Word on the Street - March 29

Oh boy.  It's a busy time for all of us at Locust Street Crafts these days.

But hey, check it out!  After last weekend's display planning, one of Liz's friends tipped her off to a reasonably priced vinyl sign making company, and Liz started communication with them on getting a sign made for LSC.  In record time, it all came together!  Thanks to 24hbanner, Locust Street Crafts now has a fabulous sign with our updated logo, in one of our signature colors:

Liz is also trying out a couple new craft prototypes, hopefully to have a few new products ready in time for the first LSC sale of the year coming up in May.

WAIT A MINUTE.  WHAT DID THAT SAY?!?!

Oh hey, Locust Street Crafts will be at the Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market on Saturday, May 4 from 10-4, in the beautiful Masonic Temple in downtown Flint.  Come check it out and say hi to us!  Admission is only $1.

Erica got the short end of the stick this week, getting hit with laryngitis, allergies, and a plethora of other illnesses that include tissues and chicken soup. She figured that now was as good a time as any to get started on the quilt she has been meaning to make. You heard right, Erica is attempting quilting. 
 Like any good project craft project, math was involved. 

Triangles. Equations. Frustration.

 Then ironing, organizing, and cutting. There's an element of danger to these tasks... Okay, maybe not the organizing. But irons are hot! And rotary cutters are dangerous--just ask Samantha!

This picture is too hot to handle!

So smooth

Lookin' sharp!

What Erica didn't realize is that when she started cutting on Saturday around 4, she would be cutting squares until midnight. Cutting fabric is the preparation step for quilting, and as many of our crafty friends know, the preparation is often the most time-consuming step in a project.

Luckily, Xena was nice enough to keep Erica company.

After many hours of cutting and many attempts to lure nosy cats away from the cutting action, she ended up with a pile of squares that do not match, but will eventually be sewn together.

Aside from quilting, Erica was also featured in All Things Target, a blog dedicated to informing its readers about coupon match-ups and deals going on at Target. All that time clipping coupons is starting to pay off!

Sam legitimately does not know where her time has gone. You know where it hasn't gone? To crafting. And what crafting she has done, she hasn't taken a single picture of. To make it up to you, here's a picture of Henry yelling at her:

Hey lady! Stop taking pictures of your cats and go craft something! You've got a craft sale in May, dummy!

Did you guys know we'll be at a craft sale in May? The Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market on Saturday, May 4 from 10-4, in the beautiful Masonic Temple in downtown Flint. And admission is only $1.


Because we might be a little excited about it.

Display weekend (behind the scenes)

Join us, won't you, for a behind the scenes look at our display weekend! As you could probably tell from our last post, we had a lot of fun, did a lot of crafting, and only killed a few brain cells with spray paint.

Storing things in a basement is as filthy as it is handy.

Erica wasn't sure she could handle the day.

But she managed.

For the most part, the cats enjoyed the excitement and extra attention.

But they were a little freaked out by all the action and clutter.

The once and future living room.

 By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, a little messed up from a basement full of spray paint, and totally pleased with crafty selves and the progress we made on our display!

Word on the Street: Craft display weekend!

Wondering what your favorite crafty ladies were up to this weekend? Well wonder no more! Liz, Samantha, and Erica painted, cut, ate, napped, sewed, and did too much math, all in preparation for the upcoming craft sale season.

The first step of any crafty undertaking is to gather your supplies.

Not pictured: excessive amounts of LaCroix

 The next step is obvious: take a nap!

Sam, all tuckered out

No, actually, the next step is to use all those math skills you haven't used in years to figure out what you need and how much of it when you go to your local craft store.

Erica is normally really good at math. Today was not a normal day.

After all this hard work, it's time for lunch and some fuel.

Dharma Mojo: the aftermath

Coffee: breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions.

Now, time for serious stuff: painting! Kids, always use spray paint in a well-ventilated area. Unless you live in Michigan and it snows all the time, then go ahead and start painting in your basement. 

Small basement, very little fresh air. This might be a bad idea...

 To keep busy between coats of paint (and to make sure your brain doesn't fry from the paint fumes), start working on your sewing projects! And remember, it's always good to wash, dry, and iron all fabric before cutting and sewing. 

Action shot! Look at those moves!

This fabric is so beautiful, it would be a sin not to sew it into our new tablecloth!

If you've been sitting in one place too long, try to sneak in some quick cardio to get the blood pumping.

Lifting!

Push ups!

Cat Scratching!

 Now, it's time for sewing. When you deal with 13 foot strips of fabric, pinning is very important!

Pinning, sewing, and hemming like a boss.

Erica and Liz working on the Locust Street Crafts Bridal Collection--coming to a craft fair near you!

Since that's done, maybe time for another coat of paint?

Too much paint, not enough fresh air.

Then test drive the table cloth. Is it up to your exact specifications? 

Is it an inexpensive Halloween costume?

... or a people eating monster?

Curious as to what all this effort was for, and how our display will look this season? Visit our blog later in the week for part two!

Word on the Street - March 15

Beware the Ides of March, yo!

It was not a great day for this guy.

Sam and Erica are busy preparing for a major CRAFT WEEKEND this weekend. Liz will be joining us in Mount Pleasant so we can get our display all ready for the season's sales. Sam and Erica are shopping for supplies and groceries (crafting requires sustenance, you know). Be on the lookout for lots of pictures and previews of crafts and our display next week!

We're going to take this up a notch. High fashion! Make it work!

Liz feels like she hasn't fully returned to a schedule since her return from Denver, with lots of work days in a row, much to do, birthday parties to attend, and her upcoming wedding (less than 5 months away!).  She's become confident that her tiny apartment will probably not be clean again until after the honeymoon.  Most of her crafting has been the creation of more wedding flowers, so here are a couple cute pictures of her nephews who had a joint birthday party recently since their birthdays fall only 3 weeks apart:

Grant, the super cool 8-year-old, checking out a new Lego kit.

Braeden, who is almost 4 and has already perfected the art of looking like he doesn't know a picture is being taken of him when, in actuality, he does.

 

Word on the Street, March 8

Happy Friday, one and all!

Sam knitted this blanket for her tiny new nephew and it's been the only knitting project she's had time for in quite a while. She's looking forward to a weekend of making prototypes of things she hopes to sell at craft sales this summer.

Bam! Boy blanket!

Liz has been busy crafting only one thing this week: her sanity.  A 4-day trip away to Denver was exactly what she needed, and she came back ready for spring, full of action, yet unwilling to compromise sleep to get everything done on her to-do list; thus, crafting has fallen by the wayside.  This week, all that Liz has to show for herself is a great picture taken by her friend and former roommate, Gina.



When in doubt, fake meditate on some giant red rocks with a scary icicle hovering above you.

Erica had a three day weekend, and took this opportunity to get to work stocking her freezer. One might say she made all the food. Her freezer is now dangerous to open! But there are many delicious things in said freezer, including the following:

40+ Lasagna Rolls

25+ cups of Turkey Chili

Two dinners worth of White Beans and Ham

 

 

 

 

20 cups of Spaghetti Sauce

... along with a couple BBQ Chicken slow cooker packets, and quite a few breakfast burritos. She didn't get as much knitting done as she would have liked, but she got a lot of cooking done! If you would like some chili, give Erica a call--she's got your hook up. And if you are interested in any of these recipes, let her know, she's happy to share. 

And that's what we've been up to  this week! What have you been up to?

WOS March 1 edition

Hello everybody and happy Friday!

It's been a busy week for Sam; her nephew was born Wednesday night! Now she absolutely has to get his baby blanket done! She did manage to finish these mittens for her cousin Jess:

You can't really see it (poor lighting + iphone camera) but the cable madness continues.

Sam's  been in full on organizational crazy mode, so she's been going through old stock to get ready for the new crafting season! Which gives Harper an opportunity to be judgmental and adorable from a higher vantage point.

From here she can see all of your sins.

Liz loves a good makeover story, whether it's with crafting, house organization, a DIY project, makeup, what have you.  Just a couple months ago, she was given a headboard (for free!) and wasn't too keen on the look of it so she decided to use a tutorial posted on Pinterest from a blog to make a stencil and paint it, originally inspired by this fantastic wallpaper.

Are you ready?  Here are the BEFORE pictures:

A little grainy, yes, but you get the idea - a basic solid wood headboard with a sort of whitewash paint effect over a beigey bottom coat.  Not a terrible look, just not Liz's style.  Here are the AFTER shots:

Liz found a nice blue paint at Home Depot and painted 2 coats on the headboard, using painters tape to carefully secure off the two golden cuffs on the posts.  

Liz first made a stencil out of cardboard, traced it onto the headboard with white chalk when the blue paint had all dried, then used a smaller paintbrush to apply 2 coats of gold paint.  The detailed image shows that there are some imperfections and that lines can move around a bit when painting by hand.  Luckily, Liz doesn't mind.  Hand-stenciled designs are often imperfect in folk arts, but it's not always so easy to notice when using light-reflective paint such as this metallic gold color.

Erica has been busy finishing the grey and pink baby blanket for Erin's baby shower--then illness struck. Stomach bugs = no fun. No worries though, this adorable and glowing mama-to-be was still showered in so many beautiful and thoughtful gifts, and loved the progress to the blanket so far! And she loved that it is in grey--her favorite color! 

So adorable, and so happy! 

Erica has also been keeping track of her coupons, as has Beezy. 

Silly cat, you can't cut coupons, you don't have thumbs.

 Otherwise, Erica has been trying to organize her craft room and get ready for a three day weekend full of cooking, crafting, and not leaving the apartment too much.