Finding Some Time

I am finally finding some time to do some of the crafty things on my list. I have been spending my small amounts of free time cleaning, organizing and downsizing our apartment. Things have accumulated since I moved in 6 years ago. Needless to say, it has been a good project, but exhausting. When I am done with everything, I promise to do a post.

Today, however, I’m getting excited for the new purse I’m going to make! I haven’t touched my sewing machine since November and I have missed it. I got Sue Kim’s book “Bags – The Modern Classics” for Christmas and have been flipping through it deciding what bag to make first. I love all of them. I have also started following Sue Kim’s blog ithinksew. She has some really cute things. After months of looking through patterns and photographs, I decided on the “floral bag!”

When I was visiting my family a few weekends ago, I was able to sneak off to the fabric store with my mom and sister. I found some wonderful fabric for the bag. I don’t think I’ll be doing a corsage right now, however, it would be easy enough to add one. I am going to use the toile fabric for the exterior, the blue fabric for the top of the interior and the tan fabric for the rest of the interior.

I am so thankful that I have a few hours today to just sit and sew. I can’t wait to get started. I promise I will share the finished product!

Until next time … e.

Fishs Eddy

SO … for those of you who don’t know about Fishs Eddy, you have to visit their webpage. A couple of years ago, my husband and I bought my mother-in-law a set of cute Alice in Wonderland themed glasses. I fell in love with their shop from that day on. I could spend hours looking through their stuff online … thankfully, our budget restricts my spending at places like this … or we would be broke!

I recently found out that they have a blog! They have some really cute ideas. Isn’t this a neat way to hang necklaces?

I am expecting lots of cute things from this blog … If you love vintage things and/or are a fellow crafter, I highly recommend bookmarking it! – e.

Jenny’s Bridal Shower

After months and months of planning for my best friends bridal shower, the big day finally arrived yesterday! There were so many wonderful people at her shower, and lots of love and laughter within the room.

It’s amazing how much planning can go into an event and how fast it goes by once it has arrived. I remember how special my bridal shower was … my sister and mom threw it for me. It was a vintage theme. They found vintage hankies and used them as name tags, guests bought vintage kitchen supplies for my gifts, swing music was playing in the background, everyone had on some kind of vintage clothing and we ate off of colorful, vintage plates. My Chicago girlfriends planned a travel themed shower. They decorated with things from different areas of the world and we played cute, crafty little games. They were such magical days for me. So, when I began to plan Jenny’s shower, I knew I had to make it magical for her.

I found Jenny’s invitation on Zazzle.com. Her favorite color is purple … so, I knew that I needed to find something with purple in it. After a bit of thought, I decided to take some inspiration from her favorite movie “The Notebook” and bring in some southern/1940′s elements. That’s why I went with the mason jars and flowers.

I spent a lot of time on little details. I don’t live in the same city as Jenny, so I was so nervous about how it would turn out once I actually started decorating the space. I planned everything from a couple photographs she sent me and my trusty ole sketch book. It couldn’t have gone any better! Everything went so well together and the space looked completely different after everything was set-up.

I used some of my Grandma’s and Great-Grandma’s lace table cloths and the tables. I also used mason jars for vases and frosted drinking glasses for candle holders. I put purple rubberbands (from the produce section at the grocery store!) on each glass.

I spent some time before the shower cutting up purple tissue paper. In the end, they became puff balls! It was quite a project, but I saved a lot of money doing them this way, rather than buying them through Martha Stewart, or some other company.

Jenny had her own “bride” glass. She is wearing purple glittered shoes with her dress, so I thought a glittered glass would be perfect!

Since Jenny is such a candy lover, I had to do a sweet table for her. I pulled together some of her favorite candies, some of my vintage dishes and created this little sweet table. Guests filled bags up and took it home as part of their goodie bags. I found the beautiful “Love is Sweet” sign on Beth Paramore’s cute ETSY shop.

I asked all the guests to share their favorite dessert recipe and to bring a small box of their favorite chocolate. We gathered the chocolate in a basket on the gift table and put all the recipe cards in a recipe book. She got some really great recipes! My favorite was the Cherry Tart pie.

Everybody seemed to have a really great time. The food was good (especially the dessert – eclaire cake, dark chocolate fudge brownies & lemon bars), the games were fun and everyone enjoyed the gift opening … especially when Jenny received lingerie. Before all the guests left they picked out a goodie bag. They were full of lotions, soaps and candles.

It was such a wonderful day and Jenny seemed so happy with everything – it couldn’t have gone any better! -e.

Interior Decorating

My husband and I have been dreaming about moving for the past two months. We could use a change in scenery and quieter neighbors. I have been living in this little apartment for 6 years! It is a wonderful little space – vintage (built in the 1920s), with old built in cabinets, old light fixtures, brick walls and a view downtown. It also feels like we are up in a little tree house. It has served me well as my first home in Chicago and our first home as a married couple. There are lots of great memories that fill the space; I wish I had done a better job journaling so I could remember all of them. Despite all these wonderful things, we have been fraught with one problem after another over the last two years … neighbors who play LOUD music at 3am and don’t stop, even though they have been asked many times, neighbors who smoke in the building and … bed bugs, to name just a few of the worst.

While we were dreaming of big city apartments, I was dreaming of decorating a new place. BUT, as I mentioned a couple posts ago, we have had some things happen that have changed some of our plans and after crunching numbers, we don’t think we can afford to move to our dream apartment. We can only hope that one of our friends moves there, so we can enjoy the roof top garden, with a view of the city and the lake. Instead of moving, our money will be spent on other exciting things, like graduate classes, weddings and trips to Wisconsin to see family. Although I am excited for all these things, I was sad when we made the decision not to move. My husband jokingly said, “We are officially taking on the Chicago mentality … maybe next year!” I couldn’t help but laugh. After a few minutes of disappointment, he said, “Why don’t we re-decorate some. We can clean out our closets, donate some things, move some furniture and paint. It’ll feel new if we do that.” He was right! Smiling, I realized that all my time dreaming was not a waste. So, now we are working on dealing with the problems in our current space … the neighbors (who are moving this summer, yay!), the bed bugs (ugh … thanks ground floor neighbors for the present from India) and making this old space feel new.

Here are some decorating ideas that I had for a new apartment, that I think we could do in our current apartment …

We think this will be a great color palette for the kitchen!

We just love the idea of hanging a rack from the ceiling for easily accessible pots and pans. I also woud love to add storage above our windows and doors.

I think the colors and patterns in this room are fantastic – great for a bedroom!

I think this would look nice in our bathroom. I also like the idea of using it in my crafting room. I think a wall of these shelves, filled with colorful fabric and notions would be lovely!

Check back to see our redecorating progress! I’ll leave you with a link to my friends blog. She did a cute project with milk paint. Enjoy!