jcaroline's blog

Stephanie's Room Redo

You may remember, oh, about half a year ago, I teamed with Deb and Erin at Fresh Nest Design and Flor Carpet Tiles to do Glamour Giveaway.  The winners were given two chairs, four throw pillows, one large floor pillow and one large ottoman from jcaroline home.  Flor Carpet Tiles provided a 5" x 7" area rug.  Well, the winners were notified in March and Deb and Erin asked the winners questions about their spaces and their decorating styles and then recommended what items they should put in their existing spaces.

Fresh Nest designed Stephanie's living room/dining room around a cool piece of art she already had.  Here is what Fresh Nest mocked up for Stephanie.

 

You want to see what it looks like "in real life"?

I adore Jessica Jones fabric (obviously!), and I didn't expect this combination to be so awesome.  I'm quite smitten with this group.

What to see it a little closer?

 

I thought you might. 

And this exercise with the Glamour winners has convinced me that I have been unfair.  I have not treated solids as equal to prints, and I apologize.  I just assume everyone is like me and wants 85 prints in their room, but that, apparently, is not that case.  So I've moved solids up to their rightful place in jcaroline home, where they can be used as the base for any of our chair covers or pillows.

Giveaway from Contemporary Cloth

I just got back from Quilt Market in Minneapolis, but I haven't unpacked or downloaded my pictures yet, so that will have to wait. In the meantime, Contemporary Cloth is sponsoring a giveaway.  Two yards of Cloud9 Organic Fabric-- you mix and match in half yard pieces out of either collection, Under the Sea or Happy Garden.

Shown above are pieces from Under the Sea, Cloud9 Fabric's latest organic cotton collection.  Cloud9 was started last year by Michelle Engels Bencsko and Gina Pantistico, who formerly worked together in the apparel field.  They wanted to launch an all organic cotton fabric line and they did it!  They now have two collections out and are launching an organic flannel collection for fall, Forest Friends.  (They had a great booth at market that I'll share later.)

Contemporary Cloth offers organic printed lines such as Cloud9 and Mod Green Pod.  They also carry a wide range of designer quilting weight and home decorator weight textiles.  And they are offering a 20% off coupon through June 1, using coupon code "jcaroline".

Okay, for the giveaway part.  To enter, leave a comment here by June 1 (Tuesday) at noon.  Tell me if your plans for sewing this summer are:  1)  I've got big plans for summer sewing,  2)  I swear I'll sew every summer and I never do, or 3) Summer is coming?

First Birthday!

Henry's first birthday was last weekend (where did the last year go?) and I actually got a little crafty for it.  I made the banner above and I plan on reusing by removing the number each year.  Actually, I have in my mind creating a cake with velcro'ed candles-- have to work that one out.

I also printed out little pennants to top the store-bought cupcakes.  That was easy and fun.  Some 110 lb. paper, glue stick and toothpicks and you are good to go.

And to be completely over the top, I made each child a personalized towel for summer.  The towels are just bath towels from Target and I appliqued their names on them.  Most of the children were older (a one-year-old doesn't have any friends) and they really seemed to like them.

Oh, the birthday boy?  I thought you'd never ask.

The sandbox is his downfall.  He can't get enough of that sand.

Even though a mouthful seems like a good idea at the time...

I'm off to Quilt Market in Minneapolis tomorrow.  I think I'm going to have a good time.  I have no obligations and I finally know a bunch of people that will be there.  And with twitter, I'll be able to find them.  (So if you want to avoid me, don't respond to my tweets!)

Mother's Day Follow-up

I did get a gift from Olivia for Mother's Day-- a dwarf orange tree, so she did understand that the present wasn't for her.  She also made a book about me at Mother's Day Out.

I can't wait to get that giraffe.  Do you suppose they can survive on the leaves in our backyard?

"we play together and mommy's silly"?  I have no idea what she is talking about.

This page is tricky.   I guess my daughter is going to force me to admit that my hair is closer to brown than it is to blonde.  I'm glad she says I'm 3 years old, because in her mind, my age is so outrageous, it might as well be 100.  And thankfully, she thinks my favorite drink is "aqua" (water).  I'm glad I didn't have to explain anything to her teacher.

I hope you and yours had a Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, especially mine.  Thanks for making sure we were always dressed nicely, even if you did make us clean the house on Saturdays.

My husband told Olivia this morning that this weekend they would be buying a present for Mother's Day, to which Olivia exclaimed, "A present!  For me?"  So we'll see how that turns out.

New ribbons, new header, new life

Okay, so I exaggerate a bit, but the first two are true.  First the header.  I requested Jessica Jones come up with something new and she, to her own detriment, gave me a layered Photoshop file, which is perfect to give an amateur Photoshop person like myself the confidence to add my own bling.  I love it-- this will be my new bulletin board where I can tack up any random thing that is-- well, shiny.

And speaking of Jessica, I talked her into some more ribbons.

 

Just between you and me, I think she is starting to dig ribbons.  I can't decide if the blue houses or the green golf carts are my favorite.  But then the brown tennis racquets really catch my eye as well.  Available by the spool from us and by the yard at the Fat Quarter Shop and CityCraft, a sewing lounge in Dallas, TX.

And congratulations to Krystin, who won the copy of Sewing Bits & Pieces.  She claims to have never won anything, ever, so I assume she will now start playing the lottery.