{photography giveaway}

Hey Friends!

I just wanted to share this giveaway hosted by a dear friend, Brooke. Her business Harmony Hill Photography takes the most beautiful pictures (take a look at her site, you'll see some maternity photos of me, and Junebug's infant portraits)! So if you live in northern California head on over to the link below and enter to win some gorgeous photographs!

Enter Harmony Hill Photography's giveaway HERE.

{merry christmas}

I know I've been slacking on the blog but we've been traveling a lot and while I suppose that's no excuse seeing as how I could post from my phone ( like I am now ) well...I'm just a slacker.

However, I'd like to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you out there...this Christmas is extra special because it's Junebug's 1st, and my 1st as a mommy.

Hopefully Santa brings me lots of Anthropologie gift cards and a pair of Ugg boots because i've been very good this year ( I mean come on, I gave birth to a baby :) ).

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

{feelin' the holiday season}

Just wanted to share our family Christmas tree. It's sans the tree topper since the husband and I decided the one we'd previously been using just wasn't cutting it anymore. We're still on the lookout for a new one. (Anyone with recommendations for a new one, leave a comment/link below!)

Anyways, it's nice to have up in the house. Tonight i'm off to a fellow blogger's house this evening for a 'girls night out'. Well, its kinda 'girls night in' since we'll be sipping coffee and eating yummy goodies all while wrapping our presents without our kiddos. Ahh, the joys of a quiet evening among the company of adults. I'm looking forward to it! Hope everyone has a great rest of their weekend!

{abstract grace: for the holidays! and a giveaway!}

Here are some new items sure to get you in the Christmas spirit! Quantities are limited, so get them while you can. I ship next day on most my items, and often ship same day if ordered before 12pm.

And...we're doing another giveaway with Rags To Stitches. Alissa is doing 14 days of giveaways on her blog, and i'll be participating starting TODAY!!! So, head on over to Rags to Stitches Boutique for all the info on how to enter and to see what awesome items from Abstract Grace you can win.

Here are some pics of items from the new Holiday line available here:

Candy Cane Korker Bow Clip

 HoHoHo & Noel Jingle Bell Holiday Hair Clips (Shown in Green)

 HoHoHo & Noel Jingle Bell Holiday Hair Clips (Shown in Silver)

 Holly Jolly Polka Dot Korker Bow Clip

 Plaid & Gold Korker Bow Clip

 Plaid & Stripes Button Bow Clips

Happy Holidays!

{holiday renegade L.A.}

Today I spend the better part of the late morning strolling up and down the isles at Holiday Renegade LA. My main reason for going (besides all the handmade awesomeness and food trucks) was to pick up supplies from my favorite felt maker OhMa Felt. 

Sorcha hand dyes the most amazing all wool felt, in the prettiest colors. It really is a luxury product in my opinion. Thanks to Sorcha i'm stocked and ready to get busy making new items for the Abstract Grace shop, so expect new items in lots of pretty colors coming soon!

Oh, and we also ate at Louks Greek food truck. I had the Chicken Gyro Burrito complete with spicy feta. It was nom nom nom! Doesn't Renegade look great decked out in Holiday decor? I think so...

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are free tomorrow stop by the fair. It runs Sat-Sun 12/11-12/12 10am-5pm.

{black friday coupon code}

Get a head start on your Black Friday Christmas shopping by using our coupon code BLACKFRIDAY10 at checkout for 15% off your total purchase from Abstract Grace! This coupon code is good starting today and running through the weekend (11/22-11/28). Don't wait, get started now!


CLICK HERE - Abstract Grace Store

{thanksgiving give-a-way! Once Upon A Cupcake...}

Just thought i'd share this giveaway hosted by Once Upon a Cupcake...head on over for your chance to win a dozen Thanksgiving themed cupcake toppers! Click here...

{props props and more props}

You're probably asking what that hideous styrofoam head is doing below. I picked it up at a garage sale for free over a year ago. It made it's way over 300 miles during our move earlier this summer, {try explaining to your husband why you must have the styrofoam head come with you, ha!}, and I knew i'd have a use for it eventually. 

With the boutique i'm a part of coming up, I immediately thought that this would be great for modeling my hair clips and headbands on my table. I had some pink tissue paper {just plain tissue for gift bags} lying around and my trusty Mod Podged, so I made like I was 5 years old again doing paper mache, and covered my styrofoam head. 

Please excuse the horrible 'before' photo, it was dark, gloomy and raining when I took this. Bad natural light means a crummy photo, but it was amazing weather!

What a transformation! Slightly shiny, new, bright, cheery, and most importantly useful. Can you tell that these two photos {'after' and 'in action'} we're taken on the day following the storm? Sunny skies, good natural light, much nicer photos. :)

Here it is modeling one of my Junebug Headbands. It's perfect! I'll be sure to post a pic of it in my table display next month. 

{gifts in action}

Remember the little package I sent out to a friend up north? It contained a reversible padded camera strap I made as a gift for a wonderful photographer. Well, I got a couple pictures confirming it made its way onto her camera. Isn't it the cutest thing ever? I love making things, and love love love giving them away! 

You can visit Brooke's blog to read more about getting it in the mail! And a big thanks as all photo credits on this post belong to Brooke. 

{crocheted hair bow clips}

I've been crocheting a lot lately. It's one of those things I find hard to resist doing once the weather starts turning, and the days get cooler. To me there's just something that equates crocheting and fall/winter weather.

Cheerful yellow crocheted bow hair clips. And isn't that cake stand from yesterday's post cheery as well? I've made a little bunch of these for the boutique next month and whatever is left will make it's way into the shop. If none are left, don't worry i'll make some more and add them. I'm thinking rich fall colors would be perfect for the season. 

{diy fabric cake stand}

Hello! I'm really excited about this next project. The only bad thing is that I didn't take pictures along the way to give you all a tutorial. Boo. I'll have to do another one and let you all see the process. 

Cake stands are expensive! But it turns out they don't have to be. In fact this one cost me less than three dollars (considering I already had the fabric and Mod Podge). 

I picked up two small plates at the thrift store for .99 cents and .79 cents, and the crystal piece in the middle, thats a candle stick and it cost me .99 cents as well. The bottom plate is slightly larger than the top plate, as I wanted the tiered effect. 

Basically the method was: I cut my fabric to size and used hard coat Mod Podge to adhere it to the plate. Then I used really really really strong glue to attach the crystal candle stick to both plates (turned upside down, this means the bottom of the candlestick is glued to the bottom of the top plate). 

I let the glue cure overnight, and there you have yourself the cutest cupcake/whatever you'd like it to be stand. (I'm not 100% sure if Mod Podge is non toxic, so use caution when placing food directly in contact with the plate's surfaces). I'll be using this one as part of my table display to hold hair clips at an upcoming boutique. It would also be darling as a catch all for jewelry. The possibilities for fabric combos and themes are really endless with this project. And they are so cheap to make that they'd be great additions to parties. Say...Alice in Wonderland?

{cowboy birthday part 1: invitations}

This is the first post in a series dedicated to the cowboy themed birthday party. A friend of mine mentioned that she is thinking about doing a western/cowboy theme for her son's first birthday, and I couldn't help but do some digging into some fun themed party items. Hopefully this gets the ideas flowing, so here we go! First off we'll do invitations. Here are the top three I liked:

Custom Cowboy Invitations by lillebarntoo

Cowboy Personalized Invitation by noahsmom0918

Western Cowboy or Rodeo Birthday Party Invitation by andersruff

Fun stuff huh? My fav is number 3. I think its the faux bois background {I just love anything faux bois}. Next up I'll be sharing my finds for items related to food, yum!

{"e is for ella"- making my own jewelry}

So at my weekly MOPS {"mothers of preschoolers"} group we do a craft and this week we made necklaces. We also had the option of buying our own metal stamping kit, and we all know I couldn't pass that offer up! We stamped metal washers from the hardware store and while that was fun, it wasn't enough for me. I swung by my local bead shop and got a few metal stamping rounds made for jewelry {I rarely wear jewelry from the hardware store these days :) }.

I already had a small "E" charm necklace that I wear representing Ella, and decided to marry the two together. So, I went stamping away with Ella June's name. {*Stamping on metal takes a little practice, so if you do try it make sure you do a few trial runs before stamping on your good charms and disks.} Then I attached the stamped round and "E" charm to a jump ring and the chain.

It turned out so well that as soon as I shared it among friends I had several requests for other personalized ones. Metal stamping is really great fun, not to mention a good stress reliever.

If you're interested in metal stamping check out the Beaducation website. They have video tutorials that are really helpful, and an amazing selection of metal stamping tools.

{camera strap cover & gifts}

On my list of 'to dos' has been sewing up a camera strap cover for my trusty Nikon. This is a great project to do for the avid picture taker in the family {hm...think Christmas gift?}, or if you happen to have an amazing photographer friend who needs a little something for her camera. Well what do you know, I happen to have exactly that {the photographer friend that is}. Since these take no time at all to make in addition to sewing up one for my little camera, I made one for her as well.

The great thing about camera strap covers is that they are a very easy project {think beginner sewer}, take no time at all to do, and the impact is big. They really do make your camera look nicer. Speaking of cameras, please excuse the picture below, it was taken with my iPhone as I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of the camera strap while it was attached to me/the camera, without me being in the picture, and seeing as I didn't put any makeup on today, there was no way I was going to be in the picture.

The long teal and pink one is for Brooke at Harmony Hill Photography. The premise of the whole thing is pretty simple, but if you're looking for a tutorial there is a very easy to follow one here. I only put fusible fleece on one side of the strap as to cut down on bulk. Like the tutorial I also made mine reversible, with two different patterns, one on each side. You can play around with this basic idea a lot, adding a ruffle ribbon, patchwork the top {a great way to get rid of extra scraps of fabric}, add ribbons and trims down the middle, the options are endless.

Here it is all packaged up and ready to be mailed out to her. I hope she enjoys it!

{happy birthday love!}

Happy Birthday!

Today is my husbands birthday. We'll be eating sushi, going out for ice cream by the beach, and loving on our baby girl. I'm so thankful to have married my best friend! Thank you for putting up with all my sewing messes, working hard for our family so I can be a stay at home mom, for being a great dad, and loving me so much! Happy birthday baby, I love you!

{cachabons & vintage}

I've been waiting patiently for nearly a month for a small package to arrive. These little cachabons are all the way from China, and aren't they amazing! The muted but vivid colors, the size {they're so tiny tiny}, they're just perfect! I got them from this amazing Etsy shop. Seriously this shop has the BEST stuff for jewelry and hair clip making ever, plus they are reasonably priced. The only negative, the turnaround time is rather long, but hey...it's coming from overseas after all.

I'll be adding these little beauties to some clips with other vintage trims, and bows. Remember my recent score at the thrift store? I have plans for those vintage notions, big plans. When i'm done I'll have 6 pairs of the cutest clips ever. I wont be posting them in the shop until after my boutique in November. So whatever {if anything} is left I'll put them up for sale then. And of course I'll be sharing the finished product with you all when they're completed!

{tiny bird tag toys}

Need another use for all those fabric scraps? Small stuffed toys! I made a dozen or so plush birdies out of leftover fabric scraps and grosgrain ribbon. I'll be selling them at my boutique next month. Aren't they cute?

{zippered pillow covers}

Every sewer wonders what to do with scraps. Little leftovers that you can't bare to part with. For me it was getting to the point where I needed to find a way to use some of them. I had a few pillow forms laying around {making covers for them had been on my 'to do' list for over a year!} and I decided to make a few patchwork covers for them. I went with a pink theme, and a blue theme, and as for the smallest pillow? I used a solid pattern fabric and put a pink ribbon ruffle across the middle.

You can see in the picture above that I patch worked the front of the covers and the back I used co-ordinating solid prints. I also installed zippers in all three covers so that they can be washed and changed out for a new look.

I love zippers. I love the idea that you can take things off and on with them, I love how they hide in the seam, I love how they make items look professional, I love items that the maker thought enough of to install them in, however, I do not love installing zippers. That was until I came across this tutorial from Design Sponge.

I first used the tutorial back when I made a small throw pillow for Ella's nursery. Seriously, this tutorial changed my life! Who would have thought that installing zippers could be so easy? For the longest time not me, that's for sure. But they are, and you all should try a project that involves installing a zipper.

And another small piece of advice, check out your local thrift store for zippers. My local store has a notions/craft area and I ALWAYS walk out of there with a handful of zippers for about 20 cents a piece. Just another reason to love zippers! Ok, onto the pillows:

Blue/Green Scheme

Pink/Orange Scheme

Ribbon Ruffle Pillow

{covered wipes boxes-the greatest invention ever}

I've been sewing and crafting like crazy lately getting prepared for the Crossline Church Fall Boutique in Laguna Hills, CA in November. I'll have more details on that to come. I've been experimenting with some new products, and this is one of them! The padded wipes box! We've all seen the wipes clutches {here's a great tutorial and pattern for making your own} before, and they are great, but how about a padded re-useable wipes box for the nursery that matches the rooms decor/theme?

These wipes boxes are great because not only are they cute, but you can save money by buying economy boxes of refills (think Costco) and putting them into your box. Ahhh! I love them! I have one sitting on Ella's changing table and I love looking at it while I change her {i'll have to snap a pic of the one in her room so you can all see it in action}. They would also work great as a tissue box once wipes are no longer needed, or just order one as a tissue box with home decor fabric to match the living room, bathroom, etc.

The box on the bottom is not finished. It will have another round of trim at the bottom.

These would make a great baby shower/house warming gift. Unique and personalized to match the recipients taste/decor. Don't you LOVE LOVE LOVE that tattoo fabric? It's perfect for a boy, or girl. :)

Of course the top still opens and snaps closed. It was important to me to keep that function because of the convenience factor. No one wants to add any unnecessary time/hassle during a poopy diaper change. If these sell well at the boutique I'll be adding a few to the shop, and if you're interested in one now, custom or otherwise you can always email me about price and ordering one.

{baby bear beanie}

OMG! I just want to eat her up! Sigh, she's the CUTEST thing ever, my Ella June that is. And add a handmade beanie with ears to it, and the cuteness level is off the charts. I'm longing for Falls cool crisp air, dewey mornings, and short days, but it seems that since we've moved from Northern California to Southern California this past summer, that I may not be enjoying my favorite time of the year so soon. Nevertheless, I got to crocheting some baby beanies for Ella in hopes that the weather will soon change and we'll actually be able to wear them outside of the currently air-conditioned house.

The picture above shows the beanie without the buttons in the ears, and below, with them. I think I'll add them on.

Here is a HDC beanie without ears. I clipped one of her flower hair clips on to it. That's the great thing about hair clips. You can clip them to almost anything and it instantly changes the item.

Again, as soon as I shared them among friends I had several requests for them. I'm currently working on a brown one w/ ears, and a pink w/ears, as well as a special request from a friend for a black one w/ larger ears for her daughter for their upcoming trip to Disneyland. She wants her to have the coveted Mickey ears hat, but since they're going in the winter, the "Mickey Ears Beanie" will serve to both keep her little one warm and celebrate the trip. What a great idea! I'm wondering if I should put a few in the shop? What do you think?

{bunting, bunting!}

Here's a quick peek at some bunting I've been working on. It's decoration for the boutique in November and should look darling on the table. The concept in making it is very simple. Triangles sewed right sides together, turned right sides out, pressed, top stitched {not necessary, but I did it for extra structure if it needs to be washed} then sew some ribbon/bias tape/seam binding etc, to the top of them. If you would like to follow a tutorial with pictures there is a basic one here. Mind you, I did not put any letters on my triangles, I just left them plain. Once it's all finished, I'll share the final product.

{business cards...finally!}

Sooo...I ordered some business cards. I've been meaning to do it for quite a while now. I tried to get someone professional to do it for me, but the "gotta have it now" in me just couldn't wait. See, I have a boutique coming up next month and need some form of card to hand out. Plus, I'm always being asked about my site and store, but never have any thing to give anyone. You'd think someone with a masters degree in business would know the first step in self promotion! I just took my current logo and slapped it on, changed up the colors a bit, added my info and ordered them. They'll have to do for a first run. I used an online company and got 250 single sided cards made for less than $10.00, and that's INCLUDING shipping! I couldn't pass up such a great deal.