Birthday Necklace

Here are pictures of the necklace we made for Pete's mom's birthday.

It's a little tough to see (iphone pictures, sorry) but the inside is filled with a super light blue bead, and the outside beads alternate between pink and black.  The hoop is part of super retro, chunky necklace I thrifted a while ago.  I also put two pink and two black beads along the chain so it didn't look like I threw the piece on any old chain.  Peggy wore it all weekend long and it looks amazing against a black top!  It kept slipping under her shirt, so I told her shed have to wear it with a more revealing cut (teehee).

Proud of the small things

I'm working on being more productive, promise.  I've actually been upcycling some thrifted spring skirts, but those are to come.  (In the publishing world 'to come' is abreviated as 'TK.' I never understood that.)

Last weekend, Pete told me he needed to get started on a present for his mother's birthday this week - flash forward to yesterday and he was still empty handed.  Keep in mind, all week long I had been sending him email after email with ideas.  I got home from work yesterday and he's in the middle of watching a movie instead of being productive. Errrrrg - although part of me can't blame him because I can be incredibly lazy as well. 

So of course I saved his lazy bum and together we whipped up a pretty darn good birthday gift.  I've been on a jewelry making kick so we decided to make her a nice necklace inspired by all the Mother's Day posts of late. On a sidenote - is it awesome or awful to be born near Mother's Day?  Surely its not like being born near Christmas?

Moving on, the necklace turned out wonderfully (pictures TK) but what I was really excited about was the wrapping!!! Instead of running around the city before dinner trying to find a jewelry box, I decided to DIY.

Now she'll have a cute travel-size bag to keep it in.

I'm in love! It is positively TINY - I had trouble sewing the top seam it's so small.  Look at it in my hands.

(I'm sorry the pictures are so dark - Pete's helping me with the photos and we haven't quite found lighting that works.) I didn't want to just sew two pieces of fabric into a bag so I made this funky little bottom.

And its's fully reversible! 

This side has the same bottom, no pictures of that though.  I love the little flowers and I love the twine tie!  Ha, can you tell what a beginner I am, so excited about a little jewelry bag? 

I FINISHED A PROJECT!

Well not completely.  I'm 99.4% done.  But that's the closest I've come in a long while! 

Denyse Schmidt Quilts has made available her Scottie Dog Pattern and, by this good earth, is it adorable. 

P.S. I love that it's a man holding the puppies!  How could you not want to make one of these.  Denyse's tutorial is so easy, I read it once through on Friday and whipped it up on Sunday without the instructions.  Granted I didn't make my Scottie tall enough, and his nose is too long, but that's besides the point.  The point is that I FINISHED SOMETHING! Woohoo! 

With Peter at work all day and out of my hair, I cued up Emma and broke into my fabric stash, aka remnants from a Christmas present that I gave up on (don't worry, she got something much better instead).  Now, as a sewing novice, the fact that my 2 1/4 squares weren't exactly uniform didn't present itself to me until I had sewn both sides of the scottie.  In my usual disregard for perfection and instructions, I went ahead and sewed everything together.  (Notice me getting ready to apologize for the imperfections before I've even shown the final product. Haha.)

In the end his ears didn't line up, his tail is all sorts of crooked, the corners are a bit wonky, he's not the right size and his bottom is a bit rough around the edges.  But here he is and I love him!!

It's a phone camera picture taken on my purse on my lap on the bus so please ignore the crazy background goings-on.  The picture doesn't do the colors justice either.  The third and fourth row should both have one more square and his nose should be one row shorter. 

His collar is just a bow from a hair pretty destined for a Dollar Store project, but I sucked it up and realized that one isn't happening any time soon.  But also makes me think this could easily be done with only dollar store supplies.  A few dish towels and buttons... But back on subject.  What's left is to add his eyes.  I might add only one, seeing as how I don't want to call attention to his ugly side, which looks something like this.  And Pete's sister, Cara, suggested adding a button as a nose, which would just be too cute.

Because he's not the right size, Pete suggested that I take a seam ripper to him and fix him up.  But I don't believe in plastic surgery.