[Don't miss the free download at the bottom of this post!]

Last week, I hinted at a special collaboration I have been working on with one of my favorite fabric people.  Today, I am super excited to announce that I have been working on some fun tutorials with Kelly of superbuzzy!  As many of you know, I have been a huge superbuzzy fan for a long time, so I was honored to be able to create some free tutorials for all of you Japanese fabric fans.  (Of course, any project where the postman shows up with a box full of Japanese fabric and accessories is a dream project in my book!)

For our first collaboration, we came up with an adorable Zakka Lunch Kit.  The tutorial includes all of the instructions to make a bento bag (above) and a sandwich wrap that folds out to a place mat (below).  The projects are beginner-friendly, but we’ve included some nice finishing details so that they will hold up against rough-and-tumble little ones and frequent trips through the washing machine.  I know a lot of us are thinking green these days — so I love that these fabric bags and bento boxes help cut down on all of the lunch time trash.  (It doesn’t hurt that the projects are seriously cute, too!)

After you sew up these projects, you may want to take a look through the superbuzzy shop.   I am loving these mushroom clips and magnets!  (I also heard a rumor that there might be some new Echino goodies!)  Maybe you’d even like to try your hand at making cute bento-style lunches.  superbuzzy has some cute bento books (in English!) that show you how.  I was inspired to give it a try too.  Here’s my little hedgehog sandwich:

We had so much fun putting this one together that we’re going to be making this a monthly thing.  So I hope you’ll visit us again to see what we have in store for Halloween!

Click here to download the Zakka Lunch Kit tutorial!

And you can always find the free superbuzzy patterns right here on the free pattern page.  We hope you enjoy!

I finished it!  The picnic blanket is done.  I am wrapping up my last two projects for the DIY Picnic for Two.  I have just one more project to share with you, and then we’ll call it complete.  I am planning to savor all of this hard work this weekend, soaking up some of the lingering warm weather with a nap on the grass.  I thought about all of the nice quilters I know as I worked on this project, and I kept wondering how they stay awake long enough to finish.  Several times the blanket just looked so enticing, I wanted to nap instead of sew.  (The pins kept me alert.)

As I wrestled through the final steps of this picnic quilt yesterday, I thought back to how casually I had put “sew patchwork picnic blanket” on my list.  This project was not hard per se, just time consuming as these things can be.  The finished blanket is 56″ x 64″.

I am not going to share any advice on doing this project since there are more qualified people to do that.  I consider this one to be more of a show and tell.  However, here are the specs for the curious: The finished squares are 8″ wide, and the back is a black fleece.  Since this is a picnic blanket, I did not use any batting.  I decided to use the backing as a wrap-around binding as well.

I ran into all of the problems you might expect with the fleece stretching and generally misbehaving, but I think it turned out ok.  I think it will be just perfect for days at the park.

More soon… Hope your week is going well!

It’s that time of year again, and the school supplies are calling to me.  Like clockwork, September 1st rolls around, and I start having daydreams of homework planners and brand new pink erasers.  Even when I worked in an office, I tried to find an excuse to buy new supplies in the fall.  (Is there any fresher start than a new notebook?)

This year, I have signed up for a few classes.  After I got over the sticker shock, I let out a huge sigh of relief.  When you are trying to start up your own business or switch careers, it can be a little tiring to be the one in charge all the time.  I am always researching and reading books, but I am excited to hand over that baton for a few hours each week and admit that I do not actually know the answers to everything.  (I know my family is going to print out this post and ask me if I really just wrote that sentence.)  I am hoping some hours of instruction will help me in those dangerous places where I know just enough to get me into trouble.  So I am going to be taking the Blogging Your Way course over at Decor8 as well as some pattern making classes at the Sewing Arts Center.

Of course, just signing up has already brought out all of my Hermione-ish tendencies.  I have a notebook with a list of questions, and class hasn’t started yet.  I am going to try very, very hard not to be the annoying girl in class.  Wish me luck.

Happy Monday!  This weekend, I got to cross another item off of my decorating to do list.  My husband helped me hang some art over my sewing desk in the studio/office.  This morning felt a little bit like Christmas.  It was so nice to be greeted with some fun punches of color in this room.

[Clockwise from Left: a chalkboard made from everyone's favorite Ikea frame, my DIY cuckoo clock, a squirrel tray by iBride, and a framed portion of a letter I once received on the most amazing paper (see below for close-up).]

The Back of a Happy Letter, now Art:

As usual, I have a tendency to over complicate things like this.  I had gone to great lengths to gather all of the possible pieces that could go in that spot, and even went so far as to make a mock up in Illustrator to help with placement.  In the end, we went with a much more organic method (hang the giant frame first and then eyeball the rest) – and I think it worked.  It’s a less dense arrangement than I had originally planned — and I think that’s a good thing.

My crazy over-the-top plan:

I’m fairly sure I’ll add to this display area over time, but I like to live with design decisions for a little while first.  This is a difficult area to photograph, but here is a shot of the desk and wall.  (Confession: I did not photograph any of the piles of stuff that ended up on the floor so I could take a picture of a clean desk.)

As usual, I had to move aside lots of secret projects.  Thank goodness for storage.  The big gray wardrobe (with Anthropologie knobs) might be the smartest purchase I’ve ever made.

Ok, anyone else with decorating projects they’ve been putting off?  I’d love for you to join me as I tackle one tiny, little spot at a time.  Hope you have a great week!

Oh my, I can’t believe how late it is.  I had planned to pop in here much earlier, but every project I picked up today took 8 times longer than I’d expected.  Isn’t that how it goes sometimes?  Anyway, I just wanted to say Hi.  I’m still here – working away.  If you want, you can pretend that these are the pictures of the finished picnic blanket I planned to show you today.  If I squint my eyes, I can almost see it.

Unfortunately, I’ve already made plans to sit on this picnic blanket tomorrow, so I may have to just keep on working.

Wishing you the best of weekends.  Take care, Kelly