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Yeah, it’s been a little while since we have posted. But, our absence does not mean we have not been busy creating in our city made dungeon (Carol’s basement).
We have been preparing for the “We are Omaha” art show at inCommon here in Omaha. The show is Saturday April 21 from 5-10 at inCommon, 1258 S 13th St.
We submitted some of our “heart” Omaha foldable bags
Love how it all folds into a tiny pouch. Very sensible, just like Nebraskans.
And some cute Nebraska clutches
That is genuine up cycled “pleather” for this clutch (We got it from an old purse.)
We even made an Omaha purse.
All these handmade items will be on display (and for sale) Saturday April 21, 5-10 p.m. at inCommon, 1258 S 13th Street. Come on out to see local artists inspired by Omaha.
And, we’ll try and blog more. We promise. (We have a really cool cutting/work table that Melany made! Gotta see it!)
By admin
Baby Caroline just turned one on Thursday! We know….we can hardly believe it ourselves. The first year flies by all too fast. There are so many “firsts” to celebrate… first smile, first laugh, first steps, and first words. Caroline is happy to be finally be turning one but, having two older sisters, thinks she is going on four. She can do anything that they can do…only better.
We celebrated her birthday in style of one of the great pieces of Children’s literature…The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The book has always been one of my favorites as it is so beautifully illustrated.
I made Caroline a birthday pinafore that matches the dots in the story. I printed the fabric by using small fingerling potatoes and fabric paint.
Here is Caroline opening her presents in her new birthday dress.
Happy Birthday crazy baby!
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It is a bit early for Spring, but we are hopeful and it’s always a good time to re-evaluate and organize. We at citymade decided to tackle our out-of-control fabric scrap bin.
Seriously out of control.
It’s just so hard to get rid of fabric. Each piece represents a project that we worked hard on, something we enjoyed working on, loved. But-it also was overflowing and spilling on the floor.
We spent a couple of hours sorting (even Caroline), folding and throwing away,
In the end, we are happy to have a neat, organized, useful scrap bin.
By admin
This past Valentine’s day we went, once again, to our dear friend-of-citymade, Michele’s, “Cookies and Cocoa” party. It’s an annual tradition that we all look forward to. And, as part of the tradition, Melany and I endeavor to create pretty outfits for the girlies.
This year, we decided to ruffle (and ruffle, and ruffle). We took old t-shirts, cut them into a-line skirts,
ruffled a million miles of cotton (okay, not a million, but in the end it totaled 58 ruffles),
then pinned and sewed each ruffle on each skirt.
The end result (and all the hard work) was totally worth it as the girls looked so adorable.
And, of course, we all had a great time at the party!
By admin
Carol and I admit we have a fascination with quilters. A handmade quilt is a thing of true beauty and dedication. In the past, we have made a small doll quilt from scraps and a rag quilt from baby clothes but this Christmas we made an attempt at a “real” quilt. We designed a quilt block and constructed a wall hanging quilt from these blocks for my Grandpa and Grandma.
This quilt had a very personal touch because each grandchild and great grandchild designed the center of a block using fabric markers. We then framed each block using a postage stamp design, then sewed the blocks together.
This quilt was a learning experience for sure. The biggest lesson we learned was not to scrimp on batting. A high quality cotton or bamboo batting is definitely worth the extra cost. If you are going to go through all of the hard work of quilting it just makes sense to use quality batting. Needless to say, Grandpa and Grandma loved their Christmas quilt and were very emotional as they read each block.
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Carol here. I have made several of these little doll houses. They’re a bit time consuming, but each time I think I improve ( I hope) and the result is always satisfying.
This one was made for citymade niece, Sophie.
I really paid attention to details this time around like the decorative buttons and the ribbon.
I also tried my hand at making pipe cleaner people.
They didn’t turn out too bad. And don’t they look cozy in their house.
Check out their front yard.
We hope Sophie likes her fabric house as much as we love her!
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Still more from our Christmas 2011 handmade gift stash. These gifts are some of our favorite kind.
They were up-cycled clothing turned messenger bag.
The light brown used to be a jacket of city made hubby Christian and the pants were a combo of an old pair of James’ and an old pair of Carol’s.
The interior of both bags was an old bed sheet. We were able to use pockets from both items which saved some work and added an extra handy pocket on the inside of each bag.
We scavenged the straps and clips from old belts and purses.
It felt good to be re-purposing again. What do you think? Another 365 days? Hmmm. . . maybe 2013? or 14?
By admin
We’re back. We took a few weeks off to enjoy the Holidays with family and friends. Now we are back and looking forward to a productive city made year!
We were busy right up until Christmas and once again, we tried to give the gift of handmade and local, when possible. In the next few posts we want to share some of these handmade gifts.
We’ll start with gifts for city made sisters Catherine and Amber (technically Catherine’s was a birthday gift).
Fabric baskets!
Fun and functional. Two of our favorite words. These baskets are fun to make and very satisfying. They are designed to nest in each other when not being used to store anything from books to lotions to office supplies.
We splurged on the fabric, but the sisters are worth it!
We hope they enjoy their baskets as much as we enjoyed making them.
By admin
This past weekend we made the trek to Santa’s Woods to get our Christmas tree. The Burks are going to Chicago this year but they came along for the fun! It was a cold and snowy day which made it perfect tree getting weather.
Warming up with some hot chocolate.
This year I decided to make a felt garland for our tree. It was super simple and looks really cute.
First, I cut out circles or varying sizes and colors (about 120 of them!)
Next, I sewed the circles together with one continuous line. This actually went pretty fast.
Here is what the garland looks like on our Christmas tree.
By admin
Today marks the beginning of the Christmas countdown. Only 25 days until Christmas! The anticipation of Christmas is so fun and children are always wondering, “How many days until Christmas?”
Today we would like to take some time to show you several advent calendars that we have made for our families.
The Quilt
Carol made this quilt advent calendar a couple of years ago. She sewed quilt blocks together using some cute Christmas fabric and denim. Her pockets are made from felt shapes that she sewed on and individually numbered. Her children look forward to the surprise in the pocket each morning.
The Tree
This calendar is nice for small children because it is interactive.
The child puts one ornament in the tree each day and by Christmas the tree is full. The tree and ornaments are made of felt so it works like a flannel graph.
We let the kids help design the ornaments which was a lot of fun. The star on the top can be the final one on Christmas day.
The Pocket
I made this pocket calendar new this year for my girls. There are 25 pockets with numbered clothespins. Each day the children can take off the clothespin and put it in the pocket.
Here are some fun ideas of what to fill an advent calendar with:
candy, gum, peppermints, coins, art supplies, stickers, notes of encouragement, kid coupons (such as “Get out of making your bed today” or “Ten extra minutes of video games”), family activities to do each day (drive around and look at Christmas lights, read a Christmas story, bake cookies together), or random acts of kindness challenges (hold the door for someone, make a friendly phone call, compliment someone today)
Happy Christmas countdown!
