grey over that. The effect is a mottled, messy grey which I'm ok with.

From there I tried to find a good glass or circle template to work from.... I ended up using a votive candle holder and then a pint glass to get a circle about 3" in diameter to create the circles. My problem here was using a mechanical pencil that had too soft of graphite. The reason being - AWFUL smearing! I had it all over my arm and hand which isn't a big deal but it also rubbed across the canvas and just looks much messier than I would like. (I really need to invest in some good old-fashioned #2 pencils and a pencil sharpener - remind me when it's back to school time....)

So, as Lindsey mentions - drawing in all the lines for your 'petal' shapes is the most time intensive part of this project but very do-able.... just use a better pencil! :)

From there I had a great time mixing paints and trying to be as random as possible. I did NOT do a good job of trying to keep the pattern intact - another something I'd do better if I were to paint this again but overall the final project worked out ok and the colors work well. It was a fun, inexpensive way to create some artwork for the baby's room. What do you think?

Baby Girl #2's Room - Broken Down (The Lamp)

2011-07-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try and do a post on each of the 'homemade' elements I've been working on for our new baby's nursery. I've had a TON of fun finding fantastic tutorials and being inspired by all the amazing blogs out on the Internet and put a LOT of them to use!

The first 'piece' I'm going to share with you is the bedside lamp. I saw this idea on a great blog I love reading called The Pleated Poppy. Here is a link to her post: pleated poppy lampshade tutorial.

And here's my version:

The lamp base was $10 at WalMart (Better Homes & Gardens line) which I spray painted with Krylon Satin Catalina Mist. The lamp shade I found at Goodwill - it went with this lamp base and was in BAD shape! The base I turned into a lamp for our office/sewing room...

I think I spent $3 on it? I stripped off all the fabric shade and then (my Dad) gave it a light coat of white paint. I used strips of fabric from the Riley Blake "Penny Lane" line. This fabric is the inspiration for the whole room - my wonderful Mom is making baby #2 a quilt with these fabrics so I thought it was a great starting point! Using the tips in the Pleated Poppy tutorial, I just tore a BUNCH of strips of fabric and tied in between each 'bone' of the existing lampshade.

Stars and Stripes

2011-06-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

With the Fourth right around the corner, I thought my front door needed a bit of 'holiday decor'. While at JoAnne's last week (my Mom and I did some MAJOR crafting for Baby #2's nursery - hope to have some pictures to share soon!!!) I picked up another straw wreath form and some beautiful rich royal blue yarn. Even managed to scavenge some felt pieces for flowers too. I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking to make and overall, I'm happy with how this wreath turned out. It's a great addition to our otherwise drab front entry. I'm hoping to have it 're-done' sometime this summer! (and by re-done I mean adding some props and decor, not rolling out the big guns!) ;)

More Wreaths - Available in my Etsy shop!

2011-06-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

I have been bitten by the wreath bug.... they are so much fun to make and as I tend to be an impatient person - instant gratification! Well - more instant than some of the other things I make and sell in my Etsy shop. :) Here are two new wreaths that are now/almost available in my Etsy shop. Please visit this link to learn more about pricing: www.pursewna.etsy.com.

Welcome Home

2011-06-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

I initially had the idea to make this garland way back at Christmas. Of course the holidays swamped me and then the stress of our move, etc. had me putting it off.... I recently got off my tush though and got to it! I am really pleased with how these garland turned out and hope that a number of people like them!

New Owls in the Shop!

2011-05-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the newest additions to my Etsy shop! For more information go to: www.pursewna.etsy.com!

Baby Boy's Wreath

2011-05-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

A good friend asked me to make a wreath for a baby boy's room. This special little boy has hand-painted murals in his new room of Winnie the Pooh and all of his storybook friends. She sent me some pictures to give me some color ideas to work with and I went from there. Here's how it turned out:

Joyce, I hope you, and more importantly your friend, like how this turned out!!!

Decorating Ups and Downs

2011-05-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

I think I'm getting burned out in regards to decorating our new house. Yes, I'm still on full speed forward - thinking and buying and making anything from curtains to pillow covers to artwork but I'm losing the major urge to want to do it. Here are some of my latest ups and downs:

The sewing room/office is quickly becoming one of my favorite rooms. I painted our computer desk a couple years back and the deep red was the starting point for what to do with this room. You saw the lamp re-do I did in an earlier post and I wanted to continue you with that fun red/black/white color scheme but add in some other fun colors too. I went ahead and re-painted both my sewing desk as well as the drop-leaf dining table and two chairs we had in here. I really disliked the light wood that the dining table was and the cushions were just blah. Rather than just 'going for it' and spray painting it all I found tutorials for how to correctly paint furniture - worked out good. Not sure using an oil based primer at 5 months pregnant was the best way to go but I used gloves, wore a mask and painted in the garage with the door up - hopefully that minimized fumes.

My weapons.... primer, white paint and clear top coat

and in the process of getting primed

the original stain/wood color....

hmmm... not sure if this is right - hopefully it turns out after a couple coats of paint

how our garage looked for a good week plus...

The fabric that I found to re-cover the seat cushions for the chairs was a random find at JoAnn's. It's actually outdoor fabric but I figure it'll hold up even better to wear & tear from kiddos down the road. Here's the 'finished' room:

walking into the room....

'my' side of the room - the table for some to study at and some to cut fabric at... and my beloved sewing machine and ironing board.

the finished table

the finished sewing table

LOVE this fabric!!!

and the other side of the room - computer, desk, TV and comfy chair

I even have fabric left over to make a pillow cover for this chair! Here it's just wrapped around the existing pillow - going to try my first zipper here in a few days... wish me luck!

Onto the living room.... this room is spacious and feels even bigger because of the super high ceilings. One of the challenges I have with it though are these 'cubbies' that surround the fireplace along one wall. What the heck do you do with them?

they are deep too! probably two feet back? and why electrical outlets? I'd love to know what the builders intentions were...

I'm happy with the painting & the sconces but not thrilled with the 'decorative items' I added to the left and right of that area... neither item has the height or weight for how large the spaces are. I think I figured out what to do with the two lower cubbies though - curtains! I purchased decorator fabric on sale at JoAnn's and made simple curtain panels, purchased two cheap tension rods at Target.... if we needed the storage it'd be the perfect spot to 'hide something' but I'm kind of figuring my daughter will end up using them as hiding spots. :)

the current 'finished' look... decorating can be a constant work in progress, huh? The fabric is a brown/taupe with a light aqua lattice pattern - I liked it in theory but now wondering if it doesn't just blend in?

What do you think? Thoughts? Suggestions please!!!!

New Aprons in the Shop!

2011-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to getting these newest aprons up and in my Etsy shop.... well, at least four of the five. This last apron's pictures won't upload! Bummer - it turned out awesome!

With this apron, the design is on the right...

Same tea towel, but design on the left....

Fun yo-yo's and a lace flower!

This apron features teal and ivory applique'd flowers from felt

If you like this last apron - convo me and I can get it to you! Hoping to get new pics taken and this posted on Etsy this weekend....

Yarn Wreath Fun

2011-05-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

Oh my.... ever since seeing this amazing shop on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnockKnocking, I have been DYING to try making my own yarn wreath. There are TONBS of amazing examples on the web - check these lovelies out:

I'm not even going to try and compete with this woman because her color combos and flair are beyond compare but I thought it'd be a great chance to try a different 'craft' to see how things turned out. Using this great tutorial: Take Heart Blog - Yarn Wreath Tutorial, my wreath turned out like this:

I think it turned out pretty awesome, don't you?

A Little Decorating Project

2011-04-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we're finally feeling settled in our new home here in Jacksonville. All the boxes are unpacked and apart from some pictures that still need to be hung on the walls - things are looking pretty good! Of course there's tons of 'decorating ideas' I have (all the awesome blogs I subscribe to are such great inspiration - lots of fantastic DIY projects out there!!!) but I have time... we will be here three years and although I have to remind myself this daily - I don't need to have EVERYTHING done in a week!

I have made a point of making my daughter's room a priority though and I am thrilled to show you pics!!! It all came together this morning when I hung up the last of the fabric garland... what do you think?

All finished!!! Ry's room turned out a lot like I envisioned... a little random and a LOT colorful!
The garland was inspired by this awesome tutorial: Purlbee Party Garland
I used fabric scraps that I already had - such a thrifty decoration!
This turquoise shelf was $9.99 at Michael's and then I painted it turquoise using acrylic craft paint. The vinyl decals were $12.99 at Target - unfortunately my daughter saw that they're 'stickers' and keeps trying to pull the lower ones off the wall!!!!

Her 'big girl' bed that she started sleeping in the 2nd night we
were in our new house! We found the adorable bedding
at Target for only $39!

I had the basket and used it for craft shows and the local farmer's market in our old town - works
perfect with her books & a few bedroom toys

The turquoise wall art on the left normally sits vertically and holds a calendar! I thought it'd be a fun place to put
family photos.... the art work on the right is something I painted in high school, the colors are super bright and PERFECT for little girl's new room.

The lamp is a thrift store find from a couple years back - I just added ribbon trim to the shade and looped some of the fabric garladn to the top.

The turquoise shelf is an antique store find that I spray painted. The three birds hanging from it are Christmas ornaments that I found in December at World Market.

This is just a simple Ikea dresser from years ago but I found the adorable turquoise knobs
at TJMaxx last week for $12.99!

This is a blackout panel purchased at Target for $15.99. I'd still like to embellish it with some jumbo white rick rack trim but the fabric garland looks cute too (I need to iron these - oops!)

This was a Christmas gift from Grandma but I waited to hang it until we got to our new house

The reading area... the glider will go to baby #2's room down the road but it works great for snuggles and reading time before naps and bedtime. The quilt was knitted by Grandma Jan - another great homemade accent!

Some Little Projects

2011-04-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Since we're in the process of our big move I'm not doing a bunch of sewing/crafting but I thought I'd show you all a few projects I have worked on. The first - I found a super adorable dress at Target for my little girl but realized quickly it was basically a tshirt with ruffles at the bottom. So, instead I bought a cute tshirt for $7, raided my Mom's fabric stash at home for the PERFECT matching fabric and we went to town! My Mom ended up doing most of the sewing since I'm not very proficient with her fancy-schmancy sewing machine.... I'm super happy with how it turned out and look forward to making many more to hopefully include in my Etsy shop once we're all settled!

ok... but missing something....


Better! A cute little fabric flower!


The finished product on my little model

Later in the week I bundled up my restless energy and went to TOWN on re-organizing my Mom's kitchen pantry. It's a lovely space - nice and big with four levels of shelving and TONS of potential but it was crazy how much was jam-packed in there! I ended up clearing everything out on Wednesday morning - wiping down the shelves and walls and floors as best I could. (to be honest - a fresh coat of paint would've been fantastic but really, once everything was put back & away - all the dings and scuffs on the shelves weren't even noticeable.) I was floored by some of the things I found.... first off, my Mom's a baker by occupation and at home so she has a LARGE collection of food colorings, sprinkles, spices, baking goods, etc. The biggest shock? How many bags of chocolate chips and baking chocolate she has! HOLY COW! I would say 15 bags of chocolate chips alone... not to mention two HUGE bags from Costco that we combined into a large bin. WOWZA! To consolidate a lot of smaller & like items, I used baskets, bins, shelves, etc. purchased from the local Dollar Store, Wal-Mart & Target. I still want to add some labels to some of the bins and shelves but it looks GREAT! I was very proud of my Mom for throwing some stuff away.... it's amazing how you have the urge to constantly purge material things when you have to move every three years. I suppose it's not a bad trait for me to have. ;) Here are some pictures of the project and it's end result:

The Empty Pantry....

Another view

My parents aren't big drinkers but all this alcohol would lead you to believe otherwise.... not to mention three waffle makers and two popcorn poppers! WHAT?

the BEST thing I found! ;) hee...hee...hee.... don't tell anyone but my Mom threw it out! And yes, they just celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary!!! Isn't that amazing?!


The finished and organized pantry!

All this organizing really gets me fired up! Now if ONLY I was at my own house in Florida doing this with all my OWN STUFF! Soon enough.... we'll be there by April 12th and I can't WAIT! It's a beautiful house (as far as I can tell from the pictures) and I WILL have a sewing/craft room!!! YEAH! Oh, and I really want a label machine - maybe something I can buy later today. :)

Pursewna is MOVING!

2011-03-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, the US Navy is moving this family and with it Pursewna! Little do they know they were moving a business in the bargain! (insert evil laugh here....)
However at the moment that means one Rubbermaid tub, some tote bags, a trunk of fabric and a sewing machine - gives new meaning to the term 'small business', huh?

Interested in knowing where? JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA!

Never having been to Jacksonville (or Jax as I guess the locals call it) myself I've done a little perusing online to see what's in store for us.... here are some links I found helpful:

http://www.visitjacksonville.com/

http://jacksonville.com/

Map of Jacksonville

My husband found us a wonderful house which is large enough for me to have a sewing area - yeah! Even if it's not the craft/sewing room I've always wanted, I know I'll be able to customize an area that works perfectly for sewing and crafting other fun items to include in my Etsy shop, to give as gifts and to even keep for myself. I'm super excited to decorate and make this house a home - it's always fun to start fresh and bring in some new interior design/decorating ideas to make a house comfy and warm. There are so many wonderful ideas on so many different blogs that I follow!
(Interested in this list? Check back soon!)

In the meantime, we are patiently waiting for next week. Then everything goes to heck! My husband gets home after being gone for two months of training and then two days later the packers come. They'll handle all our personal items (carefully, I hope), wrap them and box them with care for two days while we try and stay out of the way.... that includes keeping a large dog and toddler occupied! Then on the third day they load everything up into a huge truck and we shut our doors on a home that we've loved living in the past three years.

I'm sad to leave this little community - we've made wonderful friends, joined a church, become a part of the community enough that we run into someone we know daily around town. I also started my business here and learned some valuable lessons in how to make it successful. I had my first experience selling wholesale to a wonderful local business, preparing proposals and creating professional documents, networking with other local businesses and business women, attending holidays bazaars as well as the local farmer's market. I'm excited to see what Jacksonville thinks of Pursewna!

My Etsy shop will be closed for a month during this transition - March 21st - April 21st. I'm more than happy to answer any questions and to research for custom orders but as my items will be driving cross-country as we are, I'll be opening for business once we're able to feel settled in our new location - SUNNY Florida!

Personalized Garland

2011-03-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

A good college friend contacted me last week about adding a 'happy birthday' message to one of the sections of garland that I currently have in my Etsy shop. The garland I have is great but the flags are fairly small so I offered to make something custom.... she gave me a great example of something she saw in someone else's Etsy shop and I just kind of ran with it.
Jennifer gave me the color scheme of yellow, pink, green so with that in mind I went to JoAnne's and was going to just buy a whole plethora of fat quarters - I found some really cute fabrics too. But, at $2 a pop it would've been $30 just in fabric! I figured I'd hold off and see what fabric and scraps I already had in my stash at home and I was so happy I did! Those colors are already ones that I tend to buy a lot of when picking fabrics for myself so it was EASY to find a mix of fantastic fabrics. From there I cut them (well, my Mom ended up cutting them actually) into 7.5X14.5 inch rectangles. Then I added some medium/heavy-weight interfacing to one half of each rectangle. Then using stencils I used some fantastic fabric paint by Tulip - it's velveteen and after you paint it on and let it dry - you use your iron to 'steam' it and the paint raises up similarly to velveteen fabric. It looks so cool!!! (Here's a link to more about this fun paint: learn more about Tulip Fabric Paint Velveteen.

Then I folded each rectangle in half to make a square and sewed them inside out, leaving about a 4 inch section un-sewn to turn the fabric right side out. Then I sewed a finishing stitch all the way around the squares in an apple green color to give it a more finished look. Then using Brown wide double fold bias tape I pinned each 'flag' to the binding tape - leaving 12 inches at each end to easily tie or hang the banner and about 1 inch between each flag.

I am SO happy with how it turned out and I hope Jennifer is too! This special garland is for celebrating her little one's first birthday - Happy Birthday Jane!

Oscar Viewing Party

2011-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

My husband is gone and I needed a goal... an activity to plan for and look forward to so I decided to host an Academy Awards Viewing Party! I found a cute evite online and sent it out to a number of local friends and started planning my menu, decor, etc. right away! It was a fun diversion to the snow we got here last week, not to mention the lingering cough my daughter has. :) It was a LOT of fun and the people who attended had a great time! Here are some pics from the event and all of my 'over the top' fun decorations!

My little helper - she liked the cream cheese from the frosting!

one heck of a yummy Chocolate Cake!

What a wreath! I used cardboard and craft paints - masking tape to get the straight lines but otherwise, freehanded the lettering... ended up hot-gluing it onto a wreath form. The wreath and ribbon were both from the Dollar Store

The Dollar Store was definitely my 'fave place' this last week. I found so many great items to decorate with! The popcorn buckets were fantastic and so fitting for the evening. I also found shiny metallic star decorations:

Hard to see but the stars are hanging from the light fixtures - I also tied them to some of our table lamps in our front room. I also cut out stars from cardboard boxes in our recycle bin and painted them gold using basic craft paints. I stuck them onto picture frames, etc. using double-stick tape.

Would you believe I moved all our furniture around for the party too? Yep - 12 weeks prego and moving a TON of furniture around! :) It worked out great though - plenty of seating for great viewing and everyone was comfortable!

Another fun 'crafty' item I did was create pom poms out of tissue paper! This is a Martha project as shown in this link: Pom Pom How To's

I found an image of the Oscar online and printed it out to put in the aqua frames below:

red carnations, plates, napkins and silver (used my Wedding China and the nice silver... why NOT?)

Dollar Store finds! These popcorn 'buckets' were 2 for $1.... put rice in the bottom to keep them weighted and attached printed 'labels' for each utensil. I made tent cards using this printed movie ticket image to show what each food item was and to label the favor bags too (see end of post)

Some of the spread...

...this was all the savory items

This was where the sweets were!

Menu:

Fruit

Spinach in Phyllo Triangles (thanks Mary!)

Spinach & Feta Hummus

Guacamole, Chips & Salsa

Crackers and three types of Cheeses

Caesar Salad with Chicken

Bruschetta

Crudite with Green Onion Basil Dip

Peanut Butter Popcorn

Chocolate Brownies with Pecans and Girl Scout Cookies

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
Movie Theater Candy: Runts, Sugar Babies, Gobstoppers, Sweet Tarts & Peanut M&M's

A few games - Oscar Bingo, The official Oscar Ballots

and Movie Trivia (which we didn't even end up looking at)

I had prizes for winners of the three games but ended up giving them out to people doing the bingo (which I found here: Oscar Bingo 2011)

Such fun! I found three different DVD's (tried to get Academy Award winning pictures) and tied them up in gold ribbon with some fun plastic sunglasses

Here is my friend Mary's little girl Isla wearing the sunglasses Mary won:

Each guest was treated to a little favor as they left (some took home leftovers too):

Found these great paper sacks at the Dollar Store too! I put in movie style candy and a bag of microwave popcorn....

A little something extra:

Peanut Butter Popcorn Recipe!

(this is a favorite of mine growing up - always a treat to have my Mom make it for us!)

1. Pop three batches of popcorn with an air popper - set aside

2. In a saucepan over medium high heat, stir 1/2 C. Sugar and 1/2 C. of Karo Syrup or Honey and bring to a boil. (My Mom says she likes the flavor of the honey - I used the Karo since I didn't have much honey and was happy with the result!)

3. Remove from heat and stir in 1 t. vanilla and 1/2 C. peanut butter (creamy or crunchy - you pick!)

4. Pour over popcorn to coat

Eat and prepare to be ADDICTED!!!!!

Homemade Valentine's

2011-02-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

I received a letter on Thursday saying that my daughter's school* would be doing Valentine's for a party.... we'd need to bring in 12 cards/Valentine's. What? Ok.... my plan was to head to the Dollar Store to see what I could come up with.

I saw these cute cards and figured "that fits with my daughter's tomboy nature". A lot of blogs are featuring this type of cards:

"Crap I've Made" blog Click Here to see the whole tutorial

Also super cute but getting my daughter to sit still to take a picture is near impossible....

"The Stories of A to Z" Click Here to see this full tutorial

AWESOME! I loved that they were customized and would use up some of my fabric scraps! The full tutorial for these is here. These were THE ONES!

Here's my version:

I cut scraps from my fabric stash 9 inches X 3.5 inches

In the original tutorial she uses a serger on all four sides of the strips but I used pinking shears - this will keep the edges from fraying....

lovely pinking shear scraps!

Next I drew out hearts on natural colored canvas/duck cloth. Because my little one is too young to write her name yet, I just did it on her behalf.

This was definitely the LONGEST part of the project - attaching all the velcro!!!

I used a very small zig zag stitch to do this part - it's how I attach velcro on my Pursewna bags too.

Then I sewed on all the hearts - I just used a straight stitch...

(you'll notice - I just used the thread already in my machine - it's bright purple but a fun contrast to the different fabrics I used to make the bags)

Then using a larger zig zag stitch I sewed up the two sides - doing a small backstitch at the top since that's where most of the 'pull' will be when kids rip into them...

To fill the bags I purchased WalMart fruit snacks - they went into the 12 kiddo bags. I had this secret stash of Dove Dark Chocolate hearts in my freezer (they're so good cold!!!) so I stuffed two bags with these for her teacher.

HOW CUTE?!?!?!

*I use the word 'school' loosely - she's 20 months and goes on Mondays for 4 hours - it's absolute bliss for Momma to have some time to herself and my little one - even though she ends up crying the first 5 minutes I drop her off, always seems to be very happy when I pick her up.

Valentine's Day Decorating

2011-02-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it was the sickness we had in our house at the beginning of February or the seeminly endless grey days outside but I was itching to get some color into our house! I figured - what better way than to decorate for Valentine's Day!

There are a number of crafty blogs that I'm addicted to looking at each day and a number of them were really inspiring. I used a lot of those ideas and incorporated them as my own. I also used objects from around my house. Here's a little look at what I did:

photo credit from Crap I've Made blog

This awesome canvas art inspired me to do this:

I already had these Ikea frames which I had painted a bright turquoise with craft store acrylic paint - I've just been rotating out different pictures for holidays, etc.! SO EASY!

Here's another shot of this wall:

I have the super cute photo calendar displayed in my calendar holder and I have Dollar Store pink heart doilies up all over the house!

I literally scotch taped these up to doors, kitchen cabinets and the wall.... easy and cheap!

I also did some decorating on my mantle:

Mantles are TOUGH! Especially this one because it's 'triangular' shaped... I am never super happy with what I put there but this time around I think it looks pretty cute.

(Garland from my Etsy shop: www.pursewna.etsy.com)

Some cute family photos and an old Valentine decoration hung on a 'display' item - these were probably found at Ross or TJMaxx or Tuesday Morning... I think the frames are both Crate & Barrel

Candy in mercury glass apothecary jars... lollipops and conversation hearts (leftover from my Valentine's wreath in the previous tutorial!) The apothecary jars are Pottery Barn from a few years ago.

A number of 'mantle displays' from the blog: The Stories of A to Z inspired my design.

Altogether? Pretty cute and festive for the holiday - now time to plan for St. Patrick's Day!!!

Valentine's Wreath

2011-02-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

I recently saw a really cute tutorial online on the blog Thrifty 101. I figured since all the supplies were purchased at The Dollar Store it'd be a cheap, easy craft to try. Besides, our house needs a little 'sprucing' for the holiday - these gray, rainy days are inspiring me to add some extra color inside!

My Supplies:

a styrofoam wreath (which I then wrapped using the ribbon I mention below)

Four bags of small conversation hearts

some glue sticks for your hot glue gun (I decided to stock up for future projects)

satin ribbon - with the size of wreath I got, it only took one roll (4 yards)

To make desigining my pattern easier, I decided to sort out the hearts ahead of time

(not sure it was hugely necessary...)

with all the hearts glued on - I'm not SUPER happy with my first try (pattern? what pattern?) but

I have a second wreath to do later (I'll need more hearts though - seriously took almost FOUR BAGS

to do the one wreath!!!)

the finished product - I am in love with the HOT PINK satin bow I tied on to hang it...

the best part of the project!

Here's a link to the original tutorial: http://thrifty101.blogspot.com/2011/01/valentines-wreath.html

Snazzy New Bag Ready for Shipment

2011-02-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

This newest bag is one that I secretly want to keep... I am IN LOVE with this Anna Maria Horner fabric - it's beautiful! This bag is for a local lady who received a gift certificate for her birthday. She told me she's going to use it to hold her knitting supplies! Hopefully she'll be inspired to carry it around with her yarn & needles all over the place - it's definitely a bag worth showing off.

SALESALESALESALESALE

2011-01-31T22:50:00.000-08:00

Come check out the awesome and fantastic deals taking place in my "fabulously flirty for February" Etsy shop!

www.pursewna.etsy.com

Spring Fabrics

2011-01-28T14:14:00.000-08:00

I headed to our local WalMart today for a certain tie dye fabric.... of course I couldn't find it but instead I found a bunch of other fun stuff! They had a TON of fabrics on sale - piles and piles! They're getting rid of inventory to make room for a bunch of new stuff. :) Here's some of the fun prints I found:

Camera Straps

2011-01-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

I attempted a camera strap for our dSLR last year but it was pretty rough. I've been meaning to attempt one again and had the perfect excuse when my brother asked me to make him one at Christmas. He picked out some 'manly' fabric and then I used some of my fabric stash to make a couple extra. The tutorial I found this time around was great: The Cottage Mama Camera Strap. Obviously I didn't put a bunch of ruffles on a strap for my brother but it helped me get started. I did however make lovely ruffles and gathers on the other two straps. Here are a few pics:

Mini Projects

2011-01-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

I've worked on a couple of 'mini projects' this past week to keep me occupied. We purchased a portable DVD player awhile back (the BEST money we've ever spent!!!) but we needed a carrying case for it so looking online I found this tutorial: Make It and Love It Portable DVD Player Case Tutorial. It turned out OK - the construction isn't great - it felt like some steps were a bit backwards (when you put the straps on and the flap, etc.) and the strap is super flimsy and doesn't feel very strong. BUT, for an easy case and our needs, it should work great!
What do you think?

under construction - the back pocket

the finished product!

the pocket on the back for straps and cords

the tutorial has directions for a divider so if you have dual screens for the DVD players but I figure we can put DVD's in the 'extra section' of our case

I also made Ryleigh a pillowcase for a pillow for her crib! I had a small pillow insert laying around and so I used three fat quarters to sew a super cute pillowcase!

A Special Bag for a Special Someone at Christmas

2011-01-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

I love my Mom.... we're great friends now that I'm well passed puberty and the ugliness of that time period and for that I'm thankful. (I'm sure she is too - I was AWFUL!!!!) She also forgave me for that ugliness and kept loving me. My Mom is super generous - every time I'm home she lets me peek through all of her fabric and just take whatever I want! How crazy is that? I try and say no but she has some gorgeous fabrics and it's hard to say no to new gorgeous fabrics!!! This past summer she gave me some prints and requested that I make her a 'bucket bag' similar to a few I've had in my Etsy shop. It's a large round bucket of a bag that's especially great for travel or when you need to bring LOTS with you! The fabric was beautiful but with all that I had going on I didn't get around to making the bag until December which meant this awesome bag was a fantastic Christmas present. Here are pics of the finished project - glad you like it Mom!!!!

Crafty Christmas Project!

2010-12-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

While in Vancouver for Thanksgiving, I got an opportunity to visit my FAVORITE STORE OF ALL TIME! (ok - I begged Casey to take me AND I should clarify that it's my favorite craft store of all time - Anthropologie is my ultimate favorite....) ;)
Anyhow, Casey took me to Craft Warehouse! It's basically like Michael's BUT better! There's fabric and decorating ideas and tons of scrapbooking and jewelry making supplies - unbelievable. What I love best is they show so many examples of things to do! For example, with the display of glass blocks they'll have 2-3 glass blocks that they've used stencils and twinkle lights to show you ideas of how to use them! It's fantastic! The only bad thing is trying to find time and money to do all of the ideas yourself! I did treat myself to some things - one idea was to take cardboard cones and make Christmas trees using looped scrapbook paper - here's how the project turned out:

I painted the three 'trees' brown but the example at the store was painted green. I picked brown because of the color scheme of the scrapbooking paper that I chose. (My Mind's Eye - "Believe")

Some of the lovely scrapbooking paper... reds, muted greens, aqua, brown

Next, I cut the paper into strips about 1 inches wide, then cut them lengthwise about 4 inches long

then I folded those in half and stapled them - I used this size of 'bough' for 90% of the tree

then using my trusty glue gun, I glued each bough in rows - changing up colors and papers (each scrapbook page was double-sided with a different print)

adding more rows...

...and more

for the top of the tree I curled a strip of the cut paper to make a point - this part was tricky...

hard to see but the top few rows I cut each bough in half lengthwise to make them skinner - easier to glue around the top part of the tree as it got more narrow. Then at the top I wrapped a strip or two more around to cover the top boughs. (rather than stapling the more narrow boughs, I glued the loops together then glued them onto the tree)

The finished project!!! I ended up with two on my mantle and one on a shelf in our dining room - they look fantastic! I'm really happy with the colors - so festive in a different color scheme than traditional bright red and kelly green.

GORGEOUS diaper bag heading to San Diego!

2010-12-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Just finished this gorgeous diaper bag for a good friend in San Diego. She's giving it to her friend who's pregnant and due in February. I knew I wanted to get it all finished before Christmas - always that much more fun to get an unexpected gift for the holiday! The friend picked out this fabric through Hawthorne Threads (www.hawthornethreads.com) which is the website that I direct most people to who are interested in picking out fabrics for a custom bag. The site has great prices but it is also organized in such a way that it's fun and easy to find LOVELY fabrics that are perfect for whatever project you're working on! This fabric is called "Dagmar Floral in Teal and Grey" and it is an Alexander Henry fabric. I ordered it first and then took it to a local quilting shop to find the perfect coordinating fabric. It was tougher than I thought to find the 'perfect' match... what I thought of as mustard yellow has some green in it and the rusty brown is just that - rusty! I ended up with a charcoal grey subtle print as it matched perfectly with the grey accents in the floral. I also purchased an awesome Joel Dewberry called "Acorn Chain in Pond" from the collection "Modern Meadow". I used it in a subtle way - lining the pockets! It's just like having a bright red satin lining to an overcoat - an unexpected punch of color! What do you think?

Many More Owls!

2010-12-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

I created a few more owls prior to last week's Holiday Bazaar - although a few were purchased there, I still have some left and am hoping to get them into my Etsy shop shortly! Here's a preview:

My 2nd Holiday Bazaar

2010-11-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

This past weekend when we were visiting family in Vancouver, WA - I brought all my goodies and set up shop at a local Christmas Bazaar. It was held at a local high school to raise funds for their Senior Grad Night - I hope they raised enough.... there was over 140+ booths! Insanity!

It was a great opportunity to expose the 'couve' to my shop and what all it entails - I had a great time coming up with new ways to display my wares and am really happy with the final outcome! I felt 'orginal' - there were some other people with handbags and such but it seemed like my booth was cohesive and everything went together well.

Holiday Gifting!

2010-11-29T18:26:00.000-08:00

Do you need a little gift for someone special? Maybe something cute to give the hostess at the holiday party you're attending this month? Maybe a little something to add to the gift you already have in mind for your mother-in-law? These are a GREAT OPTION! Holiday aprons!!! They're stylish and functional and they spread a LOT of holiday cheer! Each is made using a 'tea towel' (dish towel for those of us in the know) and colorful notions like felt snowflakes or stars, rick rack and ribbon and binding tape 'ties'! Look for them soon in my Etsy shop: pursewna.etsy.com.

And the holiday season has STARTED!!!

2010-11-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had my first of two holiday shows that I'm attending this season. It was the local OSCWI's (officer spouse's club of Whidbey Island) annual Holiday Boutique here in Oak Harbor, WA. I did this show last year as well (my first EVER holiday show) and it was a lot of fun to see the differences between the two years. Last year the event was held at a local church but the vendors were split up into two buildings - that was rough because the weather was so awful and people had to go outside to get from one place to the next. I think too that because the weather was so bad, many people didn't attend.

This year the numbers were staggering! The place was packed for most of the day and lots of people were out to buy, buy, buy!!!! I only sold two handbags this year but my owls were a big hit - lots of people loved that they came in three sizes (mini, medium and large) and commented how cute they were. I had a lot of fun helping people pick the perfect owl to take home with them or to give to a loved one. I heard a lot of "this is perfect for the baby's room" and "this is going to make the best baby shower gift". A woman even had an owl printed tshirt and bought one! :)

these are AWFUL photos (the lighting was pretty bad in the venue)
but it gives you an idea of how my booth was set up!

I was so excited about the packaging I did for my hair clips and pins,
I found the cutest scrapbooking card-stock....

I had a LOT more items to offer this year too - not only did I have a wide variety of handbags, diaper bags and totes, I had the three sizes of owls, a few aprons, and bandana skirts - I also had floral hair clips and floral brooches as well as fabric garland for decorating. I received lots of great compliments as well as some awesome advice!!! I appreciated all of it. The BEST part of the show was that my Mom was there 99% of the time helping me out! It was so fun to be doing something with her and to have her extra set of hands. THANKS MOM!!!!!! (oh and my Dad helped me unload and set up/tear down - HUGE help!!!)

I have another holiday show coming up next week in Vancouver, WA at Heritage High School. It'll be on Saturday, November 27th from 9am - 3pm. If you're in the area - come see me!!!! I have lots of new ideas on how to display my booth and am excited to reach out to a new audience!!!

Some new handbags added to the inventory...

2010-11-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

These newest bags turned out gorgeous! So happy with the fabrics, buttons - all of it! Hope you are too!

Smaller sized bag (14.5 inches wide X 9 inches deep)

original sized bag - 17 inches wide X 12 inches deep

largest of the bags - great for use as a diaper bag or gym bag - LOTS of pockets! (see below)
19.5 inches X 12.5 inches

3 velcro'd pockets on exterior

5 velcor'd pockets inside & key fob too!

Bunting for Fun

2010-10-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have bunting/garland at my booths for the upcoming holiday shows I'm participating in. This is a great way to decorate a baby or child's room, to decorate for a birthday party or wedding, to add a splash of color to ANY room! I'll have some 'holiday' themes too - how cute to add as garland to your Christmas tree or your front porch?!

Pursewna

Valentine's Day Decorations in Our House

No Blog For A Month? Craziness! (Or Laziness?)

Our Holiday Mantle

Pinterest Love & Holiday Decorating at the Pursewna Home

A Craft Save!

Oakleaf Expo - Saturday, November 5th

Halloween Decorating Inspired by Pinterest

A Blog Post About A Blog Post

Custom Owl & Wreath

Fall Decorating - A Series: The Front 'Porch'

A Crafty Failure

Fall Decorating - A Series: Part 2 - The Mantle

Fall Decorating - A Series: Part 1 - Weathered Pumpkins

Custom Made Patchwork Bag

Car Seat Cover

Feeling the Love

Crafty Lady

Baby Girl #2's Room - the FINISHED product!

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 5 (More Artwork)

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 4 (The Mobile)

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 3 (The Crib Bumper)

Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 2 (The Painting)

Baby Girl #2's Room - Broken Down (The Lamp)

Stars and Stripes

More Wreaths - Available in my Etsy shop!

Welcome Home

New Owls in the Shop!

Baby Boy's Wreath

Decorating Ups and Downs

New Aprons in the Shop!

Yarn Wreath Fun

A Little Decorating Project

Some Little Projects

Pursewna is MOVING!

Personalized Garland

Oscar Viewing Party

Homemade Valentine's

Valentine's Day Decorating

Valentine's Wreath

Snazzy New Bag Ready for Shipment

SALE*SALE*SALE*SALE*SALE

Spring Fabrics

Camera Straps

Mini Projects

A Special Bag for a Special Someone at Christmas

Crafty Christmas Project!

GORGEOUS diaper bag heading to San Diego!

Many More Owls!

My 2nd Holiday Bazaar

Holiday Gifting!

And the holiday season has STARTED!!!

Some new handbags added to the inventory...

Bunting for Fun

SALESALESALESALESALE