Put a pin in it

For some time now, I have been wanting to make myself  what I call an "inspiration board".  A place, of easy viewing, for my sewing room where I can put future project ideas and fabric swatches I have fallen in love with but haven't quite decided what to do with yet.  I had narrowed down what I wanted to do and technically got started on it a few weeks ago.  Jo-Ann fabrics has recently started carrying a new line of printed burlap and when I stumbled upon this one, I knew I had found the fabric I was looking for to make myself a fabric covered cork board!

The rest of the pieces came together for me earlier this week.  While out searching for some fabric for a custom diaper bag order for the shop, I saw that JoAnn had all of their frames on sale for buy one get one free! While trying to explain a few future blog projects to The Boyfriend, I mentioned that I still needed to come up with something to put in place of the Christmas card holder. (Yes, I am aware that it is almost the end of March and I still have Christmas cards hanging....what can I say, they are really cute!) After I told him about making the fabric covered bulletin board for my sewing room, he suggested I just make two and hang one where the Christmas card holder is now so I could still hang pictures and things. BRILLIANT! I grabbed my two frames, a roll of cork and some cotton that went with my living room scheme and I was good to go!

I started by removing the backing and the plastic from the frame so that all I was left with was the frame itself and set that aside.  Taking the cardboard backing piece, I laid that flat and covered the inside surface with tacky glue.  I carefully positioned my cork roll on top of the glue, making sure it lay flat over the entire surface. (For my second board, this step required some cutting and multiple pieces. Since the entire surface will eventually be covered in fabric, I was not concerned about the piecing.) I then used a "highly technical" process to make sure the cork dried flat....I set my toolbox, old yearbooks and an old EMT textbook on top of it to weigh it down.

Once dry, I layed my fabric out (right side facing down) and set my assembled cork board on top of it (cork side down)

I then cut the excess fabric from around the board, leaving a few inches on each side for folding and securing the fabric.  I used tape to secure the fabric to the back side, working one side at a time to make sure I got the fabric pulled nice and tight. (I was not highly concerned about the color of my tape and its visual appeal on the back since it would face the wall, but if this is a concern of yours, any color of tape should work or I am sure there are other ways to secure your fabric if you prefer.)

Next, I pressed my fabric covered backing into the frame so that the pretty side was facing out.

Once it was all pressed in, I pushed down all the brackets in the back to securely hold it in place.

 

 

This was a relatively light weight frame, so I chose to hang it with command adhesive strips and same me some hole patching time when I, eventually, move out.  I think it looks pretty nice in its new spot. What do you think?

 



 

I can't wait to start pinning up new ideas and inspirations! The board for the living room is also complete but I ran out of Command strips so it will have to wait a couple days....

 

 

I think it will look nice as well, and I already have some pictures to hang on it.  I have one more day of work this week and then its Vacation time for me until next Saturday! I am so looking forward to the time off to relax and celebrate my birthday with friends and family! Have a great week everyone!

An Arizona Adventure

I bypassed my typical weekend of sewing and relaxing this week to visit my sister and her family in Arizona. My niece ,Charlie, just turned 1 this month and since I was unable to make it out for her birthday party, I decided to spend my weekend out visiting with all of them.  This was the first time I had flown out there.  I usually drive but I only had 3 days off for this visit and, following suggestions from a friend and a pretty great ticket price, I settled on flying.  I'm pretty sure I will have a tough time convincing myself to drive out there in the future since flying was, A-relatively painless with smaller crowds on a weekday, B-its a short flight, and C-I took an early flight out and a late flight back home and therefore got to spend the better part of the entire 3 days with my sister's family.

My niece hasn't seen me since early December and she had just woken up when they picked me up so I got this look for about the first 10 minutes.

 

Once she woke up a bit more, it was all smiles!

 

We stopped at the mall on the way home so I could use a gift card for a clothing store that had recently closed in California. Charlie was a big hit with every stranger. She waved and flashed her adorable smile at every passerby and they adored her! I think she enjoys the attention.

 My sister wanted to stop by the Lego store while we were there.  Apparently, after watching the Lego movie, my sister and her husband learned of the phenomenon of Lego mini figures mystery packs.  For those of you who had also never heard of these, basically Lego puts out a series of Lego people (called mini figures) each with 16 different ones to collect.  They release them in pouches that you can't see through so you  never know which one you are going to get.  Well, my brother in law thought this was SO cool and has been on the hunt for a few in the Lego movie series, which is out now.  She wanted to try to find some of the ones he was looking for.  I'll admit that I thought she was crazy at first, feeling her way around tiny plastic bags trying to figure out my touch alone which one was which....That is until I decided to help her out and OH MY GOSH! We totally NERDED OUT in the Lego store, feeling our way through about 15 little packs of Lego people! We found a few that we were 90% sure we had correct. It was actually really fun! We took them home and let my brother in law open them and we were right on all of them! My brother in law even tracked more down at a nearby ToysRus and we swung by and did the same thing to find a couple more he wanted. TOTALLY nerdy, but so much fun!!

When we got home, we had present time!  We didn't get to see each other for Christmas and also I had birthday presents for my niece and brother in law.  Charlie LOVED her Christmas present! She likes the playskool Little People and my sister and Mom have been finding old ones at their awesome thrift and antique stores and cleaning them up.  She has some pretty cool pieces so far.  When I saw that they make a Disney's Cinderella Little people, I knew that she had to have it.

My sister is a huge fan of Cinderella and did my nieces nursery in Cinderella.  Charlie apparently is just like Mommy because she Loved it! It opens and closes and makes noises when it rolls along AND lights up! Everything she loves. This kid could not get enough of this toy and would laugh and smile every time she played with it. What a hit!

Charlie, like her cousin Audrey, also got a set of my fabric letter and numbers for her birthday.  She still has a bit to go before she really comprehends letters, but she enjoyed pulling them all out of the bag and putting them all back in.

 

The bright colors were very intriguing to her as well and she seemed to enjoy the cuddly-ness of the letters.  I'm sure ,being such a lover of books and all, that she will be as into them as her cousin in no time.  I'm so excited that they have gone over so well thus far!

For my sister, I made her a custom tote bag with Cinderella fabric.  She liked it a lot and ended up carrying her stuff in it the rest of my visit and mentioned that it was the perfect size.

 

 

My brother in law got handmade star trek pajama pants. (which he specifically requested) They gave me this absolutely adorable Tinker Bell mug, which i can't wait to use! It will be perfect for tea!

 

 

 

The next morning we had Cinderella waffles (noticing a pattern yet? haha) and then Charlie had to show me her new sandbox she got for her birthday from Mommy and Daddy.

 





Later that day (and an outfit change later) Charlie wanted to play outside again and showed me her preferred method of entry/exit to the house....

 

Heck, the dogs do it, why shouldn't she? :) I made my famous tacos that night and taught my sister to make french macarons, YUM!

My last day visiting, I took my sister to breakfast at her favorite place nearby, Wildflower bread company.  Its similar to Panera bread, but I think its better, and I enjoy Panera.  I don't know if its a chain out there or anything but its DE-LISH! We got our usual and split a short stack of the Lemon-ricotta pancakes and the ham and brie fritatta with country potatoes. SOOO good!!

We spent the rest of the day shopping and relaxing until it was time to head back to the airport.  We picked up my brother in law and headed for a quick dinner.  My brother in law wanted me to try this place called  "The Duce" in Phoenix.  It was super cool! Its part indoor seating with places to do corn hole throwing and ping pong. There's a seating are to watch old Elvis movies on the big screen.  The other part is an opened outdoor patio seating area.  At night, the lights are turned on and you can see the stars and watch the planes go overhead.  The kitchen for the restaurant is in on e of those old silver streamliners.  They serve all kinds of food but their main thing is sliders.  They have cheeseburger sliders, chicken sausage sliders, corned beef and cabbage sliders and the list goes on! I ordered the cheeseburger sliders which has Gruyere cheese, organic butter lettuce, grilled onions and garlic aioli...YUM!!! 

 

I also ordered a lemonade which they make fresh and sweeten with honey and garnish with blueberries. It was quite possibly the best lemonade I have ever had! I finished off dinner by feeding Charlie pieces of blueberry so that Mommy and Daddy could enjoy their food.

 

 

It was a great atmosphere and a delicious meal! With that, we headed to the airport.  Charlie was so sweet and gave me a hug and a kiss.  When I started to walk away, she reached out her hands like she wanted me to come back, so I blew her a kiss.  She smiled and blew me a kiss back!  It was the sweetest thing!! Even sweeter was that my sister and brother in law said she's never done that before. What a sweet farewell gift for Auntie! I had such a nice time chatting and visiting with my sister and her husband! I miss them so much, but I am glad I get the opportunity to visit fairly often.  I just love quality time with family!

 



High tea, rugs and ABC's

For anyone who knows me, you're probably keenly aware of my love for tea.  There used to be this amazing tea bistro by my parents house (back when they lived in California) that served the most wonderful high tea. It closed a few years back and my sister and I have been searching for a place of equal measure ever since.  We took our girl-friend there for her bachelorette party and my sister and I even copied her tea service for a mother's day tea we hosted years ago.  We have yet to find one locally that is quite as good. (If anyone knows of one, please let me know!) Although, my Mom has found a really good one out by her in Wyoming, which only helps me on my annual visit. I still jump at every opportunity I get to try a tea room.  Which is why I was so excited when a friend of mine mentioned that the Queen Mary is currently doing a Princess Diana exhibit and you can have high tea in the tea room aboard the ship after!  I HAD to check it out! I didn't want to go alone, and though I was certain The boyfriend would go with me if I REALLY wanted him to, I didn't think it was his cup of tea (no pun intended) so I invited my best friend Jennie and made all the arrangements. I was so excited!

Believe it or not, I have lived in So-Cal my entire life but had never before been to the Queen Mary. I have seen it driving past and my sister had her senior prom on board but I had never myself experienced it. My friend Jennie had never been either AND had never had high tea before! It was to be a day chalked full of new experiences for both of us.

We arrived slightly late for our 2pm reservation but were told by the people at the desk that we were welcome to have tea first and visit the exhibit after so we wouldn't miss our reservation.  After taking an elevator ,which can only be described as a creaky, creepy box I was sure we were going to be trapped in, we arrived at the tea room. Its certainly a good thing we rushed as the tea room was completely empty save for two girls at one table. Since we had made reservations and there was no one else there, we got to sit by one of the windows. We had a lovely view.

 

 

Our waiter, though slightly odd perhaps, was very nice and spent most of our tea service speaking with the two ladies at the other table. That was fine with me, as Jennie and I got to chat and enjoy tea and he checked in enough to make sure our tea was never empty. He started us off with a pot of tea of our choice. The tea was quite good, although lacking in options, I was quite happy with my Green tea mango and Jennie got Chamomile and said hers was quite nice as well.

 



He left us also with a 3 tiered serving tray filled with yummy finger sandwiches as well as scones with devonshire cream, lemon curd, and jam. The scones were quite good. Even Jennie, who apparently has also never had a scone, said they were surprisingly good! She said she expected dry and bland but that these were more moist than expected and tasted great.  I ate one of all of the sandwiches but was absolutely dreading the last sandwich.....As anyone who knows me will also tell you, I don't like seafood! The boyfriend is working hard to try to discredit this statement and we have found a few sea creatures that I don't hate....That being said, the sandwich I was dreading was a seafood sandwich. It was white bread with a cream cheese layer, a slice of cucumber, and topped with smoked salmon AND caviar!!! Pretty much as sea-foody as a tea sandwich could possibly be! Jennie encouraged me to try it and since I knew I would never hear the end of it from The boyfriend if I didn't, I began to work myself up to it. I imagined how un-classy it would be if I were to take a bite and gagged on it in the middle of the tea room!! HOW GHASTLY! So, I was determined that no matter what, I would swallow that first bite and not humiliate myself....

It was not nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be! I don't know if the cucumber and the dill cream cheese helped, but the caviar really just made it salty, and the salmon was only a little briney flavored....not really fishy. Now, I wouldn't have ordered this on its own, but it was not half bad! Here's my "victory shot" after the first bite to show The boyfriend that I had braved the seafood tea sandwich!

As we both munched on our last scones, I looked over and started cracking up as I realized the waiter had left us tongs which neither of us had used at all!

Such unrefined heathens, using our HANDS to pick up our sandwiches! TISK TISK! (Something about having tea and all, this seemed like the perfect moment for pearl clutching and gasps of horror) Luckily, there were now only 4 other people in the room and none of them seems to notice or mind our improper tea etiquette.

The waiter collected our dishes, warmed up our tea, and brought us a three tiered dessert tray. I had absolutely no issue with the desserts. (Except that I finally remembered to use the tongs when halfway through and dropped one of my cakes, frosting side down, onto the lovely white tablecloth....oops)

 

 

We completed our tea and chatting and then did a quick walk-through of the Princess Diana exhibit. (sorry no photography allowed) Overall it was a pleasant tea. It was not the same as my favorite tea place, but for the atmosphere and all, it was certainly worth doing. Next, it was off to our relaxing mani-pedi appointment to cap off our relaxing day.  But first, we ran out onto the deck to get a quick picture together. We didn't have time, nor could we figure out how to get anywhere with a better view, so the former home of the spruce goose will have to do.....

 

 

 

The next day, came another highlight in my days off, as my new rug arrived for my living room!

 

                                              

 





Step 2 in the living room re-decoration project is completed! I'm pretty happy with it and I can't wait to keep this project going and complete it!

And to top off my weekend, my niece turned 2 years old and The boyfriend and I went to her little party. We gave her a set of fabric letters and numbers (soon to be available in my Etsy shop )

 

 

She LOVED them! She went through the pile and asked me what each letter and number was and would repeat after me. Then, she picked up a huge pile of them and threw them at me and we had a little "Fabric letter fight" (similar to a pillow fight in almost every way) I have never seen this girl laugh so much! It was so adorable and fun! I say it all the time, but being an Auntie really is the best!

 

In between my fun activities this week, I did a bunch of prep work on some new products for the shop.  I am super excited about some new items and adventures in store for Sew it Seams. Lot's of fun stuff coming soon, so stay tuned! Hope you all enjoyed your week as well. What kinds of fun adventures did you stumble upon?