Holiday Fabric ships worldwide!

Yesterday I was busy cutting, weighting, and packaging my most popular holiday fabric "Decorating Team". 

So exciting, LOVE when the orders come pouring in!!!

I still have a couple a fat quarters available and ready to ship if you need to make something special for someone special this holiday season! :)) Visit my Etsy shop to purchase.

Do you know what murmuration is? Then watch this.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

This totally blew my mind! You have to watch this video! Nature is one amazing thing....I would never thought that this black, swirling mass  are the birds! It reminds me of the "black smoke monster" from "Lost", remember??

( found via DesignMom)

Fabric giveaway!

Check out my interview with Owen's Olivia and a fabric giveaway from NewMomDesigns.

The winner gets1 yard of any fabric from my shop for FREE!

What is your favorite fabric in my shop?

I'd love to know!

The way I like my coffee

One of my lovely customers just posted a picture of what she made out of my fabric:

Hot coffee pot wrapped with my fabric is just what I needed to put a smile on my face!!! 

THANK YOU Shannon!

What are you crafting these days??

Have you visited my shop yet?

http://www.azalea-design.com/

How to make a tablecloth

I would love for my dining table to be exposed like this at all times:

smooth, dark espresso finish, with beautiful wood grain....

But with kids in the house- it is simply impossible.

All sorts of activities take place on our dining table: drawing, play dough, chopping ( when Alina is helping with dinner), cutting/pasting/gluing, etc.

So a durable, protective something was absolutely necessary! A regular fabric tablecloth just would not do it.

So when a few years ago, I saw somewhere in blogosphere a tailored oilcloth tablecloth, I knew it was a solution for me.

You have probably noticed my old black/white tablecloth on the background of these photos, here or here.

It did served me with loyalty for around 3 years, but it is time to replace it with something fresh.

The only problem is that there is a limited selection of oilcloth fabric out there, most are too bright and flowery and do not blend into my living/dining area.

It has taken me a while to find a suitable pattern/color for my new tablecloth. 

I  have finally settled on Ty Pennington Spice Fabric in laminated cotton. This is how my table looks now:

neat, tailored, with small geometric pattern.

If you up for making yourself a tailored tablecloth, here are the instructions in visuals:

Owls

Don't you feel like the owls are taking over? 

Here are some pretty owls on Etsy - just look at the variety!

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9

I keep seeing them everywhere, and have been resisting this owl-mania for quite a while. But I think, finally, I gave in.

Meet my new white owl umbrella stand.

But guess what I am using it for??

I keep my bread in there! We mostly buy long Italian loafs from a lovely bakery nearby, so I wanted something tall, to completely hide the bread in the plastic bag ( it keeps the bread softer longer)

None of the traditional bread boxes out there are long enough to do this, plus bread boxes take up a lot of counter space. But with this owl, I am able to keep the long bread loafs vertically and out of sight. :)

( the picture above shows yummy sesame bread rings, not bread loafs,we simply ran out of those ;)))

What have you re-purposed lately?

  

Fashion+Funny = I love it!

I have just discovered this really cool fashion video-blog and  wanted to share it with you.
I completely fell in love with Wendy! So adorable, funny and has a great sense of style!
Just watch one of her videos and you will love her too:

Hope you enjoy!

Chevron Rug for sale

Anybody up for a zig zag rug?
I bought it for my bedroom, but it just did not fit into the surroundings, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it COULD work.
Great quality, 100% wool, looped, 5'x8'.
I absolutely love it, I so wish I could use it, but it conflicts with my "serenity" themed decor.

If you want to buy it, please contact me: newmomdesigns {at} yahoo {dot} com. Price $240 +shipping.

Library inspired fabric

Here is a little sneak peak of what I have been working on,
What do you think this is?

All right, I'll just tell you ;)

One of he readers of my blog have reached out for help to spruce up her living room. As a young family of three with an adorable little girl, they needed  fresh, modern fabrics to fit the feel of their new apartment. Frankly, they both have done a great job decorating their home - just needed a little help with textiles, such as throw pillows and a new fabric for an ottoman.
We quickly decided to do a custom fabric for the large brown ottoman.
The idea is - library bookshelves wrapped around the ottoman. Not only it is a unique, eye-catching design for two book-lovers, it also pick up and ties together all the colors in the room.Texture is inspired by Holli Zollinger, one of the most popular Spoonflower designers!

Cannot wait till it's all done!

Slowly, but surely...

Just like many other projects, my gallery wall beautification project, which I have started so enthusiastically, came to a halt. No, no, it is far from being finished... I just lost my inspirational wind, so to speak.
Slowly, I have been trying to gear myself up to the task, browsed through endless Etsy pages in hopes of some bright enlightenment, but nothing so far.
At times, I think I just take it way too seriously - it is just a matter of a few frames I have to fill with SOMETHING!!! But then again, I start to argue with myself - that SOMETHING is what we all going to look  numeruous times, everyday. And I want to be pleasing to the eye, well... not just my eye, but everyone in my household at least ( I already gave up the idea of pleasing everyone with my choices, it is really impossible!)
So while I still have3 large frames that are still empty... awaiting..., here are a couple of new additions I wanted to share:

My $2 wood carved elephant I picked up at a discount store. I had to freshen it up with some paint, as the original woody surface looked dingy and dirty (weirdly, on the photo it looks good as original, but trust me... it did not in reality!)

My take on a weathered painted patina....

I may paint it again with a brighter color, to pop more against the wall. Unless I paint the walls, then...not sure.

And another new resident on my wall is a photo collage of my kids:

Not only it did bring some color to the wall, but every time I look at it - my heart smiles!

That's what I mean by the "right" selection for the frames. Of course, I don't expect to smile by looking at every single piece on my wall, but I am searching for something special..:)

To read the beginning of my gallery wall adventures click here.

While I am still busy with my new, exciting project ( more about it when I am done), I wanted to welcome the new followers to my blog. I know many of you have come from Modern Typography, where the lovely Melanie is holding a giveaway for 1 yard of Newmom Designs fabric.
The giveaway is ending tomorrow, so if you want to participate go over there and follow the instructions.
Meanwhile, here one great idea of how to use one of my fabrics:

One of my customers kindly send me this image yesterday. 

She used my "Dancing triangle" to reupholster her mid-century chair.

 I LOVE it!

What is your next fabric-related project? 

Custom Pillow for Less!

I have been so busy with current projects and happening, I have completely neglected my poor little blog!
Today I want to share one of the projects I have just completed. It is a customized version of this pillow I have in my Etsy shop. It was ordered for a little boy who is about to have his 2nd birthday. So, to make it extra special, I sneaked in a number 2, plus instead of making 3 pockets, I made 2 (velcro locked) little flaps that hold cute surprises inside.
Now, here is another news: if you can sew, and would like to make this pillow on your own, I will have the DIY kit available in my Etsy shop for $25. You will have all the perks of CUSTOM design - I will make all the adjustments, change the name, message, colors to make it perfect for you, then I will mail you a big sheet of fabric with all the details for you to cut out and sew! That's a custom piece/gift for $25! Should I say more??? LOL!

What keeps me busy these days...

I know my blogging has been .... well, pretty much absent... but there are exciting changes that are coming and I am working hard to make sure they happen. In more detail, I am building myself a little retail website where I will be selling my fabric as a real fabric shop. I am in a process of establishing some business relationships with oversea manufacturers to produce my designs on certified organic cotton with low chemical dyes. And all this at affordable price for my dear buyers. So as you can see I have my work cut out for me :))
Meanwhile, check out this cute lunch bag made out of my fabric "Country Cats":

 Adorable, right? And available for sale in this Etsy shop.

Cooking with kids

The other day we had a fun, little cooking project with Alina. Perhaps, those of you with kids, are already familiar with this, or even made these when you were kids. But for me, this was the cutest discovery!
Alina had so much fun making these cute, eatable octopuses, and then ate them proudly!

Party was a success!

The main feature of last week was, of course, Alina's 4th Birthday Party!
Big homemade celebration, complete with Chinese-inspired food made by me, fancy appetizers served in tiny bowls with tiny spoons made by Alina's grandma, big-fluffy-meringue cake made by my mom, clown with a dog and a princess, face painting, and photo shoot with props!
Looks like everyone had a great time!

These fun photo props are available for free download here along with instructions. I simply borrowed their idea:)

What to do with kids artwork?

Yesterday I got a bit tired of looking at the empty frames on my wall, waiting for the inspiration to strike. 

I decided to take action and use what I have in the house to fill up a few spots.

Guess what this is?

If you guessed "your daughter's first watercolor painting",  you guessed right!

She did it last year, when she was 3 y.o., and I found them fascinating, and kept them in special folder.

She painted a few pages in a regular ruled composition book, and I cut out the irregular shapes and pasted them together on a white background.

Looks like a great abstract piece of art! 

Here is another example:

These were done with colored markers.

Simple and effective!

How do you display your kids art? Leave a comment ;)

Birthday party favors for kids

My daughter's birthday is coming up this week - August 17th. 

While the big party will be held on the following Saturday in our backyard, a smaller celebration will take place on Wednesday in Alina's daycare.

Now, every once in a while my kids come home with little plastic bags filled with candy and small chatchka-like toys that usually get broken that same day and thrown around the house. That means someone had a birthday in their group and the kids all got their goody bags after the party.

It is an easy and the most affordable way to complete the task of making children favors for the birthdays , especially for the daycare... I myself made little sugary goody bags last year...

 Guilty...

However, just recently my kids came home each with a box of puzzles - a favor from someone's birthday party. They were SO excited! It kept them busy all evening and they still play with them sometimes.

 I was grateful to that parent for the thoughtfulness and appreciated the lack of sweet, artificially flavored candy that usually dominates kids favors.

This time I wanted to follow this example and get something that would get kids attention and make use of their skills rather than their teeth. Still I wanted to minimize the wallet damage and make it look presentable.

After searching a discount store for a while I found something that I  thought would make a good fit.

It's a small book with a single black dry-erase marker. A child is supposed to fill in the pictures inside the book, like a castle with missing doors and windows...

Under $2 each, it will keep the little one busy for at least 15-20 min.

Wrapped in pretty pink tissues and placed in chic black and white bags ( value pack)...they don't look half bad! 

I am pleased with how everything turned out: not too baby-ish and not useless breakable waste...

This packaging sort of tells you it is coming from a girl, doesn't it? ... :)

I may drop one lollipop in each bag just to sweeten the whole drawing experience a bit :))

Chicken wings in an iron skillet

Easiest dinner ever!

15-17 chicken wings

1 Spoonful of Mayo

1 Squirt of Ketchup

Salt, Pepper to taste

1. Put everything in an Iron skillet 

2. Mix well

3.  Cover tight with parchment paper

( I try  to avoid using foil with heat, 

as I found out  from a friend chemist

that it is not healthy to do so)

4.  Bake for 30 min on 350

5. Uncover and let the wings brown till golden and crispy

( may use broiler setting to speed up the process)

They come out crispy and sticky and yummy!

Custom fabric project

I am very excited to share with you guys this very special project I am working on. The lovely owner of My Brooklyn Baby store, which soon coming to downtown Brooklyn, has contacted me to help her out with some fabrics to decorate her store. After a little brainstorming, we have decided to create a completely new unique design based on the logo. The fabrics will be covering a seat cushion and pillows on a super long lidded toy box in the play area. I can wait for it all come together because Darcy ( the owner ) has some pretty cool ideas!

Colors are so awesome too: coral and soft turquoise...

I played around with the logo and here are a few samples I have came up with:

 Now we just have to wait for the actual fabric samples...

Looking sharp...

One of my newest followers, my hubby ( Hi, hubby! Thanks for the link!) send me these incredible photos the other day. It is hard to believe people have such patience...

Made by artist: Dalton Ghetti

Dancing triangles- my new fabric

  I just received my new fabric "Dancing Triangles" which I ordered for my living room pillow covers. I designed it a while ago, but only now I appreciate how beautifully it came out!
Very crisp and simple, with a deep ink blue background and sharp white triangles.
I made my pillow cover immediately using my envelope closure pillow covers instructions 

If you like to get some "Dancing Triangles" for yourself, head over to my Etsy shop ;)

How to create a gallery wall - Part 3 ( Installation)

So it has been a while since I posted any updates on my gallery wall. At first, I thought I would hold until I have all my artwork selected and framed. But then, I realized it is much easier to select an artwork for frames that are already up on the wall. That way you can see exactly what you are missing and correct it: color, scale, proportions, balance.

So without further delays, here is the final part of the gallery wall installation showing how I got

 from here to here:

As I mentioned before, I had to re-arrange my layout due to new frame sizes and a ledge I pick up at IKea.

The ledge was the first to go up on the wall, and immediately I encountered a major problem: I had no ordinary Sheetrock construction on that wall ( adjacent to my neighbor house) but PURE CONCRETE! 

Look at all that black powdered debris that came out of the almost-impossible-to-drill holes!

 Somehow with the help of my dear hubby, I managed to make 3 holes, all aligned, and hang the ledge. But I dreaded the thought of drilling 10+ more holes on that wall, so I started thinking.... and came up with this:

Believe it not, with a bit of force, this little guy went into the concrete wall and held a tight grip! I mean, it was stuck there dead! I could hang off of it and wouldn't budge! Made me really happy :)) I hammered them quickly almost flush with the wall,  leaving a tiny gap between its wide top and a wall. The gap was just big enough to catch the metal wire of the frame, and the flat wide top of this nail keeps the wire from slipping out.

Perfect!!

My thumbs were literally in pain and swollen after making 10 of these metal wire V's...

Then, one by one, I started to hang the real frames right over the paper-ones, to make sure I get exact location and alignment.

 When satisfied with the look, I would rip the paper off and slip a couple of these ( 3M Command Poster Adhesive Strip Value Pack) on the back, just for the extra stability and security, and a little piece of mind around the kids...

And here it is... My gallery wall completed! Well, almost.. As I said earlier, it will be much easier to fill in the blanks now that I can see visually my layout and all the available spots.
It is a bit on the higher side, just to keep under control my kids temptation to to touch/pull/draw on/ spill on/rip off... should I continue? Lol!!
I am sure I can take a better picture too, but let's keep it for when I have all the artwork+photos in place.
 It will be a grand reveal, right?

Now...what should I do with those peachy walls? Hmmm..

Sleep no more -Trip Report

And so went to see the show....
Was it everything I expected it to be and more? Hell, yes!
This experience left even the most skeptical people among our group quite emotional and inspired.
 I have to be honest, at first I was scared to death of the thought that I might have to be split up from my friends for any amount of time, this is common, as the creators of theshow encourage to go separate ways to get the fullest and the most unique experience... Thankfully, we all ended up in the same group together, and even though we could not talk during ANY time, just the close proximity of  friends and a husband gave me the courage to wonder around the dark, weird, unexpected,  sometimes plain scary and nerve-wracking scenes of this haunted-like 5-story building.
It is quite an incredible experience... Design of each space is meticulously crafted to wake up all your senses. Scenery, light, smell, even air temperature is carefully selected to work best for each room. One minute you are in a cemetery, the next - in a bedroom. All of sudden, you hear a loud stump! Someone is running by you... and you just follow quickly... up the stairs...down the stairs..
STOP!
what's there?
Someone is dead on floor...
Mystery unravels before you, just to bring more questions into your head...
Beautiful, puzzling and exciting all the time...

We planned to stay an hour or so, but ended up walking around for 3 hours and still missed some scenes...
If you are in NY, I highly recommend you seeing this show... You don't even have to know Macbeth to enjoy it, I promise!

And yes, you do get to keep the masks! :)

Just finished looking through this e-magazine. Such a pleasure to see so many clever and well-designed objects in bright, happy colors and patterns.

Now I need to get myself some of those:

All items from Sagaform ( google for retail purchases)

As you can see I am a little obsessed with retro. Speaking of obsession, I am totally obsessed with Heal's and I so wish they delivered to the US:

How to sew a simple pillow cover tutorial

Sewing a pillow case is not as hard as it can seem to be. Today I will share a quick tutorial for those who have very minimum sewing skills. Basically if you can sew a straight line - you can make this! Replacing pillow covers in a room can make all the difference! So as a part of my Reclaim Series I have dedicated today to creating new pillow covers for my sectional in the living room.


My pillows are 20"x20",  so my front panel is the same size. You have to adjust the rectangles dimensions as per your own pillow size. ( Just replace 20 with your own number)

Then I finished just one 20" side for each of my flaps. ( 2 flaps = 2 straight lines total)

Then comes the assembly: Put your front panel ( 20x20) right side up.

On top put the larger flap, right side down, line up 3 RAW edges.

On top put smaller flap, right side down, line up 3 RAW edges.

Your finished edges of the flap will overlap each other.

Pin all around and sew.

That's it! Took me a little over hour to finish 2 pillows covers!

Fabric are from Fabric.com. 

Vintage Blossom Citrine by Dwell Studio & P.Kaufmann Theo Marble
(Instructions via TheCreativeMaven )

Coffee on fabric

Another week, another contest! This time the theme is COFFEE!!! I absolutely love coffee, so I tried extra hard to create something special. Here it is.... Please feel free to vote for whatever you like, for as many as you like here

My coffee-inspired fabric design: Spilled Beans

Some lovely designs from my fellow designers: 

(From left to right, top to bottom)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.