oops

So I made all my Christmas gifts
4 peanut the elephants, 1 handbag, 1 grocery bag keeper, 1 cloth grocery bag, 1 set of cloth napkins, 1 set coasters, 1 pincushion, 1 curtain, and 3 fishing sets.

but I didn't take a single picture, and now they are all gone. :(

Grrr

So my plan to cohesively decorate the entertainment space of the house has been foiled. Yesterday my loving finance has informed me that he does not want the Amy Butler charm fabric "all over the house" because as he put it "it looks like something old people would decorate with" to which I must ask, well why the heck did he say he liked it in the first place, and out loud I said, "well that'll teach you to lie about rather or not you like a print." and of course he back tracked and said he did like it, just that he thought it looked like old people fabric. which I personally have trouble reconciling those two images but anyway... So now I need to come up with some other way to pull the four rooms together in accessory land.

The Job Hunt is over

Here's my new baby. ( photo by blogger, gsdgsd13, who took a series of nice shots of the house) You can also see more info on the house here. I'll be heading up the wood conservation, its so nice to be back in the field that I love. I've very excited and I can't wait to watch her evolve like a phoenix from the ashes (the last major damage was fire after all).

Mail issues..

Melody,
Thats super awsome of you to offer to send me a new bookmark, I feel awfull that somebody stole the other one. I don't have your e-mail address to send you my home address but if you go to the EtsyAtlanta Blog link on the side of my blog here, and leave a comment in any of the posts with your e-mail address I'm the admin so I have to approve them before they go live, I can get it that way, and keep the world from seeing it.
I think that we're going to get a mail box with a lock on it. I hate worrying about my mail all the time espeicaly since here in Georgia were the identity theft capitol of the US.

anyway Thanks again Melody, your awsome.

-Jenn

done so far...

0 peanut the elephants (two are almost done)
1 handbag (technically two but I boxed the corners on the wrong sides on the first one)
1 grocery bag keeper
0 cloth grocery bags
1 set of cloth napkins
1 set coasters

Mail issues

So apparently some one has been stealing all the mail in the neighborhood. I have currently not received two of my swaps and I'm so angry that some stranger may have snatched them out of my box. With all the love and care that someone put into making something special, to have it stolen. And I'm sure that since there was no money in it that they just tossed it too. Anyway If you sent me a swap, with the exception of Nijaprincess, I have not received it. Please let me know if you have not yet mailed it, or if you mailed it recently.
Nijaprincess's beautiful Cardinal ornament made it just fine, and its now hanging proudly as the only Christmas ornament I own. I know that sounds sad, but we didn't have a tree before, lack of room and what not. I was going to get one this year but after looking at the prices I think I will wait till after season sales to pick one up. In the mean time my cardinal ornament holds a treeless place of honor. I'll post a picture of it as soon as I get off my lazy butt and take one :)

(note: lazy butt has made five handmade Christmas presents today, so I suppose I have an excuse ;)

PS note, I just realized that one of the swaps isn't due to ship until Dec. 1st so I'm hoping that my partner hasn't shipped yet, so some nasty person hasn't stolen it. I'll hold off on panicking.

Progress Pictures

Ok first here we have some Peanuts from the pattern in Last Minute Patchwork Gifts.
Then we have my in progress valance for the kitchen window. Its hanging up now, but I think I want to take it down and make a couple changes.
And Last but not least my finished couch pillows. The Brown one is made from burnout velvet that I found in the "cheep" upholstery/home dec. section at JoAnn's a couple years ago. Alas there was barely a yard of it so its been lovingly rationed to make the best use of it. The back side is a non directional velvet I found at a specialty store that lucky me just happened to match the other velvet perfectly.

Vocabulary Fun

I found this linked from How about Orange which if you havn't seen you should jump on over and read. Anyway, I love vocabulary building games, I'm up to 450 grains of rice. Not much in the scheame of feeding someone, but I suppose every bit helps. (and as selfish as it may be I'm here for the vocabulary, especialy since I"m not sure that any food donated will ever actualy make it to people, I'm always hearing about shipments being confiscated by warlords and terrorists and stuff) ANYWAY you should check it out its fun....

Making progress, and Peanuts

I actualy got alot done this weekend. I mailed all my swap items to all my swap partners. I went to the fabric store on Friday, I realy shoudn't do this but I like the fabric store. At Gail K Fabrics I found the perfect backing fabric for my decorative pillows, a couple one yard peices of wool suiting, and a neon green peice of linen. Then I went to the quilting store, Intown Quilters, and purused the sale room in the basement for like an hour. You know its bad when the sales people keep asking if your ok. I got ten 1/4 yard peices and a 5 $ stuff bag of scraps. (if you can call these scraps, they're pretty big peices) I went home and made the pillows, made some coasters for friends for the holidays, washed the green linen which is for a coworkers cloth lunch napkins. And made a Peanut out of Last Minute Patchwork Gifts. Which if you don't own you should run out and buy right this minute. Now!! go! I'll still be here when you get back. Ok anyway, the coasters and the stuffed elephant are from the book. I'm making a stuffed elephant for the children of every friend we have. (with kids under five) so I should make five more of them, I already made one for me. I realy like this book. I'm a real stickler for paying money for, well anything. I've got this price range that I see acceptable. For example I don't like to pay more than 20 for a hardback book. This one was more than that at the book store, but I couldn't help it. I bought it anyway and I'm definatly getting full usage out of it. Oh and if you want to make a peanut of your own, it only takes a quarter yard, not the half yard she says in the book. So far thats the only flaw I've found. So here's whats left...

5 peanut the elephants
1 handbag
1 grocery bag keeper
2 cloth grocery bags
1 set of cloth napkins
and two more sets of as yet unidentified gifts

Thats not to bad right? :) I'll take pictures and post as I go.

A little less stress

I have an interview for an archivst position with the city of Decatur the first week of December, and although its a temp job only 6 months, it helps releive my job hunting stress for the moment. I also talked to my dad last night, and managed to convince him not to be mad that Jem and I are running away to a foreign island to get married, by telling him that the island marrage isn't legal in the US and that we'd have a court house ceremony that he could come to when we got back. Technicly this isn't exactly correct, as the Island marrage is legal in the US you just have to go to the courthouse and have them certify it when you get home. But I don't want to argue with him anymore about my own wedding that he's not paying for. So stress relieved there too. On top of this I made curtains for the sidelights on our front door, finished all my swap items, just need to mail them, and the main pillows are done for the living room. So that just leaves the decorative pillows, and throw blanket, the hamper liners, everything on my hope chest list, and oh yeah... My wedding dress to sew and Next week is thanksgiving at our house, but thats easy.
Yeah I know. I'm crazy.

Wedding dress update.

I can't get pictures from her site so please jump over for a look. I'm looking at making something similar to the Josephine, or the Lucile which you will find under tea length dresses and then on page three. Basicly I'm thinking slightly puffy tea length dress with speghetti straps as the under dress, and then an over dress made in lace. I might make the lace part a wrap dress so its easier to get in and out of. kinda like a lace coat. Here's another example. It's not quite what I'm going for but you'll get the idea.

More on that hope chest thing

So I'm looking over the list, and if you add it out it dosn't quite work. For example she says she's got four bedrooms, and a sleeping porch, but she's only got three sets of pillows. Someones gona have a kink in their neck. And dose anyone know what a japanese luncheon cloth is? Oh never mind just looked it up. In case you were curious it apears to be a small table cloth.
Ok so when our house is finished, right now the upstairs and basement are unfinished, it will be a 5/3 but one of those bedrooms will be an office so lets say 4/3. So here's what I've come up with for the list... 10 sheet sets with pillows (how funny they will all be diferent sizes. we have one of each) sham's seem a little outdated (in case your wondering thats the thing your grandma used to put over the guest bed sheets to keep the bed from getting dusty when no one was sleeping in it) so we'll skip that. 2 comforters, and four quilts. I would like have four table cloths, 2 white, and two in holiday colors with matching napkins. and three runners (one for fall, christmas, and one for the rest of the year) with matching placemats, and napkins. One centerpeice for each season, so four total. I dont have a buffet but we use our breakfast table for such things so I suppose I need insilated table cloths for that too. Lets say one for everday and then fall and Christmas so three.We are going to need a heck of alot more than five cushions but I'll skip this since I already made the ones for the living room. Thats one of them under my ring a few posts down. I think a dozen kitchen towels is sufficiant. Not gonna worry about towels, since thats some thing I already have. Six pot holders. Three laundry bags (I don't like to sort at the machine) + one for drycleaning and some aprons, because well you can never have to many even if you never wear them so why put a number on it? And then some extras.

Ok so all told it looks like this:

2 king sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 1 comforter, and quilt
2 Queen sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 1 comforter and quilt
2 Full sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 1 quilt
4 Twin sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 2 quilts
2 white table cloths for 10 seat table + matching napkins1 red table cloth for 10 seat table + matching napkins1 green table cloth for 10 seat table + matching napkins
3 table runners for 10 seat table + matching place mats and napkins, One every day, one fall themed, and one winter holiday themed.
4 seasonal centerpeices
3 table cloths for breakfast table pluss two insilated pads
12 kitchen towels, 12 dish cloths
6 pot holders
4 laundry bags (one with drawstring for dry cleaning)
12 curtains

that looks like a lot of work huh. Guess I'll be busy for a while although everything for the bed except the quilts will likely be bought.

Hope chest

I have always hoped that when I got married that my dad (who is a furniture maker) would make me a hope chest. Now that being said he made me a peir table when I was eight and he still owes me a coffie table and two end tables. So I'm not holding my breath. Anyway I like the idea of a hope chest, and filling it with the apropreate linens, and while puruseing blog land this morning I came across Primrose Designs post on the subject. She found a list of what was excpected to be in a hope chest, and while I'm not sure if this was a standard or just one woman's requirments I found it interesting. Here's the list which I copy pasted from Primrose, I hope she dosn't mind..

"I found the following hope chest list very satisfactory for my own little home: Eight sheets, eight pairs of pillowcases, four sheet-shams, four comforts, two pairs of double blankets, three pairs of pillows, two white tablecloths, two dozen white napkins, two Japanese luncheon-cloths, two dozen napkins to match, one between-meal centerpiece, four miscellaneous centerpieces, two buffet-scarfs or sets, four dresser-scarfs or sets, two machine-scarfs, two library-scarfs, one centerpiece and piano scarf, five cushions, three dozen dish towels, eighteen each of hand-towels and washcloths, one dozen bath towels, six holders for kitchen use, laundry—bag, combing—jacket and kimono, one each, three envelope-chemises, four camisoles, six petticoats, silk and washable, five each of nightgowns, house-dresses and bungalow aprons, and six slip-on aprons. This list was intended for four rooms and sleeping-porch, and is ample. It may, of course, be taken from or added to as required, but in a general way is very good."—Mrs. M. L. K., California

guessing by the list that must have been and enormous chest, and it seems to have EVERYTHING she owned in it. I think I'll rework the list a bit for modern times and mull over the idea of actualy makeing it all. I probably wont get to far untill after the wedding since I'm still on this crazy I'm gonna make my dress kick.

Speaking of which if you know of any good sites to check to get ideas for my dress or patterns please leave a comment, I'm looking for a thin shoulder strap dress with a lower, perhaps cleavagey neckline, in something that hits mid calf or just below the knee. We're thinking of tying the knot on the beach and I don't want the dress to drag in the sand.

Thanks!

Swaperu!!

I was so excited to find my mailman had hidden a package for me today! (He, thoughtfully, always hides my packages somewhere on my porch once he hid a flat mailer under my doormat, took a couple days to figure out where it was...) Check out the beautiful package I received from my swap partner Neila. Sorry the picture is a little small. It's also on my flicker page. Lets see clockwise from the bottom left... A set of paper napkins that will come in quite handy at Thanksgiving dinner, A pumpkin, which will join the pumpkin I inherited from my grandmother, they seem to be put together in the same way and even the stem is the same, although the older pumpkin is just orange Jem, (my fiancee's online name not real name, did I tell you all that already? Its from to kill a mocking bird) anyway, Jem says I need three to call it a pumpkin patch, but I'll call it one anyway. They make a great little center piece. Then I have a Pumpkin mug which will be filled with Hot chocolate here soon, some pumpkin hand soap (already in the guest bathroom) a pumpkin car freshener, A cross stitch fall themed kitchen towel (already in the kitchen) which looks realy good from the back side too. I'm not that good with the back sides of things, major kudos to Neila. Its my favorite thing, well it and the pumpkin. Some fall themed ribbon, I wish I had more fall gifts to give... a box of Chocolates which I gave to Jem becuase he loves chocolate and he kept eyeing it anyway, if I'm lucky he might share a piece. Some pumpkin bubble bath and some apple lip gloss, and four fat quarters which I think will become cloth napkins but I'm not sure yet. The yellow one is my favorite fabric it has a lovely vintage feel. Thanks so much Neila its wonderfull!

Plans

So I'm a bit overwhelmed right now. I already had a lot to do, and now all I realy want to do is submerge myself in planning the wedding. However I'm finding its one thing to have spent however many previous years thinking about what I would want in a wedding, and an entirely diferent thing to start commiting to actual decisions.... So far the only thing I'm sure on is that I want to make my dress. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

I have an announcement...

Pretty Pillows

A couple of weeks ago I found (upon recommendation) a beautiful quilting fabric store near my house. I don't quilt but they have the most beautiful fabrics in these stores, and who says they have to be quilts? Anyway I spent two hours so very excited wandering around the small shop, and eventually I decided on some Amy Butler fabric which I found in their sale section. (I'm a die hard sale shopper I find it very hard to purchase things at full price, almost offencive actually I don't know why I just do) so I got two yards of her Golden Covington Tile from the Charm collection, some fabric for my fall swap, and a bag of scraps. They let you stuff a plastic bag full of scraps and its five bucks for the whole bag. Let me tell you I can stuff A LOT of fabric in a bag. There were some fabulous scraps. Things that would have been quarter yard cuts, but they were length wise rather than width wise. All the more for me as it were. So I take the Amy Butler fabric home, with the intent of making a skirt or something out of it. I'm certain that my boyfriend, who we shall henceforth referrer to by his forum name Jem (from to kill a mocking bird if your curious), I'm certain he'll hate it. He hates nearly all the fabric I bring home to place oh so lovingly in my stash. I show it to him when he gets home. He likes it. I'm stunned. So I have a lot of projects on my plate and it sits on the shelf till this past weekend when I'm walking around the house with bits and pieces of my stash. What don't you do that? And I notice that the yellow matches my entertaining space walls, and the green matches the kitchen... and then I spy the shabby icky pillows on the couch. We have a craftsman style house which we are progressively working to make a real craftsman, its a pretend craftsman now. And I think this fabric is PERFECT for that style So I start making pillows. And then I'm thinking I'll make a nice little valance for the kitchen which is unusual cause I hate valances. The fabric starts to run out. I panic. And this ends with me pulling into the fabric store after work yesterday just as they are closing, they graciously let me in anyway, and searching high and low for the fabric, which is no longer in the sale section. Apparently it got put back in the wrong place, which may be good it probably saved it from someone else getting it. I bought the rest of the bolt. All four yards. So now I can make pillows and napkins, and valances and whatever else for the house with a little less omg I'm gonna run out panic.

I think the fabric's so pretty don't you?

Machine update

Ok so my brother machine died a couple weeks ago. And while I was at my boyfriends mom's house she says "Oh I heard your machine died, I have a machine in the closet that I bought and never used, its new in the box you can have it if you want" So I'm all excited... well apparently she bought it in 1983. and never used it... Who dose that? I mean really. Anyway so I take the machine, on the condition that if it doesn't do what I need it to I'm bringing it back to her. The machine weighs at least 80 pounds. For god's sake the treadle is lighter, WITH the cast iron base. I does run and it is a trouper, I have run through two layers of webbing with out issue. Doesn't like thin fabric though, and by thin I mean cotton, which seems a little weird to me. But the final kicker was it only has one speed. The best analogy I can give is that its like having a car that can only go 35 mph. Yeah you'll get there, and it's ok for neighborhood driving, but when you want to get on the freeway it just isn't going to cut it. So I'm still looking for a new machine. This one will stay with me till I get the new one, hopefully soon, and then it will return to the dark cave like closet from whence it came. Perhaps in another twenty something years someone else will like it.

Treadle Update

Ok as promised like forever ago, here are some pictures of my lovely treadle...
The first picture is the case, not really in good condition at all. I've since taken that particular piece off. Second pic is the sideways "I'm to lazy to rotate this pic" image of the base, which I have since resprayed. It had some serious rust. Next we have the also rusty silver thingamabob on the back of the machine. I don't know what it is but most of that rust came off with some help from my "bar keepers friend". Last but not least here are two shots of the gilt embellishment on the machine head. Its actually in pretty decent shape, not to much wear even where the fabric would have slid over it all the time. I think the person who last owned it knew it was going into storage for a long time, they caked the thing in machine oil. So it could have been worse. Now I have to figure out if I can replace the missing pieces. Need a new front half of the throat plate, and probably some other parts...

Busy as a bee

Sorry I've been awol lately. I've been working dilgently on my fall swap, and on the creation of a group blog for our EtsyAtlanta group. And then theirs the holiday season of shows comeing up, and looking for a new job etc. etc. etc. Anyway I've been overwhelmingly busy this past week, and probalby next week too, but I think things will be back to normal maybe mid november? Please? Anyway, Back to work!

Movin along

I picked up the treadle this weekend, and I took lots of pictures, which I of course havn't uploaded yet. I got it all cleaned off, and re enameled the iron base. I can't realy tell if the machine is in good order or not. It looks ok, cleaned up all right and all, but I think its missing some peices. The table however, we'll lets just say I'm thinking about painting it. That say A LOT about its condition considering I was a furniture conservator for quite a while, if the finish could be fixed I would. The veneer is all thin and broken, and someone in thier "brilliance" seemed to think it would be a good idea to coat it in a highly colored liquid wax, which has become something akin to paint by now. I'm frankly surprized that the machine hasn't just fallen out. I'll upload the pictures later, I promise!!

I made pumpkin pie monday night.... it's all gone now but oh it was good ;) Ther's nothing quite like the first pumpkin pie of fall!
And this morning I got my swap partner for the fall swap I'm SOOO excited. This is my first swap and I've been compiling ideas for two weeks now, but paitently waiting for my partner so I can properly tailor the package. So Neila, prepare to be spoiled!!

Requiescat in pace

My first sewing machine has died. It is no longer capable of maintaining thread tension. Normally I would fix these sorts of things myself, but the panel that this particular broken part is hidden behind is locked in place by a machine stripped screw and I have no way to get it out. I guess it will go to the donation pile where some other unfortunate soul might take it to the repair shop, and I suppose I will be asking for a new machine this Christmas instead of filling out my kitchen a little more. Much sadness all around.

More Loot

Good day for thrift shopping I got three table cloths three skirts and a bunch of fabric. Almost makes up for having to go to the dentist this morning. Hmm thats sideways, oh well you can turn your head right? My apologies to those who can't.

Beer! AND loot!!!

On Monday we went to a beer tasting dinner at the River Room, very tasty, AND they let us keep the glasses. The other people at the table didn't want their glasses, and I have no shame so I also asked the guy cleaning up if I could have the glasses other people left. Here's my loot!

Going places...

Ok since I didn't post this right after it happened its a little out of order. A couple of weeks ago I went with my boyfriend to Barber Motor Sports Park, so he could drive his car super fast, as he is want to do. Anyway to keep myself occupied I brought some sewing, I'm making embroidered covers for passports, here's the elephant one in progress, the embroidery is done now but it hasn't magically turned into a passport cover yet. And here's a bonus picture of him driving all fast:

Flip Flops

I made the flip flops last night. I'll post a picture on friday. While I absoloutly love them, I think I should have stuck more to the tutorial. I added two layers of padding to mine, so they would be nice and coushy. As it turns out that makes them to thick to put all the layers in my sewing machine. Consequently they are currently missing the bottom layer, which if I'm realy ambitious I may hand sew on later but knowing me I won't. My boyfriend liked them though so maybe I will make him a pair tonight, he's off at the track again today (driving not watching) and wont be back till late so I have lots ot sewing time this evening. Ooh that reminds me I took pictures last time I went to the track with him I should post those, not cause anyone wants to see my boyfriend drive fast, but because I took sewing projects with me...

update, I apparently forgot to take a picture to upload today so it'll have to wait. :(

On another note...

I know its only been a month, but I'm thinking the bags arn't going anywhere in my etsy shop. Maybe they need some reworking, but I'm not feeling up to it at the moment. I think I'm going to take my shop in a diferent direction for the holiday season and work on some prints and other small things, I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out whatI'm doing...

I came accross this great tutoral yesterday via Craft. I'm so gonna have to make these for everyone for Christmas!

New Sewing Machine...

The bad news is that my boyfriends father is very ill, he's on top of a waiting list to get a new liver atm and is home from work possibly indefinatly. As he is thinking of retiring he is now spending his time going through thier house organizing, and getting ready for what will undoubtably be the yard sale to end all yard sales. Their house which is a 5/3 is packed to the gills with antiques from the days when they used to go to flea markets and yard sales. So my boy friend and I were over visiting the other day while this cleaning was going on. And what should I spy over in the corner but yet another treadle machine. (I say yet another becuase my boyfriends mom has like thirty. they are scattered about the house used as tables, which makes me sad, but thats another story) anyway, most of the treadles are closed with a bunch of stuff on them, but this one was in a sad corner in the garage and had recently been uncovered. So I lift the lid, just out of curiosity. Its a sphinx modle Singer, I close the lid quickly. I've been trying to get my hands on one of these for the last three years, and here she's had it sitting covered by I think tires and hunting equipment in the garage for who knows how long.... sigh. So like all their other valuble antiques I mention that it realy shouldn't be kept in the garage. The humidity is bad for the case and the machine. He says, "you want it? She don't sew, she might let you have it" I can see my boyfriend out of the corner of my eye shaking his head no. Doing the please dont encourage them to give us more furniture face and motion. I say its a lovely machine and make some other non commital comments. ( I do want it very badly but I'm trying not to start one of the conversations where they try to fill our car with stuff when we come over.) Anyway, so we leave with out the machine. The next day we meet for lunch, and my boyfriends mom says, "So when are you gonna come get your machine?" At which point his dad declairs that I can't have it yet, he's fixing it. He's made a new belt for it and he's making sure all the mechanical bits are in good working order, but he'll bring it to me when its done. So I'm VERY excited that I will have the machine, and its something that he's worked on that we'll have long after they are gone to remind us of them. Now if only I can find a place to put it, my sewing room is already the depository of antiques from my boyfriends parents. It has a full size antique bedroom set that I need to restore and well nearly all my crafting supplies, and one 1970's singer. My other sewing machine is out on the dining room table, because thiers no room. And I still want to make a cutting table.... I need a bigger crafting room, I hope we finishe the up stairs soon!

(note the machine in the picture is just an example of the machine, which I found online. I havnt had the chance to take a picture of the one that will be mine yet)

Sale!

The Atlanta History Center is having a book sale this weekend, and as an added bonus the Forward Arts Foundation is having a trunk sale in the parking lot... mmm sales.....

Seven degrees to a new job

I just found the site www.linkedin.com. I think this is a great resource, although I may be a little biased since I'll be looking for a new job here shortly, alas my contract is up in February and the grant money is all gone. I hate being thrust back out into the job search world. :(

ok well just one more... these photos are so addictive. Here we have women making dolls and stuffies. I love the chicken. Maybe some time I'll post a picture of my wild kindom of stuffed animals.

Here's another craft from the past... That woman on the left? Yeah she's making a rug. Nope not a rag rug, but more like those crazy oriental ones.... This picture is also from 1935 same WPA projects, but its from Sparta, Georgia this time.

By-gone crafting?

I havn't realy posted anything in a couple of weeks, since I think that all posts should be accompanied by photographs. (and I'm to lazy to move the photo from the camera to the computer) But I came across an image today that I wanted to share. It was taken in 1935 in Decatur, Georgia (which is right next to where I live) and shows what women were crafting way back then. This was a class offered by the National Youth Administration and its purpose was to give women vocational skills while empowering them to overcome the great depression. They crafted everything from clothing to matresses useing flour sacks, carbboard boxes, corn husks, and recycled clothing and material. (Sound familiar?) At noon they were taught how to make a simple dish, which they ate for lunch. All of this sounds pretty fun actualy. I have several rl friends who complain that they would like to know how to make stuff or how to cook. Maybe its time to revitalize the work of the National Youth Administration.... (oh and check out the woman making the softy frog on the left, how cute is that?!)

Sewing room

In true leming fashion I wanted to post a pic of my sewing room, so here you go! Thats the view looking out into my side yard. Hard to believe that I live in the middle of a major metropolitan city huh?

First Item Up

I just posted my first item for sale on Etsy. For some reason this has incited panic. Dose anyone else go through this process? I'm all excited to get to the point of selling an item, but actually doing it makes me very nervous....

Patterning

Today I'm drafting patterns for stuff for the shop. I'm glad I kept all my drafting tools from the days when I was majoring in Interior design! Yesterday I went and got a book shelf from Ikea to hold all my fabric. I got the biggest standard one they had, yeah... didn't hold it all. So I've got half my fabric neatly organized. Funny how the stash of fabric grows when you aren't paying attention. Like that 30yds of linen over in the corner.. where'd that come from. Actually most of my stash seems to be from times when people have asked me to make something for them and I bought the fabric, and then they backed out because they quit doing whatever it was they needed it for. I've seen that some other people in crafting,I hate that word, lets call it artisan land, in artisan land, have gone on fabric diets. I think I'll stay with the fat stash...

Day one...

Ok, I'm still working on how all this stuff works so bear with me. I've been trying to set up my Etsy shop, and make this blog thingy, and build up an inventory for said shop, all on my evenings and days off. During the rest of the time I'm a digital archivist so I spend my day at the computer typing up encyclopedia-esk entries for photojournalism collections at an archive/museum. My passion lies in making things though, and my regular job only allows me to preserve things other people have made. So with the encouragement of my friends and loved ones I'm off to start working on the dream...