ModernMom.com asked me for a little tutorial for their "crafternoon" series. I don't have any kids, but I know some moms, so maybe that qualified me? I sent over an easy stenciled tote bag project. Head over there for the instructions. P.S. Happy Halloween!
Say hello to my new chair. This guy has been sitting in the corner, all done except for those armrests, for several weeks. That's because someone got scissors-happy when cutting out the seat cushions and forgot to leave enough fabric for the arms. And someone's husband graciously stopped at IKEA last night and purchased the required quarter yard of SaraLisa. What a guy.
Above is the original chair I bought at Jubilee Furniture. I have a thing for chrome these days. Ooo, shiny! But sad fabric. This chair sort of reminds me of a walker, but I'm okay with that. When I'm 80, I'll have coordinating furniture.
This chair was way easier than the Steelcase business. Essentially two pillowcases for the seat and the back were stapled shut at the bottom.
I added more batting to plump it up a little and cover the disintegrating foam, then used the old covers as a template for cutting the new fabric. I sewed up the new pillowcases, stuffed the chair pieces into them, and stapled them shut again. Of course that covered up the old screw holes in the wood frame, so I had to poke all along the sides of the chair with a needle* to find them again. Then I cut little slits in the fabric with an Xacto knife and screwed the seat and back to the frame.
The arms were the easiest—I detached the old pieces, sprayed some adhesive* to the new fabric, and wrapped it around the old armrests. Snapped them back on, replaced the screws, and we're in business.
A humorous website I just came across via the Huffington Post: "Is It Old" will tell you whether the exciting new link you've stumbled on has already made the rounds of the internet. Of course I immediately entered the URL of the website itself, just to see if it would spontaneously combust. Turns out sharing a link to Is It Old is always "mad fresh." Of course it is. 
Want to thrill the kids with creepy Halloween treats? Hostess with the Mostess is offering a huge array of well-designed labels for gross party food. (Well, gross, but not as gross as this. Shudder.) Get jar and candy labels here and drink labels and flags here.
Free, printable recipe cards and patterned dividers are available from Love Vs. Design. These might be useful for sharing recipes with friends or whipping up a nifty wedding shower gift in a recipe box.
In a burst of festivity, I decided we should have some Halloween decorations in the house. Something 1) dramatic, 2) super cheap, and 3) didn't require me to go to the store. Behold: trash bag spiderwebs. 
To make these, lay a trash bag out flat. Trim off the sides and bottom so you're left with two big rectangles of plastic. Cut each piece into an approximate square (eyeballing it is fine.) 
If winging it makes you nervous, use a black Sharpie to sketch some guides on the plastic: draw a "stem" from the folded point out to the end of your triangle. Then sketch some scallops that come off the stem. With a scissors, cut out the negative shapes and unfold your web. Tape several webs together and add extra strips of plastic to connect them if you like.
You and the kids can print and assemble cute (and free!) Halloween goodies, compliments of the generous people of the internet. Get a massive "Boo"-themed party set by Love Party Printables, featured at Catch My Party. Or make paper Frankensteins by Bob Canada. Find a Halloween treat box template from Draw! Pilgrim—the link is at the bottom of Pilgrim's post.
Test your graphic design skills with Kern Type. "Kerning" is the practice of adjusting the spacing between characters, evenly balancing the negative space for an attractive result. If you imagined that your company's logo designer plucked a pretty little icon out of the air, typed the company name next to it, and called it a day, think again! The characters in each word are nudged around to achieve perfect visual balance. (If the designer was a pro, that is.) Give it a try yourself.
Thank you to those of you who have kindly reported spotting my fabric designs out and about. Since I license designs to other companies to print, I have no way of knowing which customers buy the finished yardage from them and make it into fabulous things. Like clothing—check out the adorable raincoats by Widgeon Kids at Zappos.
How about bridesmaid dresses? Here's some Outside Oslo in the shape of skirts, spotted in pictures of Molly and Patrick's wedding at Green Wedding Shoes. This photo is courtesy of Jeremy Lawson, a Chicago-area wedding and portrait photographer with an impressive body of work. (Need a photographer? Look him up!)
If you like posters with inspirational quotes, download these 11x17 freebies. Get a list of Gandhi's "fundamentals for changing the world" here from Francesca Ramos, or many words from the late Jack Layton here, by Stuart Thursby.
The Lost Type Co-op is now offering Ribbon, a geometric display typeface that resembles... ribbon. As with all fonts at Lost Type, you can name your price and download instantly (enter zero for a freebie). If you chip in $30, you'll get a lovely specimen book with contributions from a dozen designers mailed to you. I'm doing it.
Wet-fold realistic 3D bats for Halloween! Michael LaFosse has a video demonstration at the Peabody Essex Museum's origami site. To get to the bat video, click "Fold more models," then "Origami Now" and you'll see the "Happy Goodluck Bat." (They will ward off the zombies and vampires that might try to get you.) Click the bat picture. 
Sharpie is promoting their stuff and sent over a box of goodies, including the newish Stained by Sharpie fabric markers. These have brush tips so you can make very fine lines or use the side of the pen for slightly broader strokes. They're definitely best for small areas, not large fields of color.
The markers did bleed a bit on the 7 oz. cotton canvas I used for this zipper-zipper pouch. I learned from testing on some scraps that colored areas will likely look scribbly, so on this pouch I went with it. (Click to see it bigger.) If you're looking for perfectly even coverage, this probably isn't your product. Colors can be layered, which will get you a darker, more vibrant look, but your drawing will still appear a bit sketchy. Good for free spirits. Bad for repressed, control-freak designers who like crisp, graphic shapes (um... me). But fun to test! Full disclosure: I was too lazy to illustrate my own zipper, so I Googled "zipper diagrams" and copied one.
Something that's not revealed on the package is that the yellow, orange and pink markers are neon like highlighters—I wish my photos captured that better. The other colors are normal. I haven't tried washing anything yet, but the package states that ink resists fading on most fabrics during normal wash cycles.
These are my marching orders for today. This applies to every single item on my to-do list, including continuing work on a branding project, a DIY chair makeover, a small alteration to a bridesmaid dress, and my laundry. Get iPhone, iPad, and desktop wallpaper versions of Andrew Power's "Make It Look Nice" design right here.
You may have noticed a recent burst of giveaways around here—the last of the bunch is today's from Drygoods Design. Drygoods offers pretty fabrics for sewing and crafting, custom order and ready-to-buy items including pillows and baby bedding, plus nifty packaging supplies like bags and twine. 
Win $75 of goods!
If you're someone who loves to hate Comic Sans, the casual script released by Microsoft in 1994, you'll like this time-waster. Take out your aggression on floating words and kill Comic Sans. My position on Comic Sans: I dislike it (and other childlike, informal handwriting fonts similar to it), but maybe one day I'll get a project for which it's perfectly suited. So far, that day has not come. Blast away.
This corner in our living room is stupid. There's a rather, um, vintage built-in air conditioner on one wall. There's a big radiator on the floor against the other wall. Apparently it's so heavy that over time, it has caused the floor to slant downhill. Which means the floor lamp that used to stand here leaned like it belonged in a funhouse. I'm all for fun, but it was also the perfect height to block the breeze from the air conditioner. 
We ignored the socket and cord gizmo that came in the lamp kit and used a stand-alone cord and socket that plugs into an outlet. We cut two cardboard circles out of the box the lamp came in. Then we poked a hole in the center of each and added a slit along the radius to fit the cord through. Rotating the bottom circle locked the cord in and we taped them together. We put a bulb in the socket and stuck it inside the shade, then clipped the cardboard circle to the plastic frame. At some point we might get totally crazy and replace the clips with more tape, but this seems to be working just fine.
And of course I couldn't stand the white cord against our mustard walls, so I painted it with leftover wall paint to help it disappear a little better. A couple of small, painted nails bent over the cord secure it to the corner. Kinda crude, but I don't care. I love this light.
Speaking of lamps, helpful blog reader Rachel sent me a tip yesterday. Mod Cloth is selling a table lamp made with the Tulip print from my Outside Oslo fabric collection for The Needle Shop. So cute. And then of course they sucked me in and made me page through their billions of pretty dresses. Confound you, Mod Cloth! 
I quickly found about 30 options that would coordinate with this lamp. So important when buying a dress, you know. It should coordinate with your lamp.
I just bought a white, spherical Fillsta light from IKEA, but if I'd had tons of extra time on my hands, maybe I'd have attempted one of these! Here's a collection of round hanging beauties you can make yourself.
Links to the how-tos:
The ladies and gentlemen of Scout Creative (you might remember them from their previous incarnation, The Curiosity Group) have released another printable calendar of the month. October's build-it-yourself edition features a collection of spooky heads, arms and bodies. Mix and match to make your own hideous little creature. Get it here!
