It is not about Halloween.

No, this is not about Halloween at all!

No, No, I am not trying to scare you even I am showing some pictures of this horrible haunted look house.

I know, I know. It is a frightful looking garage.

Actually, it was pretty much scary when we bought this big old house back in February. You probably would not believe that we bought such a nasty old house. But we did. My husband Tim has been involved in real estate business these years. He buys houses and renovates them to sell or rent. We have three houses already renovated and rented right now. There is one more small house waiting to be repaired besides this big old house. 

This house is one of the historical houses in South Bend. It is about 90 years old and has great Arts and crafts workmanship everywhere.

Tim started working on this old house in April. It was a quite big job to him. There were so many troubles and difficulties. It took whole six months, and last week, he have made it FINALLY!

I proudly show you how the house looks like right now. Here it is! Please compare to the "before" photo!

After

After

Before

The house looks beautiful now. It has got a new roof, new windows, new trim paint and new land scape! It looks so classic and welcoming.

I arranged all the plants in the front yard. I brought warm and delightful feeling with Autumn colors.

We had the first open house last Sunday. We got lots of good reviews from customers. And some people came to see the house after the open house. We are going to have another open house this Sunday afternoon again. I hope many potential buyers will be coming to see this beautiful historical home.

There are so many nice elements inside too. We asked professional interior designers to stage inside this house. There are cool furniture and decorations. I would love to show it to you soon in another post.

At last I am proud of Tim that he kept trying and eventually finished this huge project. Oh, when the house is sold, I will be more proud of you of course!! ;-p 

Thank you for reading. I will update about my Etsy shop in the next post. Happy Thursday!

Sneak peek / Silk ribbon roses

Try them on!

Yesterday, I brought in my new products to Circa Arts Gallery in downtown. I made some hats and jewelry. This is how my table looks like in the gallery now.

The hats are reversible. One side it is wool and has beautiful Fall themed appliques. And the other side is quality linen/cotton fabric which I brought back from Japan. And jewelry, I crocheted some necklaces and bracelets with interesting elements.

 I designed Autumn berries and flowers with several Autumn colored wool felts.

This is the reverse side of the hat above. It is surprisingly different from the other side and I think that is really fun (to make and to wear).

It can be worn like this. A little peek of a chic polka dot lining.

This one below has appliqued flowers both on the crown and the brim. The flowers are imaginary but I thought of chrysanthemums because it is one of my favorite Autumn flowers.

And the other side has this colorful linen/cotton fabric. What a fun project! I wanna make more reversible hats in various fabric combinations.

These are all hand crocheted jewelry. I crochet sequins in balls and made necklaces and bracelets with them.

There are matching bracelets.

In many colors!

I want them to be worn casually with T shirts, sweaters, and either dresses.

I am going to list similar items in my Etsy shop soon. My goal is re-opening the shop within September. It seems I have to work harder to make it. But I will try!

And if you live in Michiana area, please come to Circa Arts Gallery and try them on! I think you will like it! ;-)

Stay warm (it is cold in SB today!) and you all have a good weekend!

No pattern stitches

Sometimes, I like to do embroidery without making pattern first.

Improvisation.

It is just like free-hand drawing on fabric.

I am working hard to make new items for re-opening my Etsy shop. And I need to make more for my consignment since a couple of bags and some other things have been sold! Yepppppy!

This time of year, I have a bad allergy from ragweed or mold or something. Do you have allergy? It doesn't feel good at all to work with my nose running. The last three days were the worst. It got a little better today. I guess it is because of rain. But I did work a lot, baked a lot. So I feel pretty much contented. I hope you don't have your nose running so bad, and have a good Thursday :-)

2011Trip to Japan #2 Purchase (Materials)

I can't believe it is already September! We still have some hot days like mid Summer, but I often feel a hint of fall in the morning and evening air. It seems my daughter Nina is so ready to go to farm for apple picking and corn maize. And of course she knows what kind of costume she wants for Halloween. I am not so ready for those yet. I will miss Summer days like every year I do.

Today I show you some fabrics and supplies I purchased in Japan. I didn't get many but I am pretty much satisfied about the result.

Starting with my new fabrics. These are all my favorite material Linen and Cotton blend. I collected some fun and cute prints.

I picked this vibrant animal print for my products for children. I have no idea how I am gonna use this yet. I fell in love with this fabric at first sight! This might be a little difficult to use because the pattern is very large in scale and it includes many vivid colors. But I had to have it! I guess this happens to many of my readers who love sewing and fabrics.

The elements of this folklore print are, of course Dala horses (my family of my husband side is half Swedish), and especially I love is the combination of red and grey. It makes this folk theme print look modern.

My favorite pattern, Polka dots in chic colors. This will be so great for smocking projects. Or can be very nice linings for bags.

I always want to get some Japanese traditional themed fabrics when I go to Japan. This time I couldn't find any great ones unfortunately (I didn't have time to explore!), so this one is not very special but I got this anyways. This is very traditional pattern called "Ya-gasuri" which means "Arrow-Ikat".

These are 3mm thick felt. I have been looking for these kinds of good thick felt in the US. But there is no luck so far. So I got some in Japan this time. If you know any good felt suppliers who sell something like this, please let me know. I will really appreciate that.

I got a lot of supplies for jewelry making and purse making. These are ring basses and I bought many of them.

Variety of purse frames. I got lots of them too! I am ready to make many bags for my shop to get ready for the Holiday season!

The football season is starting here in South Bend Indiana. Tomorrow is the first game day of the year for Notre Dame. The town seems lively and very excited. We had a nephew in the band last four years. He played a big drum. But he graduated this Summer. Then my niece became a freshman of ND and she got in the ND marching band. Hurray! I am not a big sports fan but always love to see and listen to the band. This afternoon we are going to see the band rehearsal at the campus. Every band rehearsal we go. That became tradition of my family. And going to see band tells to me the fall is just around the corner. We also are going to the First Friday in down town tonight. This little town is pretty much filled with fun things.

I hope you all have a great week end. Happy September!

New Project Sneak Peek

This is what I am working on now for my Etsy shop and consignment.

I am making lots of balls like these in different colors. This is just a sneak peek....to be continued.

2011 Trip to Japan #1 Material Shopping

Hello everyone! I was back from my long Summer vacation a week ago! It was one month trip to North Carolina and Japan. I missed you girls and writing here so bad. But I was not able to have chances to sit in front of my PC on the trip as usual! So sorry for letting you to wait that long. As you assume, I have tons of things to tell you about my trip. I am going to start with my crafty material shopping in Tokyo. I guess many of you are interested in what you can get over there in Tokyo. It is a paradise of quality fabrics and materials! My schedule was so tight and the time I could spend for shopping was limited. I wish I could introduce many more stores and market places, but this time I spent time shopping online a lot. There are only several stores I could shop. Today I am going to write about a big craft department store Yuzawaya Shinjuku brunch. The Shinjuku brunch is not the biggest one of their stores. So the selection is also not the biggest. But you will still need hours to look around there for shopping. I hope you'll enjoy this post.

 The things which caught my eye first were those super cute needle felted animals and dolls. It seems needle felting is very popular in Japan right now. There are so many small packs of candy color wool roving and also needle felting kits. You can get materials and instructions to make those cute things like in the picture above all in one package. You don't even need to look for appropriate materials individually and get more than you need. I assume the reason of that kits are so popular in Japan is it is very convenient for beginners, weekend crafters, and someone who only wants to make a thing for a gift.

 Beading craft is very popular too. Not only making jewelry. These are tiny beads animal key chains. Japanese crafters really like "Kawaii (Cute)" style.

More kits. Those are all beading kits. I wonder how come we don't see many kits at the craft store in the US. I see purse making kits, embroidery kits and knitting kits. But it is nothing to be compared with it in Japan. If you have any opinions about this, I would love to hear it. Just leave a comment on this post.

 Japanese crochet lace threads.

 Sashiko threads.

 Buttons.

 Threads for hand sewing.

You might already know, I love Japanese linen cotton print. Its colors, texture, and designs are fabulous. Of course I purchased some. I cannot wait to create something fun with those fabrics I got.

This shelf will be the envy of Echino fans in the US.

Double gauze fabrics.

Japanese Kawaii prints for babies.

I wish I had much more time and budget for my material shopping in Japan! I could spend a whole couple days shopping materials around in Tokyo! Honestly! If you got a chance to be in Tokyo and had time for shopping, make sure that you ask me where to go!

I purchased some fabrics and some other stuff on that shopping day. I will post about what I got in the next post. By the way, after shopping, I had an awesome Japanese cuisine for lunch with my four best friends!

The food was great and it is always so nice to see and talk with old good friends. We spent about four hours talking about what has been going on our life. I had so much fun shopping but spending time with my girls was really priceless. I am fortunate to have such wonderful lifetime friends.

Yum!

Dessert! I already miss Japanese food!

Thank you for visiting here again! I hope you have a beautiful week!