Crazy Amazing Sinks

I found a new design site via StumbleUpon today. Toxel.com has a bunch of links for interesting/modern designs. See their section called "Popular Posts" on the right hand side and it's all organized by topic. I checked out the section for sinks, of all things, and found such cool stuff. My favorites were the "Quartz Sink," and the "Flowood Sink." Check them out.

My little powder room sink is above. I described the shape of the base that I wanted to my cabinet guy (Does that mean I designed it? That sounds rather fancy and cool). And I found this cool marble sink on eBay. I'm still pretty happy with it, but I wish I had seen this site before we built our house 2 years ago. Just for ideas if nothing else. We live in a pretty small town, and so it was hard to find unique items for inspiration. So if you're building or considering redecorating, check out Toxel.com.

Fabric Giveaway!!!

                            Crazy "OOPS" fabric - free to a good home. 

I know, I know. It seems like all I write about these days is my adventure with my Spoonflower fabric. But I mentioned that I would follow up on what I've learned, and hey...it might be helpful to someone who's doing the same thing. 

So here's what I've learned since the "spots gone crazy" episode. 

Basically, I was right when I assumed it was most likely my fault. Yep, but it was an easy fix. It seems that the layer with dots was missing a white background for the dots to be on. Now, when you print it on paper, a person wouldn't notice anything like that, because the paper is white. BUT...in their printer for fabric, the machine reads dots on blank space and then it fills that space with information around it. In my case...a bunch of dots gone wild. It will even fill it in with black at times. 

So what's the fix? For me, I put a rectangle the size of my artboard (I use Adobe Illustrator) and filled it in with white in the background. That made a few problems, but after a few adjustments, I had a white layer in the very background that the dots could be on. 

OR...the other fix would be this. I converted it into a png, since they do not accept .ai files (and a Tiff was WAY too huge). At the time of conversion, it asks you something like, "what color do you want your background to be?"  The default is set to "clear." I switched it to "white." That would've saved me the time of drawing the white rectangle and fixing my layers. 

OK, none of this makes sense if you don't use Illustrator, but in case you do, this could help you before you send your file in.  And also, I should mention that they offered to reprint it for me, even though it was my fault. I wrote them back and declined since it was my fault, but then they wrote again saying "it's no cog in my engine," which I thought was really funny. So sheesh, I wasn't about to turn down even more free fabric and I took them up on their offer. 

The last order was printed and shipped lightning fast, so I'm sure this one will be too. When it gets here, I'll post a new photo. MEANWHILE, if you'd like to receive my first round of dottie fabric, I'm having a giveaway for it. Yes, that's right. A FREE yard of totally weird fabric that would make a good project for...oh, many things I'm sure. Leave a comment at the end of the post to be entered and spread the word to anyone who has Spoonflower questions. I'd love to help if I can. I'll draw a winner on Sunday night. 

Spoonflower Fabric Comparison

Hmmm...well, I was very excited to receive my package from Spoonflower with my free fabric. Unfortunately, not everything turned out so great. I think it's worth looking at to compare what went right and what went wrong. I really do believe that this could be a great service for future projects, so I'd rather decipher what's going on than just throw it away.

So, look above and you'll see the first design. I think it turned out pretty cute. The colors are not the same at all, but I suppose that's my fault for not checking closer with their colors. Apparently, they have a list of colors they can print well, and I didn't check my colors with their colors. So that's o.k. I still think this is close to what I had, and it was free because I won it, so I'm happy. I left a lot of space around each little bug so that I could cut them each out and use them as little pieces of little projects. We'll see what I come up with.

You can see how the colors are a bit different in the bugs here. The periwinkle color turned out super purple, but was still cute. Also, the celery green in the other bugs never showed up at all. It was just a lot of yellow. The overall yard of fabric is a lot of purple and yellow, although the original print was soft yellow, celery green, periwinkle, and light blue. Oh well. Pretty close. And FREE!

Slam on the brakes!!! Check this print out. WHAT happened? Look at those cute dots and stripes in the print on paper on the left. Soft blue, cute little dots, and a red stripe. But on the right...a print that nobody would design. Ever. The dots run into each other and the red is awful. In some places it has a bunch of black. Blech. It's crazy.

The printed design is on paper on the left, and the fabric design is on the right above. So what went wrong? Color aside, the actual pattern didn't even work. Perhaps I submitted the file incorrectly. Wouldn't surprise me. But I think I followed the directions. It prints right on paper...hmmm. I'm going to email them and ask what I can do in the future to avoid this problem. I know that they always suggest ordering a swatch before placing a large order, but that wouldn't correct things, it would just save money.

Any ideas how to avoid this in the future? I'll make a post with Spoonflower's advice if they have any suggestions, so check back if this subject interests you.

***Read here to see what Spoonflower said about how to fix this.

$100 Gift Card to Etsy

I was browsing through ETSY this week and decided to pretend I had a $100 gift card to buy whatever I wanted. Of course, I also decided to not pay attention to shipping and handling costs. What did I find to buy? Lots, of course. But these three items I really really loved and I thought I'd post them. Someone should buy them. Maybe I'll go dig something up to sell on eBay and then it can be ME who buys them. 

Isn't this cute? I love Gocco prints. I make my own screens out of PhotoEZ, but the Gocco folks out there are really good at their craft. Plus, I feel like this on many days. This little print is $20. 

This seller dyes her own fabric and then makes super creative, unique items with it. This pillow cover would brighten anyone's day. Certainly mine. It costs $45. 

And finally, this little guy is just too cute. My friend at KLT:Works makes these little guys and puts them on mobiles as well as sells them separately. He costs $39. 

What? That's over $100??? Ugh. Too late. I already love them. Plus, if I truly did have a gift card for $100, I'd still get these 3 items, knowing I wouldn't have to pay much total for them. What would YOU buy? If you make a post about it, send me a link. I'd love to see what other people love. 

Spoonflower, I Think I Love You

Well, my poor lonely snowglobe guys did not win the Spoonflower design contest of the week. BUT, they also didn't get last. Whew! I think they turned out really cute and I actually may buy them. I made a version with a less random design and it does look a lot cleaner and cooler. You can look me up on Spoonflower and use it for your own design, if you feel the need to make a project with a snowglobe.

And although I didn't win the 5 yards of fabric, I DID win a contest held at The Long Thread, which let me order 2 FREE yards of fabric...from Spoonflower! I thought that was really funny. I quickly drew up 2 designs that I thought would be pretty cute. I have no idea of the quality of the fabric, so we'll see what arrives in the mail one day and I'll report back. Here are my designs I submitted. They "kindof" go together. No red in one, but they aren't meant to be a set. They were just quick "made in one evening" type of designs, so that I could get my order out. It takes about 10-14 days to print and then they'll ship it out. Whee!