Moving Day

After almost two years of living in our apartment we decided to move. Now for those of you who grew up in The City will understand what a huge step this is for us because we are moving to the East Bay, that's right we will be on the other side of the bridge. I'm a little scared and excited and I will have to get used to the weather but what can I do my baby needs a room of his own. Our living room was essentially the baby room which I was fine with until we had guests over and we said one to many times, sorry for the toys the little guy was playing. I'm glad my family and friends are understanding but I did miss out on the whole decorate the babies room when I was pregnant. Anyhow, I just wanted to share that my craft room is in boxes and I have no clue where anything is at the moment but it didn't stop me from taking on new projects. After all a move is a great excuse to try new things right? I think it is.
 So today was a trip to Home Depot, love that place, and I found pipes to make a little industrial hanging rod for my pots. The kitchen is a bit small but it's nothing a little creativity can't overcome. I have one wall in the kitchen that is open just screaming "organize me!" so who am I to say no. I got the idea from Pinterest and was surprised how simple it was to put together, and it cost about the same as a premade shelf from ikea. I like the look of the pipes and think it matches well with the cabinet handles.

Oh, as a bonus while I was wondering through the aisles of Home Depot looking for someone who works there I ran across these tubes that keep your pipes warm and instantly thought of my winter boots. It's really warm here in sunny California so naturally my boots spend more time in the closet than on my feet. I like that the pipe warmers are grey so they won't stand out so much when they're keeping the boots standing up right. Wow, two projects in one trip I feel very productive, now if I could only find someone who works there and they could point me to the shelves I was looking for I could organize the pantry. Lol,
happy crafting.

Happy Birthday! Now make a cake

I know it's been awhile since I posted, who knew one little baby would take up so much time lol. So this month was my goddaughters birthday and as her fairy godmother I have the privilege of giving her what she asks for. Luckily she's pretty easy to please and since she is such a beautiful young lady I am happy to give her what she asks for (maybe I'm slightly bias).Well she asked for me to make her birthday cake, but not just any cake one she saw on Pinterest only a little different. I hate to let her down but I have no formal training in decorating cakes much less making multi tier cakes but hey there's always a first time for everything. I guess it's a good time to come out of retirement so I set out to make her birthday cake. 

I at least had the forethought to start a couple days ahead of time. I baked the cakes Wednesday night after my baby and husband fell asleep because there is no way I can get it done while they are awake.  I split my cakes to put the filling and placed them back in the fridge. Then I watched a few YouTube videos on decorating cakes, after watching just enough to build my confidence I set out on decorating, but first a nap. 

The next day I made my buttercream frosting, I'm starting small as in I started with the smallest tier first. This one was to be covered in white fondant with a ribbon and jewels on the bottom. Hey this fondant stuff is not too hard, it only took me two tries to get it right. Then I made the middle tier, this time I dyed the fondant to match her birthday colors, this I just guessed at since I realized I hadn't seen anyone do this but I've watched enough Cupcake Wars to be an expert, right. The blue turned out just right but I did have a little trouble with my fondant, luckily for me there was a band with pearl beads to cover up my little mistake. With so much going good and a few hours later I decide to attempt the bottom layer. This one was to be covered in buttercream frosting using the messy ruffle technique. It took me a bit of practice and at least three times of scraping the cake to start over but in the end it actually looks pretty good. Now that I had all three layers complete came the challenge of getting the cake to the party who knew that cakes were so heavy. 

 

Yay! It's Friday the day of the party and not only do I have to get this cake to the party but I have to get me and my baby dressed and ready for roller skating! Yes that's right we are going roller skating. I want to say it was harder getting us into the car, mind you I live on the second floor so carrying a cake and a baby was not that easy but I put on my mommy cape and made it happen, my little guy didn't even get a chance to touch the buttercream, gold star for mommy. So are you ready to see the final result...

Hey, pretty good for my first big cake. Now I'm inspired to make another and wouldn't you know my sons first birthday is around the corner. I'm thinking of going big like a topsy turvy carnival cake. Wish me luck. 

Happy crafting,

- Teresa

Sew.... Buttons!

Hello there, welcome to my little sewing space. My sewing haven is set up between my living room and dinning area of a one bedroom apartment. Needless to say I try to keep organized since anyone who comes over can see my space. The nice part is I am in the middle of everything so I can sew, catch up on TV shows and make dinner without having to go too far.

My little space is a constant work in progress, as you can see I have two large shelves for organizing notions, patterns, sewing magazines, books, and I even manage to fit a small basket of scraps. My husband has helped bring many of my ideas to life. He cut and stained my shelves, cleaned and polished my little old sewing table I had found for a steal online, and my favorite are the mason jars he mounted to a yard stick so I can have my scissors and notions handy. Did I mention I love that rack, it hangs behind my sewing machine so all I have to do is reach over and grab any tool I need.

 My sewing table opens up on both sides if I need a little extra table room. Most of the time I will open the left side which extends over the basket of bolt fabrics and keep the right side closed.  Another project we worked on together was my 1960's sewing chair (another great find). Some of the vinyl was very worn, poking me every time I tried to sit, and the poor stuffing was coming out sooo... we fixed it. My husband took it apart to clean the wood and I disassembled the seat to reupholster the seat and backing, I tried to keep as much of the original vinyl as I could and to be honest I'm pleased on how it turned out, being it was the first time I have tried to upholster anything.  Then came the thread rack, we re-purposed a vintage hung window, stripped down some of the paint and added shelves so I could organize my threads, but it still looks good hanging on the wall for all to see. the large basket to the left of my machine holds bolt fabrics and fusible fabrics rolls. Since I make baby blankets and tote bags I tend to use larger pieces of fabrics so this basket comes in handy. My cutting mat is hidden neatly behind my sewing table and I pull it out when I am cutting a new set of blanket sets, you can see some sitting on the lower left shelf waiting to be sewn. For my cutting table I either use my small kitchen table or open the leaf of our extra table my orchids sit on. If I am really trying to get my fabric stash down I will open up one of my portable 6' tables in the living room and just cut but I try to stay away from buying to much fabric since I have limited space. Some of my fabric stash is folded neatly in the blue cart next to my table (thank you Ikea) or it is safely organized in my craft closet. As you can see it holds many fabrics that I fold and organize by type of fabric.

You can also see I have my scrapbook items in there. I basically took over the hall coat closet using the right side for fabric and the left side for scrapbooking, the top of the closet it used by my husband. This works for us since he is a foot taller than me and tends to put things on the top shelf which I can't reach without a step stool.
I must say with a little organization I have been able to fit pretty much everything I need in the small space I have to work with. I am able to sew to my hearts content, which I am lucky enough to do daily.  Although I do not have a room dedicated to sewing I am blessed to have a little space in the world to create and sew. My next fix it project is going to be my grandmothers sewing machine which is currently housed in my Aunts basement. I hope to bring it back to its original glory and care for it with as much love as my grandma put into it. Such great memories I hope to pass on to my kids and one day they will say they come from a long line of seamstresses, and that humming sound of their sewing machine will lull their babies to sleep as they sit there making them new little outfits, school play costumes or work on the next Halloween costume.
Thanks again for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the tour of my little sewing space. Happy crafting :) You can find some of our items on Etsy or like us on Facebook

My little wonder machine :)

Baby inspirations

Cutting out back of burp cloth

I have been inspired by my own pregnancy to start making baby items. The first thing I made was a receiving blanket and then moved on to the matching burp cloths and next I will try to tackle the bib. With a neat little trick my mom taught me, I found the receiving blankets to be very easy to conquor; if you would like a tutorial let me know and I can put one together. Now for the burp cloth. I personally thought this would have been the simple one for me, but me and my big ideas decided it would be a good idea to put a diaper liner inside the burp cloth because who doesn't want more absorbency when it comes to a burp cloth, right. So I started with the diaper insert since that is where I got the idea of adding a burp cloth to my blanket set. I used Kushies 

Pin both sides right side together

washable diaper liners to make my pattern. Using light weight interfacing, but newspaper works just as well; place the diaper liner on the interfacing. Using a ruler add three inches around the diaper liner to get your pattern. Once my pattern was ready I used it to cut a front piece and back piece to match the receiving blanket. Pin both pieces together wrong sides faced out to begin the outside seam, be sure to leave a gap large enough to insert the diaper liner. Once you stitch the edge, turn the cloth inside out so your pattern side is now on the outside. I find pressing the edges at this point helpful. Insert the diaper liner

Diaper liner should be inside

and center between both sides. On the photo to the left you can see the diaper liner on top of the cloth, just imagine it between the burp cloth layers like a diaper liner sandwich. If you prefer not to put the diaper liner feel free to leave it out, I just added it for extra padding and absorption. At this point you can stitch the outside seam. Starting at the opening you left to turn it right side out, top stitch to seal and continue around until you meet back up to the beginning. Once you do the outer edge, top stitch the diaper liner in place. I find by feeling the edge of the diaper liner you can line it up as you stitch over it, just make sure to leave enough of a hem to hold it in place, you wouldn't want it balling up in there after the first wash. Which I imagine would happen if you don't stitch it down. If you have trouble finding the

Top stitch edge and liner

edge as you sew try pressing the cloth with the iron to get an idea of the edge of the diaper liner edge, or you can use a washable pen, just be sure to do a test wash to make sure the pen comes out. Once you finish your top stitch you have completed your burp cloth. If you are just starting out you can try leaving out the diaper liner and just use multiple layers of flannel to add absorbancy or cut a rectangle cloth to avoid rounded edges. These make great baby shower gifts, you can pair it with a homemade receiving blanket, customize it to go with any theme the new parents to be have, plus who doesn't like a home made present. I hope you have as much fun making these as I do.  I would love to hear your story on making your own baby blankets and burp cloths. Happy crafting!

Happy Easter!

For Easter we had our gender reveal. After scouring through the Bump, Pinterest and other sites for fun ways to tell our family we finally decided to stick with the Easter theme, after all it is Easter. Easter holds a special place in my heart, not only because of fun childhood memories of coloring eggs, wonderfully delicious meals and fun times with family; but because this is now the holiday that I will remember as the day my Husband proposed to me. That's right, he placed my ring in my Easter basket and very silly suggested we open our baskets one at a time, so we could make sure to get

good photos. I must admit I was very surprised when I opened that egg, I knew he was going to propose but I did not know when. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. So that being said Easter is a very special day for us.
This year we had a very special announcement to make, to announce the gender of our little one. Since telling our family we were expecting there have been guesses as to if we are having a boy or girl. I felt I knew, I didn't need a test to tell me but in the chance that I am wrong it would put everyone (my husband) at ease. We knew we had a fifty fifty chance that one of would be right each convinced we were correct. Well that debate was put to rest last Friday when my husband and I went to the doctor and were told just what we should be expecting. Once I found out came the

question of how to tell the family. We decided to wait until Easter in order to tell most of our family at one time. Using different colored plastic eggs I filled each with paper grass then the little blue Peep. I stamped then cut out the 'sweet baby' banners, then cut out the blue polka dot banner and wrote the due date. I glued both banners on a tooth pick, poked the stick into the Peep and closed the egg.  I placed all the little eggs into a basket and handed them out on Easter. Well if your wondering I was right,  I believed we were having a boy and it was confirmed. Both my husband and I are happy to be on this new journey and look forward to it with excitement and can't help but wonder what our little guy is going to be like. I hope if any of you out there got to do a gender reveal on Easter you were able to have a little fun with it, I know we did. If you did do a gender reveal I wold be curious to know how you did it and if everyone was surprised. Happy Crafting. 

So here we begin

So I thought I would start with my Easter dilemma but since I don't want to ruin the surprise I will start with the last tea party I threw. This one was for my scrapbook group, I must say I love spending the day with these guys and gals looking at our photos and putting them in books to cherish forever. Oh, I digress, so this last month was my turn for snacks so I planned to do a tea party. Oh such fun I had making little shortbread topped with lemon curd and a fresh blueberry. Now I will have to admit I found this recipe online and like I usually do modified it just slightly but they came out wonderful. You can find the recipe here at the Tea Time website. I did not use their lemon curd recipe since I already had one from before. They do have many ideas and recipes if you want to check them out. I actually got the BLT bites from their website the sandwiches were a variety of salmon, turkey, warm

Dotted Shortbread Cookies

BLT Bites

roast beef, and a sweet raisin bread with apples and Cheddar cheese. I know what your thinking, what does baking have to do with crafting, well if your anything like me it all comes hand in hand. I enjoy baking and if I can do both in one day then I am a happy lady. So this day I got to throw a tea party and do some crafting. I will have to post pictures of my scrapbook pages another day. Maybe from the scrapbook expo where we spent all day scrapbooking. We reserved our table and packed our bags, but boy were we surprised on how some ladies take this very seriously.
Here is the spread, a mixture of tea sandwiches, scones, pound cake, savories and of course homemade strawberry jam, lemon curd, and honey fresh from the farmers market. Mmmm.... I may have to turn on my oven, right after I finish my Easter surprise! Oh that I will definitly share but not till after Sunday like I said before I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. I will say it involves Easter eggs and... I know the suspense right, tell me about it I have been lurking on my birth month forum and I feel like we are the last ones to find out. Patience, I suppose not so long ago we had to wait the full nine months. I do know once I find out I will start on receiving blankets and of course burp cloths, bibs, and either dresses or pants. I love making receiving blankets they are so cute and can be personalized if Mama has a theme she wants to stick with. As I start making them I will be sure to have step by step instructions to share with you. Till then enjoy your day all.