*** SALE ***

Cyber Monday Sale.

Use Coupon Code CYBER15 during check out in either of my Etsy shops for a 15% discount. Discount applies to anything and everything in my shops. EVERYTHING!!!!

Kindershop
KAY-Kreative

This coupon will be good through 11:59 p.m. EST tonight.
Happy shopping. And check out all the other great sales on Etsy as well.

This 'n That

Just wanted to share a few things I have made recently. Nothing spectacular, just little things here and there. But, things that actually kept me from working on my list of Christmas gifts to make. I really have to get more disciplined and not stray from my list.
For some reason, lately I am having so many ideas that I can't wait to try. Many of them are written down in my notebook and I hope to share some of them with you soon. Maybe, I will have a few tutorials, too.

A few weeks ago I made these cutie softy frogs for my sisters' kids. Since they needed to be infant-safe I used the fabrics pattern to make the eyes, instead of sewing on buttons.

I used a pattern from the very talented Ashley from Lil' Blue Boo. You really should check out her blog. It's an abundance of creativity.

Then I had great intentions of making napkins and placemats for this year's Thanksgiving dinner, but believe I wont have the time to get around to making the placemats. So, here is a bunch of napkins (BTW, this cheesy turkey was NOT my idea. John bought it.).

All of the napkins have the beige pumpkin print on one side. For the adult napkins I chose a mod leaf print for the other side. The children will have the turkey-scarecrow print. Just, so they have something fun to look at and explore.

If you are planning to make some holiday napkins yourself, check out Carrie's tutorial at Dixie Mango. She also has a good one for placemats.

And lastly, I finished the four quilted pillows I had planned for my sisters, Mom and Grandma (Yeah, I know I should have ironed them before taking the picture...). They are made from my Spoonflower fabrics and Kona cotton. Although, the pillows were intended as Christmas gifts I decided to already send them out. I am too excited in order to wait another months before I can send them.

I also decided to sell the Vintage Children image as individual panels in my shop. So, if you are interested you can get one right here.

Also, over the weekend I snug in a little repurpose-project (yet another thing that kept me from working on Christmas gifts and updating my shop...). I am done with it. There is just one tiny detail missing. So, once this detail is taken care of, I will share it with you. It's really cute!. Wait till you see it. ;-)

Houses and Owls and such

You may have noticed on the sidebar that recently I have added a couple of new items into my shop. Besides working on dresses for my girls I have been really into making garlands lately. Garlands for every day decoration in girl's rooms, boy's rooms, hallways, play rooms, any room.

Or even your fireplace mantle. I particularly, think that the Owl Garland would look great as Halloween decoration along a mantle.

These garlands are so much fun to make, because it gives me the freedom to change up the fabrics, patterns and colors as I go along. There is no wrong way to do it.
Next, I am thinking a banner with just woodland creatures: owls (of course), squirrels and trees.

If you would like your very own garland but don't have the time to make one, head on over to Kindershop. Come to think of it, they would look really cute as decoration above a new baby's crib in the nursery. If you like a garland in different colors than shown, contact me, I can make a special one just for you.

On another note, once and a while I browse Anthropologie and find really cool designs (and prices out of this world!). Have you seen this Orimono Flower Pillow?!

I think it's totally awesome.
It inspired me to make a set of placemats, which I ended up listing at KAY-Kreative, since pink, unfortunately, is not liked by all household members here....

And, I am really liking this skirt from Anthropologie.

But, at 98$, just not affordable. I may try my luck at making one myself.

Until later! Tonight, I will get back to working on another set of the Jumper Dress for the girls. This time with a "little twist".
Happy Friday, everybody!

Little Shop Feature

I am so excited! Aimee from Creativitae has featured Kindershop and my Numbers Game on her Blog today.

Go on over and check out her other unique Etsy finds and for your chance to get 15% OFF any purchase at either of my two Etsy Shops now through Friday.

I will be back shortly to share some recent sewing related projects of mine.

We have a Winner!!! - And another Giveaway!!!

This was fun! The first ever giveaway on my blog. Thank you all for your comments. I read every single one of them and went to your blog, if you have one. Some of the blogs I found are quite interesting and I added them to my feedburner.

So, with the help of Mr. Random, the winner of the children's apron is:

Congratulations, Christie. She wrote:

"I have a three year old little girl who follows me around the kitchen, wanting to do everything I do. This apron is so cute! I know she's love it!"

Now, on to the second part of this post!!! I have been hinting for a few weeks, that my 100th post is coming up soon! Well, this is it.

I never thought, I would have so much to talk about, or get so addicted to sewing, that I have all these many projects to share with you. Also, I never imagined that there would be anybody out there, who would read my blog (except for family - but they are forced to, because they get automatic emails everytime I blabber). I think, I have four or five Sweeties, who stop by on a regular basis. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Okay, now on to the giveaway: I have been thinking back and forth about what to do: Fabric?!, something handmade?! and combination of the two?!. In the end I decided to give away one of my Sewing Books. It is brand new with all the patterns still sealed in the pocket inside the book. I will also throw in a couple of cute Baby Buttons.

Here is what you have to do in order to have a chance to win:

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me what your next crafting project will be (1 entry)

2. Make a purchase in any of my shops between today and this coming Friday (8/14/09) (5 extra entries).

If you mention "Giveaway" during check-out, I will give you an extra 10% off your purchase. This offer is only for you, my bloggy friends and does not include shipping cost or custom orders.

Etsy Kindershop, Etsy Kay-Kreative, Artfire Kay-Kreative.

I will leave this Giveaway open until next week Saturday, 8/15/09 and have Mr. Random draw a winner. Good Luck!

Shabby Chic

I would like to share one of my newest creations with you.

For this project I drew inspiration from the very talented and creative Shelly from Lemontree Studio. Take a look at some of her work: here, here, here, here.

She is just amazing and the colors she uses in her creations are fabulous. And take a look at her blog. I promise, every time you go there, read her posts and look at the awesome pictures she takes you will be in a better mood afterwards. No matter how crabby you were before...

Now, here is a couple of pictures of my latest creation: Meet the Summer Evening Clutch

I really like how it turned out. The strap is removable or can be attached to just one side to convert it into a wristlet. It is quilted and really roomy and it closes with a magnetic snap. I think this would be the perfect accessory for a summer wedding or a simple night out for dinner or a party. Since I personally do not have opportunities right now to attend events like this, I decided to list it in my KAY-Kreative Etsy and Artfire shops.

Vintage

You know, I used to be obsessed with modern. Modern as in clean lines, stainless steel, European Design.

However, lately, I find myself more and more attracted to flowers, frilly stuff, old time country design, shabby chic, etc. Maybe, it has to do with having girls now, or with the fact that all that modern stuff is not really affordable for us anymore.

Anyway, I have been thrifting a lot lately and am finding myself now with quite the collection of vintage fabrics and linens.

Don't these colors just scream summer?!

I see a lot of patchwork and summer dresses for the girls (for next year, of course....) in the near future. And wouldn't it be fun to make an entire quilt out of vintage linens?!

Or look at this one: Definetly a pair of late summer/early fall jammies for the girls. Just like these ones, but with long sleeves and long pants.

But, this has to wait. First I will work on a couple of projects for Yanic: Travel pillow for his upcoming Hockey Tournement in Canada (! Yeah !) and a back to school lunch box/bag.

I have another fabulous project that is almost finished. I will share that after the weekend. Until then, enjoy the sun!

I'm baa-ack!

These past two weeks just FLEW by.

We spent a couple of sun filled not-so-relaxing weeks in Florida. My wish was for easy going self-entertaining kids: Yanic obliged, but the girls just couldn't grab the concept of it. For some reason when my kids are under 5, they do not do well on vacations: they refuse to eat, they refuse to sleep, they come up with new very painful screeching sounds and whines and just push everbody's buttons... But, it was not all bad. We did have a few days were everybody was happy and having fun. Especially, when we were hanging out at the pool. The kids just LOVED being in the water. Yanic taught himself how to swim above and under water. Which made us very happy, because up until now he had a lot of fear of even putting his face under water.

And did I mention we drove down to Florida (ca. 1,300 miles each way)....?! To be honest, it wasn't too bad. Of course, we had the occasional outbursts because the kids were getting tired of being in the car and some emergency potty breaks. But all in all in was quite manageable. We split each trip into two legs and spent the night at a hotel. In case you are thinking about a road trip with your kids, here are some of my "secrets":

1. Bring as many video games for the older children as possible and throw a couple of new ones in there.

2. Bring your younger children's favorite doll/stuffed animal, so they can "show" them all the fun things to see on the way

3. Bring lots of fun, upbeat music

4. Bring lots of different snacks and make sure to include some unhealthy (even sugary) snacks that the kids typically don't get.

5. I also bought plastic trays like these for each child to decorate with stickers, rub on stickers, etc. and then use as tables to draw pictures. Magically, the decoration had disappeared before the trip back home, so they got to do it all over again...

6. About 5 pounds of Twizzlers for you and your co-driver to survive the trip (5 pounds for each way that is).

I did manage to sneak in some crafting as well. Mainly, when the girls took their afternoon naps. Since I couldn't take my sewing machine with me I had planned for some hand stitching. And I made lots and lots of flowers.

I think they make great appliques, brooches, hair clips, hairbands, embellishments on bags, pillows or shirts. If you think so too, you can grab a couple right here, here and here.

So, that's all for now. Have to continue to go through all my emails and open issues at work... Yikes!

Pretty Flowers

Look at these pretty flower petals.



I had so much fun making these. I used several colors of organza, some with "sparklies" in them. I cut the fabric in irregular circles and melted the edges over a candle. You can find a detailed tutorial on how to do this over here.


So, what is a girl to do with all these pretty petals you ask?! Well, poppies of course.





These now adorn a chic black and white evening clutch.


I love the look of it. I hope somebody else will too. Look for it later tonight in my KAY-Kreative shop.

Summer Tweets

Lately, I have really been enjoying myself sewing patchwork cards using bright summer colored fabrics. I love the sound of the sewing machine needle when it sews through the card stock ( I am weird, I know...). Patchwork is so much fun: no rules, no restrictions, you just go...




I love these greeting cards. Hopefully, somebody else will too....

Because they are in my KAY-Kreative shop right now.



Have a great summer weekend, everybody!

I just sold my first item for KAY-Kreative

How excited am I?! -- VERYYYY!!!!

I just sold my first pillow in my new Etsy shop KAY-Kreative.

I get excited over every sale I have on Etsy, but this first sale is kind of even more exciting and special. Someone is courageous enough to trust your product without having any feedback from previous customers to go by.

Thank you Colleen!!!

A 6-year old's journal entry...

I want to share something funny with you. After seeing the first journal I made for my new Etsy shop Yanic requested several times to have a journal, too. But with a Hockey theme (of course). So, yesterday I sat down and made one for him.

What I wanted to share with you is his first journal entry. It is kind of funny and cute. I will translate for you, since his writing is kind of sloppy and spelling not very good yet:

"I like my sisters. Because they are funny. When my Dad isn't around I play with them. Shh. They are sleeping!"

I think it's funny, because Yanic really (!!!) loves to play with them but tends to pick activities that John would call "too loud and for babies" rather than acting like a "big boy" and show the girls more advanced games. For instance, he would rather chase them through the house with loud screaming sounds than sit down and read a book to them... Fine with me, though, most of the time. And I found it really cute that he cares so much about his sisters that his very first entry was about them. Anika and Kordula, you are very lucky! Just wait for the day when Yanic will chase your boyfriends away...

On a different note I also added another notebook to my KAY-Kreative shop. This one is hot pink. I love it. I really contemplated keeping this one for myself...

New Shop Announcement

I am excited to let you know that I have opened a second store on Etsy. It is called KAY-Kreative!

KAY-Kreative will be my showcase for new and fresh designs on accessories for you, your loved ones and your home. And it is also my creative outlet for items that are not necessary child oriented. For that I will still have Kindershop.

In the beginning I will be listing really cute pillows, journals and pouches. Over the next few days I will be adding items every day. Please come and take a look around. Keep Mothers Day in mind :-)