2009 Holiday Designs

Yep, that's right...I've started to design those Holiday cards. Here are a few sneak peeks to some new designs. By mid to the end of August I should have most of them up in my Etsy store. I will have some new ones as well as some of my most popular designs from last year.

Blackberries

I love pretty much every type of berry there is but, my absolute favorite are blackberries. I'm so fortunate that I get all sorts of produce for free. Thanks Dad! Ever since I remember my Dad has had the most lush gardens ever. Seriously, he grows everything. When myself and my siblings were young we'd have plenty of chores to do in the garden and of course back then it wasn't my favorite past time. My Dad would spend hours tending to them and picking all of the goods. I recall hovering over the blackberry bushes and eating them just as fast as I could pick them - YUM! Friday my Dad dropped off a ton of blackberries and it couldn't have made my day any better.

That night I made one of my favorite desserts to make with them - Blackberry Cobbler. It's so easy and so delicious. It's a recipe that you must eat warm and topped off with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Blackberry Cobbler

Makes one 8X8 pan.

2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. shortening or margarine

2 eggs

1 t. salt

1 T baking powder

1 lb. black berries, thawed

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut in shortening. Stir in eggs. Mixture will be crumb like. Fill pan with berries. Add crumb mixture on top of berries. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream or whip topping.

Lovely Fabric Purse Accessories

Pattern...Fabric...Sweet Sewing = Lovely purse accessories.

A few Etsy finds I found and love...

How wonderful are these In Touch Clutchs(tm)by Down Stairs Designs? I already have my eyes on these for Christmas gifts.

I'm not so much a tea drinker...I prefer the joe but, what a great idea for those you know that do. I love the fabric used for this one by Etsy store owner Le Coccole di Giusypatch

I always need to keep a little bag of some sort within my purse for all of those extra girly things. How pretty are these two small pouches. The use of the multi fabrics for the patchwork one is a nice extra bonus from Jenna Designs. I've purchased three from The Sweet Sugar Beet and each have been as lovely as the first.

Paper Boats

found on jurianne matter site

Next week Wednesday we are headed for a small vacation further north with my side of the family. Since I was 4 my family would rent a cabin on Pine Lake. A week full of swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, walks, campfires and naps. The kids are especially looking forward to it and my son will be celebrating his 5th birthday while we are there. He is all about getting a Transformers fishing pole so I thought how fun to do a little theme around boats and fishing. As I was scouring the internet I ran into some cool paper boat items. My Dad first showed me how to make them when I was little and I've enjoyed making them since for my kids.

Paper boat necklace Coseatre

Paper Boat Place Cards

Found on Amazon

Belle & Boo - Etsy

Headboards

I've been wanting to get a new headboard for my soon to be 5 year old sons bedroom. Right now he has a plain old wooded one that is a little to be desired. I'm wanting to remove it and add something a little more fun. I was browsing one of my favorite magazines this past weekend - Do it Yourself and thought I'd jumped online to see if they had any ideas. I came across this section for do it yourself headboards and saw this one. YEP this is the one and I'm going to attempt to do this with his name. How cool is this?!

Vintage Paper Tag

I ran across the site of designshard.com and was immediately drawn to this vintage tag. I love how he saw this old mattress tag, took a picture of it and then removed that background in his design program. How cool is that and he is sharing it with us here. The burlap behind the tag is just a background textured paper he put it on.

Although I never use already made texture papers in my designs - not because I don't like them I just feel like I'm using others work and I want mine to represent me. I do appreciate them and would love to use them for non-Etsy work. There are some great ones I found here. Enjoy!

Recent Designs

I just wanted to post a few recent designs I did for Etsy customers. I've also listed a few new designs in my shop and will be adding more soon.

Happy Wednesday!

Stellar Talent

My husband and I have had the great pleasure to become friends with this young musican. He is a local...our local that is. A native of Wisconsin. By hearing his voice you'd think he is some already known legend jazz singer or perhaps an old soul folk artist. Believe me his voice will bring you in. He has some already amazing credits. The song "Getting By" was on the Cleaner movie soundtrack and the song "On My Side" was played on the show House. They have a new album "Death Won't Send a Letter" that will be out on 9.29.09. Be sure to check it out. You can find many of Cory Chisel and the Wandering Son's songs on YouTube.

Free 4th of July Tags

After having the time to browse a bit at some of my fav online blogs I found these free downloadable tags {via} vale design. I ran across the site through another and was taken in when I spotted these lovely tags. So simple and perfect. I'm running low on ink in my printer but, thinking I have enough black to print these out. Enjoy!