coasters.

anytime i get the wild thought that i want to spruce up my living room, i usually start with coasters. the living room is literally where we do the majority of our living... naps on the couch, movies at night, dinner at the coffee table, k dumping out her toy basket and playing, me writing on my laptop... the list goes on & on! for some reason, with this last move to our new townhouse, the redecorating bug bit me really badly, and i literally wanted to start over. so, basically, within the confines of our budget, i did! and of course, i started with my little obsession with coasters.
i usually do little quilted ones, but for these, i tried out a reverse applique idea that i think turned out really cute! especially paired with the dotted fabric. i absolutely LOVE that amy butler dotted fabric. i'm doing the room in a mix of mostly tan and orange, but with a little dark brown and just a touch of green for fun (of course, the ones with green are not pictured yet because they are still sitting on my sewing machine, not quite finished). now they have a place of honor on our coffee table in the little baskets that house our remote controls and the random pens and cluttery-stuff that collects in the living room.
the more logical thing would be throw pillows, but i have a strange intimidation of them. if i just sat down and did it, i'd probably find that they were the easiest thing in the world, and why didn't i do it sooner? aren't they kind-of like giant coasters with stuffing? but now the loveliness of the throw pillow offerings on etsy are wooing me, despite the fact that it would be much cheaper to make them myself, and i have an obscene amount of fabric just waiting to be used! maybe i will get brave this week & just go for it!

paper lanterns.

i'm not even sure it's safe to tell you how many times i've almost ordered some paper lanterns online. i'm glad i didn't, because a few weeks back i found these at michael's for $1 apiece! (i think the big one was $2.50. but still).
with no shipping. they're doing a great little one-dollar-spot like target, which is genius of them. i used some ribbon to hang them at different heights and thumbtacked it into the ceiling, et voila! exactly the look i wanted on the super cheap, which is even better.
also, when you rock in the rocking chair, it creates a slight breeze that fans the lanterns back and forth ever so gently. love it! i'm trying to decide if i want to get a lamp kit to put in the big white one to make it an actual lantern instead of just decorative, also available on the cheap from pier one! (a fun little side note, recovering the cushions of that glider rocker has been on my to-do list since before K was born. i had the fabric out and ready to work on it the day my water broke, and then, well, life and a new baby happened!)

i have always loved these paper lanterns, and have to physically resist putting some in every room of our house. they are a great, cheap, and easy way to decorate, especially for parties! i bought some extra little pink ones for K's upcoming first birthday (wowza, already?), some yellow and white ones for a friend's baby shower that i am helping decorate, and some of the little green ones to hang around the edge of my booth for a little extra pizazz at craft shows!

welcome!

thanks for joining me from ellebee studio! i'm so excited to finally have this new blog up and running. as i said before, i'll always love ellebee studio, but i'm looking at this name change as a chance to hopefully revamp, re-do, recreate, and revive. a new start, in a way!

i have lots of exciting plans for leaf & letter. i've started twittering (tweeting? twittereeting?) and will have an all-new etsy shop up and running soon. for now, the old shop, ellebee studio, will all be clearanced to some get-it-for-a-steal prices.

for now, i'm hard at work redecorating our townhome, and trying to finish lots of home-y projects. thanks for your patience with me as i transition to the new!

teeny tiny little jars- part 2

is it bad that my favorite part of having a 7 month old 8 month old (geez, they grow fast!) is all the teeny tiny little jars all over the house? truly, i have a kitchen drawer full of them as a result of saving every single one she's ever eaten out of. seriously. i've done a fairly good job of washing them out, de-labeling them, and setting them aside for craft-preparedness as we get done emptying them of their pureed contents. i gathered some up the other day and set them on the porch to dry, delighting in the sweet possibility of little empty jars.

i found a pretty little tray in my craft room, set them up in it, and started filling them will all the little craft-room flotsam and jetsam that tends to get tucked in a drawer or a ziplock baggie somewhere and lost or forgotten. even after tucking every little something i could find into them, i still have a few empty ones- prime real estate for more crafty organizational fun! my favorite is that i finally have a place for the little parts and pieces of a couple different sizes of fabric-covered button sets.

i love it when some of my favorite crafting elements collide- simple, repurposed, organizational, and cute! some of the things that finally have a home are: pushpins, blank magnets, hairclips, brads, buttons, beads, mini keyrings, and small, rolled-up tape measures!