Works in Progress

Today I decided to take a "mental health day" and skipped my first class to sleep in and work on my things for this weekend. I made some coffee and breakfast and turned on the computer to browse blogs, and as luck would have it, today was a super inspiring blog day! Everything I looked at was so inspiring! I love days like these, when everything just resonates visually and creatively! So I took some photos to show you what I have been feverishly working on. The photo above is my makeshift workspace. It's actually just a drawer organizer caddy (I'm thinking it's from The Container Store, but don't quote me) that has lots of little nooks and crannies, which are perfect for tiny things like beads and ribbon pieces and threading needles. Plus it's so handy to have everything in one place.

These are just a few of the headbands I am working on. My brother calls them "Hippy headbands" which is fine with me! Haha! I think I may need to swing by Michaels today before heading to work tonight, just to restock my supplies. Have a great day!

Excitement is in the air!

Last night I was invited to participate in a craft sale in Orange County this coming Saturday, along with my future in-laws! Needless to say, I am so excited! I've got all sorts of ideas up my sleeve, I can't wait to make them and (hopefully) sell them! I've been toying with the idea of starting an Etsy for a long time, but I always come up with excuses not to. I'm hoping this will give me a kick in the pants to get on it already! Ha! Plus, part of the reason I use the moniker "The Cozy Farmhouse" is because I want to use it as a potential store/ brand name. Kind of like October Afternoon or Autumn Leaves or Sassafrass Lass. Don't those names just inspire you to buy their product? Maybe it's just me, haha :) Anyways, I've got tons to do before then, but I love having a fun project (or five) in the works!

Tonight's a big TV night for John and I. I'm really not a huge fan of watching TV (mainly because I can't sit still for that long!), but when it involves American Idol and The Real Housewives of New York (I love Real Housewives!), I am all for it! Plus, I will have lots of things to make, so it will be a perfect reason to veg out and craft :)

Tweet Factory

So I jumped on the bandwagon :)

For the love of flowers

So currently I am loving flowers (especially Prima!) for any and all crafting endeavors. I put them on all my layouts and have recently began making flower headbands and bobby pins...I can't get enough! I love how dimensional and textured they are. I will have to take photos of my headbands because they are quickly becoming my favorite things to make! I'm also itching to make jewelry - I love when I find new things to obsess over! Haha :) I love to bust out the tulle and Maya Road pins, thanks in part to the ever-creative Katie Watson whose style is seriously fabulous. So basically I'm in a total embellishment phase. Actually I think I'm always in an embellishment phase :) Haha.

The giant number stamps are from Martha Stewart. I got mine on clearance at Michael's and love them so much! BTW, the "o2" stands for the two of us, not the year 2002, like my boyfriend thought. This design choice was quite perplexing to him, much to my dismay, haha! He's an amazing multimedia designer and he's usually my tech help guy, so I have to be nice to him :)
An homage to our beloved Chipotle. Addicted for life, I tell ya :)
This weekend I plan on playing with my new Glimmer Mist screens and making more headbands (in addition to working on all my upcoming projects - one more month til I graduate college -woo!). Good times ahead...

A new planner mid-year? Why not?

So I found myself itching to create my own planner a few weeks back for some unknown reason. I searched for different ways to approach it, based on my personal preferences concerning size, color, shape, etc. How would it fit it my bags? How would I bind it? How many pages would it contain? How would I address the issue of starting a new book in the middle of the year? Finally, after much deliberating and playing in Illustrator, I now have my very own hand-crafted agenda book!
This is the format I chose for my pages. After printing onto both sides of a cream-colored cardstock, I sliced the paper horizontally, as the book features two days per page. Then I punched two holes on each page using my Crop-a-Dile and bound that baby up! So much fun, I tell you! I love when I get on these creative kicks because it becomes all-consuming and I get super excited! Plus, agenda books have always thrilled me to no end and the blank fluorish on all the pages allows me to fill in the date as I go - flexibility is a must! Additionally, this format could be used for anything - a journal, a planner, a notebook, a recipe book, anything at all!

If you would like to create your own book using this layout, leave me a comment and I will send you a PDF copy via e-mail. Or just click on the layout photo and save it as a JPEG. Either way, please feel free to enjoy! :)

(The covers are made of Hambly's chandelier overlays and a thin chipboard cut to size. The number stickers are complements of American Crafts Thickers.)