What a dish

I've wanted to have patterned dishes, I don't know for how long I guess. Definitely for a long long time.  And I've seen a lot of tutorials for doing them. I've pinned a great many. I've seen both the sharpie method, which I tried and found very unreliable, and the expensive but effective porcelain pens.

Taking into consideration that I wanted to use these dishes regularly and for who knows how long I figured I should use the more reliable version. 

I spent a while doodling patterns and sourcing dishes. I figured I'd need a style that didn't have a lot of ridges and designs on it because those would interfere with whatever patterns I drew. I shopped around, and ended up with this set from Ikea. It is actually perfectly smooth which is perfect for drawing on and at eighteen bucks for six place settings I wasn't able to beat the deal anywhere else. 

These were the first six patterns I came up with. I love how well they mix and match and can't wait to set a table with my new dishes and some colored accessories mixed in. I have a feeling this is the beginning of a larger set because now I can't stop thinking of patterns!

At my desk

I've been doodling some sewing ideas recently. Really it started with finding some yellow swiss dot yardage in my fabric box when I was on the hunt for something else. It's pretty much the best fabric ever. I must do something with this. Oh look, there's more stuff in here! 

I guess it looks like I'm going to be doing some sewing

(snapshot)

So I heard about a new app called 'Over' and now I'm just wondering what I was doing with my life before this discovery. Over is an simple and super fun way to add text to photos right on your phone. 

BAM!

Instand personalize photo message?

Totally.

So I've decided it's a fun little mini art project and I will be starting a collection of these images, one a week. I feel like it's an interesting way to look at photos, and I've always been into using text. Even if it's just labeling stuff. 

Like this:

Little bit of night magic

I was having trouble sleeping so I decided to check something off my list.
A friend asked me to make some sort of original art piece for a silent auction fundraiser. Without any sort of plan I started drawing on a wood panel I had gessoed and waiting. And this began emerging...

At my desk

I figured it was about time for me to print on fabric. It seemed like a reasonable step to take from paper.

Now I just have to make something with it.

A little extra decoration

These are just some quick little dessert toppers I made to add to a batch of fudge brownies I brought into the office on Valentines day. I used a paper punch and foil origami paper to make the medallions and some neon price stickers I had lying around to attach them to toothpicks. 

Super simple but also way too cute not to top off some tasty brownies. Hopefully they will taste as great as they look.

Happy Valentines Day

I read somewhere that if you are happy with your first post then you waited too long, so I guess I am starting this here blog.  And what better than a holiday to get things going?

I wouldn't say that Valentines day is my favorite holiday (I mean, there's no costumes, so...) but I am a fan of the color scheme and I think it's great to celebrate love so let's have at it. 

I found inspiration at the dollar store, when I saw bags of these heart skewers. I have no idea the original purpose of these but there were some in flocked velvet and some in glitter so I knew I would be able to come up with something interesting. Nine for $1 so I grabbed several bags.

I came up with this arrow design when I realized that the hearts were shaped similarly to arrow flocking, and that I could use supplies I already had to make a fun and interesting shaped Valentine. After typing some fun little messages on pink paper and sewing gold origami paper to make the arrowheads it was very simple to assemble.