Banners, bibs and burp cloths

Well, it's been a productive day here in the "studio" (aka my living room!). One day I will have a real studio. One day. I just have to keep saying that, then maybe one day it will come true! But... for now, my living room will do. My dogs keep me company- following me from the sewing machine to the ironing board, to the "stitching chair", to the cutting table. Over and over again. All day. Never missing a beat. So funny!
Anywho, this is what I was up to:

A onesie and bib set for a co-worker's new grandbaby. Love her name :)

I bound together the three banners I wrote about on the last post. This is one of them. The middle hankie is from my series of Word Wednesday words. This one happens to be "frolic". Just a fun word, don't you think? And the others are vintage- I'm assuming from the 40's and 50's. All three of the banners will be available in my shop when it re-opens (soon!), but I couldn't take pictures of the other two, as it was starting to cloud up and I just didn't have enough light.

And two burp cloths for our Baby Gray. No, I don't have the inside scoop on whether it's a boy or girl yet. I just really felt like working with the pink flannel! If it's a boy baby Gray, then he'll just have to spit up on pink burp cloths. I don't think he'll mind. haha! But if it's girl baby Gray, it will work out perfectly :) LOVE that name, too, by the way!

 

 

 (Oh, and by the way, I promise I don't have lime green walls! It must be the lighting because the name of the paint "shortbread" pretty much describes the color perfectly. Just clarifying that!)

And speaking of studio space- it definitely won't be happening for a while. Very soon (as in a few weeks or months) we'll be trying out the "downsizing and simplifying" concept that I've been rambling on about for the last year. The images shown above will be our home for the next four years or so. We ripped up all of the disgusting carpet and vinyl this past weekend. So it's now ready for new paint and flooring. We're not in a hurry, but I have a feeling once those two things are finished, I'll be itching to live there. So, it won't be long now!

Alrighty then, that's all I have for today. Till next time- Juli

A little late for a year end review, but...

As I've been thinking of where to take this blog and my Etsy shop this year, I've come to the conclusion that I'll feel better about the new year if I wrapped up some loose ends from the old year.

So... last year about this time I was really looking forward to taking my "Olive and Ash" shop "on the go". Well, that had to be put on hold, because as of last April, a move was in order. We put a contract on a townhouse that was being sold as a "short sale" in April, thinking that we would be moving by summer. Well, we were wrong! We just closed on it last week. So once we get moved, I'll be re-visiting that idea.

Another thing that I started last year, but never finished, was my series of hankies with my weekly words. I thought it sounded fun, but I quickly ran out of ideas as far as where I was going with them. People don't really use hankies anymore (except for my husband and my dad!), so I had to come up with another idea. Well, I just recently had an "aha" moment for them. At least for some of them. I'm going to combine the few that I have with some vintage hankies that I inherited from my "mean" grandma.( Yeah, I know. No one is supposed to call their grandma "mean", but if you knew her when she was alive, you would know what I mean! That's why I have no problem passing these vintage hankies onto someone else.) Anyway, the word hankies and the vintage hankies will be combined and made into banners. My idea came from this image found on the Simply Josephine blog. Pretty cute, I think! I'll have three of them in my shop as soon as I bind them together.

Well, that's all I can think of as far as "loose ends". I'll probably think of more, but for now it feels good to deal with at least a couple of things that have just been hanging out there. Time always gets away from me, especially during the school year, so some things tend to be forgotten. At least for awhile.

So, I'll leave you with pictures of my latest "artistic" endeavor. Mr. Frosty Play Dough! haha! I made a snowman for Peanut out of play dough and he played with that thing all morning on Saturday. His hat kept falling off and every time Peanut tried to put it back on,  Mr. Frosty became a little more misshapen. Oh, well.  He was a very loved snowman while he lasted :)

Until next time :)  Juli

New Years Day- 2014

Well, a short post today to start the new year. I'm still pondering daily/weekly blog themes for this new year as well as setting some goals for this space. It began as a way to support my Etsy shop, so the first thing on order for the new year is to get that space back up and running. My focus will definitely be on fiber work, so I think that will make it more cohesive in general. Narrowing down exactly what fiber works to focus on is still something that is up in the air. But, I will get there :)

Here's a little peek at the fiber piece that took forever and a day, it seems, to finish. Lots of text to hand embroider, plus working on it while the person it was being made for (my husband) was not at home, made it challenging to finish in a "timely" manner. Anywho... it's done!

So, the quote is from my husband's favorite scene from the movie "Sideways". The little pocket I made for the bottom left portion contains a separate piece embroidered with the last line of the quote that contains the "F" word. (This will hang in a public place and I didn't want to offend anyone!) So if they want to know what is there, they will have to look closer (through the sheer fabric) or pull the piece out of the pocket :)

The grapes were painted with acrylic paint mixed with textile medium. And the back layer is a piece of cotton hand dyed using grapes from Blumenhof Vineyard.

A few different views- the bottom view (terrible photo- sorry!) shows how it will look hanging in a window. With the light shining through, it really increases the contrast. The top right view shows the hand dyed back piece.

And I'll leave you with a couple of shots of our newest family member, Roxanne (Roxy- for short). We got her a couple of weeks before Christmas. She a sweet little lap dog who runs just like Phoebe Buffet from Friends (if you're a Friends fan, you'll know what I mean!) and when she's all worn out, spends the rest of her day plopped down in the lap of whoever will have her. Sweet dog. Little Olive is gradually adjusting :)

I'll be back soon, with new themes for the new year. Have a happy one!  Juli