Sew, I Made A Shirt

I made this shirt/tunic/whatever you want to call it, in about an hour. No joke. Serves me well, because I've been thinking about making this shirt for about 3 years, ever since I found this glorious vintage fabric at a garage sale. It's a thick woven cotton floral, reminiscent of some upholstered chair from the 1970s. I love it. 

I never use patterns. And it's either me or Ivy wearing the clothes I make, so I'm not trying to go for perfection, here. I started cutting out the pieces of this shirt at about 1:00am one night. I knew I couldn't sew it that late, because I'd wake up the whole house. (pardon the cheesy modeling photos taken by my husband in front of our red door)

The next morning Ivy had a birthday party to go to, and I really wanted to wear my new shirt! So I sewed the pieces all together in about 20 minutes. No joke. That's how motivated I was to make and wear this thing!

I wish I had time to re-do the back elastic gathering (see that tuck on the left?) 

I also would have preferred to use different straps, even though I LOVE the color of them. It's just ribbon!

And, the best thing happened while wearing this shirt, I got to meet this little cutie for the first time. :)

Good things happen in good shirts!

Aloha, Rebecca

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Vintage Doily Bunting - My New Love

Let me introduce you to my new love:

Don't you just want to dive into this crocheted pile of goodness?

Earlier this year I realized I had some doilies in my possession, and had an idea. Since I LOVE bunting, why not go the route of doily bunting? I've seen the doily curtains and shirts and such, and am just not that into them, but bunting? YES!!!!

Some people saw the above photo and wrote me hate letters. 

"How could you cut those piece of history in half?!" they cried.

Easy. Like all old things, they eventually need new life.

My first Doily Bunting came to me out of the blue. I was going to a going away party for my friend, Katira and it just seemed like the right gift! A means of "taking something old to a new place."

I was hooked. A few days later I pumped out another Doily Bunting, listed it on Etsy and Instagram, and it sold within 30 minutes!

My mother-in-law saw the beauty in this new art form (if I may call it that) and sent me some doily heirlooms from my husband's family tree! These babies go back in time!

They transpired into this:

Glorious. It was so fun to preserve the heirloom doilies and send it back to my MIL for her to display in a new way. :)

But now I was just about out of doilies. I put an ad on Craigslist for any unwanted doilies. I got 80, yes EIGHTY, of THE MOST GORGEOUS DOILIES from a lady nearby.

Many from this new batch were matching, so I was able to do more of a pattern with this next Bunting. 

Ivy and I went to the Post Office after hours to get this shot. It's actually really hard to photograph any type of bunting strung out to it's entire length. Any tips?

 This one is still for sale in my Etsy Shop. Click here to view the listing.

I've got quite the inventory of regular fabric bunting, so I'll probably be focusing on my new love for a while: Vintage Doily Bunting.

Aloha,

Rebecca

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Will you have me back?

Dear www.ivy-and-co.com,

I'm sorry I've neglected you. I have good reasons, I promise, and I'm going to tell you all about them over the next few days! It's gonna be exciting. The truth is, I've been on Facebook and Instagram like my life's depending on it and I'm trying to figure out that dang Google+ and Twitter.

Sometimes I feel like the only reason I joined twitter was to keep up with @jimmyfallon #JimmyFallon #TonightShowWithJimmyFallon
— Rebecca Owen (@IvyandCompany) February 28, 2014

In the meantime, I know you'd like a little love from me (aside from my Friday 4's, where I feature my Instagram favorites. You know me, I love to help promote other artists and bloggers!) 

So let's catch up! One day, these two things happened:

At Home

At Work:

It's funny how my home life and work life sometimes look so similar.

Speaking of work, my co-worker (ok, she's basically one of my best friends) asked me to "fix" this tear in her Billabong shorts. #Lacelove (I don't think I've ever used a hashtag on my blog before. I told you I've been trying to figure out Twitter!)

We sold our couch a while back, and I told Kit that we would not be getting a new one. Our living room would include a recliner, and my sewing center. After a little rearranging, my corner now looks like this:

Yes, that grey entertainment center used to be under our TV and was home to DVD's and speakers. But now it is full of sewing goodness. 

That shelf up above was in our bedroom, but I also cleared out our bedroom and streamlined the furniture in there (see the Wizard of Oz dresser here, and the Refurbished Antique dresser here), so it was relocated. I love it as it houses some of my branding items (tags, stamp, business cards, etc). 

And I love this photo of Ivy and I from Ajja Photography, so I put it up on the shelf, too. 

At first my computer was in the sewing area too, but I could only handle that so long until the sewing took over. So I created this little nook next to the Card Catalog. I love everything about it: the cane chair, my Mac, the coffee, my Rifle Paper Company weekly calendar, a permanent home for my external hard drive, a reliable stash of pens! I'll go more into detail about the black desk in another post, but I love that too. (Notice how suddenly all my furniture is going black?!)

So now, dear www.ivy-and-co.com, this is home to where I will write to you. It's focused, it's clear, and I'm ready to return to you. Will you take me back?

With love,

Rebecca

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Instagram Friday 4

Here's who I've been stalking following this week on Instagram:

Click below to follow them on Instagram:

@mintvelvetvintage

@shelleysshabbyshack

@generalstore

@brokenbirdcreations

Happy Aloha Friday!

-Rebecca

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Card Catalog Round up at Rink Gallery

Who doesn't love a card catalog?! I've got one in my house, and we absolutely love it! (Click here to see it). When we were in Oklahoma over Thanksgiving, my brother took us to this place called Rink Gallery. Rows and rows of antiques and plenty of antique furniture to fawn over, including card catalogs! Here's a few of my favorites. :)

This one's made out of metal. Pretty much something you'd see in a school office.

Cute little wooden desktop duo

Basically a distressed side table with card catalog pulls.

Another metal duo

No coverage catalog. More like glorified cubby holes.

This one is all wood, and those knobs are something else.

Another duo... different from the one above, I promise... I actually used this image on my promo for Instagram followers to get a discount to my Etsy shop. See below. Are you following me on IG or Etsy yet?!

And here are some other, not card catalog beauties:

What I would give for a gossip bench. They are no where to be found here in Hawaii.

Green is my favorite color, so I had to share this desk.

Love the white wax on this blue desk and those functional shelves on the sides. Perfection!

Love this little blue side table and red dresser. 

I'm loving black furniture right now. Maybe this was the moment I fell in love?

Love this aqua antique clock. Get in my house, now. But I don't need the fake Ivy. I've got plenty of real Ivy in my life. 

The blue on this old cash register might just be the best color ever made.

And yes, they do have free hot dogs on Saturday-Sunday from 12:00pm-4:00pm, and we partook of them. :) If you are in Oklahoma, you should definitely check it out!

They are located at:

3200 N Rockwell Ave

Bethany, OK 73008

(405) 787-RINK

www.rinkgallery.com

Hours:

Monday - Tuesday-Wednesday 10-6 

Thursday 10-8 

Friday-Saturday-Sunday 10-6

Aloha, Rebecca

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