Custom Order via Instagram

I recently received a request for a custom order from Corning, New York. It was for: 

10 child's head bands

20 adult head bands, and 

20 boho head wraps

 I had complete creative liberty, so it was fun to go come up with 50 different combinations of fabric! That's right, no two head bands/wraps were made alike. Different fabric combos, different thread colors, everything. Here's what 50 head bands/wraps look like:

She gave me about 30 days to complete the order, which was totally do-able. Looking back, I can't believe how many I made. But it was so fun! 

Here's my top picks for the boho head wraps:

As I develop my style, I notice that I definitely prefer to use one vintage floral fabric with 1 geometric or subtle fabric. 

Here's my top picks for the child head bands. That center one is made up of little hearts!

And here are my favorite adult head bands: 

These will be sold at:

Mint Velvet Vintage and Antiques 

24 E Market Street

Corning, NY 

14830

Within that store, they are sold by Jess Harrison, also known as vendor 'DwP'.

To follow Mint Velvet Vintage and Antiques on Facebook, click here.

To follow Jess on Instagram, click here.

THANK GOODNESS FOR INSTAGRAM!

This whole project actually came about via instagram! Jess and I began following each other on IG I featured her on my #friday 4. (Click here to see the pic that made this all happen). and she noticed my headbands. She went to my Etsy shop and inquired about a bulk order, and the rest is history! If you're in the Corning area, go buy some! If you're not, you could always head to my Etsy shop to see which head bands we have in stock. 

GIVEAWAY!

Also, I'm having a giveaway on my Facebook page right now for $25 to my Etsy shop and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Click here to enter! It's super easy to enter.

Have an awesome Monday!

Aloha, Rebecca

Mid-Century Side Table - Before and After!

Yes, it's another black piece of furniture. Mid-Century this time. I'm addicted. 

My cousin got this piece from Salvation Army like 5 years ago. She had plans to make it pretty, but never did. As soon as I saw it, I was INSPIRED. 

I mean, those lines, the shades of brown (the table, not the dog, but thanks for striking your best model pose, Godiva), the water spots, cigarette burn holes, and even some resin drops inside the drawers! It was a masterpiece!

Well, at least now it is. 

After a quick sanding and scraping removal of some iridescent pink nail polish drops, I dry brushed it with a TINY bit of dark grey, and tomato red. I just like having depth in my black. By the way, I am IN LOVE with that chip on the drawer. Isn't it awesome? 

With the random resin drops in the drawer, it was essential for me to line the drawers with fabric. Also, with antique pieces, your clothes really smell like "antiques" when you put them inside those drawers. That's another reason why I've been white-washing my drawers, and lining them with fabric. As much as we all love "vintage," I don't think we want to smell "vintage." I love this black and white wood-grain fabric. Can you believe it's from Wal-Mart? I don't normally buy fabric there, cause most of it is pretty thin, but this pattern is gorgeous and perfect for lining drawers! They have it in red and black too. I keep going back for more. BTW- I have a baby bundle set using this fabric in my Etsy Shop. Click here to see it. 

Love those original brass casings on the bottom of each mid-century tapered leg. Of course, I'm using Miss Mustard Seed's Typewriter (black) Milk Paint, over the grey and red. Then I sand some more, apply her Antiquing Wax and Furniture Wax (all VOC-Free!) and she's ready to go! I just love the way I can use the MMS Milk Paint and still see the wood grain through it. 

I love the neutral doilies contrasting with the dark background. 

It started to rain while I was taking pics, and you can see the drops down below. Good thing she's all waxed up! 

It sold within 2 hours of me posting it on Facebook!

Don't forget to pin it, for when you find one of those Salvation Army, cigarette hole mid-century pieces and need inspiration!

Aloha, Rebecca
And PS: if you're interested in seeing all my black furniture pieces (there are many) click here, here, here, or here.
Also, have you entered my Facebook giveaway? Click here to win a $10 Starbucks gift card and $25 to my Etsy shop!

Happy Birthday Kit! Giveaway time!

Today is my hubby's birthday! We had a super fun time at a fundraiser for my work last night. For some reason there was a random prom backdrop set up in the volunteer room. Photo op!

Then we went to eat late night sushi. Nothing says you're 30-something like staying only 45 minutes because you're falling because it's past 11:00pm and the terrible karaoke singers are making you want to pull your hair out. Or maybe that was my sinus infection mixing with jaeger? (Don't judge, it was a special occasion.)

Kit: "Becca. Stop taking selfies of us."

After it being a rainy couple of days, the sun is out and the winds are perfect. Any day my husband gets to surf is a good day. For ALL of us. 

What better way to celebrate with all of you, than to host a giveaway! Head over to the Ivy & Co. Facebook page, (http://www.facebook.com/ivyandcompany) to enter for a chance to win a $10 Starbucks gift card AND $25 to use at Ivy & Co.'s Etsy shop (http://ivyandcompany.etsy.com). All you need to do is 'like' the giveaway status, comment on it, then share the giveaway status. Contest ends when we reach 850 page likes, so tell all your friends to 'like' Ivy & Co.! (We are currently at 773 likes!) 

I hope you celebrate with us! 

Aloha, Rebecca

Custom Orders & Projects

I've been busy. But good busy, not bad busy. I've really been pushing to make my Etsy shop thrive and taking steps to make "Ivy & Co" grow in general. I've had a ton of requests for custom orders, and then there's always those special presents I make for friends. 

A friend from the East Coast contacted me about making an apron for her 4 year old daughter. She had one request: purple. Ironically, that's one color I barely ever buy. But I knew she'd give me the liberty to get creative, so out came this apron and matching head band. The vintage fabric had the slightest bit of lavender in it!

I love the color of the felt heart, the yellow pom pom fringe, and I must say, this looked awesome in the packaging. I love when random things like packaging make me happy!

My good friend Katie was heading inter-island to visit her niece and new nephew and gave me some zebra print and pink fabrics. She said she wanted a baby soft block, a head band and a blankie. I've never done any sort of blankie/lovey thing, but here's what transpired. 

Ivy's little friend was turning 4 last month and I whipped up this apron. Ivy insisted that I make a rag for the pocket (that polka dotted fabric in the pocket). But she told me, "it needs to be a rag for dancing, not a rag for cleaning." Let me explain... 

 I first made this style of apron for my dance company, (Ampersand Dance Company), to wear about a year and a half ago. It was for a piece where we were a sort of "desperatehousewives/maids/meangirls" character. I custom made cleaning rags for the dance and we danced with them, threw them at each other, dabbed our make-up, etc. Ivy's seen the dance a million times, so now she thinks cleaning rags are for dancing, especially when you're wearing the heart pocket/pom pom apron. 

Pardon the messy backstage area. All in all, I really need to just call this the Ampersand Apron already. Oh, and you can read my Peter Pan Collar tutorial here.

Next up were two custom baby bundles for twins! A boy and a girl. This was such a fun project. I had the blue/grey scallop print, and I knew Sew Special carried it in pink, and I thought it would be perfect for a twin bro and sis! Ironically my 2 new fox fabrics matched perfectly. 

I just started carrying baby bundles in my Etsy Shop! They come with mini-bunting, a baby soft block, a burp cloth and three matching clothes pins.

I love when my friend Jamie calls on me for projects. She owns Sophie Grace Designs, an adorable jewelry boutique. She uses semi-precious stones, recycled coral, freshwater pearls, and a variety of metals. Her jewelry has landed in the Sports Illustrated 2013 & 2014 swimsuit edition the past two years! Whenever I wear her designs, I get so many compliments. 

So my first project for her was 3 grey polyester table cloths and white suede squares for a poolside location. I ended up making 10 more of them for all the other vendors in the area…!

As we were finishing putting all the table cloths on, she brought me back to her section and inquired about me making 3 earring displays. She wanted them light colored as to make the earrings stand out, and heavy enough to hold up against wind, but not bulky.

Those are the Tusk Earrings. One of my students actually gave them to me as a gift. Aren't they awesome?! Seriously, go check out her website: www.sophiegracemaui.com. If you're local, her main shop is in Paia right on Baldwin Avenue. Browse around. Tell her I sent you. Here's the direct link to these earrings: http://www.sophiegracemaui.com/jillian-earrings.html

With a few art canvases, some fabric, hinges, and a little help from my dad, (I just need to learn how to use a table saw already), I got them done and they're ready for pick up! 

On top of all this I finally finished my Line Sheet for people interested in purchasing my products wholesale. That was a big accomplishment, because now I can venture out to having Ivy & Co products in shops across the world. Ok, maybe not the whole world, yet, but you know what I mean. (Send me an email if you are interested in carrying Ivy & Co.)

So that's what I've been up to. Busy, but fun busy. 

Oh, and have you seen my new head band "model shots" in the Etsy Shop? Let's just say my professional photo shoot got rained out, so my impatience got the best of me, and I made Kit do a photo shoot with me in our dining room. Hahahahaha.

Aloha, Rebecca

Teaching Memory Verses to Pre-Schoolers

In my first month of blogging, over 2 years ago, when Ivy was just 2 years old, I talked about teaching her to recite the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control. (You can read that post here). That was the catalyst to where we are today. She's now 4 years old and learning her 10th Bible Verse. 

A couple of weeks ago (when we were only on 9 verses) I wrote them out on flash cards, because she's starting to recognize more sight words and bigger numbers (past 10), so I wanted that educational aspect of learning to correlate with our biblical learning. But, flash cards is not how we learned these verses. 

Most of the verses I am teaching Ivy are verses I had learned as a kid, mainly from growing up in the AWANA program at Hope Chapel Kihei. Also, my mom kept a couple copies of the "Four Spiritual Laws" in the console of her car, and whenever I would be waiting on her, I'd pick it up and start memorizing the verses, because that's what I always heard you were supposed to do with that little yellow book. Memorize it! You never know when someone is gonna come asking you how to get saved! (I'm not even joking… this was/is my thought process.)

Every kid is different, but here's the steps we took with Ivy in memorization:

1. Pick a specific time of the day to learn and review the verses with your child. 

It worked best as part of Ivy's bedtime routine. Maybe for your kid it could be after dinner, or as soon as they wake up or while driving in the car or even while they're in the bathtub. Whenever it is, do it at the same time every day.

2. You need to have it memorized, before they can have it memorized. 

You and your child will have most success if you memorize the verse first.You're going to be repeating it over and over for them, in a variety of ways. And some days, they won't feel like saying it at all, so you might as well memorize it right off the bat. 

3. Teach each verse in segments. 

For the Fruit of the Spirit, I taught her the first 2 (love, joy) one night, then added in the 3rd and 4th the next night (peace, patience), then the next night taught her how kindness and goodness both ended in "ness", then the next night told her how faithFUL and genTLE had the same "UL" ending, and then finally finished with self-control. We stuck with this verse for a week or two. I didn't even add in "But the fruit of the Spirit is" or "against such there is no law" until later. For each of the verses you see in this post, pay attention to when the verse goes to the next line. These are good groupings to teach them in segments. (i.e.: teach line 1, then line 2, etc).

4. Repetition is key.

Say the first line, then have your child repeat after you. For the following verse, I would have Ivy repeat "I can" after me 3 or 4 times, before moving on to "do all things" and repeating that 3 or 4 times, then repeating "I can do all things" a bunch, then add "through Christ" and so on. Repeat. Repeat again and again. Combine. Repeat. 

5. Teach the Verse Address.

"1 Corinthians 11:1" may sound like a mouthful for a pre-schooler, but if you don't teach the reference now, it's way harder to teach it later. It's also helping to teach them numbers. I screwed up and taught Ivy the following verse as "2 Corinthians 10:1" for like 6 months, and then I realized I was wrong, and it's taken quite a few weeks to re-teach Ivy, and she still says it the wrong way most nights. :( My bad!

6. Some days you'll be the only one saying the verse.
There were some nights where Ivy just didn't feel like saying the verses. Of course I tried to encourage her to do so, but in the end she would just ask me to say them. So I did. Happily. I never wanted it to become something negative. After all, this is God's Word! And it's okay for her to hear it being said, even if she's not the one saying it. That's still helping her learn.

7. It's okay to simplify for kids.
I'm not trying to push for a new kids version of the Bible or anything, but sometimes you can let words go… like "hath," or "yet" or repeating "might" a million times. Believe me, I took many courses in New Testament and Old Testament and have listened to countless teachings on the importance over which translation is most accurate, most inspired, most understandable and I respect all the research being done to try to find the purist form of God's Word. But just like you would bring over a stool for your child to reach something up high, sometimes you have to make adjustments to make these verses accessible to your children. For example, the following verse actually reads: "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Our version isn't too different, but a little less wordy.

8. At this age it's about memorization, not meaning.

Again, don't start a debate with me on this. Of course the meaning is ESSENTIAL. It's why we teach our kids Bible verses! But, some things they just won't understand until they are older. Sure, I explained the word "abundantly" to Ivy, but she would be bored out of her mind if I forcefully explained the entire verse in detail, the way I would to an adult. My goal is that these verses are being "written on her heart" so that when she is older, she will remember them and things will start to click, just like they did for me. I memorized the following verse when I was 5 years old and have never forgotten it. And how cool did I feel for being able to say a word like "abundantly" at that age?! 

9. Spend at least a week or two on learning a verse before moving on to a new verse.

Ivy can say the first 8 verses listed in this post, and we've been working on #9 for about 4 weeks now. She always remembers the last part of #9 "it is the gift of God." Remember, I started the Fruit of the Spirit over 2 years ago, and we are just starting our 9th verse… it takes time and repetition. The older she gets (she's 4 1/2), the easier it is to teach new verses, but I'm in no rush. Neither is she. 

10. Recite each verse, in order, every day. 
This goes for all the verses you've learned (not the ones you haven't learned yet). Prompts are okay. For example, all I say is "And it shall" and Ivy will be able to finish the rest of Acts 2:21 on her own.

11. Choose the verses you want your child to learn.

I chose these 10 verses for a few reasons: either I knew them myself, or my husband knew them, or I felt like they were important yet simple/short enough for her to grasp, or I heard them in church and quickly wrote them down because I liked them and wanted to teach them to her. You can totally use the verses I use (they're tried and true for us) or make up your own. 

Let me know if you have any questions about this. It's been super rewarding for us to do with Ivy. We live in a world where our religious freedom and freedom of speech is slowly being taken away, and I wouldn't doubt that in our kids' lifetime the Bible will be somewhat inaccessible. In preparation, I want God's Word written on Ivy's heart, so that it will be with her always. 

Aloha, Rebecca