Looking back at where it all began.

I am a playing catch up trying to get several items finished that I want to take/wear on our trip. I had a marathon sewing day yesterday and can’t wait to show you what I finished, hoever it has been very gloomy here. I hope I the sun comes out soon so I can post pictures. When I am in my room sewing I zone out, I am in my own little world. Last night my mind drifted and I was thinking about the most wondeful, amazing woman my grandmother. In thinking about her I realized, that was where it all began. She has worked for the Serenity house for some like, 35 years. When I was little she would station me at the sewing machine and I would sew washclothes, towels and/or hankies, mending holes in them or sewing up the raw edges so they could be sold. I can’t help but smile every time I think of her, as a child I spent a lot time with her. Every where she went, I was there right by her side. We would spend hours in the garden, I was “digging for worms”, picking cherries for cherry pie, baking, working on the house, going for hikes and picnicing. At the end of the day no matter what, she always laid next to me in bed and read me a story. She has been a pillar in my life, I cannot wait to see her! 11 days and counting!

I just love this picture. I took it in July 2006 in Eugene Oregon when we took her on a road trip down the coast to see her girls.

xoxo

Hannah

Herbs, Pots and Dirt Oh My

Things have been so hectic lately that I needed some… well time. I was supposed to be upstairs studying for my computer final, that didn’t last very long. It was such a beautiful day I just couldn’t spend it inside. My husband just shook his head, ah well it was worth it hahaha. So I spent the whole day outside puttering around. I trimmed my boxwood topiaries that flank my front door, I weeded every flower bed, I moved huge meteor landscaping rocks (will show what project those are related to in later post) and finally I got to plant my herbs. I have always wanted a herb garden. Until I get those rocks moved and a bed made for them they have to go into pots. Which is fine, they look beautiful on our veranda.

St. Johns Wort.

Chamomile, Delphina, the big pot has orange mint and spearmint. To the right I have a long pot filled with three different types of Thyme. 

Sweet Woodruff. 

The whole time I was working in the yard and potting my wonderful herbs I have been contemplating. Boutique or no Boutique? I have forever wanted to open a little shop of my own selling my jewelry, things I have sewn, and of course my bath and body products. We have been self employed for 6 years so we know the ropes of business, however our business is based online. Well I have gone back to school and wasn’t really thinking about a boutique right now, however doors open when you least expect it. I was at tea the other day at Circa 1860 and was talking to the owner Rhonda who (i am shortening this story) who called Kim who owns a wonderful boutique in town (she wasn’t available to speak at the time), so a couple of days later I stopped by her shop and introduced myself. Now I have to step back, there is this wonderful little building that is brick, over 100 years old and has a cute little shop with two huge windows, shutters, window boxes and it’s own entrance with a screen door. How adorable. It has just come available. While I was talking to Kim (owner of Tournesol boutique) I told her about the space. She was giddy, that is where she started 9 years ago. She had put the shutters and window boxes on. She and everyone I have spoken to says to go for it. It is fate that all of these people seem to cross my path? I put a call in this morning to ask about the space and I am currently waiting for a call back. I wonder….. what does my future hold??  

xoxo 

Hannah

Playing Hookie!

Yes those are my feet. LOL. I woke up with a long list of things to do yesterday, but Jason had different plans. Our car had to go into the shop for some repairs before our big trip to Washington in two weeks and Jason wanted to drive the rental car…. *shaking my head* men! The truth is lately I have been feeling kind of down, I miss home. Home for me is on the west coast. I miss Washington and Oregon, the midwest is sometimes very difficult for me. Jason knows that I have a love for historical towns and the “feel” that they have, so he did his research and told me “we’re playing hookie”. What? I have purses to make, websites to finish, I have important things to do… nope not today. He surprised me by taking me to St. Charles Missouri a two hundred year old town right on the Mississippi. Oh my, it was adorable. Ten blocks of unique boutiques, overflowing flower pots, brick buildings covered in ivy, brick roads, gas lamp posts, verandas filled with people eating, the smell of hyacinths mixed with incense, I was in heaven. I didn’t want to come home, but he made me ;) 

xoxo 

Hannah

Time Keeper

Finally a post about sewing! Monday night I got a phone call from my mom, my step dad was in the hospital. He went in for a routine procedure and ended up having an allergic reaction to the anesthetic! We have a 2 hour difference between where they live and where we are in Illinois, so I stayed up fairly late waiting to hear news. I found that my new sewing room was just the place for me to keep my mind busy while waiting for her phone call. I dove right in and whaaaallaaaa here is what I did. Kind of ironic now that I think about it, I was waiting for her to call, up late and yet I make a handbag with clocks and call it Time Keeper. Hmmmm?

I have good news to report my step dad is doing fine, is he back to normal and at home. Gave us a bit of a scare! I talked to him last night and he is being as ornery as ever, so he is definitely feeling better!

Here is the front of the handbag. I love the buttons!

I even made a card holder to match the bag.

The inside of the carholder.

I put the handbag with card holder up for sale in my Etsy Shop!

xoxo

Hannah

Sewing Room

I posted about how I packed up my sewing room and made it into an office instead. Since I am going back to school I thought it was a good plan. I had planned on using the dining room as my “sewing space” but it turns out that it wasn’t such a good plan after all. It seems that people like visitng us and when I was in the middle of something and someone stopped by I would hurdle everything into the closest hiding spot. Needless to say when I went to resume my project there were pieces of it scattered everywhere. We have a 3 bedroom house, one is our room, the other my “office” or more of a library and the last one was my work out room. Granted I do workout everyday, but it was such a waste of space. I had been pondering what to do about this situation and then I recieved my May issue of Martha Stewart and the answer was staring me right in the face! Not only did I decide to re-do my workout room to a new sewing room, but I painted three other rooms as well. Now I have to appologize, I have been working on my room for three days and I am so excited to be almost finished that I just had to post pictures. I don’t have all of the curtains done, I need to repaint the doors to white instead of cream and the sun was very spuratic so it looks a little gloomy in the pictures. Really my room is quit bright which I really love. So here you go…

My color inspiration:

This color reminds me of chocolate chip mint.

Those cabinets to the right are 80 years old. They are the original kitchen cabinets that were in the basement when we moved in.

I love this shoe holder. It works great for all my little things and I can see them which makes it super easy to find what I am looking for. I just love it.

I hope to have this filled with a whole bunch of purses that I have made. As of now I only have one up there that is by me, the black and white one.

I finally organized my patterns. I also put a lot in the garage sale pile. It is so nice to have them organized and in one place. I just hope they stay like this.

And of course I coudn’t leave out my assistant Miss Bella. She is 13 weeks today! Jason got her for me for our five year wedding annivarsary. It isn’t until July 26th but we just couldn’t pass her up!

xoxox

Hannah

New Jewelry

I know this is supposed to be my sewing blog, but sewing isn’t the only craft I enjoy doing. I suppose I should have taken that into consideration when I went looking for my domain name. I hope you ladies don’t mind me posting my jewelry, seeing as it has nothing to do with sewing. I wanted to share what I made today:

I call this one “Heart of Passion.”

And I call this one “Graceful Dreamer”

I hope you like them.

xoxox

Hannah

Garage Sales!

Today after I dropped the dogs off at the groomer aka babysitter, Jason and I went out some garage sales. Yay! I only spent 12$ can you believe that? I came home with some great finds! The strawberries are a sheet set, but I am thinking I could use the pillow case for a handbag I saw on Martha Stewart. The sheet could make a cute apron, the chairs are going into my new sewing room. Yes thats right, I am re-doing my sewing ….. again! The 4th time can you believe it. It will be the last I promise! I just haven’t gotten it to a point that I can stand back and say, yep thats it. Hopefully with all the hard work I am putting into this re-do I will be able to say that. I can’t wait to post pictures! Tomorrow I am going out garage selling again, try to finish my room up and then at 7pm we are taking our neice to see Jeff Corwin live!! We are so excited! Hopefull I will get my room done tomorrow, can’t wait to see it finished.

I just love these chairs and they were only a buck a piece!

I am going to attempt a handbag out of the pillowcase. I saw Martha Stewart’s tutorial on it and it looked pretty easy. Now just because I said that, I won’t be able to do it.

If you are like me, you love buttons. I don’t know what it is about them, I just love jars of buttons and these jars were so adorable.

This were tablecloths I think. They are really a pretty heavy fabric, I don’t know what I am going to do with them yet. I really like the orangeand white one!

 xoxo

Hannah

Button Pouch

House cleaning… what? hahah I came across this wonderful blog Made By Molly I saw these adorable little pouches that she makes, so I thought why not try my hand at it… So I did. I was supposed to be house cleaning and well seeing the photos below you can tell how that went. It was a lot more fun to sew hahahah. Ok so I did do a little house cleaning, I cleaned off my sewing machine :)  

Spring Planting

So I was reading one (of my many) favorite blogs the other day Posie Gets Cozy and I got totally and utterly overwelmed with needing to buy flowers. Sooo out I went to the farmers market to get some colorful geraniums. I just love them. I had them last year and loved the flare of color, but this year I went a little further and got some english ivy to go in the pots as well. I want the ivy to grow down the sides of the pot and give it that cottage type look. I hope I had the right idea hahah. Things never seem to turn out just how I had planned LOL. We’ll see what happens! Thanks Alicia for your wonderful inspiration!

Inspired by Love, Enchanted By Nature

About 2 years ago I started my own little business called The Enchanted Lily. I hand craft organic and all natural bath and body products. I haven’t had much time since we moved to make anything but custom orders… until now. For some reason when I have so much to do (since going back to school) I decide hey why not start a whole bunch of new products hahahaha. Anyway long story short I made two small things this morning and now have an esty shop for my Enchanted Lily. Here is what I made today.

Lavender bath and body oil. I just love this stuff!!!

and Lavender Bath Salts!

All of my items are made with out chemicals, dyes, harsh synthetic fragrances and best of all they are cruelty free.

It feels so good to be back making things again! Wait until I get done with this current essay I am working on for class, then I am dusting off my sewing machine… uh oh! hahahah

My website is www.EnchantedLily.com or my etsy shop www.Enchantedlily.etsy.com

xoxox

Hannah