New Year's Resolution Quilt Update

Back in January, I made a resolution that I would complete a paper-pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt by Dec 31 of this year.  At the time, I figured I'd make a flower a week until Fall, and then I'd start on the outline pieces before putting everything together.  At that time, I'd just started my third flower, and I was on my way.  And then...  Yeah, I stopped working on it right after I published that post.  Jan, Feb and March were extremely busy months for my shop, and I didn't do much else than fill orders.  Once that was over, I didn't feel like working on much of anything!  In May, I attended a craft party hosted by Sarah from Sadie Seasongoods.  I needed some kind of portable craft, and figured my neglected quilt was perfect.  I'm happy to report that I've been working on it daily ever since.

I decided that I didn't like the larger flowers, and am now doing flowers with the center and two rings around it.  I'm planning to remove the third ring from the first two flowers I made, back in January, so that leaves me with these 11 flowers, plus the two from that I need to undo.  I should be at 24 by now so I'm still a little behind.  Although, I'm thinking now that I'll just stop at 24 because I really don't want a ginormous quilt.  Just something I can drape over the end of the of a bed or that will fit on a twin bed. So I guess now, I'm ahead of schedule.  YAY!  

I would have never imagined I would enjoy working on something so tedious, but I absolutely love every part of the process of making these flowers.  Even cutting the paper templates.  I've always loved having something else to do while I watch TV, and this is the perfect TV project.  It's even better than knitting because there are no stitches to count!  


Until next time...

2014 Etsy Craft Party

Every year, thousands of crafters across the world get their craft on, together, at the annual Etsy Craft Party. This year's theme was Recapture: bring new meaning to your photographs.  

My local party was hosted by the SC Etsy Team, and was held at Due South Coffee located at Taylors Mill Properties in Taylors, SC.  

photos courtesy of Plate of View, Town, Molly Waits, Sweet to the Soul

I'd brought along some photos of my mom, not really knowing what exactly we would be doing with our photos.  Turns out the project involved embroidering our photos.  After thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided  just couldn't do that to these photos.  While I love the idea of adding some spunk to old photos, these just mean too much to me.  Luckily, our hosts provided an alternative project; decorating coffee mugs with paint pens.  

I absolutely can't draw, but I can doodle. Here's my finished mug. 

My friend, Sarah, was wise enough to bring some old candids she found in an antique shop, and her finished project was really great!  Here she is, stitching away on a photo that has been the topic of much discussion about it's subjects.  Who were they?  Best friends?  Sisters?  What happened to them? Are they still alive?  Did they remain friends?

Our fellow Etsians/crafters stitching away. 

The mill where the coffee shop is located, is home to many local artists' studios, and so they host a First Friday on the first Friday of every month. This one coincided with the craft party.  Many of the First Friday attendees stopped by the coffee house, and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of them who came up to the various (craft) tables, curious about what we were doing. It was nice to see that there's such a big interest in the crafting movement.  

I really had a great time at the party.  I met some new people, and I fell in love with a coffee shop located in an old Southern mill.  I can't wait for next year!

Until next time...

Weekend Happenings

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I certainly did! It was full of creating and making.  Friday evening, I took my girls thrifting, and I was able to find two crib rails that I can use for displaying baby blankets and quilts when I do craft shows.  I guess since they're not supposed to sell second hand cribs, the store had each piece priced separately.  These were being sold as "upright ladders" and were $3 each.  

Saturday, I spent almost the whole day working on three baby quilts.  I was able to get two of them finished yesterday and am working on the third one today.

On Sunday, I attended a craft party at my friend, Sarah's house.  I took a quilting project that I've neglected for months.  I worked on it most of the time, but then couldn't resist painting a few Story Stones after watching a friend paint them all afternoon.  I took a couple home to Zoe, and she immediately started playing with them so I've found yet another project to work on.  They're really fun to do, and kids really seem to enjoy playing with them.  *These are not mine.  I only did one, so I had to find a nice set to share with you guys.  You can find the source under the photo.

source

I'd been admiring painted rocks for awhile, and had pinned a few inspirational photos in  the past, but when I actually searched some out on Pinterest, I found a whole treasure trove full of gorgeous painted rocks.

sources

I'm under deadlines for a baby quilt and blanket today, and tomorrow I have to get the house back in order, but I'm hoping to be able to start one some rock painting Thursday!



Until next time...

A New Blogging Journey

me and my girls on Easter 

I've been struggling with this blog for almost three years now.  Back in 2010/2011, it was mainly a trash to treasure makeover blog.  At the time, I was also selling most of what I made. I was constantly going to thrift stores to find items that I could upcycle and resell.  I would occasionally blog a craft or project.  

In the Spring on 2011, I began to struggle with what I was doing.  Most of the craft projects I blogged, ended up being donated to Goodwill either because they didn't fit in with my decor or I just didn't have room for the volume of finished items.  I'm going to just assume that this is probably common among DIY bloggers.  That just seemed like a big waste to me.  Like I was just throwing money away.  The bigger issue was that it seemed like my thrifting was getting out of control.  I was buying faster than I could makeover and sell.  Around this same time, I went through a Hoarder's marathon on Netflix, and totally saw myself in some of these people, scouring thrift shops for cool stuff. At the time, I'd taken over most of the garage, and our spare bedroom with items that I needed to re-purpose.  You can imagine the uneasiness I felt creeping into my thoughts.  

About a month later, I found out I was pregnant.  This was a complete surprise.  It'd been 13 years since my last pregnancy, and we'd assumed that there were no more babies in our future.  Needless to say, we were ecstatic! I couldn't think about anything else.  I was going to have a baby!!  I completely lost interest in my Etsy shop, and stopped doing my makeovers.  I stopped thrifting.  We cleared out the spare room to make room for baby, and I donated a lot of stuff back to Goodwill.  I was too tired to do any kind of big projects around the house and I didn't want my blog to be a baby or mommy blog.  So, I basically stopped blogging.  I did a few posts during this time, on the baby's room, but other than that, it was silent around here.

Zoe was born in Feb 2012.  A few months after she was born, I felt like I wanted to get back into doing my Etsy thing so I started chipping away at my mountain of thrifted items.  Still, I wasn't really blogging.  Just a post here and there.  I still didn't want to have a mommy blog, and I just didn't know what to write about.  With a new baby, it was hard to be able to do a lot of projects, and I just didn't have the time to sit around and come up with blog post ideas anymore. 

The whole time that I'd been not blogging regularly, I still thought about it, and missed doing it.  I would think about how I loved the blogging community, and about how many friends I'd made while doing it, and I missed that!  At the beginning of the year, I decided I would start blogging again, and so I did! Most of my posts have been filler posts, which I really don't like doing because there's no substance there.  I've done a few project posts, but I've found that I sometimes don't have time for that.  Anyone who is a DIY blogger knows how much time goes into a project post.  Stopping before every step to take a bazillion photos, going through all of the photos to find just the right ones, editing photos, then doing the post.  Then, to get your post out there you have to do the link parties.  Oh gosh!!  Sometimes it's just too much.  I just don't have the time to blog like I used to.

So now, I'm here, trying to figure out what I want this blog to be.  I'm mainly sewing these days so I think any projects I blog, will most likely be sewing-related.  My life these days is very much Mommy so as much as I didn't want to have a mommy blog, I think that's the direction I'm going in.  Not so much a mommy blog as a life blog.  I'll be sharing pieces of my daily life with some recipes and tutorials mixed in.  I still have a lot of stuff in the garage, leftover from my thrifting days, so I imagine there'll be some makeover posts thrown in too.  

I hope that I can build my little blog back up, but I've found that where I used to crave a quantity of followers, what I really crave now, is quality.  I want to make connections with people I have stuff in common with. I really enjoy the friends I made through blogging, years ago. They're some of the people I interact most with on my personal Facebook page, and I've even met a few IRL.  I want more of that!!  So please, join me on my new blogging journey!  If I'm still in your reader, and you see this post, pop in and say hi, and leave me a link to your blog so I can visit you.



Until next time... 

Treasury Tuesday - Week Fifteen

Thanks to everyone who took the time to check out my last Etsy treasury.  I'd love for you guys to  stop by Etsy and comment on them each week.  Maybe I'll get one on the front page sooner or later.

I'll be back later today to announce the winner of the latest GIVEAWAY.

OK, here's this week's treasury.  If you feel inclined to do so, please head over and comment and click away.  

Clicking on the title below will take you to the treasury.

I've included a print done by Sarah from Hennessey House.  Her shop is called sometimesiswirl and she's got some amazing stuff over there. 


VISUAL EXTREME 

• 
  AUDACIOUS CIRCUS - Antique...

  taraleasmith
  $22.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Beetle Riding a Tricycle C...

  BugUnderGlas...
  $75.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Red Poppies Aqua - print

  AliceinParis
  $20.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Black White and Red Wool F...

  StemellinaSu...
  $12.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Mod Spot Porcelain Creamer...

  shoshonasnow
  $32.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Flat collar Pilka Dot dres...

  kimsdress
  $39.50 USD
  
  
• 
  1- 4 napkin rings.

  raedunn
  $40.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Little House - White Aqua ...

  thelittlered...
  $13.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Medium Clutch Purse - Ale...

  KimberlyJone...
  $30.00 USD
  
  
• 
  mushroom jar, blue

  lbegley
  $30.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Black and Gray Abstract Fl...

  sometimesisw...
  $15.00 USD
  
  
• 
  I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND...

  MyPrimitiveB...
  $32.00 USD
  
  
• 
  ceramic party bowl in turq...

  maryjudy
  $80.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Pillow Pair . Awning Strip...

  BlueDoorStyl...
  $28.00 USD
  
  
• 
  Mod Type Design - Salt & P...

  tippleandsna...
  $24.99 USD
  
  
• 
  Birthday Banner / Playroom...

  BlueMoonStud...
  $25.00 USD

Time to Get Your Shop On!!

So it's Black Friday and we all know what that means.  It's the official first day of the holiday shopping season!  
While I do love to get out and shop for my peeps, I also want to help support the handmade movement and fellow crafting bloggers and buy handmade as much as possible.  Thanks to Steph over at somewhat simple, this just got a little easier because she has put together a lil' something called Studio Boutique.  

Studio Boutique is like a virtual craft fair.  There are 54 vendors, including The Speckled Dog@ Etsy, all offering special deals just for somewhat simple readers.  Head on over to somewhat simple to see what it's all about.

Speckled Dog GIVEAWAY @ A Little Knick Knack

Just in time for Christmas shopping, I've teamed up with Meg over at A Little Knick Knack for a little giveaway.  The prize?  A $25 gift certificate to my Etsy shop.  Here are just a few of the items I've got stocked.

To enter, head on over to this post at A Little Knick Knack.  Giveaway ends @ midnight on Sunday, Nov 28th.  Winner to be announced over at A Little Knick Knack on Monday, Nov 29th.  

GOOD LUCK!!

Dresser Deets

Here's the story of how I came to have this beautiful piece of furniture in my home.

We'd recently moved a large screen, floor model TV out of our living room and moved a much smaller flat screen in.  Since we'd had the floor TV for years, we had no entertainment center.  Because of this, our TV wall of the living room looked like this.  A lot of individual, non-match-y pieces corralling all of our TV related stuff.

I've done a few smaller furniture makeovers before and so I decided to find an old dresser in need of a makeover and well, make it over.  I thought a dresser would be the perfect thing to use as a TV stand.  It would work whether we had the TV on the wall or just sitting on top.  Also, all of the drawers would keep all of our DVD's, Wii games, controllers, remote controls, etc, out of the way.

For inspiration, I started paying attention to dresser makeovers in the linky parties.  A few weeks ago, I cam across this one.

It was done by the T-A-L-E-N-T-E-D Kathleen over at Between Blue and Yellow.

 When I say talented, I mean it.  Check out the BEFORE.

 Those drawer pulls?  Speaker wire.  Yes, I said speaker wire.

Anywho, I just had to leave a comment because she did such an awesome job on this.  Here's what I said:

Kristi said...

Here from Remodelaholic. This is such a gorgeous piece! Love everything about it!. This is so what I want to go under our TV.

    ~ The Speckled Dog

I was thinking she was probably out West, where most of our type of bloggers seem to be and so I was planning to just use her piece as inspiration for my own.  Imagine my surprise when she responded that she was in Atlanta and if I wanted it, it was for sale.  I'm only a little over two hours from Atlanta!  I called Charles over to show him and I mentioned that it was in Atlanta AND it was for sale AND that it was just what I wanted for the TV.  A couple of weeks later, I found out that he was planning to get it for me.  Say whaaaa???  Oh, that sweet man of mine!  

Yesterday, we rented a pick-up and drove down to pick it up.  We got there right as they'd just wrapped up a block party and it was there in the driveway when we pulled up.  Oh my!!  It looked great online, but in person, it was absolutely perfect!

I got to meet Kathleen.  She's such a great gal.  So easygoing and easy to talk to and get along with.  

me on the left and Kathleen on the right

I also got to see two of her other pieces in person and they too and just like the dresser I got, they were amazing to see in person. 

There's this one that I would love to have taken home if we'd had the room in the truck and in our house.

And this one that she's keeping for herself.

 

Nice, right?!?

Here's my new dresser in it's new home.  

It is definitely the focal point of the room and I seriously can't stop staring at it.  It looks like something out of a PB catalog!  And storage..  oh my!  There's a drawer for everything, including magazines AND knitting!  

I'm absolutely in love!  Thanks, Kathleen!

  

New Addition to the Speckled Abode

We're off to Atlanta, GA today to pick up this gem from Kathleen over at Between blue & yellow.

Isn't that gorgeous??  I'll be back tomorrow with a post on all of the deets.  Hope everyone has a most excellent Saturday!