Hey Girl!

My sisters and I love watching New Girl because it's darn funny.Plus Zooey Deschanel wears the cutest clothes. There was a green and blue outfit that I particularly liked in one of the episodes so I made it for my Pullip.

More pics here and here

Injured thumb projects

Here are last week's small (literally small) projects - a felt bag and a dress.

Stitched

A carpentry accident has left my left thumb unusable for the past week. I finally got to start working on Wally's toy fridge, and I thought it would be a good idea to salvage the wood from my old closet. So after sawing up the wood to toy-fridge size, I was prepping it for sanding. Then I accidentally slashed my thumb with a putty knife while scraping off some extra stubborn 13 year old dried wood putty on one of the panels. Funny thing is, I didn't even feel a thing. It was the massive bleeding that freaked me out. Apparently it was a pretty deep (1.5 cm) arterial laceration - my finger was peeing blood. It had to get stitched. And a 1.5 inch section of a wooden tongue depressor was bandaged to my thumb to keep it from bending. Boo.

So today marks the first week of my stitched-up thumb. I haven't washed the dishes in a week. Hooray for that! But at the same time it's been pretty challenging to do a lot of menial tasks like opening a bottle or cutting the fingernails on my right hand. Needless to say, the toy fridge project has been put on hold indefinitely. Well, this has been a very unproductive week for me. And with that I'll leave you with a picture of our room. Because a picture of my mangled finger would be really gross.

Making doll dresses

This past week, I worked on a couple of doll dresses. Well, they're so much better than my first attempt. Mainly because I was serious this time. :D I had my orange tracing chalk handy, to add to the seriousness of the whole activity. Many of the women in my family sew. My grandma's sisters are accomplished seamstresses, my mom sewed a lot too. And now my sister is making her career in sewing. I remember as a kid watching my grannies and mom sew, they used the orange chalk to trace. (But not my sister -  she uses fancy sewing stuff) So I just had to buy my own because I mean business!

I made a short dress for Sabrina using this floral fabric and a few strips of color-coordinated ribbons.

I was quite happy with this dress, though there's still a lot of room for improvement. As you can see here, the skirt's seam is actually at the front of the dress :D Luckily the shirring makes it less obvious.

This is the beginnings of a maxi tube top dress for Candice. Cutting the fabric was pretty straightforward. I just cut a rectangular piece of fabric to her measurements. What proved to be absolutely tricky when making this dress was getting the tiny garter through the equally tiny casing I sewed on the top part of the dress. After about 4 tries and throwing a bit of a fit, I finally got that darn elastic through.

 

Okay, so time for finished products. Here's Sabrina in her dress.

And here's Candice. I just hand-stitched the ribbon to the hem. The fabric is pretty sheer so it's peekaboo undies for now. Hehe. I still have to buy fabric for the lining.

Back to beading

This blog is being overrun by toys pretty quickly, I know. So I've set up TinyToy, a Tumblr blog where I'll be posting my toy pics.

I was able to work on a few late Christmas gifts this week - a necklace for my cousin and a stretch bracelet for my neice.

I love the charm on the stretch bracelet. You can place a SS09 Swarovski flatback on one side, and on the other side it says "Play". Perfect for little girls. Too bad Hopey is skinnier than I anticipated and the bracelet is a bit big for her. Well, at least she'll still grow into it.

Last minute activities

Been pretty busy this Christmas season despite being out of work. With what you ask? Mall-hopping and bazaar combing, meeting and greeting, mini-toy shopping. Not that I have any presents left to buy. I just want to get into the Christmas frenzy.

I spent last night making a tiny Christmas tree and a garland of sparkly stars for a Lalaloopsy Christmas photo. I used strung 4mm czech rounds as decor for the tree - quick and easy!

making the tree and garland

Setting up the scene was trickier, with lots of teeny tiny parts to assemble.

setting up the Christmas scene

And a little one always checking out what I'm up to.

taking a peek

Finished Piece: Tin's Wrap Bracelet

Another sort of productive week for me. I finally finished the wrap bracelet I was working on here for my friend Tin. Hooray!

It's about 24 inches long, made with czech fire polished rounds and czech druks, greek leather and a mega-watt Swarovski crystal button.

Sneak Peek: Wrap Bracelet

DIY Weekend

Project: Wally's Playroom

Wally's toys have taken over much of our house, to the dismay of the "grown ups" who often need to tidy them up. So another major DIY project of mine will be transforming the spare bedroom/junkroom downstairs into Wally's play area. Here are some ideas I've rounded up from the interwebs.

I'm pretty much leaning towards this room, which echoes our upstairs bedroom - with the combination of light blue and white paint. Mostly because I want to make use of the left over blue paint from my bedroom makeover.

I like the retro touches on this room.

The chalkboard and shelves here are great ideas.

Sit n' store. I like the idea of a multi-purpose storage space.

Adorable! I'm fighting the urge to make something like this! I just keep on reminding myself that Wally's a boy.

* All images from Ohdeedoh

Project: Workstation

I've picked a space in the house that would make a good workshop - the library. It has ample space, shelving, and a nice big window. Problem is, right now it houses not just books but a big mass of clutter that we've accumulated over the years.

{check out the vintage piggy bank}

So far I've been able to sufficiently sort my materials but am still constantly looking for ways to organize my tools and bead stash.

{I store my beads in clear jars that I buy by the bulk at a perfumery/cosmetics supply store}

{messy work table}

{more beads}

It is pretty hard to work when your area is in a constant state of mess. My goal is to finish my workshop in the coming months. Lots of organizing and tidying up to do. Maybe I can do some DIY decorating as well. Looking forward to that.