We Moved!

So Long, Farewell Blogger.
Please change your bookmarks and begin following us at our new Internet locale:

http://designstat.tumblr.com

We look forward to continuing our blogging careers on a new and improved site!

~The Design...Stat Team

The Results Are In!

I know you all were dying to know how the Herbs turned out. Well, they are all growing like crazy and love their window sill! I'll be cooking with these in no time!

A Springtime Bag

So, I've been having what I would describe as Painter's Block. So, I decided to finish up some sewing projects. First thing on the list was this lined satchel/grocery type bag. I made it out of a linen type fabric. It's really soft and I love it. I printed my own little design on it using my Gocco printer (yes, finally!). It was a good first attempt, but I think I will make one more just to iron out the kinks.

In honor of our great visit to Megan's New Hope abode in honor of her birthday... Megan was up early creating more mini cupcake delights. Since this time I was able to eat them first hand, I can honestly say they were scrumptious little chocolate and cake concoctions, and they were adorable too!


(visit Bakerella for full instructions)

Each cupcake ball was placed in a mold filled with chocolate... that's right I'm talking chocolate AND cupcakes!



Then a little dippage in some yummy & pretty blue icing...





Topped with sprinkles and a candy heart...



And there you have the cutest little cupcakes for a fabulous bitesize yummy treat!!

Lollipops+Cupcakes=Glorious

After discovering this great blog: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-your-cupcakes-pop.html, Megan decided to get busy crafting her own cupcake pops. The night consisted of rolling cake and cream cheese balls, dipping chocolate, and a lot of finishing touches.



The results are beyond precious!



Although I heard that even the hubby had to get in on the action!



These adventures are all about trial and error. The end results here were delicious (similar to a dunkin' munchkin') but Megan tells me she has a lot of new ideas to make the process a bit easier. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next!

Easter Festiveness

Leave it to Megan to step up the cuteness quotient for Easter!
These egg lanterns she found for a steal. $.99 for the small ones and $1.99 for the large lantern. Just goes to show you that you don't have to do much to kick it up a notch!

Painting Plug

Here's one of my new ones. I've been pretty busy! I'm not going to post all my new work here, but you can take a look over on annabergin.com for some painting treats!

St. Patrick's Festiveness

In honor of the green holiday Megan enjoyed some Irish treats this weekend. She picked up some green bagels from her local bagel shop, and in true Irish fashion baked her own Irish Soda Bread!! Reportedly, it's great with a lot of butter (isn't everything?)!!!

Birthday Bonanza!

I had a lot of fun crafting for Owen's 1st Birthday! I even got the husband in on the job by helping me with streamers! I decided to make party hats, streamers, and a cake.

I crafted the party hats out of cardstock.

Basically, I rolled a piece into a cone shape, cut around the bottom of the hat and used whatever shape was left I used as a template to make all the rest of the cut outs.

I then wrote on each one with glue and sprinkled on glitter. Waited for the writing to dry (if I didn't wait it would have dripped down the hat) and made each one into a hat shape and stapled.

I punched holes in each side and strung ribbon through each hole and knotted.

I also attached a few curled ribbon strands to the top of each hat with tape for a tassel.

With the leftover scraps of cardstock I made the streamers (mobiles). I cut out circles and in each end I punced holes. I attached the circles together with some craft/jewelry memory wire I had lying around. I taped each one to a string and strung!


I also baked a cake... which didn't go that well. The icing turned out deliciously with chocolate goodness... but the actual cake did not bode as well. I followed the directions precisely so either Betty Crocker is a loser... or I need a new oven!

The guests sure did look cute!!

St. Patrick's Day Wreath

It also may be a spring/summer/possibly year round if I forget to take it down wreath!
This was really easy to make... I bought the grapevine wreath for 3.99, the baby's breath, the paper flowers, and ribbon all at the craft store... A little hot glue gun action, and I also coated the paper flowers with a layer of modge podge glossy glue to seal them somewhat from the elements. Very festive for one of our favorite occasions!

Flowers in March!!

A Rogue Crocus bloomed at the house yesterday! This one snuck in behind the garden against the basement!

Herb-tastic Spring Fever!!

Things are getting crazy in my indoor plant zone! I decided I wanted an indoor herb garden to partner with the outside veggies I'm going to plant this year. I attacked target for bowls, yes, I'm telling you this is the thing to do (each one was $1.99 and the matching dish was $.99)! I priced little planters, and none were modern enough or the perfect size for the small amount of room and herbs I really needed. So, I found these bowls that came with their own little dishes to sit in... drilled a hole in the bottom... perfecto!



I also made signs for each herb because if you are anything like me, I can't tell the difference between these suckers! I drew little pictures of each herb and cut out the paper. I was going to attach them to toothpicks, but we didn't have any so I just used chop sticks! I think the chop sticks actually work a lot better! I just taped the stick to the back of the paper and voila!


Now all they have to do is grow! I'll keep you posted... two weeks we should see some action!

Tie-rific

I love anything having to do with ties... men wearing them, belts, bags... anything. So, as you can imagine I was thrilled to see this chair on Apartment Therapy. The chair is by Peter Raphael Russo and what makes it even better is that he transforms things he finds for free via Craigslist! Awesome.

Etsy Shop of the Day: adventurevintage

Glorious vintage finds come to us today via adventurevintage a great little etsy shop that has some fun housewares as well as these great refurbished chairs. We also can't help but love these terrific clip-on earrings!

Fuzzy Fingerless Gloves

Over the weekend I made these fun (slightly useless) fingerless gloves! They are pretty tough (in a beat you up kind of way) ... and they were really easy to make.
If you really want some instant gratification then I would go for these.

The pattern was basic and simple and you can follow this video on howcast.com
Again you can see this all on the video above but just for a quick reference:

for each glove:
leaving 8 inches of yarn(for stitching later) cast on 24
knit 15 rows in a basic rib stitch(knit 2, purl 2, repeat till end)
knit 12 rows in stockinette stitch (knit one row purl one row, repeat)
knit 4 rows in rib stitch (knit 2, purl 2, repeat till end)
cast off following the rib pattern leave 8 inches of string for sewing
fold the glove in half and sew down 2 inches finish and knot
from the bottom sew up leaving a whole for your thumb finish and knot.

Eastery Wreath Perfect for Spring

Megan first crafted one of these fantastic wreaths at Christmastime and she has reprised her role as the Great Wreath Crafter with this great pastel yarny wreath perfect for Spring or Easter.

All you need is a wire wreath frame (available at any craftstore), yarn, any variety of your favorite festive egg, and a hot glue gun.

Wrap your yarn balls and get gluing!

Warped Chair

via (http://definatalie.tumblr.com/)



This chair is working for me... I love red, white and gray and it fits my mood.
Chair design by Sebastian Brajkovic, he has a lot of other interesting work on his site.

Instant Gratification?

via (http://www.swiss-miss.com/)

H&M is starting a home line. I'm thinking it could be good for some home basics but I'm sure just like the clothes... the stuff will be expendable.

Crochet Accomplishment

After reading a great post about different beret/hats on the craftzine.com blog that you could knit or crochet via Threadbanger, I settled on this easy pattern from Crafty Pants. It took a little refresher course in crocheting because I had forgotten some things, but it came back to me quickly.



I had never crocheted a hat before so I had to watch a video explaining how to crochet a circle. It was a little different then the pattern but helped me grasp the path I needed to take. Also helpful was the video posted by Crafty Pants on how to crochet the puff stitch.



I have to say that I've worn this all weekend and am loving it. Of course it is a little different than the one shown on the Crafty Pants blog, but I think that is because of the yarn I choose (and my skill level). Mine is a bit more bulky. Overall though I'm happy with the outcome and it is the first time I have actually worn something that I've crocheted!

Lil' Yarny Cupcakes

via (http://szymon.tumblr.com/)

These cupcakes are probably just the cutest things I've seen in awhile (besides Meg's cupcake cones:)... Can you believe someone actually can make that little knitted scarf and those cute yarn balls? I'm dying here of cute overload.

Visit teenytinyturkey on flickr for more amazing photos and her website: http://www.veganyumyum.com for more vegan food. Just cheers to this creativeness!

Hyper-Color Umbrella?

Holy Cowzers! Remember Hyper Color T-shirts!

Well take a looksy at this:


via (http://www.ohgizmo.com)

That's right, umbrellas that change color at UK-based Squid London... I just can't get enough.

Holy Post-it!

via(http://szymon.tumblr.com/)

People have a lot of spare time, but man do I love post-its so I don't know about you, but this makes sense to me! Click here for more unbelievable post-it craziness!

via (http://weburbanist.com/)

Cute Little Heart

via (http://blog.craftzine.com/)

If you are feeling festive and have some spare time Roxycraft has this cute heart design to crochet... We love little beings.

We're Off to See the Wizard!

via(http://www.fishseddy.com/)

Megs found these great glasses with the characters from the Wizard of Oz. I love them all but look at that Tin Man... so cute!

More Little Cork Chairs

via (http://www.dwr.com/)

They are so cute!

You can see them in person:

DWR Champagne Chair tour: The following Studios are having Champagne Chair tour events to celebrate the winning chairs:

Location	Event Date	Event Time
Berkeley	Thursday, Feb. 12	6:30–8:30pm
San Jose	Friday, Feb. 13	6–8pm
Beverly Hills	Wednesday, Feb.18	6–8pm
Manhattan Beach	Thursday, Feb. 19	6:30–8:30pm
Las Vegas	Wednesday, Feb. 25	6–8pm
Tigard	Tuesday, March 3	4–7pm
Kirkland	Friday, March 6	TBD
Cambridge	Thursday, March 12	7–9pm
DWR: Tools for Living, SoHo	Wednesday, March 18	7–9pm
Philadelphia	Tuesday, March 24	6:30–9pm
Adams Morgan	Friday, March 27	6–9pm
Columbus	Thursday, April 2	5–8pm
Birmingham	Tuesday, April 7	10am–6pm
Chicago Tree Studios	Friday, April 10	6–8:30pm
Milwaukee	Wednesday, April 15	10am–7pm
Minneapolis	Tuesday, April 21	TBD
St. Louis	Friday, April 24	6–8pm
Dallas	Wednesday, April 29	6–9pm
West Palm Beach	Monday, May 4	5–8pm
New Orleans	Thursday, May 7	6–8pm
Honolulu	Friday, May 15	6–8pm