Where Have I Been?

So my blogging has definitely slowed down the last few weeks due to several reasons:

1. The garden is slowing down (and frankly, it looks like crap this time of year)
2. I've been busy working on a manuscript at work (that will be morphed into the first chapter of my dissertation)
3. I've been spending some time getting back to my crafty side (something that gets put on hold during gardening season).

I felt the urge to haul out the old sewing machine that my mom handed down to me. I learned how to sew when I was in elementary school and I've made a number of quilts over the years. The real quilter, however, is my mom. She's very creative and dedicated to quilting. I'll try to post some photos of her creations soon.

The old Singer sewing machine works pretty well considering it's from the early 1970s (and yes, its seafoam green). They definitely don't make sewing machines like they used to. The housing of my machine is entirely metal (no cheap plastic housing like modern sewing machines). Of course it also weighs a ton due to all the metal, but who really lugs around their sewing machine on a regular basis anyway?...oh wait, my mom does all the time.

I decided I would experiment with sewing on paper instead of fabric (partially because paper is so stable and easy to work with, and partially because paper is much much cheaper than fabric). I'm having so much fun working with the whole sewn-paper concept, that I decided to open a shop on Etsy. Head on over to my shop and take a look at some of my other projects.

Here are a few examples of what I've been making lately.

Notecards:

Paper garlands: