Do you love these as much as I do?

I absolutely adore mushrooms, toadstools, fungi, whatever you might call them. I don't know what inspired my love of mushrooms but I just think they are so cute. It probably has something to do with garden gnomes or Alice In Wonderland. Either way here are some really cute mushroom images I found online today at weheartit.com.

Don't these look yummy?


I want to make this!


How beautiful!


Reminds me of one of my favorite parts of the book.


I'd love to go for a ride on this.


I want to visit this place.


And this place.


Another fun mushroom craft for me to try.


I'm so looking forward to seeing this, aren't you?


How cute is this picture?


More craft mushrooms!


Creepy but also very cool.


One final shot to leave you with. You can find all these images at weheartit.com and search "mushroom".

Quick crafting: Dog shirt

Do you find a hard time finding dog shirts that fit the style of you and your pup? I do. I get so sick of all the cheesy sayings and frilly designs. I want shirts for my dog that match my style. I see cute designs all the time in the baby section but baby shirts always left too much fabric around my pup's stomach. Until now.

Here's what you need to know to turn a baby t-shirt to an awesome t-shirt for your pup.

Supplies:
Baby t-shirt (I used size 6-9 months but use your discretion based on your pup's size)
Scissors
Sewing machine or needle and thread

1. Try the shirt on your dog to eyeball how much you will need to alter it.

2. Remove the shirt and cut vertically down the back center. Remember the image on the front of a baby shirt is the image that will be on the back of your dog.

3. Turn inside out and match the two cut ends together. You may want to pin your ends in to place.
4. Sew vertically down the shirt. Use your estimate from earlier to determine where to sew. Be sure not to make the shirt too small. It's better to leave too much room at first and have to go back and do this step again than to sew it too tight.

5. Cut any excess fabric but be sure to leave 1/2 inch to an inch in case of fraying.
6. Turn right side out and dress your dog! How snazzy right?



Let me know if you try this out. I'd love to see pictures of your adorable pups in their awesome new shirts.

More from style school

Here's the latest project from style school and my favorite to date. How cute are these fabric button earrings? They are inspired by Mad Men. I haven't gotten in to that show but I really want to check it out. These are super easy, just make fabric buttons and glue them to some earring posts.


More posts this weekend. It's supposed to be a snowy or at the very least rainy weekend so there will be plenty of time for crafting and posting.

Happy Friday!

Old Favorite/New Favorite

Being in this crafty Style School has exposed me to so many inspirational websites with all sorts of new influences in the form of the blogs,websites and images not only from my fellow classmates and instructors but of the ideas that motivate them. It's led me to not only be more exploratory of their blogs but of the web in general to find blogs, images and websites that excite me and encourage my creativity.

In an effort to put a little bit more structure in my blog postings I'm going to start working on some blog post themes. I'm not sure if I'll have a regular schedule yet (specific blog post theme to correspond to a specific day of the week) but I definitely notice that I revisit the same ideas again and again so why not make them a regular post theme?

A couple of them will be:
"Style inspiration" (like the Zooey post from earlier this week)
Some sort of picture blog post (not sure of the name yet but like the rest easy post)
and finally "Old Favorite/New Favorite"

In Old Favorite/New favorite I'll post about art, music, crafts, etc. that I love that show the influence of an old favorite of mine.

So without further ado here it is.

Old favorite: Who doesn't love the work of Gustav Klimt?

Perhaps most famous is "The Kiss"


One of my favorites is "Mother & Child"


And just plain majestic is "Adele Bloch Bauer I"

New favorite: An artist originally from Florida named Casey O'Connell. She has beautiful modern approach to art that floods your eyes with emotion and your heart with butterflies. Looking at her work is like falling in love, or maybe falling for a crush. Either way I can't help but feel like I'm looking at a modern day Gustav Klimt when I look at her work. I look forward to seeing more from Casey and encourage you to check out her site. The only image that is currently available for purchase is When Freckles Collide but I'll try to keep you updated because if you're anything like me you're probably just excited as I am to get some of her art up on your walls.

"When Freckles Collide"


"The Things We Carry"


"Always A Bridesmaid"


"All In"

All images found here and here.

Enjoy!

Happy Early Birthday to me!

Beau let me open up my birthday present early. My main present is that we are going skiing but this was a present that I needed to open before skiing so I can use it that weekend. It's a Holga camera. I chose the 135BC option because I loved the idea of the corners.

Pretty soon you'll be seeing cool pictures like this from me...


Source

I also plan on customizing my Holga like so...how cute is this?

Style inspiration: Zooey Deschanel

Image found here but I believe it originally came from here.

So I'm in this really fun class right now called "Style School". It's hosted by a group of really crafty ladies. The idea behind it is not only to inspire you creatively but also to help you realize and better express your own personal style be it in your dress, the way you decorate or merely in the way you craft.

One of the initial assignments in the class was to fill out a questionnaire answering some basic style questions (i.e. favorite color, time period, etc.). Some of the questions were hard to pinpoint but one question I had no trouble answering immediately was who our style inspiration was. For me that person is Zooey Deschanel.

This morning I was looking up info about that movie "500 Days of Summer" when I happened across this great feature on the Cotton website. Zooey is one of the Cotton industry's spokespersons. The site features this great interview with Zooey where she outlines some of the key elements of her own style.

I thought it would be a fun read for my style school friends and blog readers as well.

Enjoy!

Conversation hearts

Valentine's day is just around the corner and by far one of the most recognizable signs of that impending holiday are the conversation hearts that begin cropping up in stores across the nation. Love them or hate them these guys are a synonymous with this love-filled holiday.

Aside from the fact that they aren't the greatest confectionery recipe of all time, one of the reasons these guys get bad press is their questionable sayings. Things like "got love", "yum yum" and "sure love" are a little lame. While the love of texting has added a whole new level of conversation to these hearts, “OMG”, the overall messages have not really been improved.

While traditionally conversation hearts are generically made by Necco, they have opened up a "Twilight Sweetheart" themed line of hearts. The intelligence level of the conversation has certainly not been improved as these hearts boast phrases like "bite me" and "I want you".

Oh well. If your beef with conversation hearts is the conversation your days of disappointment are nearing and end. Check out this site to make a conversation heart that really speaks to your love.

There was not doubt in my mind what my heart would say...

this is an inside joke between Beau and I. I would gladly buy boxes and boxes of these for my Beauseph, but sadly they only exist in cyber space for now. Maybe Necco will get on the customized candy train soon but until that time have fun making and sending out your conversation hearts via the web.

Rest easy with me...

Look at all these pretty, comfy bedrooms.

The top one picture is my favorite but I have no idea where it came from so if you know please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.



Cardboard bedroom


Outdoorsy bedroom


Patio bedroom


Booklover's bedroom


Playful bedroom

Who could resist...

the opportunity to star in a mural?


And this is just a random shot of an adorable house...I love these shutters.

Valentine Love!

This past weekend I got together with some of my favorites to make Valentine's. We had so much fun using paper, stamps, doilies, pipe cleaners to make some super cute Valentines.

Here are some shots of what we were up to over the weekend...

Fun giveaway...

going on over at Nerd Nest! Check it out!

Wreath-Style school project

So here's another fun style school project. The basic idea for this was to be a vintage broach-inspired wreath. You could wrap your wreath in yarn, felt or fabric but I chose fabric. Instead of making flowers for my wreath, I decided to decorate mine with a bow since bows are so hot right now! I think it turned out pretty well. I might make another one in some funkier colors soon.

I am totally loving Style School. It's so much fun to have a constant stream of projects being fed to you. There is never a lack of inspiration either which is great. There are some amazingly creative people both contributing and as fellow classmates. If you ever get the chance you need to sign up for Style School! It's totally worth it!