pure joy

Posted on 2013/05/21 by daisyeyes

I can be a pretty serious person. I take things to close to heart and can become pretty defensive, pretty quickly. God brought a husband into my life that is crazy silly. And I’ve spent so many years not really appreciating that in him. I’ve spent too many years missing things because of this seriousness that leads to clenched hands trying to grasp control.

Last night I welcomed home my closest friend and her new little beauty from overseas. There is something about waiting for someone in an airport that you haven’t seen or talked to for weeks; added to the fact that you finally get to meet this little person that we’ve all been anxiously praying for for years and years. It was about as close to pure joy as you can get.

I’m reading Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe, by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson. It’s a super book so far, totally refreshing to read no matter what stage of parenting you are in, but it’s Sally Clarkson that reminds me that the seriousness in me is so smothering. It smothers the freedom and joy that I can have when I wake up every day anticipating life just as I kept looking through those glass doors last night for a glimpse of my friend.

Last night was a great reminder that despite what horribleness happens in the world (oh, how we are praying for Oklahoma) everyday is filled with anticipation. And we have a choice to take that anticipation with stoic seriousness or to open ourselves up to trust.

It’s a chance for us to shower our families, our callings, our anything with grace and joy. His grace and joy.

stepping out

Posted on 2013/05/18 by daisyeyes

Today was a lesson in stepping out, bravery, humility and ignoring the voices of doubt.
I’ve participated in group sales a few times previously, but this weekend was the first time I had participated in a large event. Like a bring your own tent, set it up and make it look nice and then watch people come in and look over your stuff.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been furiously building up stock, figuring out what to sell and how much to price things. I’ve been figuring out things like sales tax and what to say to people when the ask about certain things and how to “sell” yourself. But nothing, nothing preps you for how to handle the barrage of people who might walk into your booth, glance at your stuff and then walk out.

Today was a lesson in being free and courageous. My personality loves etsy. I have time to respond to people’s requests. I will more than likely never have to see the person that I might have rolled my eyes at. And I don’t have to sell myself with my personality…I just have to do it with photos and the words I write.
So.much.safer.

So, today was successful in an emotional way (sadly not a monetary way). It forced me to see something through. To keep climbing this crazy trying to start a business learning curve that never stops. It forced me to step waaaay out of my comfort zone and to stop listening to the voices of doubt. Because my worth is not in how many people bought (or didn’t) stuff. Whether I’m “doing the right thing” with this path I’m on isn’t dictated by how many people walked into my booth.

I’m proud of what I’m doing. I’m convinced that I’m doing what our gracious God would have me do and I’m thankful. I’m thankful for opportunities to stretch myself, but also beyond thankful for the security of my home.

learning to sew

Posted on 2013/05/15 by daisyeyes

Once upon a time I had a vision of these great little embroidery kit’s for kids. I would use my felt scraps and my sewing machine to create a eco-friendly, washable and reusable set of sewing “cards”. They were pretty good sellers and as whole I got some good feedback on them. But they were crazy labor intensive, I wasn’t too excited about the felt bag and I knew that I could make them a little easier for me to put together and a lot more fun.

I’m excited to finally share my new children’s learn to sew/embroider kits!

They still come in two different versions: a girly pink and an anything goes blue. But now they come with a little tote style bag with these amazing hand drawn instructions that are sewn into the bag with a ribbon…so you will always have them with you. A huge thanks goes to my friend Caryn for her amazing drawing (and she has a super awesome blog that you need to check out!)

Each starter kit comes with a tote bag with instructions, yarn, a blunt tip needle and a set of shape sewing cards.

Each felt “card” is pre-basted and pre-punched for your child (or you!) to sew up through the holes and practice following a pattern and get the rhythm of up and down. The biggest hurdle for anyone learning to sew is merely achieving the up from the bottom and down through the top motion. These cards provide that practice in a fun and easy way.

In addition to the starter kits, there are two other add-on kits that can be ordered: a set of animals and a set of holiday themed cards.

For now, these sets will only be available locally at the farmer’s market in Knoxville and the art market in Maryville. They will be available on etsy during my grand “reopening” at the end of July.

little bit of stitching

Posted on 2013/05/07 by daisyeyes

One major change I’ve made in my schedule the last few months is to dedicate at least an hour in the afternoon to embroidery. It has been my hour of quiet (well kind of quiet as I’ve been sucked into watching the old tv show Alias) before I go bring the kiddos home from school. The question is how will I manage this time when they are at home this summer!?

Anyhow, it’s been a huge gift to myself and in that I’ve been able to accomplish so much more embroidery than previously. Here are a few glimpses of some things I’ve been able to finish the last few weeks…

Our elementary school has themes for their classrooms for grades preschool through second and my chick shares a class with two teachers (and subsequently two themes). They are the Cliffords and Nemos. I made these banners for their end of the year teacher gifts.

It was fun to stitch something so different than the traditional banners I’ve been making.

Next up I’m making some smaller embroideries for some pendants, ornaments and more to sell at the Farmer’s Market this season. Here is a glimpse at the little ballerinas

I love stitching small, detailed things like this. It stretches me as an embroiderer and also is as close to painting a picture as I’ll ever get!

I finished another version of the THINK before you speak pattern. This is an aqua version, custom designed for a client.

I made a new version of my French themed banners. This time the client requested the words “joyeux anniversaire” in black and white. I really love how it turned out.

That’s about it for now. I’m rolling out a new Scripture themed embroidery hopefully soon with all the fruits of the Spirit, a smaller version of the Sarah Williams quote from The Astronomer poem and a couple of new custom embroideries too.

Happy Tuesday and happy stitching!

Random shots

Posted on 2013/04/24 by daisyeyes

I’ve slowly been working on our master bathroom. Here’s the before post and here is a sneak peek after I exchanged a few mirrors in the house and finally got it painted.

I’m learning the hard way that it’s all about the right tools. Being married to a carpenter, woodworking handyman you think I would just know this but alas I don’t. Today I was introduced to the Clover version of a water soluble tracing pen for embroidery. It. Is. The. Bomb. Like totally amazing; I don’t know where this pen has been all my life kind of amazing. Go buy one fast. I got mine at Michaels and I think I’m going to go buy some more.

This silly wedding cake topper is stretching my brain cells. Nothing like messing with a few hours worth of embroidery and hoping that you can salvage something out of it. This is where I’m at with it as of today. Still not a finished product. Ugg.

My yoga teacher has this sticky note in her bathroom that drives me crazy. It points people to the trash can where people should throw their reusable drying washcloths. Every time I sit in there doing my business I have this great embroidery design in my head. Yesterday I finally sat down and made it. I love it.

Sometimes the color requests just don’t work out and we go back to the drawing board. This was the case for this turquoise version of the THINK embroidery. Look for it this summer at the local farmer’s market and maybe an option on etsy soon.

That’s about it for right now. I’ve been crazy busy this month with orders…more in a month than I’ve ever had before. I’m truly blessed and every day humbled by how the Lord has gifted me with the ability to follow a dream.

new banners coming soon!

Posted on 2013/03/27 by daisyeyes

I feel like I’ve been working on these rainbow banners for months! It’s taken me longer than I wanted to get all the numbers sewn for the first three and today I finally had the time to sew the banners…two of them at least! I ran out of bias and had to order some more; from the Netherlands! So it’s not like I’m going to be finishing these tomorrow either! Ugg! Oh well, it helps me figure out how best to list them!

The numbers are embroidered with this really awesome variegated thread. I just love how it turned out. The pennants are made from eco-fi felt scraps (leftover from all my cape sets I do!). They are double layered so it hangs much better than just a single layer felt pennant and is more durable.

Obviously you can see which one I didn’t get done! I am Two is coming up as soon as my sweet package from Europe arrives!

The little banner is just that: a mini banner perfect for high chairs, the backs of chairs (think a new way to do place cards!) and coordinates perfectly with the larger banners.

All of these banners should be up in the shop in the next couple of weeks. Buyers will have an option of 3-4 different bias trims for the top along with the specific birthday number they are celebrating.

Coming soon!!!

finished dress

Posted on 2013/03/26 by daisyeyes

Here are some shots of the finished Easter dress…

the dress pattern is Oliver + S’ ice Cream dress which I love.

the embroidery pattern I found via flickr which you can find here.

the blue daisy fabric is a Japanese fabric I bought last year and the yellow dots just came from my stash of hand me down scraps my friends pass on to me

While I love the embroidery and how it turned out, I really love the little button tab and vintage button on the back.

Happy Easter Week!

hello stranger

Posted on 2013/03/19 by daisyeyes

This last month has been a doozy. I feel like I’ve been away from daisyeyes forever and it has been a nice reprieve to pick it back up again; albeit slowly. I’m still technically on call for this interim teaching position so I’m still kind of in limbo until after spring break. After spending nearly 3 weeks back in a classroom, we packed up and drove all the way to Florida to hang out with the Mouse and nearly a bagillion other people. We had a fantastic week and had so much fun, but I was super happy to be back home. I’m slowly becoming more of a fan of instagram and you can see some great pictures from our trip here if you become a follower.

I’ve slowly had a few things in the works for the shop and hope to keep slowly rolling them out over the next few weeks.

First up is this rainbow birthday banner:

I love how these numbers look and can’t wait to get the whole banner completed. The banners will say “I AM ONE” or TWO or THREE etc. You get the picture.

Going along with these rainbow banners is this little mini bunting I made. The letters are all hand embroidered onto mini pennant banners and it makes the perfect little reusable decoration for a high chair, regular chair or anything else you can think of.

These little banners are already in the shop and ready to be made just for you!

Last up is the first of a few different styles of birth announcements. This is the subway style version. It’s all hand embroidered in a cool variety of fonts and fully customized to the specifics of the little dude or chick!

They measure 9×12 and are also in the shop ready to be made just for you! Turn around time for these is about 2-3 weeks.

That’s about it for now. Hopefully I can be back to regular postings in the next week or so…but that proves to be seen just yet.

Off to watch some Alias (yes I’m like 10 years behind the times, but thank goodness for Netflix!)

fantastic friday {2.15.13}

Posted on 2013/02/15 by daisyeyes

Happy Friday everyone! Valentine’s Day has come and gone and our Valentine’s gift was the stomach bug. We’ve all weathered it in different ways and sadly it effected the husband the worst. I’m really thinking that a sick husband is worse than a sick child! Anyhow, hopefully we are all on the mend and can have our make up special heart day breakfast and dinner sometime this weekend. That said, it’s time to start thinking spring and Easter!

great FABRIC: I recently discovered a new fabric shop on etsy called Westwood Acres. I just love the fabric sets she puts together!

to whet your APPETITE: We love potatoes in this house and we also love nachos…this recipe for baked potato nachos seems a perfect fit!

be NEAT (as in organized): Came across this lovely craft room/sewing room on Pinterest as I’m collecting ideas on my future new studio space in the year to come.

a TUTORIAL to do: With Easter coming in a few weeks, I thought I would focus on Easter Basket tutorials: this is what our baskets look like…an easter bunny basket. It was super easy and so fun!

becoming more AWARE: Ash Wednesday was this week and the start of Lent. Ann Voskamp has a lovely family Lent guide with pictures of the life of Jesus from different artists. This is on our list this year.

something to SEW: Sew Liberated just revealed their newest patterns and oh! how I swoon over these! I really love all of them!

to TRIM my house with: We will make our Easter tomb this weekend and set up our seeds of kindness on the table. Stay tuned to the blog in the coming weeks for more details as we continue and add to these family traditions.

ILLUSTRATION to stitch: One of my goals this year is the make an embroidered version of one of these thumbprint trees. This is another example of a printed one I found this week.

CUTE: This tutorial for these little nesting dolls is super cute!

Have a happy weekend!!!

New Year, New/Old Mixed Media with Stitches Contest Entry

Posted on 2013/02/04 by daisyeyes

I’ve been busily stitching away the last few weeks on my entry into this awesome embroidery contest. One of my goals this year is the really participate more in online embroidery stuff. There is an amazing community of embroiderers out there and it’s been so fun to “meet” so many of them.

The contest had three different entry options and I chose the one where you had to embroider but also add some mixed media elements. The other rule was that you had to use a vintage embroidery pattern.

I made the little book out of some cardstock and vellum paper. I used a sewing machine to stitch the binding and then hand embroidered the book to the actual embroidery. The felt heart was stitched down with some lace behind it. The little shoes are actually a jewelry charm.

The baseball was a button actually in my stash (crazy) and I’m totally in love with the field of beaded flowers and the house is probably my favorite of all. The trees were stitched pretty much by sight and were one of those things that I hated them while I was stitching them, but once they were all done I loved them. I had hoped to originally make a thatch roof on the house with some wood, but it didn’t work out. Oh well.

I stitched the little doll onto some muslin backed with felt which gave it a stiffness. She is also one my favorites!

The flowers are from the wedding section at Hobby Lobby and I made the little flower holder with some scrap white cotton and stitched some lace across the top and stitched it together.