Not only are some of them super cute (my daughter is asking for a mushroom one) – most of them don’t look too time consuming either.

So here you go… a list of 60+ Free Pincushion Patterns from Tipnut!

P.S. The winner of the monthly gift certificate and sewing pattern giveaway (September 2010) is Shannon S from British Columbia. Congrats Shannon!

Thank you to Kristie over at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder who put together a step by step tutorial for making these fabric necklaces – my job is now much much easier as I don’t have to go hunting for instructions come November (I hope that’s enough time to make about 10 of them – I think it might be!).

Kristie also has a few other tutorials that look like they will end up on my “To Make” list (when the holidays are over – because I like to keep the stress to a minimum around holiday time ).

If you haven’t visited the OCD blog yet, do take some time out this week to drop by.

*HINT: There’s a coupon code, a Pink Panda Fabrics and a pouch giveaway over there! Just sayin’.

Have a great weekend, friends!

Brooke of All Things Thrifty has a tutorial up on her blog about how to make a fabric headboard.

Fabric Headboard Tutorial by All Things Thrifty

Looks somewhat simple enough for one person to do (although I may need a bit of help from someone – hint to the husband!) to mount the pieces oh the backer board.

Have you ever done this sort of thing? Made a non traditional (for example, non metal / non wood headboard)?

Not sure about your kids, but ours LOVE arts and crafts. Maybe because they see their moms scrapbooking, card making, taking photos, sewing and constantly in the “craft room” of our homes when we have a bit of down time? Or maybe it’s just the crafty gene we’ve passed onto them?

At any rate, we came across Craft Caravan and thought it was an awesome concept. Monthly delivery of craft kits for kids? Just brilliant!

For a monthly fee, they do the shopping, put together the instructions for parents to supervise or provide some extra guidance and then mail it out to your kids at the end of the month.

Makes us moms (and dads) less stressed out gathering supplies, coming up with an original craft activity and trying to keep the kids away from using our craft supplies (not that stickers, ribbon and fabric can’t be used for their craft projects – just not the really GOOD stuff ).

These kits will definitely come in handy on rainy days, days when they don’t have school or any snow days they have in the upcoming colder months (there’s bound to be some in Canada!).

More fab finds to come. If you have any projects, websites or tutorials you’ve come across that would be useful for fabric lovers (or crafty types in general), please feel free to share them with us!

This time its for fabric fortune cookies.

Fabric Fortune Cookies - Sweetspot.ca

Chantal Simmons of sweethome has a step by step tutorial on how to make these cookies.

They are just too cute! Too bad they’re not edible (yup, I’m a foodie!).

Thanks Chantal!

And for those who are foodies like myself, she has a few food projects on her blog. Including Cake Pops.

Yum. Probably shouldn’t be surfing for these things before dinner time….

My husband and I started a little flower garden (ok more like a patch) in the front yard and we’re looking for a place for a big vegetable garden. I suppose it might be a bit late to start but we’re still gonna try to grow some tomatoes this year. And eggplant.

Fabric Covered Flower Pots tutorial by Lavendar and Limes

Anyways, for those looking for a no sew project and are into gardening, Lavendar and Limes has a tutorial for fabric covered flower pots

Beautiful aren’t they? They’d be great as centrepieces at a baby shower and an outdoor garden dinner party or afternoon tea party. Happy Mod Podging (is that a real word? Ah well… you know what I mean!)

Here’s her step by step tutorial on how to make a hanging book holder.

Best thing about this is that it doesn’t take up floor space like a traditional book shelf does. We need all the floor space we can get in our daughter’s room.

If you have a tutorial you’d like to share, send us a link and we’ll post it as soon as we can.

I started reading other people’s blogs while I was nursing my daughter (what else is there to do at 3am in the morning?) and fell in love with many of them. My list has grown over the past year and a bit and now I’m so addicted I spend a good chunk of my morning reading them all. LOL. Most of the posts are short so it doesn’t take up a lot of my time like a novel would (did I tell you I’m only half way through the last book of the Twilight series? I started that in February!) and many are easy to relate to as it’s about crafting, motherhood, working from home etc.

The addiction is so bad that sometimes I want to email the writers and say “Please, WRITE MORE! Do you think it would be too much to write 2x a day?” HA HA HA. Many of the blogs I follow are written by people living on the West Coast so every day around noon I go and check up on them to see if there’s a new post. Seriously… I’m a blog stalker!

By queenvanna creations

I’m in love with the way people write, the stories they share, and the pictures they post. It’s so inspiring – I kinda wish I was a better writer and photographer. Maybe one day when I have time to take a course or two.

So here is a brief list of what I read daily (more to come in future posts):

Lisa Leonard Online – I love the way she writes about her family and how she makes everyday things like having a cup of coffee so much fun

Keeping it real in the suburbs – Photos and captions are too cute for words. Well written and inspiring. Many of Amber’s posts make me laugh out loud. It helps too that she used to love 90210 and MC Hammer. 

My Cakies – I’ve mentioned this blog before and I had to mention it again. Ruby Ellen is a talented designer, photographer and awesome mom who is going to welcome baby #3 in a few months.

OK so those are my 3 blogs for today. I’ll be sharing more in future posts (and hopefully they won’ t all be from West Coast writers – just so happens that these 3 work are situated there!).

What do you like to read? I don’t think Google Reader has a limit so let me know what I should add to it!

P.S. I would like to have a blogroll somewhere on this page but I’m not sure how to organize 30+ blogs! Do you?

Imagine how excited I was when I met Michelle on Twitter and found out about her new company, Cloud 9 Fabrics. I finally found a company that was designing a gender neutral healthy fabric collection for children! Finally an organic fabric collection with designs kids would love (and parents too)! Gone are the days when organic cotton means plain beige / neutral coloured fabric — that’s all Google returned when I tried searching for “organic cotton fabric”.

We are so happy to be carrying the full line of their premier collection, My Happy Garden. It’s set to arrive in September so hopefully I’ll have the newsletter up and running to let everyone know. Don’t worry, there will be an announcement on the main page as well

We are constantly on the hunt for modern eco friendly products to bring to the store so if there’s anything you’d like to see, feel free to drop us a line.

To a happy, healthy planet!

No, you will DEFINITELY not see a photo of me from the 1980s posted here.

The one thing that I remember about the 80s (aside from NKOTB – yes, I was and still am a huge fan and call waiting – best invention ever when you are a 10 year old girl and you HAVE to talk on the phone with your grade 5 friends about annoying boys and other ways to style your hair) is the Polaroid camera.

 I remember begging my parents to get one for me. What’s not to like? Take a photo and it gets processed instantly! I never did get one (got a 35mm instead as film for those were cheaper than Polaroid film) and now that I’m older and maybe a bit wiser (husband likes to challenge that statement from time to time) I think I’m finally ready for one and I can afford it.

Yes, I know we have digital cameras that have much better picture quality and picture programs that can “Polaroid”-ize your photos for you but there’s something fun about having a vintage Polaroid camera. I don’t want to edit my photos to have the faded yellow / blurry effect and would rather be suprised by what the camera produces.

Along with sewing, I love to scrapbook. Hence the reason why I’m on the hunt for a working Polaroid camera. I want to create my daughter a photoalbum of Polaroid pictures because it’s something “different” and hopefully something she will cherish. And ok, maybe she’ll think I’m cool when she’s 10 yrs old because I have an antique camera (it’s either she thinks I’m cool, or really old. I’m hoping for cool.)

Photo by Arthur Smokes

What’s the reason behind this 80s Polaroid camera madness? Ruby Ellen of mycakies blog also has another blog – 52 weeks of polaroid which I am totally in love with even though there aren’t many posts — just a collection of photos. I love the pictures she’s taken so far and find myself always looking forward to the next week to see what’s next. Ruby is an amazing photographer, inspiring writer and talented craftster (I recently bought a felt crown from her store for Pink Panda and she loves it!).

So it begins.. the hunt for a working camera and some film. My tweeps have been telling me that Polaroid has stopped manufacturing film so now I’m debating whether or not I should get a camera or just give in and use a software program… although it’s kinda fun having pictures with that thick white border around it!

Any other 80s fans out there? What do you think? Worth the money or is the camera just going to collect dust on the bookshelf?

P.S. Yes I know I promised to write about my classes at The Sewing Studio and I will! I’ll show pics of the tote bag and apron I made. Turned out ok for a newbie!

P.P.S There are many new things arriving in September and I’ll be doing a post about it soon. Stay tuned!