Butterfly party

Allow me to show you what we did during the blizzard on Sunday. Our little one turned three. So hard to believe that three years ago she came into our lives.

She was very sure that she wanted a butterfly party. So this is what we did.

The goodie bags had butterfly stickers , a small book, marker butterfly

spinner and a star shaped crayon. These came from the amazing Stubby Pencil Studio.

We had butterflies hanging from the ceiling cut from craft paper. We decorated hats with butterfly stickers and I found these great coloring sheets from Dover puplishing that after you colour them you can hang them on a window and they look like stained class.

I got the idea for these sandwiches from a old Martha Stewart magazine. It is just wrapping paper and double sided tape! Looks great but not a lot of work.

The cake was a 4 layer red velvet cake and had candy, butterflies and a lovely " Vintage By Crystal" dollie as a cake topper.

We had a great time!

My Christmas tree in a BLOG!

Today I am so excited to tell you that our Christmas tree was featured on the Glitter and Grunge blog!

Take a look. I have had a lot of fun decorating this year. Our tree looks great . Full of vintage ornaments, bought ornaments from years past and lots of African inspired ornaments thanks to family sending them every year. I think this is the best tree we have ever had!

I have recently joined the Glitter and Grunge site. If you have time take a look at all the great work sold there.

Holiday decorating

This week I made my first ever Christmas wreath.

I am really happy with how it turned out. At first I was sure that it will decorate the dumpster , but then....it al came together thanks to a lot of rick-rack thrifted over a the last year.

I started with a basic shape I got from the craft store. Then just ripped up pieces of fabric that I thought would look good together . Next time I will take the time to cut fabric out in stead tearing as I spent a long time making things look neater.

I used some batting to add the curve in front. Next time I will use just a basic fabric to hold these down in place and to give another layer to the wreath.

Once the glue gun was hot I pulled the fabric around the wreath fairly tight. Once the wreath

was covered in fabric I started with the rick rack. This I think really makes it!

Lastly I cut out some flowers from felted sweaters and glued those on with the fun buttons as centers.

In the back I just made a loop with bias tape and it was all done.

Al lot of fun and I love coming home!

A big thanks

Thanks to all of you for visiting me at the JP market!

It was really great to make new friends and see old friends and familiar faces!

Keep checking Etsy as I will be loading more goodies this week.

Crista

Craft fair this Saturday , Dec 5 11-4

This Saturday I will be at a Craft Fair in JP, Boston. Dec 5th from 11-4pm.

I have a lot of new pieces that includes hair accessories , berets and hats and scarfs.

Stop by and say hi!

New fascinator/hair goodies

Hi there,

I am so excited to show you these pictures! In spite of a very unfortunate flood, yes water in my studio, I managed to walk over the piles of towels, ignore the start of a very faint smell of mold and come up with these great fascinators!

They are very comfy to wear and adds such dreamy , vintage style to your hair , I just love them.

These will be available later this week at the Craft fair in JP and also on Etsy.

New style winter hat

After a long time thinking and working and tinkering and waiting for time I happened onto this new hat design.

I am sure there is still a lot of work to be done. But you can see the first three in this new series at Turtle.

This look feels fresh and new and I am looking forward to working more on this new idea.

Artists' Market at The Store @ DeCordova

The Holiday season is coming closer. If you need a handmade gift it is a must to go visit the Artist Market at the Decordova Museum in Lincoln.I just dropped off my scarfs, some berets and some winter felt hats.

It is so hard to photograph black. Sorry this photo is a big blurry!

Pieced flower beret

Here is something new I have been playing with. I was working on sewing circles onto berets when I suddenly started sewing the circles together! And look how it turned out!

It all looked just a bit flat to me so the hand embroidered small circle made it complete.

I really wanted the flowers to stand away form the beret ......but I was not sure that it worked as fashion statement.

Fun girls pants

I made another comfy pair of pants for the little big girl in my life.

I found this really bright green cord form Jo-Anne's and could not pass it by.

So I found inspiration here and sewed these.

I am also wondering and looking at these, stay tuned.

Again with just a elastic waist. I made sure not to make them too wide in the leg and I like the way they turned out. They have been through the wash and the applique is staying and fraying at the right places.

Fun Cat Pants

At last I had time to sew up some pants for the smallest or shall I say youger member of our family.

And how theme appropriate to have her wear cat pants today!

I found this great fabric at Jo-Anne's . It is a very soft , fine cord. She is going through a "I love Cats" period and seeing that we will not be getting a cat soon this was the next best thing.

The pants are cut from a pair that I made the previous year and I just added a inch and a half to the leg and a bit in the waist. She was very worried that I was cutting the old pants but had her first lesson in "cutting around" and "using as a pattern".

After they were done they did look a bit like pajama pants and that gave me the idea to have a cat face on the one pant leg. Not sure how long the whiskers will hold but we will see.

The waist is just elastic as we need easy access these days!

Happy Halloween!

Felt Berets

Oh wow it is cold today!

I am still working very hard on some fall beret's.

Last season I started the polka dot berets and they were very popular.

This year there is a lot of flowers form the recycled sweaters and then there is a bit of beading and some more dots!

Hope to get a few more done soon and load them onto Etsy.

Stay warm those of you entering fall!

Scarf weather

Just in time for the cooler weather that is coming! Here are some of the scarfs just delivered to Turtle.

Lime green and berry sparkly linen decorated with chenille ribbon and bias cut strips of polka dot taffeta.

Dove grey linen scarf with vintage lace and plastic red rings.

Super luxurious double velvet green scarf. Vintage flower and fabric accents

This has got to be the best scarf I ever made! Almost kept it in the closet for myself. Wide, Lavender, vintage, velvet ribbon and a vintage copper bow. ( I have had this bow for over

15 years ... find a good home bow)

Fun washcloths

I have recently made some of these washcloths for the kids and decided to makes some for my Mom's visit that is fast approaching.

I used just pieces of left over cotton for the bias strips and this makes for a very colourful display.

I made two of these bigger with loops, so it will be easy to hang. I just extended the bias strip, made the loop and continued the sewing.

There will be a lot more of these made as gifts, they are fun and quick to make and looks great!

Sneak Peak #2

Today showing you my fall scarfs I am working on. I have had the linen for a long time and finally started making scarfs last week.

I love how some of the colours have a bit of a shimmer.

( You cant really see it really well in the photo , but the scarf has vintage beads at the bottom and LOVELY French vintage trim.)

These scarfs will work really well with a denim jacket or paired with linen pants.

I made this patchwork scarf last and think there is more to come in this idea.

Sneak Peak

The summer has been quite busy but I am so keen to show you a sneak peak of what I am working on in the studio. This year I am felting wool sweaters from Savers. This has given me so much pleasure. Not only to "hunt" for the right colour but also to reuse the sweaters and i love the texture these sweaters add to the basic beret.

I found such great buttons at Brimfield this year and plan to use almost all of them.

The other interesting thing is that the pieces that gets cut off from a sweater can turn into.....a hat!

Not sure if this will be how this hat will turn out but here is a hat in progress.

If you see the siding of my house, yes I took these pictures in 3 minutes while the kids were doing this:

Baby quilt and gifts

A while ago we were very lucky to have the arrival of a new baby girl , no not in our house but in a household that we know very well. So I had to send her a little quilt of her own. The quilt was a very last minute idea(when are they not) but so much fun to make.

 I kept it very simple and got all the fabric from Jo-Anne's . Front all cotton and back matching flannel. The quilting itself took a long time , but I am pleased with it.

Also for my friend Kate I made this plastic bag holder. Yes I know we are all suppose to be more green, but if you have kids with diapers you have some kind of plastic bag to dispose of it all. 

She phoned one day with a request and it was fun to remember my mother in law's one hanging miles away.( Maybe she needs a new one.) I love this fabric and now I need to make myself one too.

Oh and please notice my new labels!.