Monday, December 15, 2008

Long time no see.



I have been trying to take my crafting in a new direction so I haven't been posting lately. I am hoping that starting in the new year, I will have myself more organized (one can only hope) and I will get back to regular posting. For right now though we are decorating for Christmas and you can see that my Frodo does not approve!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hey....Kool Aide!!!!





I finally made the jump to dying yarn. I had some left over handspun merino and I decided to just go for it and dye using the kool aide packs I have been hoarding for about a year. It was as easy as I had been told it would be, and the yarn smells so nice! I can't wait to knit with the yarn. I now am on the hunt for blue and green kool aid!

In other news I had my first ETSY sale!! I sold a set of my dancing bear stitch markers! I am so excited. I just went on and put up all the lovely crochet tops my mom made for the site, and I want to get up some of the pictures of the bags.

My goal for the week is to really work on getting the business side of the business going. You know finding craft shows, getting a tax id number.


The next project I am working on is tie dye skirts and bandanas. Next week I want to spin up the ton of angora I have and try crocheting some beaded necklaces. I want to do this with my mom who is coming for a visit next week. I so can't wait to see her and my aunt. I feel like it has been so long, but really it was just over a month ago!


Need to go put my black garbage bag full of tie dye fabric in ziplocks in the driveway to heat. Oh what the neighbors must think!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

We be Jammin'












Well I have gotten precious litte crafting done in the past 2 weeks. We cancelled our camping trip but the son is still home from camp for 2 weeks and it has been a little hectic. I have also been babysitting for a very good friend while she gets ready for a big doll show. I have a few pics for you of a shirt I made a few weeks back.


I thought you might like to see pics of my craft studio, and I put a picture here of my new favorite pastime, canning. So far I have made strawberry jam and peach butter.


I am looking forward to getting some more bags finished so I can finally get some up on the website.




It has been a long 2 weeks!


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

full of inspiration




I had a fabulous trip to Key West. Not only was I able to relax (and get a lot of knitting, crochet, and sewing done) I got to visit with my family, who I miss very much, and get lots of new bag inspirations! I also picked up some really great tropical fabrics at the local craft store. Here is some pictures of the dress I made while there. My Mom and I were watching a marathon of Project Runway the whole time, so I felt unusually stressed while sewing it :) I am sooooo happy with the results!! I am going to do another version with the skirt longer and patchworked batik fabric. I am going to make a few more petite messenger bags and a new style of smaller bags and some backpacks to bring to new hope. I also want to start getting a stock for my etsy store and craft shows. So much to do, so little time.


Tie Dying is still in the working stages. I haven't found a thread that really works for making sewn on designs. I am also thinking I bought to many dark colors (who me?). I need to bite the bullet and get the 3 set DVD on how to do all the different styles of tie dye, since it seems I want to do some more advanced methods.


Well that is all for now. I am happy to be back, but my trip is just what I needed! I feel so recharged and I only have to wait a month to see my Mom and Aunt again!

Friday, July 4, 2008

I have done it!!!








As of yesterday I have 4 of my bags in a shop in New Hope. I worked like a fiend all week (still didn't finish one of them) but finally managed to get them over there. They loved them and set up a display in the front of the store with them. I took the pictures quickly so they are a little fuzzy, but I still can't believe they are out there! I really wanted to get the cherry bag done, but after talking with the owners of the store, I need to add a zipper closure to the bag. They also really want more mini messenger bags. I need to also design a smaller bag.



I need to use today to get ready for the trip to the keys. I need to bring projects to work on and I want to get some ideas for tropical inspired bags. I really want to incorperate cocktail umbrellas into a bag, but I am still working on just how to do it. I mod podged a few, but they are still pretty fragile. Maybe I need that stuff you dip flowers into. I will need to experiment (my favorite part !)

Edit: I just got a call, my petite messenger bag sold this morning as soon as the store opened!!! It was going to sell for around $85. Yipee!!!

Happy 4th!!!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The new me



Ok Life has changed yet again in a big way. I am still trying to get used to being home in the daytime. It is also weird having the son home a couple days a week (but fun). I have a new laptop ( got a good price on a refurbished one, and a little help from my fairy godmother). I am going to key west next week (again thank jessie!).

You may notice in my picture to the left some changes in my appearance. Yes those are real glasses. It occured to me when I couldn't read my son his bedtime story and I couldn't read the hymn numbers posted on the wall in church that I may need some help. I now have to wear glasses full time and the Dr. said I could put off bifocals for a year or two. Wow that just makes me feel so old all at once!!! I always expected to need reading glasses, but distance glasses? Wow. Did I mention I also got my nose pierced?


The most exciting news is there is a cute little boutique in New Hope that is going to take my bags on consignment. I am so excited and so tired from all the work I have been doing to get them done and over there this week. They all just need finishing touches and putting together. Pictures to come when all are completed.


Here are some pics from our first tie dye experience in New Hope.


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

tie dye fantasy!!!

Well I got a box of goodies from Dharma trading company with lots and lots of dye and shirts and stuff to color my world. I am in love with the idea of sewing designs into shirts and skirts. I did a skirt the colors were faded but it still looks cool. For myself I have a v-neck t-shirt onto which I have stitched a peace sign, the son and the husband are getting the batman logo sewn on and I did a star wars one on an extra large shirt. I hope it all works out well, I have a lot of ideas for tie dyed bags and such. I am in nerd/craft heaven!!! But I need to go to bed, too many late nights and it is hard to get up and make pancakes on the sons' days at home. He was not impressed by my peanut butter pancakes this morning! Everyone is a critic!!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

getting the bags done!





Yipee! I just put my first bag on my etsy store! I have a felted one drying downstairs and my "cocktail" purse just needs edging and lining. Hopefully now that I have some designs worked out, I can make some patterns and start pumping them out.

I spent most of the morning taking pictures and up loading them. I am starting to get the hang of the new camera. here are some of my latest crafting projects. The first 2 pics are the before shots of our shrinky dink adventure. The next 2 pics are of the box I mod podged (I love that stuff) using Bazil paper (love that too) in order to keep our xbox games and controlers organized and away from chewing bunnies!! We call it the xbox box!

Today will bring more shrinky dinking and hopefully another bag or 2 finished!!


Sunday, June 15, 2008

it is 1am why am I up?

I guess it is because the son has been in-between school and summer camp this week and I wanted to get a few "spongebob" free hours in. We have been very crafty this week (of course) I think he has gotten the craft bug too! He has started sewing, apparently there was a sewing board at his school and he was the only kid who used it. He has a little sewing kit we got him for his last birthday, and he is almost done with the felt cat and I hardly helped him at all. So awsome. We also did some shrinky dinking. I love to let him just draw whatever he wants and shrink them down. We have to make a necklace of all his little stick people. He drew a green one, it is obviously the Hulk, duh Mom! We also did a bit of tie dying. I finally learned how to do it correctly and we bought a kit a few weeks back. The son did a shirt and we both did one for the Dad for fathers day. He loves it, and I was worried he wouldn't.
I sewed up a skirt and got really creative with the tying (pictures to come) and I really love the result. It of course sparked abotu 8 new bag designs. My design brain works way faster than my hands can pump things out.
Next week the son is going to start summer camp for a few days a week. I need to get back down to the studio and get some work done!!! Right now I need to go to sleep.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Saga Begins

How did crafting get to be such an obsession with me? I don't know how, but I can give you roughly the when. My granmother taught me how to hand sew when I was about 7 or 8 years old. The first thing I made was a hooded cape for my barbie doll. It was this hiddeous mauvey polyester and I treasured it for years. She taught me this awsome hem stitch that I still use today, when you are under 5 feet tall, you need to know a good hem stitch! The next crafting milestone had to be when my mother taught me to crochet. I always loved making things for my dolls, but fabric was not readily availible to me, and cardboard would only do so much, so when I learned to crochet, and there was always some yarn around, I crochet everything for my dolls I could think of. I even started selling crochet evening gowns for cabbage patch kids at the craft shows my mother did. I have some really great memories of being at craft shows with my mom. We had so much fun. She later got into silk flowers and for some reason flower arranging never appealed to me. I guess I like to build things, and I like to determine texture and I am not a fan of picking colors.
Sewing really picked up when I met my friend Laura. We made doll clothes that represented clothing from all different countries, we made our own leopard print bikinis (I hate those pictures!), we made dresses and we even made our prom gowns. That was my first real expereince with a sewing machine. It was also when I learned the important lesson "if you can't find your scissors, you are too tired to sew and should stop!".
The sewing did not get really intense until we formed the Medieval Society in College, then I needed garb! I had no sewing machine so I had to hand sew, yes I hand sewed my first few pieces of garb. I still have my first dress (which was later machine sewed and taken out and in, and out as my weight yo-yoed) It is wearable, but it just isn't my time period anymore. Anyway I purchased my first sewing machine, a babylock from cloth world my second junior year of college. I still have that babylock but have upgraded to a Viking 8 years ago.
After college I joined the MSR and needed a new outfit for every event. Then I became the sewing crew for the NJrenassaince kingdom. My favorite machine was this really old one with a thigh pedal instead of a foot pedal. I loved this machine and was the only one who liked the thigh controls. I used to say that machine could probably sew through wood. They don't make 'em like that anymore! Some years later I became obsessed with scrapbooking and then rubber stamping, and only really did those things while my son was a baby and toddler. Somewhere in the toddler stage I taught myself to knit (barely). Then a few years back (maybe 3 or 4) I took a drop spindle class at Pennsic, I LOVED it! Now that I was spinning I surely needed to know how to knit as crochet isn't period. So I tried to learn more and then found the show Knitty Gritty and Vikki Howel took me through lots of different techniques and I ate it up. I even started crocheting again.
Then we moved to PA from NJ and there are not any good scrapbook stores around here, so I started hanging out at Twist knitting and spinning in new hope. Took some spinning lessons and have been even more hard core into fiber arts.
What is hard core you ask? I have a favorite breed of sheep. I am a Jacob Sheep groupie. How sad is that! We bought our second home and we turned the basement into my craft studio. I lost my temporary job we thought would go permanent and here I am unemployed with all this fiber in the house. So I am going to make a go at my own business. I love to design, I love to work, and I am at peace when I craft. If I can only make some money it will be a win/win situation for all concerned.