Handcrafted Flair

Etsy.com might just be my new favorite online hangout site. After perusing through several homemade items from throw pillows to handmade fabric flowers I fell in love. Thousands of designers gather together under one domain to share their love for creativity and craftsmanship. I first discovered this site when Emma + Ivy was created by two Lincoln designers. Since then they've launched their own website and have begun selling within boutiques around the star city.

Here are a few items I'm considering purchasing...

The creator of this pillow used silk dupion to create the layout and then used ribbon embroidery to create the ruffles. This designer comes from Pune, India and is in favor of creating customized pillows to meet her consumer's needs.

Enticing Materials

It caught my eye from afar: Pottery Barn's Red Coral Decorative Pillow. Spotted: dead center.

The rolled strips of cotton poplin sprinkled with pearls creates an original design with killer texture. Pottery Barn's designers successfully turned a frugal white pillow into a work of art.

'Sew' It Begins

For Christmas I was graced with the presence of a Singer Esteem II sewing machine under the Larson family tree. Over the past year I've had a notion to pick up an estranged hobby, sewing. I am bound and determined in 2010 to get back to my old seamstress ways. With time on my hands and ideas at mind I might just become a sewing "machine" (pun intended).