Daily Drop Cap

I ran across Daily Drop Cap this past week. Have you heard about it? It's a blog/website run by typographer/illustrator Jessica Hische. Each workday she posts a new initial cap that she has designed/hand-crafted just for the enjoyment of her readers. The extra cool thing is that she gives you the html code so that anyone can use them in their blogs.


ust in case you want to see some examples.

ere are a few of my favorites.




wesome, right?!

Thanks to Jessica for sharing her creativity with everyone. Hope you find some good initials to use in your blogging life. :)

J Squirrel

Crafting *Live*

That's right, we're crafting *live*. While looking over my daily craft blogs I found a quick project my roommate and I could do while flipping between the Braves game and 16 and Pregnant on MTV....yeah, the two shows don't really go together...

Anyways...recycled t-shirt bangles from Little Blue Boo!

1 cut strips of knit/jersey

2 braid strips together

3 sew ends together once braid is long enough to fit your wrist

4 tie a piece of coordinating fabric around edges to hide stitches

Ta-da! Fun, recycled bracelets. Make a lot. We think it's better to have more than one together. :) Please excuse the fuzzy iphone pics...and the computer camera photo...

Nighty night Everybody!
J Squirrel and Allie

Wottle Bottle

I think we all know that I LOVE Orla Kiely. I was checking out her site again this evening to come up with some birthday present suggestions for my friends and family. Apparently I'm a "hard person to shop for". Soooo, I'm drooling over some of her leather bags (holy, moly they are expensive!) and then I click over to the kitchen section. What do I find?

A Wottle Bottle!!

And it's only 8 pounds (UK dollars, not lbs.) I immediately add it to my cart and start checking out...but, then comes the shipping...
35 pounds!!!!!

What?? No way! There is NO WAY that it costs that much to send a lightweight plastic bottle from the UK to Georgia. Trust me, I know shipping rates. It's kind of what I do.

So, what did I do next?

What every good shopper/retail-aholic does. I "ebay-ed" it. Found "it" brand new for about $10. I'm a little curious to see if it's real...hoping it is, but won't be disappointed if it's not.

I'll let you know how my search for the Wottle Bottle comes out. Part of me wants it just because of the name. Wottle bottle. Hehe. :)

Have a lovely evening!
J Squirrel

Craft Day

A few weeks ago I hosted a craft day for some friends. The goal being that each friend would leave with a new shirt stemming from this nautical bib top tutorial from Made by Lex. I forgot to take pictures...but Catherine of Asian Cajuns has a lovely little post written up about our crafting morning.

Here is the shirt Catherine made:

AND...
here is the shirt that I made:

I started with a scoop neck shirt and added on a 'bib' with two layers of pleated fabric. It was a super quick shirt to make and the scariest part was sewing knit onto knit! I've got the hang of it now! :)

The thing I like the most about our shirts is that they end up being in the same color family. Mine are gray/black and Catherine's light/dark pink. I'm a fan of working with like colors at the moment. When you do that, you can tell that there is something going on with the shirts, but it's not super obvious and the texture is what really clues you in that it's more than just a plain shirt.

Another craft day is in the works. This time focusing on jazzing up a pair of old summer sandals. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Night,
J Squirrel

Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Boyfriend!

Ok, so his birthday was yesterday, but Friday I surprised him with a cake! Not just any old cake...a cakewich! A cake that looks like a sandwich. Here is the idea/tool I used:


Here was my implementation:
It's a white cake with peanut butter frosting and nutella! Yum-O! For the peanut butter frosting I mixed buttercream frosting with some peanut butter. It was so tasty and fed way more people than I thought it would. I would recommend using a pound cake mix if you decide to try it out. My cake started cracking because I didn't get the bottom of the top layer flat enough and the cake wasn't strong enough to hold it's own weight.

It was super easy to make. I highly recommend that you try it out. They give you a recipe to use, but I think the next cake I do will be a mixed layers, ice cream cake...mmmmmm...

Night night!
J Squirrel

Easter Skirt

Easter has come and gone, but my Easter skirt will last a long time! I had the grand idea to make myself a new skirt just a few days before Easter. I based "my design" off the Paperbag Skirt from Made by Lex. I'll say "my design" because I saw the one she made and had to figure out how to make it myself since she didn't give instructions or a pattern. :) My skirt ended up a little different than hers, but I was quite pleased with it. So, here is the Paper Bag skirt from Made By Lex: And here is my version worn on a sunny Easter day in GA: I tried not to copy the whole outfit...but the white tank top looked the best with the skirt. I changed it up by wearing cute magenta, peep toe heels. :) My skirt is made out of a Linen Chambray...I have no idea what that means. It looks like linen, but doesn't wrinkle as easily as linen does which is nice.

The one thing I couldn't figure out was how she got the paper bag effect around the waist. I tried cinching the waist with the belt/tie, but it never ended up looking nice and even...so I ended up sewing big pleats into the skirt. Not quite the same, but it won't fall off if the tie comes undone. :) The only thing I still need to do is add a lining, but for now I'm waiting to find a cute cotton fabric to use.

So, what do you all think? I was quite pleased with it! I'm so happy I found the Made by Lex blog. She's gives me such good inspiration for sewing and crafting. :) Hope you're all having a great weekend. I'll have a fun birthday cake to show you tomorrow.

Til next time, J Squirrel

In the bathroom

How absolutely fantastic are these shower curtains?!?!?!!
I am totally in love with them both and just wished they did not cost so much at Anthropologie. I have half a mind to try making my own....

I'll let you know if that project gets off the ground.
Nighty night,
J Squirrel

Peasant Blouse

Found the idea for this shirt on Made by Lex. The shirt used to be a man's dress shirt, but after an hour of ripping out seams, cutting, sewing, and threading elastic...a lovely peasant blouse is what was left. :)I was a tad bit impatient and went ahead and wore my shirt one day without ironing it...and I think I even see a thread still hanging off the sleeve...

Soon I'll have pictures of my latest project. A paper bag skirt that I'm going to wear for Easter. No, it's not made out of a paper bag. You'll see where it gets the name when I show you the picture. :)

Toodles,
J Squirrel