jcaroline's blog

My Next Obsession

For those of you that know me in real life (or IRL, if you are cool!), I tend to go in obsessive phases.  Upholstery, sewing, knitting (that's been awhile), painting (walls, not the art kind)-- there's a long line of these.  Something catches my interest, I learn about it, start doing it, go crazy for a few weeks or months and then move on.  Sometimes I come back to these phases and re-visit the obsession.  Why do I explain this to you?  Because I feel a new obsession coming upon me.

FreshNestDesign, written by Erin and Deb, featured this site yesterday. (And if you don't follow Fresh Nest Design, you should.  It's an interior design blog for regular people.  By regular, I mean people who don't have a 5 digit budget to re-do a room-- more like $200 and a Home Depot gift card!)  Anyway, Ana at Knock Off Wood knocks off furniture she sees in Pottery Barn, West Elm, Land of Nod and puts the plans on her site.  Her readers are pretty talented at making the stuff and are posting their projects in her Flickr group.

Here is the Farmhouse bed she made:

She spent $120 making this bed.  Ikea can't even beat that!

These bookcases Ana modeled after those cute Pottery Barn ones.

$60 for both of these.

Plus, she uses Jessica Jones Blue Leaflet as the design motif on some of her mock-ups.  She obviously has a great eye!

She has dozens of plans on her site based on what she has seen in catalogs and what her readers have suggested.  As you might guess, it is all very basic squared furniture- no intricate Victorian styles- but would you really want to make that anyway? And don't worry-- these are no New Yankee Workshop plans that require 8 very expensive power tools.  The plans I looked at need a chop saw, a finish nailer and a power screwdriver.  Cuts requiring a table saw she has done where she buys the lumber.  (Though my husband would be easy to talk into a table saw!)

So, I feel a little of my junior high Wood Shop training coming back to me and I am going to make a piece of furniture this year.  Maybe two.  Hey, I've alway considered a sewing machine another power tool-- to me sewing and woodworking aren't that far off.  Measure, cut, stitch (or nail).  Except fabric stretches and wood doesn't.  But that is what wood putty and caulk are for!

Though I will have to work this around my modeling career.

Onward and Upward!

Thank you for all the kind comments and emails I have received after my last post.  I have to tell you that I am in pretty good mental and emotional health after finally making the decision.  Two months ago?  Not so much... but I didn't want to bore you with those details!

But I am excited about the opportunities that brings about and can't wait to spend more time on this blog and on creative projects.  I'll be able to get to it towards the end of March, I promise!

I'm making a conscious effort to re-enter the web world-- blogs and twitter.  (I have kind of ignored Facebook, but I'll get back to it eventually.  Sorry Facebook, you just aren't as interesting to me.  Not the people, the format.  Not linear enough for me, I guess.)

So around the webs this week, I found some cool things that I'll recycle here.  Hey, I can't come up with the good stuff all the time!

Jan over at Daisy Janie followed Jessica's and Stephanie's blog leads and showed how she went from the doodle on the left to the design on the right.  Very fun to see what a quick sketch can turn into.

If you haven't been following Kim's posts on fabric pattern types at True Up, you are so missing out.  She has been posting examples of one-way, two-way and four-way patterns.  That is something I look at all the time, but never had the terminology and can never find examples when I need them.

Several of Heather Ross's great prints are now available on  Spoonflower!  You can order them on anything from an 8" x 8" test switch to continuous yardage.  You can also get it printed on five different cloths, including quilting weight to a linen/cotton canvas.

Enough already.  I've got to ease back into this blogging thing!

Digital Designs

I discovered the world of digital graphic downloads last summer.  I love that fact that great design objects are available at very reasonable prices to use in your digital scrapbooking, your blog or web designs or printed materials.  (Read the terms of use for the license you are buying to see what uses are allowed.)  Well, I found a new source called Design House Digital which just launched at the beginning of the year.

 

I found this site through Melissa Esplin's blog ISLY because she is one of the contributing designers to Design House Digital.  She has two collections available now:  Psychedelic Circus and Winterlandia.   The coolest thing (I think) is that Psychedelic Circus has a blog kit-- digital elements for blog headers, buttons, post separators. Again, great for people like me who love a good graphic, but can't create one.

While you are admiring her graphics handiwork, you should also spend some time on her blog looking at her crafty cleverness.   She has a variety of skills, but I'm always drawn to her awesome clothing redos-- my favorite is her ruffled shirt redo.  And though I'm insanely jealous of how cute she looks modeling her clothing, I try not to hold it against her. :-)  I met her last summer at Blogher and she's as nice as she is cute. 

I foresee a Shutterfly album of the kiddos out of Psychedelic Circus...

Twittering My Life Away

One of the things I was introduced to at Mom2.0Summit was twitter.  Actually, a friend of mine introduced me to it last November, but I didn't "get it".  Why would I want to send 140 character messages over the internet about what I was doing?  I mean, I can certainly understand why the world would want to hear from me every few minutes :), but did I really have time to serve my fans that way?

Well, I found out how people are using it now (as opposed to the "my cat rolled over" tweets from the early days).  Twitterers are using the tool to share web finds (products, business articles, marketing ideas), alert twitterers to new blog posts, as well as a quick way to text friends.

Well, how could this be helpful, you ask?  Well, Holly Becker's (Decor8) tweet is how I learned about Hallmark magazine closing that I posted yesterday.  Twitter is also how I know that Patty Young is re-pitching some colors for her new line of fabric, Mezzanine.  Twitter is also how I found out about Heather Ross leaving the fabric design business (thanks BeeSquareFabrics and TrueUp). 

Another twitterer also directed me to this article "Best Twitter Advice Ever" outlining the "rules" of tweeting and how to make the best use of it.

Could it be the biggest time suck ever invented? Oh yeah.  But I like how you can spend as little or as much time as you want.  And unlike an email, you aren't obligated to respond to people (unless you want to).  There are several tools you can use to sort through the twitter feeds and alert you to the ones that most interest you.  And unlike texting, it can be done from the desktop, phone, and other mobile devices.

It kind of reminds me of a person sitting in the office cubicle next to you who occasionally shouts out funny anecdotes or emails a web link you might be interested it. You don't have to stop everything and respond- he or she knows you are working and you'll "catch up" later.

And Twitter's impact on the web is huge.   Compete.com ranked Twitter as the Number 3 social media website in January 2009, up from 22 last year.  (Number 1 is Facebook, Number 2 is MySpace.)

Is it for everyone?  Absolutely not.  But I'm getting a lot of information from it.

PS.  Silly me, I forgot to tell you how to find me if you can't get enough of me.  There is a link on the blog sidebar at the top or follow this link: www.twitter.com/jcaroline.  This might be an alternative if you can't stand to read my lengthy blog posts, but you can't stand not to hear what I have to say. :)   

Giveaway at The Long Thread

Ellen at The Long Thread contacted me last week about a giveaway and I said "Great!  I'd love to get something."  No, no-- it's you that can get something.  I gave her five one-yard pieces of Anna Maria Horner Good Folks Fabric (shown below) that will be given to a randomly chosen commenter on Ellen's blog.  Enter before midnight on Friday and it is open to international readers.

Of course, if you don't win, you can always buy these fabrics and tell people you won!

February Jumpstart Contest at Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy and Etsy are sponsoring a DIY contest to encourage you to get your projects done in February!  Basically, you can submit a project to any of their five websites in the following categories:

• Apartment Therapy - home decor projects
• The Kitchn - kitchen projects
• Ohdeedoh - kids' home projects
• Unplggd - home office & tech projects
• Re-Nest - green home projects

The project must be done yourself, you must provide pictures and instructions and the project must be completed by February 23.  Read the complete rules here.

So if you were considering repainting a room, upholstering a chair, painting a desk, do it this month and submit it!  Currently, they have no entries in the kids' home projects category, so that field is wide open!

Today's Creative Blog

Kim sent me an email yesterday that she had featured me on her blog Today's Creative Blog, so I popped over there and read about this incredibly talented and funny person named jcaroline. Oh... that's me! My, Kim writes well, because I sound really interesting and it looks like I crank out a project every 10 minutes! Thank you for a lovely write-up! Now I'm inspired!

My New Bag

I saw this bag featured over at Portabello Pixie (it's her fabric on the bottom) and thought... I want this bag.  So I bought it.  It's from Sew Gracious over at Etsy and it is cuter in person than in the picture.  Her topstitching is divine.  Now I want some linen pants with wide legs and a light green blouse to go with it.

New Postcards

I haven't been doing anything creative lately, but I have been purchasing other people's creative endeavors.  These are the postcards I ordered from The Poster List found through How About Orange. (File this under shameless re-posting of old material because you haven't done anything lately.)

Indie Knock-offs

I got an email from Fossil.com the other day featuring this purse (their Kate Multi Fabric Bucket) and it occurred to me that the big name purse makers are putting out bags that look a lot more indie designed these days.  So I can't resist calling them Indie Knock-offs.

This madras bag from Dooney and Bourke has been around for awhile, but it still has that indie hand-pieced style to it.

 

The Signature Stripe Floral Tote from Coach takes the cake for me.  Yes, they are appliquing leather flowers onto their traditional fabric.   I wonder where that idea came from?  Etsy, maybe?  Maybe I'm over-reaching, but I think it is a great salute to the indie designers that have been making handbags and accessories that the mass market is noticing and attempting to join the fray.  However, I don't think these manufacturers are competing in the same space as the indies.  The Fossil purse is the cheapest at $188-- the Coach tote is $328.  (Hey, I thought mass manufacturing was supposed to make things cheaper?  I know-- branding, distribution, yada, yada.)

And maybe these brands will start picking up some indie designers to keep them ahead of the creative curve.  But then would they still be indie designers?  Hummm... 

Blog Interrupted

I apologize... there have been some complaints (darn few I might add) about my lack of blogging, but I am still here.  My parents were here last week, so that was one less reader and I thought the other three readers might be on vacation.

I haven't been working on creative stuff, so you haven't been missing much.  A lot of inventory type work--- B.O.R.I.N.G.  Summer is a good time to clean out the closets, or warehouse as it is.  We have so many new fabrics coming from Joel Dewberry (okay, it arrived yesterday- on the web today or tomorrow), Anna Maria's Garden Party, Heather Bailey's Pop Garden, Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market that I have to make room.   Check out our sale section frequently over the month of June-- I'm a crazy woman on a mission.

Speaking of crazy women, I discovered something new last night on the web and I am loving it.  No, not porn... digital scrapbooking.  I know, I know-- I hear the gasps of traditional scrapbookers and graphic artists simultaneously.  First, let me defend the digital aspect.  I want to make a scrapbook that I can replicate a number of times.  And I have no patience (or time) to pursue the finer hand-made craft.  So, I was looking at Shutterfly, which will print these cool photo books for around $20.  But, I didn't like their pre-made templates.   I consider myself quite the Photoshop amateur and I won't be denied the opportunity to add dozens of effects to each page to demonstrate my amateurish skills.

This is the part that I thought was cool.  The world of scrapbooking now has downloadable papers, letters, brushes and other elements that are basically photos of the real world object that you can put into your Photoshop layouts.   Many of the downloads are just .png files, so I'm sure you can use your favorite photo editing program-- I just noticed that some of the brushes were Photoshop specific.  I know, you Photoshop gurus could make your own in a reasonable amount of time, but I can't.  I found a site called Designer Digitals that has hundreds of designs to choose from, and most downloads are around $3.99.  So I made this card so you could see my designing downloading greatness.

And their terms of use are certainly reasonable.  If it's for personal use, most downloads of a single element are $3.99.  A professional license is $10 more and allows you to produce scrapbooks and embellished photographs for others and allows you to use the elements in web site graphics in sites unrelated to digital scrapbooking.  I thought that was very generous given the time it can save recreating these elements yourself (again, assuming you can).

The elements I used above are all part of Katie Pertiet's designs on Designer Digitals.  I like her style-- a little graphic, without being too harsh, but not too flowery either.  So go forth and embellish-- virtually, that is.

Cool New Print & New Fabrics

Check out this cool print I ordered and got last week.  I ordered it from Paula Prass's shop.  This print is the Audrey Lovebird and they customize it with any name you want.  I got the 16" x 16" canvas print that is gallery stretched (wrapped around the edges).  There was something about that girl's silhouette that caught my eye.  Paula's shop specializes in frames and wall art for children's rooms and she has some gorgeous things. And, she just announced that she is the newest fabric designer for Michael Miller Fabrics.  She is finalizing the line right now and so no sneak peek has been seen yet.  I expect to see that line mid to late summer.

Speaking of sneak peeks, Sandi Henderson over at Portabello Pixie,  (no longer the "newest" fabric designer for Michael Miller), is teasing us with teeny peeks of her new line "Farmers Market".  It debuts at Quilt Market in Portland next week.  I expect it to be as good as, if not better, than Ginger Blossom.  She is also debuting her line of patterns next week.  I wonder what she does in her spare time?

I have also been busy preparing for Quilt Market next week.  It seems that Michael Miller Fabrics has taken a liking to Modern Flora and are showing it in Portland next week.  (Michael Miller Fabrics is now the wholesale distributor for Modern Flora.)  That means that the famous photo shoot pictures are going, along with the floor pillows, curtains and the totes.   I'll be interested to see what the response to the fabric is.  It is certainly not traditional "Quilt Market" fabric, so that could be good or bad.  But, based on the last Quilt Market in Houston, the market is becoming less traditional, so maybe the timing is great.  I just hope Michael Miller is still smitten with the fabric AFTER the show.

Anyway, I'm going to Portland and hope to meet lots of the people from Blogland, so I'll keep you posted.

Black Bags

I found these bags in the Modern Flora Flickr Group and knew I had to have them.  They are made by Leslie Ann at Black Bags and she uses some darling fabrics.  Of course, I think the Modern Flora fabric is the cutest, but I don't see any more in her shop at the moment (probably because I bought them).  Anyway, I love the shape of the bags, the mix of the solids and prints, and her topstitching is absolutely meticulous.

Speaking of Flickr, I've set up two new project galleries.  Furniture DIY is for all you people that have been commenting that you are now going to attempt some re-upholstery or other fabric re-dos.  The second is Inspired by jcaroline for you to share the projects you made from our how-tos.  Share in the description what inspired you, if you made any changes, and (GASP) where you had trouble.  Create and share!

Furniture Redos/ Curbly

Hard as it may be to believe, I did not invent the furniture redo.   People have been doing this for quite some time and doing a great job at it.  I just became obsessed recently.  Check out Shelly of FliptStudio's upholstered bench made from an old coffee table.

She documents this bench re-do and others on her blog Flipt.  She is also writing a column for Curbly called "Goodwill Hunting".  Pretty clever, eh?  She also did a nightstand re-do.  Somehow she copied my idea before I even had it!  She won runner-up in the Apartment Therapy January Jumpstart competition.

Thanks, Shelley, for sharing your cleverness and turning me on to Curbly.  It is DIY heaven.  The originator of the blog, Bruno Bornzstein,  says " I wanted to create a place online where people can celebrate all the hard work they put into their homes."  The great thing is they cover projects large and small.  I myself am oddly intrigued by the homemade Swiffer covers.  Perhaps I have some scrap fabric somewhere to make some...

A Glass of Sanity with Breakfast

My friend, Rhonda, presented me with a gift of wine this week.  I did not know that the Sanity vineyard had a "Breakfast Chardonnay" varietal.  And the 50% alcohol content is quite impressive as well.

She got the label here where you choose your own wording to put on their designs, print it on a full page label and cut where indicated.  She actually soaked the label off this bottle because it was larger than this label.

I thought it was hysterical, but also a great idea for your next hostess gift.  You could make the label their name and the varietal "Best Party/Hosts/Friends Ever"... you get the idea.  They have the biggest selection of labels under red wine and white wine. 

Here's what I plan to drink this evening:

Trash Ties from Heather Bailey

Heather Bailey, designer of Freshcut fabric, is off on a new adventure!   Trash Ties^TM are Heather's new invention:  bendable fabric hair ties to replace barrettes, bobby pins or elastics.  Trash Ties^TM come packaged as one 25" length or five 4" lengths in several colors.  Even if you are hair styling challenged,  she helps you out with the included 16 page style guide.

If you order by December 10, she can get them to you in time for Christmas.  I  snatched up some for my nieces for stocking stuffers.  (If I come up with something they haven't heard of yet, they think I'm hip.  Or at least they humor me.)

Check out Heather's Trash Ties^TM and enjoy another product of her talents.  Don't worry-- she is not abandoning textile design.  She has a new line coming out in the spring of 2008.

Yum, yum

While doing a Google search for crack, I came upon Karen and Nancy's homemade goodies.  No, that's not really how I found them.  I was actually searching for "things to make my butt really big".  Well, they have it.  It's pecan crack and it's awesome.  I also bought a caramel sauce that is the best thing I've ever tasted.  They sell these goodies from their Etsy shop, September 15th to December 15th.  The packaging is as good as the product- cute ribbons and little jar "hats" (whatever those things are that you slip over jar tops).  The price points are $8 to $14, so great for little holiday gifts.  They included a couple of Espresso Caramels that were also delicious.  When I reorder, I'm going for the full blown Golden Caramels.

Cool Plates from Jackie Shapiro

You may have seen the name Jackie Shapiro on our website.  She is the designer behind Modern Grace and Play for Wyndham Fabrics.  I just noticed that she has a whole other life as a designer!  She has a company called French Bull, which specializes in melamine dishes and now stationery, and designs some of the cutest dishware (including flatware) I've ever seen.

While drooling over the dishware on her site, I noticed that I owned one of her plates.  I had seen this cute child's plate at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston's gift shop and had to buy it for you-know-who.  Those fabric designers are everywhere!

Anyway, the French Bull site lists three places to buy her things online (or to just ogle at them):  Plum Party, Cocoa Crayon, and Loft Party.  These plates are like cute fabric on your table.  And you don't have to sew them into anything!

Polka Dot Market

I bought this darling little girl's purse from Polka Dot Market.  It's a very belated birthday gift for a 4-year-old who likes girly things.  Polka Dot Market specializes in monogrammed items for children and adults (aprons, Tshirts, bags, stationery).  You can choose from different fabrics & colors and they'll make it for you.  They've got some darling things and I didn't have to make anything myself.  (Thus why the birthday present is belated- the original plan was to make something and it hasn't happened.)  Don't miss the owner's Sally's blog.  She'll keep you updated on what they've added to the store.

I'm out of sorts this afternoon.  In the last week, I've really caught up on getting items added to the website.  Of course, there is always something to add, but the huge mounds of product laying around have been taken care of.  So now I'm a little lost.  Start a fun project this afternoon? Or keep my nose to the grindstone and clean up the little remnants of stuff that never get addressed?  Or spend my afternoon pondering those questions and accomplishing nothing?  Probably the latter.

Visual Goodies

I just got my notecards by Lara Cameron from Moo!  Let me back up... Moo is an "on-demand" printer in England that specializes in sticker books, notecards and mini cards.  You can upload your own images to be printed, or you can choose from their designer images.  I think Moo is a great idea for pictures of your children, pets, loved ones or to make your own invitations or birthday cards. Their sticker books are packaged like matchbooks and are darling!

I had seen Lara Cameron's work on her blog, Kirin Notebook, and she recently announced that her designs would be on Moo.  I especially like her design of scissors and buttons shown on top. She also sells her designs on fabric at her Etsy Shop.  She is in Melbourne, Australia, but she'll gladly ship it to the U.S.!

The other goodie I've been enjoying is these bags of fabric.  If you do projects that require small pieces of lots of fabrics, they are for you!  They are basically samples and any other pieces of wayward fabric that we've cut into roughly 3" x 4" (at least) pieces and we've bagged approximately 45 of them (50 grams) for $2.  It's a "while supplies last" type of thing, but given all the fabric I'm finding stashed away, we should be fine for awhile.

My other mania at the moment is "fabric packs".  When we buy fabric collections, some pieces sell more than others.  So eventually, when the line is discontinued, there are orphaned pieces from the collection.  I started making color groups of those fabrics with fabrics from other collections and if I may say so, came up with some darling ones.  I then tied them up with ribbon and voila-- it's a visual delight!  The packs are one yard pieces of either 5 or 6 fabrics.  I will be offering them on the website-- I just need to organize them and price them.  A great gift for a crafter, yes?