Fun with photomanipulation

So fun, and so easy...





It's addicting, but if you want to try, go here: www.photofunia.com

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Friday Distractions - Political version

Just in case you are missing Sarah and Joe now that their debate is over, or if you are getting antsy waiting for Barack and John to kick it in Nashville next week, you can make your own political finger puppets at foldUScanidate.com



Frankly, the videos (especially the first one) are cute and worth a watch. What a way to waste a Friday afternoon! :)

Everything new is old again

I love photoshop. It's so much fun to enhance photos, take out that spinach between your teeth, or make collages. But it's really time consuming to get the good stuff, which is why I go ga-ga for internet sites that do the work for you. Recently, I found this one:

Before:


After:


Ha! Too fun! Now my vintage table is really vintage! :)

I went a little crazy with this. Remember the photo from Monday?

Love!

And now my cake-eating boy is an old man:

I could do this all day...

The site is really easy to use, even if it is in Japanese. Just click browse to find the photo on your computer then hit the blue button. When the page reloads, right click to save your new old photo.

Famous!!

Hee hee, not really! I used this. Fun!

Friday distractions - Tutorial MANIA!

Hi, my name is Kim and I'm a tutorial hoarder.

I've got mucho tutorials for uber cute things that I've stumbled upon and they sit idle in my bookmarks folder. But they are SOOOO cute I want more, more, MORE!

And yet, I think I've only actually made 1 thing from these tutorials. Sigh.

I feel I must spread the love, as some of these are way too cute to not be made and loved. Not many pics, as they belong to other people, but trust me--you'll love them!

Piggy Bank Wallet from Nosey Nest (crazy cute!)

Fabric Basket from Pink Penguin

Knit Opera Gloves from Sweaterscapes (have I mentioned that I don't knit? But I REALLLLLY want these!)

Cereal Gift Boxes from Chrisjob via curbly

Christmas Pixies from Chickpea Sewing Studio (never to early to start!)

Soft Tree Pattern from Little Birds Handmade

I'm a milkmaid? Summer time Dress by laurasaurus via Craftster (oooh, I forgot about this! I should make it...)

Stuffed Acorn from Old School Acres

Fabric Bucket from Ric Rac (love!)

Reversible journal cover from Kirin Notebook

Phew! I know there are more hidden in my bookmarks, but I keep getting distracted by all the cuteness!

There is one more that I actually made. The Pleated and Darted Purse by U-handbag. (There are a bunch more tutorials there, too!)

I made this bag when I was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding. We were charged with finding our own black shoes to coordinate with our champagne dresses. Evidently I'm ridiculously tall in the minds of David's Bridal designers, so I had to find flats that wouldn't look silly if they stuck out from under my dress. Long story (shopping trip) short, I found some champagne ballet flats with black lace overlay that matched perfectly!

And that required a matching bag, of course:

I used matching satin with black lace on top. I treated the two fabrics as one as I stitched the bag. The tutorial was very well written, by the way!

The addiction is itching again...Anyone have any more tutorials I can oogle?

Online fabric stores

I'm a stickler for fabric matching. Hence why, despite buying everything else online, I shop for fabric mostly at brick and mortar stores. You can't capture correct colors in a photograph for the web, I've found. HOWEVER, if you know what you want or just want to build your stash with cute things that you'll match up later, online stores are the best. Even with rising shipping prices, those online stores don't have to pass on their overhead to you and you end up with a slightly lower price per yard. No free advice or oohing and ahhing over your latest project like in the stores, but awesome when you want to shop for fabric in your pajamas.

Now where oh where would you shop online for fabric? Read on, read on....

Fabric.com - by far one of the best organized online fabric stores. Great for when you are looking for something specific (Amy Butler fabric, anyone?). However, colors in their photos are notoriously off--at least on my computer. But they have a fantastic, no questions asked return policy complete with free return shipping if you are way surprised by how something looks when its arrives. Sign up for their email list to get coupons and sale announcements.

Buyfabrics.com - crazy extensive collection of home dec fabric. Some brand names, but easier to browse when you have a color scheme or general idea of what you want than a specific fabric need. I haven't ordered from them, but I've heard good things.

Reprodepot fabrics - a favorite for super cute fabrics--retro/vintage, designer, imported, etc. The fabrics they showcase aren't cheap, but their prices are competitive. I missed out on the Marimekko sale, which is a huge bummer! Definitely great for those unusual things you can't find anywhere else.

Textile Arts - I admit I've only browsed here, never bought, but they have a lovely collection of Marimekko eye candy. I so should live in Scandinavia.

Thousands of bolts and only one nut - Mom turned me on to this one. Prices are definitely VERY cheap, but you have to just pick a color and browse through. Maybe you'll find a gem!

Robey's Fabrics - I haven't browsed their fabric site much, but I do know that their companion site has some great deals on pillow forms, especially the odd sizes that you can't find at JoAnn's.

And if you want your shopping to be greener:

NearSea Naturals - enviable selection of organic fabrics, including cotton. hemp, wool, and blends. I'm a sucker for the colorgrown cotton. Such pretty colors and not a drop of dye! Going green isn't cheap, but they offer nice volume discounts if you have the capital (or a lot of friends).

PM organics - lovely selection of knit and woven organic fabrics.

Anyone have any other online fabric shopping gems?

Happy Earth Day!

While every day SHOULD be Earth day, today's the official one. Here's to thinking a little more about our human footprint and thinking about how what we do effects everyone on this planet.

In honor of Earth day, I didn't want to make another list of the same things that everyone says we should do--compact fluorescents, check; turn off the computer at night, check; filtered water instead of bottled, check. We know we should, and we try, right? Instead I wanted to share with you the little things that I'm doing to try to live better, saving energy and MONEY in the long run. Despite what the Al Gore-haters say, the little things do make a difference (but I'm not discounting the need for big things too...)

Anyway, here goes.
Kim's list of her own environmental efforts:

1. Read Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Reflect on how much of our modern life is built specifically to be unsustainable and make a conscious effort to support products that adhere to the Cradle to Cradle philosophy.

2. Don't idle. Ever. Well, maybe for stoplights, but that's pushing it. It really does take less energy to start your car again than let it idle for anything longer than 30 sec. Forgive me that I don't have the data for it, but believe me it's true. Nothing irks me/feels more ironic than people idling behind another car waiting for a GAS PUMP! Hello?!?! Oh, and the idling that takes place in the line for the emissions testing is the most asinine thing I've ever seen. So I don't do it. (Oh wait, the info is here)

3. Recycle even when it is not convenient. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, you just have to get a bottle of water or a take out container, or you have papers to get rid of but there is no bin nearby. I carry that crap home and recycle it! Oh, and there is no excuse for throwing trash out windows. Why do people still do that? Were they born in a barn? Hold on to that junk for 5 min and put it in the trash can outside of wherever you are going... Phew, done ranting! :)

4. Try to ditch the car whenever possible. I'm fortunate to live just over 3 miles from work, which is a decent bike ride (except for the fact that it is uphill all the way to work) so I'm working on getting these thighs in shape so I don't arrive a hot mess every day. And I'm taking the bike to the local Target (and soon a new Publix grocery store) for errands. Hey, this is just economics cause gas isn't getting cheaper anytime soon!

5. Bring back the concept of a Victory Garden and actually grow food. And herbs--do you know how expensive fresh herbs are?!? Okay, the boy mostly does the gardening, but I help! Oh, and we're joining a CSA to support our local organic farmers and supplement our veggie load. Do you know how much "food" is grown that isn't edible? Watch King Corn and you'll know what I mean...

There's my top 5 everyday lifestyle changes that I'm doing to try to help my body, help my community, and help my planet. What are yours?

Vogue Pattern Sale!

I've got a whole bin of cute patterns I haven't had time to sew, but how can you resist a sale? Vogue patterns are on sale today at their website www.voguepatterns.com. $5.99 each. JoAnn's doesn't put them on sale much anymore, so now would be a good time to stock up. Plus, how cute is this dress? Hurry, sale is only good today (4/21/08)!

Friday distractions - ombre

As grown-up cousin of tie-dye, ombre (aka color gradient) has always appealed to me. Something about the orderly blend or fade of color is just so soothing and exciting at the same time.
This year I found myself actually paying attention to fashion week because I had become enthralled by Project Runway runway despite the nauseating overuse of the word "fierce." I learned two things from this. One, most designers make clothes that are either hideously ugly or insanely impractical for a casually cosmopolitan city like Nashville--jeans and cowboy boots are acceptable red carpet wear here, even if you aren't a country star. Two, many of the cute designs were ombre!

Alexander McQueen - I especially like the print overlay on the second dress

6167 - Love the shape of this one!

A.F. Vandevorst - Not withstanding the horrible socks with heels on the second model

So I already had plans to try this sooner rather than later, but was super excited when I opened the latest issue of substitute-for-Blueprint (aka Martha Stewart Living). What's Martha up to now, you ask? OMBRE! Whee!

Her directions are in the article, available here. However, I'm skeptical of the whole dip-fabric-slowly thing as it doesn't always provide as smooth of a gradient as I would like (I'm a little crazy like that).

After some searching I located an alternate method, see here, here and here. Basically, the fixing (or the soda ash in Martha's directions) is left until AFTER the gradient is established so that the color can migrate freely on the fabric. Also, you can mix up different combos of your colors, ie 100% color 1, 80/20 color 1 and 2, 60/40, and so on. Seems more labor intensive and probably messier, but likely the way I'll try it as I'm a sucker for doing things the hard way.

And to top off your new ombre outfit? How about some gradient tights? Okay, that might be a little much, Nashvegas or not!

More crafty fun

Hope you all had a good crafty weekend! Mine was not as productive as I had hoped between "working" at my (unpaid) second job and the continuous requests of the boy for help in finishing our basement storage room. But the room sure does look pretty (I've got me a handy one!) so I'll have to brag on that when it's finally finished.

In case you didn't see, Rory shared some of her crafty goodness in the comments on Friday. Love! I've got limited time to surf the net for cuteness, so it is always appreciated when it falls into my lap. I'd love to see more, so if any of you out there in blogdom have stuff to share, feel free to add it in the comments or email me at the address in my profile and I'll spread the love.

Speaking of crafty fun, did you see the new site from the Taunton peeps? CraftStylish is the reformed of BeSewStylish which was the somewhat disappointing website that followed the disappearance of the SewStylish magazine. I've continued to be disappointed by blogs that attempt to take over magazines that I actually enjoyed reading. The Blueprint blog is one such example. They promised greatness but I'm not seeing it yet; maybe the zine was just too cool?

Anyway, CraftStylish looks promising. It'll be interesting to see what happens when they have all the functionality up and running. I did enjoy the post that was on top when I stopped by: Handbag Hardware Resources.
Some I had heard of and had my own opinion about [M&J Trimming=somewhat overpriced, UMX=horrible website, great customer service and pricing] but others were new. You can't have too many options when you make as many bags as I do! :)

Friday distractions for a crafty weekend

Phew! What a week!

I've been very sparse in my postings this week--Sorry! My real job got really busy, and I'm still making serious progress on the Tremendous Totes. Those babies take a lot longer to put together than I thought! But they are reeaaaalllly pretty :)

It's going to be all rainy and cold here in N-ville this weekend. You know what that means? Craft time!

Leaf printing tutorial from one girl design wrks
Tiny terrariums from Cottage Living (so cute!)
Shrinky Dink Rings from Planet June
Elephant purse from Dabbled
Fabric Flowers from Wise Craft
Freezer paper stencils from The Domestic Diva (oh I've got a whopper of an idea using this technique. Can't wait to try it out!)

Go Crafting!

Friday distractions - Trouble

In honor of all the trouble that scooter-ing got me into, today I bring you fantastic internet timewasters almost guaranteed to get you in trouble. Hurrah!

Soundtrack for today: Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (Excellent CD-you should buy it!)

Mascot for today: Rascal the cat. A ridiculously cute furball who isn't all that bright, thus always getting into trouble but such a love muffin that you can't hate him for it. All together now: AWWWWW

Trouble 1: Cupcakes
I'm in love with cupcakes. Don't know why, they are just really cute. Like these, these, and these. I swear that I had the cupcake instead of wedding cake idea years ago, but now it has become almost commonplace and trite. I blame Martha Stewart for that one. But I still love them! This on the other hand, is kinda dumb. Isn't the point of a cupcake that you get your OWN little cake? I pity the person that tries to eat that one...

Trouble 2: Fabric
Um, I want it all. New Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, eco-esque Robert Kaufman, of course Harmony Art, and all the daydreams of my own head. I mean, of course the PERFECT fabric for what I've been dreaming up isn't available so I guess I'll have to make it myself. :) In my spare time, of course (ha!)

Trouble 3: Shoes.
It's sandal season! How much am I lusting over these, these, and these? Yeah. Not like those particular ones will ever be on my feet, but it's all good.

Trouble 4: Books
I like books that make me spend even more money on new hobbies. Like my cupcake obsession, embroidery, sewing, the cooking that I don't (read: can't) do, playing with illustrator, and abandoning science for crafting. I know, I know, I should go to the library, right? I totally do, but sometimes you just want to be able to drool over a book again and again. Although we are totally going to need more bookcases...

Happy Friday! Stay out of trouble! :)

More shameless self-promotion

Just a quick post right now (I have something else I want talk about, but that'll have to wait until later).

Mucho thanks to Rory for pointing out this:

Yup, on Amy Butler's site! Want to see it for yourself? Go to Amy Butler Design, click on NEW, then scroll down.

Toooo cool! :)

By the way, her new fabric is awesome, is it not? One day my whole house will be swathed in pretty things like that....

Shameless semi-self promotion

Thanks for all the lovely comments you all have been leaving! I'm super inspired to get the totes done, although the perfectionist in me is rearing its ugly head so it's taking longer than I anticipated. But good for you all, as they are going to be gorgeous (if I may say so myself!). The pattern is coming along too, and as always I have a billion more ideas and not enough time get them all done. Be prepared for some pretty cool things to come though, providing I can get it all to work out sometime before you-know-what freezes over!

So, in other news, today I'm going to take a little time to feature an artisan as thanks for getting me to where I am today. That's right, my darling Mom.

My Mom is a super talented quilter that started my love of sewing and has supported me in everything I do. She's got the entrepreneurial spirit herself, running her website Quilted to a Tea. Really, her work is amazing:

She's where I get the perfectionist tendencies, although I have no patience for sewing tiny squares together as perfectly as her!
This is one of my favorite quilts she made--the colors are just sooo pretty! And look at that workmanship:

Her next endeavor is children's tea, which will be coming soon as Toadstool Tea Parties. I'll take credit now for creating her cute banner, but that's as far as I go--the woman's got vision! :) I mean, can you get any cuter than this? And the price? Wow, what a value!

Also, some of her children's quilts are on etsy at Tea Gal Quilts. Love love love this one in particular:

So, while you are waiting for the Tremendous Totes, pop on over to Quilted to a Tea and see what my dear mother has whipped up lately. Tell your friends and help me say thanks to the woman who made it all possible! I love you Mom!

Friday distractions

I'm sure you don't need my help on the distracted part. Are you really accomplishing anything today? It's okay, I understand.

In case you are looking for some productive ways to use up all that distraction, here's a few that I'm perusing:

Today's theme: green (ish) sites

Harmony Art Harmony stole my secret dream of designing really cute environmentally friendly fabric that people can use to make really cute stuff. Sigh. In the mean time, I'll just drool over her designs.
Skin Deep cosmetics safety database. I've become obsessed with trying to dial down the crazy chemicals in my bathroom, and have been plugging all my products into this. Try searching for a certain product type then sorting by safety rating. Becomes almost scary when you look at the worst ratings.

Etsy Labs: How to make lip balm I'm absolutely addicted to my chapstick, and shudder to think how much I've swallowed in my life. This is an interesting alternative to the petro based stuff.

Green Karat No, I'm not getting engaged Mom! But if I was, I'd want one of these rings. Recycled gold. Cultured diamonds. Support recycling and a revolution of the computing industry instead of mining, DeBeers, and African militias. Sounds like a much better proclamation of love to me! :)Green Sage Sustainable building supplies. I love the cabinet hardware. I'm eventually going to fully transform my craigslist desk into a beauty vanity, and really want these pulls:
Enjoy your distractions!