Free stitched fonts

Need a free font that looks handmade? Try Starry Stitch, Xstitch, Knitfont, or Home Sweet Home.

Design candy

I'm enjoying this site called Share Some Candy. It's a "curated collective of inspiring design finds and art." Pretty cool. And for any designers thinking about starting your own firm, the funny Name My Design Company Machine will help you out. It's inspired by the zillions of design studios who have named themselves after colored animals. Seriously. Just start Googling a color plus an animal plus "design." Red dog. Blue cow. Purple elephant. Try it.

Some little sewing projects

Thank you, peoples of the internet, for supplying instructions for these fun sewing projects.

Market tote bag at Film in the Fridge, pictured left
Felt monster by Nina, pictured right
Binder cover at Lola Again
Tissue box cover at Make It and Love It
Kimono baby shoes by Aimee Larsen
Molly Monkey by Larissa Holland
Spring ruffle top by Rae Hoekstra
Boxy pouch with zipper from Projects By Jane
Wall pocket tote by JCasa Handmade
Stuffed owls from Moonstitches

Friday time-waster

Speaking of kittehs, a totally random tangent. I couldn't stop playing this NomNomNom4Fud game the other night. Brought to you by the folks at I Can Has Cheezburger, you pull a kitten's tail to launch him at food kibbles, and he bounces off stuff like a pinball. Argh, what's wrong with me? If you're new to the world of LOLcats, here are some LOLspeak guidelines to get you started.

Infatuated

I got a kick out of Pussycat, a free font available at dafont.com. It comes in Snickers (regular) and Sassy (italic). Though I detest the star on the uppercase "I." Easily remedied by typing a lowercase "i" instead. I used it on the Craft Social graphics (though I probably should have kerned it better. Shhh.)

New in the shop

Good news, handbag addicts! Buttercup bags in my fabric are now available for purchase in my Etsy shop, with permission from Rae Hoekstra, the genius behind this lovely purse pattern. But I kind of don't want you to buy any of these so I can hoard them all for myself. They're yummy.

Update: All gone! You snatched all of these up in less than 24 hours, so none for me. Boo. But more are in the works.

Studio tour

Hi, everyone. Today I'd like to give you a tour of my state-of-the-art outdoor studio. Exit through our back door, step out onto the stair landing, and look down. There it is, with some work in progress.

The prime location of the studio between two urban residential buildings means it draws a lot foot traffic from pedestrians headed to the laundry room, basement storage areas, and dumpsters in the back. Dogs on leashes gallop over to sniff things, and children on tricycles stop and stare. Not ideal. But if I don't need the studio one day, I'm going to open a Dunkin Donuts in this location and get rich.

The latest studio project was spray painting these plastic planters. They used to be fake terra cotta color. No fun. Hey, manufacturers, news flash: if planters aren't made out of clay, you don't have to make them clay-colored. Lime green is much better, we thought. We applied white spray primer for plastic, then painted with Rustoleum Ultra-Cover Gloss in Key Lime. Now, to plant some flowers and herbs using my state-of-the-art greenhouse facility.