Leather, Leather, Leather!

Listening to "Abe Lincoln" by Best Friends Forever

I can't say that post enough.. LEATHER!!!!!

Anyhow.. It's been a little bit... ok, maybe a bigger bit since I've last posted. Things have been really moving with my leather projects. I know I posted an ambiguous picture last week of one of my bracelets. I sold that bracelet right after I displayed it and it gave me new cheer to move on to vintage inspirations. This time I have another picture...I've been wanting to do something subtle... yet me.. Took me a few hours and some buttons!! and the bracelet below is what I found in myself. I think I may keep it... shhh...

Good news. I have another belt chair I'm working on as I post this. I should have it finished with before and after pics for you to look at soon.. ok it's raining now so that will have to wait. I can't paint in the rain... :(

I went on a calming re-photo shoot this morning and was able to post cuffs to our store. We are now open. My sister should be adding her cuffs to the store this weekend so the number will double tremendously. :) Thanks for all the positive comments everyone. Cheers.

And then there were trumpets...

Listening to "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver.

It's been a few days since I last posted and I wanted to fill you in and what's been happening. It's a tornado of fantasmic proportions!! I have cuffs finished. I don't want to show everything I have finished but I did want to give a sneak peak to my faithful followers so that you can see what's coming out. I opened up an Etsy store with my sister- Hide & Moore. A little play on words but I love it. The Hide is the leather we use in everything we make. The Moore/More pertains to what we use. I love buttons and she loves sterling silver so each bracelet is different. And there is definitely more than just buttons and sterling.

So just a little breakdown...

1. Etsy store up but not quite open. I'll have it on the blog here once we have it open. So keep checking back. :)

2. I have accessories finished! Yes.. And for a sneak peak I give you.. "Hera's". This has already been spoken for by someone already but I just wanted to show you. If I show the color then I give way too much away. Take my word that this heavy cuff is awesome. ^-^

3. I also did some thrift shopping this weekend and wanted to clue you in on some of my button finds. I'll post those tomorrow with pics and separate info... I am so psyched that everything is finally coming together... :) Cheers.

Craft Envy

Listening to "Walk On" by The Hidden Cameras

I've had little time lately to peruse craft supplies but thankfully today I made a jump. I found this button in a store called Brazen Buttons and thought it was practically biblical. How great it must be to have pieces of art on your clothing like that button.

Which reminds me... I'm heading to the hometown this weekend to experiment with gum paste for the wedding and continue our leatherworking. I will definitely have some pics because now that I have supplies we should be able to produce some piece of exquisiteness. I will also be hitting up the local thrift stores and I can divulge my treasures found there. :)

I also found this pattern which was really neat. Isn't this something you'd find in a thrift store or a flea market box? I thought so. The bonnet-laden girl next to the peacock chair is quite simple. I good chaise would help this stitch.

I'm a sucker for the Pearl and Hobby Lobby stores which of course are not even in the St. Petersburg area. Why is that? I'm not really sure but I wrote a few emails to their customer service department letting them know how "unfortunate" it is not to be able to shop there. Their reply? Coming soon. Of course, of course.

Until Sunday? Cheers. xoxo

Branching Out in Buttonland..

Listening to "Bella" by Angus & Julia Stone.

I am so sorry. I have no idea why I blanked out on this post. I promised to show the buttons I recently purchased and I blanked out... wow..

I went this past weekend with my mom to a few thrift stores and came away with some great finds. And by great I mean paying a nickel for a handful of buttons. My kind of day.


I'm also including the Joann clearance I found too... Grrrr... I plan on using these in the leather projects I'm currently working on. It'll be neat to see how I fit these in to different ideas.

This is what a change jar is for.. a quarter.. :) Cheers.

Home Envy: Curtains

Listening to "Piano Man" by Ghostland Observatory.

In my absent mind, I began meandering down the road of furnishings. Stay away. BEWARE! I hate going down this path because you see things you love and it drives me crazy. It's addicting at times. Ok, all the time. I've started a little journal for the house we're saving up. "Things I want, need, and salivate over." Time will tell when we get to that point.

For now though I leave you with my home envy today- curtains. You can never have enough curtains. The outfit of any room. I love the colors of that first curtain. Would brighten up any room. Since my favorito color would go perfectly with that, green, I would jot down a "S" for salivating. ^-^

I could eat that fruit. Actually, one the cats would knock it down first after putting their paws all over it... *sigh*. The sheer white is an addicting color for any kitchen. Simple yet chic. A "W" for the kitchen.

I love the bubbles on this. Very cute in a kids room but I would love this in my craft room. Yes, Tim we are molding a CRAFT room.. ^-^

I love everything about this photo. The clean lines. The simple table. The French Country curtains. That floor looks gorgeous! Salivating... xoxo

Tutorial: Junk Drawer Organizer

Listening to "Sunday" by Sia

It's happened. Your remote is dead and you need a battery. Oh no... to the junk drawer. Yes, we all have one. It's where we throw that fortune cookie from last year or even floss (seriously, I saw it in someone's..). I hate the drawer and I make Tim get stuff out of there because I'm scared something might live in there. Unfortunately, because he and I both THROW stuff in there it's cluttered and we have to dig to find things. LIGHT BULB. I should organize our drawer. Late one afternoon I took to this easy yet productive project to organize the dirty deed.

Junk Drawer Tutorial:

What You Need:

It's easy. All you need is an empty box. I used empty tea and plastic baggie boxes. Try envelope boxes. You'll have different sizes to fit your need.
Tape
Scissors
Straight Edge Cutter
Glue (I used Modge Podge)
Patterned Paper (I used a 12"x12" paper)
Decorations
Now'n'Laters (they help with tension ^-^)
Paintbrush
Exacto Knife



1. Take your patterned paper and measure it out to a good length to cover the box all over. It depends what box you use and what paper but I taped (above) my paper to the box to help me start and rolled it through to make sure it could cover all of it.


2. Once you've figured out that the paper will cover the entire box then using a brush you can start laying that glue on the box. Don't wipe it on the paper because if you're like me and you used a plastic baggie box then you'll waste glue where you have to cut. Slowly roll the box (above), covering and gluing the paper all over the box.


3.You should have some paper sticking out on the edges. You can attack this anyway you want but I think the "gift fold" looks pretty nifty. You can cut the side pieces sticking out to the length you feel will cover the sides. About an inch will work depending on how big your box is. Start applying glue to the side of the box and begin folding in the side pieces. Then apply glue again to the top and bottom pieces and press them down. Now, depending on how much paper you cut you might have a gap (above). I did this on purpose because I wanted to put a second piece of paper there. You don't have to obviously. Repeat on the other side.

4. Now depending what box you are using you will need some sort of hole or opening to put your knick knacks in. With the plastic baggie box I used the exacto knife and slowly cut out the hole where you pull the bags out. Easy. Don't cut the hole out exactly but instead leave half an inch of paper so you can fold it under and have smooth rounded edges. Always a nice round edge. :)


5. Glue the hole's edges down and take a gander at your box. Now, at this point you could add paper inside the box to cheer it up a bit but I figured I would be filling it up with everything dirty under the sun. My first box was going to hold Tim's "tools"- drill bits, nails, screws, anchors, etc... So instead, I decorated the outside. I love buttons so they took over this box. Feel free to use anything you can think of- yarn, eyelets, more paper?!, etc... Also, I sealed the papers in with another coat of Modge Podge once I was done. Go crazy!


6. Now fill 'er up! :) Add this box into your junk drawer to make organized space. I have several "boxes" in the drawer holding batteries, sewing thread, keys, etc... Email me if you have any questions. Cheers. x0x0.


p.s. the kitty is Abby ^-^

Leather Burning on the Dancefloor

Listening to "Paris" by Friendly Fires (Au Revoir Simone Remix)

The leather practicing/doodling has been going fantastic. I have a few belt cuffs/bracelets started but not finished due to the snaps. A few cons have been the gun metal snaps I'm using. The leather punch I bought does not have the same size punch as the snaps. Looks like I will be driving over to Harbor Freight to check out a different punch.

So my sister is officially hooked on the leather bracelets now. I gave her one of my leather punches and we shopped for beads together this weekend. We experimented with a few bead themes and she came up with a really neat cuff. Maybe she'll send me a pic and we can post it.

I also spent a good chunk of the weekend "cleaning out" my mom's vintage knick knacks. Buttons, buttons, buttons... oh it's on like Donkey Kong with buttons. I'll post about that later tonight.

I thought I'd share a few finds with you that I will be using on my cuffs. I especially love the first stone and might even keep it for myself... ^-^. I know.. I'm shellfish. :p Cheers!

Upside Down Frowns

Listening to Sad Songs by Elton John

I can't tell you how psyched I've been this week. I ran into a bead shop on St. Pete Beach with a friend and snatched up some nifty beads. The majority were clay and bone. I also ordered a few from a shop local here in town- Primitive Earth Beads.

The leather doodling has been going fantastic since I've figured out how to remove the points from my heat tool. That actually took Google & a customer service email to the company to figure that one out. In the meantime I had incurred a papercut on my finger and a nice strawberry bruise from trying to remove the points with my fingers... Thank you to Judy Meyers at Walnut Inc. for emailing me back with a pdf creative form to remove points and an apology for cutting my finger... ^-^ I wish I had a photo of my doodles but Abby(our newest kitten) ran off with my leather scraps and I have no idea where she hid them...

As you may know, I'm not one to buy brand new things but Lowes has this awesome bench that I am in love with.. Unfortunately the price tag is out of my budget and I'm hoping a clearance slash will bring it down. I just love the detail. It's heavy and beautiful. I know exactly where I'd put this baby.
Thanks to my mom for helping me start our side garden. I've cleared out a huge patch in the side of our yard. Unfortunately the previous tenant before us used this patch of yard to create a "bonfire"... I won't go into extensive detail but they took termite infested wood and laid a fire pit on top of it. Wait.. there's a tree that hangs 4 feet above the fire pit. I have no idea how the house did not set on fire but we're there.. So Tim and I cleared all that out and now have rich soil ready for a garden. I will grace pictures once we have something worthy.

I will have a few things up tonight. Watch for them... ready... steady.... xoxo. Cheers.