Button & Bean

Bee Improvisational- October

2010-09-24T07:00:00.008-04:00

Greetings fellow improv quilters!

October is my month, and after thinking for a long time about it, I’ve finally decided what to do. I’m going to stick with simple and modern fabrics and designs this time around. I’ve been holding on to a couple yards of fabric for just the right project so I figured this was it. I went and got some coordinating solids and I was ready to go!

The inspiration for my quilt is Denyse Schmidt’s Drunk Love quilt. I love the variations that have been done across the craft/blog community recently and I just know that you will all come up with wonderfully creative blocks!

Requests:

- Please make your blocks in the style of the sample photos I have provided. (see below)

- Please use only the fabric I sent.

- You may make your squares any size you want as long as they are square, not rectangular. I will be putting them together in a “floating” manner so a variation of sizes would be great!

- I have provided different amount of the solids and would like them to be represented in your blocks in relation to the amount per color. In other words, a larger amount of white and only tiny pops of orange should be used in your designs since I included a lot of white and only a small amount of orange fabric. Make sense?

- Your angles don’t all have to be 90°; slightly wonky works too… whatever you want to do is fine with me.

- Lastly, please return any unused fabric to me so I can make extra squares.

I hope this all makes sense, feel free to contact me with any questions. I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! Thank you in advance and have fun!

VQB- Bee Improvisational Roundup

2010-09-23T07:00:00.001-04:00

The second quilting bee I am in started this past May. My month for sending out fabric is October, so before I do that I thought I'd share with you the blocks that I've made for the past five months.

Leila started the group off by sending out white and green fabrics for her "A Forest on White" theme based off of an Ingrid Press quilt. In this group we are required to make at least two blocks each month... for Leila I made three (or two and a half, I told her that she could add the extra tree to wherever, or just not use it at all).

June was Jeremy's month and his inspiration was from an Oh, Fransson! quilt. I really enjoyed making his squares so I made three for him!

July was Jackie's month and her theme was "Christmas in July". I enjoyed her wacky tree fabrics the most so I focused my blocks around fussy cutting those.

August was Carrie's month. She had been saving up some Make Life fabric by Moda and asked us to create our blocks based on some of the statements on the fabric. I chose to highlight 'make life creative' and 'make life fresh'.

This month, September, is Wendy (the group founder's) month. Like Carrie, she had been collecting specific fabric for a while that she asked us to use. She sent out different black, white and red prints and several large letters to focus our blocks around. She's hoping the finished quilt will not only be beautiful and stylish but also a learning tool for her two toddlers.

So that's what I've created so far for Bee Improvisational (not sure why all these photos came out so fuzzy when I uploaded them, sorry). Stay tuned for the instructions for my month, October :)

Virtual Quilting Bees

2010-09-21T08:04:00.023-04:00

For almost a year and a half I have been involved in a virtual quilting bee. As you know, I love to quilt and I love to read art/craft blogs. It is so inspiring to see all the creative blocks that people come up with and post online from their virtual sewing bees. Then it dawned on me one day early last year that I would really love to be in one, so I scoured my friends and family and pulled one together. Our group, Sewer's Block, is now in it's second year and going strong! Since then, I have also joined a second virtual quilting bee comprised of total strangers called Bee I mprovisational. We don't have a blog, but there is a flickr group and soon I will share photos with you of the first few blocks I have made for that group. But for now, here are the blocks I made for the first year of Sewer's Block.

I started the group off in June. I chose my theme to be "Scrappy" since it was only the first month and I thought it would be the easiest for people to get their feet wet. I sent out green, blue, red, purple and black scraps and asked for random blocks with no symmetry or specific patterns. Here are the two blocks that I made:

July was my mom's month and she sent out green, blue and brown fabrics. Here theme was "Houses". Here are the two blocks that I made for her:

August was my sister-in-law Devon's month and her theme was "Stars". She asked us to make one large star and sent everyone vintage 30's reproduction fabrics in different colorways for each member. Here are the two blocks that I made for her:

September was my Aunt Nancy's month. She sent us a specific pattern and asked us to use "Polka Dots" as her theme. Here are the two blocks that I made for her:

October was my Aunt Pat's month. She sent us different green, black and purple fabrics for her "Vineyard" themed quilt. Here are the three blocks that I made for her:

November was my friend Molly's month. Her theme was "Fall" and she sent us many beautiful designer fabrics that she found online. I made her two blocks and then several months later made her four more with some extra fabric that she sent me.

December was my friend Jill's month. Her theme was "Christmas" and she sent us all different pieces of fabric from a coordinating jelly roll. I made her two blocks and then again, several months later, made her four more with extra fabric that she sent me.

January was my mother-in-law's friend Pat's month. Her theme was "Snow Falling on Cedars" so she sent us a pile of pre-cut squares to create our interpretation of snow in the forest. Here is the square I made for her:

February was my mother-in-law's month. She sent us different muted blue, green and brown fabrics. Her theme was "Crazy" and she wanted us to piece together her fabrics and then add embroidery embellishments on the top of each seam. Here are the two blocks I made for her:

March was my second month (we didn't have enough members so a few of us took on two months). I thought we should all try out a new sewing method and requested everyone to make a paper pieced string quilt. Here are the two squares that I made:

April was my friend Jill's second month. She sent us deep greens and bright orange and yellows for her "Log Cabin" themed blocks. I made her two blocks and then made her six more blocks several months later to help make her finished quilt larger.

May was my mom's second month. She sent out batiks in green and blue shades. Her theme was "Your Choice" so we could put her square together however we wanted. Here are the three blocks that I made for her:

So those were my 39 blocks for 2009-2010 Sewer's Block. I learned a lot and improved greatly. I hope to keep getting better in my sewing skills over the next year! Look for Sewer's Block 2010-2011 photos coming soon as well as some blocks from my other group, Bee Improvisational.

My Baby is 2

2010-09-05T07:25:00.000-04:00

Emma's Art- Robots

2010-06-09T13:51:00.003-04:00

As you probably know, Emma loves to color, especially lately. She seems to always be asking us to come color with her, which of course is fine with me, I love to doodle! She started out with the "side to side straight lines scribbles" and from there has moved onto the "circular swirls scribbles."

She doesn't often ask me to draw specific things so yesterday I was drawing shapes for her to name and color in (fyi: she's partial to stars). We happened to be watching an episode of Backyardigans called Robot Rampage when she placed a new crayon in my hand and said, "obot pease" (robot please).

So I drew her the above robot. She seemed happy because she kept pointing at it with a big smile and saying, "obot, obot!" So I course drew her more robots...

She immediately told me that this blue robot was the "me-me" (mommy) robot and then asked for a baby robot (she says baby clearly so no need for phonetics here). She helped me color them in as we continued to watch the episode. When she was done with these two I brought the original back over and asked if she wanted to color that one in... apparently not because she then ripped it in half ) hence the two torn pages.

I took the hint and tried to come up with new robot designs (see the above and below photos). This teal one was still not good I guess because it wasn't worthy of being colored in. The 'daddy', 'baby', and 'doggy' below must have passed inspection because she colored those in the most.

After drawing the above purple robot and the sad looking robot dog I realized that trying to draw different kinds of robots just wasn't working for me. I got stuck on my original design I guess... oh well! (Which was then echoed immediately by Emma "oh well!")

So I drew one last, unoriginal, dancing robot :)

Stuffed Animals for VA

2010-06-07T10:51:00.005-04:00

I've been itching to share some more of my stuffed animals with you. Last month I made two new stuffies for my niece and nephew who live in VA. They were surprises though, so I didn't want to post them early and ruin the fun :)

This blue and orange striped guy (a bear?) is for my new nephew (born last week!). They haven't met yet, but he's waiting in his crib for the big introduction. This bear is quite large and I feared he might scare Beckett (my nephew) but seeing as how Beckett was nearly 10 pounds when born I don't think it will be a problem ;)

This special creature is for my niece. She's into all things pink and currently loves monsters and zombies. My brother tried to get Kensi to name her Pink-Zilla... instead she chose Fluffy, haha!

(I could have sworn that I took a bunch of pictures of her but this is all I could find... sorry.)

I'm on a stuffed animal kick again and I think that with each creation I get a little better. Want me to make one for you? Just send your bright wool sweaters my way ;)

Mustache Monster's New Home

2010-05-21T10:44:00.006-04:00

First I want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who participated in my first giveaway. I am overwhelmed by the love and support for my little green monster friend. I truly wish I could send one to all 136 of you :)

I narrowed down the participants to my top five favorites:

Miriam said... Well Hello there young man. I would love to invite you to join us in NZ there are no princesses to harras you in this house (except me as the queen bee) it is all BOYS. You will enjoy some serious racing on the back of the tricycle, trying out my pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins and getting aquainted with a special game my 4 yr old invented called 'the dice game'. You will also get to experience kiwi culture and sleep by a warm eco-friendly fire. As a part of our family we will name you 'Mr Mo' in recognition of your fine moustache. We wait in hopeful anticipation that you will indeed join our family soon.

Jaddy said... he would be called Manfred the MuMo (for mustache monster) and he would be living in vienna, the posh capital of austria, where he would attend the opera on a weekly basis, read sigmund freud's theories on child-parent relationships while sitting in arthouse cafes and sipping viennese coffees with cream, and take rides in horse-drawn carriages around vienna's pompous habsburg-era buildings. in about six months he would receive a small playmate (gender yet unknown) upon whom he would be able to bestow all his new-found knowledge and appreciation of high art ;-)

Phoenix Peacock said... Salvador because Salvador Dali had one of the craziest mustaches known to man. Salvador might enjoy painting in a smock... to follow his namesake of course! If Salvador chose to live with my family and I, he would enjoy hikes in the mountains, mad-hatter tea parties, cooking lessons, and lazy days at the farmer's market!

(Alli Jagoda) said... I need a good one eyed monster to do some night time guard duty for my 3 year old son. Perhaps this little guy would alert me if my son gets out of bed when he's not supposed to. I can't offer him a large salary just room and board. I hope it's OK with him if I call him Blinky.

Vic said... Mwahahahahaha.... I LOVE him. I LOVE HIM! He WILL be living here, in a cold country part of Victoria, Australia, alternating his permanent abode, no doubt, between every room of the house - there will be fights I think, about where he WILL sleep, mostly between my 2 year old and I... Quite obviously his name is Marcel the Moustacheod Monster, he's quite the cultured little fellow don't you know. Future hobbies are sure to include correcting pronunciation, part-time ringmaster duties, and the tireless pursuit of creating the perfect Choux Pastry. Did I mention I LOVE HIM?!

And the winner is... Alli. You can thank my daughter who picked your name out of a hat ;) I hope "Blinky" enjoys Minnesota and your two children!

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

May Giveaway Day

2010-05-16T21:09:00.013-04:00

Sew, Mama, Sew! is having their annual giveaway day and I'm excited to announce that I will be participating this year!I've been making new stuffed animals recently and if you win this giveaway you'll be taking home the above mustached monster.

He recently had a rough break-up with his female monster friend and is looking for a new home.

Want to know a little more about this pocket watch wearing guy? In his free time he enjoys siting down with a strong cup of Earl Grey and some Tolstoy. He also likes listening to smooth jazz and tries to get in a little painting on the weekends.

One thing that he doesn't like? Hanging out with these singing and dancing creatures that belong to the one and a half year old princess of his current home.

He's hoping that his orange mole and furrowed brow will melt your heart. He'd like to find a new home and wants to know what you have to offer. His bags are packed and he's ready to be shipped out. The only thing he asks of his new owner is to please not put him in the washer or dryer... he is made of 100% merino wool and will shrink!

To enter this giveaway (only one entry per person) I would like to know what you would name this mustached monster, where he'll be living and any new hobbies he may take up.

This giveaway will be closed Thursday, May 20th at 9pm EST and I will pick the winner on Friday. Good luck!

Keepsake Quilting with my Mom

2010-04-26T11:56:00.019-04:00

Sorry that I've been missing for a week. This past week was Chris' vacation and we were super busy. One of the many things I did was take my mom to Keepsake Quilting. It was her first visit there and she enjoyed it very much. We're going to try to make it back for the big summer sale on June 4th... we'll see.

I started out taking photos of all the beautiful fabrics, but then I got so engrossed in picking put my fabric (I had a gift certificate from Christmas that was burning a hole in my pocket) so I forgot to keep taking pictures, oops.

They have the most gorgeous selection of batiks that I've ever seen. I've never actually purchased any of them but I do enjoy looking at them.

This time around (this was my third trip) I found lots of fabric from some of my favorite designers. My mom kept looking at me like I was crazy every time I'd yell out "Ooh Michael Miller!" or "They have Lizzy House?!?! Yesssss!"

We ended up spending two hours there and I went home with several quarter yards of 30's reproduction prints that I had been drooling over for quite a while. I plan on making a quilt for Emma out of them for her big girl bed (some day).

And of course I went home with lots of beauties from the 25 cent scrap bin. The scrap bin was my mom's favorite part too... a woman after my own heart :)

Emma's Art

2010-04-14T10:44:00.002-04:00

My 19 month old has really been into coloring for several months now. We color every day and she's getting much better. For a while she couldn't press down hard enough for the color to show up very well but she's gotten the hang of it now. We put the paper and crayons on the floor and she goes to town (in spurts because she has a very short attention span). Usually she will sit cross legged and then bend her top half down so her face is inches away from the paper... it's very funny.

The other day I was finishing up some quilting cutting at the kitchen table and she started to get fussy. I only had a couple more minutes of cutting so I handed her a scrap piece of paper that was laying next to me. The paper made her happy and she ran off into the living room as if she had found something she shouldn't have. I finished up my cutting and five minutes later she strolled back into the kitchen and handed me this:

I'm pretty sure it's my most favorite thing she's created to date! I plan on using it as a bookmark :)

Belated Easter Eggs

2010-04-13T12:15:00.015-04:00

Better late than never, right? Seems to be a trend for me lately... sorry.

My mom helped me color eggs the Saturday before Easter so I prepped the eggs on Friday. I love the idea of blowing out eggs because if there is one you make that you love you can hold on to it for future years. The only problem with blowing out eggs is that it takes forever! It's only once a year though, so I spent a few hours during Emma's nap and got to work.

In the past I have done the 'poke the holes, blow out egg with your mouth' method. It always makes me super dizzy and I never get more than two to three blown out. This year I heard about a specific tool they use to blow out eggs so I thought to myself... "what do I have around the house that might work? A bike pump? Nah, that wouldn't get a good seal around the hole. Ooh, how about a baby bulb syringe? Perfect!"

top hole bottom hole

I ended up cracking three of the eggs. In the first one I made the holes too small (I think they're unsightly so I always make them small to begin with, never works), so I made the bottom hole larger than the top hole and that seemed to be working well... until the second egg literally blew up in my face. Lesson learned, push the air through the syringe slower.

The next eight eggs worked perfectly and only took me about ten minutes per egg! I think I got over anxious that I was almost done so I accidentally cracked the eleventh egg, sigh. But I finished strong and got a perfect twelfth!

On Saturday I prepped the eggs. I decided to use the vinyl tape and botanical methods. On the first four eggs I used some of Chris' electrical tape for the vinyl method. It was pretty narrow so there were only a few design ideas I could use. I ended up using an exacto knife to cut out the shapes. I did try some of my scrapbooking punches (see the center egg with the flowers) but the tape just ended up sticking to the punch and not going all the way through.

On the next four eggs I tried out the botanical method. I gathered some of the only green leaves I could find outside. There isn't much variety at this time of year in New England, but it was just enough to test out the method. I discovered the the flatter and more intricate greenery works the best. I was skeptical about attaching the greenery to the eggs with egg whites, but they actually held really well for the most part. For my last egg I combined the two methods to create Emma's 2010 Easter egg.

Later that night, after we put Emma to bed, my mom and I got to the dyeing stage. I decided to try out the special bakers food coloring that I had received at Christmas. The colors looked so vibrant in the bowls I just had to take a picture ;)

In the end I was not happy with the way the colors turned out. They were very muted and when we tried to add a second color after removing the tape or greenery the first color would simply wash away. It was frustrating but I am happy that I tried using those colors... now I know to stick to the cheap store-bought variety! As you can see above I also dyed the broken egg shells. I left them in the bowls for at least fifteen minutes and most of those turned out nice and bright (especially the inside of the shell where the egg membrane is still attached to the egg.) If I were to use these colors again I would have to figure out a way to keep the blown out eggs fully submerged and be content with only using one color.

These are my two favorite eggs. Mostly because they had the most interesting greenery and because I only used one color (instead of dyeing the 'revealed' sections I left them white).

I enjoyed these two vinyl method eggs as well, though I was still frustrated that half of the vinyl technique disappeared with the application of the second color. Also... do you see how they both have two horizontal lighter lines.... every single one of the eggs had this. I of course didn't see this until they were all colored. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Must be something about the gathering process from the hens that created it? Bizarre.

I just love how vibrant the inside of the eggs are! I had big plans to use these broken shells for the mosaic method but never got around to it... maybe next year.

Here is Emma's 2010 egg that I will save for next year (no, I am not going to save them all). I found this little wooden egg holder and our local thrift store. I was beyond excited that I would have a way to display her egg (in the past I've used shot glasses) because I don't have a special Easter egg plate or anything. I'm really looking forward to using this every year to display her decorated eggs!

Twenty-Nine and Two Days

2010-04-07T11:37:00.009-04:00

... that's how old I am today :) My birthday was full of ups and downs (as most days are) but I was able to spend a lovely weekend surrounded by family, which was the best gift I could ask for.

I wasn't going to write a birthday post, but then I received a gift so wonderful I couldn't not share it with you. My amazingly talented friend Jill made me the cutest clutch (wristlet?) that she saw on her favorite craft blog h omemade by jill who found a tutorial via From An Igloo.

I'm in love with the fabrics Jill picked for me, she definitely knows my taste. I have the same blue fabric she used but in green and I just adore the little blue flowers in the red fabric! Maybe someday I'll tackle this tutorial myself and make a clutch for someone... I'll just add it to my "sewing to do list", haha. Thank you again Jill!!!

Eggs, Eggs & More Eggs

2010-04-02T10:44:00.005-04:00

Thanks for your input everyone! I think I'm going to try out the botanical eggs and the vinyl eggs. I won't be able to post about it until next week though, because I won't be doing them until tomorrow.

Ever since publishing the Egg Decorating Decisions post I've been seeing more types that I'd love to try out. Among my favorites are:

Chalkboard Eggs

C hocolate-Filled Eggs

Egg Decorating Decisions

2010-03-31T10:46:00.011-04:00

If you followed me on Simple Things last year you'll remember that I used a silk-dyeing technique to dye our Easter eggs. I had a lot of fun doing it that way but I'd like to try something new this year.

I've found many creative ideas online but the problem is that there are so many that I want to try that I don't know which to do. Perhaps you can help me decide? I'd like to try only one new technique a year (okay, maybe two).

Here is what I'm trying to decide between:

Mod Podge Mosa ic Eggs

Wax-Resist Dyeing

Tissue Paper Eggs

Drip ped-On Eggs

Lace Eggs

Botanical Eggs

Scrambled Lines and Letters

Craft Punch and Vinyl Eggs

Stenciled Eggs

These last three are essential the same technique, just different variations on what you can create.

There are too many choices, I keep wavering in my decision. Won't you help me decide? Thank you!

Lastly, I just wanted to share with you some of the eggs that Chris and I decorated for 2007 & 2008. I had blown out these eggs so that we're able to enjoy them every year. I didn't blow out any of last year's eggs, but I plan to try to do some again this year so that I can add to our Easter egg collection :)

Beckett's Quilt

2010-03-30T09:59:00.008-04:00

Two weekend's ago we had a party here for my soon-to-be nephew Beckett (my first nephew... yay!). I've been working on putting together his quilt for a while now and just barely got it finished in time.

I couldn't find prints that I liked in the correct color scheme for his bedroom, so these are slightly off, but I think it will still work. His sister, Kensington, is really into pirates so I figured he would be someday too... hence the skull and crossbones. The blue camouflage looking section was a print that has sharks and I did my best to cut around them to have it just as water.

Please ignore the un-ironed wrinkles :)

I also made my first fun backing! I embroidered some lyrics from a Backyardigans song, bordered it and placed in off-center to add some visual interest.

I forgot to take a photo of the entire back, sorry.

There are two mistakes that jump out at me whenever I look at the quilt, but my brother and sister-in-law seemed to love it, so I hope Beckett does too!

Corned Beef and Irish Soda Bread

2010-03-22T15:59:00.005-04:00

Okay, so I've turned into a fibber once again. I did in fact end up making corned beef on St. Patrick's Day. My friend Molly talked me into it... and I have to say, this is going to be a new yearly tradition! I slow cooked it with some veggies and it was so yummy. Another new thing I made for the occasion was Irish soda bread... this was so good that I will be making it several times a year! If you want either of the recipes I used just let me know :) Beef, bread & brussel sprouts= yum, yum, yum!!!

Recipe: Creamy Brussel Sprouts and Bacon

2010-03-17T07:30:00.001-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I'm not a corned beef and cabbage kind of gal so I thought I'd share this recipe with you instead. I figured it'd be alright because brussel sprouts are in the cabbage family and it's probably the closest thing to an Irish meal that we make.

I've never really been a brussel sprouts eater until my brother, Josh, made them roasted once... they were good, and I could eat them on occasion, but I never craved them, you know? Well this has changed all that. Josh came to visit last month and came up with the recipe on the spot. Let's just say that I liked it so much we've already made it twice since then.

Creamy Brussel Sprouts and Bacon
(keep in mind the amounts are all approximations, my brother does no measure things out)

1. Cut off the ends of the brussel sprouts and peel off the outer layer.

2. Chop brussel sprouts in half and then into strips.
3. Boil brussel sprouts until tender (1-2 minutes). Then rinse under cold water. (You're blanching them.) Set aside.

4. Chop half a yellow onion.

5. Cut up 4-6 slices of thick cut bacon. (4 strips for 1 lb of sprouts, 6 strips for 2 lbs.)

6. Over medium high heat throw in bacon and render. Take bacon out of pan and set aside.
7. Pour out some of the bacon fat then put onion into pan with a small amount of the bacon fat left. Saute.

8. Turn heat to high and throw in brussel sprouts.
9. Saute until water is steamed off (just a couple of minutes).
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Stir in 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream.

12. Put in dish, serve with bacon on the side or just add it to the top (if you stir it in ahead of time the bacon won't be crunchy anymore. We just mix it on our plates.) I would guess that this would feed 4-6 people.

I was so busy eating that I forgot to take a picture of them on my plate. I then forgot a second time the next night when we finished the leftovers... oops! If you're not a brussel sprouts eater I strongly recommend trying this recipe, the cream and bacon alone will make you a convert :)

St. Patrick's Day Garland

2010-03-15T16:17:00.006-04:00

Our Valentine's Day garland has come down and the St. Patrick's Day garland has gone up. The thought of cutting out that many shamrocks was too daunting so I just did circles instead. I figured the color would be the obvious indicator that it was for St. Patrick's Day.

Thinking ahead to the other holidays I'd like to make garlands for, I'm thinking they will all just be circles with the appropriate color scheme... so much easier than cutting out weird shapes over and over.

(please ignore our trimless window)

St. Patrick's Day Headbands

2010-03-10T11:24:00.005-05:00

Remember the Valentine's Day headbands I made for Emma and her cousin? Well, as promised I have made some St. Patrick's Day ones too :)

I messed around with the composition of the felt with these. Do you like the centered circles or the off-center circles better?

I had some shamrock ribbon in my craft supplies stash that worked perfectly with these but I also realized that if I didn't sew the felt pieces onto the ribbon they could be interchangeable with just a metal barrette. Just take the ribbon out and slide the top half of your barrette into place instead... genius! This is definitely how I'm going to make all future felt hair pieces (interchangeable for barrettes or ribbons) this way if you have a picky daughter you can figure out which way she'll wear it and actually let you leave it in her hair.

Or, if your child is like mine she won't want anything in her hair and will give you this face (which I thought I wouldn't see until she was a teenager, oh well!)

You can definitely expect to see more of these hair accessories in the future. I'm thinking Easter, 4th of July, butterflies, flowers etc. Any ideas?

Happy Birthday Theodor Geisel

2010-03-02T09:02:00.022-05:00

"Today you are you, that is truer than true.

There is no one alive who is youer than you." -Happy Birthday To You!

Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg
1904-1991

My favorite author is Dr. Seuss. Yes, I know, he wrote children's books... but in my world, there is no better author. In his lifetime he wrote forty-eight books starting with And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street and ending with Oh, the Places You'll Go!
His posthumous books were Daisy-Head Mayzie, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! and My Many Colored Days.
He also authored thirteen books under his lesser known pen name, Theo. LeSieg: starting with Ten Apples Up on Top and ending with The Tooth Book.
Lastly, and a fact I never knew, he wrote one book under the name Rosetta Stone called Because A Little Bug Went Ka-choo!

He was an amazing man with amazing talent who sadly never had children of his own. I want to honor him and his gift of the written word (and illustration) by sharing some of my favorite passages of his with you.

"Don't give up, I believe it you all! A person's a person no matter how small." -Horton Hears A Who!

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." -Oh The Places You'll Go!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” -The Lorax

"What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” -How The Grinch Stole Christmas

“When the tweedle beetles battle with their paddles in a bottle full of water on a noodle-eating poodle, it’s a tweedle beetle noodle poodle water bottle paddle battle.” -Fox in Sox

"But McBean was quite wrong. I'm quite happy to say. That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day. That day they decided that Sneeches are Sneetches. And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one, or not, upon thars." -The Sneetches

If I absolutely had to choose a favorite it would be a tie between Fox in Sox and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? Fox in Sox is my favorite to read aloud but Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? holds fond memories from my childhood. What's your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

I'll leave you with this last quote of his that really hits home for me these days.

"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"

I Don't Knit (But I Should)

2010-03-01T09:48:00.008-05:00

Back in college I made an afghan for Chris made up of 70 six-inch granny squares (because that's all I knew how to make). It was a fun project but it took me forever and I unfortunately didn't finish in time for the occasion (birthday? Christmas? not sure). I eventually finished it, and like a good boyfriend, he loved it even though it was late.

Needless to say I haven't tackled a crochet project since. I have thought about it many times but it wasn't until this month that I actually picked up a needle again and got to work. I have several skeins of that blue yarn leftover from Chris' blanket so I thought it would be nice to make Emma a small blanket (a totally manageable size) to match his. Chris loved this idea too.

Instead of doing granny squares again I thought I'd push myself to try a different pattern. I took out my trusty old Complete Stitch Directory and began scouring the pages. There are so many beautiful patterns I'd love to try but for the life of me I just can't figure out the directions. I eventually decided to do a shell stitch (also called fan stitch) pattern. There are of course many way to manipulate the shell pattern but I chose to work over a four double crochet shell. Here's my progress just one skein in...

I'm guessing maybe six to eight skeins left to go until it's the size I want. It will take a while, since I work a little on one project one night and then switch it up the next but I promise I will show you once it's complete. Wish me luck :)

What Inspires You?

2010-02-24T07:00:00.028-05:00

Today is the day that I get to share some of my personal inspirations with you! You see, I am part of the Blog It Forward mashup started by Victoria at sfgirlbybay. It is a movement meant to shrink the blogger community by having all 300 participants post about one common topic. The topic for this initial go-around is inspiration or more specifically "what inspires you personally?"

Like all the other blogger participants I am inspired by so many things that it can become overwhelming at times. I would love to share each and every thing with you, but for now I think I'll just stick to what inspires me the most creatively for Button & Bean and that is... COLOR. This may seem obvious or too simply stated but for me it really is at the heart of all of my creative endeavors. It is the first thing I think about when starting a new project and the first aspect that I feel can make or break an idea. With my visual arts background I have had many opportunities to study color and sometimes I wonder what a career in color would be like. For now I'll just enjoy studying colors on my own and share with you some of the colors that are currently inspiring me the most.

My all time favorite color is green, most any shade will do, but at the top is kelly green.

1. forest green, 2. olive green, 3. kelly green, 4. lime green

I also love to mess around with color combinations, especially when it comes to my quilting efforts. In general (not just with quilting), some of my past favorites have included: dodger blue and orange, plum and kelly green, teal and dark brown & sage green and pale pink. I was never a huge fan of the pink and black or red and aqua trends that were popular this past year.

1. dodger blue, 2. bright orange

1. plum, 2. kelly green

1. teal, 2. dark brown

1. sage green, 2. pale pink

1. silver, 2. pale yellow

My current favorite color trend is yellow and gray (technically speaking 'light goldenrod' and 'silver'). I love the way they play off of each other, it is such a modern feel without being too outlandish. In fact, I am currently so enamored with pale gray that I like most any pale color with it. Because it's easier for me to explains things with visuals and not words, here are some beautiful gray, yellow and white inspirational photos from Etsy.

1. handbag 2. party poms 3. business card holder
4. shea butter soap 5. orchid print 6. felted slippers
7. organic cotton 8. headband 9. girls dress
10. rose pillow 11. satin scarf 12. amy butler bag

Thank you for letting me share some of my inner self with you. I hope you've enjoyed my inspiration. Here are some other Blog It Forward posts that inspired me!

the window ledge who has so many inspirations that the best way for her to express them was through some doodling.
good measure who is also inspired by many things, all of which I found to be extremely touching and mirrored my own inspirations.
Thompson Family-Life who is inspired by her flickr faves photos. I enjoy the vintage feel to the photos and colors.
Swoonette who is inspired by many things, my favorite being natural light, which aided her in taking the beautiful photographs in her inspiration post.

A huge thank you to shesawthings for introducing me yesterday. Be sure to check out the other nine inspirational posts from today and head on over to Cafe Cartolina tomorrow to see what inspires her!

Vancouver 2010

2010-02-22T13:16:00.013-05:00

Has everyone seen the mascots for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics? I know there's been some controversy about them in the news stating that they are "inappropriate and racist" but I think they're really cute! Is that wrong of me? I mean look at them, what isn't to love?

This year's mascots were created by Meomi a design studio based out of Vancouver and Los Angeles. The three anime characters they created are Miga (a sea bear that lives in the ocean), Quatchi (a sasquatch from the forest) and Sumi (an animal spirit who lives in the mountains).

Here are the Olympic mascots from the past ten years for you to compare them to:

Beijing 2008Torino 2006

Athens 2004

Salt Lake City 2002
Sydney 2000

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I'm going to go on the record as saying that I like this year's the best. And I'm totally digging the blue and green color scheme for the Vancouver Olympics too. My husband can attest to this because while watching the games I think I've said one too many times "I love the graphics and colors on all the Olympic signs and logos... so pretty!" Heehee :)

Leo Obstbaum was the was the design director behind the creation of "Transmoflection" (as they call it). This video explains how they came up with the designs and if you have five minutes to spare, it's really worth watching. So creative!

Trying Tatting

2010-02-19T10:06:00.008-05:00

As usual, I was browsing the blogs in my google reader the other day and came across some inspiration (in the form of a video tutorial) for a craft called tatting. I had never heard of tatting before, it is a lace making technique believed to be started over 200 years ago. I don't have any plans to make doilies or lace edges for handkerchiefs any time soon, but I thought it might be fun to make some lace snowflakes as Christmas ornaments.
After finding a tatting shuttle at Joann's and receiving some crochet cotton from my mother-in-law's friend I was able to start messing around with this centuries old technique. It hasn't gone well so far. I've studied this video tutorial over and over, pausing at key moments to study the position of the thread... I just can't seem to get it. I'm going to do some more research online and practice, practice, practice but I was wondering if anyone out there in the blog crafting world has a helpful tips for me? It would be greatly appreciated!

I will update you with my progress if I ever figure this out :)

Valentine's Day Headbands

2010-02-17T08:59:00.003-05:00

I know I promised that the Valentine's Day projects were over but I guess I fibbed. Sunday morning I decided to make some headbands for Emma and her cousin Hannah to wear. I had small bits of felt left from the garland I had made last week, so I cut the last four hearts out. To attach them together I simply embroidered hearts into them with a back stitch. Lastly I attached a bit of ribbon to the backs so that I could tie them around the girls' heads kind of like a bandanna (I made the ribbons extra long so that they could grow into them as well). I wish I had turned the hearts 90 degrees on the string before attaching them, but I still love the way they turned out. And, as always, there are thoughts of making more of these for other holidays.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T07:00:00.003-05:00

Nope, I'm not here to tell you about more Valentine's crafts I've been up to... just here to spread the love! I love love, whether it be the love for your significant other or the love for your friends and family, I believe that love is for everyone and that is how I have always seen Valentine's Day. My husband and I don't do gifts for this holiday. We do celebrate our love today but more importantly we celebrate our love everyday. I am a huge believer in letting those closest to you know that you love them every day... I think it's extremely important. I will try better next year to let everyone know that I love them via valentines but until then, please accept this virtual {{hug}} and this LOVE inspiration via other's craftiness.

Hedgehog Love from Scherenschnitte

E mbroidered Love Note by Katie.Cupcake

Silver Stacking Rings from ShanaLogic

Lovebird Bowls by PrinceDesignUK

D o You Believe in Love at First Sight? by Sophie Blackall

Paper Hearts Garland

2010-02-12T15:04:00.010-05:00

I made another Valentine's Day garland. I actually had these cut out before the felt ones but I only just sewed them together today. The inspiration came not only from all the felt garlands floating around blogland, but also this gorgeous garland made by PinkSuedeShoe. I love all the different papers she used and I admire her guts to sew some of the hearts on haphazardly.

I only had solid colored paper to use but I'm still in love with it. I had thought about using the fold and cut technique but cringed at the idea of creases, instead I just used some scrapbook punches... thus the mini-heart garland! If you're going to use mini hearts like I did I highly recommend sewing very slowly, I had many visions of sewing into my fingers (those visions happen a lot).

I had thought about draping them above our slider but was afraid the tiny hearts would just get lost up there. Then I thought maybe on the pegs on the mirror Chris made me. I finally settled on the chandelier (though not wanting to be a copycat). I like the way it looks but may re-drape to try for a more pleasing affect. I also thought about cutting it into two garlands (there are 142 hearts after all) but nah, I think I'll leave it. Next year though I would like to find some fun paper and make larger hearts (even though I'd have to hand trace them, gasp).

Valentine Decoupage

2010-02-11T11:22:00.013-05:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about what inspires me (mostly because of my involvement in the Blog It Forward mashup) and near the top of my list is the blog community. For me, this mostly means any creative type blogs (not necessarily crafty) just anything having to with design or color or beauty. A lot of blogs in my reader have given me many of Valentine's Day ideas, but seeing as I don't have much downtime (being a stay-at-home mom keeps me on the run) I won't get to all these creative ideas right away. I do however have time for quick projects and am happy to report that I got another one finished this week... I made some valentines! Okay, so technically I won't use them as valentines, it's a little late for that. But they'll make lovely blank note cards to send to people who I'm missing :)

Here's how I made them:
I don't know about you but I get a lot of catalogs in the mail. I do my best to put our names on the "don't send us junk mail" lists, but it never fails... you purchase one thing from a catalog and the rest come flying in. In our case it's seed catalogs. So I thought to myself "besides recycling these how can I reuse them?" I thought of cutting out pictures to make a book for Emma to help her learn the flower names some day (but then I thought it was rather presumptuous of me that she will even enjoy gardening). I thought of just cutting the pictures out to teach her colors but I plan on doing a project like that with fabric. Then I remembered that a few years ago I used to cut interesting colors and patterns out of clothing catalogs (or any catalog really) to use for decoupaged boxes. I made several as gifts, then put the scraps aside for a while. This past summer when I re-organized my craft area I caved and they got put in the paper recycling. Anyway, my story is leading me here... my friend Vic of Swoonette sent us the cutest valentine this week so I thought Emma and I could use cut up scraps from the seed catalogs to make our own valentines.

Some of Vic's Valentines

If you know me well, you know that pink is my least favorite color... however, never say never because there are instances when I like it (it makes me cringe to even say that). This was one of those moments. I decided to just cut out the pink flowers and make sure to cut away as much of the greenery as possible. Then I grabbed my trusty foam brush and some neglected Mod Podge and went to town.

Since this was just an experiment I only covered one 8.5X11 sheet of paper with my scraps. I added the scraps in tiny sections, adding mod podge first, then the flowers, then more mod podge on top. Once the page was full I used my fingers (hope you like getting messy) to flatten out any wrinkles or bubbles. I recommend using a thicker paper for this, the thinner is it the more it will wrinkle. I used glossy Mod Podge but only because I didn't have any matte Mod Podge. After making sure all the pieces were flat I added one last layer to get rid of my fingerprints and let the page dry. Once dry the page wasn't laying flat so I stuck in under one of my husband's history textbooks (which is probably the best way they've ever served me, hehe, sorry hun).

To make my hearts I traced a cookie cutter (wrong side down... you might was to use it for cookies later) and I was able to fit eight large hearts and eight small hearts. Once cut out and trimmed I went down to my craft room to scour my paper supply for some cream or white colored paper. I came up with only one piece of white, peach and red (ick). I cut the blank cards to size, plugged in my sewing machine, glanced at Vic's sewn on heart for courage and started sewing. It was actually really simple, though the smaller hearts were harder to sew fluid curved thread lines. I also sewed some of the smaller hearts on the inside for added cuteness (feel free to gag now). If you want you can add another colored paper inside to cover up your sewing holes, but I think it looks kind of cool (I'm always looking for ways to add visual texture).

I have seen this method done before for making note cards but had never tried myself. Thank you Vic for giving me that last nudge. I am happy with the experiment (though I don't like the red and peach cards nearly as much as the white and cream) and I now realize that I need to stock up on my scrapbook paper (unless I want to use orange paper for everything). I look forward to using this decoupage method for other holidays in the future (green leaves for St. Patrick's Day?) and testing out the note card making with fabric scraps.

I hope this gives you with some inspiration... and Happy early Valentine's Day! I'll leave you with this miniature card I make to put with some chocolate for my special someone ;)

Valentine's Day Felt Garland

2010-02-09T10:17:00.021-05:00

One of my fondest memories from growing up was decorating the house for various holidays with my mom. I have two older brothers and they were never into it so I always got to have that activity for myself. I would love to carry on this tradition with Emma but I have been realizing that the only real holiday decorations we have are for Christmas... so one of my goals for this year is to start making decorations for some of the other holidays. What better time to start than Valentine's Day!

I've found tons of inspiration online and have bookmarked many projects I hope to do with Emma once she's a bit older. Some of my favorites are:

Paper Heart Garland from How About Orange
E asy Heart Bunting fromCrafterhours
Crayon Hearts from Martha Stweart

The decoration I decided to make this year for Valentine's Day was a Felt Heart Garland. I have seen this project on many blogs this year but the first blog I saw it on was Made by Rae.

I thought about using some cookie cutters to trace the hearts onto the felt, but then I realized I could cut out the hearts by hand and like them just as much (plus it gives the garland character because no two hearts are the same). I decided to stick to white, red and pinks for my felt colors, but I have seen this done mostly with a rainbow of colors. I also think it would look very chique with just cream colored felt for every heart.

I'd love to make a garland like this for each holiday but I think it would be much harder to cut out other shapes... the hearts were seriously a cinch! I simply folded the felt, like you would for cutting a heart out of a piece of paper, and then trimmed off any sharp edges.

Next I used the chain piecing method to attach all the hearts together. Once they were all attached I realized that I'd like the garland to be larger, so I just cut out and attached more hearts until I was happy with the length. One thing to keep in mind while sewing is to make sure your bobbin is full, otherwise you have to stop and refill it. It's not the end of the world if this happens because you can just start sewing again in the middle of the previous heart and keep going, but I have to admit that I messed up on my color order twice and had to cut my thread... oops!

If you don't have a sewing machine, or want to try a different method of attaching the hearts (or want to get your children involved) A Lemon Squeezy Home came up with an alternative that uses ribbon. Very cute.

Whether you have children in your household or if it's just you, I think this is a lovely decoration for Valentine's Day and will bring that much needed warmth into your home in the middle of winter! It definitely makes me happy when I wake up in the morning and see the sun shining through the curtains behind our hearts garland.

(side note: my point and shoot camera takes really dark photos, sorry about the poor quality. our hope is that by 2011 we'll have a digital SLR)

Chiro Baby

2010-02-05T11:58:00.007-05:00

My chiropractors are a married couple and back at the beginning of January they had their first child, a little boy named Rhys. This week I finally got around to making their son a baby blanket. I think this might be my favorite quilt that I've made for a little boy yet!

Resourcefulness Part II

2010-02-03T09:55:00.006-05:00

If you were a follower of my old blog then you will remember this post from a couple of weeks ago: Resourcefulness. Well... yesterday we held another barn raising, i.e. Emma found a new six-pack container and carried it around the house like a purse. What I hadn't noticed until that point (and I definitely should have thought of before) is that her new barn is infinitely more appropriate than her last barn. See for yourself...

Past Etsy Find Posts

2010-02-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

Taking a look back, here's some of my creative inspiration from Etsy this past year.

Bunny Vase

Pendants, Pincushions and Prints

I Like Grass

Necklaces for Friends

Past Recipe Posts

2010-02-02T11:02:00.001-05:00

Taking a look back, here's some of what I've been up to recipe-wise over the past year.

Slow-Roasted Oven Tomatoes

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Boursin Pesto Dip

Healthier Fish N' Chips

Pork Milanese

Salmon Cakes

Strawberry Preserves

Past Gardening Posts

2010-02-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

Taking a look back, here's some of what I've been up to gardening-wise over the past year.

Vegetables

Our Ga rden

S unflowers

Past Craft Posts

2010-02-02T11:00:00.001-05:00

I thought we'd first take a look back at my creative endeavors before we move on to new stuff. Here's some of what I've been up to craft-wise over the past year.

Felted Sweater Dress

Stuffed Animals

Fall Tree Placemats

Baby Shower Gifts, Amy

ReFashioned Shirt Dress, Purple

Silk Tie Easter Eggs

ReFashioned Shirt Dress, Blue

Baby Shower Gifts, Heidi

Decoupage Clothespins

National Sewing Month Catch-Up

Favorite 2009 Fabrics

Beer Barn

Sewer's Block Quilting Bee Group

Tote Purse

Emma Dresses & Doll Clothes

Adult & Baby Quilts

Welcome!

2010-02-01T14:01:00.005-05:00

Welcome to my new blog, Button & Bean! I am super excited to get this blog up and running. I have had a few blogs in the past, most recently Simple Things, but will be moving forward with this blog from here on out. Which is not to say that I will never post on Simple Things anymore, but if I do, it will be rare. I've found in my past blogging efforts that my most favorites posts to write are about anything creative... creative things I've done, creativity of others etc., so that is what I will be focusing on! I'm sure this blog will grow and change as I do, but for now I envision Button & Bean to be a journal of sorts for my creative adventures which will include: my multiple craft projects, craft projects from people I know, inspiration from other crafters/bloggers, Etsy finds etc. The posts I am looking forward to writing most are the adventures that Emma (and any future kidlets) and I will have... from crafting, to science experiments, to gardening. So to sum it up, the main focus of this blog will be craft projects I am working on but it can also include anything creative at all!!! I hope you enjoy and come back often to check out what we're up to :)

(I found this drawing in a pile of artwork from when I was little.)