Moving

Well, at the end of July, John and I up and moved.  It was hectic, and exciting (I drove a big truck for the first time) but now it is over.  Our last piece of furniture (John's desk) arrived today, so I finally have my craft table back and I will start cranking stuff out again soon, I am sure.  In the meantime, enjoy pictures of the chaos that is moving.

All our stuff in the U-Haul truck.

Just the first few items moved in.

All our stuff moved in but yet to be unpacked.
 Look for peaks of the space finished yet to come!

All my plants settled in and enjoying their light.

Purse

Hello all!  I just thought I would show off one of the purses I made last week.

 I made it with the intention of being able to carry around the book I am keeping all the information about my wedding plans in.  It has pockets for my wallet, phone, and keys as well as two pen pockets, one of which is large enough for my epipen.

 It is super comfortable to wear, and I used scraps from other projects to make it, so I didn't even have to buy any more fabric.
You can see it here sporting two of my new pins from a cool etsy shop you should check out, beanforest.

Increased productivity

Leaving work was bittersweet for me.  It's been almost a week and I miss my regular customers, I miss my coworkers, and I miss my boss.  On the flip side, I have gotten so much done.  End of last week, I came up with a new wallet design, and made two new wallets for my etsy shop.  Listings for the pink lined one, and the white lined one, are up. They are made from an old pair of wool pants that were my father's in the 1970's, and a few silk ties a regular customer gave me when he retired.  Check it out.

Both wallets have six card slots, and two cash pockets.  They are very standard men's bifold size, but the wool gives them a really luxurious feel, and the silk ties inside are a really unexpected splash of color.

And that is not all I've gotten done!  I also launched my food blog, The Hungry Griffin, made two purses (photos still to come), and made a rollup for my makeup brushes.  Not to mention all the packing I have done for our upcoming move.

Anyway, the rollup.

As I have been packing, I have noticed that my way of storing things is not always optimal. For example, I was just leaving all of my makeup brushes on the bottom shelf of our medicine cabinet, with our toothpaste and John's various shaving tools.  It isn't the tidiest option, so I decided to make a little rollup for them, so they could all live in one place together.

Isn't it cute?  And the best part is, I made it to fit perfectly in the little clinique bag John's grandmother got me for Christmas.  So now all my brushes have a safe place to live.

So I hope you enjoyed my little update, and expect some photos of purses to come.  (Oh, and if you have a father or grandfather who needs a new wallet, you know where I am.)

The Hungry Griffin

Hello all,
Just wanted to let you know that I have started a new blog.  The purpose of this one is to share my crafts and love of crafting, the new one is all about food!  I love to cook, and the new blog will not neccessarily be about epic food journeys, but rather about the ones I take every day in an attempt to feed myself and my fiance.  I hope you will check it out, and I hope you will like it.

The Hungry Griffin

July Fourth

So much has been going on here, you can't even imagine.  We signed a lease on a new place last weekend, we are moving in three weeks, my last day at work is Wednesday (more on that later), and actually, it doesn't seem like so much when I try to list it off, but believe me it is overwhelming.  And the overwhelming nature of packing is amplified by the fact that John will be busy studying for and taking two bar exams up to two days before moving day.
Anyway, I feel like I haven't gotten anything done for weeks, so I'll share my fourth of July cake with you.

Chocolate of course.  I was struck by the idea of making a red, white, and blue cake, using strawberries, buttercream, and blueberries as the colors, respectively.
I layered the cake with fresh berry layers and topped it off with berries.

 I (as usual) used sweetapolita's recipes for chocolate cake and buttercream.  The difficulties I encountered were typical of me, I didn't have enough eggs or any white sugar.
The first shortage was solved by just not making much icing, which worked out as John and I have never been fans of too much icing.  The second left me making icing with raw sugar.  A delicious alternative, but not nearly as white, so the Fourth this year was celebrated with red, off-white and blue (a fact not well represented by my photos).

Etsy update

Hello all, I have some renewed listings up in my etsy shop, so be sure to check them out, and spread the word if you like what you see.  Thanks!

And here's my final couch post. . .

Here it is, the last you will hear of my couch.  What's that? You don't know what I'm talking about?

Oh, look.  Throw pillows.
So I completes five throw pillows.  The blue one with red leaves you have seen before, but the rest are new to our home, and I have to admit to being very pleased with them.  I bought four 18" square throw pillows and one 12"x18" throw.  They can be bought at any basic crafting store.  I got mine online and had them shipped to me (nothing better than receiving a HUGE box that weighs almost nothing).  The first pillow sham I planned was designed to showcase all the amazing fabrics I got for the quilt (see the last post) and to tie the color scheme into the couch.

I went for the fan of triangles and really loved the way it turned out.







The next pillow I made is reminiscent of the ones I have on my bed.  You remember:

I used the same basic branch shape from this previous pillow on my 12"x18" center piece pillow sham.

I really enjoyed the challenge of attaching the branch, and after I had the branch fully sewn on, accenting it with the cute little leaves was awesome.
In case you didn't know, my fiance graduated from law school last weekend (WOOHOO!) and his whole family was in town to celebrate.  Incidentally, when checking out the apartment, my future sister-in-law absolutely adored this pillow, so guess who is getting one of her very own.
Always one to brag about my zipper installs, I have pictures of that too.  Here you are:

 Next, building off the rough edge look I got with the little leaves, I chose to tie into the colors and fabrics with a mosaic of circles.

 The effect strangely enough fits in with the rest of the pillows really well.

(sorry I'm going picture crazy, but that is another really good use of my grow light, white light like taking photos in sunlight!)








The last pillow took some more fiddling and a lot of ironing seams down, but I think it fits in with the other pillows (and the leaf theme) and completes the look I was going for.

I hope you have enjoyed my couch's transformation (I feel like I just completed a grueling reality show makeover) I certainly have.  I promise no more couch posts, but don't worry, you haven't seen the last of me making pillow shams for throw pillows.  (I have turned into such a little woman).  As proof, here's my inspiration for my next pillow sham: