I love mail

The other day I came home to find a package waiting for me...it wasn't much of a surprise since my bestie Christina was all excited to tell me that she got me "something." Too bad she has a big mouth and let the cat out of the bag on my journal as a comment hahaha. Anyway she got me these great business cards. The best part is that they are MOO cards. She took a bunch of pictures of some crafts I made and put those as the image on the front of the card. Isn't she great? I looooove them :)






Today I ran errands all over the place! After leaving the voter registration office (yes I'm registered now), I went to this lovely bead shop downtown. I LOVE this place. Beads of Contenment has so many types of beads they give you a little basket to put all your beads but oh my god it's addicting and after a while you tend to lose it and start buying all kinds of stuff! I restrained myself today and this is what I bought. I have a few ideas for some earrings I want to make. Might put them in the shop or gift them for Christmas we'll see...




Do you see the bicycle charm?? That's for a bracelet I'm making Dena for Christmas since she's crazy about biking...I think she's going to love it shhhhh don't tell her! I'm thinking black cord either with knots or a sterling silver clasp.


So this weekend I'm going to focus on jewelry and packing. I'm going to leave the sewing stuff for next week. I have so many projects that it's sometimes overwhelming I need to finish one completely THEN start another, but that's hard cause there so much I want to do!!!!

amazing log bowls

I was browsing all my favorite blogs the other day and I found a post about THIS amazing bowls. Now what is so great about these? Well take a look at them yourself.




How can I NOT want one or all of them. I'm obsessed! So imagine my disappointment at the fact that these aren't for sale. They are a lovely work of art. Created by The Loyal Loot Collective check out the rest of their lovely creations. Maybe I can somehow use these as inspiration to make my own. That's a thought!

OWL tutorial

Materials:
fabric (any will work it's where you can get creative, I like using a pattern for the body and muslin or canvas for the belly (that's the smaller pattern piece)
needle and thread
embroidery thread (for the beak)
buttons (for the eyes)
felt
cardboard or 3 x 5 cards

(NOTE: I hand stitch all the owls I don't use a sewing machine, but I'm sure it's possible. I just like hand sewing these, I usually cut and pin a bunch of the pattern pieces and then put them in my purse, I sew while at work, watching tv, long car rides, and waiting rooms haha)

Here is the pattern (sorry it's not some fancy file you can download I didn't have time to figure it out on the computer) I drew it on a 8 x 10 blank piece of paper just so you get an idea on the size:



here are the pieces already cut:



Pin the smaller piece on the right side of the fabric like I show here:



backstitch along the edge like shown here (I usually go over it a second time cause the fabric can fray while you sew):



fold the fabric including the belly in half and pin the top like you see in this picture:



open and pin the side that's not stitched like this and then backstitch that side like you did with the other side:



Then fold again and stitch from where the stitching you just did starts to the top point (it's only necessary to do it once), then cut the extra fabric at the very top point without cutting where you stitched:



Turn the fabric inside out and use a sharp point like a pencil or closed set of scissors to get the point like this:



fold the top point towards the front and pin ( you can just eyeball it and decide where you want the beak, the lower you put it the smaller the owl):



now starting from the inside (that's where the knot will be) use the embroidery thread and stitch the beak (make sure you are not stitching the owl together, I made that mistake more than once haha) like this:



now before stuffing the owl do a running stitch all along the bottom:



stuff the owl to your liking ( I like them a bit chubby!) and pull the thread, gather the fabric and knot:




Now you have the owl body: next you will need a piece of felt, and the small piece of cardboard or 3 x 5 cards (this is what I use cause it's easier to work with and it's handy):



cut the felt in a circle the size of the bottom of the owl. Then cut the 3 x 5 cards in a smaller circle leaving some fabric so you can stitch around it:



before stitching the bottom sew on the eyes first, I like using mismatched buttons the most :)



Pin the cardboard/3x5 cards to the bottom of the owl so that you don't sew it on crooked:



backstitch around twice ( I like using contrasting thread):



and you are DONE!



Hope that was helpful and if anyone has any further questions let me know!