Oh Sweet Petunia

you don't look back

2011-08-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've never been much of jewelry person. I wasn't one of those people who obsessed over their wedding ring. I knew more about what I didn't want, which was the opposite of most brides. I didn't want a diamond and I didn't want it to be expensive. I ended up with a 1920's art deco amithyst ring and I adore it.

I've started wearing (and making!) more jewelry as of late, mostly earrings. As I accumulated more pieces, I quickly realized how little storage space I have. I also decided that if it was organized nicely than I'd be more inclined to wear it more. I knew I wanted to craft something and with a quick google search I came up with several options. I bought the wire, spray painted an old frame, and added some fabric.

I learned through trial and error what to do differently with my 2nd attempt. I found a more intricate frame at a yard sale. I painted it with a nicer acrylic, instead of spray painting it. I decided not to drill and attach hooks, as I had so much trouble the 1st time around and didn't want to compromise the frame. This was a gift for a friend.

over the quilt that you've been spinning

2011-08-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've been crafting up a storm in the months since I've updated here. The next few posts will be snippets of what I've been up to.

I took a quilting class in the spring, which I've been wanting to do for years. I was the youngest student (by far) and by the end of the class I'd became pretty close with two of my fellow students, who I refereed to as my surrogate grandmas. I'm a grandma at heart. Since the class ended I've completed 3 quilts! I'm a quilting machine. I love it. I'm currently working on my 4th and have excited plans for several more. I also want to take another class to learn more about freeform machine quilting. I dream of getting a long arm sewing machine, but I don't think that will likely happen until I truly am a grandma or strike it rich.

This quilt was a gift for my favorite munchkin's 2nd birthday. It's my second attempt at quilting and I designed this with leftover fabric from my 1st quilt. I like my pattern better than the original pattern.

Put out the fire in your head

2011-01-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

I have had my crafty goods in the store Gossamer for the last year and a half. I can't believe it's been that long! In that time I've learned a lot about consignment. Although I make less money than selling my things through etsy, I actually prefer it. When you consider the time I spend packaging, mailing, posting items, photographing, marketing, etc., it's so much easier to make it and leave it in a shop. Besides, I think people are more interested in my things more when they can see them in person. Although I have no big intentions with this little business, I've been dreaming about owning a little craft store one day. I imagine quitting my day job and making art all day. What a sweet thought. Now if only I could have someone else take care of the business end of things, which I struggle with right now. In reality, I just want to continue with this little business so I can share my creativity with others and make a little extra money to keep funding more creativity. That's all it really does and it's been nice, especially these past couple months with the holidays and more orders coming in.

One of the things I've learned about consignment is how important it is to check in with the store's owner, to switch up your items available in the store, and that pretty packaging does make a difference. I spent this last weekend redesigning all of my packaging, business cards, and tags.

I spend a lot of time in my head. I'm always multitasking, listening with one ear and making to-do lists with the other. I'm frequently planning my next adventure. I love to travel, escape my reality and the stress of daily life. The more stressed I am, the more likely I am to buy a plane ticket. It's rare for me to take two weeks off and stay at home. My two week staycation in December made me realize just how relaxing it can be to stay at home for two weeks. I barely left the house, save an appointment with my acupuncturist, a massage, some dog walks, and a couple holiday celebrations. Mostly, I spend that time sleeping in, organizing and cleaning my craft room, dancing around my kitchen, sewing owl pillows and paper crafting (on a project that I lost interest in after two days and I'm not sure I'll ever finish), playing video games with my love, and cuddling with my pups. It was beautiful and made me rethink my use of vacation time. I say this as I just bought tickets for a two week jaunt to Europe in March.

i wish i had a river i could skate away on

2010-12-27T09:41:00.000-08:00

One week into my vacation and one week to go. It's been wonderful and I don't want it to end. As far as crafty goodness, I spent much of last week finishing a Christmas gift for Jayden. Of all my Christmas gifts to him, it was by far my favorite. I made him a coupon holder. I worked on it while he was at work and then for several nights after he went to bed. The pattern was for intermediate sewers and I am clearly a beginner. It was challenging and took much longer than it should have, but it turned out beautifully and he loves it.

Here's more of the owl pillows I've been making lately. One was my first attempt and full of mistakes so it will likely be torn apart and repurposed. One was made for a friend who gave it to her girlfriend for Christmas. One I made for the DIY elephant gift exchange at our holiday party. One was given as a gift to a new friend after watching her disappointment when it was snatched from her in our DIY elephant gift exchange. Now I need to buy new fabric and make more! They are pretty time consuming little buggers, but I'm a sucker for owls.

she killed it will kisses

2010-12-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

Today is my first day of vacation! Seventeen glorious days work free. I'm going to make the most of every one. I look forward to lots of crafting, game playing, dog walking, reading, cooking, and anything else I fancy. Tomorrow night is our annual holiday partay. We still have a lot of work to do (mostly cleaning) but it will be worth it. We used to entertain folks at our house on a regular basis, but it hasn't happened as much these days. We usually do an elephant gift exchange, but this year we are doing something new and asked everyone to make it DIY. So every one's gift needs to be homemade and I can't wait to see what our friend's come up with.

As promised, here's more photos of anticon - North Pdx's version of santacon. The first is with my friend Rhienna and the mayor. We were both ridiculously excited that Portland's major, Sam Adams, welcomed a bunch of santas to his house.

Here's some other goodies, including gorilla santa in all his glory. I took a beginning sewing class during the fall and our project was a robe. I was scrambling for a santa suit when I decided to use my robe. Conveniently, it's red and white and made a festive makeshift santa suit!

santa told me about you

2010-12-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

First, lets start with the exciting news - one of my mobiles was featured in Modern Handmade Child! It's a beautifully done online quarterly magazine. You can find my owl mobile in the article, "The Wonder of Wool".

I spent yesterday with hundreds of other folks dressed up as Santa while bar hopping and walking around the streets of North and NE Portland. It was so much fun and I had perma-grin the entire day. My favorite part was the beginning of day when we went to the mayor's house while singing Christmas carols. The mayor graciously came outside, welcomed us, took photos and handed out egg nog. Such fun and I can't wait to post more of the photos.

I work for the next two weeks and I have two weeks off work this month for our holiday break. I'm looking forward to crafting every single day. I want to start so many projects and make the most of my time off. I just need to get through next week's finals and the stress of this term will come to an end. Fall is always my busiest term, because I'm teaching two classes and have more students to advise.

Sew Happy

2010-11-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

I posted a photo of my latest sewing project on facebook and a friend said, "Congratulation. You are your grandmother." Yep. That's about right and I'm not ashamed. I love it. Although, I didn't know either of my grandmothers very well and I'm not sure if either of them sewed. I imagined they both did. Both were poor, raising a lots of kids (one had 7 and the other had 9!), and my mom and aunts sew. Growing up my mom loved to paint, make jewelry, sew, cook, and garden. All of it and I had no interest in any of it. I couldn't be bothered. I'd rather read, watch tv and hang out with my friends. I've only started appreciating these things in the last few years. These days instead of spending my Saturday night out late, drinking and dancing at the bar, I'd rather drink hot cocoa, listen to music, and sew.

Yesterday I finished making a robe and today I finished this tablecloth. Our kitchen table is a white resin (why did I get white?) and gets dirty easily, especially since our cat uses it as his bed. He likes the view and it helps him avoid the dogs. I've tried breaking the habit, but I give up. So I wanted something fitted so he couldn't move it around much and vinyl so I can easily wipe it down. I also imagine this will be helpful when I one day have a munchkin.

saturday night in style

2010-11-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

With the fall weather, comes cozy nights at home like this. I'm wrapped up in a blanket, watching cheesy movies, drinking hot cocoa, and cuddle my pups. I don't want to be anywhere else but here. This past week has been pretty great overall. The highlight was Wednesday night which started with trivia at Mississippi Pizza, Chris Pureka (one of my favorite musicians) at Mississippi Studios, and late night 25 cent bowling. I was on a bowling league a couple years ago and I was awful. My team relied on me as their handicap. I don't know what got into me, but after not bowling in ages, I bowled my first turkey and won two of three games with my highest scores ever. What? Good times.

I made this owl pillow last night as an experiment. A friend asked if I could make her one for her girlfriend as a Christmas gift. I wasn't sure where to start, but I made this pattern freehand. Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out and I have two more in the works.

In progress

Finished

Lately my tastes are best described as grade school meets grandma - ruffles, bows, and hearts meet owls, pearls and cardigans.

october is my favorite month

2010-11-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

I have a love/hate relationship with fall. I love the colors, the sunny, yet cool and crisp air, Halloween!, everything pumpkin, and the return of crock-pot cooking. However, I don't love that it's the segway into another long, rainy, cold, and dark winter. "Wah wah. Boo hoo. You chose to move to Portland so quit yr bitching." Yeah, I know. All that I love about this place makes up for those things I appreciate only in small doses. Give and take.

We went to three Halloween parties this year that stretched over two nights of debauchery. Unlike recent years, I was really in the spirit of things and started preparing my costume weeks in advance. That doesn't explain why I was still scrambling with it up until the very end. I also spent every night the week before making Jayden's costume out of paper mache. I can safely say I never want to paper mache again. It was very time consuming and torturous on my still aching back. However, I love the disco ball that was created as a result! I ended up loving Jayden's costume more than my own. I was a bird in a cage. Jayden made my cage out of cardboard, wood dowels, and the (always handy) duck tape. I attached individual pieces of fabric to a black dress to resemble feathers. My favorite part of every Halloween costume is an excuse to do elaborate makeup. I made a mask for Jayden and used the bird theme as inspiration for my own.

I was sans camera all weekend, but these are photos of my weekend that I borrowed from others.

2010-10-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

oh journal, i have not forgotten about you. i think of you often and imagine what i'd share with you, but life is busy. it's the start of a new school year and i've been with work like mad, playing in the little remaining sun we get here in the pacific northwest, or crafting my heart away. i've felt full of crafty inspiration these days. i've had the idea to make hanging mobiles brewing in my brain for at least a year and i finally started creating them. i used some existing templates, but i also created some of the design cuts myself. i spent hours learning how to design animals in inkscape, mostly for my jungle and ladybug mobiles. i then chose the coordinating fabric and buttons for each design. i'm really proud of how they turned out. i posted them to my facebook account and had several friends order them for their kid's rooms. i the red, white and black birds are hanging in my living room. my lovely partner, jayden, made the wood bases, which i painted.

bird is the word

2010-03-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'm kinda obsessed with birds. Who isn't these days, right? I can't get enough. This is my chest tattoo.

It was my wedding gift to myself and it's inspired by the above print. Every new tattoo idea I have involves birds and I have to stop myself before I'm covered in them. Instead I've now started redecorating my kitchen in birds and hearts. Thus far, I have two wood art pieces and next I'd like to make curtains and a tablecloth. My kitchen is very bold and bright - painted the reddest of reds and vibrant orange. I'm thinking of adding blue accents and seeing how it work. I'll post pictures as it evolves. Maybe just an owl tattoo on my shoulder? See, I can't stop myself...

Here's my latest accessories, which feature birds. I made smaller birds for hair clips and larger birds for headbands and brooches.

i have my books and my poetry to protect me

2010-03-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

I've had several people request I make items for kids. I've spent the last few weeks working on these new smaller hair accessories. I covered alligator clips with ribbon and I love the effect. It protects the hair, helps the clips stay in place and it is another avenue for me to experiment with color and design. Good times. I started with making the smaller flowers in this photo and lately I've been working on little bird clips. I'll photograph those this weekend (with my new light box!) and get everything up in the etsy shop.

she's crafty. she gets around.

2010-03-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

My friend Rhienna photographed some of my goods and I wanted to share some of my favorites. She did a wonderful job and I particularly liked her staging ideas with the mannequin and jackets. I asked her because she knows her way around a camera, but I'm realizing that I need to get my act together in the photography department. I can't rely on someone else to do this for me every time I want to share my work. I've been doing my research for the last couple weeks (studying my camera manual, looking around etsy and the photos I like, reading photography tips, etc) and decided I need a light box. I didn't even know what a light box was two weeks ago! Now I realize how important it is, especially living in a city where it rains and stays dark for months on end. Unfortunately, my house doesn't have the best lighting either. Light box is it. After scouring the internet, I've decided this is the route I'll go. It's inexpensive and stores easily. I bought all the material, except the lights, and plan on finishing it this weekend.

perfect shadows alive

2010-02-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest regrets from the wedding is not getting many photos of the flowers. I knew it was a priority for me but never voiced this. After months of planning, the actual day was such a blur and I was (barely) functioning on very little sleep.

The flowers remain a special memory for me. While it was the aspect of the wedding that took the most time, it was also the part of planning that I enjoyed the most. I spent hours upon hours crafting flowers for months prior to the wedding. Jayden helped in any way he could by cleaning buttons and cutting felt.

For weeks you would walk into our house and see it covered in red, black and white flowers, felt, buttons, vases, and wire. There were a couple hundred loose flowers that were put in centerpieces, 7 bridal bouquets, brooches for special folks, and 8 boutonnieres.

While I wish I had the smarts to photograph every bouquet individually, I ended up with very few. They mean a lot to me. Here's a few of the ones I do have.

pay my heart's outstanding bills

2010-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Please forgive the poor quality of these photos, but here's some of the things I've done lately. I need to learn something about photography. I'll add that to the list, but my goals as of late are learning to knit and quilt, joining a book club, and reading more.

this aint no place for the weary kind

2010-02-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Oh blog, you may feel like I've abandoned you, but I haven't. The wedding kept me ridiculously busy (in the most beautiful way) for months. Then, I was busy with work in the Fall. I've used the last few months to relax. (Side note: Every time I use the word relax I think of the signs in India, which said "relax"instead of "stop". I always loved that.)

I've still been crafting! I've been working on new things - birds, headbands, and hair clips. The stuff is piling up. I love the crafting part of this, but I'm a little lost when it comes to marketing and selling the goods. The headbands have gotten a big response from friends and now I just need to get them out there. I've decided to apply to be a vendor in the the Spring Crafty Wonderland show. You can still buy my stuff at Gossamer. I just brought in new stuff, including bird brooches and flower headbands. I'll post pictures of the new stuff soon.

when the starts have all burnt out, you will still be burning so bright

2009-07-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

Big news!! You can now buy my crafty goods locally at Gossamer on E 24th and Burnside. It's very exciting. I adore this shop, which carries lots of fiber art supplies and locally made crafts. It also happens to be where I buy most of my 100% wool felt. The owner, Rose, was very enthusiastic about carrying them. She may have been as excited as I am about it.

I'm also working on business cards and hang tags. I've been really busy with crafty business, which is all happening quicker than I anticipated. Soon I need to focus on wedding-related crafting. There is still so much to do. I'm currently designing all the table seat cards. I've also decided to do an alternative to the traditional guest book. Instead, we are going to red envelopes, which is based on a Chinese tradition. Everyone can write a wish, advice, quote, etc, on a slip of paper and then put that in a red envelope. Every year on our anniversary we will open an envelope (or two or three depending on how many people write) to remember our wedding and our loved ones. For all my non-traditional ways, I'm really into traditions and ritual. I love the idea of opening an envelope ten, twenty, fifty years from now and letting it bring us right back to that day. I'm super stoked about this idea. I bought the red envelopes but now I need to figure out the details and get it together. Saturday marker 50 days until the wedding. Crazy!! It seems like yesterday when it was more like 400 days.

Etsy Store!!

2009-07-10T13:31:00.001-07:00

The store is up and running! You can now buy one of my flower pins! I'll be updating the store frequently and adding new flowers all the time.

Soon I will be adding smaller flower pins and hair clips perfect for kids. I'm also working on new designs that aren't flowers, including birds, hearts, and a skull and crossbones. I'll let you know when those up.

The store includes some of my new sailor-inspired flowers. Some of these I don't want to part with...

i'm like the rain in a downpour

2009-07-01T13:20:00.001-07:00

i want to get the store up and running, but summer is crazy busy, especially with my wedding quickly approaching (60 days!!). i have the flowers ready and i made hang tags to display them, complete with my little logo. now i just need to find time to photograph them, write my etsy shop details, and set up my paypal account. i feel like i haven't been home in forever. my fingers are crossed for tonight, because i know the next few days are out of the question.

my biggest set back is my lack of photography skills. i really want to capture the flowers well, but i don't know what i'm doing behind a camera. i just point and shoot. i took these quick snap shots on my camera phone to share here. i know the coloring is slightly twisted, like with the first flower, which looks like a shade of blue on my computer screen, but it's actually green.

i'm excited about the next batch of flowers, because i'm doing a nautical theme. i included some nautical and pirate inspired buttons (i'm marrying a wannabe pirate. aarrrgh) in our wedding flowers and i'm using some of the buttons that were still laying around. those photos will be up soon.

the ticking, and the western man's need to cry

2009-06-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

I took these pics from my new iphone so they aren't the best quality but I wanted to share the latest flowers I've completed. All of these will be pins/broaches.

I plan to have the store up and running by next week. I've already created the store on etsy, but I need to take more shots of each flower and get them priced. I hoped to do that this weekend, but it looks like this might be one of the only free weekends we have to go camping this summer. The flowers (and the house cleaning, yard work, wedding invitations, etc) can wait.

Enjoy. xo

honey, let me sing to you

2009-06-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

(My blog titles tend to be lyrics from songs I'm listening to at the moment. Right now it's the new Joe Purdy.)

Here's more. You can tell my favorite colors as of late are pinks, blues and purples.

she's crafty

2009-06-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the flowers I've most recently finished. I need to become more adept at photography, but I've tried my best to capture them. Mostly, I'm working on creating wearable pins. I'm also going to make barrettes and headbands.

"Oh Sweet Petunia" is born!

2009-06-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start selling my flowers! I've been contemplating doing this for awhile, thinking I'd get started after the wedding. Then, I was out on E Burnside shopping and wearing one of the flower pins. Two shops expressed interest in carrying them and it got me movitaved. I'll also carry them on Etsy. I'm still trying to get get everything figured out but I've been busy crafting new designs the last few weeks.

I made all the flowers for my upcoming wedding (boutonnieres, bouquets, table settings, and corsages) in red, black and white. Now I'm exploring new color combos and having fun with it. I love my wedding flowers, but it's nice to try some new colors. I'm starting with jewel tones (because they are my faves) but I'll move onto other color combos soon.

I wanted a blog to update about my flower business progress, but I've never used blogger before. I might eventually create a different blog format. I still have a lot to figure out...