Building your business - blogs I like

Someday I hope to make my crafting and sewing into more of a real business and money maker. I don't plan to be the next Martha Stewart but it would be nice to be able to quit my day job, stay home with my kids and still provide income for my family. There are millions of blogs and books out there about how to do this, these are my two favorite blogs that I have found. Their posts are always relevant and written so that anyone can understand them. They cover real topics and I learn something every time I visit their site.

Check them out when you have time:

Crafting an MBA

and

Build a Little Biz

Anthropologie does weddings!

All I can say is that I am glad that I am already married. If this new wedding program from Anthropologie came out before my big day rolled around I (and my budget) would have been in a lot of trouble. The collection is found at bhldn.com and it is amazing. They have gowns, bridesmaid's dresses, lingerie, shoes, jewelry, cover-ups, hair adornments and accessories. Just about everything you need to get you and your special ladies all set for the walk down the aisle.

I haven't seen every item but from my first look over the site this is place to find unique items to add a special touch to your look. And the prices really aren't too bad, I can't really afford most things in the regular Anthropologie store and I'm not one to spend $400 on a pair of shoes for my wedding day but many people are. The most expensive gown is $4,000 which (although more than 4 times the cost of my dress) isn't that bad compared to some of the gowns out there that would compare to this style.

Here are a few of my favorites from the different categories throughout the collection.

Favorite shoes:

Favorite Bridesmaid's dresses:

Favorite Gown:

CraftFail

I have been a fan of the CraftFail blog for a while. Is it weird that this website actually inspires me? Seeing other's fail makes me feel better about all those projects of my own that didn't work out that were stuck in the back of my closet (or in the bottom of the trash can). My favorites are the entries that show a photo of their inspiration and then a photo of how their attempt turned out. Here are a few of my favorites:

Inspiration:

Fail:

Inspiration:

Fail:

Inspiration:

Fail:

So thank you to all of those people who are brave enough courage to share your failures!

New Blog Discovery - My Owl Barn

Another new blog discovery!

Lately I have become slightly obsessed with owls. It started a few years back when I saw a vintage ceramic owl in a photo shoot and I wanted one. I was on a search until I found "the right" owl. I have since found my owl and many more. Then I discovered My Owl Barn and I have a whole new list of owl related items on my wish list. Take a look, but beware you may become obsessed!

And right now they are offering a free downloadable calendar so stop by and pick your images now!

Tutorial Tuesday - fabric scrap bookmark

Another tutorial from the wonderful world of How About Orange.

This is a great project that seems pretty easy and would be a lot of fun to work on. And talk about a great scrap buster project, not to mention a fun holiday gift! A great tutorial for a fun bookmark with fabric cutouts Right Here!

New blog discovery - Dollar Store Crafts

I absolutely love when I find a new blog to follow, I love it even more when that blog is about crafting and I go over the edge if that blog is about crafting without spending lots of money. So you can only imagine my delight when I discovered Dollar Store Crafts. This blog is full of great ideas, tutorials and links to other fun blogs and crafty sites. I can barely contain my excitement long enough to write this post, I should be searching through their archives discovering new crafts and techniques. Enjoy a few photos of wonderful (cheap!) crafts from this fun new (to me) blog!

These are made totally our of paperclips! Insane!

Images via Dollar Store Crafts

Great Idea! Kraft Paper table runner

I love this idea from Remodelista. I love having people over for dinner or game nights and this is a perfect way to keep things clean and super easy to clean up. She suggests using Kraft paper as a table runner - genius! This looks nice, crisp and clean and is pretty inexpensive and I love her idea of setting up colored pencils or markers on the table for your guests to write notes or leave a special doodle for you. I've seen this idea used many times in restaurants and it would be so easy to bring the idea home to your own table.

image via remodelista

Do you love to create? 25 signs that you may love to create

Check out Vickie Howell's list of "25 signs that you may love to create." It will bring a smile to your face and if you're anything like me you will probably find a few (or most of them) that apply to your own life.

I definitely see myself in #1 - My husband broke my Amy Butler Vintage Botanica platter only a few days after I got it (never released, one of a kind!). I had a hard time letting those broken pieces of ceramic go.

And I know I see myself in #22 - we all know I have a problem with magazines. Have you seen my studio lately? I "cleaned" it up since I was having some house guests. For some reason my husband didn't think my 3 foot high stack of magazines in the corner of my studio counted as "organized" - I disagree.

Where do you fall on this list? Have any other signs?

Tutorial Tuesday!

A new tutorial for you!

I have been a bit obsessed with owls lately, I'm not sure why. But every time I see an owl I want to pick him up and take him home. Luckily for the clutter factor in my home I have not been taking them home. But I saw this tutorial from a great blog called Made by Joel and I think it would be super cute for a nursery. Click here for the instructions. Enjoy!

Tutorial Tuesday!

I found a new blog and I'm a huge fan - Ruffles and Stuff. It is not only the home of one or two great tutorials but she has tons of tutorials. And they are all fun and pretty simple and organized by category so they are easy to find and browse. Unfortunately I found out about this blog just a few months ago and she recently decided to stop blogging, but luckily for us she is keeping her archives online for everyone to enjoy!

It was next to impossible to pick just one tutorial to feature today but I landed on her LOFT inspired ruffled tank.

Very nice tank from Ann Taylor LOFT:

And the finished top made by Disney:

So cute! Click Here for the full instructions at Ruffles and Stuff.

Tutorial Tuesday!

I don't know how long tutorial Tuesday will last but it is here for this week. Since I have been working (slowly) on getting my studio in order lately I have been loving looking at new crafty projects that I can work on when my room is all organized (someday!).

So here is the first installment of Tutorial Tuesday!

I found this pattern on a fun blog called Pearl Street Interiors. I love roman shades and I would love to have them all over the house but I haven't found some that are in the fabrics that I love and that I can afford. So I stumbled across this tutorial where I can easily make my own roman shades out of any fabric I want to make the final touches to my rooms perfect every time. Check out this tutorial for a little DIY decorating for your home. Here are the final photos from Jenny's project, check out her blog to see the full tutorial and more beautiful photos and decorating ideas!

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.

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.