On Color Again

I knew I needed an excuse before presenting the today's subject! And guess what? I found the perfect one:

Phew, I can proceed now, merci Monsieur Léger! This is exactly how I see it and feel it too. What I wanted to show you today is a glimpse on the November issue of Burdastyle. As you already know, I'm a hobby sewer, a very good one I must add, but more about it later. For practicly all my projects I only ever used German sewing magazines with patterns, Burda and Neue Mode (the latter is no more published). So even if I now live in North America, I wanted to feel the joy of receiving my Burda each month so I subscribed to it, more precisely: it was my DH's present for my birthday - he only wanted me to stop wining, really. So now I get to enjoy each month the newest Burda in German language. I received my November issue last week and as I was about to take it out from the envelope something shiny blended me. I couldn't believe my eyes: it was the most beautiful and the most kitschy (I love kitschy!) Burda cover ever! Everything was in red and gold, shiny and glossy, very smooth to touch. I stared at it for the moment, reluctant to open it, fearing that the beauty of it would vanish. Only after a minute or so of staring with my mouth open (I'm easy to impress) I came to my senses and could browse it. Ah, everything in red, plummy blue and purple...

Now I only have to find an occasion for wich I should make one of those fiery beauties. Any suggestions? Or maybe invitations? I'm waiting...

For those who, like me, enjoy those kind of things I prepared a teeny-weeny preview (in purple) of the December issue. Enjoy!

On Color Again

Purple inspiration for my bedroom

Last weekend I found this recycled glass vase on liquidation table for 3$ only without knowing it's going to provoke an avalanche of ideas:

When we moved to our house four years ago we decided to paint the walls in our bedroom green. It was exciting for someone who newer painted walls in color before (me!) but soon I was very limited in decorating possibilities. So I decided to repaint the walls in a more neutral color this time in order to have always the choice of details and to be able to create different atmosphere rapidly following seasons and mood changes (the latter is starting to get rather embarrassing lately ;-)  So when I saw this picture I knew I found a perfect color inspiration for my bedroom for this winter:

The shine of satin gives me the impression of glamour and luxury and the best of all is that you don't have to be rich to obtain this effect. You can go with fabrics, little paint and some details in purple / aubergine / plum / magenta. That way it won't cost you a fortune (remember: recession design?) and you can still change it rapidly when you had enough of it. And I say you should always look at your place before you go buying like crazy and you might be able to find something usable. Here is what i found in my place:

This is a fabric I bought two years ago without knowing what I'll do with it (happens to me more often then necessary). There are approximately 2,5 meter (approx. 8 feet) of it - difficult to say because of the smock effect and stretchiness. I could double it with a nice and cosy fabric and make a throw.

This little vintage dress waits to be used for a pillow cover and this will be it's occasion to rise.

I can also imagine being able to find some nice lamps to repaint and recover also and to paint my two cheaper than cheap commodes in nice rich glossy purple. And I crave a chandelier for my bedroom for quite some time now. I saw one little, modern and cute at Canadian Tire:

It's name is Opulence (how suitable!) and it's 50% of on sale right now, can you imagine? Just 49,99$! Sold to madame in a purple dress!

By the way, there is a nice article over at my beloved Apartment Therapy site about decorating with purple. Take a look.

Purple inspiration for my bedroom

For the rainy Saturday afternoon

I love creating with my hands, it gives me enormous satisfaction to see the finished result. There is not much crafting and DIY that I don't like. Exceptions : crochet (plain ugly, in MHO, with place for exceptions but for some reason I can't stop thinking of those horrible crocheted bathroom sets), knitting (waaay to long to see the result). Surprisingly, I'm not a scrapbook girl either even if I enjoy seeing some of the work out there. And quilting is not my thing neither even if I like sewing very much (why would someone want to cut the fabric into pieces only to sew it back together? Quilto Mazo?) Sorry girls, I didn't mean to be mean, it's just that my (sometimes) twisted sense of humor can be persistent like a fat stain. Believe me, I know what it means to love to do something, I have several addictions of my own...
Where was I? Oh, I remember: i just wanted to show you some little things that I plan to do on this rainy Saturday afternoon (the fist snow is almost completely gone). Here is the picture of the things I found in different corners of my home and that deserve attention :

Some are new (Dollar store though, I'm born on the frugal side) some are trifted. I have 3 simple white frames for my main bathroom. I would like to find some cute prints or just photos for it. The clock was on my patio last sommer and the thing in it got warped, paper I suppose. Then I have 3 little cute trifted frames with angels, hearts and lines (sometimes I can't resist kitsch but I'm definitely not a shabby chic fan). Those demand some cute family pictures. There is also a lamp without shade, I have to think of something. Fabric? Paper? Wallpaper rest? We'll see... I'll post finished projects next week

For the rainy Saturday afternoon

His first Halloween costume ever

Would you believe that I am about to sew my first Halloween costume in my very long carrier as hobby sewer ? First of all, where I grew up, we didn't have this holiday at all ! Last week my coworker / friend asked me if I could sew a costume for her 3-year-old son Noah, she wanted to have something more original then things she can by in stores, especially for his FIRST Halloween costume EVER ! I almost jumped for joy ! Of course I will : I love kids, I love sewing, I love Halloween, I love creating stuff of all sorts...
So I send her some pictures with the propositions of costumes for which I have a pattern. She picked this one with her son:

 

This pictures are rather small, sorry, they are the only ones I have. The costume and the pattern are from the Spanish sewing magazine called Patrones, issue 34 from January 2006. Aren't they adorable ?! You really should see all the others too, soooo cute, incredible ! I can post some other pictures,  if you are interested just tell me.

Well, needless to say, I went RUNNING to the fabric store to find all the necessary material (as if I needed a reason to yet another trip to fabric heaven...). I'm so excited, here is what I found :

  I especially love the printed one, I am going to make that lovely Chinese hat from it. Well I love it so much I am going to create Halloween candy bag in form of a Chinese lantern. This is what I'm using as an inspiration :

What I didn't find is a decorative ribbon to sew around the seams of the costume. We don't have lots of choices in my city and I can't order on the Internet because of the time / cost factor. I have only 25 $ to spend for all the materials so I have to find a solution for the ribbon that costs less then 5 bucks ! Sigh... Would you happen to have any ideas on this ? I would be really grateful for any helping suggestion of yours...
I'll keep you posted on the advancement of this project, there are more pictures to come next week!

His first Halloween costume ever