Here are a few quick sewing projects for Mother’s Day:

Dishtowel Tote from Write, Mama, Write.

Eyeglass Case from Betz White.

Japanese Coin Purse from the purl pee.

I am a slob. I hate to post this photo, but I know how it makes people feel good to see the mess of others! Hope you’re feeling better about your own mess.

I did some cleaning out and re-organizing this week. It really was getting quite unmanageable. I decided to stop using plastic containers for my fabric because it just becomes a jumbled mess. We’ll see how this works. I also plan to make some fabric panels for these shelves because I don’t like to look at clutter, though I do like to make it.  We’ll see if I can actually get some sewing done soon.

All ceramics today. Clockwise from top left:

Apple Salt Shaker from StudioÉLAN, $28.

Gray Vessel Set from up in the air somewhere, $44.

Reclaimed Tea Cup & Saucer from Mudpuppy, $35.

Handmade Ceramic Daisies from Artful Mosaic Supplies, 15 for $7.95.

Dogwood Flower Dessert Plate from Whitney Smith, $34.

Gray Cup with Atomic Pattern from Vessels & Wares, $14.

If I told you a secret Small Ceramic Plate from Christina Romeo, $52.

Little House 2×2 Tile from Gretchen Kramp, $14.

Little Friends from Runny Bunny, $6.

I’ve had these shadow box shelves sitting around the house for a while and had some printable canvas, so decided to add photos to them. These photo shelves could hang on the wall, be stacked on a table or used as a key shelf by a door. They would be nice painted black with sepia-toned photos. It occurred to me as I was taking pictures that you could make an adjustable doll house with these wooden boxes by backing each one with fabric or patterned paper. They’re just the right size for this.

Supplies:

• Wooden shadow boxes (paint them if you want)
• Printable canvas (from the office supply store)
• Computer and printer
• Scissors
• Staple gun

Measure the outside of the wooden frame. Using Photoshop or other photo program, adjust your photos to size and print on canvas cloth. Be sure to cut out space for hangers on frames. Staple to frame with staple gun. That’s it!

With Mother’s Day coming soon, I’ve been thinking of things we can create with the children’s drawings. So here are some ideas:

#1 Applique Tee from a bit of this and a bit of that: This would work for a bag or hand towels as well.

#2 Embroidered Child’s Drawing from Bella Dia: This project idea has been featured all over the place, but this is a nice example. Great idea for pillows, hand towels, or framed art.

#3 Shrinky Dinks! Make key chains earrings, necklaces, etc. Check out these rings from Dillon Designs for inspiration.

#4 Note Cards: Make some stationery or note cards for your mother. I used my Gocco printer here, but you could make these by scanning artwork into the computer and printing on card stock or stationery paper.

#5 Softie: Turn your child’s drawing into a stuffed animal. Here’s a good example with instructions from Martha Stewart.

#6 Fabric Collage: Re-interpret your child’s drawing as a fabric collage as seen on bloesem kids craft projects with Arounna Khounnoraj (all of her projects are wonderful, by the way).

#7 Glass Etching: Try this to turn a plain vase or set of glasses into something special with etching cream or glass paint.

Best Mom pop-up card from tracychong, $4.50.

Hand Embroidered Drawstring Bag from Norththreads, $24.95.

Maya from Pin-Carnations, $21.

Animal Bag from Cotton and Cloud, $32.

Quilted Pillow Cover from Meringue Designs, $25.

Pleated handbag from Handbags by Daphne, $55.

Child’s apron from Bread and Roses, $18.

Mimi from a little sprout, $33.

Vintage Fabric Cushion Cover from littlechook, $30.

I have a thing for pound cake.  It’s genetic.  My mother and grandmother always made them.  Here’s the recipe for the family’s tried and true sour cream pound cake modified to include lemon and poppy seed.  One of the best things about pound cake is that you can bake it in a pretty bundt pan.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

• 3 c. flour
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 c. butter (softened)
• 3 c. sugar
• 2 t.vanilla
• 6 eggs
• 1 c. sour cream
• 3 T lemon zest
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/8 c. poppy seeds

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.
3. In another bowl cream sugar, butter and vanilla.
4. Add eggs to butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each.  Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients.
5. Add sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice and poppy seeds and mix well.
6. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan, then tap the pan to break any air bubbles.  Bake for one hour and 15 minutes minutes, possibly longer (until the crust is deep golden brown and the cake pulls away from the pan).

My husband gave me the ingenious little Gocco printer for Christmas and I’m ashamed to say that I just took it out of the box today.  I am intimidated by objects that require me to read instructions (particularly when they are in Japanese), but these great tutorials here and here got me through it and it turns out to be very simple.  I now understand this Gocco craze!  If you have not heard of these, they are basically mini silkscreen printers that burn the image and print it in a couple of simple steps.

I worked on this with my five-year-old who brought home a Dr. Seuss-ish drawing from school of her name in cursive made into people.  The image needs to be in carbon to transfer to the screen, so I had her re-draw it with the carbon pen provided.  Lost some of the detail of her original drawing as you can see below, but still great.  I guess I could have traced the original.  You can also scan in or create an image on the computer and (from what I gather) print with a laser printer or make a photocopy. 

Anyway, all you do is make a screen of the original, ink it and print away.  I look forward to trying some designs of my own and want to try multiple colors.  Good-ness over at Etsy has a good price on the basic set. 

I hate this ottoman.  I am in a period of crafrustration where none of my projects come out right, which is one reason that I’ve not posted the past few days.  For this project, I used a cheaper blend version of sari fabrics, as silk obviously would not work for a project like this and would be too expensive.  Still, the fabric was slippery and had to be backed with fusible webbing.  Here’s the before and after shot of the ottoman, so I suppose it’s an improvement:

But in a house with two small children this is not the best fabric choice and it came out a bit sloppy.  You should see the matching chair that I energetically ripped apart but have now decided that I am not capable of recovering.  Oops.   At least I bought upholstery fabric for that project.  Do you ever start to hate something in your house so much that you must change it right away?  That’s how I felt about this chair and ottoman.  And I’ll probably feel compelled to change this again soon.  Persistence, right?

Enough of my complaining.  I still think that sari fabric would make some lovely pillows, and I like these colors.  I used the wrong side of the fabric as it had a little less sheen and more muted color tones.