A Homemade Holiday

We tried to make this holiday as homemade as possibly and succeeded for the most part although I did get sucked into a few sales but I'd like to share a few handmade gifts some by me and some we bought made by others....

By me...
This year our budget was tight-I mean TIGHT and we had to cut down on gifts quite a bit and try to get somewhat creative. I made these for both E and P and they were a huge hit-I'm seriously even thinking about making one for myself-so comfortable! Plus they were pretty easy to make-I made one for my nephew in Nov for his birthday so I was able to whip them out somewhat quickly. Tutorial HERE  

I also turned into a baker extraordinaire-well not really but I kind of felt like it after making homemade Dulce de Leche(from Elsie Marley) and these super yummy Hazelnut Nutella thumbprint cookies oh and nutella fudge-yeah I think I have a nutella addiction).

By others....

I was browsing etsy late one night and came across this awesome shirt-anyone that had met our son has probably heard him RAWR-it's his go to when he's being shy or nervous-yup he RAWRS instead of talking-too cute.

I also finally purchased a pair of these shoes for P that I've been eyeing up forever-they're super cute, made by someone local(bonus) and even stay on her feet

 Hope everyone had a great holiday and didn't get what I am calling the "holiday hangover" like I did. Seriously I think I need to move somewhere warmer-I did up my Vitamin D though and it seems to help.

I did it!

So everything came together for Saturday and our little girl had a great 1st birthday. The theme was colors of the rainbow and after about a 10 minute discussion between me and my husband-I can say we've figured out what color indigo is-crazy huh he works at a paint store and I have an interior design degree and neither one of us was quite sure what color indigo was :)   The theme was built off of the shirt that I made for P with a "1" on it and it went from there- and our cupcakes were even yellow and choc with vanilla frosting and ROYGBIV shimmer dust-courtesy of big brother E. I wasn't crazy enough to try to do the rainbow layer cake-too much pressure. We kept things easy and ordered pizza for dinner but also kept it local and ordered from a great pizza place just down the street, Classic Slice, seriously if you ever are in Bay View, get some of their pizza, the chunky chicken is my fav. Anyways, it was a much more low key party than Ethan's first but it was spent with close family and we all had a great time(or atleast I think we did!) Oh and there's some random chocolate zebra print that I had that seemed to break up the craziness of all the colors.

I'll get into the tutorials for some of the crafts and why we ended up giving up on some and moving on to others, but thanks to everyone on here and FB for the support-gotta love all the crafty people out there :)

Can I do it?

Two Days......

$20 in supplies......

1 husband whom I am now calling the "Crabby Crafter".......


and a lot of great ideas.........


Can I do it?

Can I pull together a FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY for my daughter in 2 days????? I don't think I would be able to function if I weren't a last minute person :) Plus for some reason it's incredibly hard for me to pick a theme and just go with it.

I still have orders to get out, Christmas presents to sew/make, some more ideas for Christmas presents that involve my husband and he's going to kill me and a First Birthday to celebrate-so exciting and I love every minute of it!

Check back Monday to see if my ideas turned into a great party-

Can you smell it?

The Highlander Grogg we're brewing that is. I don't know why, but there's just something about the holidays that calls for some yummy Highlander Grogg coffee-if you're not familiar here's the description on the Berres Brothers website  "Indulgently sweet, richly enticing...an explosion of caramel, butterscotch and hazelnut." YES! I wholeheatedly agree with the description. I have found that one of the perks from working at home is this coffee just steps away from me at all times-

I also tried out this recipe today that I found via pinterest and am loving them-I made them with carob chips instead of chocolate because they were on sale at our co-op and next time I think I'll add some craisins-but excellent non-the-less and paired with my coffee I'll be ready to work for hours now :)

I'm hoping to post this week about our plan for the holidays and less consumerism and more homemade



gifts and family memories.

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Not even THREE yet

Our son doesn't turn 3 until March-yet today we were at a school tour and submitted an application for enrollment. Only a few months ago I would have thought this was crazy-that is until I started talking to people about schools. We live in a city that has a couple of different school options-we have chosen(for a variety of reasons, which I will share with you if you are interested-just email me) to send our son to a Montessori based program. There are two in our immediate area-one is a private charter school and the other part of the the public school system. We are applying to both and then weighing our options-both are hard to get into-so fingers are crossed!!!! We also know people that have children at both schools and love it.

The thing that came up today is the size of the school we toured. It was small. They like that they have a small school. I liked the school...but my husband brought up a good point. He went to a small school-now don't get me wrong-his experience was very different-he went to a Catholic school in a suburban neighborhood. He is lucky because he met some of his best friends there that he still talks to, but at the same time-he disliked that it was such a small school. Granted I think some of that may be the extreme lack of diversity there. Which in turn both schools in our area are more diverse. Other main issue for us is that 3k is not covered by the state at the Charter school-yeah it's expensive but is it worth it???????? Sidenote: we still need to tour the other school.

Ok sorry for my random babbling....just had to get it out of my head.

It's Been A While

So after running into a customer at Target tonight I realized that I haven't blogged in quite awhile...so what have I been up to?
-I moved most of the inventory out of the store and instore my home office-my children have already invaded.

-Robyn from Ticklebugs moved in to the studio-seriously if you're in Milwaukee and are looking for a photographer-she's one of the best
-I've been working like crazy on curtain orders-I am beyond excited that this venture is going well so far-If you're interested in any-check me out HERE
-We're cleaning out the basement to make a sewing studio in the basement-I've been perusing Pinterest for some ideas-did I mention we're on a budget? You can follow me on Pinterest HERE

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-oh yeah and I turned 30-I am actually pretty ok with it-I've heard it hits some people hard but the way I look at it, my twenties were better than my teens so I can only imagine that my thirties will be better than my twenties.

Little thoughts for today

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4 Days.....that's how long I lasted on the cleanse. Yup I welcomed coffee back into my life-with pretty open arms too. I did realize a few things in those 4 days.....I already eat a lot of vegetables and not a large amount of dairy or meat so I think it may have been a bit easier on me than people that have those two categories as staples in their lives. I just didn't have it in me....I caved pretty quickly and I'm ok with that. I did learn to make a green smoothie that I enjoyed.....zucchini, banana, some coconut milk, greens and a stevia, I also picked up a great new snack rice cakes and hummus-loving it!

I have a busy work week ahead of me but am hopefully that I'll get a few crafty posts up this week.

Happy Monday morning to everyone

This Week

A little recap on what I've been up to this week

The Cleanse: I've learned a few things these first few days of the cleanse.
- i LOVE coffee-yeah that might be my coffee addiction talking. I haven't given in yet-but I do stare longingly at it every morning and can't wait for the cleanse to be over so I can have a nice soy latte.
-i get very crabby when hungry and that combined with a crazy 2 year old has made for a few frustrating mornings.
-i am living vicariously through my children-i made them choc chip banana pancakes this morning-neither one was really too interested in them

Projects:
-i've been keeping busy with curtain orders. I love getting to see how all of them turn out and seeing how different they can all be. Working on some teal ones for a child's bedroom, a fun and funky Alexander Henry pattern for 4 panels, and a couple of others are on the shelf waiting for me.
-i haven't been quilting lately. I am SO behind in the quilting bee that i'm embarrassed. But I'm hoping to get those done and get started on Phin's bday quilt next week.
-i re-purposed this onesie and 4t dress into a dress for Phin for our family pics next week.
-i am continuously thinking of updates for our house, but without the money to follow through. My newest idea is to add a master bedroom upstairs over the kitchen(it would be perfect)

happy friday everyone!

Getting Ready for the BIG 3-0

Yes that's right I'm turning 30 at the end of the month and I am doing a pretty non-traditional thing and am doing a 21-day cleanse leading up to my birthday. I want to start 30 out on the right foot and think that detoxing my body of coffee(yeah I 'm crazy) and everything else bad and hope it will give me a good start for my next year.

So I started today....not so bad yet but I won't bore you with the details. Maybe I'll do a weekly update.
If anyone's interested it's based on Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. So when I told my husband I wanted to do a cleanse for my birthday he thought I was crazy-if I were quicker-I would have said I wanted him to do the cleanse with me for my birthday....ahhhh too slow.

Some Compassion this Halloween

We had our neighborhood trick or treat last night and I was reflecting on it this morning and wanted to share the following thoughts...take it for whatever you will.....we live in the city and are near areas that are "not as fortunate" as us, I'm not going to say not as nice because I know a lot of those neighborhoods are very nice and people take a lot of pride keeping them up, but many of them do have less money than us. Because those neighborhoods did not have a trick or treat in the their area, they came to our neighborhood. The person I was a few years ago would have made comments about how rude it was and that no one should do that-But maybe it's having kids or having some financial pains myself, but I'm glad they came. I bet to some of those kids it made their week or even month and they may be talking about it for awhile. I know it was just candy, but they had so much fun and trick or treating is something that every kid should have the opportunity to do since it's not a matter of whether their parents can afford it or not. Do I wish I had handed out apples instead-heck yes-but could I afford to hand out over 100 organic apples-sadly no....but maybe next year.

So from my flock to yours....Happy Halloween!

101 Things to do with a Shower Curtain

Ok well I really only have two other ideas for you but I was hoping this would spark some other ideas. I don't know why, but everytime I see a great shower curtain I think of what else I can use it for-I mean seriously how often do you change out your shower curtain...me not so often. Anyways, they really are versatile. I've used a pair of them for my son's room before as curtains-they are the perfect length for curtains, just can't use them as a rod pocket. then a few weeks ago I got into a mood to organize and I just kept moving this shower curtain from pile to pile.....then out of sheer laziness(how most of my ideas are born) I decided to put it on the spare bed to cover a tear on a comforter....and voila again it was the prefect size for a bedspread for a twin bed! so all in all i LOVE finding different uses for them.   Anyone else do this or am I just crazy?

Time to get real

So after I published my post last night and I was catching up on the blogs I read and there was one that really resonated....it was all about being real and admitting it when you're not ok(Thanks Courtney!) It really made my analyze my post and whether it was really how I felt. On the surface yeah it was what I wanted to put out there I mean who wants to read a blog about someone complaining? But honestly that's what real is sometimes and real life isn't always sunshine.

So this is how I really feel about the store closing. It sucks, it's embarrassing, I hate to give up on it, I wish we had the money to invest in it and hire employees, my family is so much more important to me and I will gladly give up the store if it means staying in our house and feeding our family, struggling with financial issues SUCKS but I'm learning it's part of our lives right now, I've met so many great people through the store that I hope they don't just disappear or think I'm a stalker for trying to contact them, a little part of me really hope that the store becomes something great after I leave, it melts my heart when my son tells me I can have some of the money in his piggy bank so I can keep the store......so that's how I'm feeling about it....for real.

Dear John....

I don't know why but this title kept popping into my head when thinking about this post last week. It's not really a Dear John letter, but I feel that when you're sitting where ever you are sitting reading this you might have the same feelings that someone would have reading one of those letters.

If you haven't already seen it on Facebook, we have come to the decision to close the Brick and Mortar store. Unfortunately I'm going to join the sad bandwagon and blame it partially on the economy and the other part is personal. I will continue to sell via my Etsy store and locally to some of my fav people :)  I'm also pretty excited to say that the custom curtain orders have been coming in pretty steadily through Etsy and Local customers. My plan is to continue to offer classes and craft nights and want to help keep the local crafting and sewing community growing. I've met SO many great people through the store and some of them are my closest friends now so I have nothings but happy memories, and although I'm saddened to be shifting gears, I'm excited to be able to keep on doing what I'm doing.

Maybe I'll even have more time to sew.....with two kids yeah right!

Switching Gears

So I've come to the realization that the current blog format isn't working for me. I'm not always in a crafty mood or ordering fabric and yet I always have so much more to say but wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for this blog....so in turn I'm changing the plan for this blog...I'm going to start sharing more...all the crazy things I'm thinking, crazy things I'm working on and outrageous things I'm planning(my poor husband). Hope you stick around for the ride..............but no worries if you decide you're not in it for the long haul!

oh yeah and since I am posting about more now you can bet I'm be posting a lot more frequently.


Danielle

Baby Fever?

Ok maybe I don't quite have baby fever but I do love making things for baby showers. I had a customer request some pillows and blanket in this great vintage looking fabric with baby/child related words all over it.  Love how it turned out....maybe I can just call it baby shower fever :)

What is Success?

I picked up this book at a local bookstore about a month or so ago on a whim and honestly I love it. I'm not usually much for inspirational sayings or verses but at the time I figured I needed to start looking to see the positive in situations and this book has helped along the way. I also enjoy this book because it is not religion based and therefore I feel it may appeal and reach more people. Yesterdays reading(which I read this morinng-a little behind here) was about success and it really resonated with me.

It started with this quote...."Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value." Albert Einstein...and I'm sure he meant women too :)

Then it goes on .....the real heroes of our world are the soldiers, firefighters, police officers, businesspeople, teachers, parents, and others who safeguard or improve our communities everyday....

So true

$200? YES PLEASE

So I'm been a little behind in my posts this week-big surprise I know....but I've been busy-it's a good busy though and I'm pretty happy about it so all is good. Since I need to share something this week I thought I'd share this AMAZING giveaway over at Tatertots & Jello(although even mentioning it will decrease my odds of winning-it's ok It's too great not to mention).

Giveaway Monday — $200 to Gussy Sews!!

Click http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/09/giveaway-monday-200-to-gussy-sews.html to go to the giveaway enter(just promise me you'll buy me something pretty if you win-thanks!)

Fall Schedule is now up...

So I finally put up the fall class schedule-thanks for hounding me about it everyone! I'm hoping to add more classes as the weeks go on, but this is the core set for now.

Sign Up Now to reserve your spot!

http://www.drawstringstudio.com/Classes.html

Have a great weekend everyone-I'll be spending time at the store, working on custom orders and enjoying the fall weather with the fam....oh and football to-can't forget the Pack.

Hmmm...What to do

I had a customer order fabric from another seller and send it to me to have curtains made. The wrong fabric was sent but I've fallen in love with it and ended up purchasing it for the store....now what to do with it.....I've also been working on some other custom projects that are turning out great-I'm waiting until the customers get to see them first before posting.

Why I Shouldn't Play With Guns

Glue guns that is...don't worry I don't touch the other kind either...certified tree hugger right here. Anyways, apparently a variety of custom commissions and cutting fat quarters for the Bash this weekend wasn't enough for me to do so I decided to start on another project as well. I'm totally into the fall spirit already-incase you haven't been reading my last few posts :) I wanted to whip up a new wreath for our door and at the same time make a few to take to the Bash with me. Well I have a few down and am working on a few more tomorrow, but my poor finger paid the price. Seriously why does hot glue have to be so hot! It was a fun project though and I got to break out some of the woolfelt.

Getting Ready for Fall

Well in true Wisconsin fashion it went from 80+ degrees Monday to complete fall like weather yesterday and today. Honestly though you will not hear me complain-I LOOOOOOOVE fall, the weather, apple picking, pumpkins, leaves, windows open, hot coffee-yeah I'm a sucker for fall. I made a treasury yesterday with some etsy favs and it got me thinking that I think I might take up a new fall hobby....really like I need one, but this needlework/embroidery/whatever it is craze has me intrigued.

These are some of the projects I'm digging.....

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