I've got such an exciting weekend ahead of me! It's my yearly girl's crafting weekend! It actually is starting today with the arrival of my friend Tina Higgins. Every year, for the past 9 years, a core group of 6 us (sometimes with special guests) travel the country to spend a weekend at each other's homes and craft non-stop! It's an anything goes kind of weekend - you can sleep late, spend the day in your pajamas, get made up glamorously, have a martini for lunch, craft when you want, and relax when you want. Every person chooses a craft project to teach the other women, and you bring enough supplies for everyone to make your project.

This year the event is at my house! I've already transformed my dining room table onto a craft table, totally covered in cutting boards. My project is going to be a chandelier made out of an old wire lampshade, embellished with all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff.

This year we have a very special guest: Jo Packham, the creator and editor of my favorite magazine, Where Women Create. She's going to be here with a photographer to feature this craft weekend in her magazine! And not only that! Because my two crafty friends, Tina Higgins and Brenda Walton, were both chefs, they're going to cook us up a fabulous meal and I'm going to decorate the table, and that dinner party (with even more friends coming over) is going to be photographed for Jo Packham's other magazine, Where Women Cook!

Danny is going to Florida for the weekend to spend time with his family, so it's just going to be me, Ruby, Miles, and a whole lot of girlfriends here for a big sleepover - it's going to be so fun. I've been converting all of our daybeds and couches into comfy beds for the women. Here is the daybed from our studio that I put in Lisa's old room, and the big round bed in the upstairs studio made up for a friend or two.

I'll keep you all posted with photos of this great weekend. Lots of sewing, cutting, gluing, and embellishing, and tasty food to come!

Valentine's Day is in just a couple of weeks, so in case you haven't already wrapped your special presents for your loved ones, here are some free printable gift tags from my studio straight to you! They're rosy and sweet yet sophisticated, using my hand painted florals. If you print them out on sticker paper then all you have to do it cut each tag out and they're ready to go. They could even get put onto a Valentine's day card. Or Mod Podge the labels to mason jars filled with sweets!

Hope you like them!

Click here to download the printable PDF!

I love lists; I make them every day. Dry erase boards are great for reminding yourself to do something, making a shopping list, planning your weekly meals, and much more. But the plain white boards found in stores are drab, and won’t necessarily add much charm to your home. That’s why I love the idea of making my own from an old picture frame that I found at the flea market years ago. This project was perfect for getting it out of the closet and giving it a new purpose.

Gather:

Picture frame with glass
Fabric (my Sunshine Collection from Free Spirit Fabrics is pictured here)
Scissors
Masking tape
Dry erase marker & eraser
Mat board & pencil if needed

Create:

1. If your picture frame already has a mat board behind the glass, that’s great! If not, take the glass out of the frame and set it down on top of your mat board. Trace around the glass with a pencil and cut along those lines, so you have a backing to your glass, which fits in the frame.

2. Lay this mat board down on top of fabric. The fabric can have pattern on it, but shouldn’t be too dark or busy, that way you can see what’s written on top of it.

3. Eyeball and cut the fabric about ¾ of an inch around the mat board. This is so that you can wrap the fabric around to the back.

4. Starting one side at a time, begin wrapping the fabric to the back of the mat board and taping it in place. Pull the fabric somewhat taught so that there are no wrinkles.

4. Reinsert your glass and fabric covered mat board into the frame and voila!

What’s nice about using tape to secure the fabric is that it’s removable! When you’re ready to give your dry erase board a new look, carefully pull off the tape and start again, using your first cut of fabric as a template.

A couple of months ago I started designing silk scarves and getting them printed locally by DPI printers in San Francisco. I was doing this half for presentation materials to show off new collections, and half because I thought they came out so nicely and I just wanted some scarves. I took photos of this first batch of 4 scarves that came out so well. Since then I've printed 6 more, but I haven't photographed them yet. If you're in the bay area, I definitely recommend getting some scarves printed from DPI because they also bind the edges well.