Beth from 1canoe2 sent me a little note about 1canoe2’s latest project and I’m so glad she did….it’s adorable! It’s a fun paperkraft letterpress diorama small town DIY kit, complete with 3 little houses that you cut and fold and paste together. OMG, doesn’t that sound like fun?

Here’s a link to the kit for sale, which includes: one 9×12 sheet for the background; one 12×7 sheet that includes pieces for 3 houses, 7 trees, and 2 corner tabs. All the designs and illustrations are sketched by hand, turned into letterpress plates and then printed on a Chandler & Price Craftsman press (see some pics below of the printing).

One of these is on it’s way to me (thanks Beth & Carrie) and I’m going to put it together and display it on my window sill in my office.

Yesterday, I shared my new office with you. And as you can see in the image below, I am still in need of some curtains. I’ve decided to make my own and thinking that cafe curtains will work best in the room. It’s a small room and my desk is right in front of the window, so I don’t want big heavy curtains.  Just something light and visually interesting…of course, that means I want a patten. But what pattern? I’ve been looking at fabric for weeks now and I am going cross-eyed. Worse than that, I’ve become indecisive in the face of the tremendous possibilities out there.

I’ve narrowed in down to 15 possibilities and I need your help in deciding.

Take a look at all the choices and choose what you think would look best or offer up a different suggestion. The color on the walls is Behr’s Reflecting Pool. It’s Gray with a purplish tint.

1. Scene in Lavender by Etsuko Furuya at Phat Fabric
2. Turquoise Hive by Patty Young at J Caroline Creative
3. Andrea Pink from Wonderfluff
4. Grassy Plain by Etsuko Furuya at Phat Fabric
5. Ivory Fiona Floral by Anna Griffin at J Caroline Creative
6. Totem by Summersville
7. Field of Dreams in Sky by Lecien at Hawthorne Threads
8. Lace Fans in Robins Egg by Ink & Spindle
9. Woodland Creatures in Blue by Etsuko Furuya at Hawthorne Threads
10. Spring Flowers by Kobayashi at Purl Shoho
11. Anniko Metro by Daisy Janie
12. Colt Circles in Sand by Skinny Laminx
13. Mum Mustard by Swanky Swell
14. Butterfly Jubilee by Mod Green Pod
15. Bye Bye Blackbird by Kokka at Hawthorne Threads

Which one do you like for my office? You can choose more than one fabric.

poll by twiigs.com

Before I tore my house apart for our remodeling project, I made some paper heart garlands to decorate the house for Valentine’s Day.  I just love V-Day, I’ve never really lost that excitement of it from being a kid. I used to love making Valentine’s cards to pass out to classmates and the party and the sweets…and I still love all that. So, I decided to use some gift wrap from Smock Paper and Erin Ruth (which they both sent me to play around with) to make a sweet heart garland.

I used the Smock Paper gift wrap in the kitchen, since the colors matched better, and the Erin Ruth wrap in the living room for the same reason.  I freehand drew a heart, traced it and cut it out about a milltion times. Then I used the sewing machine to sew the hearts together in long strands. Very simple and I really like they way it turned out.

How about you? Have you decorated for Valentine’s Day? Share your pics in Indie Fixx Holiday Decor Flickr Group, which is a group to show off your holiday decorating no matter the holiday…even National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Not only is she amazingly talented, reliable and organized, my intern Amy is also a real sweetie. She got me this adorable moss terrarium ornament diy kit from Shane Lily Rain as a holiday gift. I just got a chance to put it together and hung it in the my kitchen window today. I don’t care that it’s meant to be a holiday ornament, I think it looks awesome and it makes me happy to look at it. Thanks, Amy!

Amenity Home recently sent me some of their fabrics to try out. I have a few things in the works for them…thinking about some placemats or a pillow…but in the meantime I decided to cover a notebook with a scrap of their Trail in Cream & Moss pattern. I bought one of those Composition Notebooks with graph paper in it (I’ve been using the graph paper to make my own embroidery patterns) and it was just to drab for me.

First, I made a little embroidered label for the cover. Then, I cut out a piece of fabric using the dimensions of the notebook,  plus 1 1/2 inches all the way around. Measured where I wanted the label to be and sewed it on the fabric. Finished up by hot gluing the fabric to the inside of the cover. I also trimmed up the corners, so there was no overlapping fabric bits. Now, I have a sweet notebook for all my embroidery pattern inspirations!

I will be sure to keep you posted with any future projects that I complete with the Amenity fabrics….or soon I decide what I want to do.

Kelly Rand, director of Hello Craft & a writer for both Crafting a Green World & DCist.com, is back with another post for her regular series on the Guest Blog called From the Desk of Kelly Rand. Recent post include this one & this one. 

As the season turns and the leaves change I find myself wanting nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a warm blanket and catch up on my Netflix and Hulu queue. It is the ultimate in comfort and helps make the transition of the season a little bit easier.

I also find this time perfect for crafting. It’s a great way to catch up on the pile up of projects that have been sitting all summer or time well spent in getting a good head start on holiday gifts. But what settling in and trying a new craft?

You might be an expert knitter or killer silk screener, but have you ever wanted to try book making or needle felting? Dabbling in a new craft and learning a new skill can help stretch your creative muscles and make your main hobby even stronger.

Usually when trying a new craft, there’s an impulse to go out and get all of the different materials and shiny tools that are required for the new process. It can be a down right expensive endeavor, especially if the new craft leaves you cold.

That’s why how-to kits are especially amazing. They provide you with all the materials and tools needed to make a one off project. You can have the luxury of trying a new and shiny craft without the long term commitment. So here are some choice indie how-to projects to get your juices going and your hands busy on those warm blanket, tv watching days.

• Book making kit from Green Chair Press
• Cup glove kit from Glue and Glitter
• Drop spindle kit from Knitgrrl Studio

• Tinysaur
  
• Mitten kit from Liberty Fibers
• Potholder kit from DaddySygnet
• Mary Jane Christmas Stocking Pattern from  Sew Lola
• Needle felting kits from Fancy Tiger