I've had a little
bit of attention lately.It's all local news but it's still great!
Last week Bridgit
at The Onion Tree was interviewed by the local paper, The Wichita Eagle, about
her shop.I love how she's been getting a
lot of good press for her shop.She was
kind enough to put a few words in for me.I happen to be dropping off inventory when the photographer came so I'm
the person in the background pretending to shop, hehehe.
I was interviewed
awhile ago by a local magazine, The Naked City, about selling on Etsy.The article came out this month.Sarah, who wrote the article, was wonderful
to meet with and did a great job on the story.
Now, can you say
that title five times fast?Anyways
onward, I really needed to make a camera case for my new digital camera.Why buy one when you can make one,
right?So I whipped this up last week to
have in time for the Quilt Show.Well, whipped
is an understatement.It took longer
than expected.Figuring out how to do
the top zipper was difficult for me.
I made it from
scrap fabric from my bicycle bags.So it
matches my bike bags and my purse.I'm
color coordinated!
Here is the
back.I put in a zip pocket on the back
to hold whatever.The strap is removable.
I had and still have
a ton of high density foam left over from the dining chairs I recovered.I used the foam for padding in my case.The case is bigger than my camera so it can
hold other items like extra batteries and my little tripod.I covered some spare foam to make a few dividers
for the bag.
Here is the inside
with one of the dividers.There is a
small side pocket to hold things.
I've been hauling,
bike riding, tossing it over my shoulder all over town and my camera is doing
fine.I'm really happy with how it came
out.
Last week was
Father's Day!I made my Dad a Hawaiian
shirt.When we went to Hawaii a few years ago and he picked out some
fabric.He failed to send me his
measurements to make him the shirt. My lovely Step Mom was kind enough to do
that, so now he finally has his shirt.I
don't have a picture yet.I figured it
would be better to get one with him wearing it.
My Step Dad hates
squirrels.Plain hates them.I like to send him things with squirrels on
them to mock his hate.So I made him
this little pouch.
Here
is the back.
It also happened to
my Step Mom's birthday.She isn't fond
of celebrating her birthday so I told her Happy Father's Day instead.I made her this cute tote bag.It's from a free pattern off of Denyse Schmidt's
website.
About two weeks ago
we had a little get together for some of our friends at our place. I had to share the pictures of the wonderful food
my husband, Richard, made. He's a fantastic
cook.
Here's the spread
with all the yummy goodness.
I kept eating
these, Semolina disks with a Caprese Salad on top.
We had none of
these left by the end of the night, Bacon and Guacamole Canapés on homemade
wheat bread.
Richard has wanted
to make onion rings for quite some time.He fried up Vidalia Onions and Asparagus.The dipping sauce he made was delicious!
Ready for dessert, Strawberries
and Lemon Curd.Homemade pound cake with
fresh lemon curd buttered on, topped with macerated strawberries and homemade
whipped cream.
Our friend Cynthia
made some yummy homemade salsa.I made a
few things but they are pale in comparison to Richard's amazing cooking.I had more fun decorating the table.
Quite awhile ago I
was asked by a tweep, yes someone I met off twitter, if they could come do an
apartment interview.So a few weeks ago
Denise, who writes for Verb ICT on the side, came to take pictures, chat with
us, and be fed by Richard.Here is the
article about our place!
The area downtown
we live in is buildings that used to be warehouses.Many have been converted into shops, restaurants,
and bars.Our building is all loft
apartments.Hope you enjoy!
This past weekend
Richard and I drove down to Dallas
to celebrate his friend/coworker Stephen get married.So of course I made the newlyweds a wedding gift.Me buy from a registry!?
Here is the full
set sans the magnets.I didn't even
realize I forgot the magnets in the photo until this evening, oh well.They received oven mitts, oven squares, a set
of 8 napkins, a set of 8 coasters, and of course some magnets.
Oven Mitts
Oven Squares.These are great to use for anything hot.You can use it to set a hot pan or dish on or
use it to grab things out of the oven with.
Napkins
Coasters
Magnets
Stephen and Kelly
are an adorable couple and we wish them the best.
I didn't mention,
Sunday my orange fluffy kitty, Tabitha celebrated her 5th birthday!Here is a cute picture of her with my new
camera.
After I excitedly got
my camera yesterday I began to take pictures like mad of all the things I had
planned to.
I just recovered
some glider/rocker chairs we have.They were
given to us by my mother.Richard and I don't
mind them but the horrible plaid doesn't match our aesthetic.So a few months ago I made the living room
floor a screen printing area.I printed
a design I created with thickened dye so it would soak into the material.That worked okay, had some misprints because
our floor isn't as flat as I thought.I
became a smurf in the process.
Here is the rocker
in its plaid awfulness.
Now with the newly made
covers! They are right over the
plaid.I didn't want to mess with taking
the plaid off.Also, when/if we decide
to get rid of the rockers I can take the covers off to salvage the fabric I
printed.There are zippers to easily
remove the covers to wash.I made those
two pillows too.The aqua one is made of
silk dupioni and I stitched some French silk antique lace down on it.I inherited the lace from my great
grandmother who was a seamstress.The
orange one is from a print fabric at Ikea.Love that store.
Here is the other
rocker with another pillow I made.Most
of those fabrics in the pillow are scraps or material samples.This
rocker sits next to our mini forest of fruit trees.
If you read my blog
then you've seen this wall.But here is
a view to see the newly covered rocker in it.I like it!
Since a couch is an
expensive buy I had to make our futon work.It needed to be more comfortable so I put a piece of memory foam on top
of the futon mattress.Then I bought a white
futon cover and dyed it the turquoise color.It's not my best dye job but it works.Then I put lots of pillows on it.Most of them I made.The poppies
art quilt I made a few months back was for the couch.I thought it needed something thrown over the
back.For now this works, but I still
want a couch.
This is one of my
favorite pillows I made for us.It sits
on Richard's Lazy Boy chair.[Click image
to see larger]
We recently mounted
all of our bikes onto the ceiling.They
were in the way.It's a pulley system
mount.It's really easy to get the bikes
up and down.
As I impatiently
wait for my new camera to be delivered to me today, I wanted to let yall know
about the new boutique in town.
The Onion Tree is a
modern gift boutique.All the items for
sale are handmade!There is jewelry,
hats, pillows, purses, and much more.It
is owned by the lovely Bridget who moved back to Wichita to start this shop.While living in Portland, Oregon
she loved all the shops that were dedicated to handmade items but saw the
market was oversaturated.She decided to
bring this idea to an area that lacked a store of this nature.It's a wonderful idea for Wichita and a great way for local artists to
get recognized.
The store is open
now for everyone to visit but The Grand Opening of The Onion Tree is June 5
from 5-8pm.There will be hors d'oevers
and refreshments to celebrate the occasion.
It is
located on 120 North Hillside, Wichita,
Kansas.
This is a great way
for those of you who admire my handmade goodies to see them in person.Most of the items I had listed online have
moved offline to be sold at The Onion Tree.So please, everyone check it out!I will not be able to make the grand opening as I will be out of town
for a wedding but I ask that you go.
My husband
mentioned a few weeks ago he stopped using one of his facial products because
he didn't like throwing away the cotton pads we used to apply the product.I told him I could make some reusable
ones.So I did.
I made them out of
some bamboo fleece fabric I had.Cut two
circles the size of a cotton round.With
good side out lay them together.Surge,
or in my case zigzag, around the outer edge of the round.Volia, reusable cotton pads.I washed and dried them so they are a little
curled on the edges but hey they work.
For those not savvy
with sewing you can find reusable cotton pads online to buy.
I whipped out this
little baby quilt last night.It's for a
friend expecting a baby boy soon.I
learned a cool way to do quilted circles that I had to put it to use.The blue fabric has little frog's on it.I think with the circles look like portholes
on a ship, thus the name.The pictures
are not the best because I'm using the old lame digital camera since my nice
one died last week.
Front of the quilt.The quilt is 28" x 40."
Here is a close up
of the circles.
The back is some
green fabric with little shiny gold swirls on it.