bleu gingham

Dearest babe, We can't wait to meet you! Love, Mommy

How do people keep up with blogs? I seem to be horrid at this thing. But since I started my shop and have been sending business cards out with this website listed on them, I figured I should probably start putting things on here. Hopefully on a semi-regular basis. I think my main problem is that I don't really know what I want this blog to become. At first, I was planning on it becoming a space where I could share my craft and art projects. However, most of my sewing time is spent altering and mending clothing for people and sewing up shoes for the shop. After a full day of that, I tend to find myself lounging on the couch with my husband and puppy dog. The boring life, I tell ya. So I'm not really sure if we're going to strictly have a craft blog here. I'm keeping it open, and not labeling things yet. Hopefully once I catch up on my work to-do list, I can find some time for some other projects. We do have a couple of Christmas-y projects lined up, plus some oth...

Alternative title: How Pinterest Robbed Me of My Creativity Let me just start this off by saying that Pinterest is a great way to share ideas. If you can't find it on Pinterest, it probably doesn't exist. Which kinda leads me to a few of my issues with Pinterest. For the longest time, I felt like I was in a creative funk. After 4 years of art school, making numerous art projects and coming up with countless drawings and ideas, everything seemed to come to a halt after graduation. Then I discovered Pinterest and its bountiful craft projects complete with instructions. I pinned and pinned away, made a few of the things I found, and thought "Hey! Maybe this is the answer to my problems!" But it wasn't. Because here was the issue: while I was making things, I wasn't making my things. I have always been a creative and artist person, and now I wasn't. I was letting someone else be the creative one and just stealing their ideas. The artistic part of my b...

Over the past year, I have enjoyed making cute little things for my baby niece. Before she was born, I had made her a pair of ruby slippers and since then she's received some headbands, dresses, more shoes, and I've even made her parents some canopies to go over their carseats. And I've loved it. Baby things are so fun to make. They all just turn out so cute. Since I've enjoyed making her things so much, I decided to expand and offer my products to everyone. I had been itching to start an Etsy shop for years, I just never could figure out what I wanted to make and sell. But now we're open for business! Currently, I have a little variety of baby footwear in the shop, as well as a couple of burp rag options. In the coming weeks and months, I hope to add a few new shoe styles and possibly some clothing items. I am always open for taking custom orders, so if you are looking for a specific fabric pattern, team colors, dress style, etc., feel free to message me...

 As a new year's resolution, I wanted to read at least 25 books this year. I'm a little behind schedule but hopefully I can catch up by the end of the year. Here are some of my recently read books. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell The story is about twin girls (Cath and Wren) who are going off to their freshman year of college.Throughout their childhood, they have been super fans of a popular book series. Their bedroom at home is filled with posters and they've even written some popular fan fiction. As they go off to college, Wren starts to leave the fandom behind, while Cath struggles to finish her popular fan fiction story while going through the stresses of college and a sister she feels is dumping her. I quickly downloaded this the night before we left for Disney as a vacation read. Let me just tell you, the two main characters reminded me so much of me and my own sister. I definitely related to Cath. While I never got too into fan fiction, I feel like I woul...

Usually I try to reserve the weekends for my own projects. My week days are spent working on various  projects and alterations for other people, as well as working to stock my inventory for my (yet-to-be-opened) shop. Weekends are for me though. Here are just a few of my recent weekend projects:                1. That large wooden &: I didn't build this; I just repainted it. I had purchased it from an antique store several months ago and it had just been sitting around since then. It was an ugly brown color and had weird chips of other paint colors on it, so one day I finally set to work. Sanded it down, painted it a nice navy blue, and voila. Now it fits in better with the rest of my decor. 2. Glittery Missouri canvas : This was a Pinterest project. Sometimes I struggle with Pinterest (more on that later), but I wanted a quick and easy project to do one Saturday evening while watching movies and this one cut the musta...

Hello all! I'm really hoping this blog-once-a-month thing doesn't become habit around here. Since the last time I posted, I've been busy with alterations projects, other sewing projects, family campouts and bbqs, and even a little trip down to Disney World. The end of Spring and start of Summer has been good to us. I'm still not entirely sure what direction I want to take this blog, but as of now I would like it to be a little place for me to share some thoughts, life happenings, and some sewing and art projects. I've got some post ideas written down, so be on the lookout for those the end of this week and beginning of next. I promise to try and make a bit of a schedule, and not let a month pass between posts again. Until next time!

This past weekend, I helped throw a baby shower for a cousin that has a baby boy arriving this August. She told us his nursery will be a woodland theme, so after some Pinterest perusing, we set to work. Instead of the typical guest book (which, let's be honest, ends up getting shoved in a closet quickly), we had each guest sign a onesie. I drew up the invitation with watercolor pencils, then scanned and printed them to send as postcards. For the mommy-to-be, I put my original copy into a thrifted and repainted frame as a keepsake.   Each birdhouse was painted based on the colors of the nursery. The bird nests were made of leftover Easter grass and Robin's Egg candy. For the "trees", I searched the yard for sticks, stuck them in pieces of styrofoam, wrapped the bottom in fabric and tied with twine. Welcome Baby Swayne! Enjoy life!

Hello, Hello! Welcome to Bleu Gingham! I don't know how most people start their blogs. We'll just go with an introduction. I'm Whitney. I live in a little town in Missouri with my husband and wild dog. I spend my days unsuccessfully attempting to get the dog to stop barking at squirrels while working to start my own business. In my spare time I enjoy a good book, preferably of the fantasy or teen-lit variety, and dream of trips to Paris. (I feel like that last paragraph read like something from a dating website. Only not, because I'm married. Moving on.) With this blog, I hope to share with everyone my love for sewing and art, as well as a little bit of everyday life. I've been sewing since I was a little middle-schooler in 4H, and while I don't pretend to know all the tricks (I have still yet to perfect the zipper), I do enjoy finding and creating new sewing projects. Don't worry though. I will be sharing plenty more than just sewing ideas. ...