Scraps, stains and the sun

Hi there again on a finally sunny day :) - it's the first one since days, weeks ... ages? Well, anyway, I immediately took this chance to take some (hopefully) better pictuces of two items I made some time ago, both came into life more or less by accident.

The first item is a set of some fabric coasters completely made of fabric scraps - a great way to use up your scraps, in case you have some of them left and you have no idea what to do with them. Originally, I did not plan to make some coasters, I just happened to doodle on some pieces of left fabric, really nothing fancy. Then I started to randomly sew them together with some simple hand stitches ... sew sew sew ... et voilá: coasters.  I also gave them a handstichted back of some leftover handdyed fabric to make them reversible when I don't *feel scrappy* ...

The second item is a placemat made of thick cotton fabric which I really liked - until it got in touch with the lovely man I am merried to ;). Well, he added his own decor to it... Unfortunately, I don't really like random stains, especially not the ones of the kind *I am here and I will never leave you again*. So what to do with a stained placemat when nothing really works to remove the stain? Well, throw it away, or be inspired by the stain(s) and throw more *stains* onto the placemat ... Grabbing some fabric paint, I went with the second option.

Now, the meals are always a little bit more colorful :) - and by the way, those stains inpired me to do more drawings, like the one I showed you in this post. So, you never know, what might become of a random doodle.

 And since it is starting to get warmer and sunny outside, I could not resist to bring some spring onto my desk by picking up some tiny flowers in the park. They are nothing special, but particularly the daisies remind me of my childhood when the grass we played on as children was filled with numerous dots of white and yellow ...

Hope, you picked up some flowers or some kind words (as I did) for your moms last Sunday, too - or had a great day as a mom. Bye and have a nice and sunny day.

Spring and dots

As promised, I am going to try to catch up a little bit. And since today is a very grey day here - same as most days this spring here - I thought I might share some ideas for simple ornaments I made back in february and march to add some color (especially some bright green) to exactly such grey days to instantly lighten up the day and the mood.

And last, but not least, my favortite ones: I simply love the vintage feel of the lace pieces in combination with the bright colors of the felt. They were a gift to my mother-in-law, but on that day, she wasn't the only one who wanted to keep them. Guess, next year I will have to make a lot more sets than just one ...

So much for today, I am off with some words which are (at least for me) perfectly suited for grey and rainy weather to keep me smiling. ;)

It's been a while

It's been a while since my last post. Sorry to all those who already started to complain about that, and yes, shame on me for neglecting my posting. ;) Seems the time in-between now and then got lost in some strange time consuming vortex (aka life)... 

Anyway, since I haven't spent my time doing nothing - I actually got heavily lost in painting and drawing, there is quite some stuff to show to catch up. But be aware, I somehow got crazy about bright colors. For now, just a tiny sneaky picture ...

More to come, promised ;)

A present on my otherwise empty desk

Yesterday, a letter full of motivation arrived. It is a nice present, now laying on my desk, from the bookbinding artist buechertiger who hosted a give-away on her blog to share her birthday with her readers. Surprisingly, I was the lucky winner. If you are interested in bookbinding or anything related with it - such as paste paper and the making of it - just head over and have a look! You will find a lot of interesting tips and hints on those and a lot more subjects. 

This *reverse birthday present* is a book about different ways to make coptic headbands, it is filled with detailed descriptions and a lot of easy-to-follow photos. I am really looking forward to trying it! Thanks again, buechertiger!

Only, given the current state of my workspace which is still an empty desk in a corner rather than a real workspace, I guess I will have to be patient until everything is finished. And well, if you think, hey there's a lot of space to work on - then you are right. But: there is nothing to work with ... *sigh* I am in constant *search mode* for all my tools which seem to play hide-and-seek with me right now ... But I still can withstand their attempt at driving me crazy ;)

As I mentioned, I am progressing. Our new shelves are finished and have also already passed their *bunny security test*, so the niche behind the desk will soon be filled (or cluttered up, who knows) and the coming weekend will hopefully be used to add/build the last missing items. I am finally looking forward to replacing the screwdriver with needles and the saw with a more delicate cutting tool. :)

Simple colors

Back in time, just before the weekend - and still fighting with paint and chaos *sigh*. But at least, I am progressing - *yay* for that :). And I am keeping the promise, and will show you what I have been working on just before I took my vacation in Chaosland.

All of them are fabric prints on natural, unbleached cotton, made with all kinds of materials I had at hand: potatos (released my inner child), rubber stamps, cardbord rolls, buttons, foam and plastic packaging, cork from a wine bottle - see, really anything works. Although I am not sure yet if I dare to cut the prints down or use them as whole pieces ... Anyway, here are some colorful candies for your eyes - the icy blue, light pistacio green and light purple ones are my favorites, what are yours?

Have a colorful weekend :)

Typo toy

In-between the sawing and screwing I am doing at the moment, I simply needed some distraction in form of *surfing* ;) And of course, I spent a lot more time with clicking than I should have. But at least, I came up with this - it's a really cool toy, easy and simple to use, just fun:

You can make your own *wordle* using any text or source you like, just head over to Wordle.net. Happy playing :)

So slow

Hello again, out there. Everything around me feels just like a blank canvas which needs to be filled, same way as with this blog which I have been slightly neglecting during the past few days. Posting was postponed because we are (still) figuring out and building a new workspace for me - besides throwing some new paint onto the walls. All my stuff has been crammed into a tiny corner, so that I won't be crafting anything anytime soon. I'd like to show you our 3D Tetris (for those who still know this game - it was one of my favorites ...) - literally piles of boxes and boxes - but, ahem, my card reader is somewhere in there ... So, no photos for now, maybe later.

I also will show you some fabric printings I have been doing before the *big chaos* started which were inspired by the fabulous Elizabeth Hartman from Oh, Fransson! I so much want to bring more color into our home, and her new quilt along would be just perfect to do so, only, I am lacking all those bright colors. So I came up with my own solution, but more of it (hopefully) next week ;)

For now, I will be taking a break - at least from crafting - diving back into the fumes of freshly painted wood and walls.

Have a nice weekend everyone, Denise.