Shark Week!

Shark Week is fast approaching, and for those of you who don't read my newsletter you may be unaware that I have a bunch of sharky plans coming up in honor of Shark Week!

I decided to spice up my Spoonflower "Hammerhead" fabric design with my new favorite color combo: yellow, gray, black and white, so feel free to go check it out and purchase some for your own shark themed crafts. I will also be giving away some swatches of my sharky fabrics during shark week, so check back for your chance to win!

Spoonflower Shark fabric contest!

What better way to celebrate Shark Week than a fabric design contest? Spoonflower is having a contest here and you can vote on your favorites including my hammerhead design. To see what mine looks like all printed out and ready to use, check out this post from earlier this week. I think this may be my favorite fabric design yet. Once again, the competition is tough, but you guys sure do show me some love and one of these days I think I'll make top 10. :D

Also, today is my wedding anniversary, so I hate to say it, but my Shark food craft may be taking a backseat this week to some yummy frosting I made for an anniversary cake. Maybe I'll shark it up food style for you guys next week, as I really did have a cute shark themed idea! It would be great for kids of all ages (even almost 30 year olds like me!).

Shark Week!

It is Shark Week! I don't even have cable TV, but I think sharks are pretty great, so this week I plan on having a couple of Shark related crafts for all of you to enjoy (Shark food craft? yes, please!). Tune in for more sharky action as the week progresses, let me know some of your favorite sharky wares or crafts and enjoy the wonder that only comes one week a year.

I found this treasury on etsy to get your creative sharky juices flowing. Also, I made the Hammerhead shark fabric you see at the top of the post. Once again, I'm not sure what it is going to become but I absolutely love how it turned out. You can order some here or go to Spoonflower, upload an image and make your own!

Look What Came in the Mail Today!

Look what I got today when I checked my mail(okay so it came last night, but I forgot to check as I am rather absent minded)! These are some swatches of fabrics I designed on spoonflower.com and they came out even better than I imagined they would. :D I have a few more coming later this week, including a pattern I made with hammerhead sharks that I am very excited about. Have any of you ever made fabrics at Spoonflower? It is definitely an obsession of mine at the moment and I spend lots of time making my own patterns, looking at stuff other people have made and trying to decide what to do with any samples and orders I get.

That brings me to another question for you all: What do I do with these lovely fabric samples? Coasters? Pot holders? Itty bitty zippered pouches? Each square is 8"x8" so the projects need to be small, or I could piece them into quilty projects as well. Let me know what you think! This coffee fabric on the right is actually an entry I have in next week's coffee themed fabrics contest on spoonflower. I have a feeling that one will be tough, as I have browsed through a lot of other coffee themed fabrics and there is some seriously adorable stuff, including some Kawaii prints that are just awesome.

Speaking of contests, this is a color variation on my blue and red Roller Derby fabric that is in the current fabric contest at Spoonflower. I'm starting to wish I had entered this color combo instead, c'est la vie! If you haven't voted or even visited Spoonflower before, I highly recommend it. Voting on this contest ends Wednesday I believe, so gets your votes in now! Again, lots of great designs to choose from.



Also, all of my fabric designs that you see here and a few others are available here for purchase through Spoonflower. (This wasn't in my original post, but I have since had several requests and had a palm to the forehead moment that I hadn't shared the info with you all--my apologies!)

Finally, I will be having my first book review on the site coming up later this week, or this weekend. I recently purchased Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop and it is about the most adorable baking book I have ever seen! I am trying out a few of the recipes to share with you all, but so far I love it. The recipes are easy to follow, the book has lots of great information, and the book itself is lovely and every page has beautiful scalloped edges that I just love. It is published by Chronicle Books, and I have been a fan of theirs for quite awhile. They always find cute little ways to make their books stand out, such as these scalloped pages, and special bindings and whatnot on other books that really add to their appeal.

Roller Derby Fabric!

I apologize for the delay in posts, but I have been super busy this past week (as I'm sure you all have been as well!) I finally got off my lazy butt and designed some more fabrics on Spoonflower.com (as I have been meaning to do for quite awhile now). This one is for their current Roller Derby fabric contest, there are lots of great designs so feel free to go here and cast your votes for your favorites (even if it doesn't happen to be my design. I got some of this one in the mail last week and it looks pretty good. I have some swatches of different color combos, that I may or may not like better than this one in the mail so I hope to see them soon. I also did some coffee fabrics for next week's contest. They have lots of great design contests coming up, so I am sure you will see more fabrics from me soon, and feel free to join in the fun and design some of your own!

I will also be back to posting more regularly (I hope) in the next couple of weeks as I have many projects nearing completion. As long as I can get my photos taken and uploaded in a timely fashion the next couple weeks are just overflowing with new goodies, and I got a couple books in the mail this week that I am dying to look through and share with you!

Have any of you read or seen any great books lately, crafty or otherwise?

Craftinomicon "Rain" fabric now for sale @ Spoonflower!

Hey everyone! Just thought I would drop a quick note on this once again cloudy, rainy day in Portland to let you all know that my Rain theme fabric is now up for sale on Spoonflower!

I have a small proof of it here at home, and the computer images are just not doing it any justice at all. If any of you happen to purchase some of it, I would love to see the crafts it inspires!

Rain theme contest on Spoonflower.com

I love fabrics of all kinds, but I especially love one of a kind fabrics! Cue Spoonflower.com and the magic they help everyday people like you and me create! For those of you unfamiliar with spoonflower, it is a website where you can upload your own designs and create your own fabric. You can even upload photographs and turn them into fabrics for your own special projects. For one of a kind designs, the prices are also very reasonable, and you can order as much or as little as you like!

This week on Spoonflower.com, the contest theme is rain, and I just so happen to have a design in the contest. If you like it as much as I do, go and vote now! You can vote for as many patterns as you like, and don't need to be a member to vote. There are some very cute designs I am up against too. To vote in this week's contest just go here.