Carboard Cake

We've got a live stage show at one of my jobs, and they couldn't find a prop cake anywhere! They needed it within two days, so guess who they asked. It was actually a really, really fun project that I would do again if asked!

It started with these....

and ended up like this!

Not too shabby, eh?

I'm back!

After 2 weeks in Europe, a month of working myself ragged, and successfully pulling off my first Girl Scout Overnight at job #1, I am finally relaxed enough to blog again. Don't get me wrong, I've still been making stuff, I've just been falling into the old habit of half-documenting what I do. Meaning, I'll take pictures of a process, and completely forget to photograph the end results. Genius, I know.

Some of the half-documented things I found while uploading pictures were hand-made chocolate cups, filled with edible Easter grass and egg-shaped M&M's, made to look sort of like nests. I spent hours on those, and forgot to take pictures of anything but the chocolate bowls. Sheesh! I also made a custom baby book for a friend's future sister-in-law. I did it scrap book style, but re-covered the book with the fabric of her choice, and pre-layed out 25 pages so the new momma only has to worry about filling in the info about her babe.

Yesterday I really wanted to make something. I didn't know what, though. For some reason, every time I'm stumped, I pick up a paintbrush. I'm not a painter by any means, but that always seems to get my mind going. So, this is what I ended up doing:

and this morning, I did this:

Painting on books is way more satisfying than I expected it to be. Now I just need to decide if I want to turn these into journals, or leave them as decorative books. I keep leaning toward journals, but then I stand them up and am pretty happy with how they look as is. What do you think?

DS Game Roll-Up

Thank goodness for my Nintendo DS. It kills time like no other. This being said, I needed a purse-friendly way to house some games so I can take it with me to the airport. Usually I just keep them in a tiny crocheted bag that I whipped up a few years ago, but that thing is beat. So, I made this out of some scrap fabric!

It doesn't look like much until....

Enough pockets for four DS games and one Gameboy Advance version of Tetris. My time will be well spent while I'm waiting for flights!

Book Cover

My best friend lives in Germany. I've gone to visit her once, and am going again in less than two weeks! My Grandpa had been there back in his Navy days, and picked this book up somewhere along the way.

 

He passed it on to me, since I don't speak a lick of German. I didn't have it last time I went, and this time I really want to take it but was concerned that it would get destroyed in my purse.
Hopefully, this will help.

I sewed a book cover! Complete with a pocket on the front to hold cheat sheets of phrases like "Do you have any vegetarian options?" since I'm sure that wasn't a common enough phrase to stick in a book fifty years ago. I also added an elastic band to hold the book shut so none of the pages get bent or torn while in my bag.

ABC Quilt, Finished!

New Candy Flavors, A Necklace, and Some Progress

So I finally got around to using my new candy flavorings last night.

The purple squirrels are Raspberry Vanilla, and the brown are Dark Chocolate Coffee! I haven't tried the coconut flavor yet, but plan on making owls with Chocolate bodies and coconut details.

Last night I also finally put this necklace together:

Super super simple, just how I like it.

And today I sewed more letters for the Alphabet Quilt.

I have almost all of the other letters cut out and ready to go, its just the actual sewing that takes a while.

Alright, back to work!

Cupcake Plush

I have been so exhausted lately! I took a few days to regroup and am back in full force.

A friend at work has a son who is turning one this week! For the first birthday photo shoot, she didn't want real cake, and couldn't find any fake cake that would fit the scene. Enter: giant felt cupcake.

Look at all those delicious icing layers!

For size reference, each of those squares on my cutting mat = one inch.

Happy first, little one!

ABC Quilt

A friend asked if I could make modern, funky ABC mini-quilts for her son who will be born in a couple months! I finally got the time to start today. These are each going to get batting and a backing, so each letter will be its own mini-quilt. She's going to hang them on the wall in the baby's room. Super cute idea!

Every once in a while, there's a little picture of something nature themed.

 Bird!

Flower!

Cloud Scarf

Apparently that is the name of this type of scarf. Who knew!

I couldn't decide if I like the ruffles or not, but they're staying on this one.
I basically cut strips and strips and strips of fabric, braided a lot, and sewed a bit!

Maybe an item for my Etsy store?

What do you think?

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the Rabbit and to celebrate at work, we had this:

Awesome.

Overdue Update

I'm disappointed that I haven't posted more stuff this week, but I've been so stinking busy! I've had 3 custom orders on Etsy since Monday (yes!) which are officially all finished and shipped as of today. The biggest one was an order for 24 Owl Pops, which doesn't sound like much, but considering I can only do 4 at a time... yeah, it was a lot! But I finished right on time and they looked pretty stellar. See?

I don't know about you, but I would be pumped to get a box full of chocolate/ peanut butter owls in the mail! And you can by placing orders on my Etsy store! (A girl's got to promote herself, right?)

I also got to go on a mini-adventure earlier in the week. I typed an address into my GPS so I could go buy clay for work, and I selected "Street" instead of "Ave" for street name, and go figure, it took me about 20 minutes out of the way from where I wanted to go. I finally got there, but across the street I noticed this:

I've been to the Clay Place a zillion times and somehow never noticed this church! It is directly across the street from them. Kind of awesome, isn't it?

I've been shopping a few times this week as well, mostly for supplies for projects. I had to go buy candy for the owls, and fabric for my next project:

I am making alphabet mini-quilts, similar to my Quilted Coasters, for a friend who is expecting her first baby in April! There will be one block for each letter, and some awesome nature-inspired details throughout.  I am really looking forward to this project since I have some more freedom with it than I did for the last quilt. Should be fun!

I want to be clear for this next portion: I never spend money on myself. I'm always making things to sell and give as gifts, but it is extremely rare that I make something with the intention of keeping it. Then I ended up at Michael's. I really should take a chaperone when I go there, because I got a little out of control this time.

Granted, everything I got was on clearance! And these things had to have been specifically made for me, because I can't imagine who else would buy this stuff! C'mon. There was a pirate cutlass, a sewing charm set, a giant awesome royal looking key, a Japan themed set, a London themed set, a Travel themed set, and then a Victorian themed set, which I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but it includes two chairs. Little known fact: I am obsessed with furniture design. Mostly, the design of things you sit on. Furniture design was my inspiration for going to college.
There are a few charms missing from that photo because as soon as I got home, I made this:

I've recently started wearing necklaces. I typically never do because I'm crazy allergic to most metals, but this one is perfect! See those silver chains? They're actually just silver string! A-mazing. Whoever thought of that is brilliant and my new favorite person. And the charms that I put on it are perfect for me:

From right to left: Tokyo, Airplane, Big Ben (the clock, not the Steeler!), Camera, Eiffel Tower, and Scissors.
I've been to Tokyo, I fly everywhere to see my best friend, I'm going to London next month, I take pictures everywhere I go, I've been on top of the Eiffel Tower, and that last one... yeah, I use scissors a lot. That one will get replaced once I find a Cuckoo Clock charm to represent Germany! I want to get a charm to represent each place I visit for the rest of my life. Hopefully one day my necklace will weigh a ton.

Today I bought some more for myself. I filed my taxes and got a crap refund, but I couldn't even help myself. I went to a fabric store in the Strip District today and I find myself never wanting to go to Joann's again. This place has an amazing selection of fabrics and I could've easily spent a million dollars and a million hours in there!

I couldn't decide between the pink or the white, so I clearly had to buy both. It was a bit more expensive than I'm used to, but I love it!

Today I also got some candy flavoring oils. More options for the Etsy shop, since apparently I'm a chocolatier now!

Personally, I'm really excited for the Coffee flavor. I'm taking a break from candy making tonight, but maybe tomorrow I'll test it out!

Super long post for a super eventful week. I'm going to try to get back on track with posting daily, so be on the look out!

T-shirt Quilt

I've been busy with so many projects this week. It's a wonder I can keep them all straight! I've gotten a few things listed on Etsy, and now I'm trying to work out everything else in chronological order. I was in a painting mood yesterday, so did that for a bit and put 3 paintings up for sale. Worked on the T-shirt quilt, now that's 90% done (we'll get to that in a moment.) I've only been back on Etsy for a few days and already have a custom order from someone I've never met! 24 Owl Pops for a baby shower. Awesome. I'm busting those out and plan to get them in the mail by Friday. Wish me luck. Also working on candy keys for another order. Those ones are just about done! I also purchased tons of fabric for ANOTHER custom order, this one for a real life friend! Quilted Alphabet squares to hang in her baby's room once he's born. The list keeps growing, but its making me feel really good about what I do!

Now, this is my second commissioned T-shirt Quilt since November. This one just needs the finishing touches, minor quilting to hold the layers together, some stitching around the edges for pretty's sake. It should be done by tonight for sure. Then it will be off to Ohio to its unsuspecting owner! Moms are cute when they sneak around to get their daughters really personal gifts. I'm glad I can help!

There were 20 T-shirts this girl had collected over her first 15 years of life:

This one was from her first xmas. It was sooo teeny tiny, I had to piece it out.

It turned out bigger than anticipated, which is great because it will definitely fit a twin or full sized bed!

 

The back has fun pink and purple polka dots all over:

Pretty excited to finish it up and send it off! But that has to wait until after class. Tonight we're making lunch boxes! I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.