ruffle your feathers

Whew! It’s been quite the weekend. I cleaned like a crazy woman, switched up some of the décor, celebrated Brad’s birthday with a lovely family dinner and peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes (recipe and party pics coming soon!), and made two new pillow covers (because a girl doesn't want to show up empty handed to DIY Day!). Here’s a little look-see at the new beauty that’s adding a little whimsy to our bed.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to put ruffles on something, and the blank canvas of our fluffy white duvet was the perfect spot for a little ruffled pillow.

I also made a little ruffle flower pin, but Brad vetoed this look as too girly.

So, we’ll be sticking with the simple ruffles. I happened to mention that ruffles alone can’t be that girly if pirates have been known to wear them.

I made this cover using the same method as the bike pillow covers I made for the living room. The ruffles were super easy to make. All you need to do is take a long strip of fabric, about double the length of the desired finished ruffle. Sew a long straight stitch right down the middle of the fabric. Do not back stitch at the end. Take the bottom thread and pull until the fabric begins to ruffle. I sort of fluffed and evened out the ruffle as I pulled until I had it the way I wanted it. I layered two ruffles on top of each other, but I probably could have sewed the two fabrics at the same time. Does the bottom ruffle look familiar? It’s because you’ve seen the fabric here:

And here:

It’s amazing how many projects you can get out of one Goodwill shirt! And I still have plenty of material left.

One more exciting bit of news: this is the week leading up to my one year blogging anniversary! I think I’m going to sprinkle in a few extra posts this week that reflect on my favorite posts, your favorite posts, and a little opportunity for me to get to know all of you better. I’m also thinking of giving away a pillow cover with your choice of ruffles or a vintage graphic.

So, how does that sound? Care to join me?

<3
Hattie

New Loves

I found two (new to me) lovely blogs that I just had to share with you! I mostly read home décor blogs for fun and library blogs for work, but these two ladies blog mostly about sewing. Now, if you don’t sew, never fear, spend a few minutes on either of these blogs and you will be dying to learn how.

Disney blogs at Ruffles and Stuff. She makes amazing jewelry from vintage items. She also refashions clothes for her daughter and herself. When I found her blog over Christmas break, I was so inspired by all of her ideas that I spent an evening reading every single one of her posts!

My dream is to sew as well and as creatively as Alexis at My Mama Made it. She refashions and sews from scratch. Her dresses and t-shirts are amazing! I don’t know if I’ll ever be brave enough to tackle half of her projects, but the eye candy is certainly inspiring!
So, if you sew or want to sew or just like gazing at beautiful clothes, you will love these blogs as much as I do! Enjoy!

<3
Hattie

buttoned up

When I was organizing all of my ribbon and trimming, some vintage tan seam tape caught my eye. It got me thinking about a box of mother of pearl buttons I had stashed away. I got them all out, as well as some iridescent beads, and decided there had to be a way to make some jewelry out of all these pretty bits and pieces.

That’s how I turned a little of this into the fun statement necklace you see below.

Now, I realize it would be pretty tricky to re-create this necklace without finding the same buttons and trimmings I used, but I’m going to take you through the creation process to give you some ideas for repurposing your own vintage notions.

First, I took one of my buttons (don’t they remind you of snowflakes?) And sewed/tied it to the middle of a long length of seam tape.

I could have left things here and had a cute and simple necklace, but I decided I wanted to go for something more like the bib necklaces that are so popular right now. To bulk things up, I sewed another button on each side of the first button.

To give the necklace a little more shape, I sewed the seam tape to more of the decorative loops on the buttons. I also sewed the seam tape to itself in the center of the necklace to form a loop. This probably makes no sense unless you look at the picture!

To finish the look, I sewed a small iridescent bead to the center of my seam tape loop. I also wrapped some of the lacy tape around two beads on each side of the necklace and sewed the tape shut around the beads. I didn’t have any jewelry clasps on hand, so I just left the tails of the necklace long so I can tie the ends in a bow behind my neck.

I think the finished product has a nice vintage feel!

OK, now go have a look around your sewing drawer for some bits and baubles to turn into your own dainty necklace!

<3
Hattie

Winter Skin

"Really, cold front? Ten degrees! Really. You think ten degrees is acceptable Virginia weather? Because, really, this is the south and we don’t “do” ten degrees!" ~ This rant has been brought to you by my ridiculously dry skin that is crying for a little less brrrr.

Our cold snap is on it’s way to a four week run, and I don’t remember the last time my skin has felt this parched. My nose is flaking, my lips are so chapped they actually bled yesterday, my elbows and knees are not fit for human eyes, and my hair feels very straw-like. I need help! This is where you come in. I need some suggestions for how to treat all my scaly, flaky, cracked, and chapped skin issues. (This post is going to get some hits from very (ahem) interesting Google searches!)

Anyway, so far I’ve been applying Burt’s Bees lip balm like I own stock in the company and slathering on the Vitamin E oil morning and night. However, these measly measures are no match for the mighty wind of winter. So, any tips for turning my skin from armadillo tough to baby soft? I’d love to hear about the products you swear by, but I’m also super interested in home remedies. Extra kudos for natural and/or organic ideas and cheap and/or free ideas!

Please share, because most of the skin in America is also feeling the brunt of this deep freeze. We could all use a little TLC!

<3
Hattie

Bikes are nice, and pillows too!

I’m sew glad it’s DIY Day (hardy har har)! But really, I’m pretty excited to show you my first successful sewing machine project.

I have to also link this to Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy, because I used two of her awesome images. I decided awhile ago I wanted to make some new slipcovers for a few of the sofa pillows, and finding some great linen-esq fabric in the remnant bin at Jo-Ann’s gave me all the motivation I needed.

To make my pillow covers, I went with a simple envelope style. You can find great tutorials for this kind of pillow cover all over the internet, so I’m only go to give you the jist.

1. Measure your pillow and cut a rectangle of fabric that is an inch wider and twice as long plus seven inches. My pillow was 10 x 10 so my fabric was 11 x 27.

2. Iron well and crease ¼ inch hem on the short ends of the fabric. Pin and sew hems.

3. Next, lay your fabric right side down and place the pillow in the middle. Fold the edges towards the middle of the pillow until they overlap. Make sure there is a little wiggle room. Slide the pillow out of the fabric and pin.

4. Sew a straight seam down each of the pinned edges.
5. Now, turn the pillow right side out, and you’re in business.

Here’s my pillow after a little fluffing.

I liked it, but it needed a little something to spice it up. After browsing The Graphics Fairy website, I found two awesome bike images (bike plan, bike ad). I altered the backgrounds in Picasa until both images had the same tone. Next, I put them in Word to reverse the writing and enlarge.

I printed the images onto iron on transfer paper. A few quality minutes with my iron later, and I had these beauties.

I love how simple and graphic they are.

It’s nice to have something to break up all that plaid!

Thanks for stopping by!

<3
Hattie

Much ado about stuff

Are you ready for a little DIY Day organization?

You know that room in your house where all your junk goes to die? The room you close off the second surprise guests walk in the door? Ok, maybe some of you are too neat to have a room like that, but Brad and I definitely did. If you would like to feel better about your own clutter, take a gander at our office/craft/sewing room:

Note the box full of other empty boxes and containers I might need someday for some unknown project.

Pillow and picture frame destined for crafty makeovers.

Drawer full of scrapbook paper, actual scraps of paper, and tissue paper.

Ridiculously awful drawer of stickers, brads, and other miscellaneous scrapbooking junk.

Pile of fabric with no home to call its own. Not shown: drawer full of duct tape and ribbon bits.

Clearly I have a problem. I. could. Not. Stand. It. Anymore. Notice the visible areas weren’t too terrible, but the drawers were in serious disarray. My tendency to shove junk in drawers rather than deal with it probably reveals some deep and disturbing psychological trait, but I’m not going to think about that. Anyway, I knew any organizational solution was going to have to include a plan to keep the drawers in order, or this room would only stay neat for about two seconds.

This area doesn’t look that different, but I did deal with the box ‘o boxes.

My desk is all orderly now.

I tried to fit as much of my spool ribbon as possible on these little shelves.

I used these retro bird mugs to hold all my sharpies and scissors. Does a girl really need eight pairs of scissors? Yes. Yes, she does.

On to the drawers! First, I took everything out of the drawers, piled like items together, and got rid of a ton of stuff.

My dad heard me complaining that 12x12 scrapbook paper is too tall to fit in a normal filing cabinet, so he surprised me with this handy little expandable tote, made just for over-sized paper.

The rest of the paper got sorted by color, holiday, etc. and filed in regular folders. I also made files for stickers and various bits of paper memorabilia. For instance, I have a folder labeled “summer 2009” and another labeled “wedding.”

The rest of my scrapbooking supplies and those empty containers are organized in two boxes at the front of the drawer. Just by organizing things and throwing out tiny, random scraps of paper, I managed to fit two drawers worth of craftiness in one drawer.

This left the bottom drawer open for all of my fabric.

Here is my new and improved ribbon/duct tape drawer.

Most of my vintage trimming was already neatly wrapped on cardboard, while the rest of my ribbon scraps were just shoved in a plastic bag. I decided to cut up some cardboard and make “spools” for that ribbon as well.

The best thing about tackling this project is that I now know exactly what supplies I have on hand. I also created a “home” for every item, with extra room for any new items I might will acquire in the future.

I hope this inspires you to tackle your own organization project! If you’ve posted about organizing lately, be sure to put the link in the comments, so I can check it out!

<3
Hattie

oh. my. cupcakes!

I have three words for you, my dear readers: Key. Lime. Cupcakes. Your life will never be the same. Plain ‘ol funfetti cupcakes will be ruined for you forever, for you will have tasted the awesomeness that is a creamy, limey, bit of bliss. I kid you not, these are amazing.


To create these heavenly cupcakes, I played around with a recipe from the cake mix doctor. The original calls for coconut flavoring in the cake and coconut meringue topping. For my version you will need:

- 1 large lime (this is used to create 1 teaspoon of zest and 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of juice) you may want an extra lime for garnish
- 4 eggs (1 whole + 3 yolks)
- 1 plain yellow cake mix
- 1 small box of vanilla instant pudding mix
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 1/3 cup cooking oil
- 1 can of key lime pie filling (you only need about a ½ cup of the filling)
- cream cheese icing

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl add the one egg and three egg yolks. Add cake and pudding mix, water, oil, lime zest, and lime juice. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl and continue to mix on medium speed for several more minutes or until batter is well blended. Line two 12 hole cupcake pans with wrappers and fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes.

Now for the filling! I used my new Wilton cupcake kit to fill my cup cakes with key lime pie filling. I’ve also heard you can use a turkey baster to do this.

To fill the cupcakes, simply insert the tip of your icing bag or turkey baster about halfway into the center of the cupcake. Squeeze until the filling just reaches the top of the cupcake.

Finish your cupcakes off with a swirl of cream cheese icing.

I used a Wilton 1M decorating tip. For this look, draw a circle of icing just in from the edge of the cupcake. Going the opposite direction, draw a smaller circle of icing on top of the first circle. Finish by ending in the center with an extra squeeze of icing and pulling straight up.

Look at all the lovely icing and filling! I think my 2010 healthy eating plan is in big trouble.

If you could create your own ultimate cupcake, what would it be like?

<3
Hattie