Josh and I have been super busy over here.

We’ve got lots of projects going on these days.

The renovation of our upstairs is moving along quickly.

Here are a couple recent photos:

Our new railing!  There used to be a wall there.

This loft space will now be my new studio area,

instead of a cramped, neglected guest bedroom.

And we have new tile in the bathroom.

Josh has been working on several freelance design projects.

My latest custom order was for a large sized needlebook.

I tried something new with the cover and scalloped the edges of the embroidery. My customer was very pleased and so am I.  I think I’ll be doing more decorative edges on my needlebooks from now on.

_________________________________________

I was thrilled to learn recently that I’d been featured over at Evergreen Moms.

Evergreen Moms is a great blog that features items made by Northwest artisans and small businesses. You can sign up for their newsletter and receive a short message about their latest finds!

Thank you Heather, for including my items on your fun blog!

_________________________________________

And just this past Monday one of my taskets was featured in a Plaid Happy Collection over at Indie Icing!

Check out Indie Icing for gorgeous photos of cool handmade items!

Thanks to Jessica for including my tasket! : )

__________________________________________

I think the carpenters have left early today, so the cats and I are going to enjoy the quiet and the afternoon sunshine. Have a great day!

Jenn : )

He followed me home….

…should I keep him?

Jenn ; )

Usually I am blogging about creating.

Today I’m blogging about un-creating.

Over the long weekend Josh and I started clearing out our basement.

We have a crew coming to re-do some plumbing and dig a trench around the basement wall and install a pump – the solution to our yearly flooding issues. We’ve been taking everything out of the basement. We’ve rented a HUGE dumpster and we’re using this as an opportunity to get rid of things that can’t be recycled.

One corner of the basement was walled off to make a room,

we are almost finished tearing down those walls.

Who knew “Manville” was located in our basement! Ha!

Here you get an idea of how much dust we’ve stirred up.

As soon as we get this basement finished – I’ll be back to creating again! : )

Jenn : )

It was a quiet Saturday night at the Maruska house – Josh and I watched a couple dvds and I was able to do some embroidering at the same time.

So my little hedgehogs and butterflies are all done and ready to go to my shop.

(This little guy’s toes make me smile whenever I look at them!)

I’ll list the hedgehogs in my Etsy shop tomorrow – (Monday) and the butterflies I’ll list on Wednesday.

Having these two sets done will give me a couple days to work on my plush animal prototypes and bags.

I’ll be on the lookout for some sunshine – to take some photos to post.

Cheers!
Jenn : )

Hello everyone!

Thanks for the great comments you’ve left for me – I love to read your thoughts and ideas – they’re wonderful motivation for me to keep up with my sewing and sketching : )

Sorry for this fuzzy photo – our sunshine here is sporadic and it seems to be either blinding or grey outside. This is a picture of my sketch for the hedgehog sewing book/pincushion set and one of the adorable little buttons I’ve found to go on the book. I’m not sure why the button has a hedgehog AND an apple on it – but by total coincidence I had a Japanese fabric that has hedgehogs and little apples on it – how did that happen?

So it looks like hedgehogs and butterflies will be the next sets that I finish up (and then kittens and finally Scotty dogs and dragonflies).

I couldn’t resist getting a photo of the fabric and ribbon I have for my first plush animal and bag.
This is what I’ve gathered for the Little Kitten plush & bag. I’m going to use the fuzzy orange/brown fabric on the far left for the kitten. The corduroy on the right will be part of the bag and the two middle fabrics will be part of the outside of the bag and then the lining.

I plan on making some prototypes of the kitten and bag out of muslin – so that everything is the way I want it before I cut into these gorgeous fabrics. I’ll post some of my attempts so you can see how they’re coming along : )

Now I’ve got to make dinner and then get back to my sewing while I watch Top Chef on Bravo!

Nite all!