Friendship Bracelet Swap: More Mail!

Today is June 10, which means you have 10 days to get your friendship bracelets to me for the swap! I got a few more over the past week which I'm excited to share with you. I wasn't expecting the range of bracelets that have come in, so that has made mail call a lot of fun each day!


Above is the awesome two-strand bracelet from Casey, and the load of floss that she sent in for me to donate. And her so sweet hare card. Whoever gets this in exchange is a lucky lady!

This one is from Susan, who did a very awesome split and change up in the middle, showing off our two favorite styles of bracelets. Love!

Okay, Felicity's bracelet is going to remain a secret because I both love her little folded envelope and I am not certain that I could put it back together if I opened it. But thank you Felicity for including some extra materials!

And the last in this batch is from Kathi, who made her bracelet in a style that I have never seen before. It's very circular and impressively professional looking. Kathi, if you read this and you know of a link to a tutorial to make this kind of bracelet, please do share—I'm very curious about the process.

For the rest of you who have signed up, the weekend is coming, so it's time to get making! Actually, these don't take all that long to whip up, so I hope you can find some time to complete yours. And a big thanks to everyone who has sent theirs in already.

Baby Quilt Update #2

I've been steadily working away on the baby quilt that I'm making for a friend—the small size means that it was the perfect thing to keep me busy on our weekend road trip—and I thought I'd share some of my progress.

After finishing my last quilt, which was rather intensively hand stitched, I've decided to go easy on myself this time around—which means I'm not stitching every line on the fabric design. That is making this process much speedier and I'm already over halfway done with the quilting.

When my sister saw this quilt in progress, she commented that out of all of the quilts I've made, it's the least "baby" looking. I agree, but the person I'm making it for is a pretty stylish lady, so I wanted to be sure that I made her something that fits in with her aesthetic. Plus, I figure that bright colors are good for babies and once the kid is old enough to not want to lay around on a quilt, it can turn into a wall hanging. Two for the price of one I say!


For those of you who are intimidated by hand stitching, please see my totally not uniform stitches above. I like to think that since it's handmade, it's not supposed to look perfect. In fact, that's sort of the point.


P.S. Thank you all for the bday wishes yesterday!

On Turning 30

Today I turn 30. Recently someone dear to me asked me what my younger self would have thought of what my life has become. What immediately popped into my head was "Oh thank God". My younger self—to which I mostly mean who I was from about 18-26 when I was struggling mightily to figure out who I was, what I wanted from life, and how to reconcile those two things from whatever my reality happened to be. Those years were really tough for me and I honestly wasn't sure about much.

But then I found friends, two in particular, who helped me to believe in myself. They kept asking me questions, gently forcing me to talk, to open up, to let them in. And eventually I did and everything else began to shift.

I learned to be nicer to myself, even if those lessons came after particularly intense injuries which helped me to accept myself where I was.

I learned the power of making and sharing my work and my crafts.

I figured out that I actually do have a lot of power. I moved myself to Iowa because I had a feeling it might help my life balance out in a way that suited me. I'm still amazed at how right I was.

I've learned that just because I am far away from most everyone else I love, distance doesn't have to dictate that love.

I've found out the importance of having more fun and how much better I feel when I have daily doses of laughter.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that over the past few years, I have managed to make my life look and feel exactly the way I always hoped that it would when I was a little girl and a young woman. It took a lot of time, and a ton of work, but here I am. Happy, healthy and ready to start the next decade of my life. I admit that the number has been tripping me up a bit simply because it seems so impossible, but if things keep moving in the direction that they have been, I'll gladly take the upward momentum.

I recently found this picture of myself (I was probably 6) and I just love it. I'm going to do my best to keep this version of myself in mind this year—I think that sparkly sass is a highly enviable personality trait no matter how old I am!

**the numbers at the top of this post are a special download—0-9 all created out of tiny plants and blooms—by my art director at ReadyMade. Click here to download and use it yourself!

Weekend Highlights: Nebraska!

Apologies that this post is so late. Blogger wasn't letting me post this morning, then I had to go to work...and here we are 12 hours later!

My first trip to Nebraska this weekend was completely splendid. We went to Red Cloud, NE for a Willa Cather (maybe you read My Antonia in school? She wrote that, among many other books and stories) conference for Josh. The theme was her work and food, so I was more than happy to tag and eat along. 

We stayed over in Omaha on Friday, then hit the farmers market in Lincoln, NE for breakfast the next morning. We got there just as the market was opening, which meant it was quiet and calm and fully stocked with kolache for us to sample. There was an informal taste test in the car, only to continue when we got to Red Cloud and had another dose of kolache (a Czech pastry that's not too sweet and is filled with just enough fruit filling) that afternoon. I'm not complaining—they are delicious!

The highlight of Saturday was two fold: an edible prairie tour, where I learned that it's probably best not to try to eat anything you find on the prairie unless you are a trained naturalist, and square dancing. The "barn dance" wasn't exactly in a barn, but oh man, I had totally forgotten how much fun it is to square dance. I didn't have my camera with me, but you should know it was the most fun I've had dancing in ages—I like that someone tells me what to do! (And yes, New York friends, I realize you are laughing at me right now but I just don't care!)

On our way back on Sunday, we stopped for a hike around the Nine Mile Prairie outside of Lincoln and ate wild blackberries along the way. All in all, it was so nice to see such different landscape and eat so well.

I am really enjoying living in the Midwest!

Inspired Image: Photographer Mandy Lynne

Hello, my name is Mandy Lynne

You can find me at: mandylynne.com and skippydesigns.etsy.com

This image comes from blog.mandylynne.com

It inspires me because I love dreamy, light filled images and my current color fascination is yellow.

I particularly love that it embraces the carefree imagination of childhood. It captures my daughter in her element.. she seems much like a delicate butterfly herself flitting & dancing her way through her magical imagination.

It makes me feel peaceful and happy

 The 3 words it conjures up are.. beauty, warmth, joy,

***
Mandy, thank you for sharing your image this week and for starting my Friday off really well. I am now determined to get lost in a sun-filled moment just like your daughter. For those of you who haven't seen Mandy's work before, here are a few other prints available in her etsy shop that I particularly enjoy.

So with these lovely visuals, I wish you a great weekend. I for one have an edible prairie tour and barn dance in my future and I couldn't be more excited. Details Monday!

Link Love: Flowers For Your Hair

I have just realized that while I think wearing flowers in my hair is just the most delightful idea, I'm not sure I've done it in recent memory. SO, this post is as much meant to inspire you as it is me to put a little spring in my locks.

I don't often wear headbands since they can get lost in all of my curly hair, but I love, love, love this Double Pink one above from Jen of JRLYDesigns. She has some amazing flower bib necklaces that you should also high tail it over to her shop to see, along with more satin floral headbands and bobby pins in a wide rainbow of colors.

The little bobby pins above are from Grace of The Pagestoppers. They are silver plated with vintage-inspired flowers, in such pretty pastels. They remind me of what I would have wanted to wear when I was little—which is remarkably similar to what I want to wear now (it usually involves pink!).

These floating flowers are actually in our latest issue of ReadyMade (which you should totally check out- it's filled with fantastic summer projects and recipes, including ice cream!). Betsy of foundling is the creative force behind them and they are made out of old polyester blouses. You could make them in any style that you like—click here for the how-to so you can make your own at home.

You'd really need to be in the right mood to wear this Rosette Fascinator, but I can think of at least one sundress that I own (a simple white one from Jcrew) that this would be quite fetching with. It's just one of a slew of varieties from Giant Dwarf.



I guess the point of all of these accessories is me saying, you know what? Some days it's perfectly acceptable—no, suggested—to go a little bigger. Subtle is lovely, but some days call for a little showing off. (I'm not sure what's inspiring all of that, though a big bday is rolling around next week, so it might be that...)

Friendship Bracelet Swap: They are Starting to Arrive!

When I was first thinking of hosting a friendship bracelet swap a few months ago, I admit that I was slightly intimidated by the logistics of it. For example, I had a deadline to sign up that has mostly proved to be meaningless—which means that if you are just finding out about it, feel free to email me at thingswemake [at] gmail [dot] com for more information! Anyone who can make a bracelet and send it to me to arrive no later than June 20 is completely welcome aboard.


Okay, now to the fun part. The bracelets! I love (love!) getting these little packages in the mail and I'm going to share them all with you as they arrive so that you can see what other people are making and see what you might wind up getting in exchange.


Up above is the AMAZING collection from Little Messy Missy. I was blown away by the assortment—yes those are charms on the ends of most of the bracelets! Each one is a little bit different and she was so kind as to include a bag of floss to add to my donation to the girls of my local Boys & Girls Club.

This second one is from Breanna (on twitter here) and I love the color combination (pretty similar to my own) and the sweet note that she included for her soon-to-be new friend.


Keep them coming!