New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone!  Here's to another year past and a fresh new beginning.  How was your '08?  What do you hope for '09?  Here are some of my resolutions and goals for the new year:

Blog....

1.  Blog at least once a week.

2.  Create a recurring feature (maybe weekly, maybe monthly)

3.  Be more interesting.

4.  Do a giveaway.

Business....

1.  Do a craft show.

2.  Create 2 new bag designs.

3.  Create 2 new little girls' dress patterns.

4.  Advertise.

Personal...

1.  Be a better mom.

2.  Lose some weight. 

3.  Try at least 5 things I've never tried.

4.  Cut back on my pop consumption.

2008 went out very quietly.  We spent the evening with my family...eating, laughing, playing games.  We were home early and I don't think any of us saw the new year in this year....maybe next year.  (How boring are we....)  It is said that how you spend the first day of the year sets the tone for the rest of the year...what are you doing?  I worked and we are cleaning and putting away Christmas.  I am blogging right now so hopefully I will be better with that in the new year.

Below are the last few projects I completed last year.  I FINALLY made myself and after-diaper bag tote bag (you know, once you no longer need a diaper bag, but carry enough that the purse just doesn't cut it).  I also made a gift set for a friend to give as a shower gift.

Best Wishes for 2009!

CPSIA-Save Handmade Toys

For those of you that haven't heard about the CPSIA(consumer product safety improvement act), it is very flawed law intended to help protect our children. It increases regulation and testing requirements for basically all items manufactured for children. However, there are unintended consequences...such as the cost of testing (which is required on every batch and each component, so if you applique a fabric initial on a onesie, you have to test the fabric and the snaps) is going to put many, many small business owners, crafters and thrift shops (the law is retroactive) out of business. It is also going to increase the cost of goods coming from manufacturers that can afford the testing but who won't eat the cost of it. Not to mention all the adaptive equipment and toys for children with special needs which is already very expensive since most of it is custom made for each child.
I believe the intentions of this law were good; as a parent I was appalled at the lack of regulation that was made evident with all the import recalls last year. But, I also think it was written and passed by lawmakers without any consideration or knowledge of what it says or how it will affect things. Please support our economy and our kids by voicing your opinion and making it clear that many amendments need to be made to make this law effective and not detrimental. The following link is a starting point. You can sign on and "vote" for this topic to get addressed by members of the new administration's transition team. You can also write your congressmen & women and ask them to take a look at the situation.
Here is a link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as to the CPSIA.
If nothing is done, handmade children's items will disappear, commercial children's items will skyrocket in price and organizations like Good Will will no longer be able to sell children's items to help those in need.

Change.org

CPSIA FAQs and explanations

The War Room

National Bankruptcy Day

Busy, Busy

It's that time of year.  Running, running, running.  It seem's like it never will end and in a storm of ripping paper it's over and done.  Well, this week has been about the running.  I completed an apron that I started a while ago, I made a blanket for a friend's son, I made part of my nephew's Christmas gift (the cute little Bear's pants and hat, I have some fabric left I think I will try some matching mittens), what else......I have a custom order coming up for a shopping cart cover.  I will post that as soon as it is done.  Still waiting on the fabric for mounting that 90 year old dress, but I will post pictures as soon as it is completed.  

I'm trying to get in the Holiday spirit...I lit the tree, although, it remains free of ornaments because I am anxious about what my one year old will do to them and there is no gating him out of that room.  We will have my daughter's preschool Christmas program next week.  I can't wait she has been working so hard and is looking forward to her roll as one of the "dancing ladies".  A wedding this weekend will keep us fully occupied and then on to another week!  Happy December everyone!

I'm having a sale!!!  The EtsyMom team is having a team wide Christmas Shopping Season Opening Sale.  I am offering 10% off every purchase, including custom orders!!!  You can also click here for a complete list of participating shops.

I had a very productive week.  I made a cellphone case for a returning customer to match the shopping cart cover and plush ball that I made her earlier.

I made two pillow covers for an Etsy client with a custom order that turned out fabulous!

I also made three custom art rolls:  a crayon roll for "Stella", a colored pencil roll for "Summer" and a marker roll for "Logan".  I LOVE making these;  it is sooo much fun to play with the different fabric combinations and to come up with ways of personalizing each one to the child receiving it!  Stella is getting a colorful crayon roll using the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric with an applique

 heart.  Summer is getting a custom crayon roll featuring a Michael Miller print with monkeys doing yoga and her brother, Logan, is getting a marker roll featuring pirate sculls with an appliqued jolly roger symbol.

Coming up, I will be finishing a retro-style full apron in blue and gray.  I will also be framing a dress...my husband's 97 year old grandmother was going through some things the other day and came across a handmade dress that she wore when she was about 5 years old.  This dress is absolutely beautiful!!! I am waiting for fabric to be delivered that I will use for the background and the dress will be mounted on that.  I will post pictures as soon as it is complete.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and you were all able to look around you at the abundance of things to be thankful for;  sometimes it takes a holiday to truly examine our lives and see all that we "have".

This 'n That

This post is a little of this and a little of that.  

I made a gift set featuring pink and brown.  

I used Pink Paisley-Embossed Minky and backed it with a brown and pink paisley satin charmeuse and then bound it with pink satin.  I then made a matching bib and two burpers from the left over fabric.

For the boys, I made a super cute blanket using Michael Miller's Bobby Plays Pretend fabric which I backed with a denim-blue flannel and bound with red satin binding.  I appliqued a cut-out of Bobby pretending to be a baseball player.

Yesterday, I made another bag using Joel Dewberry's Ginseng fabric.  This one features the Orchid and Wildflower prints in Raspberry and Mulberry (which is really a very Cranberry color).

And...my EMCA prize arrived!!!  Yay!!! I won the first EtsyMom Curator Award for curating the most Etsy treasuries featuring EtsyMoms.  For those of you who don't know, a treasury is something you put together on the Etsy site.  It is a grouping or "exhibit" that you "curate".  You can feature sellers that you like or chose a theme or feature colors;  the possibilities are limitless.  It is a fun way to highlight fellow artists and it is also a great way to find new shops.  Anyway, as the recipient of the award I was to chose a prize from one of three sponsors and I chose this super cute frame made by Gifts From the Heart by CraftGirlAlli.

And in the prize winning vein, I also won one of the SuperGiveaways.  I won a beautiful print from FoodChic who takes spectacular artistic photographs featuring food.  Here is the link to the print that I won, it is a 7x5 vertical print of a guava.

Wow...I am totally neglecting this poor blog!

To be fair, though, I have been really busy.  Life in general has kept me pretty occupied, running kids and doing chores, etc. etc.  But, I have also found a little spare time in which I have been sewing (instead of blogging).  So I am bringing this poor, neglected blog up-to-date with the recent projects I have completed.  I also WON!!! a prize in the month-long EtsyMom Street Team SUPER GIVEAWAY!  You really should visit the EtsyMom blog;  you can enter two giveaways everyday. 

So, here we go...

The first project I completed was a set of pillows for my new sectional (which came in the day before my son's first birthday party to which we had invited 40 people!).  I used Joel Dewberry's Ginseng fabric, which I have been dying to use since it came out.  I bought pillow forms and made envelope style pillow cases (that way if I change my mind later, or some designer comes out with something I like better, I just have to make another set of cases).

When I showed my aunt the super awesome fabric I would be using for pillows, she instantly declared she wanted a bag made from that fabric.  

Then I tackled the two dresses I wanted to make my niece 

for Christmas.  For the first dress, I used a Robert Kaufman print...I love damask and my sister's favorite color combination (which she used in her wedding) is pink and black.  I used a Butterick pattern that I adapted to fit her size and also added the banding at the bottom and made it sleeveless.

For the second dress, I used a fun Alexander Henry print and just patterned a very basic jumper.  I am hoping that she can use them as dresses with tights and/or leggings and long sleeve shirts this winter and then as dresses in the summer and I think I left enough room that in the fall they can be long, oversized shirts she can pair with leggings.  I am having a fellow EtsyMom team member (and seamstress) make matching headbands.  You can check out WeezaWear's Etsy shop for some great items!

So, hopefully, that will bring us up-to-date.  I have several projects awaiting my attention:  I am assembling a blanket for friend for Christmas, I have 2 no-sew fleece blankets to make for gifts, and several blankets to be made for my Etsy shop.  I also have some lovely fabric that wants to be an apron. 

It's Been A While...

Well.....it has been a while!  My computer crashed and I have been trying to replace it (changing over files, setting up a new system, switching to a wireless network...all of which is pretty new to me).  Then my kids have been sick........again.  In the midst of all that, we threw a 1st birthday party and celebrated Halloween.  Baby Boy did not want to get his hands dirty and snubbed the mess cake in a brutal fashion.  He did enjoy opening his presents;  chewing on the boxes is the BEST!  And while we didn't have a single duplicate 1st birthday card....he go 4, count 'em 4, Fisher Price Tool sets (daddy's a big time carpenter, big sis got her first hammer on her first birthday).  

Halloween was way too cute!  The baby tolerated the Mickey ears for waaay longer than I expected and a meek-looking (the fever disappeared right before we went out) big sister enjoyed trick or treating.

Hopefully, next week will be back to normal and I can get back down into the sewing cave (a.k.a. the basement) and possibly get something done!  In the meantime, enjoy:

Oh...don't forget to stop by the EtsyMom Street Team blog and enter the SUPER GIVEAWAY!!! We are giving away 2 prizes every day the whole month of November!!!!!  Don't miss out!