More from the craft room

Fingers crossed, sewing and painting will get done this weekend. I am so behind on so many deadlines, ugh.

In the workroom

Still boring around here. I do have some big news but it will have to wait for awhile (no I am not pregnant), so for the rest of the week, random pictures of items in the craft room. Hopefully this blogging thing gets back on track soon, I feel lost lately and not sure how to express it properly.

This has been the state of our house lately. Leila and I both have the painting bug. I think I might be infatuated. The great thing about the projects I am doing is that they have to go in steps since I need drying time between each step. It forces me to slow down. I am normally a "do the craft as fast as you can to get results" type of crafter. No more and I must say I really am liking this slowed down pace.

It's in the bag

I recently created a purse for my best friend Katy. She has two little ones and with that comes a lot of baggage (pun completely intended) and she wanted a larger purse when she goes out.

I came up with this as the proto-type but I am not 100% sure about it. We are going to add pockets as well as a closure. I just recently won a few "vintage" purse patterns from e-Bay and I am going to take a look at them.

Otherwise I think a hobo bag would be better for her, looks small but really will hold everything that she needs to take with her when they go out.

I love this purse though it looks like something people would use to take a picnic to the park, and well, looking at it makes me feel warmer especially with our zero degree weather lately.

Great finds at St. Vincent de Paul

I love St. Vincent de Paul (St. Vinny's) I have never been able to leave this thrift store without something in my hands. Today was an actually extra good day and I feel compelled to share the goodies that I found.
I bought this Chinese cd for Ken though I wasnt sure if it was Chinese or Japanese until he confirmed that it was Chinese. We live in a small city of less then 12000 how the heck a Chinese cd got into the doors of St. Vinny's I wont ever know.

I love how Chinese cds are packaged there are always little goodies attached and the packaging is always so pretty and artsy. I love looking through this cd book.


I have a weakness for older craft books this one has a few cute projects to try but the kicker for me to spend my hard earned dollar was this photo:
I can only hope that Leila never looks THAT happy about anything I sew for her. This girl looks utterly miserable which made me laugh out loud when I came across the photo. Who said YEP that is a great photo lets use that one to show how much kids love these projects!


I also found this great planner book that I absolutely love. My favorite part is the appointment listings: who, when, where



I also snag a Martha Stewart book copy write '95, a old school decal with a donkey and flowers, and a baby photo album with some vintage looking babies gracing the cover. For $8 I think it was all a worth wild investment.

Additional decorating to be done

For my workroom that is. As I have noted before I love to collect things and this is my newest thing that I have collected. Old fashion drawings. From what I can tell some of them are original hand drawings and some are hand drawings copied on to other paper. I love these drawings I was only able to get my hands on 6 frames that I plan on painting black this weekend (thank goodness for St. Vincents). I have such a huge stack of photos it was hard to find just 6. I am hoping that by this summer I will be able to have a wall full of these sketches to add as decoration to the sewing room.

This week has been rather disappointing as far as sewing has gone I havent been able to sew anything and have only cut out one purse. Leila has been in a terror of teething lately and is having a hard time taking naps lately. I love her to death but really cant wait for this phase to pass. In the mean time she is crawling up a storm and I am trying to keep two steps ahead of her vacuuming up a storm. If only we could replace the carpet with hardwood floors I would be in heaven.
Here is a fun contest that Kelly has started. I think this would be a great way for me to get into the valentine's day spirit.

Tax time: how to blow my money

Yea! we are getting money back and now comes the fun part. Well actually here comes the dilemma do I do the adult and responsible thing and pay off some bills so that in the long run I will have more money to spend. Or do I do the thing we do every year and spend it frivolously?

Responsible me would do the following:

Pay a portion of Leila's outstanding medical bills
Pay off my smaller credit cards so we have those for emergency only
Pay off the furniture we bought this summer

Frivolous me:

Some sort of steam press
Contract out a website from Arianne
Spend a large chunk at reprodepotfabrics

While frivolous me will justify the purchases to responsible me by stating that these purchases are to help my business.

Stay tuned to see which voice wins in my head...

My second home

I am a bad mother, well not a bad mother just an opportunist I suppose. Leila is 8 months old and about 4 months ago after listening to my husband complain for the last time about my sewing taking over the whole house I decided to take the room that was to designated to Leila (she has always slept in our room even before this) that it would be my sewing room until she is old enough to justify having an entire room to herself. That isnt horrible right? She wont remember a baby room I tell myself and besides I know she wont mind when she gets older because I have vowed to make sure she has a studio/bedroom of her own as she grows.

Though I am now in big trouble since a bigger area for sewing means more stuff *smile* my stash has a mind of its own now and vintage fabric has taken over what once was Leila's room and is now designated as my "craft room"

To make sure I remember who's room this is really for I keep all of Leila's pandas in the room. Before Leila was born we decided not to find out her sex so as a nickname we called her Pan-Pan since I knew I wanted to decorate the baby's room in Pandas but didnt want to call her Panda so the nickname Pan-Pan came about and with the nickname came the abundance of stuffed pandas. They are now the protectors of the fabric until Leila is old enough to call them her own and hug the stuffing out of them.

I just dont know what I will do if we have a second child, we just may have to buy a house since we cant add onto our apartment as much as we wish we could. And I cant image going back to sewing in the living room!

What a great weekend...

Well sort of. I got a lot of sewing done that I absolutely love and Leila was in a good mood most of the weekend so that is always a plus.

I was also able to start sewing my newest line. I have started to create a home decor line it is just at its earliest stages but it is a HUGE step for me!















I am really happy with how these all turned out. I have a few more that I didnt post pictures of but they will all be listed on Etsy soon. So check back often!

Leila got a new hat from Etsy this weekend from a great store called AmigurumiKawaii

Though she doesnt look like a little devil with the hat on (it is still a little big for her) she does look awfully cute!


As to the reason this weekend was a sort of good weekend, I was given some awful news early this morning as well. One of my uncles was just diagnosed with stage 4 skin cancer. I dont know much more than that just that it doesnt look good and to really prepare for the worst. It is a hard blow in his family in general just due to all of the health problems that have recently plagued them. I am really in shock and the numb stage right now sort of at an out of body feeling right now, it is just surreal. I just hope he can be as comfortable as possible in his last few years and do those things he always thought he would do some day but never had the time in the past to do. I wish that for everyone really, live your life and live your dreams this isnt a dress rehearsal you only get one shot.

Custom orders are the best

I love doing custom orders. This last one I did was especially fun because my customer sent her own fabric. I always love to see what people will put together she did a great job and the purse gives off an awesome vintage feeling.

The truly amazing thing about this purse was it was the fastest purse I have put together. I had cut out the fabric last night while Leila was in a good mood.

This afternoon while Leila went down for her nap I started to sew it together, mind you I figured I would get half way done since Leila is famous for 15 minute cat naps. She actually took a decent nap and I was able to get it completely done in one sitting as well as get it photographed AND loaded onto Etsy. I feel so productive, I have been more productive this last week then I have in months.

I am hoping this will be a good weekend to catch up on even more sewing. When I first started sewing only 6 months ago I would never had thought I would be so in love with it and so obsessed. I cant wait to see my progress in even the next 6 months since I have grown by leaps and bounds already.


Leila is also growing in leaps and bounds she is pulling herself up and propping herself up against things and now believes I am the human jungle gym. Though the greatest thing is she has learned to give kisses however they are usually open mouth and she likes to lick our cheeks in the process. My baby girl turned 8 months yesterday my god how time has flown.

I admit I collect clutter

To my husbands dismay really I have always been a person who collects things. Though I have never been a person to just collect one certain thing.

I have an obsession with vintage/antiques and scatter them throughout the house though right now I can only afford smaller things and it basically looks like our house is a 24 hour garage sale.
I like that feeling my husband does not he is a minimalist and while I would love to say I am as well I know that in my heart I could never be one.

Because of my collecting disease eBay is my enemy (well, my best friend my husbands enemy) I am always finding something to float to my mail box to be added to my collection. To me eBay is like the best garage sale EVER. I hardly go on there for actual needed things besides cute outfits for my daughter normally it is just to collect more things that I really dont need.

I know that there could be worse things in life, and my husband was well aware of my habits well before we got married (we lived together for 5 years before we got married) but I know he still thinks that one day *poof* they will disappear.

Poor man, I dont think he will ever learn.

I miss my wedding day

Well actually the planning of it (believe it or not) . Wedding plans are in full swing all around the country ( I read somewhere that the holidays are a big time for proposals) and I have the fever again. Don't get me wrong I loved my wedding and how it turned out but it was rushed and I am counting the years for our 5, 10, 25th anniversary so that we can have a vow renewing (it will be our 25th I am sure since it silly to do it any earlier I suppose) .

I did everything for my wedding by hand or by the hand of someone else who had the skills/knowledge (ie my seamstress who took a $100 eBay find of a dress and added a corset for me to turn it into my dream dress) and I wouldnt have it any other way which is why I am so glad I posted this on my Etsy site. Since I am already married I love that I get to now be part of other women's dream weddings.

I would LOVE to be a wedding planner but I know I dont have the knowledge or the experience yet to make a mark in the market though it is something I may still look into one day to pursue.

Back to the reason of this post *smile* I met a wonderful soon-to-be bride who wanted to get a cost quote and I whipped up an arrangement for her based on our email conversations and the vibe she was going for. I whipped this up while the baby napped. Thankfully my teething baby didnt take only a 15 minute cat nap like she does so often now!

Hopefully the bride likes the arrangement and we can go forward with the order, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Till then doesnt this bouquet scream spring? Funny I can create this with 8 inches of snow out my window! Just like on my wedding day. Maybe I will create a new trend with the 5 year wedding vow renewal....

Artist block BE GONE!

Thanks to my dear, dear sweet husband I had enough time this weekend to do a whole bunch of sewing.

I made two purses today...


I have named this retro tote Doris, after Doris Day I suppose though I dont know why! I have always liked having funky magazine/library totes. I recently found my favorite one at an estate sale and thought that there must be more people in the world who need and what beautiful one of a kind magazine totes. So when I found the black and white fabric I knew EXACTLY what its purpose was! I have a feeling this one may be hard to give up!


I also created a purse that really took over itself when I started sewing it together, it didnt turn out the way I was thinking it would but I still really love the end result and this fabric is so pretty. It is weird to work with fabric that reminds me of spring and summer when I am looking outside to a neighborhood blanketed by snow.