Renegade Handmade Chicago

Hi everyone! I hope you had a fun weekend and your Monday went great like mine did.

Great news! Renegade Handmade in Chicago is interested in carrying coasters and holiday ornaments from Bird Trouble! I'm so excited about this. Like, seriously, so excited. The store is in the heart of Bucktown (my favorite neighborhood in Chicago).
I miss living in Bucktown... they have a really great fabric store, The Needle Shop, that I visit when I go to the city and a bunch of great restaurants and bars.

image credit

More to come later! I rearranged my room and would like to show you the layout of my work space now. I really have to get to work now! Have a wonderful night. :)

Huge Black Friday Weekend Sale!

Weeeee! :)
I'm not spilling the sale details on my blog because you have to head on over to the shop to read the shop announcement at the top! I will tell you- it is very, very exciting.

This is love! My man can knit.

OMG.
OMG.
O.M.G.
Yeah, that's right, I have the coolest boyfriend ever. Nate knitted me a winter hat!
I like him and he likes me. We like each other.

For your home

Lately, I've been kind of a wreck with enrolling in school and trying to find ways to pay for it without actually paying for it. I woke up early today to see a counselor to make sure I'm taking the right classes and I was so proud of myself that I left the house early. When I finally arrived at my college, I was informed that walk-in appointments started at 8am (I'm really not a morning person. Usually I dont wake up until 12:30pm and I stay awake til 3am)!!! Jeez, talk about disappointing.

So after that huge let down, I came home to do what makes me happy. I took pictures of all the coasters I've been sewing for the past two days. They're all made of vintage fabric and some of the fabric came from a 1940's tie and fabric factory! I also took pictures of my first holiday garland. I love it. It's 7 1/2 feet long and it puts me in the Christmas mood. (see picture at the top of post) It was so easy to make too! I think everyone should make one. I'll try posting a mini tutorial about it sometime soon.

SPEAKING OF COASTERS! My sweet bloggy friend, Melanye over at Less Apathy. More Cake purchased a set of four coasters the other day. I'm going to tease her with some pictures of her package and show all of you my handmade packages. :)


I took this idea of a tutorial I saw somewhere (I can't remember where but if anyone knows it, please comment with the link).
I have a huge roll of kraft paper from when I was drafting patterns in Fashion Design 3 years ago and my mom has a ton of bubblewrap in the attic so I decided to put myself to work. I cut out an 8x12 sheet of kraft paper and bubblewrap. I put them together and sewed along the edges with my sewing machine. That's it! It's so simple but it takes up so much time. I was packaging for like 3 hours last night (also probably because I was being distracted by 30 Rock). I'm probably not going to do this with every package but with as many as I can.

Is anyone going to see New Moon this weekend? I AM!! Holy crap, I'm excited. I know, I'm a goon for liking it but I can't help it. I think the acting in Twilight is horrible and I just want to push Bella in a lake sometimes (I know... I'm mean...) so I'm hoping New Moon has some better acting. Me and Nate are going with a couple of friends to an 18+ theater on Saturday night to see it. They also serve alcohol at this theater. Laying back, watching New Moon, and drinking beer with my best friends... can't ask for anymore.

As I'm typing this, I'm looking over at Nate because he's in the middle of knitting me a present. He's been really into knitting ever since Halloween. We bought Stitch n' Bitch and he's been addicted to it. He's so cute. :) He's almost done with my present so I'll post it as soon as he's done. I like him. :)