Things I Heart Monday

Happy Labor Day to you! Wasn't it lovely to sleep late on a Monday?

I'm really hearting waking up slowly with a nice cuppa hot choccie... with about half a pint of cream mixed in. (Shhhhh!)

I'm also hearting this awesome little yarn shop I found just across town in College Station, The Hook and Needle. They have the most beautiful colours of yarn, and I came away with these four lovelies:

They are supposed to be for making Christmas gifts, but they look so pretty piled up up my desk, it'll be hard to unravel them!

And when I got home, I found that the Hook and Needles ladies had stuffed my bag with extra goodies! Colouring pens? Yes, please! I'm thinking about taking a sweater-making class with them in a few weeks which sounds hard, but very interesting.

And lastly, I'm hearting trading. I'd never traded with another shop before, but the lovely Punkscrapper contacted me and asked if I'd be open to it. Yes, yes, completely yes! I've put together a little package of prints for her, plus my first ever listing, Mr. Embroidered Cardinal...

...and a little painting of a barn that I made after falling in love with Georgia O'Keefe's watercolours. Both are things I was sure would sell, but they never really even got looked at, so I'm very happy they've found a home at last!

In return, I'm getting lots of awesome felty fun, like this sweet like branch-like coffee cozy! Yay for trading!

I hope you've all got lots of be happy about, too!

xo

Make Your Own Leafy Branch!

Well, this sure was a quick project! My idea for felty branches is now complete:

Fake branches?

No, thank you!

I found this stick in the pile of planks and tree clippings that the last tenants left behind the shed. There were some pretty awesome rusty nails back there, too, so if anyone has any crafty ideas for projects using them, I'd love to hear them!

Do it yourself!

1. Buy felt. It's the perfect weight, and doesn't fray.
2. Cut two identical leaf shapes out of felt.
3. Hand sew little leafy lines onto one of the leaf shapes you just cut out.
4. Sew the two leaf shapes together, with the hand-stitching on the outside. Here's the trick, though: Leave an inch or so at the bottom of the leaf open, not sewn up. This is what you'll jam the stick into to display the leaf. Basic, yes. But it works!
5. Find a pretty branch and stick your leaves on it!

Enjoy!

xo

Hello, Autumn!

Autumn is here, in my mind, even if the weather doesn't agree.

So... I just bought these spotty batiks in autumn colours:

($6.99 a yard at Joann's)

I'm hoping to make strings of bunting with them.

And I'm going to make something like this:

...but brighter! And out of felt. And with real branches.

I'll post the finished products when they are, um, finished. :)