Just a few things...

First.
I have to tell you how crazy it is to live in Tucson sometimes. I feel like I really live in the WILD west. A while ago I was out in my backyard clipping the dead roses off my bush and I noticed something in the corner of my eye. A BOBCAT was taking a nap on my neighbor's porch! Not that I knew it was a bobcat at first... I had to call JB and have a whisper conversation that went something like this: "JB! There is a large cat like animal on the neighbors porch. Should I be afraid? Do I need to go inside? Will it hurt me? What kind of animal is it?!"


(ps. This is my official apology to my next door neighbors, if you do or will ever read my blog. I am sorry for being a creeper and taking pictures of your back yard. But it was A BOBCAT! I couldn't help it!)

Second.
I have been sewing a ton lately and as soon as I get some pics of myself in the clothes taken, I will show off my cute new shirts I have been whipping out!

Third.
Do you follow Oh Happy Day and did you see her free 7 day trip to Paris giveaway? If not, run over there and enter! It can't hurt, right?

Matchbox Notepad

I have always thought those mini matchbook notepads were so cute, so this week I designed a few for the Silhouette Online Store.

They are fairly simple to assemble but here is a quick tutorial to clear up any questions:

1. Fold outside cover of matchbook notepad along perforations.


2. Insert blank white pages (cut out of regular weight printer paper) under bottom flap and staple. I estimate that around 14 pages is all my stapler could handle, but test it on your own stapler. It could fluctuate based on your paper weight!


3. Fold over the cover and tuck it under the bottom flap, above the staple. It's that simple!

Fabric Flower Brooches

A few weeks ago my friends and I threw a baby shower (I know! Another one! But I think we are done for a while...) for two expecting mothers-- one expecting a girl and one expecting a boy. We played off of "boy vs. girls" for the shower theme, and divided the guests into teams as they arrived.

To divide them into teams, we had them pick a fabric flower pin to wear. Pink to represent the girls team and blue to represent the boys team. The games we played were pretty chill-- actually the whole shower was pretty chill-- my favorite kind! And, as a bonus, the flowers acted as a great favor! I'm all about party favors that will actually be used after the shower.




I basically followed this rolled fabric flower tutorial from My Sparkle with a few changes-- I backed it with felt, glued a safety pin to the felt to use to secure the brooch, and added some fabric leaves!

Teapot for Silhouette

Hey! This week in the Silhouette Online Store, watch for my 3D teapot design. I am including some pictures and instructions on how to assemble it in this post.

1. Cut out all pieces.


2. Fold along perforations. (but i don't fold the ones along the top of the teapot until for ease of assembly.)


3. Use tabs along the length of the teapot body to glue it into a hexagon shape.


This is what it looks like after you glued all the sides together.


4. Use the tiny tabs along the bottom of the teapot to glue the panels together, so that it tapers in.


This is what it looks like when you glue all the bottom panels together.


5. Take the hexagon shape and fold all the tabs, and glue them. Then take the piece and set it in the bottom of the teapot.



6. Fold perforations along the top of the teapot.


7. Use tabs to glue top panels together.


8. Take the little circle and stick it thru the slit on the top of the lid.


9. Turn lid over. Fold and glue the little tabs down to keep the handle in place.


10. Last step! Glue the little tabs on the side of the lid to adjacent panels.

Safari Mobile

I try not to shamelessly self promote my etsy shop on my blog too often here on my blog, but today I had to make an exception because I just love my new product so much! I had a customer email me about a custom order for a safari themed mobile. I started playing with the idea and am pleasantly surprised with how it turned out!

Branding

Every year in the spring JB and I head up to Southern Utah to brand the calves on the family farm. Basically, this is how it goes down: I play with my camera for a couple of hours and pretend to be a real photographer, and JB and the guys do the dirty work.

Baby Shower Quilt

I realize that I said I was going to blog about the second half of the baby shower I threw. And then suddenly a month passed!

Anyway, I am way excited to share this with you. Sometimes I really hate baby shower games and activities. Sometimes they are fine. But I wanted to come up with something unique and cool and memorable for Juli's shower.

I have seen at some showers where they have a bunch of quilt squares and fabric markers, and they have everyone write a message to the mother-to-be, and they make it into a quilt. I decided to take that idea to the next level and make a fun, graphic quilt. I have been seeing these fun freezer paper stencil tutorials all over the web and they inspired me! I cut a bunch of 8" white cotton quilt squares, had little pieces of freezer paper available, and fabric spray paint.


Then, as part of the shower, I had each guest sketch up little design on the freezer paper, cut it out, and iron it onto the quilt square. Then, I used fabric spray paint to set the image. The great thing about this is anyone can do it. If some of the guests weren't feeling particularly artistic, hey! Do a polka dot pattern! Anyone can cut circles out of paper, and it looks great!


Here is the finish product:




I love that Juli has this cute keepsake from her shower that everyone got to contribute to.

One tip: I had the spray paint on the back porch and I told guests they could spray theirs if they wanted to, but if not I could do it later. But if I ever did this again, I would just do them all myself at a later time. I felt kind of bad that some of the guests left the shower with blue and or black fingers from the spray paint. Plus, one of the paints clogged half way thru and it was too crazy to try and unclog it in the middle of the shower.