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I am moving....

to a new blog that is- check it out: http://kzjostudio.blogspot.com

I will be posting here from now on, so add it to your bookmarks and while your there add yourself to the followers list.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I hope everyone has a fun filled day! Today, I will be planting the garden....however, yesterday my mom and I spent the morning together. Here's what we did:
First it was off to get haircuts- * I will try to get a photo later. I went with some shorter bangs and lots of layers. My hair is really getting a lot darker and there are already quite a few white hairs. I am not joking I am going white at 25... who knew.
Then it was time for a trip to the quilt barn. I really love this place, they always my favorite fabrics. So mom and I picked out some fabric for a baby gift for a shower that is in a few weeks. Then Heather the owner told me she got in some fabric that I had requested (it wasn't even checked in yet) so I had to have some of it, I got the first cut off the bolt and would have loved to have all of it, but i only went away with two. I am going to make a top for my mom to wear at my cousin's baby shower on Sat. Anyways, here are the swatches of the fabric:
* it is by anna maria horner

 

I am sure that this looks familar, it has been in fabric spotlight and on one of my party boards.

  

I love this one and it really looks awesome in person.

After the exciting time at the quilt barn (really how could my day get any better) well, it was off to Shopko to get Murder, She Wrote Season 3!! (yes, it is already in the dvd player, in fact I am listening to it now)

Then we made a pit stop at mcdonald's and got happy meals.... and as soon as I got home it was time to start sewing. I made a mockup of the top for my mom. Fits like a dream and she wear the mock up around the house and I watched some Murder, She Wrote. 

Later that evening we had dinner followed by strawberries with fresh whip cream. 

Really how could a day be any better! 

Sketch board #4 Gifts for Mom and garden update-

 

I love the ideas on this board- I would love to have one or two of everything on here! ;) 

and now for a garden update- I transplanted some of the tomatoes but I seem to have about 80+ tomato plants around here. Crazy! I still have some more to transplant hopefully they will all grow...

Here is an overview of the seedlings- 

  

Here are the first 20 transplanted tomato plants- (these are all yellow pear)

  

Here is the next 20- (some more yellow pear, some tigerella, and crimson beefsteak)

  

These are all the tomato plants that still need to be transplanted (I have to get more containers)

  

Here is a closeup at one of the transplants:

  

and finally the lemon cucumbers have really taken off and already have their secondary leaves, I think I will be planting a lot outside here soon....

  

Finally, I thought it would be fun to share this art project with you. I am doing this with my mom's 5th grade class. I took a photo where there is only half of you. Then centered it on some illustration board and drew in the rest. (I whipped up this sample yesterday afternoon) 

Enjoy!

  

* it is a rocket ship and the other half of me is an astronaut! Deep space here I come!

Well have a good one! 

Swatch board #4

A. Tutti Frutti Cotton Leaf Scroll on Olive
B. Tutti Frutti Cotton Print Large Multi Stripe on Tan
C. Tutti Frutti Cotton Print Outlined Flowers on Yellow
D. Calico Fabric- Streamline Pink Circles
E. Calico Fabric- Blushes of Color Packed Flower

* all fabric is from jo ann's

In other news yesterday was under the weather, uggghhh. I didn't get a whole lot done. I did start drafting patterns and working on some print outs for the business. Hopefully I will launch July 1st that is the goal, so get ready for that. I realized that I never did my monthly goals on the blog this month so here they are:

- Get into a regular workout schedule
- Get the garden transplanted to the outdoors
- Eat healthier
- Get outside on the nice days
- Work on the behind the scenes part of my business
- Make more things from scratch- avoid a lot of unnatural things
- Set my studio hours

Well there they are, I am really focused on the workout area and the food area. I am trying to lose about 40 more pounds.  I know it is a lot but it will be best for me in the long run. Well I hope everyone has an awesome day!

Sketch board #3

here you go:

 

This week I thought it would be fun to design some pj's and simple slippers, I think choosing one of the fabrics and use a matching a solid would be awesome!  

In other fun news, yesterday my cousin and her husband came down for a quick little visit. I had a lot of fun chatting with them and has anyone seen the new foodnetwork magazine out.. We are looking for it... well have a fun rest of sunday I have a few projects to get out of the way! 

Fabric spotlight (swatch board #3)

okay... sorry it has been quite awhile. Well, I am back and will be back for now. I have been working on my business plan (up to 16 pages), branding, and creating all the paper products that I will need to get my business up and running on July 1st. So if I don't blog that is probably the reason. I have been sewing up a storm, I will be able to show you all of the projects on May 17th, I don't want to spoil any surprises. In other news, I spent a delightful Saturday with my cousin Kristen (who is expecting) and we scrapbooked the day away and had some lunch with our grandparents and her husband. I got 3 pages done, except for the journaling on 2 of them. Monday nights are going to be reserved for my scrapbooking, I think so I don't get to far behind on Xavier's album. I love spending this time with my cousin, it is great to have a day just for fun. Well onto the swatch board. Today's fabrics are all available at Jo ann either the store or online from the Heidi Grace Collection. (the next few boards will all feature fabric from jo anns) I sign up for coupons and get them in my email and I pick them up at the store. I rarely pick up anything full price at Jo ann, so I thought it would be great to feature some fabrics that are really affordable. (* I really watch the ads and get items on sale and then use a coupon on something that isn't, my savings have really added up especially on huge sale days. I believe I have saved 50% total on all of my purchases there.)

So here they are:

A. Midnight kisses Multi Floral Cream
B. Daydream Floral Stripe
C. Daydream Stripe Cream
D. Beyond the Sea-Multi Dot
E. Beyond the Sea Yellow Tossed Sea Life
F. Daydream Circle Dot Blue

*sorry I feel to busy/lazy to link today....if you put in the search box on joann's website you should be able to find them or go to quilting fabrics and you will find the collections and will be able to see all of the Heidi Grace prints.

** Sketch will be up in the next few days. Happy May!

Sketch #2 and a Garden Check-In

 

 Here are some of my seedlings now:

  

  

  

  

And here are some blooms from around the yard.

  

  

have a good one... :) 

A full post

coming first thing tomorrow, filled with the sketch and photos of my garden in the making. This weekend has been filled with outdoor projects (finished planting my seedlings), making my garden journal (turned out awesome), and have been doing some spring cleaning. In other news, I ran my finger through the sewing machine so I have not been tackling the projects because I really need that finger to not hurt when I sew. So tomorrow will be the day to tackle those, hopefully.

Here's today's agenda:
Plant eggplant
Put the homemade turkey stock in a ziploc bag
Finish cleaning out the closet upstair (I need room for prop space & a shipping area)
Clean off my desk
Work on my business plan
Sketch
Do some product development
Research photo shoot locations
Develop an idea for a spring tutorial on the blog
Pilates

Now, lets see how much I get done!

**edited- crossed off what I achieved yesterday. Now I am going to try to get the rest done and since my laptop is downstairs and the scanner is upstairs the sketches will be up in the morning tomorrow. Plus, I will get the next swatches up. Have an great day!!

A favorite combination: Orange & Pink

Oh, how I love you orange and with a dose of pink you are so pretty. This swatch board is based on that color combo. So here you go-

 

A. Full Bloom in Orange from Amy Butler 

B. Orange/Ripple Stripe from Amy Butler

C. Tangerine/Dream from  Amy Butler

D. Munki Spots by Heather Ross from Reprodepot 

E. Mingling/ah09 gold from the Garden Party Collection by Anna Maria Horner 

F. Cathedral/ah21 Zinnia from the Good Folks Collection by Anna Maria Horner

G. DC3901_Petal Mod Blooms from the Andalucia Collection by Patty Young 

In other exciting news, here are some of my first sprouts of the season:  

  

*zinnias

 *broccoli

 *yellow pear tomato

I am so excited! The garden is starting to sprout....

Sketchboard #1

I really loved the fabrics from last Wednesday's swatch board (note: for information on fabrics and where to get them click here for the post) Anyways, in the future I will get up the sketch board on Friday, but with all the Easter festivities and the rush of projects I am trying to get done, it fell by the wayside. 

Let me know what you think of it!

I have been super busy with a variety of things...

tomorrow, I will get the sketches up, but for now here are some photos of the beginnings of my garden, (only half is planted) and the baking of Jeri's birthday cake...

 

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

  

  

Jeri testing the icing!

  

the finished 4 layer cake!

and here are some cookies that I made: I need to find a better icing recipe! They looked cute, but really didn't taste that great...

  

As a side note: here is a photo of the Easter pie I made for breakfast on Easter. 

  

The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I got mixed reviews on it. Mainly it was a little too cheesey, but it did have lots of spinach and other goodness in it!  

I will try to get a real post up today after the egg hunt...

wish us luck and happy easter weekend!

Sorry for the lack of posting...

i have been found here:  

 *sewing napkins for Jeri's 25th birthday party on Sat.

I have spending as much time as I possibly can working in my studio, watching golden girls and murder, she wrote (I am getting desperate for season 3 and the rest of them) and attempting to cross off as many projects as I can in order to devote more time to finishing my portfolio, website (well, deon is working on that), and designing some children's clothing. I will soon be able to show you the projects that I have been working on, but most are baby related items so you will have to wait and see. 

As a side note:
welcome April, may you be filled with productivity, warmer days, garden fun, sewing projects, time spent with friends and family, working out accompanied with weightloss and forging ahead with my career goals.

Project of the Week- Wishing you well cards

I was going to do a sewing project this week, but I can't show some of the stuff i am working on since they are gifts. So here are some get well cards i made, feel free to change the sentiment to whatever occasion you wish. I think that they would make awesome Happy Spring cards or a birthday card.

here's what they look like finished-

 

Materials:

Cardstock (mine is from Michael's)

Patterend Paper (I used the Heather Bailey paper from Autumn Leaves)

Craft Stick (or other type of glue)

Scissors 

Embellishments ( I used gems, stickers, decorative paper, clear rubber stamps, and cardstock)

So here we go:          

Step 1:
Fold cardstock in half and line up the straight edge of the template on the folded edge of the cardstock. Trace and cut out (picture 2)

 

Step 2: 

Use scrap paper that has a straight edge and apply glue to one half of the card. Adhere to the back of your pattern paper (see picture 2).

  

Step 3: 

Cut out around the card (see picture 1). Next begin embellishing: I used a stickers, cardstock, a technique tuesday tile, and the wishing you well stamp from hero arts. *note when applying the strips of cardstock let them hangover the edge (see picture 2) and then cut after the glue has dried. 

  

I added some gems for some sparkle and used a watermark inkpad to decorate the envelopes. The size of the cards fit in an A7 envelope. *Note: these cards did use extra postage and I recommend when ever you use gems or things that stick up to take them up to the post office employees. They can check to see if the cards will get stuck in the machines, which could mess up all your hard work. 

Enjoy!!! 

Project of the Week: Heart Garland

a last minute holiday touch. *I used the cricut Doodlecharms cartridge to cut  out all the hearts but you can cut them the old fashioned way or with other die cut machines.

 

Supplies: 

Cardstock (I used pink, bright pink, and red)

invisible thread 

Tools:

Sewing machine

Diecut machine

Step 1: Cut out all the hearts in various sizes (mine range from 1.5" to 5") 

Step 2: Thread sewing machine with invisible thread and begin sewing hearts together in a random order. (note: pull enough thread out after sewing each heart in order to have them hang a few inches apart.) 

Step 3: Hang garland and enjoy!

I love the way this looks in the corner of my studio. I think I might make seasonal ones to hang right there! Next up Shamrocks!

Project of the Week plus Photo of the Week

Here is the project of the week: A Day of the Week Memo Board

 

  

I used some leftover chipboard and covered it with some Heather Bailey paper from Autumn Leaves. Then I created some labels to cover clothespins and adhered those to the chipboard. So far it is coming in so handy in my studio since it really helps me to organize my projects for each day. I have been using scrap paper for my lists. 

and now for the Photo of the Week: Xavier got a special treat for the first day of February. A powdered doughnut. lets just say he loved them and the mess was everywhere. :)