products and new ideas

there are a few new products brewing over here on linwood avenue. i'm not ready to reveal the whole shebang, but here is a little sneak peek :)

love and sewing

work has begun on my "love quilt" and it is moving along quickly. the top of the quilt is made from large rectangles and stripes of anna maria horner's beautiful fabric. since the fabric blocks are so large, it didn't take me more than a few hours to cut and piece together. i am constantly amazed at how much variation happens when you cut by hand. i really try to be so exact and specific, but each rectangle came out a bit different from the other. go figure! it all worked out in the end and after some trimming, all is well.

now for the exciting part - hand quilting. i have never done this before, but i am so excited to dive right in, especially since i now know how to hide your beginning and ending tails. i plan on incorporating a lot of flowers, leaves and french knots :)

short and sweet

begin anywhere.

that's been my motto for quite some time now. short and sweet - no excuses when it comes to following your dreams.

when i read this design*sponge post, the wheels in my head started spinning. i wanted to stamp the words somewhere in my house, and that's when my eye fell on my sewing chair.

my mom surprised me with this chair years ago and i still love it. so i borrowed some metal stamps from a friend, grabbed a hammer and got to work. once the letters were imprinted, i filled the indentations with white paint to make the letters pop.

the result is perfectly imperfect :)

facebook and new beginnings

good news - linwood avenue now has it's very own facebook page. will you "like" me? follow linwood avenue on facebook here and be the first to find out about exclusive happenings, blog posts and general weekly nonsense!

pink and black

for my 10x10 festival booth, i decided i want to have a price sign reminiscent of old apothecary chalk board walls. you know the kind where they would list the prices of every single option behind the soda fountain counter. i was all prepared to paint a large sheet of wood with chalkboard paint, and then trim it out with moulding strips. that was until i found these barrister cabinet door frames at a junk shop while on vacation. (my husband loved packing these smelly thing amongst all our other luggage!)

i coated the frames with an old can of pink paint i had lying around. then bought some thin plywood which was cut to fit into the channels on the back of the frames. since i have to write a bunch of item pricing on the signs, i decided to use chalkboard paint pens instead of actual chalk. i love that i have a bunch of color options going this route.

to gussy up the frames even more, i added a crystal knob to each one. the only thing i have left to do is drill 2 holes into the top of each frame for an "s" hook to slide into so that i can hang them from my festival tent.

fabric and new ideas

my first spoonflower shipment of fabric arrived today and i am THRILLED! the repeat is perfect, the color is perfect, the size of each flower is perfect! now the questions is what do i make first? 

i have a feeling that the fabric will be hanging over my chairs in this exact same spot for a few days so i can sit and stare, and then i will start cutting it up with a tear in my eye :)

lighting and springtime

over 2 years ago, i acquired this retro kitsch chandelier at a barn sale. i tried a few times to conquer the rewiring of this piece, but it just wasn't going to happen. when a friend suggested i turn it into a candelabra, inspiration struck.

the original piece had a bright yellow cone going from the center up which housed a standard 60 watt bulb. this was the first thing to go, and then i took off all 5 bulb sockets. all that was left was a small piece of pipe on each stem which i glued inverted nails to. these serve as anchors for the candles. i only had tapers lying around the house, but i think small votives will fit nicely into each bloom as well.

i am already planning my 2011 easter table around this centerpiece, and in the meantime, it might be seen hanging from a tree in my backyard during an outside dinner. unless of course i decide to sell it??? hmmm.

full and white

ever walk into a store and you can't stop staring at an item even though you don't need it whatsoever? that happened to me this past friday at the local second hand shop. a bridal store must have gone out of business because i was surrounded by wedding and bridesmaid dresses. then i came across this crinoline - be still my beating heart! i instantly came up with a ton of crafting ideas for this fluffy white tulle. with festival season ahead of me, look out for some girly white christmas trees and some fluffy layered pillows.

rocking and rolling

with the start of school, i feel like summer is winding down. which means i need to stop rocking my days away and get in the fast lane. with my new found free time, i am so motivated to finish up projects with loose ends and start knocking out new items on my to do list. among other things, this is what i have in store for the weeks ahead...

• finish my brothers quilt (enough already, his birthday is just a few weeks away!)
• start my love quilt (which i have been dreaming about daily)
• string ties onto my new bookmarks (i bought this brightly colored bakers twine which is going to be perfect!)
• source stores to wholesale my botanical prints to (so exciting)
• whip up some festive holiday items for my show in october (think silver pipe cleaners and tree bark)
• start searching for patterns and fabric for the munchkins halloween costumes (not sure i can beat the knight costumes i made a few years back)

i am sure many more items will be added, but i need to get through my tivo list before i can begin to add anything else :)

first starts and treats

the munchkins started school yesterday and it began with a rocky start. swimmer's ear and some general first day jitters had us ushering crying kids into the car headed to our elementary school. good news is that i picked up happy and very chatty kids (on the golf cart of course) from school at 2:30. i can hardly believe i am the mom to a kindergartner and a second grader.

my first day of school treat for them was a giant cupcake. it's such a funny mold, i needed to give it a try. there were a few issues since i was using a gluten free cake mix, but in the end, it all turned out. the icing on the cupcake was seeing the grins on my little boys faces when they saw what their treat was!

trips and tons of fun

the whole family packed up this past week and headed to emerald isle, nc. this is our second time here and it didn't fail to be a relaxing trip once again. we meet up with old college friends of mine which is always a good time, especially seeing all of our children play together!

we ate a ton of great seafood...

boogie boarded til we had shells coming out of our ears. seriously, one wipe out and you have no less than 3 cups of shell pieces in certain cracks and crevices where they should never be!...

and even saw some beautiful wild horses on shackleford island...