I love collecting!

I love collecting! I love the adventure of hunting and finding new objects. I'm lucky that my husband is a collector too, but the downfall is we have A LOT of stuff between us. Right now I'm collecting vintage needlebooks. They are functional but so silly at the same time. Here are a few of my favorites.


I love the image of women sitting around sewing together. They look so happy and excited to be stitching.


I found the red scissor needlebook in St. Paul. I love that you got a free needlebook with your scissors. They should do that promo again ;)The Singer is from my mother-in-law. There are some scary needles in that thing.


I usually don't collect a lot of the same image but I have 3 of these-maybe cause they are so cute but more than likely it's because I forgot I had 2 other ones.


I LOVE the girl on this one. She is so pretty. What a wonderful gift for "my darling"-a needlebook!



This one is also one of my favorites. It's a souvenir postcard. I really wish they would bring these back. You could hem your pants and have fond memories of your vacation



Once again, very happy women sewing. I know when I'm stitching something up, I'm equally as happy (well, most of the time).

What about you? What do you collect?

Stitch up a feeling with Sublime Stitching Stationary

Did I mention that I love Sublime Stitching and Jenny Hart? She is the one of the main reasons that I got into embroidery. I love her patterns and kits. I most recently got the Sublime Stitching Stationary set. First off, the packaging is SO cute! The top and bottom of the kit is stitched. The inside is a little folder with 4 skeins of floss, 2 needles and 5 cards with envelopes.


The plus,the cards are preprinted and you punch the little dots and start stitching. Also, you pretty much get everything you need to make the cards. The patterns are very cute and there are a few familiar faces in the mix. If you want to cover up your stitching, the kit suggest to cover it up with a piece of pretty paper.



The only downside about the stationary is that I think some of of the lines/dots could be closer together on the curves, cause they are a little hard to do.

I think that you should use 5 or 6 stands of floss instead of the 4 I used and this would help cover the preprinted lines completely. The cards did bend a bit when I stitched them but once I was done, I put a book on top of them to flatten out.


In my opinion the stationary kit is well worth the money, in the US it's only $14.95. You really get a lot of bang for your buck. It's a project that anyone at any level can do. What better way to say I love you than to give your sweetie a handstitched card with your sugary sweet confessions on the inside. It's like candy for embroiderista.

Wonderful Wednesday!

I had a chance to interview Julie from Sewitsforyou. Her embroidery is so cute and whimsical. Not only is she a talented embroiderer but also one of the sweetest people you will ever meet.



How did you get into embroidery and how long have you been doing it?

I got into embroidery about 3 1/2 years ago when my husband Dan was put in the hospital to get his appendix out, then was released with his appendix still in..lol, and was so sick for about 8 days. I saw an ad for Sublime Stitching on Craftster and ordered a kit for all the time in the hospital and started stitching. I started to do embroidery because I could concentrate on a book and for some reason it seemed to relax me. Husband did need his appendix out just had a bunch of dumb doctors..lol


Tell me a little bit about yourself

My name is Julie, I live in Tarpon Springs Florida with my hubby Dan and we are expecting our first child ( a boy) in September. I grew up in Florida but have lucky enough to do some traveling with work and wound up back home about 5 years ago. I think one of the best periods of time I ever had creatively was going to art school in San Francisco. I met some amazing people and had a blast.


Tell me about your indie business
At first I was just making gifts for friends and family members. I had a lot of friends that were having babies and money was kind of tight so I thought I could make personalized bibs and blankies for them. We also would be invited to people's houses and I didn't want to go empty handed so I would make a set of cocktail napkins and package them really cute.

"Sew It's For You" started out because I had made some really cute Sublime Stitching sushi napkins for a family friend who did something. ( can't remember what it was..lol) and she said, " you should sell your things." So I started to sell to some of my mom's friends in her neighborhood.

My original stuff was sooooooo bad, it makes me laugh now. I used to make copies of the pictures, pin them onto the fabric and stitch through the paper to make items. What a huge pain.

I think a lot pf people even when they see certain things I have created have a hard time believing that I hand embroider and hand sew all my items. I do not know how to sew on a machine and the machine I can use for a bit of hemming is older than I am. Hand embroidery is really a lost art. The reason I love SS so much is that they have so many different patterns and they are edgy and they make it hip. I do love the vintage patterns as well as using artists work to create something for me to wear. I love Maicen ( she is on flickr) and Mitch O'Connell.

I did my first show in the fall of 2007 and did a couple more through 2007 and 2008. I ran my own show in the spring of 2008 and the fall of 2008 and it was a lot of work but so worth it. I am planning on only doing one amazing show this year www.atomicholidaybazaar.com. I did it last year and it was a HUGE success. This year is going to be better so if you are around Florida come stop by!
I am starting a new etsy shop soon with a friend of mine to sell patterns, it is kind of a very long WIP. We have had about5 or 6 series so far posted in my shop. These are pdf patterns created by the lovely Regina of wedgienet.net. I joined etsy in 2006 but didn't start selling until 2007. The name "Sew It's For You" came from my clever dad, even though I do embroidery and not sewing per se.



Any advice for the masses
Practice and find what mediums you like to work with/on. I used to get so frustrated when I would try to work with a material that just didn't looks good embroidered or was hard to work with. Now when I find something I like I buy a ton of it and keep it in my stash so I can make something when I need to and not have to go look and hope to find it.

Plus one thing I am working on still is to not take things so personally in life and with your work. I used to used to get so upset when I would post items on Craftster and they would get 500 views and two comments. I try to take it all in stride. I know I have many repeat customers locally and with a new baby on the way I can make him oodles of stuff ( until he is old enough to complain) and keep buys for a long time.

Network, I have met so many creative and fantastic crafters and artists through craftster, etsy and flickr. I have gotten to be very close with a girl from Craftster over the years and she is the best swap partner EVER. We have been through so much in each others lives and we have never met! She is the one I am opening the pattern shop with. I fell like I have known her forever and it was just through craftster we became friends. These fabulous people I have met inspire me and often I get ideas for the newest projects from what these artists post on their sites. A friend from flickr sent me 4 hand embroidered burp cloths for the baby just because. How sweet is that? I have never met her either so who ever20has enough girlfriends?


What is your website/blog
www.sewitsforyou.etsy.com
www.sewitsforyou.blogspot.com

What is your favorite piece of yours?
hmm this is a hard question. I think my favorites change all of the time. These are a few of my fav's





Who/What are some inspirations for you
Inspirations Who: Jenny Hart, Kittykill*, Dan, Sewsew-a-GoGo*, Maicen*, Wedgienet.net*, Lilyvanilli*, Kunderwood*, Amanda Panda Pants*, Shag, Keith Haring, Derek Yaniger, Mitch O'Connell, Adrien Lucas of Tuff Betty Bags. *'d people are found on flickr and maybe craftster too.

What inspires me: retro designs, kids, old school stuff ( ie Fraggle Rock, Schoolhouse Rock, 80's music), music, Flight of the Conchords, cool fonts, tattoos, fun!

Thanks again Julie! You are wonderful!

New Needlework Challenge on Craftster!

Reuse, Recon, Revamp
June 17th-July 17th
Posting your project July 18th-22nd
Voting July 23nd-28th
Winner Announced July 29th

We all have items laying around the house that we know we can make something out of or stitch something on. Now's your chance to do that and win some prizes! Do you have an old lamp shade that's just dying to be stitched on? What about a dated cross stitch that you found at a thrift store that needs to be updated? Let's see what those creative minds have in store for us!


The Specifics:
Post your craft during the period of July 18th-22nd. No sooner. No later.
Voting will happen from July 23-28th

On July 29th (pacific time) a winner will be announced

Each participant can enter ONE project.

The stitching can be any size and any style of needlework.

It has to be a current piece. It can not be something that you have already made and posted.

At the end, I will set up a poll and the winner will be announced


Prize: To be announced (want to donate? Contact me)

It's Movie Monday!

I'm not sure if a lot of you know this but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE old "B" movies and if you have ever been to my house you would know that my husband and I am a collectors of these bad movies. They are in our living room, our dining room, upstairs, and in my husband's office. They are everywhere! I really feel that one of my goals, no missions in life is to spread my love of "B" movies to all of you. I thought I would start with the one of the kings (okay, maybe jesters) of bad "B" movies, Ed Wood.

To me, Ed Wood represents the ultimate Indie film director. He knew how to make a movie on a budget and give the audience what they wanted; suspense, intrigue and a cute girl in a fuzzy sweater (granted that cute girl in a fuzzy sweater was Ed Wood, but that's a whole other chapter)

One of his earliest movies and is still relevant in today's times is Glen or Glenda. In this movie, Ed plays Glen-a transvestite that is coming to grips with his "feminine"side (hence the fuzzy sweater). This movie is SO awful that is it wonderful. We have Bela Lugosi playing the narrator and cut scenes of the devil and wonderful tight cute clothes. What more could you ask for? Incidentally he was hired to make a film about Christine Jorgensen's sex change and made this piece of cinematic history.


Ed's most well known movie is Plan 9 From Outer Space. I. Love. This. Movie. The dialogue makes this film great. How could you not love lines like:

" Now, don't you worry. The saucers are up there. The graveyard is out there. But I'll be locked up safely in there " ( Wait, where are the saucers again and you are where?)

Or this brilliant line:

"But one thing's sure. Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and somebody's responsible." (Someone is responsible for a murder? Well, it was totally believable up till now)

Once again the films stars Bela Lugosi, but unfortunately he passed away before the film was completed and Ed had his wife's chiropractor play Bela's part. I was going to insert a totally tasteless joke here but was told it was too mean, so I'll leave it up to you (or my husband).


Apparently I'm not alone in my love of Ed Wood, Tim Burton is a fan also. Burton's amazing film Ed Wood, is not to be missed. Martin Landau won an Academy Award for playing Bela Lugosi. The movie was based on the book Nightmare and Ecstasy, The Unauthorized Biography of Ed Wood. I'm told it's a great book. Johnny Depp plays Ed Wood and portrays him in a way that I think he would want to be remembered as a man with a heart of gold and an imagination of a 12 year old.


So, check out Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 From Outer Space. You will not be disappointed in the camp factor. For a more "artistic" look at Ed and his eccentric life, don't miss Tim Burton's Ed Wood.

The world's worst film maker? I think not!

It's a Scrappy Dog Sunday!

As you all know, I LOVE scrappy dogs. The scrappier the better in my book! On my husband's urgings I decided to do a Scrappy Dog Sunday entry for the next few weeks(or until I run out of scrappy dogs). Since Lola is the supreme ruler of scrappy dogs. I thought I would start with her. A lot of you already know her but let's get to know the REAL Lola, shall we?


So, what's you favorite thing to do during the day?
Oh! That's easy! I LOVE playing ball, I could do it all day.
If I don't get to play ball,I really like reflecting on life.
I tried to get a few naps in a day too. I've got to get my beauty rest.


Do you have a favorite food?
Cupcakes!


Who is your favorite person?
Oh mom....of course it's you, unless you're not there, then it's dad. Really-anyone that pets me. I got a lot of love to give.



Any words of advice?
If you have something to say-bark loud, even the tiniest voice needs to be heard, cuteness can only get you so far, then it's all about personality, love deeply.


Couldn't have said it better myself Lola.....

The Walk of Lola and Jujube

This is a tale of two Jack Russells, two parents, and one walk.

C'mon dad! C'mon! We gotta go! There are squirrels to chase! HELLO!

The park is deserted! It's ours!

Please let us off the leash. We are ever so good.

SUCKERS!

Hey! What's this?

This is GREAT! Thanks mom and dad!

Ummm, we aren't allow in this park anymore....we aren't at liberty now to discuss it at this time.

SQUIRREL!

Home again!

I love my dogs.

Maker Faire-The Recap

I honestly don't know how to put into words all the amazing, awesome, creative stuff I saw over the weekend (I guess I just did put it into words-HA!) So, I thought I would break it down day to day.

Day one...set up.
I got to San Mateo in the afternoon and met up with Casey and Lori (jungrrl and batgirl from Craftster). They pretty much had everything set up by the time I got there so 1) I had incredible timing and 2) all that was left was to peek at other exhibits. One of the first people I met was Rachel aka Average Jane Crafter and can I tell you how SWEET and cute she is! It was instant friendship and she better come to Portland and visit! If you ever get a chance to meet her, it will be like seeing an old friend again. She is wonderful! Wait a sec,,,,who did I see setting up right beside us? CRAFTY CHICA! Oh yeah! She is the sweetest person too! (there must be something in the water in Texas!) She indulged me with a picture and continued to spread the glitter around. After I totally geeked out and was a fangirl with Average Jane and Crafty Chica we were on our way to scope out the exhibits. Robots, Steampunks, human mousetraps and fire were among our adventures. Everywhere we turned there was another thing for me to yell, "You've got to be kidding me!, NO WAY"

1. Casey and R2D2, 2. Casey and R21D2, 3. Me. Crafty Chica, Average Jane Crafter, 4. Wing sculpture, 5. Wing sculpture, 6. Wing sculpture, 7. Wing scuplture, 8. moldy men, 9. Toxic Skull, 10. Freaky piano, 11. freaky piano thingy, 12. back of bike, 13. Front of bike, 14. Steam punk ladies with bike, 15. Inside of snail, 16. Giraffe, 17. Snail mobile, 18. steam motorcycle, 19. Whirly people, 20. snail mobile from a far, 21. Casey and the Crawdad, 22. Steam punk motorcycle, 23. Human powered wheel, 24. Snail mobile, 25. Steam punk car, 26. Lego Village, 27. Puppy Monorail, 28. Puppy monorail, 29. pinball machine, 30. Lego cake, 31. Lego hotel, 32. Lego flowers, 33. Music maker, 34. Plastic bottle sculpture, 35. Some sort of flaming spinny thing, 36. flamey spinny thing

Day Two....
So many people! So many buttons! So many Perler beads! At 10am we could see the floor, see our surroundings. At 11 all we could see was a wave of people. We had people waiting up to an hour to do our crafts at the Craftster table. It was CRAZY! A few Craftster peeps came by and I wanted to get pictures taken with all of you and chat but I think my body was glued to the seat with E-6000. If I looked a little crazed-I'm really sorry-I was really happy to meet everyone and say hello and wish I had more time to chat. You guys are what keeps us going and I'm so lucky when I get to meet you "in person". We were so beat by the end of the day that all we could eat was soup because none of us wanted to chew-LOL!

1. Weird steam punk robot thing, 2. Steam punk bird, 3. resistor earring, 4. 8 bit take away, 5. 8 bit take away, 6. cell phone charm, 7. cell phone charm, 8. cupcake mobile, 9. cupcake mobile, 10. cupcake, 11. Moving house, 12. human mouse trap, 13. moving house, 14. human mouse trap, 15. beginning of day, 16. Beginning of Maker Faire, 17. Beginning of Maker Faire, 18. Casey and Lori helping people, 19. Maker Faire day 1, 20. set up

Day three...
The final day! BOO! It wasn't as busy as it was Saturday but we still had a lot of people at our booth. All of us took little breaks to venture out to see the hand of man slam 55 gallon drums and give us the thumbs us, cupcake cars driving around, we even got to do a few crafts at other tables and in a blink of an eye-it was all over. All of our beads were gone, the glue had dried and the cupcake cars had driven off into the sunset. There we were, in the parking lot, with big wiener dogs, a girl with pink hair and stripe tents. Man, I can't wait till next year.

1. 100_2147, 2. 100_2144, 3. Cool destroy robot, 4. adult playground, 5. Hand of Man, 6. Robot drum, 7. Fire Flower, 8. Dragon bike, 9. Dragon Bike, 10. Robby the Robot, 11. Me and Ritapizza, 12. Side of Art car, 13. Back of yard car, 14. Art car, 15. Art Car, 16. Maker Faire outfit, 17. Maker Faire outfit, 18. Little girl on art car, 19. Completed projects, 20. Average Jane Crafter

Maker Faire Bay Area May 30th and 31st

I've only been home for a few short days and I'm getting ready to go back on the road again. This weekend I'll be at the bay area Maker Faire with Craftster. If you are in the area, come on out and say hello to me, Jungrrl, and batgirl. The Craftster booth will have several make and take projects; including vintage button rings, 8 bit video game art with perler beads and super cool jewelry from the book Kilobite Coutour (trust me, this book is very cool).

Come by and see me! I'm always up for a good visit.

Midwest Tour

Last week Mark and I went on a little vacation to the Midwest. Neither of us had been to Chicago or to Minnesota so we booked a flight, told our friends we were crashing at their houses and decided to conquer the Midwest. We had yummy hot dogs at Hot Doug's Sausage Superstore, Yummy Mexican and Cuban food, deep dish pizza-it was pretty much an eating frenzy. We also had yummy drinks at a Psycho Suzie's pizza and tiki bar(More pictures to follow). I was also amazed that you could bring your own beer to restaurants in Chicago. Crazy!
We also got a behind the scenes tour of the bird department of the Field Museum (thanks Casey!)The Maori hut was also amazing. It was so peaceful and beautiful. The story behind it brought tears to our eyes.

St. Paul and Minneapolis reminding us of Portland. I loved all the Victorian houses and the cute little shops.

Thanks Casey, Rey and Lori for showing us such a good time.


1. Casey, Rey, Mark, 2. statue at Field Museum, 3. prehistoric deer, 4. prehistoric sloth bear animal sort of thing, 5. freaky dino bird, 6. Casey and Rey, 7. Field museum, 8. Sue, 9. Maori house, 10. Man catcher, 11. Mark and Rey, 12. Mask, 13. Mask, 14. Dino


1. Milou, 2. Milou in doggy jail, 3. Mark at pyscho suzie's, 4. Mark at pyscho suzies, 5. Mark and Rey, 6. Lori and Phillipe, 7. Casey, 8. Lori, 9. Rey, 10. Casey, 11. Mark, 12. Me!, 13. Casey and Rey, 14. Lori and Mark, 15. My Cubano sandwich, 16. Grumpy old men, 17. Grumpy old men, 18. Real Grumpy old men, 19. bird building nest, 20. silly dog, 21. Me and my true love, 22. Snoopy Snow Cone Maker!, 23. Rats in alley, 24. abandon hospital, 25. abandoned hospital, 26. abandoned hospital, 27. abandoned hospital, 28. Examine table, 29. abandoned hospital, 30. creepy hospital, 31. abandoned hospital, 32. Felix, 33. Mark, 34. Mark, 35. Rainy Chicago downtown

A tribute

I wanted to thank everyone for all of the warm thoughts after Kato passing away. The cards, emails and posts really helped us through a rough time. I wanted to share a beautiful pillow that some of the moderators from Craftster had made for Mark and I. Here's the picture that inspired the pillow.



And here is the pillow.


Can you believe how amazing it is? Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. I also want to acknowledge the person that made it. The person is mybonnie on etsy and her store is called Handmade by Bonnie. She does beautiful work. Go check her out-you will not be disappointed.

I have been having lots of adventures lately as well as getting some stitching done, so stay tune for the details.

Good Night Sweet Prince

It has been forever since I have posted and so much has been going on but I'm not going to go into that right now. It's just too much. Today is a very sad day in the Pedersen house. Our wonderful old Man, Kato passed away today. As many of you know, we have three amazing Jack Russells. Kato was the old man of the bunch. He had congestive heart failure and was getting worse. This morning he was not moving around like his normal self. We took him to the vet and said goodbye. I miss my little old man. Our house just isn't the same without the tapping of his feet walking on the floors. He was a cranky old man who constantly battled wits with Mark but he was our cranky old man.

I don't really know what to say. I am too sad. Maybe I can later, but today I just want to sit with my family and think about my little old man.

Out of the loop

Wow! Has it really been since March 11th that I posted something. I kinda suck (that's what she said). I really need to get back into the swing of things. I feel like I've been in haze for awhile. In my own little bubble. There are a couple of pots on the stove. I'm going to Chicago and Minnepolis in May to visit my friends. I can't wait! It's gonna be so much fun! I got my taxes done-Whew! and I'm in a few swaps that I'm super excited about. Oh yeah and I started a new group on Flickr that I'm thinking I might expand on even more-The Scrappy Dog Society. I love Scrappy Dogs-the crazier the fur-the better. So, I started a group where people can post their pictures of their scrappy dogs. Even if your dog doesn't have scrappy fur but is scrappy at heart-you should go over and join. Maybe I'll even make patches and buttons for the SDC.

Another good thing-Spring is in the air. The trees are blooming and they are beautiful. I love the pink cherry blosoms against the grey of the NW. It reminds me that even in the dark and the rain, color and beauty shine through (could I be any more hallmark)

One last thing-I have new stuff to put up on my etsy! I haven't had a chance to write up all the details but if you want to get a sneak peek, you can check out my flickr account and get an idea.

I think that about sums it up, just day in and day out. Maybe I'll pick up writing again. I kinda miss it.

Hot Diggity Dog Diggity!

I know! I know! I've been MIA but I've been busy lately, See!




Also in some good stitchy news, I've been featured on Mr. XStitch's website. You should go over there and check it out. www.mrxstitch.com

So, I'm totally brain dead but I promise that there will be more to come soon. Right now, I'm gonna go love my puppies and my hubby and go to bed.