Bye bye bye July...

Summer's 2/3 over (or we have 1/3 left depending on how you look at it!) so a few fits and starts from the months so far and my last July post.

Got some flowers this week for a pink event tasting: roses, hydrangea, phalaenopsis orchid and calla lilies, aaahhh...we had cocktails with jasmine tea and rose nectar, and pink macaroons...

started this project with chiffon from Mood Fabrics and beads from Beads of Paradise.  I gave it to my sister to show her friend thinking about wedding headpieces, hmmm...

also from that bead store, these were for a project in the car on the way to vaca but I'm afraid to say it was a bit of a FAIL!  That's what I get for not trying it on along the way since we were on the road.  Will have to try arranging them differently...

The boyfriend brought this hand-dyed Artyarns hank from a trip to Portland (I think he pretty much wanted to move out there!), a gorgeous mix of silk and mohair with glass beads and sequins from Knit Knot Studio (now closed) along with a diagonal scarf pattern with a lace edge by Elizabeth Prusiewicz, so the crystals will be strewn throughout the finished piece.  Hopefully I'll finish it for fall! 

And started this hat for my Dad, but it was a bit too small (should have paid him a visit to measure first!), so another do-over.  I think Guinness enjoyed it here though.  Got a liiiitle more time until winter to finish this one, maybe for Christmas.  One summer month to go....

Car Crafts

We're heading south for a little road trip this week, hurray! so let me know if you have any suggestions for where to eat, craft or shop in DC or Philly.  For now I'm figuring out what I can do in the car for hours and hours...

Here's my little caddy, it all snaps together.

There are compartments on the top for the little things

and I have some linen cocktail napkins, needles and plenty of buttons

plus the silk chiffon I used for my lavender sachet, bugle beads, seed beads and lots of thread....hmmm...I still have to pack and pick out a knitting project and then it'll be time to go!  Have a good week, I'll be back soon.

Adorn Me

Finally made something this week: a lace applique tank from this great and easy tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff (a fantastic blog, LOVE!)  That's also the necklace by Lauren Haupt that I posted about before.  I always make things when I have the least amount of time, like Christmas and Valentine's and Easter, guess I like the pressure, so I've been zipping all over town gathering trimmings and adornments for a work project (and fitting some exploring in at the same time):

The flower market is just bursting with peonies lately, I've been in awe.

And saw this little, pink pouf, not sure what it is, but it was pretty cute.

Then I headed to Beads of Paradise on 17th Street, which I mentioned in my first resources post.

Their selection is really quite varied: so many colors and sizes and materials and all different price ranges, my thanks to the very patient staffer who helped me!  My search also took me to Beads World, Inc. on Broadway between 37th & 38th where they have a huge array you could pore through for hours:

and close by on 6th Ave to Toho Shoji where there were even more beads, beads and more beads!:

I also found CJS (Crafts, Jewelry Supplies) on the 2nd Floor of 16 West 36th Street -- piles and piles of boxes all being unpacked and organized, who knows the treasures that could be all around.  This was on my way to Gettinger Feather.

I learned from Dan Gettinger that they only supply feathers from farm-raised fowl, not from the wild, and we chatted about the different feathers from different kinds of birds, fascinating!

Over at M&J Trimming there are walls and walls of lace, appliques, ribbons, threads, tassels, fringe, braids, rhinestones, sequins, amazing....and a whole room of buttons! 

The saleswoman who helped me was so sweet even though I had no idea what I was doing, and she happily cut me 1/2 a yard each of two styles of black Venice lace.  

Got a little lost on 37th Street on the way to my next stop, but passed Stretch House, Inc. (now I know where to find spandex!) and Kiki Riki (I'd like to make a pastel pink mini skirt!)

But finally I made it to Mood Fabrics, THE go-to-place on Project Runway.

SO inspiring: all of the colors and textures and materials, solids, prints, stripes, shirting, weaves, silks...I had so many questions!  I eyed the fancy lace:   

but ultimately was there for a more sheer fabric and decided on 1/2 a yard of silk chiffon.

I made sure to pet the shop's adorable dog, who I've loved since I saw him in this tutu pic.  I was also looking for fusible to meld my lace applique onto my tank top and the very nice staff directed me to find double-sided fusible at Steinlauf & Stoller, Inc. just 2 blocks uptown:

And they have a fantastic supply of sewing notions, threads, needles, zippers and more.  So, at last I had enough of a haul to head back to the office:

Yep, that's a real ostrich egg with real feathers: different sizes come from different parts of the bird.  And we needed gold and black beads so I had a bunch:

And at home I looked over my findings:

Might not look like too much now, but I have some nice plans for these things.  The tank was adorned in just minutes and I was so happy that I wore it for yet another day of work today.

Recent Resources

[From broadwaypaper.com]

This picture is from Broadway Paper, "the paper store with so much more," not in NYC, but in Wisconsin.  I found the site while doing some research on mini hat boxes today.  Looks like a fun store, wish I could visit, but until then I'll just have to check out their website some more, it's quite pretty.  I've also found a few other interesting shops recently:

I stumbled on Exotic Fragrances, Inc. all the way up on 104th Street when I didn't have an umbrella en route to The Museum of the City of New York.  I had been looking for fragrance oils to use in poured candles so I was shocked to find this shop with over 1,000 scents!  I chose Peppermint and Dewberry, so hopefully I'll buy the other materials to make these candles soon, maybe before winter is over.

I also just happened to walk by Beads of Paradise on 17th Street.  They have pieces from all over the world: South East Asia, India, Indonesia, China, the Middle East and Mexico and beads made of glass, metal, wood, shell, gold, silver and semi-precious stones.  They even have reasonably priced classes, might have to check those out sometime.

If I'm not working at events, my office closes at 6 p.m. each day.  I've wanted to go to New York Central Art Supply on 3rd Avenue, but it closes at 6:15!  So, it was cool when I got out early yesterday and could check it out.  This store has been in business since 1905 and I like that they had a vast selection of "serious" art supplies from paints to embossing and silk screening supplies, as well as "lighter" stuff like glitter and sculpey clay.  

And I also made it a little further south to Downtown Yarns and saw these cool yarn snowflakes in the window.

2010 Planning and 1st Project

 Happy New Year!  I've been planning out all of the crafting i want to do this year, or more like figuring out when I want to do everything.  I used to buy a calendar every year, but decided to make my own for the new decade. 

I've only gotten through May so far because I wanted to buy paper in other colors...

So, I made another trip to Michael's up on 97th and Columbus and limited it to just an hour and $50.00 this time.  I'm going to see if I can get by with that as a monthly budget.  When I registered at their website they sent a coupon for 40% off one item, nice!  I bought a stamp kit for making cards, so that will show up in a post soon I'm sure.

My first project for the year is Beaded Hairpins from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts and I'll be using this awesome book a lot this year.

Growing up, I used to bead with my sister Emily and I wish I could find the bead stash and organizer I had then. Somehow we found the time (and patience!) to spend hours separating tiny seed beads by color and stringing flower bracelets onto unwaxed dental floss. I guess my eyesight was much better then, because it was a little challenging this time around with 30-gauge wire.

Just 5 petals and a center and then you attach the flower to a bobby pin. I think I'll have to send some to Emily soon.