Little Lovelies ~ Linen Pincushions

Hello Everyone, happy Friday!

Today I thought I'd share some little handmade goodies with you. Do you like wildflowers?

These small pin cushions are some of my favorite things I've made, I want to keep them! Because everyone needs a dozen different pincushions, right?

I used 100% wool felt to make the flowers, which I cut freehand, then added embroidered stems and details wherever it seemed pretty.
♥

California Poppies

Echinacea 

Forget Me Nots

Red Poppy

Little Leaves

Dragonfly

Black Eyed Susan

I made each of the cushions with linen on top and either a sagey green microfiber or purple velvet on the back. I really like these two backings, especially when I realized the don't slide of the arm of the sofa! Maybe if I make one for myself I'll stop sticking needles in the arm of  the couch? That's a really bad habit, y'all... The wee cushions are stuffed with crushed walnut hulls which give them a nice weight and help keep your pins & needles sharp. 

These little lovelies are now for sale at The Rowan Tree, in downtown Lodi, CA. If you're local pop in and have a look, it's a terrific little shop, if not local give the gals at the store a buzz, or shoot me an email, we'd be happy to pop one in the mail for you! This still seems such a dream to me, that I could actually be making things to sell. What a trip!

I'm thinking about opening a little Etsy (or similar) store as well as making for The Rowan Tree, but the thought gives me hives, I'm skeered! Do you have an Etsy or web store? Let's talk about it! What do you like, what do you not like? I'm barely, barely dipping a toe here, I don't know much about it and would LOVE your opinion, so please do share ~ I'm listening!

I hope you're having a fantastic spring, I can't believe it's already June!! My little Claire graduated from high school a couple nights ago, I thought I was dreaming... to me, she'll always be that rosy cheeked ballerina I remember from not so many years ago, in fact it seems like just yesterday. She's had so many obstacles over the years, we are so proud of her!

Oxo,

Lisa

This One's For You, Mom's!

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely, lovely ladies out there!

Whether your babies have two legs, or four, little ones and big ones too, thank you mom's for all you do! Oooh, looky, I made a little rhyme, yay me!

So, I was a busy lady this week, I whipped out several hoopla's for The Rowan Tree just in time for Mother's Day, these were really fun to make!

5" Hoopla ~ You Are My Anchor

(I know you're supposed to love all your children equally {RIGHT MOMS??} but I have to say, I think I love this hoopla the best, it was my "first born" this week, teehee!)

3" hoopla ~ Love You

3" hoopla ~ Mom Flash

3" hoopla ~ Pretty Paisley's 

5" hoopla ~ Flowers for Mom

All of these hoops are for sale at The Rowan Tree, if you're local swing on through, Amy & Rachel are wonderful and they'd love to say hello, tell 'em Lisa sent ya! 

If you're not local, or can't stop in but are interested in any of my little hoopla's, give the girls a call,  I confirmed with the ladies that they'd be happy to ship your purchase to you. The Rowan Tree is located at 11 S. Sacramento Street Lodi, CA 95240, you can reach them at 209-329-7881.

While not specific to Mother's Day, I also made a couple of felt feather hooplas. Simple, graphic, pretty! I want to make a couple of these for myself!

Busy week indeed! 

Today I get to spend time with my own dear mummzie, and I've made something special for her too, but I can't share yet, she might try to peek into my blog early. She's a peeker! I don't know what we'll do just yet, we're a fly by the seat of our pants mother & daughter duo, always up for something fun! I'll report back with our adventures soon. Yay, adventures!

I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing day Mom's, I hope you get to spend time with the ones you love and eat a nice meal, go for a drive, or sit a spell and chat a while. What ever it is your heart desires, I hope it comes to you in spades. 

We wouldn't be here without you, mom's. 

We love you!!

oxo,

Lisa

Petunia Cottontail

Happy Easter, Friends!

I hope you're having a wonderful day today, either relaxing, contemplating or having a wild egg hunt with lots of chocolate, jelly beans & giggly kids!

I'm headed to Lake Tahoe to spend Easter with my brother and his family in just a bit, but I thought I'd pop in real quick and share my latest little felt pin, finished just in time for Easter.

Sean and I were debating what the female equivalent of the name Peter is? We couldn't decide so we went with Petunia. Petunia Cottontail. ♥

My lil rabbit is definitely a girl bunny with her sparkly, beaded flower atop her round little head.

She's surrounded with a sweet posy of bright, beaded flowers too, yep, she's a girly girl.

I had fun stitching this little lady, I like the framing, it reminds me of a miniature portrait and has me debating what other little critters would look cute in this fashion. A fox? (I've always loved foxes) A squirrel? (I'm nuts about them!) A kitty cat? What do you think would be cute? Hop on down and let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Wishing you the sweetest, springiest Easter, have a beautiful day!

oxo,

Lisa

Announcing: The Rowan Tree!

Spring greetings & happy Friday, friends!

I'm very excited to publish this post but nervous too, I've been dawdling forever, in fact this post has been sitting in my drafts for two weeks, clogging up the works. Fear and feelings of  "am I good enough?" are powerful forces, but I won't let my silly fears keep me from pursuing what I love and share it, so here I go!

Recently couple of my girlfriends opened a new store in the downtown area of my home town, Lodi, California called The Rowan Tree, and it's a great little place you guys! The stars aligned the store came together very quickly, quicker than one might imagine! It's getting better every day as it fills with art and handmade goodness by local artists and makers and I am honored to say that they've asked me along in this journey as a contributing maker & artist!

So exciting! A rare and fabulous opportunity for someone like me. I mean real talk - I've never sold a thing, I've never tried. I don't have an Esty shop and although I take what I do seriously and always put my best effort into everything I make, it's been a passion and my need to create, but never a commercial endeavor.

So!
What to make? What's my style? What do I dooooooo?

I've given this a lot of thought, and came back to where I started - the things I've always loved. Flowers, embroidery, felt. This is my starting place and where I am most comfortable, things I never tire of, which have a lot of room for exploration, interpretation and room to make my own. I've got lots and lots of ideas in a rapidly filling notebook stuffed with little bits of this and that, doodles and drawings, lists of suppliers and bigger grander things as one idea tends to lead to another. I am excited!

I had to start somewhere, so I started with pretty things to wear, broaches in soft, springy colors! 100% Merino wool felt, embroidered touches and just a tiny bit of sparkle. Here are my first contributions to The Rowan Tree!

Hello Easter Bunny

Here is the display I made to showcase my pins in the store. I've had this mannequin for some time, but it's not usually this cute.{wink!}Normally it sits in our living room and displays one of my husbands collection of ice hockey jerseys. He's graciously let me borrow it for the time being. I gave the pedestal & top piece a coat of spray paint and covered the body in a yard of this (the only link I can find) gorgeous Pam Kitty Morning fabric I picked up on a recent trip to The Nimble Thimble. 

I also made a few little needle books, these in a wonderfully soft wool blend felt with embroidered touches.

Oh, and a big, cheery pin cushion and some hand made greeting cards embellished with fabric & small touches of embroidery. Fun little extras that I was playing with. Looking forward to expanding on the idea of embellished cards.

Looking forward to A LOT. I wish I had more time to make all the things that I'm dreaming of! I've always wanted more time (who doesn't?), but lately the urge is fierce! Now, if only I could make this into a full time job with bennies! 

Well... whew! That was a long post. I've already made several other things for the store and there's more on the way, and now that I've gotten this ball rolling, perhaps it won't be so long til we can chat again, and I can share a little more about what I've been up to and what I'm planning in the coming months. I'm pretty stoked about it!

Can't wait to chat about this with my blogging peeps, so lay it on me! Advice, pointers, critiques (but please be gentle ♥ ) I'm all ears.

Big love!

Lisa

p.s. Go check out the The Rowan Tree! Give us a "like" if you're pickin' up what we're laying down. Pretty please with sugar on top!

p.p.s. Hey look, The Rowan Tree has a write up in our local paper today! The shop is open all weekend, if you're local, pop in and say hi! Tell 'em Lisa sent you. ♥

Valentine Pins

Hell♥!
I just can't seem to stop myself playing with more hearts this week, I'm beginning to understand why my pal loves them so much, they're so versatile!

This sweetie pie crust heart is a pin that I made for a friend, this is our third year swapping Valentines. 

This year we decided to make each other pins, something pretty to pin to our sweaters for Valentine's Day and this flowery heart is what I made for her. When you see what I got you'll agree that she got the short end of the stick, she spoils me! 

This little pin was the first to fly from my fingers this year, sort of a practice piece, but none too shabby, so I sent it far, far away. All the way to Korea where my niece Alex is currently stationed with the US Army. She isn't a girly-girl, so I think she'll like the more "not-so-cuteishness" of it with the touches of black. 

And speaking of black, here's one more for a good friend, a bad boy, my chum, Sic. Yes, Sic. 

He's rad, you'd like him.

I only wish now that I'd thought to add little devils horns at the tops of the heart, that would have been perfect for him. Sigh... there's always next year.

That's not all the hearty goodness I have to share, stay tuned! 

Are busy making Valentine's tonight? Do tell!

oxo,

Lisa

Love Is In The Air

'Ello Sweeties!

Hearts, hearts everywhere! I've had hearts on the brain lately, been fiddling around and making sweet little things, these are a few of them. I made these heart pins for a Valentine's Swap organized by Aunt Peaches. The idea was simple, you make and send three Valentines and you'll receive three back - but not from the same people, which makes thing interesting because what you get, and from whomever really is a surprise.

As I've repeated often, I'm not so great at papercraft, I dunno, I try, but it just doesn't seem to be my thing, thank dog I'm handy with a needle! *wink* Having said that, I knew I'd stitch something for the ladies whose names I was given.

Small and sweet pins, cute, but not too over the top, something I would wear in public myself. I added a little pin to the back of each so that my Valentines can wear them on a jacket or sweater, or lanyard, or whatever floats their boat.

I enjoyed making these pins, it really felt like playing, and got to use a new tool that I purchased recently, which I've wanted forever, scalloped sheers! Found them on eBay for a song. I have pinking shears and they're great, but I adore the soft bumps of a scallop.

I made (very) simple little cards to attach the pins to and wrote a note to each gal on the inside, then away they went. Off to Kentucky, New Mexico and Idaho, fly away little pins, be free!

I hope my Valentines like their pins and don't find them too gauche. I have had two Valentine's come back to me so far, pretty handmade things, crafty people are my favorite people!

Do you have any Valentine making going on in your neck of the woods? Do tell!

oxo,

Lisa

Stitched Christmas Stockting

Well hello there!

Boy, time is really flying by and December is no exception, if anything December seems to run faster than all the other months! How are you doing, bloggy chums? Is your Christmas making season in full swing?

I am getting a bit of a late start on making some of my gifts this year, but one little thing I completed was for a quick swap with a few of my stitchy pals. This little felt stocking is something I made for my friend, Crystal. The pattern is from Fa La La La Felt, I think it's just darling, it's one of the first things in the book that I wanted to make when I cracked it open for the first time, and I finally had a reason. (not that you have to have a reason, but it helps with the motivation!)

I love the sweet little flowers & leaves near the bottom and the French knot polka dots...

The fun little diamond shapes  form a sort of argyle pattern ♥

I stuffed that little stocking full of "Sweet Sticks" and send it whizzing over hill and dale all the way to North Carolina.

Fun stuff, swaps! This was a fun item to make, and bigger than it probably looks. I'd say... maybe 6"-8"? Pretty good size anyway.

So yeah, that's the first Christmas item completed! One down, many to go.

In other news, my beloved niece Ana has come home for a quick Christmas vacation, and she's brought her beau! Today we're all heading San Francisco to goof around. Chad has never been to California before so we're smashing in as much Golden State goodness as we can, Saturday we're going to Tahoe to the kids can go snow boarding. I myself will be sitting, warm and snug in a lodge somewhere near the bottom of the mountain stitching or reading and drinking something hot & yummy! Auntie Lisa is NOT a big fan of snow sports beyond lobbing snowballs at unsuspecting family members :)

So I've got to run! Time to get on the road to the City!

Ta ta for now!

oxo,

Lisa

Witchy-poo!

All Hallows Eve is upon us! I still haven't bought candy - oh the horror!!

I mentioned in my last post about the Halloween Tea that I hosted this last weekend, well what would a Halloween tea be without a witch? Since I was hosting, I had to have a little something witchy, so I tszujed myself up a hat! 

Ooooh! Ahhh!

Really, this was a very simple fix-up. I started with a "deluxe" witches hat that I purchased at Halloween store, then I ripped a bunch of stuff off of it, and added my own.

Flowers & rhinestones naturally, because I'm a fancy witch!

I added the rhinestone swirls (seriously easy, literally peel & stick!) and I made a handful of my favorite kinds of felt flowers to add to the brim. 

I didn't make the two flowers below, but they were my inspiration for color and pretty to boot, so I added them as well.

The hat fits great and really stays on, the flowers add just enough weight around the crown of  my head so that the hat doesn't feel flimsy, or like it will blow off in the slightest breeze.

Now... where and how am I supposed to store this the rest of the year?? I didn't think of that when I was constructing a 2 foot tall hat :/

Want to see a picture of me in the hat?

How about another?

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BOO!

 Now *THAT'S* scary!

Happy Halloween, e'ryone!

Have fun ~ be safe!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. There are a few other fun little Halloween things that I've made this year, but didn't have a chance to post about, be sure to pop over to my Flickr account, I'll at them there.

p.p.s. I really want to wear this hat every day, would that be weird?