{Lullaby Couture}

Where in the world have I been?

2010-12-28T19:00:00.008-06:00

I've haven't posted a thing since April. I'm sure most of you have long ago given up on me. I wouldn't blame you one bit...Well, it turns out that my husband and I got a little surprise back in April...we found out that we were expecting! We hadn't planned on adding to our family, which already included a 15 year old son and an 11 year old daughter, so this came as a big surprise for us! So much so that while we were excited, we were also very overwhelmed, and I decided to focus on preparing my family for the new addition and put both my blog and my online shop on hold.

Fast forward to present day. I'm due in 4 weeks, and while we still don't have our little baby here with us just yet, I've been put on bed rest due to some complications, so I decided that now would be a good time to share with you the nursery that my family and I built for our soon to arrive baby girl, who we've named Ashton Olivia.

I say that we "built" the nursery because we literally had to start from scratch in the old office, turned guest bedroom, that would become her nursery. We added a studio/office onto our house in January so that we could turn our old office into a guest bedroom, (little did we know it would be for a permanent guest), so we had just hired a painter to put a fresh coat of gorgeous yellow-gold paint on the walls. We quickly decided that regardless of the sex of the baby, the color just would not work for a nursery.

We decided to wait until we knew what we were having to decide on the paint color. We knew what we liked, and what we didn't, and thankfully my husband and I agreed on just about every detail. I knew that I wanted to make the baby bedding myself, so once we found out we were having a girl and we picked out the paint, he sort of stood back and let me take the lead with the decorating. I made sure to run everything by him first, and luckily he liked what I picked out.

We chose a delicate aqua paint color called "Lazy Days" by Valspar. We new that we wanted a pretty nursery, but not an over-the-top pink, frilly, or fussy one. We wanted something that could grow with our daughter so that we weren't overhauling the room again in 2 years. Our son painted the walls, and I must say, he did as good of a job, (if not better), than any professional painter we have ever hired. I was so excited that not only the color turned out beautiful on the walls, but that it was applied by someone who did it for love, not money.

Well, once we had the room painted, we went gang-busters on the rest of it. Thank goodness for my in-laws, who all but completely furnished the room. We bought a crib, an antique armoire and an old dresser that my husband drove over 2 hours to pick up, only to spend another 6 hours with our son refinishing it. Our son painted an old bookshelf that came out of my childhood home and then we added a rocking chair, lamp and nightstand.

All the while this was going on, I was working on the bedding, sweating and fretting about it the whole way through. I am notorious for making my own sewing patterns, so of course, the baby bedding was no exception. I had to be meticulous with my measurements, so I followed my mom's advice to measure 5 times and cut once. It worked. The bedding turned out.

So, without any further blabbering, here is the finished nursery. It was built with love, sweat and maybe even a tear or two. Sometimes I go in there and just sit in the rocker, staring at all the details, remembering what went into each and every one of them. I see the basket of burpers that our 11 year old daughter made all by herself, the old bookshelf from my childhood home, the paint color on the walls, the dresser that was almost not worth all the trouble, and I cannot wait to use it all on the little baby whose arrival we so eagerly await. I hope you enjoy the photos, and I hope you forgive my absence from the blog. I promise, I put the time away to good use! :-)

Retro Cowgirl, Vintage Style....

2010-04-21T21:42:00.001-05:00

I am so excited about the newest designs that are coming together in my studio! Retro cowgirl fabrics with a vintage flair, paired with wonderful shabby rosettes and cotton crochet lace doilies and buttons...I am simply loving these! I hope you do too...XOXOXO~ Laura

Our New Home Office & Studio~~Home of Lullaby Couture

2010-03-25T20:58:00.006-05:00

Finally.... Furniture delivered. Rugs purchased. Everything is squared away. You can still smell the new paint, but somehow it feels like I've been working in this room for years. I have yet to drive a nail into the wall or hang drapes. But I love it. I love everything about it. It's beautiful. It's functional. It's roomy and smart. It's my new design studio....let me know what you think~~Laura

My new Singer Futura Sewing/Embroidery machine. I love this thing. It's very finicky, but if you bend to it's weird little whims, (only a certain brand of thread, for instance), you will love the machine and what it can do. I still have "Old Betsy" my $99 Singer Inspiration, and I still use her. That little lady is a true gem!

I was looking for a creative way to display all of my ribbons, and I wanted them to not only be pretty, but within easy reach when I needed them. I found this vintage style bottle dryer at a local shop on the square for $40. I just love how it looks and everything is visible and easy to get to.

The project table came from World Market and I bought it for a song on clearance! It was the last one left. Lucky!! The orange storage boxes came from The Container Store and I filled them with labeling supplies, sewing notions and hot glue guns. I used inexpensive glass cookie jars for binding tapes, rik rak, buttons and bits and pieces of ribbon. Everything is labled so it's easy to find!

This self and baskets are from Ballard Designs. They hold all of my fabrics quite nicely!

My secretary also came from Ballard Designs. I love the handrubbed finish and I love how you can close it all up if you want so that everything stays nice and neat. Oh, and I got a great deal on the rugs too. I bought two of them on sale at Hobby Lobby and paid less than $50 for both of them!

On top of my secretary I placed our phone charger, a decorative tray, a picture from our trip to San Francisco last summer (one of my favorites) and two old cameras given to me by my Dad. I can't help but look at these things and smile.

The Hubby's Desk. He got a sawhorse desk from Ballard Designs and he loves it. We used a rolling cart from The Container Store to house my "shop ready" garments, as well as our all-in-one copier and bins full of office supplies. Notice the brick walls? That is existing brick from the exterior of our house. It gives the room such a great feel....

Introducing the Spring 2010 Petal Top from Lullaby Couture

2010-03-20T08:52:00.001-05:00

I created this little tunic length top from my very own Lullaby Couture Original pattern using baker's parchment paper. I just love all the little details in this design..It's fresh, yet has a bit of a vintage feel. It will be adorbale with leggings or jeans for Spring or shorts come summertime. I will be offering this top in a few fabric choices, and because it is a Lullaby Couture original pattern, I will only be offering a few pieces per size. Get yours while you can!

I also took these photos using my new camera, and I absolutely LOVE how it takes photos! I can't wait to try it out on just about everything!~~~Laura

Finally! The renovation to our home is complete...

2010-02-28T09:17:00.002-06:00

and we have returned to a bit of normalcy. Whew! I didn't think we would survive another week of the crazy things going on at our house. Construction started the first week of January and ended last Friday. We added a whole new home office/work studio to our house, right off the master bedroom. It is beautiful and it is exactly what we wanted, but the journey to get there was getting downright ugly!

I am a person who needs a clean and orderly house. Dust distracts me. Dirty floors send me into a tailspin. And lets not even bring up clutter lying around. I can't handle it. So, to have our house in such a mess for 6 weeks was almost more than I could bare. How do people do total home renovations? I can't imagine having a home that's under constant construction. We added a new room and painted and old one. I almost needed to be sedated! {Just ask my poor husband, who got to hear all about how the distruption was getting to me on a daily basis!}

Well, I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from start to finish. We've always wanted to turn our old study into a guest bedroom and add a new larger room for both of us to have a workspace. We decided to put the new room right off of our bedroom, leaving the existing exterior brick as one of the walls. We just love how it has a warehouse loft feel. It's a good mix of traditional & industrial with a good pinch of pretty thrown in. And while we have all of our furniture in place, we've yet to hang anything on the walls, so we will post more pictures when that's finished! Let me know what you think~~~~Laura

Weekly Etsy Feature: Half Stitched

2010-02-06T08:25:00.001-06:00

I found a wonderful little shop called Half Stitched on Etsy to feature this week! Alician is a very talented designer, and I just love her little shop. I will be putting her fabulous paperclips on my Birthday wish list! She's also a fellow Texan, which makes me love her shop all the more :) Everyone, meet Alician, owner and designer of Half Stitched! ~~~Laura

In Her Own Words:

I was a store manager for a popular home goods retailer for over 7 years. I was finding myself very unfulfilled and decided to leave. Right around the same time the economy decided to tank. I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place, only being qualified for what I was doing but did not want to do that anymore. So, I decided to return to school and finish my degree. Since I had a lot of time on my hands I started to finally use the sewing machine my mom had gotten a few years back. She had helped me make a dress once but, for the most part I am self taught. I made a few dresses for my nieces and got great feedback on them. A family member suggested I try to sell them and told me about Etsy. I had never heard of Etsy prior to last June. I looked into it and fell in LOVE! Since then it has been completely awesome meeting and reading about other crafters and how they operate. I've really enjoyed putting myself out there. Etsy is always exciting and new and full of great people. Everyday I'm thinking of new ways to grow my business. I would love for it to one day support me, or at the very least pay off my newly acquired school loans :0)

Next on my list of things to tackle is learning how to use my Grandmother's Serger she left me. It's old and in need of a good cleaning but I am excited about the possibilities.

Thanks so much,

Alician

Spring 2010 Beanies Have Arrived!

2010-02-01T21:31:00.002-06:00

I've just finished making my first set of Spring 2010 Beanies! I simply love how they turned out and the colors are so fresh and pretty! Here's a sneak peak! If you would like one of your own, hop over to my shop at http://www.lullabycouture.etsy.com/ and get them before they are gone! I have newborn, infant, toddler & girls sizes! ~~Laura

Time To Play!

2010-01-25T20:57:00.000-06:00

I am so excited about sharing with you one of my new favorite Etsy shops, "Time To Play." This shop is so cute! Who wouldn't want to play with these scrumptious treats? I asked the artist to fill us in on her adorable little bakery, so grab a glass of milk and hurry back! Here's what she had to say:

I'm a stay at home mom to two wonderful little boys who are 2 and 4 months old. I've always loved crafting, and I started making felt food just for fun to see what it would look like. I posted it on a mommy board that I frequent, and from there, my Etsy shop was born! To promote my shop, I visit the promote board on Etsy, and I also have a Facebook Fan page where I offer specials exclusive to my Facebook fans. Here's the link to my Facebook fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Time-To-Play/225648957285?ref=ts

My favorite things to make are ones that my son love playing with. He's my guninea pig...if I can "bake" something and he can tell me what it is when I hand it to him, I know I've created a realistic looking item that will encourage a little one's imagination.

All of her food is "baked to order" and she happily accepts custom requests! Be sure to visit her shop soon..these would make delicous Valentine's Day gifts! http://www.etsy.com/shop/TimeToPlay

XOXOXO~
Laura

Lullaby Couture~~Brick & Mortar Style

2010-01-23T16:56:00.002-06:00

Having posted endless links to my online boutique, I thought I would share with you some photos of my actual boutique, located on the Downtown Square in Historic Granbury, Texas. The shop is called "Artefactz", and carries a large variety of boutique items like purses, handmade jewelry, Texas collectibles and children's clothing. Lullaby Couture does not occupy a very big space, but when you make everything by hand, it can be, well, a handful... Come on in and take a look around...Let me know what you think! ~~ Laura

Hand Made With Love

2010-01-20T11:08:00.004-06:00

I just had to share with you the story of Joyce, a very talented lady that I have had the honor of getting to know recently. About 3 weeks ago, I was looking through Etsy, http://www.etsy.com/, trying to get birthday ideas for my daughter, Brynn. She is about to turn 11, and I wanted to buy her something that she would not only love, but would be able to keep forever and hopefully pass down to her own daughter someday.

I decided that I wanted to buy her a handmade doll. I had no idea what kind, no idea what I was really looking for. The minute that I found Joyce's Etsy shop, Handmade With Love, {www.etsy.com/shop/Twin1656} I knew that I wanted one of her dolls. I contacted her asking about the details and she promptly and thoroughly responded to my message, and together we picked out the perfect doll for my daughter. Within literally a few days, I received an email from Joyce telling me that our doll was on it's way. I cannot stress enough how precious and well made this doll was. As a child, I loved dolls, and when I saw this one, I secretly wanted one for myself!

After we recieved the doll, I asked Joyce if I could feature her in my blog so that my readers could have the opportunity to see her talent. She graciously accepted, and as I requested, sent some information to me about how she started making her adorable "babies." {This is always how she refers to her dolls, and I just love it.} Her story was so sincere and down to earth that I decided to share it with you in her own words. I hope you enjoy reading about this lovely lady and encourage you to visit her shop. She is truly one-of-a-kind, just like her babies. ~~~Laura

P.S.- I couldn't help but laugh at her very last comment about my height. So funny!

Hi Laura,

I am so honored that you want to mention me in your blog. Yes you may mention me and if you want to use any pictures of my babies, feel free to do so. Thank you so much, that is so sweet of you to do this. I have been sewing most of my life. I am the mother of two and grandmother to 3. I started making doll clothes for my daughter when she was little, and during the years when I was an "at home mom", I made clown and bunny dolls to sell at craft fairs. Rudy from the Cosby show has one of my bunny dolls and several years ago when Rudy was maybe a teen or preteen, she was interviewed on a TV program, they showed her home and her bedroom. I was so pleased, because on the front of her bed was sitting Ashley O'Hare, the bunny doll I made her. It must have been her favorite because it was sitting in front of all of her dolls!

When my granddaughter was born, I wanted to make her "safe" baby toys. So two years ago I made my granddaughter a doll, when my grown daughter saw it she wanted one. I just kept getting request for dolls and that is how "Bundles of Joy's" got started. I had never made a soft sculpture doll until I started making them for my granddaughter. The dolls I made when my daughter was little were cloth dolls but they were not sculptured.

If you look at my store banner, you will see the christening dress I made for my granddaughter. I just love to sew, but my favorite thing to do is just to make these little dolls. They are addicting, I just want to sew all the time, thankgoodness I have an understanding husband.

When I first registered on ETSY I was only a buyer. I love old patterns and wanted to add to my collection, especially for clothes for my grandchildren. After I started making my dolls, I realized that ETSY would be the perfect place to start selling them.

Thank you Laura, you are so kind. I looked at your blog, I saw your picture, it looks like you are maybe short like me! I am a twin, and my twin has always been taller than me. But, I married a taller man then she did. My husband is 14 inches taller than me!

Thank you so much, I feel so honored, and I am looking forward to watching your blog.

Joyce

This is my daughter, Brynn, with her new doll! She has named her Katie. Brynn's doll was also the 175th doll that Joyce had made, so she sent her a extra outfit as a surprise!

A Quick Peek

2010-01-17T21:51:00.003-06:00

at what I made today.... This is an order that I finished at the request of my dear friend, Stephanie. She always tells me "just make whatever you want to make" when she orders a shower gift. It's good to know she trusts me.. :) This is from the Riley Blake collection of fabrics and I just love how it all turned out! Let me know what you think... ~~~ Laura

So Many Ideas, So Little Time!

2010-01-17T15:38:00.003-06:00

Ask my husband, Gavin. I have no self control. Cut me loose in a fabric store, a flea market, antique shop or even a garage sale, and I am a dangerous woman. I've learned that the things that I love the most in life, {other than my family, of course}, are the things that have been brought to life with my own two hands, or even better, a loved ones hands. Perhaps this is why I take so much pride in the clothing that I make. Perhaps it's why I can never leave my home alone....I am always sweet talking my hubby into tweaking, moving, painting or rearranging something.

I have yards and yards of fabric that I have yet to do anything with, even though I am constantly sewing something. I simply cannot go by Houston St. Mercantile, our local old-fashioned fabric emporium, without looking through every single bin of fabric and chatting with the wonderful ladies there. I always buy something when I am there. My philosophy is that if I find something I love, I buy it. I can worry about what to do with it later. I have a studio filled to the brim with things that I will find a use for one day. I get so excited the minute I think of a way to improve on something that I have found, or even better, make something completely new and different. It gnaws at me until I attempt it, the ideas dancing around in my head at the most inconvienent times.

Currently, I am digging through magazines, books and catalogs to find ideas on how to decorate our newest project, a brand new studio/office that we are having added to our home. I simply cannot wait for it to be finished so that I can start messing with the decor. I want to blend the beauty of southern charm with industrial warehouse style accessories, I just haven't figured out how yet. But I will. So far, the construction has only gotten as far as removing the existing shrubs and grass from our lawn, but weather permitting, they are pouring concrete tomorrow. I will post pictures as we make progress!

Cupid is on the loose...

2010-01-15T23:56:00.005-06:00

in my studio! It's about a month from Valentine's Day and I am so excited! For me, when January rolls around, my cabin fever rolls in. I am tired of the dead, crunchy, brown foliage. Long gone are the pretty oranges, reds & yellows that you see in Fall. I am over Christmas by this time, having sweet talked the hubby into hoisting those huge awkard boxes back up the ladder and into the attic, and daring any forgotten decoration to show it's face.

Yes, this is Mid-January. Which means we are on the cusp of February, and with that comes something to look forward to! Roses, candy conversation hearts, sweethearts delivering heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, & those cute shoe boxes that our kids decorate for their cards. But in my studio, Valentine's Day brings mounds and mounds of red tulle, red & pink ribbons, and all the other makings of my tutus! Take a peek at one of my favorites! ~~ Laura

Beautiful photos courtesy of Davis & Ashley at http://www.delodigital.com/ They are my photography heroes!

A Cup of Coffee & a $99 Sewing Machine

2010-01-11T20:30:00.003-06:00

Well, I survived my first blog post! I must admit that I was a bit nervous about starting a blog. What would I write about? Who would read it? Who would care about the goings on of my day? Not to mention that I never really even understood the purpose of a blog..... until now. I put it out there and it was FUN!

Here's where the coffee and $99 come in. How in the world did a girl like me go from not having one single hobby, other than gardening, to realizing my dream? On a whim I decided that I wanted a sewing machine. Why? No real reason. I figured I could make a sofa pillow or maybe some doll clothes for my daughter. I bought the cutest machine that Sears had...A $99 Singer Inspiration. Then I ran over to a fabric store and bought some supplies. For kicks I grabbed a pattern for baby bibs. To this day I cannot tell you why I bought that particular pattern. My kids were getting big and they had no use for baby bibs. Looking back I am convinced that it must have been fate.

The next morning I woke up early, 5am, and immediately started thinking about that machine. What did all those buttons and knobs do? Having used my Mom's old machine when I was a little girl, I wondered if it would all come back to me, like riding a bicycle? What in the world would I make first?

I got up and poured a cup of coffee, picked up the pattern and proceeded to attempt to make the bib. And make it I did. I'd say that my Singer Inspiration did just what its name suggested. It inspired me.

I must be CRAZY to think...

2010-01-10T00:10:00.003-06:00

that I could even set up a blog, much less find the time to write, manage and promote one. But here I am. It's almost midnight, and I've been curled up by the fire for literally hours, navigating my way through the blogging world. My husband, a ultra computer savvy kind of guy, must be very proud. I didn't have to ask him for help with anything. {Yet}

So, I guess I will learn what to do as I go. With any luck, some of the random thoughts that bounce around in my head will find their way to this blog, and someone, somewhere, will find it a worthwhile read.

My desire to start a blog started about 2 weeks ago, when I made a New Year's Resolution to do whatever it would take to get my little shop, http://www.lullabycouture.etsy.com/, off the ground enough that I could leave my job of nearly 12 years and design and create full-time. I've read numerous things about how to go about this... Start a blog, do a Flikr page, Tweet it on Twitter, take excellent photos, list, list and relist..

With the start of this blog, I have officially tackled all of that, and will continue to peruse through anything I can get my hands on to be successful.

So, that said, I am going to sign off for the night, and will be back tomorrow to continue my mission. Thanks for the company!