i heart etsy wednesday

I had an excuse to visit etsy today. Yesterday I completed the refinishing of an awesome vintage danish ceramic-wood lamp. I purchased the lamp for my camio's nursery when I was still pregnant. It was ugly in its original colors, but had nice bones. It sat around in my kitchen for the past 5+ months waiting to be painted. I finally got around to painting it an enamel white. It turned out gorgeous! Better than I had even expected. Then I smashed the absolute crap out of it. It busted into a million unrepairable pieces. Not on purpose of course. I had just brought it in from outside and set it on the counter. I walked about 10 steps away, heard the horrible noise of it crashing against our insanely hard terracotta tile floors and then screamed. I was and am still so incredibly upset/frustrated/pissed. It was perfect, perfect I say. It had awesome shape, awesome texture and only cost me $13!!!!!!!!  I didn't even get to snatch a picture of it in its finished state.

So I scoured etsy today looking for a replacement, but to no avail. There are tons of great danish/mid-century lamps out there, but I'm still sore about my lamp and that's the only one I want. I just need some time to get over it before I can even think about finding a different lamp.

Here are some cool finds that I may end up warming up to in about 5 months.

01. This white lamp is the same color and has the same awesome wood neck, it just has a different shape than mine did

02. This slender lamp is closer to being the right shape

 03. I am loving everything about the base of this lamp

 04. The shade/base color combination on this lamp makes me happy

 05. I'm not sure that I'd put this industrial lamp in the same category, but I like it nonetheless

 06. Faster than a speeding bullet lamp

07. Maybe I'll ditch the whole lamp thing and just hang a shade

love my camio

new pul

I just received some new PUL fabric for more cloth diapers :)

I used an ocean colored PUL with ocean suedecloth for the first 8 diapers. This time I'm going to use a combination of melon PUL, raspberry PUL, and grape suedecloth.

Mmm, all of the food references are making me hungry.

love my camio

i heart etsy wednesday

I am absolutely in love with Etsy. I love to see all the crazy, brilliant, wacky ideas that normal people can think up and actually implement. I also love the vintage pieces.

Since perusing Etsy is a 'creative' past time of mine, it seems appropriate to share some of my favorites here! These are a few items that I am eying for our vintage-mod airstream project.


01. This deer head clock is perfect for above the dinette

02. Vintage liquor tags because you can't go on vacation without booze and the booze should be labeled

03. Vintage melmac tea cups for sipping hot tea in that campsite by the beach

04. A colorful granny square pillow to throw on the bed

05.And cheery dish towels for the kitchen

06. Mid century modern wall lamps for a little night reading

07. Homemade madagascar vanilla marshmallows for roasting

Oh how I can't wait to go camping :)

love my camio

more d

Shockingly I haven't completed the pillow project :(  I'm already failing at my goals for this blog. I thought that if I had more than a mental note of projects to complete I would actually get them finished. It's soooooo incredibly embarrassing all of the unfinished projects I have in my life. They can be so overwhelming when they constantly stare you in the face.

Anyway, enough complaining. I did finish 6 more pocket diapers for the little one. In total that's 8 pocket diapers. I've also been experimenting with night time solutions and made a Daddy Flat diaper and a La Di Da fitted diaper to wear at night under the wool soakers I made.

To make myself feel better, I'll list my diaper sewing accomplishments :)

• 8 ocean La Di Da pocket diapers
• 2 bamboo flapper style inserts for the pocket diapers
• 1 bamboo velour Daddy Flat diaper
• 1 bamboo velour La Di Da fitted diaper
• 2 yellow wool soakers

And now my to-do list:

• 6 bamboo flapper style inserts for the pocket diapers
• 1 bamboo velour La Di Da fitted diaper
• 2 bamboo velour contour inserts for the fitted diapers
• 8 La Di Da pocket diapers and inserts (I just ordered new fabric for this!)
• 8 La Di Da AI2 diapers and inserts (I just ordered new fabric for this!
• 2 pillow covers (notice how I put this one on the bottom ;) )

Hopefully I can finish the diapers before I go back to work. I want to have a good stash for Day Care and not have to wash them 24 x 7.

love my camio

thursday, bloody thursday

It was literally a bloody morning with the sewing machine today, but in the end I think I came out on top. Still on the diaper sewing kick I finished up a pair of wool soakers. These were made from my beloved yellow wool Abercrombie sweater. I have hung on to that sweater for 9 years. About half of which it has been hanging out in the bottom of my hamper ( . . . as my guy can attest to . . . ).

It was hard to finally cut into it. I think I may have even shed a little tear.



At least I still have most of my finger left.  Between the rotary cutter and the sewing machine I may need to think about keeping the first aid kit a little closer to my work area.

I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the actual yellow wool soakers before they were pee'd in. So here is a pic of the fleece prototype I made.

love my camio

big d

My big distraction of late has been pee. Ok, so not exactly pee. Diapers. Cloth diapers to be specific. Since my baby girl has been in between the small and medium sized gDiapers we have been having major leakage problems. To spare the details, I have decided to make my own. Not exactly a simple project for someone who is just getting back into sewing and doesn't really follow patterns!

I found an awesome trim cloth diaper pattern from La Di Da Diapers and decided to go for it.  The directions were very detailed that it was pretty much a no brain-er. I made two of the pocket diapers.

Little camio is currently testing them so the verdict is still out. They sure are cute!

love my camio

slowest sewer ever . . . ?

Well not quite. I just tend to get a little preoccupied or DISTRACTED with other things. I have worked on the first project a bit.  The pieces are all cut out and I have even sewed the zippers on the back of the pillows with little flaps that hide them. My dilemma is how I'm going to sew the SIMPLE design on the front of the pillow. I know I just need to do it, but the "fabric is always greener on a new project"!  ( . . . more on that later . . . )

So this is the design that I need to sew on. I have interfaced it and all. I just need to hem it and top stitch it . . . easier said than done obviously!

love my camio

 

project numero uno

I found my first project . . . or rather . . . it found ME.

My closet is a disaster zone. I'm talking ground zero! It's so bad that I dropped a box of hats and scarves all over the floor and have yet to pick it all up. I just crawl over it to get to my drawers which are chock full of clothes that fit and even more clothes that don't fit. I am at the point where I need to pack away the maternity clothes, but have nowhere to store them. I came across a storage box sitting on my closet shelf. It contains two Ikea 20x20 pillow inserts that I bought about 3 years ago. I had intentions of making covers for them, but never got around to it.

Voila!  A two-fer!

Not only do I get to start on my first project, but I also get to clean up my closet!  It can't be any better than this :P Oh yes it can, my guy can clean up the closet leaving me time to work on my project. Makes sense as half of it is his. That will never happen, plus I'd never find my clothes.

Digging through my scraps of fabric I chose a brown faux silky fabric and a textured light pink fabric to match the colors in my living room (where the finished pillows will chill).  The brown fabric was purchased from a remnant bin at Jo-Anns and the pink fabric is from Goodwill. That's right, stinky ass old fabric from the thrift store. Actually it's not stinky. It was just a curtain in its previous life, not underwear or anything gross. Therefore I am officially up-cycling it!

love my camio

dressmaking 101

I have my eye on this free ribbon wrap dress pattern from Stitch magazine.

source

It may be a good first attempt at sewing my own clothes.  Plus I have 4 weddings to attend this year so I could set a goal to sew this in time for at least one of them. Otherwise when would I ever wear a dress!?!?  This is actually a wrap, but with the right fabric it could be a simple, elegant dress. I like the fact that it's a wrap since I'm still breastfeeding . . . easy access!

This may be too lofty of a project to start as #1, but I'll keep it around for the near future.

love my camio

my camio is born

I have been wanting to 'make' with my hands for some time now. As a child I had fun spending hours upon end making things (some of them ugly no doubt). Upon starting college all of that pretty much ceased due to a hectic schedule. After college my need to 'make' was satisfied with our first house and each one after that. Remodeling, tiling, painting, plastering, decorating, and such has been my biggest hobby for the past 8 or so years.

I have been knitting off and on for several years now, and recently taught myself how to crochet (my first project was a cowl for my husband which ended up being too large!) What I would really like to get back into is sewing. I've never been GREAT at sewing. I always hated following patterns and liked to 'create as I go'. This was fun as a child, but is limiting as an adult. Learning proper techniques is important to grow as a 'creator'.

By starting my camio I am committing to teach myself how to sew. My inspiration is my sweet little 4 month old daughter and good design.

love my camio