Guess What?

Gee... Based on my current flickr favorites can you tell what is on my mind? Bags maybe, and rounded bags to boot! Hopefully I will have some of my own to share soon enough! Till then eat up some of the crafty goodness, dont worry it is sweet but calorie free!



See my flickr account for credit (blogger was being stupid with my links sorry!)

Check... All done

I love doll quilts. they allow me to be creative and keep working on my hopefully improving quilting skills. Everything with this quilt was going along smoothly until I got full of myself and rushed the binding. Leave it to me to rush and mess something up. I hope my partner can look past the wonky binding because in all honesty this has been my best quilt to date. I just may have to make a similar one for Leila's babies.



Please forgive the horrible photos, also taken in a rush right before sunset. I hope my partner can get a few better pictures up of it. Oh and the embroidery? The pattern was bought at this etsy shop. She doesnt have one up for sale right now but I would say either contact her or wait a few days a new posting I would think would be up.


Now off to draft a few new purse ideas. Cant wait to attack those bad boys! The feeling of getting things accomplished is priceless!

Seriously?

Let me start off by saying I have had self esteem issues my whole life. As a mother of a girl I am terrified that she will go through the same struggles I have. I cant shelter her as much as I wish I could but really is it so wrong to wish that kids would just be kids?

I am really upset, angry, sadden by the "newest Hollywood scandal" Miss Miley Cyrus and her (in my opinion) overly sexual pictures from Vanity Fair. When was it that young girls started to feel pressured into being sexual objects when many of them havent even or just hit puberty!?!?!? Seriously.

I am angry at her parents, I am angry at the magazine I am angry at the photographer. They all were using clouded Hollywood thinking. Little girls much younger than even 15 look up to her, what message does that send to them?

I am angry because there is nothing I feel I can do, Leila is too young to know what is going on and by the time she is old enough to "idolize" the media as most children do, as hard as their parents try to control it, I am hoping and wishing that by that age there has been a big enough backlash that kids get to be kids again and are no longer rushing the image of adulthood. Seriously I am an adult I would much rather be a kid.

As a parent I am outraged that another parent would willing put their child's image out there in a way that adult men may take pleasure while viewing those pictures. To me that is wrong in every sense of the word. Shame on them, if any other parent was to do something like that the police and child services would be on their door.

I am sick of Hollywood I am sick of the messages it is sending out to the general public, especially impressionable minds.

Seriously if I didn't like blogging and my electrically charged sewing machine I would become Amish.

Today I...

Hid the pinking shears from a fearless little girl

Listened to some amazing thunder

Laughed (a lot) with great co-workers

Had my ego bruised

Searched for inspiration

Got a present in the mail

ordered a present for a special someone

Bought this book

Made potstickers

Cuddled with the best baby in the world

Hoping to have a fun crafty awe-inspiring weekend

(thanks Val for the posting idea)

Some more sewing was done this past weekend. And as a thank you gift I created those little pillows from some table linens. What do you think of the bag styles? I keep going back and forth on them.

Ken's Photos

As promised here are some of Ken's photos from our photo trip day.

Photo-op

Ken and I don’t have a lot shared hobbies. He hates thrift stores, garage sales are boring to him and only occasionally will he go to an estate sale normally just to check out the house.

The one hobby we do have in common is photography. Ken is a much more technical photographer than I am. He tries to explain things to me but I admit I normally glaze over and start to regret why I even asked the question in the first place.

I am more of a snap a million photos and hope I get a few good ones. Ken is the complete opposite and he will sit in one spot for a long time contemplating until he gets the perfect angles. Later this week I will share some of his photos.

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous so we took a long walk around town and took our cameras along. Leila lately has been obsessed with her stroller and gets extremely upset when we take her out of it. So even when I find the PERFECT photo spots nothing but tears from our baby girl.

In the end though we gave our apologies for taking her out of her stroller with some of the best ice cream in the state. Yum!

But why

One of the many blogs I read posted a great question today. Basically she wanted to know why people craft. My answer? Because I have to, it to me is like breathing. I have always been "crafty" though more hot glue gun crafty. Now a days it is obviously that I am drawn to sewing. Something I hope to do for the rest of my life. I think though the biggest reason I create things is that so one day some 20 something year old will find something I created years after I am long gone at an antique store and will be connected to me and pass my spirit on for another generation. So basically I create because I want to be that cool funky spirit that haunts for fun *smile*

Oh and the photos? The starting of my spring/summer doll quilt for this swap. I am really happy with the start of it. Granted it isnt at all looking at what I originally was going for but I am rolling along with it and I think it is going to be a great one of a kind original. And the color palette, lickable I would say!

My newest hobby

I have artsy-fartsy ADD I always have. Sewing I always come back to but photography has always been a secret love of mine. I used to take a million photos when I was a teen and now. Well now I am in love again. This time with a medium I had never tried and thanks to some great photo blogs I took the plunge and now I am driving all over the place to pick up film before I can only find it on ebay. The top photo is a handful of the recent photos I took this weekend. And the group of bowls? It is my favorite so far. Now I just have to convince Ken that we really DO need a scanner so I can start showing these online properly. Oh and the next medium? I am going to try 126-film if it kills me!

Sewing mojo

I lost my sewing mojo awhile ago, I was just too stressed to really do anything. I am happy to report it is back. I am however still having a tough time finding time when I have a goof ball in the house always screaming for her photo to be taken.

For the love of shoes

All four pair were found at the same St. Vinnies, all my size, all under $3 seriously how could I say no?!?!?!
(Dont they look pretty enough to eat?)

2am wake-up call

No one warns you when you have a baby that after they start sleeping through the night there are still nights that you will have a 2am wake-up call that is non stop crying.


No matter what you do the crying wont stop. Sit stand rock nothing but tears.

We had a rough night last night which meant a day home from work otherwise I would have fallen asleep at the wheel from exhaustion.


Oh and the following morning through the cuddles and tears all that keeps the calm is thumb sucking and a dinosaur. Yep those are life lessons you will never find in any book.

Done with Seriousness

Last week was a tough one. Leila and I battled a stubborn head cold. I think it has finally passed (a slight cough still remains for us both) but boy did it wipe me both physically and mentally. I was so sick of being sick that really it put a dark cloud over my mood which lucky for me doesnt happen very often. So I am back and I promise I wont sneeze on you!

Calling all South Central Wisconsin Artists!!!

Many who have read this blog for awhile know some of my history but let me sum it up for you all. I have been sewing for about 2 years now. I have my goods in a few stores within Wisconsin, have an Etsy store, and this blog.

I am now hoping to open up a Co-Op Studio/Gallery in my hometown of Stoughton, WI. I had found one other artist that was hoping to do this as well and we were going forward, unfortunately as of today she has left me high and dry to do this with a friend of hers and they do not want to include another artist in the mix. Also they were not crafter friendly and I am hardly fine art, so that was a sad note for me to land on today. Instead of wallowing I have picked my head up and I am marching on to start working on creating my own dream of a funky, indie-artist friendly studio space with a co-op gallery.

Here is the ultimate dream:
-Have a studio that is available at any time for the artists involved.
-Have open studio time to work around the artists' time.
-To sell our wares so that we can help pay the rent.
-Split cost (rent & utilities) equally among all of the artists.
-Have workshops and craft shows as we see fit and as there is a demand for.
-Someday to possibly take in commission work.

**I should note, I am not doing this Co-Op for the money in any way I am just hoping to create an affordable art studio for other “struggling” artists. Any profit made in my mind is just a bonus. ( I have a full time job to pay my bills as of right now) So those that are looking for this to be a full time open boutique this is not the direction that I want for the Co-Op.**

Now here is where I need you, my readers, to help me out I am in the infancy of getting this off the ground but the biggest road block I am having is finding artists (go figure). Please pass this opportunity out to any artists you think would be interested in this venture. With all of your help I may have an easier time getting this dream off the ground and finding some great like minded artists to join me. Please feel free to email me at artsymomma@gmail.com with any questions or ideas you may have.

(For those not in Wisconsin an idea where Stoughton is, it is 20 minutes south of Madison.)