November Favorites 🫘

Current ambiance: Apple oatmeal, warming spices, pumpkin candles, and an explosion of bright red-to-yellow leaves visible from every window. Pure fall bliss.

Little glimpses of my inspiration this month:

✹ Upcycling Things into Fall Decor

Now that I’ve moved into a bigger space, there’s all this room to decorate! The urge to go to a big box store so we have immediate fall decor is strong, but not stronger than my will to make things with what I have. This month, I upcycled some old shirts I never wear into some homemade pumpkins! I finished my first sewing project that I had started a while back: a patchwork apple pillow. And, I got to hang up my precious apple/pumpkin/pinecone garland that I made last year from materials I had lying around. Low key I’m never taking that one down.

✹ Ephemeral Seasonal Decor

In the same vein of decorating for fall, I have developed an appreciation for ephemeral seasonal decor. Pumpkin carving, dried orange garlands, pressed leaves, papel picado, seasonal candles, and metal embossed charms to go with them.

✹ Junk Journaling

I used to junk journal in high school, and loved it. Lately I’ve been seeing people on my feed with these amazing renditions that look so much cooler than the version I was creating back then. Junk journal queen, Martina Calvi, has an amazing set of books she published all about her journaling experience that are so delightful to flip through. Johanna Clough is an illustrator and bookbinder who makes and sells journals + journaling kits that are so inspiring.

It’s so haphazard & aesthetic at the same time. I love the idea of crafty journaling and giving all those scraps a home (a key principle I learned from Marie Kondo-ing my place a few years back).

Update: I made one here Junk Journaling Our Engagement Chapter 🫘!

✹ Holiday Craft Schedules

As a craft girly, the holidays are usually packed with gift-making endeavors. This year I had to sit down and brain dump a huge list of everything I have going on (admin, events, gifts I’m making/gathering, work projects, personal goals, etc). From this, I created a ‘responsibility calendar’ to try to maximize it all. I’m probably taking too much on, but I’m telling myself I’ll learn more discipline this way? [See: Balancing Urgent vs Planned Creativity 🫘]

✹ Visible Mending

Inspired myself this month by mending my partner’s pants. He had a tiny hole that needed patching, so I used some embroidery thread and a darning stitch to make a cute lil basket weave/checker pattern.

✹ Me-Made / Altered Wardrobe

One of the things I feel like I’ve struggled with forever is clothing. My wardrobe is such a mish-mash of items I’ve been gifted, thrifted, or bought for one-off occasions. Personal style is important to me and I feel like I make it work, but I wish my closet was mostly comprised of pieces that spark joy. So, I’m starting by using what I have and getting crafty with it. Currently learning to sew & finding ways to make my items more personal by altering/embellishing them.

Works in progress so far: Butterfly Season in the Studio 🌱, Hydrangea Inspired Embroidery

Update: Follow along the journey Studio to Closet— Behind the Make of My Wardrobe 🌱

✹ Couture Embroidery & Beading

A friend of mine is getting married next year, and she has commissioned me to embroider her wedding outfit! I’m so excited to work on this project. The initial research I’ve been doing led me down a path of exploring more couture beading and embroidery. I’m not sure if that’s the path we’ll end up on, but I’m prepping hoops to test out new threads + styles. [See: Embroidery Commission Part 1: Prep 🌱]

✹ Unconventional Patchwork

I love good old regular patchwork and quilted pieces. But when I came across some images on Pinterest that were technically pieces of material “patched” together, it inspired me to think of other ways the term patchwork can be stretched. I’m not totally sure why I’m drawn to this. Some methods are more appealing to me than others, but it feels like a piece of the sustainability puzzle to find uses for smaller pieces of materials to be utilized.

More of a neat thought exercise than anything for me right now. [See: Patchwork Moodboard]