Sew Much Fun

After 10 years of sewing projects on my ever so lovely discolored beige Singer sewing machine I was elated to recieve a Singer Confidence 7467 (which by the way is recommended by none other then Martha Stewart)for Christmas!!! I was very grateful for my first Singer that was passed on to me from a friend's Grandma and that vintage model has served me well or at least that's what I thought until I whipped out my new machine and started on a project. I can't believe I put up with such sloppy stitches for so long!!! And now I have so many other stitching options to choose from on top of the new ease of bobbin and needle threading. I have so many projects lined up that I wasn't sure where to start. Since I was in need of an additional gift for a cousin of mine and the weather outside was frightful I decided to head in that direction. After digging through my piles of spare fabric pieces I somehow ended up with this cute little satchel. I wanted to keep it pretty simple with vintage burlap and the embelishment of her intial in a fun floral print. I added some simple vintage buttons at the handles ends and tried out the hand crossstitch stictch on my machine. Of course there's things I would change if I were to make it again...like adding a pocket to the back...but overall I think it's pretty cute. Here's hoping she thinks so as well!

Christmas Time is Here!

It's a winer wonderland outside my house and I'm hoping for that White Christmas everyone is currently singing about. The freeway and roads near my house are so quiet and if I try hard enough I can almost imagine what it would be like to live away from the city...well almost. I just love the ground all covered in white though and will enjoy it while it lasts.

Last year I was so good about getting my Christmas decorations up early and even had all my Christmas presents purchased, wrapped and under the tree at least two weeks ahead of time. This year however I've not been quite that organized. I have no plans of company at my house this year so I guess I was a bit lazy. I still enjoy setting out some of my pretty things and decorating the tree just to satisfy the Christmas decorating urge.

There's a large thrift store not far from my house that I stop by often. They always have random vintage Christmas items for sale all year round so I've been collecting vintage bulbs this past 8 months. I had not realized how many I had until I pulled out all the boxes. Much to my suprise I was able to cover my whole tree. The ornaments tend to lose their tops and not wanting to waste them I had the idea to turn them upside down on top of some of my lights. It is a subtle effect but very pretty as you can sort of see in the pics below.



A couple other spaces in my house got added Christmas decor as well but I kept it pretty simple.

My parents's puppies even stopped by to help with the Christmas decorating but as you can see they were not of much use except for being pretty cute! :0)



Well I have a wrapping paper mess to clean up so I best get to it.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Doing a New Thing

Well after a few months of testing the waters of what self employment might look like I've discovered a number of things I do not want to do and a number of things I enjoy. While I do have fun finding cool vintage things at garage sales, thrift stores and the like I really want to focus more of my efforts into bringing some of my own ideas into reality. Fear has held me back quite a bit in making this happen but I've decided that the new year is going to be about taking risks and trusting God to take care of the little things. This blog is where I will share some of my ideas, new things I am working on and vintage items I have discovered as well as the experiences in this adventure they call self employment. Taking the leap ~ kt

Ecclesiastes 11:4-6