Oh the Cuteness!

Last month I posted about making felt bead necklaces with Johnny's nieces. I also mentioned that they picked out pieces from my stash of vintage goodies (shown above) so I could make fascinators for them, and I thought I'd show off their designs!  This one is for the youngest sister. She knew for sure she had to have the hat and the sparkly ball piece, but she left the other options pretty open for me by choosing lots of little charms and feathers. That little top hat was an interesting thing to try to attach to a feather pad and headband so it would be sturdy enough for a kid to wear, but I did it! It involved sewing through the hat and feathers, under the headband, and around the brim. I'm quite pleased!  And this one's for the older sister. She had some very specific pieces and I had to work some artistic license into this one. But it came out great!  They both liked them so much that they tried to kidnap me after lunch! But that kinda alwa...

Happy Fancy Friday! This week I'm sporting a new dress I got for my birthday from my dear boyfriend! It's from  Pepperberry , which I  talked about/ showed off in this post too.  I paired it with some vintage accessories for a lovely 1940's Parisienne look. I love love love this dress! It fits like a glove and has the prettiest seaming and pleating on the hips. But enough about that, because the crowning glory of this outfit is the hat! ^_~ I picked up this little beauty in a local antique store and it's in really good shape. For my hair, I did the pouf bangs like last week (I've been doing this almost every day because my bangs are so long), and then I did 2 braided pigtails and clipped them up with butterfly clips. Since my hair is layered and choppy I had to use some bobby pins to tuck in pointy little ends that stuck out of the braids. For the makeup, I kept it super simple, with just a touch of pencil liner on my lash line and a little red l...

If you remember in my big craft room reveal post I mentioned that there was one piece of furniture missing. It's finally here and all set up, and I've used it quite a bit. It's an antique jeweler's bench that my dad had in his office for his watch repair business. He's been able to retire from that recently and I snatched it up! It's got amazing storage capacity and is so awesome. I'd like to clean it up and paint it one of these days, and possibly put a new top on it, but for now it's working just fine. Check it out: Plenty of storage, and the pad that pulls out is to catch things when you drop them! Changed my life.  Oodles of graduated drawers on the side keep all my jewelry and steampunk supplies in order. One of my favorite features is that not only does it have a few shelves inside the leg for more storage, but it has this built in outlet at the front. This makes it so much easier for me to work with my hot glue gun, dremel, or s...

Today I'm another year older, another year wiser (or so they say). Two weeks ago we had our housewarming party and celebrated my birthday with all my friends. It was such a sweet low-key party and we had such a lovely time. And look at that slice of birthday cake! It was exactly what I wanted. There's more photos on my flickr if you want to see everyone, but here's a few highlights:  We projected Buster Keaton & Fatty Arbuckle's silent films on the wall in the living/dining room. It was really fun with the party music in the background. And at the end of the night we watched Looney Toons with the remaining guests.  We had so much yummy food to eat and lovely drinks to sip! (No, those apples aren't real lol.)  Apparently I'm three, not only shown by the number of candles but by the style of cake, which I specifically requested after seeing a smaller version in the case at Baskin Robin's. Jamoca Almond Fudge om nom nom. We got J...

This week I've found some lovely tutorials for how to make candy sushi, a sweet little backpack, and button pendants! This candy sushi from Mommy Knows is too cute! Check out the great photo tutorial here. This sweet little backpack is a free sewing pattern from All About You. Go download it and make on here. These neat necklaces form Craftypod are a great way to show off your favorite vintage buttons from your collection. Learn how to make on here.

Hey everyone! I just got my 200th follower on Facebook and my 900th follower on Pinterest and I thought I'd celebrate by giving away a printed copy of my Owl Sewing Plushie Pattern!  You get the whole pattern and photo tutorial printed on quality cardstock, as well as pre-cut body and belly pieces mailed to you for the making! To enter the giveaway you must do one of the following, and if you do more than one you'll get an extra entry for each thing. And be sure you leave me a way to contact you in case you win! Here's what you do: 1. Go ahead and leave me a comment on this post for an entry. 2. If you can, follow me on here via Google Friend Connect in my sidebar for an entry! 3. If you haven't yet, go like my Facebook page for an entry! 4. Share this post on Facebook for an entry! 5. Follow me on Pinterest if you haven't yet for an entry! 6. Pin this post and tag it #giveaway for an entry! 7. Follow me on Twitter for one entry! 8. Foll...

One of my all-time favorite little events to sell at, Art Beat Bazaar , will be back at the Starry Plough Pub in Berkeley on Sept. 8th and I'll be there selling all my adorable wares! I've blogged about their monthly event before and I'm so pleased to be doing it again! Please come by and say hello if you can to support this wonderful art & music fostering organization. And remember, blog readers get 20% off!

Happy Fancy Friday everyone! And bonus, FF now includes pants! Who says you have to wear dresses to be fancy? This look was 100% inspired by Rosie the Riveter. Red skinny jeans are from Wal-Mart of all places, don't ask me why I was there (11 bucks though!), which I rolled up for that retro look, and the shirt is from Target. I started with the hair for this look and built around it. My bangs are getting so long I can do my mini pompadour now! Just brush your bangs upward, gather, give a little twist, then fold back and push forward to make the poof as big as you want and secure with a couple clips. I find this style's easier to do while my bangs are still wet. I spray some hair spray on it and brush my hand up gently to tame any fly-aways. And I used a rolled-up vintage triangular head scarf tied in a knot to finish. The ends are tucked under behind my ears with bobby pins. I used the usual powder finish on my face with some rosy blush. I used a red lip st...

Opulence is the name of the game this week! Iv'e got a delicious Red Velvet Cookie recipe, as well as a bubble chandelier DIY and a quick and easy pom-pom magnet tutorial. These red velvet cookies with white chocolate chunks sound so delicious! Get the recipe here. The Fossil clothing company's blog has some really cute DIY's, who knew?! Get the tutorial for these sweet little pom-pom magnets (among other things) here . And lastly, I'm sure we've all seen those great glass ball centerpieces hanging from the ceilings of many a coveted party on Pinterest, so I found a lady who made a tutorial for us all, here .

All these lovely tote bags are available to purchase in my Etsy shop ! I hope you enjoy them! Read all about them in my detailed post, here.

Happy Fancy Friday! This week my style is nature-inspired, but this time it's the darker side of the forest. I spent my Fancy Friday in Temescal Alley in Oakland where all the shops are super-hipstery and amazingly curated. My favorite of all of them is Crimson , which sells horticultural rarities and terrarium supplies. Do go see this place if you have the chance, it's amazing! Anywho, on to the fashion! Both the skirt and the top are pieces I snagged from my ever-stylish friend Alex at a clothing swap. I have mentioned her in posts time and time again on here, and you might be seeing much more of her in the near future (Ooooh secrets!). My Zooey bangs are already getting so long that I have to push them to the side most days, and I was in a bit of a rush so I just let my hair dry and put this great Vintage Rose Wrap headband I got at the Mid-State Fair last month. They're all handmade and they have belts too, go check out their website if you want one! ...

The hand-painted enamel keys I posted about last week went live in the shop, so get yours today ! Lots of fun colors to choose from!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the world's greatest organic cotton tote bag. They'll be available for sale in my Etsy shop before the week is out! I posted a photo of these totes in progress on Instagram a while back (though I'd had the fabric set aside for them for about three years lol), and they were delayed by the move south. But here they are, in all their glory! I'm so happy with the way they turned out. I drafted the pattern myself and it was a lot of work!   I modeled their construction after a tote bag I've had for years and years, and it's always my favorite one to bring with me out of the huge pile I own. The main bodies of these bags are made from organic cotton canvas (Check out my cute little tag!). The outer shell is quilting fabric, double-stitched and independently seamed from the body for maximum strength. This makes it so the bag doesn't need a lining so it can be folded up and tucked in your purse:  My new sew...