Happy Wishes for 2013

Hello, Happy New Year everyone! 

Now is the time to let go, look ahead, move forward, and celebrate!

I always enjoy reflecting and then planning ahead and hope to share that with Little Man Jack today. I made this simple printable to get him thinking about the ending of one year and the start of a new one. Now that he's writing (!), I think he's really going to love it, so I thought I'd share it with you too. This will also be a sweet addition to his memory book :)

{Click here to download PDF file}

In the spirit of renewal, I've also created an adorable little journal and am sharing it over at Oh My Handmade this week. And the best part is I'm including these super cute and inspiring stickers to print and take. Use them in your journal or anywhere else you need a bit of cheer. A collage maybe? How about on a calendar? If you print these pretties out, take a photo and send it my way, I'd love to see where the go! 

Head on over to Oh My Handmade for the project idea & to print your own stickers.

Happy wishes for the year ahead! 

Favorite Posts from '12

It's been a good year. New home, leaps of faith, and lots of love. So thankful for all this. The ups & the downs. I've spent some time looking back through this year's posts and picked out a few of my favorites. The ones worth reading again :) 


Random Facts   A little bit about me. The unexpected stuff. 

Home Searching    Lovely photo inspiration for homes...

Hooray! My Fabric Designs    Introducing some of my early fabric designs

For the Love of Blogging     Baring my soul about blogging & sharing

Patchwork Star Tutorial     A lovely little project to make

Learning to Sail My Ship...and Other Things I've Learned  A bit of a rough patch and what I've gathered from it

The Journey of My Tree Pillow   The story of my tree pillow design, where it's been and where it is now.


Thank you so much for such an amazing year of connecting & sharing! I'm so lucky to have you lovely readers. xoxo

Everything...

my thoughts for the new year ahead....

{image via a hope that anchors the soul}

Merry & Bright

Happy wishes from the Jacobs Family! 

A little note to wish everyone a magical & love-filled Christmas. We're so thankful for our two Christmas angels and the time we have together. Sending love and happy wishes to all of you, my dear friends. 

and now, a little handmade goodness:

every year, I make an ornament for the boys- hoping that by the time the move on out of the house, they'll have a bunch to treasure. These are the ones I created this year....

last year's ornaments, cross stitch

chevron stocking I made last year, before all the chevron rage, but love the brightness they add!

the boys (meaning my husband as well...) made these Christmas Lego creations. It's Lego mania in our house! 

See you after the holiday! 

xo, allisa

Bake & Make Cookie Gifts

Hello! I'm over here preparing for a continuation of what seems like a cookie baking marathon in the Jacobs house!  Partly because they're so sweet to give as gifts, but mostly because my Little Man Jack is quite the baker and always up for some mixing, sugaring, and batter tasting.  Today, we're whipping up my very favorite Ginger Sparkle cookies.  Two batches, because these little beauties not only come out perfect every single time (which is quite an accomplishment in this house....) but every person who has ever tried them loves them. I'm serious, these are actually demanded, er... requested from multiple people. My mom mentioned that for Christmas my step father would like nothing better than a big 'ol box of these! 

Last year, Stephanie Fizer Coleman and I teamed up and to share this super adorable woodland holiday recipe card and tags. You can head over to Oh My Handmade to download & print. 

I'm also whipping up some gluten-free & vegan cookies I found from Texanerin so I'll have something sweet to enjoy. But since I've got a few friends in the same gluten-free boat, I've added some of my favorite recipes to these editable printable recipes cards (this means you can type in your recipe & then print, and it looks fantastic!) from Love vs. Design. 

If you're looking for other quick + lovely gifts, check out my round up of gifts to make from earlier this week. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Lovely Gifts to Make

Hello. I found this sweet little gift box house and wanted to share it. It's next up on our to-make list over here....a list which really does exist. My four year-old, like me, adores his lists. He planned an afternoon Christmas party...for just the two of us while the baby slept. And it melted my heart.  

I read an article about the 'Newtown effect', how many parents were given an unexpected gift of patience in wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook. A renewed sense of patience and thankfulness and appreciation. And while I cherish the times with my boys, I was reminded (in such a tragic way) that I left my career in teaching for the sole purpose to.be.with.them. 

Every since Friday, our perpetual crafting & making & baking & drawing & memory making has taken on a greater meaning and I find myself a in strange combination of both cherishing the moment and grieving for the losses.

But, there is something about making that, for me at least, is therapeutic. I think it's how I ended up with this business journey. It's a way to connect and make something lovely in the world. 

And to that, to the effort of connecting and making lovely things, here are some of my favorite gifts to make this year. 

Gingerbread House Box - Amy Christie via Design Mom {image credits}

Monogrammed Mugs - also from Design Mom

Stamped Tea Towels - from Centsational Girl

Tile Coasters - A Cottage Home

Patchwork Star Ornament - from little 'ol me

Fabric Scrap Journal - me, again

What are you making now? Do you have any ideas for perfect gifts to make? I'd love to hear about it. 

Wishes for a love-filled & peaceful week. 

xo

Shining Light

libertadleal

Hello. It's been a little while.  Initially, last week I was caught up in the rush of holiday orders and celebrations...and then the tragedy in Connecticut. Like so many of us, it's broken my heart and left me with such an empty feeling. I was working in the studio when I first heard. I stopped. I cried. And called it a day. Held onto my boys as long as they'd let me.  And then we had our own spur of the moment afternoon Christmas party. Cookies, Charlie Brown, ornament making, and lots of smooches. But, as I'm sure all of you are feeling, there's the heaviness that lingers...and I look to my boys, my own soon-to-be kindergartner, wanting to just capture every little sweet moment in a bottle.  

And as a teacher who's taking time away to raise my boys, the thought of classroom joy and hope being ripped away makes me ache. 

So for now, I'm taking a few days away from the shop, the blog, and the everything else. Taking time to cherish the light. 

Sewing Social Meet Up- Pretty Projects

Popping in for a quick hello! It's like I blinked and now it's Wednesday. Things are totally hopping in the shop but I wanted to share this amazing project Marci completed for our Sewing Social. Isn't it amazing?!  Like eye-popping awesome. When I opened up her message, I think I actually squealed - so happy to see something so gorgeous made with fabrics I designed. What talent and an eye for color combinations she has! 

 Marci is the sweetest & I'm glad to have 'met' her a couple years ago. Her shop is lovely too!

As one of the projects I've made with the fabrics, I created this wall hanging which is an extension of the tree pillow I made a few years back that ended up finding a place with Better Homes and Gardens & HGTV. I'm so happy with the updated look and to feel like it's 'home' again! 

{you can read the entire journey, from concept to current here in saturday's post}

Hope everyone is enjoying this time of year! xo

The Journey of My Tree Pillow

I am thrilled to share this story. It's a journey of not just my pillow, but of the simple design that brought me a lot of happiness.

Here are a few more glimpses of the new wall hanging: 

I first shared my pillow in 2009 here, and then the Better Homes magazine debut (complete with dark under eye circles) here.

So many thanks to Better Homes and everyone who has cheered on & supported this journey! 

Patchwork Star Ornament Tutorial

Every year, I create a new ornament for each of my boys. It's a little tradition I started for Jack's first Christmas. One year, I made this star in his favorite colors; orange & blue and it turned out so well, I thought I'd share my process! 

I think these make the perfect little gifts and are a lovely way to use bits of fabric. I used scraps from my Carlsbad collection available through Spoonflower. 

Materials: 

Fabric pieces
Button
Stuffing 
Ribbon for hanging, approximately 6"
Needle & Thread
Template Download

I've created a printable download for you with the star piece templates. It's set for about a 5" star but you could increase the size when printing for bigger ones. 

1. Cut out your pieces and lay out how you'd like them 
2. Start with two pieces, right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam. STOP sewing 1/4" from the end, where the middle of your star will be.  That makes it possible to put all the pieces together. 
3. Repeat for each of the pieces. When you get to the final two, you will be sewing all the pieces together and they should come together in star, given you've allowed for that 1/4" extra when stitching. 
4. Press and trim your seams to they're nice & neat. 
5. With the backside of your star, pin the right sides together. Be sure to tuck in your ribbon loop at one of the star points, so that the loop is inside your pieces. (you may want to stitch in place before pinning pieces together). 
6. Stitch around your star with a 1/4" seam, leaving a gap on side of the star. Be sure to backstitch at each point. 
7. Gently pull your star right side out through the gap. Press & stuff. 
8. With your star filled with stuffing, hand stitch the opening close. 
9. Almost done.... hand stitch a button on the center of your star covering the middle where the pieces meet.  (Of course, if yours is a little more neat then mine, your middle may look lovely & you can just leave it that way!)  I like to start my knot at the top, so it will be ultimately covered by the button. 
10. Voila, a lovely little patchwork star! 


Download template here

Hope you enjoy this project. Would love see what you create! 

New Fabric Designs, A Bundle of Textile Goodness!

Popping in for a quick hello to share a few new fabric designs I've whipped up. Always a good day when the mailman makes a Spoonflower delivery ;) 

These beauties are still in the works...some were designed specifically for a client, while I'm still pondering the destiny of the others. I'd love to hear what you think!  Here's a little look-see:

These two florals were inspired by Matisse and a spoonflower challenge. I created a kind of painterly effect that was really fun to incorporate. It was something different for me, but I'm happy with the result. I sort of fell in love with them and may be building on from their design..... 

I love the colors in this one, it was hard for me to resist including some sort of orange. Must. Show. Restraint. 

Anyhow, I'm envisioning a whole cloth wall hanging for this one. I love how the chevron design creates diamond/squares. Could make for a really cool quilting effect. 

See those little birds in flight there? I created them using triangles, it needs some work but I love how one shape comes together to create the bird. 

The second one down is actually micro decagons and created for a big, local company. I'm working with them to create something awesome....excited to see where that leads! 

So there they are, a lovely little bundle of design happiness! 

This and That - Bits of Goodness

 

Hello & happy Monday! Whew, lots of good stuff going on around here. I thrive on this kind of energy and bliss, you know? It's like I complete more things, create more newness during the holidays and busy seasons than any time of year. It's like all this inspiration is contagious! 

Last week, I had the chance to style & photograph an awesome photo shoot for a local company. Look up there, that's part of it. Their items were all handmade or from small businesses like Rifle Paper Co. - photography gorgeous is so fun. (I'll share the rest when I get the go-ahead ;)

And a bit of business for those of you planning on ordering gifts for the holidays. My personalized embroidery bags and custom cosmetic pouches are going like hotcakes, so you'll want to place an order soon! 

Sent out this beauty of a baby blanket to one of my dearest friends ever who just welcomed a baby boy. So excited to use my fabric in her gift! 

Lots of Christmas goodness around the house, our advent calendar - little envelopes filled with fun family activities inside.  {It's still not too late to create an advent calendar, check out my easy + lovely calendar round up here}

Lucky day. 

Fun little bouquet of felt flowers I spotted at Target....I'm thinking this can totally be made with all the extra felt I have around here. 

Oh, and I'm the 'shop of the day' on papernstitch today, so that's a great way to start off the week I think!

And if you haven't stopped by yesterday's Sewing Social post, come say hello & check out all the pretty projects.

Cheers to a happy week ahead! xo

Sewing Social Meet Up - Pretty Projects

 Good morning! Meeting up for a little sewing social here, settle in - grab some coffee and join us! It's been awhile since our last sewing social get together, it sounds like we've all been knee high in making, working in our shops and holiday celebrating. So I'm super excited to share some amazing projects and a few glimpses of pieces in the works! If you haven't visited us before, this group is made up of amazingly talented women who've all created wonderful work using fabrics from Chevron Goodness & Carlsbad collections available through Spoonflower. Because I've recently delved into the world of textile design, all of this is so rewarding and special to me - I'm incredibly grateful for the time & talent of these ladies! 

Check out the super charming pieced apron picture above made by Kristen from Milo and Molly (wonderfully sweet shop she has!) We may have a tutorial for this soon :)

 Now, on to some amazing pillows.....

Aren't these incredible? Sweet Marian made these. I love how she infused a neutral-ish print and found the perfect solids. Her piecing is wonderful and I adore hand quilting. She actually sent these back to me to photograph and when I opened the package I was just totally blown away and filled with joy!  She shares more of her charming quilting on her blog, Lady Face. 

How about these two cuties from Ayla? I am over the moon for that necklace & love that she did something completely different! She also created incredible bracelets, hope to share more of those later. I think she chose the perfect fabric to make those necklace buttons - so pretty! She shares more of her work on her blog, Eyelah. 

I love seeing quilting in the works, and was so thrilled when I saw this photo from Sal for her baby mat in progress. The coral solid is gorgeous and vertical quilting is my favorite. I know a baby will love the bold & color. Looking forward to the finished piece! 

Ta da! Here's my finished star ornament I created for the group. I love nontraditional colors for Christmas - happy with how these turned out and hope to have a tutorial up soon, it's the perfect project for using up little scraps and making a quick & pretty gift. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all these projects, stop by and say hello in the comments below. Thank you again to all these lovely ladies for all their hard work, talent & inspiration! 

Happy December!

Hello! I really am totally blown away that it is, actually, December but to celebrate, I've found a couple lovely calendars to share. Look up there at that beauty. It's by Oona Befort. Quite possibly my new favorite artist... I adore her work. 

And since we're just brimming with holiday cheer over here, I'm printing out these charming little buildings for our resident engineer, Jack. I swear, this child will build anything out of anything, it's amazing really. Always spotting ways to make things stronger, checking out how buildings are put together, and would spend his whole day creating with Legos if I let him. (In fact, he's creating a Lego holiday scene as I type!)

In any case, this cute little Advent Street Set from Mr. Printables, will make a fun set up for the boys and their friends. Hoping it lasts more than one day....

And since there's still time to whip up a calendar (I didn't finish ours last year until Dec. 3rd.  I'm pretty sure that's ok) I wanted to re-share last year's round up of easy + lovely advent calendars.  

Have one of your own you want to share? Leave me a link in the comments to check it out! 

Happy weekend! xo