Tutorial: Beaded Headband

Check out Pretty Ditty for this awesome tutorial on a fabric covered beaded headband. She gives easy step by step instructions. So cute!

Christmas Fabrics on Sale!

As you start thinking through crafts to make and sell at this year's boutique, you might need some Christmas-themed fabrics, right? Well, this week at M&L Fabrics in Anaheim, all their Christmas fabrics are on sale! And if you've never been to M&L Fabrics in Anaheim, you must go! It's kind of like Target, you go in for a toothbrush and end up spending $100 on stuff you didn't know you needed. They have EVERYTHING (well, everything fabric related, anyway)! And, now's a great time to check 'em out if you're thinking of making any Christmas-themed crafts. Enjoy shopping!

Mr. Darcy, John McClane and some UFOs

Life has been nuts over the past few months. NUTS! We had a new baby in December and then moved in March. Those two major changes alone have left very little time for crafts. For me, this has been detrimental to my actual health. Spending time doing creative things soothes my soul, calms my mind, and takes me to a happy place.

So a couple weeks ago I decided it was time to let the cleaning and organizing and unpacking go untouched for a while, and to ignore my great tiredness brought on my non-sleeping baby, turned on some of my favorite movies, and finished some unfinished projects (UFOs). I started with Pride and Prejudice, a full five hours of witty dialogue culminating in the great romance of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett. I wasn't able to finish everything in that 5 hours, so I put in my newest favorite Die Hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard, and sewed to the sounds of gunfight and "Yippee-Kayay!"

The first thing I finished was this most awesome bag by Amy Butler. I'd bought the pattern and fabric last summer at a quilt show, got all the pieces cut and prepped before Ella was born, but then it was boxed up to make room for all the other things there were to do. The scarf I'd been working on since last May. It comes from one of my favorite knitting books, Scarf Style. With so many fun projects I was wanting to get started, it was time to get these long-standing projects off the books. And aren't they so pretty! I'm now working on finishing some household projects (curtains and small tablecloths) and then its on to some new knitting projects, a quilt kit I bought in January, and building up my inventory for Mary Roseanne's 2011!

I made a cell phone pocket! I did a lot of things on this bag I'd never done before, including a zippered pocket! Go me.

I still don't know what I'm going to use this bag for, but a girl can't have too many handcrafted tote bags!

The technique for this scarf is called Entrelac, and its just stunning! It was hard to photograph the fringe, but its one of my favorite parts of the whole thing.

The yarn I used is one of the reasons this turned out so beautiful. Its called Noro Silk Garden, and the slow change of colors is what helps show off the pattern so well.

Yay for finished projects!