Baby's M's New Pillow! - Bloggers Pillow Party Entry #1

I was super psyched that my girlfriend asked me to make the nursery accents for her little girl that is to arrive in just a few short weeks! Her vision for the nursery is exactly what I would have done, so making the pieces to fit in the room was cake!

She picked out coordinating fabrics from It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda. And...did an awesome job picking it out on her own! We all know how overwhelming fabric stores can be, I can't imagine how it would be for someone who doesn't sew!

So here is the final piece for the room, an accent pillow for the rocking chair! Please excuse the terrible pics, I'm only through chapter one of Nikon D90 for Dummies (One of my New Year's Resolutions)!I decided to make it a slip cover to put over a pillow form, so it could be easily washed. The insides are surged, so it just lays flat. No hand sewing or awkward topstiched edges. I'm thinking I'm liking this technique!
And the fun part was adding the details. The appliqued owl was an afterthought, because I actually missed part of the polka dot strip after I sewed it on. So the owl is a band-aid! I had a couple other coordinating fabrics to throw in the flower, to give it layers.
A few weeks ago I saw on Noodlehead's blog that Rachel over at Stitched in Color was doing a pillow contest. She's calling it Bloggers Pillow Party (cute name huh?). So - I thought this was good timing since I wanted to make a pillow for my friends nursery. And my 'Post xmas, I'm over the cold weather' project is new pillows for our livingroom, so this is the perfect motivation!

If you haven't checked out Noodlehead and Stitched in Color, do so! They are super talented mamas!

This is a fun way to check out others blogs. There are a ton of cute pillow entries already!

Resolutions - Finally!

So I'm a goals type of gal. Short term, long term, daily to-do's, you name it. I've been walking around in a bit of a fog since the start of 2011. Yes it's only been 13 days, but I've had this urging desire to get 'my list' down, so I can start the year! And now I can reference it, when I get sidetracked.

It's amazing how fast the weeks go by, leaving only the weekends for catching up on household things and spending time with my family. And you mix in weekend trips and the occasional visitors, that doesn't leave much time for all the projects that I'm dying to do! I really want to design more clothes and continue my Etsy shop. I really want to capture my projects and post tutorials, so everyone can be creative! I really want to blog more. And I really want to learn how to use my freaking camera! The list goes on.

Lots of to-do's in one year. So this is how I've decided to prioritize my free-time:

1.) Learn how to use my camera. The basics FIRST. I'm notorious for overcomplicating something. I do it with sewing too. Once I learn how to use my camera (hopefully this year. That's the point of a resolution right?), then I can start playing with PS and editing tools. Thanks hubs for pointing this one out to me. Duh.

2.) Home projects. Need new pillows, etc. I like doing this sort of stuff, but haven't made time for it.

3.) Sew for myself. This includes things I want to make for Melo, gifts, one-off projects etc. I keep thinking of things I want to design, sell, etc, that I get so overwhelmed, and end up doing none of it. With resolution #3, I (if it so works out)I would like to capture these projects with patterns, pictures, and tutorials, and post to my blog.

Doesn't seem like much, but I know it wont be 24 hours until I start getting ahead of myself on any of these!

In time I will add to this list my desire to selling and making patterns and clothes. Whew! Feel better already!

I'd also love to get more involved with the bloggy-blog world, since there are so many incredible ladies that I turn to for inspiration and tutorials. I'm in marketing, so I know exactly how to market myself, just don't have the time to do it. So for now I don't mind talking to my 10 readers :-)

Who else has some crafty resolutions?!