handmade by stefanie

Well, that was an unintentionally long blogging hiatus. I've had this tab open on my laptop for several months, but just couldn't figure out where to start - the longer it went on, the harder it became to write this post! Actually, I am still not sure where to begin, but I've decided to just. start. writing. So here goes. The biggest thing that's happened since my last post is that we bought a house! Back in January of this year, Tyler and I stumbled across a house that was about to go on sale in our neighborhood, and we were able to make an out-of-market deal. At the beginning of April, we closed and by mid-month we were ready to move in. We have been getting settled and making improvements ever since; it was built in 1935 so there is no shortage of home improvement projects for us! The second biggest piece of news is that Lulu moved with us and surprised us all by becoming an indoor cat. She loves her new life, which is filled with Cat TV, lots of snuggles, and comf...

Earlier in the year, I hit a bit of a slump with my weaving - things just weren't turning out the way I imagined, and I found that I was avoiding my loom as a result. This made me think about the things I like to weave, and why I took up weaving in the first place. Some of my favorite projects were simple, plainweave scarves that use up leftover bits of yarn. Light bulb! After a complete dishtowel fail, I decided it was time to get back to destash weaving (someone on Instagram calls this weaving alchemy , which sounds way cooler). I used a skein of Berroco Vintage that was left over from one of Tyler's sweaters as a warp, and then collected several bits and bobs, mini skeins, samples, and handspun leftovers to create a long piece of fabric to sew into pillows. I tried not to overthink the color sequencing too much, but that's just kind of how I roll. When I reached the end of the warp, I had quite a substantial piece of fabric (naturally I forgot to measure it - doh):...

I'm a little obsessed with buttons, and have a sizable collection of (mostly vintage) buttons - probably more than I could ever use in this lifetime, especially considering I often purchase new buttons for specific projects. I used to keep my buttons in a plastic storage container, but one day I decided that they would be a fun and crafty addition to my home decor. The above container is an antique jar which I found in my grandparents' basement a few years ago, and it has an interesting metal closure at the top; in fact, you can see a few of the crafty items which are doing double duty as home decor: my wooden drop spindle, various knitting needles, and of course - buttons! Since keeping fresh-cut flowers in our house isn't an option (our cats love to eat plants), I've started using vases to display other objects. I've also filled a clear cylindrical vase with buttons and thought that a few wooden needles would add a nice knitterly touch in the absence of flowers...

Not that my cousin would ever react in this manner (she and her husband are both super-cool, laid-back people), this is what I immediately think of whenever the subject of wedding gift-giving etiquette comes up: Knowing that there "you just can't" give a wedding gift after the one-year anniversary, I wanted to be sure to hit that mark for my cousin Alex & her new husband Derek, who got married last May.  I actually began knitting their gift long before their wedding, but I didn't finish it til late last fall.  My intention was to present it when we went home for the holidays, but we ended up staying in Chicago instead.  When we went back for what was dubbed "fake christmas" in January, Alex & Derek were on a well-deserved mini vacation....and also it didn't fit in our luggage with all of the other holiday gifts. Thankfully, I headed down to KC earlier this month and had PLENTY of room for some ginormous pillows.  I'm pleased to report th...

Perhaps it's a symptom of working from home, but lately I've been getting more and more into the notion of home decorating.  I'm sure most interior decorators would still cringe at my lack of a cohesive anything in my environs (eclectic would be a really nice way of saying that most of our furnishings were bought off of craigslist or swiped from an alley), but I'm beginning to take an interest in how everything is looking at the home base these days. I recently inherited a treasure trove of vintage finds from my great-grandparents....glassware and linens aplenty!  Actually, there's so much, I'm selling some of it off in my etsy shop - it's kind of hard to let it all go, to be honest, but there's no way I can store all of it in our house.  I've had to be choosy in what I keep for myself, and the rest is up for grabs , bit by bit. Table runners were apparently big for my great-grandparents.  There are some really amazing embroidered ones, though...