Nest Decorating & Designs by Tamar

Blue Rose

Just a glimpse at a new necklace in my Etsy shop, I have a ton of new designs and thought you might like a little peek of what's coming

have a sweet weekend xox

The weekend

I was so busy this week that here we are on Friday and I am writing about last  weekend...
but it was so lovely...! the weather was amazing, we climbed up Mt. Philo with my uncle to look at the view, we had a fantastic lunch with all three boys at our dear friend Linda and watched the beautiful new spring blooms pop up everywhere, we had a barbecue, we went to the movies and just spent time together, all of us, ahhh... love family time!
xox.

Gift Wrap

I have a new feature in my shops, for a small fee I am now offering a special gift wrap package that includes an Eco-friendly gift box hand stamped in green with my signature bird,  a printed blank card with your message on the back and my new business cards attached all tied with lovely sea foam colored cotton twill tape.
I hope you like it!



xox

New Items

Here are some new accessories in my Etsy shop, alas, I have more the 100 items in my Big cartel website and I am unable to add any more listings at the present, I really need to go in there and do some cleaning up...
So here is a set of 4 Bobby Pins, I made them for myself too and I wear them all the time!
they are really tiny and cute.

This is a new set of handmade paper roses treated for sturdiness in new dramatic colors! I love the Black and White combination!

Also available in a romantic Black, white and Rose set

A new necklace inspired by warm summer days and made to match summer colored breezy cloths, crazy "unmatched" color cluster beads on a double gold filled chain

I also have a few new pairs of earrings , this one has Jet black, Sea foam and clear stones

these are made with a beautiful jade bead on a gold filled chain


lots more in my shop!
xox

Farmers Market and new Pouches

Saturday is my favorite day of the week because I get to go to the farmers market! this time of the year the market is not at it's peak although I did manage to find some yummy vegetables and great lettuce, but I was looking for fruits and there was none to be found yet, so I hopped back into the car and drove to our local Organic Co-op, another love of mine, we actually have two wonderful organic grocery stores in the Burlington area, the other one is called Healthy Living and it's equally divine!  so this is what we had for breakfast these last couple of days, freshly baked bread, a lovely piece of local Brie and goat cheese and some great strawberries and organic white California peaches:

I was also doing a little sewing this weekend and here are a few NEW pouches available in My Etsy shop
The fabrics are all imported, you can see the post about them here, they are available in small quantities only.
This sea foam color pouch has a surprise raspberry color lining and a gorgeous amazonite bead zipper pull and vintage bead cap, available here:

this one is looks like a flower garden and is big and roomy with a cross stitch pattern printed lining , available here:

and finally this one is made with the sweetest little rose print on light aqua with a yellow and white polka dot lining, available here:

One ,more thing , thank you for the wonderful response to the Fabric Flower tutorial, and to those who asked me about the edges of the fabric, I leave them as they are, I like the frayed and frumpy look although with most fabrics the don't fray much since the fabric is cut on the bias.
xox

Fabric Flower Tutorial

FABRIC FLOWER TUTORIAL by TAMAR "NEST PRETTY THINGS"

The flower in the photo is made from light weight cotton, I like to use light weight fabric because it can be "frumped up" and it's easy to work with, but you can use heavier weight fabrics for a stiffer look, linen for a natural look (if you throw it in the wash it will get frumpy too) mix in some pieces of tulle...the possibilties are endless!
you will need:
fabric, sharp scissors (I like the small ones), buttons, needle and thread

1. For a 4.5" round flower Cut six squares of fabric, two 6", two 4", two 2"

2. take one of the biggest squares and fold it in half

3. then fold in half again

4. and again

5. now you have a triangle with 3 folds

6. hold the closed bottom of the triangle with the CLOSED folds facing right
 
7. starting at about .5" from the bottom cut a nice big oval shape, cutting away the closed folds on the right going up and back down nicely on the left side , it should look like half a heart.

8. here is the cut triangle (you can see that it looks like half a heart and everything is cut away except the bottom where my finger is that un cut part holds it all together)

 

9. open up your cut flower, the petals on this one are a little skinny but it will look great you'll see.

 

10. now start cutting the other 6" square, here it is cut

 

11. when you open it it half way it really looks like a little heart...cute!

12. OK! this one is perfect! but I like playing around with cuts to make various petal widths like the previous pink one, try to experiment it's fun!

 

13. start laying the cut flower pieces one on top of the other, here is the pink over the green, you can see it works nicely.

 

14. now start cutting the rest of the pieces and laying them one over the other.

15. OK, we're done! now we want to start "frumping" the flower up, fold the flower in half

16. and in half again

 

17. put it in the palm of your hand

 

18. and SQUEEZE for a few seconds

 

19. when you open it up it will be very frumpy, you can do this a few times depending on how frumpy you want it to look...

20. Good! now you need to decide what you want to do make, you can add a button by sewing the button right through the fabric and fastening it in the back.

 

or you can sew on a fabric button using one of the fabrics you used

 

you can then glue it to a blank card, I like to use recycled card stock paper for a nice Eco look

 

you can make a brooch by cutting a few long strips of fabric and sewing them to the back under a pin 

 

or maybe a headband? I sewed the flower straight onto a thin green headband I bought in the supermarket...

or you can use a big vintage button on your headband.

 

probably a smaller flower would be more suitable for moi...see all my gray hair???

I hope you will have fun with this!! and please make them for your personal use only:)

xox, have a great weekend!!

Fabric Flower projects and ideas

Would you like to make this fabric flower card?

how about this "frumpy" flower pin?

or perhaps a pretty headband?
 

Here are a few more projects I made with fabric flowers that might give you some ideas to use.

Cards:

 

Tote embellishments:

 

 

fabric pins with giant buttons and tails:

 

And a few more little projects, in these flowers I mixed in some tulle :

All of these projects are easy to make, if you can use scissors and if you have basic sewing skills you can easily make these, but be careful, they are highly addictive and you might end up with 50...

See my next post for the tutorial!

cheers:)

Mellow Yellow inspired

You know how sometimes you hear something, a song or sentence and it has this magical effect on you? well, this happened to me the other day, I was listening to the radio and the song "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan came on, most of you are probably to young to  know who Donovan is, look him up his songs are so lovely!  I loved him forever and his songs remind me of my mother who loved listening to him, of my teenage years and of fleeting summers on the beach and days that came and went, it made me sit down and design a few new pieces with a mellow yellow touch of nostalgic sweetness in mind.
A Mellow yellow Charm Bracelet available here

A Bird Charm Necklace available here:

A  Locket Charm  Necklace available here:

A funny dog face Charm necklace for girls of any age here:

and finally, little bird earrings with a yellow touch here:

have a great rest of the week! xox