Don't Forget the Sprinkles

Eeeps!  So excited about this!  So my dear friend Katie recently started a blog Don't Forget the Sprinkles to share her craftiness and rockin' baking skills!  In one of her posts she made some awesome headbands and sent me one of my favorite team!!  Is it awesome or is it AWESOME!?! 

{the "awesome headband" dance}

Wrigley also loves the Bears!

A Renegade Adventure

The Renegade adventure in Chicago was awesome!  So much incredible inspiration and beautiful creativity everywhere!  Mom and I started off our day in Greek Town at Artopolis.  Ohhh my goodness YUM!  Such a good way to start the day. 

Delicious Mocha! Such a treat...

speaking of treats would you look at that!?!  Incredible!  I wish I could have tried a bite of everything!!

mmmmm...

The rainy day didn't spoil our fun!

HAHA! you know you are at Renegade when...

P. Nosa

Probably the coolest thing to see at the fair.  He draws with his solar powered sewing machine.  You give him an idea and he sews it up righ there.  Very inspiring!  I adore his creativity.  Check out his videos on his site to see what I mean.

Renegade Craft Fair

Oh my goodness I am soooooo excited to go to Renegade tomorrow!  If the rain stays away it should be a lovely day!  Yipeeeeeeeeee!  I've been on a lot of adventures lately and I can't wait to share them with you!  I also have some fun projects that I've been working on and I'll share those next week.  Till then hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Apron's are AWESOME!

I have been a busy little bumble bee seamstress this last week!  You may recall my birthday purchase of the book A is for Apron by Nathalie Mornu. 

I have been dying to sew some of the fun aprons in the book.  Well the perfect occasion arrived...I needed a gift for a friends wedding....APRONS!  I mean lets face it aprons are awesome, and they make you look awesome.  Oh and they are fashionable and functional so get that sewing machined fired up!!

{yes i had to model the apron and OHMYGOSH i love it!  I'm glad i just happened to purchase enough fabric to make 2...heh!}

{oh man i'll tell ya i don't know why more things don't come with ball fringe.}

{Ta-daaaa}

The grillin' man's {groom's} apron!!

LOVE IT! 

{Ok soooo white is probably not the best choice here but that little blue bike is totally RAD!}

I had a cotton apron and used paint pens to create the bicycle and text.  Spin on.

Chalkboard Reminders

{I bought a framed photo from Goodwill and sanded the photo primed it and sprayed a few coats of the chalkboard paint.  I primed and sprayed the wooden frame with a happy yellow.}

My Newfangled Love

I introduce the CamelBak Better Bottle!!!! 

Why is this the best thing since sliced bread you ask?  I shall tell you!  It is insulated, stainless steel, and has the signature CamelBak lid!!!!  EEEPS!!  SO FRICKIN' AWESOME!  It doesn't sweat all over my desk.  My H20 stays chilled to the max aaaaaaand I always seem to drink more H20 with the signature spout.

This H20-bottle combines the insulation of my favorite travel java container, it has the awesome stainless steal-ness so your water doesn't get that icky tasting water bottle funk, and it has the drink more water spout of my reg. CamelBak bottle.  It is a bit pricey but OHMYGOSH it is awesome and I take it everywhere. bffs for realz yo!  Word to your mother.

HA!

Upon waking every morning this week I have found waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs chewed up paper products of all sorts, bits of 2 plastic containers, and the last straw...engagement cards from friends torn to BITS!   He has never done anything like this before and allllll despite purchasing 2 new toys in addition to his 6 others around the house!!  How could this sweet innocent face be so destructive?!?!

I needed a laugh today and via Happy Zombie I found it!  Thank you Molly Erdman for your Tumblr Catalog Living very clever and brilliant!

Corkboard Funness

Welp I finished a fun project that will go up in my studio once I get the right hardware to hang it!  My mom gave this frame, it was something that her parents had.  I believe that there was a mirror in it at one time and, based on the holes in the back and its size it looks like it might have been part of a headboard.  Anywhoooooo...

Before

 

{this is the back...quality wood and construction...looks like it was once orange then cream...and NOW it's...}

After

{BLUE-ish!}

I primed it with white and then added the blue and roughed it up a smidge.  I pieced together some cork squares and covered it with cream colored burlap and viola!

I absolutely adore the texture of the burlap and the colors are delicious!

I'll post up some pics of it up in the studio in a bit.  I'm thinking it shall be my inspiration board....err at least one of them!!

Biking to Work

Happy Monday friends!  Hope you had a delightful weekend!  I spent the entire weekend golfing!!  Despite a little bit of rain it was tons of fun and I played pretty well too!  I was even able to keep it in the fairway to win the ladies longest drive contest!  Alas, I'll have to remember to take the camera with me next time.

Last week we had a clutch go bad on one of our vehicles so it had to spend a few days in the shop.  In the mean time I loaned out my auto and decided to bike to work.  I've been thinking about biking to work for a while but when it came to getting up at 5:30am.....I hit the snooze!  I am happy to report that I LOVE biking to work!  It only takes about 15mins to get to work and I have very little traffic to contend with!

On my way to work I cross a major tributary of the Mississippi River.

It was a  bit foggy this morning but still a beautiful sight first thing in the morning!

I get to see all sorts of wildlife...ducks, geese, herons and PELICANS! {Sorry it is a bit hard to see.}

AAAND a fish dangling on a fishing line from a log under the bridge!  WHAT!?

Then to the bike path I go where I see snakes and turtles and moles oh my!

Just a minor obstacle! Ha!

Conclusion I love biking to work!  I have to spend more time getting ready ...packing lunches and snacks, checking the weather, packing clothes and other ditties.  It is worth it!  I am very happy to NOT have to deal with other drivers and road construction! 

I have some super fun projects that I've been working on and can't wait to share them with you!

Enjoy your life!!

Ribbit

I found a mini-prince on my walk the other day!

Zombie-licious Bags with Sprinkles!

I was scrolling through the photos on another camera I have and BAM!  I completely forgot that I had taken these photos!  SWEET!  So check it...I, (on a whim...per my usual), decided to make these little bags for two nieces that came to town alllll the way from Texas!  Did I mention they drove alllllll the way to the Land-o-Lincoln!?!  Clearly I thought they needed more fun things to do in the car...I mean you can only play car bingo so much right!?

I found the super fun fabric at a local quilt shop and at JoAnn's.

I stuffed the bags with my interpretation of the "essentials" for any auto trip.

Included: Coloring\Activity Book | Crayons | Pencils | Pencil Sharpener (with shavings catcher...duhh) | Goldfish Crackers | Gum

When I was google-ing tote bags for inspiration I came across The Happy Zombie a blog by Monica from Oregon...of all the undead things her blog is by far the coolest!  Monica posted, back in Sept. '09-ish, an AWESOME pdf pattern entitled Poochie Bags - Fat quarter friendly freebie.  Check it out peeps and the rest of her zombie-licious blog for that matter.  Such a fun project to make!!

No bag is complete without CUPCAKES!!

I used some chunks-o-felt to create these scrumptious little monogrammed cakes.  I sewed the ribbon on the back and attached some velcro so they could loop it around whatever they choose.  Til next time...Enjoy You're Life!!

Porch-eriffic Adirondack Chairs

Salutations!! 

Here is a fun little house warming project I did for Wendy.  She recently moved into an awesome little cottage and was in need of patio furniature.  As luck would have it we picked up these unfinished bad boys at Menards. 

I used a combo of house paint, paint pen, acrylic paint and finished them off with some poly.

Check out Wendy's post about the chairs here!

Hello from Wrigley!

Woof Woof!  Meet our 1-yr old golden retriever Wrigley!  We got him from a family who was moving about two months ago.  He has soooooooooo much spunk and energy!  I just looove his puppy ears!!