craftiness

Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to take advantage of every last minute of my summer (thus, the lack of recent blog posts). Tonight, I am trying not to mourn too loudly that I have to get up early and go to work tomorrow. To boost my spirits, I have enjoyed thinking about all that I have done this summer. It is amazing what one can accomplish with lots of sleep and creative energy. This summer, my creative energy manifested itself in a new hobby. . . sewing! My good friend Winsor got me hooked when she got a sewing machine and let me use it. I put a bug in my husband's ear that I really wanted a sewing machine for my birthday, and guess what he surprised me with when I got home from vacation? Yep! He got a fabulous deal on an old Viking. After having it serviced, I was so excited to got my hands on it and knock out some projects. My mom, quite the seamstress herself, loved that I was taking on this new hobby and sent me a package of all the sewing essentials (i.e. Ginger scissors, measuring tape, pins, some really cute vintage fabric, and Martha's Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts). I have been pouring over Martha's wisdom and still have quite a few projects/techniques from the book that I want to try my hand at. Here are some pictures of what I've done.
I made these pillows for our living room. The inspiration was the crewel embroidery I found at an antique mall.

I painted this bench to match our shutters and made these little outdoor pillows for it.

I made this little receiving blanket for sweet Winsor's new baby, Reed. I cross-stitched his birthday on the flannel side. It is not perfect, but still cute.

This little tab curtain in our bathroom is way better than the blinds that were there previously, believe me.

I am so excited to tackle more sewing projects in the near future. But first, I desperately need to make my office/craft space more efficient and inspiring. Check out sweet Katie's ideas here. Maybe that will help me going back to work and being more productive in my time off. . . Here's hoping.