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.

Onion Tree boutique sells local artists' work

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. 

Wichita, Meet Etsy

Cheers,

Kyle

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.

Cheers,

Kyle

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.

What did you make/give/do for your dad?

Cheers,

Kyle

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. 

Hungry yet?

Cheers,

Kyle

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!

Verb [Nest]

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!

Cheers,

Kyle

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. 

Cheers,

Kyle

I didn't mention, Sunday my orange fluffy kitty, Tabitha celebrated her 5^th 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.

Hope you enjoyed!

Cheers,

Kyle

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. 

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. 

Cheers,

Kyle

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. 

Cheers,

Kyle

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.

Cheers,

Kyle