Baby Shower Giveaway....

Bueller?

Bueller?

Hate to say this, but the Baby Shower Giveaway is now closed.  Due to lack of participation.  What??

There were two comments.  One a supportive cheer from a blog mentor, and one a drive-by hello from a blog hop.  The first has told me her comment was not an actual entry.  The second appeared to be completely unrelated to the giveaway...and there is no contact info in the profile for me to verify regardless.  Today was the final day, but if it has gone this long with no activity...well, I'm throwing in the towel folks.  I have moved that post to Draft status.

A complete and total DUD.  Discouraging.  I will say, my lesson is learned - don't do baby shower giveaways make a giveaway so specific that your target audience is too small to make it successful.

Whatevs.  I'm movin' on!

I'm focusing today on rollin' out the new line for Craft, Interrupted on etsy.  All my marketing and shipping tasks have been tackled.  It's listing time!

And I sure hope this gets a better response than that giveaway.  Only one way to find out.

Living Room Progress & Visions

Back to my Goals for 2012 - Living Room Projects... #1 is done.  I made my grey and white wide striped curtains.  Definitely an improvement to the room, right?

I'm in love with them.  Now if I could just keep Thing 1 from climbing them like trees!  This face is adorable, but he's a whippersnapper.

I mentioned in my Four Ways to DIY Wide Striped Curtains post that I had also scored the rug I had my eye on, in a 50% off sale.  Woot!  You can see in the pic above that it is making a big difference in the room, too. So exciting to do some work on the look of the house!

Next, I moved that big daddy painting from leaning above the mantle to hanging on the wall to the right.  Better?  It's growing on me.  Moving this huge frame changed the dynamic of the room as much as the curtains and rug have.

That red lampshade on the end table at the left of the photo is my next victim.  That shade is broken/bent and needs replaced anyway.  I'm going to get a white drum lampshade, close to the same size/shape as the current one, and cover it with this fabric (which I have already purchased).  I'm so stoked to do this project!

I bought a fat quarter off etsy, intending to make a throw pillow...but then had a lightbulb moment (get it?) and decided it would be FAB to cover a shade with instead!  So I went back and found a larger cut of the same fabric.  Half yard, on sale.  When it arrives, I'm diving in!

Here are some inspiration pics of what I have my eye on for the rest of the room, so far...

Numbered Throw Pillows

Old Arched Window above the Mantle

I'm watching craigslist like a hawk for something like this.

Or an Old Gate?  Love this look, too!

I am definitely saving for one of these Train Station Clocks.

Hobby Lobby has a few.  I already scoped them out.

and I'd love to do a Where We've Lived Subway Art piece,

possibly for the other side of the fireplace?  If that's too much typography then I'll move it to the entryway.

This large Metal Ampersand is calling my name, for the mantle.

I'm tempted by this Ruffled Ottoman Cover, too...but in a house of young and crazy testosterone, I'm hesitant to do too much natural-colored fabric in the living room.  You can probably guess why:  boys = dirt.

Here's where I need some input...because you see what's missing in all my inspiration pics?  Those little pops of red.  I think that huge framed print is going to stick out like a sore thumb in a room of neutrals, if I don't have a little bit of color here and there.  Would you stick with red, or choose something else...Mustard?  

In my mind's eye, my future kitchen will have apple green/white/black.

I had thought of cocoa and Tiffany blue/aqua in my dining/front room.

The downstairs is open, especially the kitchen and living room.  I don't want them all the same color scheme, but they still need to go together, right? 

And I'm not a decorator, so I don't know how this will pan out.

I DO know, that I'm liking my results so far : )

Linking Up At

Living Room Project #1 - Four Ways to DIY Wide Striped Curtains

Remember my Goals for 2012 - Living Room Projects post?  

#1 on my To-Do list - the wide striped curtains.

I had been bookmarking several different ways to DIY these curtains.

Option One: masking off the stripes with tape and Painting the Fabric.  I was tempted to do this, because I thought it would be faster, but a few things made me hesitate.  1) I didn't want the fabric to be stiff/crunchy and hang awkwardly with paint on it.  After reading several blog posts on this method, I knew it was a possibility, even with the use of a fabric medium.  And 2) I didn't want the light filtering in from behind to make paint strokes of different thicknesses noticeable.  Do you know what I mean?  

I'm guess I'm picky.

My plan was to use wide strips of fabric instead.  Now this I had seen done a few different ways as well.  Option Two:  The No-Sew Method of iron-on adhesive sounded good in theory.  But honestly, I don't think you are saving much time messing with trimming and applying adhesive strips.  And then you likely have funky edges to cover up afterwards, too.  One tutorial I saw used ribbon on top of each seam.  It looked absolutely fantastic in the end result...but another DIY post mentioned the cost of the ribbon was way more $$ than expected.  Think about that - going the width of the whole curtain along the edges of where each stripe is?  That would accumulate to a lot of ribbon yardage pretty quickly.  Especially if you are doing more than one window in the room.

Ix-nay on the adhesive.  

The Baby Shower Comes Together

Ok, it's time to see how all this...

turned into a Baby Shower!

I found some blue and brown bitty clothing...

 ...and we made a mini clothesline with wide brown ribbon, hanging the outfits as decoration, and also a gift for the baby.  I love this clothesline idea, and have seen it in many baby shower posts.  Sometimes across the mantel.  I saw one vintage toy themed shower that had the clothes pinned to an old metal slinky - genius!  Our shower was in a church fellowship hall, and this worked great for covering up the bulletin board.  We covered the board first with blue and white pinstriped wrapping paper.

The gift table was set up in front of this, with the Not-Diaper Cake, and two photo collage pages that I made with My Memories, framed and on display.  This family was so blessed - by the time all had arrived, you couldn't see any of this behind the mountain of gifts : ) 

For the windows, I cut sections from a light blue plastic party tablecloth, then traced a scalloped edge with a large plate, and cut the shape with scissors.  I used straight pins to tack these onto the front of the window valances, then draped them with twisted streamers.  Paper pinwheels and tissue poms hung in the center.  It's hard to see the details in these photos, because the sunshine was so bright that day!  It really looked pretty in person, and was an inexpensive and easy way to add to the decor by dressing up the windows like this.

I love decorating windows this way, with cut up $1 tablecloths!  I did a similar thing for a Halloween party in this same room, with purple tablecloths cut into raggedy shreds along the bottom.  Unfortunately, I did all my prep at home for this, and my measurement was off - the overlay wasn't long enough to cover the whole valance, width-wise, and I had to center them on the window instead.  Streamers helped fill in the corners, but next time I will be sure to get actual measurements of the windows first.  Keep that in mind if you do this!

For the tables, we used white cloth tablecloths.  I then cut another light blue plastic tablecloth into four smaller rectangles.  I folded them in half, and half again, and traced all around the outer edge with the same plate I had used for the window coverings.  Then I cut through, and when opened, it was scalloped all around the edge and made a lovely table runner to put the centerpieces on.  I will note - it's actually easier to cut these thin plastic tablecloths when they are in layers than it is to do singles piece-by-piece.  Saves time, too!  I had them all done in about five minutes.  You just have to pay attention to the way the piece is folded so that you are only shaping the outer edges and not an inner fold that will result in two sections smaller than you need.

Some more photos of the set-up before the party started...

I made one more plastic scalloped valance as a backdrop for the party banner...You can see some of the table tents and food picks on the buffet table here, too.

These pics aren't the best.  I seem to be saying that a lot lately.  Maybe it's time to start saving Etsy profits toward a DSL?  I am a professional photographer's daughter afterall, so I should be able to learn how to use one.  I asked my friend who helped with the shower if she had any better photos, and if those roll into my inbox I will include them.

This shower was SO much fun to work on!  Toward the end, I was borderline embarrassed by all the extra time I had put in to make so much decor.  I wanted to sneak in, get it set up, and then slink into the background!  A few people asked me how long it took me to do it all, and when I said it was probably 20-25 hours of work over the course of the week, their jaws hit the floor.  What can I say?  I thrive on creating.  I just wanted to do something special for this new little family...and they loved it : )

Do you?  Because I'm hosting a giveaway of some of these decorations.  Come back tomorrow for details!

Linking Up At


Linkin' with Lil'Luna 
Show & Tell with Blue Cricket Design

Etsy Update

Do you know what a Pajama Eater is?  Check out this post.  

I've been preparing to be a listed seller, with my adaptations of the original pattern by Jodi at Sew Fearless.

Remember this pile of Pajama Eater pieces?  

I cut out that pattern 19 times in early January.

Then I shared a progress report that those pieces had gradually been moved into labeled bins of finished parts, waiting for final assembly...That's a box of legs on the left, and arms/wings, ears, tails, on the right.

Well now, I have a hizuge bin, of finished Pj Eaters, 

waiting to be stuffed and listed in my Etsy shop.

Feels like it has taken me forever, but I'm in the home stretch now!  I have stuffed, sewn, and taken listing pics of seven different ones so far.  

Next I will tackle marketing materials like tags and inserts, 

and shipping materials like larger poly mailers.

Soon!  Soon they will be ready to go to new homes : )

I'm also planning on restocking Lullaby Baby Owls & Bunnies in time for Easter.  As I start a new batch of these, I will be preparing pdf pattern pieces and instructions, to be offered at my Etsy shop.

New territory ~ selling patterns and introducing new product lines.

And...it's my very happy 1 year Etsy Anniversary! 

Every customer now gets a 10% off coupon code for their next order.

Thank YOU for helping me be successful : )

Party Decorating with Disposable Plastic Tablecloths

You know these party tablecloths?  The thin plastic, disposable kind?
You can actually do lots of creative things with these for parties, which is awesome for two reasons:
1) They come in just about any color
2) They are cheap!  $1 at Dollar Tree, or $2-ish at Warlmart



Check out some of the ways you can use these...

Backdrops
To create a focal point behind a dessert or gift table,
or to cover up a window or wall.

Ceiling Swags
Make a room magical by tacking one end at the ceiling by the wall and draping in toward the center of the room.  Check out how they used them in the doorway in this pic, too.

Chair Covers
Make plain chairs fancy by wrapping the backs and adding a ribbon or streamer.  You can cut one tablecloth into fourths and cover four chair backs for $1!