house remodel & recent crafting

There's a really good reason why I haven't had much time for blogging these days. We are remodeling our house and it has taken over our life. The good thing is, we're half way done with the remodel (I think). We moved out about 3 months ago and if all goes well, we should be moved back in December - 3 months from now! Here's a picture of the house taken earlier this week. We tore down the existing 1100 square foot house and rebuilt it from the ground up. The new house is going to be about 3,000 square feet, with enough yard space for the kids to run around in (we have ~ 10,000 square foot lot).

Despite being really busy with the remodel and raising our kids, I've had a little time for crafting. I was starting to go into crafting withdrawals so I found time between 10pm - 2am :) on a couple nights to make these:

Pink Floral Coin purse for my friend's daughter Isabella. It's made with the same material as the purse I gave her for Christmas last year. If you want to see a picture of that purse, you'll find it here -- it's the third picture in that post.


Here's a peek at the inside of the coin purse


I made this purse for my friend Linda's birthday. I used another pink fabric for it - I'm in love with pink lately! I just love this sewing pattern - it's the second purse I've made from it (Simplicity Pattern 4668)! (BTW, I bought the pattern from an ebay seller, but she sold me the last one she had and she said it's being discontinued. In case you want to give it a try, I did some searching and found another place that still sells it: Tall Poppy Craft.


Here's the first purse I made using the Simplicity 4668 pattern. I used vintage brown and white striped fabric that my grandmother gave me. You can't really tell in the photo, but the brown stripes are slightly crinkled -- it looks almost like there's brown crinkled ribbon running through the fabric.


And finally, here's a little "wristlet" I made for a friend. She went to Spain as part of a study abroad program. The wristlet was my going-away present.