Tuesday Topics

I'm not sure why, but yesterday and today have really felt like the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas vacation to me. Maybe I was being too nice to myself right after Christmas and things have finally caught up with me now. I don't know, but I sure have felt busy - bills to pay (like 10 of them - how did that happen?), today we had 4 appointments and pre-school plus all of the regular things like cooking dinner and cleaning up little messes and such. And last night I picked up my exercise routine again after a too long holiday break. Busy is good, right?

And what have crafty things have been keeping me busy? First, I wanted to show you the latest addition to my shop - this fun Valentine's Day banner. Anybody need some hugs and kisses? This should do the trick with it's XOXO message.


I've also had a few questions about my new bag. First, does the top fold over? Yes, it does. I got the idea from another bag I saw online and I thought it was a great thing - not just for looks, but for function too. I have lots of people ask me if I can add zippers to my bags for security reasons (and I can, if you're interested), but I thought this fold over top accomplishes the same thing without the zipper.

Second, a request to see the inside of the bag. Here it is - pockets on both sides. The final version might have more pockets - what do you think? Are more pockets better or is there a point where they are just more pockets?
I've been using this bag for a couple of days now and I really like it just how it is, so I'm thinking I might actually offer two versions - one just like this one, but with longer straps and one that is a little wider and has a plethora of pockets inside that could be used as a business bag (like for carrying files and such to and from work) or a diaper bag. I have several friends who are having babies this year and I'd love to give them a bag like this, maybe with a matching changing pad. I'll be experimenting with it in the next few days - I'll let you know how it turns out.

And in the meantime, I'll be bundled up trying not to freeze - six years in California (we've only been here for a year) was not good for my winter time cold resistance. I'm such a wimp now! Or maybe I just have forgotten that when you go out you need a little more than just a coat in a place with a real winter.

Back in the Saddle

The monkeys I made for the boys - they sat right next to the stockings on Christmas morning. From this pattern.

I'm back - trying to resurface from the haze and craze of the holidays! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and are getting back into the swing of things. Things got a little crazy for me right around the time of my last post. My shop did a whole lot better than I thought it would during the holiday season and it definitely kept me BUSY! And by the time things slowed down in the shop, I had to turn all my focus to the handmade gifts that I'd been putting off. And in between all that sewing and making, somehow I managed to fit in viewing Charlie Brown's Christmas and the old school How the Grinch Stole Christmas with the kids, a little bit of baking, a couple of parties, practicing the piano so I could accompany a church choir number, and a bit of deep cleaning in the kitchen (the oven, underneath the oven, behind all the appliances, that sort of thing). Am I making you dizzy just reading about it? It was a bit dizzying, but fun.

On Christmas Day afternoon, we took the drive down to see our family and spend a relaxing week doing practically nothing but hanging around, taking naps (I had two in one day last Saturday), playing with the kids, and enjoying visits from family. Ryan and I even managed our first night away from the kids (to this fun resort)! Thanks Mom! The kids did great and this is definitely something we will have to do more often.

I'm still finalizing my resolutions for 2008. Usually, I don't make New Year's resolutions. My general philosophy is that if a goal is worth accomplishing, it's worth doing anytime of the year. But, this year my desire for some change and the New Year are coinciding, so I'm making some New Year's resolutions. It's been fun reading about some of yours and I hope I'll be brave enough to share some of mine in the next day or two.

I've got some new sewing projects in mind too - a new purse design or two for the shop and some banners for Valentine's Day. Remember all of this - it's time to use it now. It's also my birthday month and I'm trying to figure out how to celebrate - I sort of missed a nice celebration of the big 3-0 last year (we had just moved here after three months of unemployment, we didn't have friends yet, and I was not feeling much like celebrating), so this year I'm going to pretend it's the big 3-0 even though I'll really be 31 (did I really just admit that?) and celebrate accordingly. Suggestions, anyone?

I hope you're all enjoying the New Year and that you'll all start reading my blog again! I really am back;)!

Heard on High

These are some of my favorite ornaments. I made these little angels when I was in college. I think I had intended to use them as gifts, but I loved them so much that I kept them. And I'm so glad that I did - they definitely bring a smile to my face each year when they come out of the Christmas box.

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas here - finishing up the shopping, making yummy treats (chocolate dipped delicious things of all sorts that we plan to share with neighbors and friends if we haven't eaten them all before we get around to putting them in pretty packaging), and enjoying the white covered world outside. I'm still making gifts and probably will be until the last minute - stuffed monkeys for the boys, crayon rolls for nephews, and some things I can't mention because they are for people who read this blog. I'm getting excited just writing about it!

Counting Down

The weather outside (yesterday) was frightful.

But, inside we have this delightful advent to keep us counting the days to Christmas. Mary put an amazing amount of work into this fun and adorable advent garland - I just about fell over when I opened her last swap package for Sweet Goodness Swaps. I had been wanting to make something just like this - thanks Mary for all the time and creativity you put into this! We love it - especially the Hershey's Kiss for each one of us inside each stocking or mitten. Yum!

A Little More How To - Gift Tags

I think I just wasn't meant to do much blogging this week - I keep waiting for the sun to come out so I can take pictures of my Christmas decorations. It's just not happening. And if the sun does come out, I'm busy doing something for the boys - changing Ned's diaper or taking Peter to pre-school or getting lunch ready. I am determined to catch the sun this weekend - if it comes out, that is. I heard on the radio this morning that 4-8" of snow is predicted for tonight with a few more tomorrow. Something will work out, right?

In the meantime, I have this pic saved from last week. I sent these tags to Mary for the Sweet Goodness Swap. (I really need to show you the amazing garland Mary sent me - but alas, there are no good pics.) They were super easy to make and I love how they turned out. I used some of my vintage Christmas fabric and cut it out with pinking shears (you'll want to use pinking shears so your fabric doesn't fray) to my desired size (I think these are 1.5" h x 3" w). Then I cut the paper a little bit smaller (like 1" x 2.5"), centered and glued it onto the fabric
with tacky glue. After they were dry, I punched a hole and inserted string. Ta-da - gift tags! And you could make these for any occasion. So easy!

I'm off to do more sewing for the shop - it's a busy time of year and I'm having a lot of fun with it...hope you all are enjoying your holiday season!

Merry Days and Names in Felt

Happy December everyone! I finally got out a little bit of our Christmas decor yesterday (I'll share pics later) - our little tree, a few lights, a nativity. I must confess that I've been dreading getting out the Christmas decorations because I just imagine myself telling Peter and Ned to keep away from them all day long. And true to form, in the first two hours after they were up, decorations were taken off the tree, the tree skirt was pulled askew, and Ned even managed to pull the tree down on himself (it's very small - no harm done, just a bit startling for him). So, I just got out those few things and put the rest away. Call me a Scrooge, but pulling my kids off the Christmas things all day long doesn't really fill me with the holiday spirit! I promise I'm excited for Christmas and all of the loveliness it brings - just let me enjoy it and not have to spend it keeping my children from touching everything they shouldn't!

I've certainly been helping others prepare for the holiday season by making quite a few custom stockings, complete with personalization in the form of a name in felt on the stocking. I've been wanting to do a tutorial on here for quite some time and while working on this little project, I thought sharing with you how I do my felt names would be good. This technique could also use this technique for any sort of shape. And you can use the letters for monogramming, full names, or initials. So, here it goes.

PERSONALIZING WITH FELT LETTERS

1) Use a word processing program to type out your names. Choose a font that is wide enough that you will be able to sew around the outline easily. Use the rulers in your program to guide you in choosing your font size. You should be able to fit your letters to your desired size by playing with the font size until it matches the length and width of space on the item you want personalized.
2) Pin the paper letters to your felt. Cut the letters out with sharp scissors that have small blades that will easily navigate the detailed and small edges of your letters. To cut the inner circles of letters like “a” and “e”, insert your scissors into the middle of the circle and clip a hole. Using this hole as a starting point, cut to the edge of the inner circle and then cut around the circle.
3) Pin the letters securely on fabric, making sure that everything is positioned just how you want it.


4) With a coordinating thread, sew around the edge of each letter. Be prepared to lift the pressure foot (make sure to leave your needle down when you do this) several times as you change directions to make it around your letter. It is beneficial to remove the pin when you have sewn enough that the letter is attached enough to stay in place.


5) Clip the threads and admire your creation!

Dots Revealed

Well, I was surprised that so many of you were so intrigued by my dots. I had thought about posting the recipes from our fabulous dinner last night, but I decided to end the suspense and let you in on my little project. I had a couple of close guesses with a tree skirt. You were all on the right track with a Christmas item, but you aimed too big because I tricked you by piling them up. So go a little smaller and you get stockings - fun, retro, yet modern Christmas stockings with two of my favorite trims - ric rac and pom pom trim. They were so much fun to put together and watching all the pieces come together. I first talked about here - remember the trip for the white cotton velveteen? I shopped here for the fabric on the cuffs. I bought the wool felt when our local Hancocks went out of business. The ric rac is mostly from my stash and the pom pom trim was from the town fabric shop. I haven't talked about it much, but this project has been in the works for a while and it just took it a while to get to the final product. And now that it's here, I'm so pleased with them. They're for the shop and I'm hoping to have them all listed in the next few days.

And I have to thank my friend Phoebe, for sparking all of this Christmas creativity. She sent me an e-mail a month or so ago asking for Christmas stockings that were fun, but a little different, but not so different that they couldn't be a timeless heirloom. So, here is the set I made for her three little ones. If you're into something more like this, I'll be making a special custom listing for the shop.


And I have to thank Sandi for the photos! And her daughter Eliza for being our model up there in that first shot - thanks so much!

Seeing Dots...

Curious? Stay Tuned.....

Halloween WIP

I'm still finishing up on the boy's Halloween costumes. This is how some of the different parts look today:Any guesses yet? There is a dead giveaway in one of the pics.

There's not much left to do one these. I would have been in trouble if we had had any pre-Halloween activities, but I think everything will be finished in plenty of time for tomorrow. Hopefully the boys will cooperate and we will get some good pics of the finished product. Happy Haunting everyone!

Monday WIP

1) Accessories for the boys' Halloween costumes. Yes, I'm being a tease and not telling you what they're going to be be. This is a pretty good clue though.

2) The eleven purses. They're half finished. They would've been finished, but I got side tracked by some new fabric and two custom orders.

3) A new jacket for me with fabric from this pile. I don't usually make time to sew for myself - cut them out? Yes. But actually sew them? I'm going to have to change that!

weekend plans

My order from Sew, Mama, Sew was in my mailbox yesterday! It was so lovely to open - all the fabric folded so beautifully and tied up so nicely. I meant to take a picture of it before I ripped into it, but I was too impatient. And among other yardage (oh, yes - there was much more than this - maybe I'll show some of that later...), I got some bits and pieces of these Halloween fabrics. Then I stopped by the local quilt shop today and picked up the polka dots and now I think I'm ready to whip up something festive!

I realized I haven't really been sharing anything I've been making lately (lots of fabric, but no wips or finished project). I certainly have been sewing, but it's mostly been purses, which is something you've all seen before. But, I am officially declaring the next few days purse free, so it's time to figure out the costumes (Ryan is still not 100% on board with Peter Pan family costumes, so I'm thinking about plan B), time to do some fall clothing sewing, and time to get some aprons back in the shop.

Take a look...

We had a fun Fourth of July with family and friends. I managed to fit in a couple of visits to old friends, a bit of thrifting (more on that later), and a photo shoot for my hand bags - thanks to my brother-in-law Chad. I needed some high quality photos because I am going to submit them for this book. I love how they turned out, and I must give all the credit to Chad - he came up with the idea (which I loved) and did all the hard work. It's great to have talent in the family! He took over 200 photos - here are a few of the best ones (well, they were all great, but I couldn't realistically show them all).


And now, time to get back to sewing. I took some crochet projects with me on our trip, but I kept thinking of all of the sewing projects that I needed to do when I got home - it was quite distracting. I have so many things to do, but it's nice to be busy. First on the list though is turning some of the zucchini my father-in-law sent home with us into these. YUM!

p.s. I am not so careful with my own photos, but these are not mine, so please do not copy them or use them in any way!