Awesome Mail Day! (and kitty pics!)

i really should check my mail earlier in the day!

today i got lots of mail (i swear we always get more on mondays because they slack off on fridays!). i received several purchases from etsy -

3 prints from from www.cadmiumatelier.etsy.com, including this one

(i also purchased this one and this one)
they're awesome! super vibrant and crisp. i love the texture of silkscreening!

this cute little zine, which arrived packaged in an equally cute pink panther envelope, from www.EmmaJane.etsy.com


and these awesome catnip eyeballs, from www.hannapt.etsy.com


the cats love them already, mika's intent on loving them to death!



he's actually attacking sofie's eyeball in these pictures, he found it on my bed after he got tired of his own blue one! (um, yes, i bought the cats eyeballs that matched their own eye colours.... mika has to share with gigi and hemi though.)

and also super duper exciting, i got this book!!!!

about a month ago i won a book from whipup.net, but i didn't know which one i was going to get! i opened the envelope to find Linen, Wool, Cotton: 25 Simple Projects to Sew with Natural Fabrics by Akiko Mano. I've been flipping through it, and it's fabulous! Full of beautifully simple projects that look like they'll be a joy to sew. I can't wait to make something!

and i'm definitely going to be buying Patchwork Style: 35 Simple Projects for a Cozy and Colorful Life come May! (it was really hard to not add a U into colour while typing that!)

awesome mail day, huh?




and SPEAKING OF GIVEAWAYS!
sewmamasew is organizing a huge giveaway day on May 27th, with lots of blogs playing along! i got distracted, and just sent my e-mail in earlier this evening, but i'm hoping i made it, since it was only 10pm here on the west coast (it's kinda nice to find another blog in the same time zone as you - everyone seems to be on eastern time these days!). i've been planning on doing a giveaway for a while, but the timing is never right. i missed my 1 year blog-versary, and then i missed 150 and 200 posts (i kept realizing it at 152, or 207!). i was thinking i'd do 250 posts, but this gives me an excuse to just do it now!

so! i'll be posting the giveaway either late on the 26th or early on the 27th. i'm going to include at least one handmade item, and then some stash goodies as well, probably vintage fabrics or something of that sort. check back tomorrow to see the giveaway!

i'm a terrible friend.... but george is an AMAZING friend!

i should have posted this long ago!

my amazing friend phizzy/george is an incredible artist, amazingly witty, and super sweet to boot! she's long been a craftster crush of mine, i was so excited when she became a mod, and i'm so happy to have had the opportunity to get to know her.

she sent me a surprise package, and it honestly came at the best possible time for me, i'd had such a crappy stressful painful week.

when i opened the package, the fabric was folded like this -

i thought "ooooh, button fabric! how cool!"

and then i unfolded it a bit...

"awesome, big buttons too!"

and unfolded it a bit more....

"AMAZING! so many different buttons!!"

ha! it was more exciting everytime i unfolded it!

look at it all opened up - isn't it fricking cool? i love it!

it's actually a cushion cover, but whatever! fabric's fabric in my world, especially when it's fabric as awesome as this!

but that wasn't all! she spoiled me even more!

inside the fabric was a tissue wrapped square, and when i unwrapped it, i found this-


i told you she was an incredible artist!

i love it so much, i can't wait to hang it up. i can't decide which room to put it in though!

i love all the details of the piece, so here are a few closeups -


note how the text refers to to "the modern dame"!! i also love the little bit of ribbon coming out of the chimney.


i love the stitching, and the torn and folded paper. i've seen that technique a few places lately, and i really love it. my momsaid "hey! there's hamburgler legs!" she says the same thing when i wear striped tights myself, so it wasn't a bad thing!


again, the stitching and the tearing, and the BUTTON. this piece is so me, the C and the D, the crow in the upper corner, the black lace on the left, the black and white stripes.

i love it. phizzy totally spoiled me!

update post 3! my surprise package from racky!

this isn't from a swap, this was just a random surprise from the fabulous racky that i wanted to show off!

when she sent me my halloween atc (next update post!), it arrived in a fairly large envelope for an atc!

when i opened it up, this is what i found!

first, an awesome baggie full of collage bits, and a gorgeous card by phizzychick.


and then, once i carefully undid the tissue, this!









isn't it gorgeous!?! she posted it on craftster a while ago, and i commented on how awesome it was, and she sent it to me! i love all the details, and all the sticky-outy bits!

surprise!! jar of whimsies!!

i got a jar of whimsies in the mail today!!

it was so very exciting. i did a personal swap for whimsies several months back, but the person i was swapping with had a lot of stuff going on in her life, and we lost contact. today i opened my front door and tucked in behind our buddha was a big box wrapped in brown paper. i picked it up and looked at it, not recognizing the return address, and wondered at the customs form - "what did i buy for $3 that's this big??" (you know that's a sign you do too much online shopping, when you forget what all you bought!)

unfortunately, the canada post clumsiness strikes again. (they're SO HARD on packages!)


luckily, it was wrapped in multiple layers of tissue, so the glass was all contained. i spent an hour sitting with it, separating glass from whimsies, and it was great fun. i got to see every item so much closer than i probably would have otherwise! (and i didn't cut my self at all, always a good thing!)



i divied everything up into groups, and marveled over it all!

all of the plastic goodies (i LOVE those little fish for some reason! and the halloween cupcake charms look vintage, they're so cute!)


the miscellaneous stuff (that earring is so cool! it's a little metal slipper!)


all of the wood and cardboard (i have a slight obsession with little wood game pieces, so these were great!)


the sequins, a little frame and KEYS!! i love the old keys!


sewing stuff! i have an absolutely ridiculous amount of vintage buttons - like a full sized box full. when you think about how little buttons are, that's a hell of a lot of buttons! i just can't resist them. i love the yellow ones she sent!


and the beads!! the glass pendant is so pretty, i can't wait to make something with the cherries, skulls and dice, and i really adore the vintage black feathered hearts, they're my favourite! i think between the sequins and the beads, i'm all set for my dotees!

BIRD swap goodies!! bags and skirts and lots of fun stuff!

okay, catch up time!!

i joined the bird swap on craftster, and then promptly forgot the send date (i was SURE it was friday, but it was really monday...). luckily, i'd been planning my ideas for a while, so it was just a matter of completing them, not thinking them all up from scratch!

i was so incredibly happy with everything i sent! this was seriously such a great swap - i've been feeling kinda eh about swaps lately, because i felt like things weren't being appreciated and such. i think part of that is because i'm in several on-going swaps (the tip in and the chunky 4x4), and on going swaps always seem to lose the excitement after a while. this swap was awesome though, my partner LOVED everything i sent, and posted pics right away in the gallery, and she sent me super awesome stuff that totally suited me in return!

so, enough babble, pictures!

sparkly bird canvasses

these were RIDICULOUSLY hard to photograph!

here's another attempt.
i was really excited to make these, because i've been obsessing about doing vinyl canvasses for well over a year now, and i finally had an excuse!

a glittery skull tote!

i know, i know, this isn't really bird themed! but i knew my partner would love it, and i had so much fun making it. it is so bright and cheery. the bag is made out of the same vinyl i used for my octopus stuffy, and it's slightly metallic and so very cool. and i just adore my new glitter vinyl!

it's lined in hot pink twill, and then i added a pocket that matches the main vinyl. i added the bird stamp to make it somewhat bird related(!) and then i figured if i was stamping anyway, i might as well stamp her name too.

i also sent her a blue crow tote, like the one i have in my etsy.


and the black owl skirt
i'm really happy with this skirt. this is actually a design i've been thinking of for a while, because i have all these great cottons that i want to use for skirts, but i LOVE skirts made out of knit fabric. the fabulous thing is that tanzie and i are close enough to the same size, so now i have the pattern all drafted and ready to go for me as well!

this was my plan, with the ruffles on the sides. it's a bit fuller than i wanted, i'll probably adjust that when i make my own.

i think it looks really cute with the ruffle on the front as well!

my partner's is changing a lot due to health stuff, so she wanted the skirts to be flexible. i made this one with maternity elastic and sewed a button on, so that she can adjust it as needed.

and this is the skirt that i REALLY love!!
white taffeta with black flocking and black owls stamped on!! it's a bubble skirt, and it's so damn cute!


(if you look closely, you can see two black eyelets in the waistband here - it's so that if the skirt gets too big, she can add a drawstring to tighten it)

i used BIG elastic.... i love 2-3" elastics!

and how it looks underneath. the lining is white stretch cotton. the inner skirt is a lot narrower than the taffeta, so i used stretch to allow for more movement.

LOVE it!!

and for the non-sewn stuff....


i am SO UPSET that there are bubbles in the finish.... i love the necklace so much, it came together so well.... the base is a metal piece from the scrapbooking section at the dollar store (i used them on a tip in page that i posted a while ago as well). i spraypainted it black with krylon. the image is a piece from a russian/german dictionary with a black cardstock bird. the necklace part is from a necklace i took apart, and the hanging feather is from an earring (i buy stuff when it's on sale at the accessory store just to take it apart!). i LOVE this necklace, and i'm so glad i thought ahead and did all the prep work for it in batches of two!! the one i'm making for myself just needs to be asembled. love it!

i also sent her one of the pewter skulls i cast a few weeks ago.

i just strung it on suede-ish cord.

and then i remembered that i had some of the super trendy owl beads (i love them even though they're trendy!)

and so i made this. it's just a lapel pin made out of buttons, with a butterfly clip back.

and then, i made stationary, which i had been seriously obsessing about making for this swap but didn't think i'd have time to go buy the paper. but i did, yay!

i made up the base for the stationary in word, using two columns and typing out the lines in a lighter colour so that they'll print grey. then i printed them, and stamped them. then i scanned the stamped page, and reprinted a whole bunch of them!
there are 5 different colours, 6 sheets of each colour.

i did go A LITTLE bit overboard, i know! but my partner did as well, we both agreed to send extra, so it was okay!