New project

First I would like to show what first inspired me to make my pillows. I saw a pillow in a boutique in Amelia Island they only had one and I totally fell in love with it. Then I looked at the price tag and about keeled over and died... the staff wasn't exactly overly social (it was a absolutely gorgeous boutique with scrumptious french antiques) So I didn't want to ask any questions about it, I couldn't even get a picture so I just went home and looked at their online store hoping it would be on there. Of course no luck. I ended up calling later and asking if they knew who designed it and finally got this website as a answer. More beautiful stuff but they still didn't have the original pillow I saw and wanted (not that these prices were affordable for me either) so I started designing my own. And no I don't think they touch this woman's work. I finally saw her work again in the latest Ballard Designs catalogue -I was so excited! This is the closest I have seen to the original pillow - it might even be the same pattern I only saw it once for a few minutes. I love the way she has the work displayed. Can you believe I have none of my stencil work in the house? I had been wanting to frame it or something but I couldn't think of a way it would look good and now I know. So I got to work on what I think is my favorite stencil so far and here is what I came up with

It was really hard to photograph because of the glass. I did all the framing myself with only one call to my mum for a few questions. The supplies are all from Michael's. The frames is one from their more expensive line that comes with no glass, I fell in love with the simple leaf design (and I bought it on their 55% off sale) I bought a large piece of matte board (that I cute to size at home) and had them cut the backer board for me. I also picked up spacers and framers tape. I hand stitched the fabric to the matte board. I am SOO glad I hung out with mum in the frame shop for a day a few years ago I was so much fun to put something together again!

The frame fits a 16x20 piece so it is a pretty large piece. But I still shrunk the design from what goes on a pillow.

Just a few close ups. I have a smaller one that I still need to do, same frame just in an 11x14 size. I still need to decide what I want to do for that one... decisions, decisions...

Meanwhile earlier today Uber informed me I had a surprise when I got home... you never know what this could mean with him they've varied greatly in the past.... sometimes he's just joking... I tend to figure he is joking so I reminded him I wanted a plant from Lowe's and told him the colors and figured he had an out if he was kidding about it (I really wanted a surprise) When I got home he gave me this

yes, that would be candy from his office... what a sweet heart right! I was like come on REALLY where are my plants?! And he was like ohh... yeah ok well I will bring those tomorrow... So we were making dinner and he got a business phone call and sent me to get his PDA for him out of his briefcase and this was next to it

I think I screamed but you would have to ask him because sometimes I just make noises in my head. I did yell at him though!! Since no where locally has it setup to try out he decided to just bring it home so I can see if I like it, if not I can take it back the store has a 30 day return policy and said it would be no problem to return it. I am hoping I love it and don't want to take it back, but just in case. I've played with it a little so far it is easy to draw with but everything looks like a 3 year old did it... I am REALLY hoping this improves....

One thing is for sure Ubers AWESOME!

It was a beautiful weekend

The weekend was great though. We spent Saturday morning at the beach, our first visit for the year and all you get is pictures of the beach. We both were not okay with showing you any of us in bathing suits- Yikes! We took a looonnngggg walk and threw a softball around. It was the perfect temperature not hot not, cold and no breeze.

I FINALLY (years later) got a box for the flag my dad gave me. It flew in either Iraq or Afgahnistan - Dad? On October 13, 2005 I don't know why I cant remember which...

I just realized that I forgot to tell you all how the interview went - it was great! Loved the school (it's the Art Institute). The lady I met with had really nice things to say about my work and gave me some really great information about local art events. I still need to make appointments with the other schools I am looking at and see what they have to offer. The interview definately has me more excited to get back into school again. I am also stalking the Intious 4 again... I really wish there was somewhere to try it out though... who wants to spend that kind of money and not know it's worth it!

I have something fun to show you tomorrow!

Last Weekend

We headed down to Orlando this last weekend to see my cousin who was in town with his college rugby team (California Maritime Academy) for the Sweet Sixteen Tournament. They placed 6th in the nation which they are pretty bummed about... personally I think this sounds pretty good, but I am just a girl. Anyway we kidnapped him for the night and took him into Orlando for some fun... or maybe I should say for some old fashion Florida weirdness.... We went to the Universal City walk and boy do they have a plethora of very special people down there! (for example picture VERY large woman in see through spandex pants) I found it especially amusing since the day before I had to listen to a conversation that a group of Floridians was having about CRAZY Californians (totally unprovoked)... if they only knew... I have run into many, many more crazies here then I ever did there... and we were in L.A. sooo.... back to the story

Isn't he adorable? I can't believe how much he's grown up! It seems like just yesterday that we annoyed each other to death. We had a total blast hanging out with him.

He wanted to see a gator but we didn't get him until it was too late to do that ... but I did spot an armadillo and we hopped out of the car and chased it around to take pictures of it (it was not harmed in the taking of this picture...or the hundred others on my camera actually it seemed a little too used to humans... we were only 2 feet away from it.)

I leave you with a picture of him sporting my blinging glasses... and I only do this because you can tell he's thinking - Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?

P.S. We also did some fun shopping after dropping him off at the airport. I will show you what we were up to why I get it finished. It involved Ikea, and a little bit of Crate and Barrel and Zgalleries...

P. S.S. I spent all tonight putting together a VERY thrown together portfolio for my appointment with the art institute tomorrow night.

Presenting the completed CatBirdFish Studio Logo

I have had a total blast putting this together! After knowing for sure which direction to head in I got to work again last night and I am very happy with the results. So here it is --

For the fun of it (and because my interent went down right when I wanted to post) I colored it in. I didn't expect to like it more but I think I might!

Uber is pushing me to get back to school... blech! But today he told me there is a graphic design institute locally that is connected with a larger one in Miami. Now I am interested!! I think we are going to go check out an open house next weekend... I'll let you know how it goes!

CatBirdFish Studio

Sherie (who is my aunt for those of you who don't know) commented on my tags take two post that she wanted her own... and how could I say no? Especially when she said they needed to say CatBirdFish Studio. I totally wanted to play! So here is two rough ideas the first one is what I thought of when I first read it (I spent more time on this one)-


After talking to her and finding out why she was calling it that I drew up this one today (it needs work I spent less than 30 minutes on it so this is just for the general idea --Uber already informed me the cat face wasn't right... )

Anyway I was just interested to see which she liked more (not liking either is also an option my feelings wont be hurt this is just fun) and thought I would share it with everyone... because it's what I have been doing with all my free time the last two days... which hasn't been much hence the special looking cat face! So let me know what you think too!

Because I think I can do anything

I thought I would show you all a pre-blog project.

Meet ugly pink chair that I am for some reason wierdly attached to. Uber was like un-huh... that's special, but he rolls with just about anything so it sat in our room like this for quite awhile. I am not really sure where my mum got it from. But it is an art deco (I think) period chair and it was covered in a dusty rose pink velvet fabric

I was totally digging the velvet but not the pink and it was falling apart so I figured I would recover it... I had done a couch before (I need to scan those pictures in to show you so... yeah that may never happen) Anyway the bottom was also falling out and needed to rewoven and nailed so I went for it and took it apart.

When I pulled off the bottom I found this label... which was really neat and then I realized hmmm... I probably should of made sure I am not destroying anything of value... but it was too late so uh... forgive me if this was a no no. This picture is kind of blurry but it says it was made on the 2 March 1910- how cool is that?! This chair is almost 100 years old!

I chose a brown velvet fabric. I wanted to keep the chair similar to what it was just with a color change. It went really well, though I do wish I had taken an upholestry class before because then it would have been perfect

I covered the seams with cording

I found this funky trim for the bottom. There was no fringe in the right color and personally I think this is better.

Here is it completed

You can see how long ago this was since there is still carpet on the floor in the living room... and the vertical blinds over the window... I didn't know they still made these until moving to florida... yuck!

from the back

It's a little different than the original but I dont think it lost anything in the redo.

Tags - take two

I made myself some new hanging tags to replace my old ones... I still need to get them cut up.

While I was at it I made my mum some... just for the fun of it.

What do you think?

Do you want them?

And the winners are...

I asked my random number generator (Uber) to pick two numbers and he chose 4 and 8.

So the winners are Joan


and Kelly

Contact me with your emails. (Make sure they can accomodate a 9.38MB file)

Thanks everyone for playing along. The tutorial is also up in my shop.

Thanks for all the love on the slip covers!!

Tomorrow's the last day for the GIVEAWAY...

So for everyone who wants something actually mailed to them for the giveaway I will try and get on that someday when I have some spare time. But that probably wont be soon because I am stretched REALLY thin right now, works CRAZY, I am teaching at church, I am trying to learn the guitar, and there is more going on but just right there you can see I am swamped. But I am wanting to do it... and would love suggestions as to what YOU guys would want to see as the prize... because I really don't know what you would want!
We checked out a antique mall/flea market on Saturday morning, I went with low expectations (this is something I am working very hard to make myself have ... I am not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic) anyway back to the story- low expectations - they were right on the mark. The antique mall had no furniture and a lot of overpriced dishes. But I did find this

Don't ask me why but I totally dig these. ( It's a power line insulator for those who don't know) A friend where we used to live collected these and had them in all sorts of colors and I always found them fun to stare at...they are absolutely not useful in anyway.

The flea market side of the thing was rough. In our area local farmers do not sell at farmers markets they like to sell at the flea markets.... can anyone explain this to me?? And they are the only good thing there... which kinda weirds me out. I really wish someone would open a decent farmers market. Other then that flea markets in the area are actually junk markets they are rather a depressing place to go and I have seen nothing at the two I have gone to that I would touch and I don't know if the vendors are really as bad off as they look or if they dress for pity but I don't think I will be checking anymore out any time soon.

So another insane project is completed. I bought the Pottery Barn Megan chairs after staring at them for 2 years and what do you know the next month they discontinued them...after having them for YEARS... they never came out with another slip cover and none of the ones in their last batch matched my house. Did I mention I even asked the lady if they were discontinuing them before purchasing them and she said no... So anyway I finally decided to make myself some. I have 8 chairs... oh dear was this a project. I now know that I very extremely dislike sewing the same thing repeatedly ... it makes me a nasty person. I had to make my own pattern and everything. 19 yards of fabric and 8 invisible zippers later I got done at 11pm last night I will never try and do this many at one time again (I started them last Saturday) next time I will pace myself ... haha

I think they turned out very well. Only a few mishaps. Which we are not discussing here...

I am really hoping the fabric holds up well it's not as thick as the store bought ones. Why is it impossible to find fabric as nice and thick as what stores carry stuff made in?

My other concern is are they too green?

Never mind you probably should answer that... unless it's to say that they are perfect.

Now I am just going to wonder if you are lieing...but I definitely think they add color to the space!

Meanwhile for anyone who is buying the new version of this chair that is just EVER SO SLIGHTLY different from the old one (darn you pottery barn) my advice to you is buy as many slip covers as you can... they are actually very well priced (especially when they are on sale...it's a steal when they are on sale) and if you have the old version and need the pattern I will totally help you out...

GIVEAWAY!!

The tutorial is finally complete and I am going to giveaway TWO here. I am pretty close to my hundreth post and since I am not great at being on time lately.... I figured it's better to be early then late-- right?

The comments will be open for four days. You can get up to 3 entries by



1. Leaving a comment on this post.

2. Blog about it and link back to my site on your blog. (let me know in your comment)

3. Fav me on Etsy.



The tutorial will also but up on my Etsy site. Have fun!

April

How are we already in April? 1/3 of the year is gone! We had a killer storm take us from March into April... Florida obviously doesn't understand the rules of March.
I have been so busy. With lots of random things some of which I will be showing you shortly (hopefully). For now I thought I would show you the reason you don't see quilts being made around here...
We picked this fabric up in the L.A. fabric district for an unbelievably cheap price we were there over a long weekend and I guess everyone else had better things to do because the place was EMPTY. Needless to say the people really wanted to sell their stuff. I saw this and totally cringed at the $20 yard price tag.... I think by the time we left I paid $4 a yard. It is a two toned blue and gold silk. I had been looking for something to do a quilt in and figured - hey why not!

... let's just say I obviously had no idea what I was getting myself into. I started it with good intentions but quickly ran out of steam... did I mention I was hand quilting? I didn't pick it up again for a year and I think I finally completed it about 2 - 2 1/2 after starting. All of the quilting follows the vines stitched into the silk. I think it looks pretty neat- kind of like a shadow.

The funny thing is I don't really like to sleep under anything but a comforter so this sucker went directly into the linen closet when it was finished. I just pulled it out to snap a picture of it for you I think I am going to leave it on the guest bed though because I am kind of digging it now! I was getting an itch to do another quilt and I think looking at this again has successfully killed that thought.

I thought I would leave you with a little bit of green. My first tomato's have just started to grow- and I do mean just started that smaller tomato is less than 1/4 inch across! The little bit of garden that made it through our frosty winter is starting to take off. My jasmine is blooming and smell sooo good! My local Lowe's will hopefully be getting in the rest of the plants I wanted in next weeks shipment I am SO excited (so are they I'm sure I have been bugging them A LOT)

Also my guitar lesson are going awesome! I am loving it, though my fingers will never be the same again... or my nails for that matter I chopped them off finally and WOW has playing become SO much easier!

I am off to work --