years in the making

I am beyond thrilled to finally announce that I actually have an Etsy shop ~ 52nd & Barkley! If you know me, you know that I've been saying that I would open an Etsy store for years.  I am so happy that 52nd & Barkley is finally a real shop! AND I've already sold 2 items!! yahoo! I had no idea the amount of satisfaction I would gain just by putting my craft items up for sale.  Currently there's just a few items in the shop, but I am definitely working on building up the items, not just baby gifts, but hostess gifts, tote bags, etc. Please check it out, check back often and tell your friends.  I feel so loved just by seeing people enjoy my products.

 Tag toys and pacifier clip - part of the gift sets

baby girl gift pack.  I love the coordinating orange and hot pink - still girly - but just a bit different.  The blanket is awesome.  Super snuggly hot pink polka dot flannel on the side that you don't see.

My new favorite yoga accessory.  These headbands are fantastic. (And I just realized are not actually listed in the shop yet. Whoops. They will be listed very soon.)

My mom dressed me in navy and white nautical themed outfits as often as she could when I was a kid, and I turned out pretty good. 

I was channeling Lilly Pulitzer with this one.  I love minky fabric and try to use it as often as I can. 

Hair clips with anti slip grip. These are great, when our niece had about 3 strands of hair, these hair clips still stayed in.   

Not being a mom myself, but I do have a sense of style, and figured most moms do as well.  I wanted to be sure to not make all baby products seem so babyish.  I love using fabrics that you as a mom will be happy toting around. 

Hair ties: I am a big fan of these hair ties.  They are super comfy, look cute in your hair AND on your wrist. 

The Name:
52nd & Barkley is a name that comes right from the heart. 52nd is the cross street of first home in Minneapolis, and of course, Barkley is our only child.


Additions to the blog:
You'll also notice that I've added a tab at the top of the blog so that you can go straight to the shop, also on the side of blog I am featuring a few of the items.

project in the bathroom

Huh, that title can be taken a few different ways.

The project that I am going to talk about today is revamping the pictures that hung above the towel bars in our second bathroom.  You see, I am pretty sure that I have had these frames/mattes for over 10 years and the white mattes just started to look a bit dingy.  The problem was, they fit the space well and the postcards that were in the frames were still looking good as new.  So I figured if I just recovered the mattes, I could have another 10 years worth of bathroom fun. (OK I might get sick of them before that, but you get what I mean.)

I got the wrapping paper at The Container Store for $4.99 a roll - which by the way has quite a selection of modern - patterned paper.  The paper was of really great quality as well, but only a very small amount (probably would wrap 2 shirt boxes). I was able to cover both mattes in one roll...well, I should have been able to cover both mattes in one roll, but my first attempt I didn't pay attention to the fact that I should get the lines square and the paper was crooked. So, after going back to The Container Store for another roll of paper, I was back in business.

Ta Da!

Much better, if I do so so myself. 

$10 to make the bathroom in our rental a bit more exciting...I'll take it.

brought to you by the letter F

I was feeling a bit crafty last night but didn't want to hall out the sewing machine or get my fingers full of glue.  So I decided to rather than pin pin pin on pinterest, I would actually do something pinterest inspired.  So I decided to do something monogram inspired.  You see, I like initials, there's a silent F at the beginning of my name (F)AnnE... no, really, it's actually the first letter of our last name. I have no silent letters in my name - hence the gigantic pronounced E at the end of my name.

Ok, back to the project...

We had received two westie prints (I'll show you those on another day, don't want to blow our wad of fun all in one day!) from my sister and they came backed with foam board.  I didn't need the foam board after I framed the westie prints but figured there MUST be some project I've pinned before that I could use the foam board. I wanted to make an initial and use some of our stash of wine corks. But I wasn't sure how that would work with the letter F.  I thought that it might not work out too well.  I do however have a plethora of yarn balls sitting around just dying to get used, so I figured why not wind some yarn around the foam and call it a day? And so, I did.

First off, I found two fonts I liked and printed them off in font size 800.  The uppercase F was still a bit too small so I blew it up again on the copy machine.  I cut the letters out.  Then I traced them backwards on the foam board.  Why backwards, you ask?  Because I wasn't sure how easy it would be to cover and I didn't want pen markings on the front.

Then after some work with the scissors - which was a bit hard to get a nice clean cut, an exacto knife probably would have been easier - I cut out the letters.

And cutting out the letters makes your dog a bit worn out, so you let her take a rest.

And then you adhere the yarn to the back of the foam letter.  I used duct tape.  Why, you ask? Because any excuse to use duct tape, I'll take it. 

And then you just start winding the yarn all over the letter.  I wanted to have it look a bit disheveled, so I went over a few areas again and again to make it look interesting. In the uppercase F, I used a much thinner yarn versus that chunky cream lowercase f.  The black yarn took some time to wind around and around, so turn on some Florence and the Machine (or whatever music you like to jam to - Flo is my favorite during the moment) and wind that yarn until your foam letters are fully covered.  Next time around, I probably would have used a black sharpie to color in the thinner areas of the F just to make it easier to camouflage the foam board underneath.

The finished product.

Barkley approved. 

projects

I have some good visions.Rather, other people have really good visions and I figure out a way to make them my own. I turn those visions into reality by going to Michael's and taking care of buying the essentials, but then I bring them home, put them in the appropriately labeled craft bin (yes, they are all labeled - my husband has made me anal). I manage to get them partly started but then they all end up back in the land of misfit-half-made crafts. So along with the free or slightly free weekend trips, I'm also making a list of projects to complete. After looking through crafty blogs like How About Orange and A Little Hut. I have been inspired to add more and more projects to the list of crafty things to make. Making crafts is an outlet that makes me feel so very satisfied, it's a lot like running for me. Both of running and crafts energize me in so many ways - one however, allows me to eat a brownie after dinner without feeling guilty, but whatever.



So on to another list, I think it's time to add a crafty list to this summer's activities.



step one: find a fabric store



step two: make projects like this Market Bag



step three: complete one single project



step four: pat myself on the back and start on the baby blanket that I started 3 years ago for my niece. Currently half done. Finish this project and move on to next half-done project. Finish and repeat. Repeat. Repeat...you get the idea, i have a LOT of projects up my sleeve!