Bazaar Bizarre 2009

I'm a little behind on this post I guess I can use the holidays as an excuse - there has been a lot of shopping and crafting to prepare for this Christmas. Bazaar Bizarre was two weeks ago and it was a blast! I had a great time, met some wonderful people and sold lots of stuff. The weather was great, which can be a big problem in Cleveland this time of year, but it was sunny on Saturday and just a little rain on Sunday. Luckily that didn't deter any of the shoppers. I don't think there is anything else I could have asked for. Overall it was a great weekend! Thanks to Shannon and all the vendors and shoppers for making it such a great show!

If you stopped by my table during the show and picked up a card, thank you so much and welcome to my blog! I hope you stay a while and come back often.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

How does it work?

I found this awesome animation on Swiss Miss of how a sewing machine works to create a stitch. I never really thought too hard about it but this is pretty fun to see how it works.

click here to see it!





I am busy, busy working on finishing touches for bazaar bizarre that is this weekend in Cleveland. If you are in the area you should stop by to see all of the awesome vendors!

Regretsy

This is definitely my new favorite website. Regretsy is a blog that posts recent posts from etsy that may have been best left unposted. Just a little warning that many of these are adult products and adult language so if you are easily offended you may want to stay away. The best part is many of the sellers who have had their crazy items posted on Regretsy have had an increase in visitors to their stores and many have sold the crazy items too.

Strange Purses #3

Ok so this is more of a hat than a purse but it is weird. These hats are from Isaac Mizrahi's new fall/winter 2009 collection. I love purses, no big secret there, but I don't think that would ever wear one on my head. Honestly, if the handles weren't there I probably wouldn't have looked twice. I wouldn't have bought one but, for a runway show a little crazy on the head is not unheard of. So are there pockets in there? Am I supposed to store my phone and and credit cards up there? I guess it's just not by cup of tea. What are your thoughts?

Quilt Market 2009

Quilt Market was a blast, as always. It was busy all day and delicious food and drinks every night. I didn't get out of the booth much so I don't have tons of pictures but I got a few of my favorite booths:

Amy Butler -

Alexander Henry -

Echino -

I didn't get tons of photos but there are many great blogs out there with great recaps of quilt market. True Up is one of my favorite blogs and she has done a fantastic job with her recaps.

Gift Set Complete!

I have been working on my sister's new baby gift set for a couple weeks and it is all ready to be shipped off, hopefully arriving before my new niece!

My sister wanted a simple diaper bag with lots of room and a few pockets on the inside. So she got this big bag:
And then she gets these surprise accessories too!

A custom, matching Ella Phant:

And this matching clutch to carry baby wipes and a few spare diapers:

These will be on their way to South Carolina tomorrow, the baby is due this week so hopefully the bag will get there on time.

This gift set is great for any new mom, if you like it let me know and I can create one for you too! Head on over to my Etsy Store to see all of the measurements.

Strange Purses #2

I have been looking at the stats for my blog lately and noticed that the number one google search that leads folks to this blog is the phrase "weird purses." So I figured that maybe this is something that people are pretty interested in so I am going to try to make this a monthly feature here at Mallory Hill and bring the readers what they want. I know that I am not the best about keeping up to date with my posting duties so I figured if I have certain posts that need to go up every week or every month then I will be better about the blog in general. Hopefully this works for me. I am going to work on figuring out some posts that can become regulars so I can finally make good on the promise to myself that I will be better at posting more often.

So, as promised, here is the weird purse for September!!

The Fendi Artist Baguette is a new idea in fashion, the ultimate DIY bag comes from us from an unexpected source in my mind. Fendi, a very high end designer brings us a plain white baguette that comes with pantone markers for you to create your own design. When I first saw a picture of the paint by number type purse I thought: "Oh, that's cute, what a fun idea, I bet my niece would love that." Then I noticed the buckle on the front and was sure it must be a knock off, surely a designer at the level of Fendi would not create a designer bag with no design. But, I was wrong this plain white bag can be yours for the small price of $1,300, yep, that's right, a plain canvas bag for just $1,300 - what a steal!

Woohoo - Show number 3!

YAY! I just got notification that I was accepted to the Cleveland Bazaar Bizarre! So exciting, I love doing craft shows and I am hoping to start doing more next year. Now that I know I will be setting up my table again this holiday season I need to get sewing. I already have a few projects in mind for Christmas presents so I have to get busy. The show is December 12th and 13th which seems like it far away now but it will be here before I know it.

In other news Quilt Market is just around the corner and I am getting excited for the trip down to Houston. Since I lost all of my pictures from Spring market (I still don't know how that happened) I will be sure to keep better track of my files to bring you some fun photos from this year. Market starts on October 10th, can't wait!!

Anyone else going to be at Bazaar Bizarre or Fall Quilt Market this year?

Craft Hope

I found an awesome website that does wonderful things - Craft Hope organizes different craft and sewing projects for people to work on across the country and then they send off all of the sewn items to different organizations all over the world. They are on their 4th project right now - sock monkeys for little heroes burn camp. Too cute! If you know how to make a sock monkey and have extra socks laying around head on over to get all of the info.

Happy Birthday to me!

So it's the big 2-6 today! No big plans, nothing too exciting but I think we might go to Ikea this weekend, one of my favorite places in the world (besides the beach, exotic vacations and other fun places). We are putting the finishing touches on the house so we need curtains, a few more pieces of furniture and I am sure we will find a few more items around the market place.

I also received a wonderful gift in the mail from one of my favorite retailers. Anthropologie sent me a 15% off coupon for my birthday so I know where I will be heading in the next week or two. How cute is the little card they sent? I have never received something like this from a retailer before. Happy Birthday to me!

My favorite places...

Another one of my favorite places would have to be Ikea. I could literally spend days at this store. Honestly, if Anthropologie and Ikea had a baby I think I would pee my pants from excitement. I used to work in Burbank, CA and my office was only 2 minutes from Ikea and I would go there on my lunch break all the time just to walk around. I now live in Columbus, OH so I am an hour and a half from the closest store, but that is better than some folks so I can't complain too much. It is probably safer that I am not too close, they would have to kick me out for being an stalker or something. I don't need something like that on my record so I will settle for one or two visits a year.

Since we just bought our new house we have been to Ikea once to get some basics and I will happily be making the journey again this weekend. We don't need much furniture so my focus will be in the market place. The reason that Ikea and I make such a good pair is that I am SUPER cheap (my husband like to call me a tightwad, he finds it humorous). But, Ikea is also SUPER cheap - in a good way. So we are a match made in flat-packed, build it yourself heaven. I can't wait to see that big blue and yellow building come into view this weekend, I have started the countdown!

One more great Ikea fact - the 2010 catalog is out now, get your order in for one because in a few months they will be pretty hard to come by. I will be back next week with pictures of my wonderful journey!

Cupcakes...mmmmm

I love cupcakes! (I also love the Homer Simpson reference in the title - did you catch it?) Anyway...Cupcakes are amazing and I wish I could sit at home all day and sew purses and bake cupcakes and of course...eat cupcakes! So I spent way too much time on this blog Cupcakes Take The Cake last night, very fun, great picture, and delicious ideas. I probably gained 10 pounds just thinking about all of the deliciousness. So after pages and pages of cupcakes I found THESE cupcakes from The Busty Baker.

Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes, they are made with peppermint patties, I am not really sure if things get more amazing than this. Now I just have to find time to make them.

My favorite places...

I think I am going to try to start a new reoccurring post here at Mallory Hill of a few of my favorite places. Maybe you can share a few of your favorites with me along the way. So here is the first, hopefully of many, posts on this topic.

My favorite retail store would probably have to be Anthropologie. If you have never heard of this store or been to one of their locations then stop what you are doing, don't even read the rest of this post and get to a store - stat! If there is not store near you (you may want to consider relocating) then you should spend some time on their website because it is awesome. They have unique clothes, items for the home and lots of other fun stuff that you don't find anywhere else. Unfortunately, I usually can't afford most of the stuff in the store but that doesn't stop me from going into the store every time I am at the mall so I can ooh and aah over their awesome displays and look at the clothes and read the books.

You just don't find displays like this at the department store:

And their catalog is awesome, if you don't have a store near you order the catalog so you can get a little bit of inspiration. I love their photography, it's amazing:

I'm so crafty...

No, I am not pregnant. But when I saw this graphic here I laughed out loud and sent it to my sister, who is pregnant. She complains because she doesn't think that she is crafty and she doesn't have any hobbies (I say having two kids, one on the way and a full time job is a good excuse for lack of extra time for hobbies). So anyway I sent her an email with this logo and a link to the site and told her that her protruding belly is a true sign of craftiness. A few of my other favorites include this shirt which I will have to buy for my husband when I am pregnant:

And, of course, I will have to have one of these for my little bundle of joy when he/she arrives in a year or two:

Take a look at the entire website to pick your favorites and get a few gifts for your next baby shower.

FAIL!

This could very well be my new favorite website. I love crafting, sometimes it comes out looking great, just like the picture on the pattern or just as I had imagined it in my head. And then there are the other times... when it doesn't look ANYTHING like what I had planned - a failure. This blog is dedicated to these wonderful learning moments in crafting - Craft Fail is a great place to spend some time. Here are a few of my favorites that I have seen:

Too small -
Martha's bath salts -

Craft Fail bath salts -

A Look On The Bright Side

I recently found a new website and immediately put it on my list of favorites. The Bright Side Project is a blog dedicated to giveaways, everyone loves giveaways so everyone will love this site. The great part about this site is that to enter each giveaway you have to answer an inspiring question - not just "why do you want to win this item?" like many blog giveaways. Like: "When and how is the last time you were pleasantly surprised?" or "If you could invent anything, what would it be and how would you use it?" They might not be life altering questions and answers but they are different than most other blogs and it is fun to read all the answers people come up with, they are never the same.

Each month has a theme - July is "Beauty full!" All of the items celebrate, promote, and reflect the beauty in you and in life.

Another bonus is that most of the products that they offer are items that I have never heard of, therefore introducing me to new, fun websites and products. The variety of products is great too! Bags, baby bedding, cookies, and everything else you can think of. They even have their own iphone app!

So, do yourself a favor and stop by The Bright Side Project and take a look around!

Oops I did it again...

Sorry for the Britney reference above, I do still love pop music though. Well it has been another few weeks since I last posted but I did warn you that with the move I wouldn't be around much. So we are all moved in now and unpacked for the most part so I am running out of excuses so here I am with a quick post before I go get a pedicure for my brother-in-law's wedding tonight. I am way behind on posting obviously so as soon as I get myself together I will have pictures of the new house, pictures from Spring Quilt Market and a few more exciting items for your viewing pleasure. Get excited, I promise I will post again before the next two month mark!

Pachyderms & Packing

It has been a whirlwind these past few weeks. We sold our house, bought a new house and have started the crazy process of packing up our current house. Plus I have a show on Saturday up in Cleveland so I have been trying to sew and pack for that at the same time. I think I have enough items for the show, I have one order to place and I need to pack everything up and then I should be ready to go. Here are a few of my Ella phants that will be for sale at Oddmall this weekend!

So, I apologize in advance for being a little sparse over the next few weeks. We will be doing a lot of remodeling on our new house so we move out of our old house in about 2 weeks and don't move into the new house until the middle of June. Lucky for me I get a very convenient break the weekend of our first move, Quilt Market in Pittsburgh! It is technically a business trip since I will be working but my husband disagrees since he knows how much I like going and I would go for free if I wasn't working there. It will be quite crazy around here when I get back though. I can't wait to put up a few before and after pictures, there will be some big changes in that house!

SOLD!

It has been a crazy few weeks here, we sold our house after only 4 weeks on the market and we bought a new house! I am so excited about all of this, now we just have to cross our fingers until both of the closings go through in mid-May. Our new house is so cute, it's a 1915 Cape Cod, with original woodwork and pocket doors and 5 bedrooms, yes 5 can you believe it??!??!! One downside - Wallpaper, there is A LOT of wallpaper throughout the house. And not the pretty kind, the kind that all needs ripped out and every room needs repainted. But that's ok, I was looking for an older house with lots of character and that's what I got! It also has a window seat which I love and a big back yard. One of my favorite things has to be the front porch, complete with porch swing!

How cute is that house? Hopefully in about 2 months it will be even better. So if things seem a little slow around here for a while you will have to be a little understanding since once we get possession at the end of May I will be stripping wallpaper and painting as my second full time job. I will keep you updated, keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well with the closings!

New adventures

I found this great post on design*sponge. It is a guide to all the great little places around Columbus. If you live in Columbus or are planning a visit here any time soon you should definitely check out this guide and start checking out each of these stops. I have lived in Columbus for about two years now and I have been to a few of these places but with this list I have a whole new set of adventures for the spring and summer. Make sure to check out the comments too for a few extras posted by locals. I think this might be one of my first stops,

The Book Loft seems like a place where I could easily get lost for an afternoon. 32 rooms of books, 32 rooms?!?! That's crazy, this is a must see.

This would have to be my next stop, On Paper seems like an awesome store and I think I would probably spend lots of time and money here.

Look what I found!

Vintage finds could be one of my favorite things. I recently went to one of my favorite vintage shops, Footloose, in Granville, OH. I work near by so on my way back to the office from lunch I was very excited to see a big sign that said "Barn Sale at Footloose" No convincing needed, I was headed for the huge barn behind the store. As I walked in they said "don't pay attention to the price tags, just make us an offer." That's when I was pretty sure I was dreaming, but no, it was true. I had a great time digging around and finding some wonderful clothes. I ended up with these two wonderful dresses with great prints.

Here are close ups of the beautiful prints:

You would pay top dollar for these beauties in many vintage stores but I got them each for only $3, yep that's right just $3! The green one even came with a matching scarf, how fun is that? I'll tell you...very fun! If you live anywhere in central Ohio or if you are planning a visit you must stop by Footloose, it is wonderful, room after room of these amazing finds.

Real Estate Adventures!

It's not exactly the best time for this but we went for it anyway.

I put my house on the market a few weeks ago and now it is a waiting game. Hopefully it won't be a very long waiting game but these days you just never know. I am heading out to look at a few houses this weekend, I am so excited for a new house. All I can think of is the new curtains and pillows I can make. A new sewing room, all organized and pretty! That is probably the most exciting part, I have already picked out a panel print that I want to put on the wall.

It is a super graphic by Alexander Henry Fabrics, it is a great panel and I am going to stretch it over a canvas and the design and everything else in the room will work around it. I think I will paint the walls in one of the shades of tan that are throughout it. It also has many coordinates for other fun decorating accents. I love this look:

Maybe a few of the coordinates hanging around the large piece. Wow, I've only had one person look at the house and I haven't even started looking at other houses and I already have my sewing room decor planned out. I guess I know where my priorities are.