So, I'm a fabric designer.

Yeah, yeah... I fell off the Thing a Day bandwagon. *Super sad face* I tried!! I am blaming this hiccup on a stomach bug that straight up ruined last week for me. I was totally unproductive and hermit-ish.

BUT!! I received my first proofs from SpoonFlower in the mail today!! I'm so giddy :) Here they are, from digital image to actual fabric. AHHH!!!

I feel like some sort of big shot! Haha! I love my little 8x8inch swatches and I can't wait to order some more of these prints. I wasn't 100% in love with the green background on Cloverfield, so I changed it to white for future prints. SpoonFlower also allows designers to sell their freshly printed fabrics right off the website, so if you love these prints (I love 'em, but I made 'em, so I'm a little partial), head over to my profile and buy 'em! FrostedTreats on SpoonFlower. Also, once I get some yardage in my hands, expect to see some wristlets and coffee cozies made by mee!

I've got some more designs churning around in my mind, so there will be more! This is so stinkin' cool! Haha. Okay, enough giddy-ness from me...

Greeeeeeeen!

No Thing a Day from me today... My area of the world was slammed by some crazy rain and wind today and I spent most of the day without power. Even now it's flickering every once in a while. I attempted to make one thing, but it didn't turn out well and I'm considering throwing it out the window just out of spite.

Boring blog post, huh? Yeah, I know. You can go ahead and throw rocks at me. What if I pointed you all in the direction of some sweet shops on Etsy... Would you love me again?

Clover Leaf Sterling Silver Photo Charm Keychain from MindyG

Jersey T-Shirt Fabric Scarf in Lime Green Spring Summer from Beautiful Bridget

Pucker - Stone Dangle Earrings from Smutopia

There ya go! A little Green to get you all in the mood for Saint Patty's Day! Enjoy :)

Another day of Spoonflower

Okay, so I think I'm hooked. Yesterday I made two more fun prints on Spoonflower and today while I was subbing I was doodling ideas for more. I promised myself I wouldn't order any more swatches until my first batch arrive in the mail, so I think that's making my bank account give a sigh of relief for now. Here are my two newest patterns.

Some cute little Mushies! Cotton Candy and Candy Corn are their respective titles. I really liked making these little fungi... Maybe I'll try my hand at these in polymer form... Hmmmm, the possibilities...

Oh, and feedback on these designs and my designs from yesterday would be fabulous. I'm wondering if anyone besides me and my mother enjoy the prints I've made so far. Thankies!

Playing with SpoonFlower

As a lover of fabrics, I've had by eye on Spoonflower for a while now. I mean, c'mon! Who wouldn't want to print your own designs on to real life fabric?! Pshh.

Anyways, I've always been hesitant to dive in and really play with the possibilities, but today I went head first and have put up a couple of designs. Man, I'm giddy! I played around with a little clover doodle I made and here's the first fabric I am happy to share with you.

I call it Cloverfield. I love it! I wanted another print to coordinate with it, so I took a handful of quotes about luck and being lucky and came up with this...

This one is called Lucky Words. Phew! Designing fabric is even harder than I thought it was... Worrying about repeats, color palettes, blah blah blah... I hope these come out well! I placed my order for a couple of swatches and hopefully they'll come out perdy! They won't be in my hands until after St. Patrick's Day, but I'm a green-eyed, freckled Irish girl, so I'll love these all year 'round!

Has anyone else out there tried Spoonflower or something similar? What were your results? Oh! And be sure to browse the site for other people's prints... There are some REALLY talented people out there!

Thing a Day - Whoops!

Hiya... No, no now... I didn't forget about my Thing a Day project yesterday... I was just out making THINGS! I swear... Here, let me prove it...

See!! Every once in a while, my best friend Liz and I get together and scrapbook. It's therapy. We sit down with a ton of photographs, various stickers, and a wealth of patterned paper to artistically and craftfully catalog our memories. I managed to turn out three new pages for my scrapbook last night (usually I do more, but I promised Liz I'd slow down.) I'm the speedy scrapbooker and Liz is the OCD scrapbooker. Normally I make about five pages to her two in one night. Soooo I promised I'd slow down and keep pace with her last night.

The page you see above shows me and three of my closest girlfriends... In the large photo on the right, you'll see Liz, Kristin, Lia, and myself. Liz and I have been best friends since first grade. Kristin and Lia have been best friends since I believe second grade. The four of us came together when I met Kristin and Lia in college and realized they lived in the next town over from Liz and me. So yeah... The four of us became quite close.

Anywho... Back to scrapbooking. This year, Liz and I added a new tool to our scrapbook nights... The wonderful, magnificent, awesome CRICUT! (Oooooh! Aaaaah!) Yes, I love this wonderful machine. It cuts out letters and shapes and words and AHHH! I love it. Now, I'm no spokesperson for Cricut (though I'd gladly be one if they asked...lol) but I think my crafty life has been made so much cooler just by having one. Here's another page I did earlier this year...

Me and Liz again playing in the snow like we're not grown adults... All of the lettering and most of the shapes in these two pages were made using the Cricut. See how fun scrapbooking is?? AHH! Okay, enough freaking out from me. I've got to get myself ready for a night of work.

So I'll count this as two Thing a Day's since I put in two photos... Don't judge me. :D

Happy Crafting!

Heyyyy Sugar!

Happy Monday, kids. *insert sarcastic sigh*

Last week I got a happy little comment posted from BlabberGirl claiming I was the recipient of some sort of "Sugar Doll Award." Hehe! I love it :) A simple get-to-know-you chain... Write 10 facts about yourself and then go tag 10 more bloggers! Here we go!

1. I've always been a crafty chica... Making friendship bracelets, hand-sewing doll clothes, collecting stickers... There's always been a reason for me to beg my mother to take me to the craft store.

2. My family loves dogs. At one point we actually had 10 dogs (4 adult dogs plus a little of 6 puppies). We ended up keeping one of the puppies and now, ten years later, we're down to just the momma dog and the puppy - Sandy and Gizmo. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it - TOMORROW is Gizmo's 10th birthday! Woo! I'll have to get her a special treat :)

3. After a five year relationship, just before Christmas I suddenly became single. I'm alright now, but that is one of the reasons I was very quiet on my blog for a while.

4. My mother is my best friend. I tell her everything, we pick on each other, and we spend a lot of time together. I'm very thankful for the relationship we have.

5. I read A LOT of blogs. My Google Reader is PACKED. I'm awful, though - I don't leave comments as often as I should. I will be trying my best to change that.

6. Every year I give up something for Lent. I'm not Catholic - but I like the idea of giving something up to challenge myself and better my life a little bit. One year I gave up drinking soda and I haven't been able to drink it since. Last year I gave up pasta (can you freaking believe it!?) and then pigged out on mac and cheese for Easter dinner. This year I've given up fast food... And that has been TOUGH since I work in a shopping mall where the food court stares at me each day.

7. My favorite color is red/pink. My laptop is red, my cell phone is red, my room is painted pink... I like to surround myself with happy colors.

8. I've lived in New Jersey my entire life. Aside from the four years I spent in college (a college in New Jersey), I've lived in the same town since I was born. Both of my grandmothers graduated from the same high school I did.

9. I love rock and roll. Classic rock makes me happy. Queen, CCR, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zep, Bruce Spingsteen, The Beatles, etc. I have lyrics from Led Zep's "Fool in the Rain" tattooed on my back. My next tattoo will include lyrics from The Beatles.

10. I'm a history nerd (well, you knew that much) and I read nerdy history books, and I get fired up talking about history to friends... And I really hope I find a job teaching history soon before I lose that fire.

So there! I hope I didn't bore you too much with my rambling. Now! Here are my ten tags...

1. Geek Details (Great blogger, Great twitterer... Just great!)

2. WhiMSy Love (I LOVE this blog. You will too.)

3. ThreePeats (Another great twitterer!)

4. A Food Coma (A real life friend, a real life great blog!)

5. Kind Over Matter (Follow this blog... You need to... Trust me.)

6. Daisy Janie (A great designer, a fun blog to follow!)

7. Java Cupcake (Java and Cupcakes... Awesome? YES!)

8. LollyChops (Another really great crafty blog to read)

9. Faerie*Dust*Dreams (Looking for some fun swaps? Michelle's got 'em!)

10. Everyday Beautiful (It's beautiful... everyday!)

So this works as my Thing a Day, right? We'll say it does. See ya tomorrow!

Early St. Patty's Day Parade in Jersey

I had hopes of bringing you guys a fun lil tutorial, but that was put on hold due to the fact that I spent the day celebrating the patron Saint of Ireland ten days early at the Jersey shore!

(No, not that Jersey shore... ugh... the REAL Jersey shore.)

Every year, Belmar, NJ rings in St. Patty's Day a bit early with an afternoon parade and an evening filled with typical modern festivities... I stayed for the parade and skipped out on the evening events... (Hey, the Oscars are on. Pshh.) You will find much more than over-tanned New Yorkers at the REAL Jersey shore... a random DeLorean, for example.

After a BEAUTIFUL day of sunshine, bagpipes, and a good friend or two by my side, I'm enjoying the Oscars with my family and a few finger foods. You all can feel free to enjoy my addition to Thing a Day!

If you're lucky enough to be Irish... You're lucky enough ;) Fun little dangling charm to celebrate St. Patty's Day!

Super Quick Thing a Day!

Ahh! Not to break the Thing a Day train on day 3 even though I have NO TIME today (grrr work)... Here's a quickie!

This little throw pillow was made from an old tee shirt of mine. Yes, I am a Bratty Brunette - deal with it ;) It's about 12x12 inches and stuffed with regular polyfill.

I decided I will be tearing through a pile of old tee shirts that no longer fit and re-fashioning them into something really cool to hold on to the memories attached to those tee shirts of days passed. A big ol' blanket, I'm thinking. I'll keep you updated - but for now, enjoy the pillow :)

Follow Friday

Wooooo! Friiiiday!

Sorry - I'm just a bit delirious. Today has been a very long day. I was a substitute Chemistry teacher today and a Tea Shop girl by night. Now it's time to unwind and relax.

Firstly, it's Friday... SO in true Twitter style, here are a few fun people to check out if you're a Twitter-er like me :)

@kimwcreations

@PunkyJane

@Digidreams

@ojamiya

@FromNancysHeart

@TamaraGarvey

@Clayshion

@firebirdhouse

@geekdetails

Check 'em out... You know you wanna.

Anyway! Here's my creation for Thing a Day!

Orange, Strawberry, and Lemon polymer clay charms just chillin' here with some Swarovski crystals on a silver-plated bracelet with a lobster clasp. I'm not entirely happy with the quality of the lighting in this photo, so I'll be re-shooting it tomorrow when I can get some natural lighting before it ends up in the Etsy Shop.

Don't forget to check out the other TaD'ers!

ThreePeats

FireBirdHouse

GeekDetails

Comment here to add your own TaD! I'd love to see it and add you to the list :)

Thing A Day - Let us begin!

AH! Didn't think you'd hear from me so soon? Well get used to it!! Thanks to the genius concept of "Thing a Day" from Amanda at Geek Details, a fellow member of the EtsyTwitter Team, I'll be attempting to post something everyday to either my blog or my Shop. Today is Day 1! You should try it - I have a feeling it's going to help me be a better blogger. Suzanne at ThreePeats is playing along, too! I can't wait to see who else will join in the madness :)

Today I stumbled upon a new swap... Claire's Crafty Blog is hosting a Pin Cushion Swap and I signed up quicker than you can blink! Pin cushions and swapping - two things that make my heart happy! I have too many pin cushions fashioned from random things I find... Here is a highlight of a few of my favorites.




The little strawberry is my favorite. She sits on my craft table and keeps me company for most of my sewing projects. My fellow sewistas - what's your favorite pin cushion?