Crafty Wonderland for Mother's Day

I will be participating in my first crafty wonderland this weekend. If you are in Portland please be sure to check it out!!

A New Way to Sew

I had a very exciting weekend. For years now I have been casually mentioning that I would like an embroidery machine. I have always wanted a sewing machine that could just do more than my reliable old New Home. When I started selling on Etsy I told Patrick that I was going to save for the machine of my dreams. He started getting pressure from all the women he works with (thanks ladies!) to just buy me one and this weekend he broke down.

So I am the proud new owner of a Janome Memory Craft 11000. We bought it at Montavilla Sewing Center here in Portland. As part of the package I get free instruction and a bunch of discounts so I was really happy.


So far I have made 3 baby bibs. I also finished most of my weekend projects on the new machine. However, for a bit I need to keep the Janome doing embroidery and keep myself pumping out booties on the New Home. There is less than 2 weeks between now and crafty wonderland! It is a lot of fun though. Below is one of my embroidered bibs. I LOVE the funny monsters and bought a whole set of designs.

Better Coming Soon Photos

Here are some better photos of the onesie sets I have coming...

Both sets will be available this weekend on my Etsy Shop.
I have some cute new booties in the works too. Plus, Friday I am going to a sale at Fabric Depot so this weekend I should be able to really crank out the shirts and booties. Stay tuned!

New Designs!

I finally am ready to start putting out some onesies to match my baby booties! Here is a preview of coming attractions!

Geisha Fan's Onesie















This onesie is also available with long sleeves. It matches the Geisha Fans Newborn bootie. I can make these in newborn to 18 mo. sizes. Sorry, the flower does not get any larger, but I may add more applique to larger sizes. I am experimenting with that over the weekend.

Blue Lagoon Onesie















This onesie is also available with short sleeves. It is shown here with the matching Blue Lagoon booties. This set is really adorable. The photo just doesn't do it justice. Oregon really needs more sunshine so I can take better photos!

Sugar n' Spice Onesie















This cutie matches the Sugar n' Spice booties. All the shape applique's can be mixed and matched. In other words you could get this in a heart or other simple shape you desire.

Be sure to visit my etsy shop to see the onesie that is already for sale! Don't wait long! I have already had interest on the Happy Together Set. I would love to hear your comments on the new designs as well!

Cards that Move

Remember pop-up books? Check this out...

My friend Molly has finally started her own Etsy shop. After years (literally, it has been years) of all her friends telling her "You should sell that!" she finally is going to sell that!

So be sure to go to her shop and check her out. And don't worry, I have already told her she needs to make more!

She is also a great person to work with on custom stuff. She has put up with working with me for years. :)

Good luck Molly and congratulations on your shop!

Hello World!

Buon giorno! Konichiwa! Hola! Al Salaam a' alaykum! Jambo! Ni hao! Bonjour! Czesc! Zdravstvuite! Bok! God Dag! Dobry den! Pryvit! Guten Tag!

My blog is now being visited internationally. It is very exciting and reminds me of what a small world we live in. I hope everyone enjoys my musings and if you are interested please click on the etsy link to visit my shop. Also feel free to leave comments and say hello! I'd love to hear from you.

I am planning to start making onesies soon so check back for more cute things!

Cirque du Soleil

On Saturday Patrick and I went to Cirque du Soleil. They have their tents set up in downtown Portland on the waterfront. They have been performing Corteo. This weekend was their last set of performances.

Our tickets were really fancy. We had these VIP tickets called Tapis Rouge. We arrived at the show an hour early and had cocktails and appetizers in a special tent just for the VIPs. There were only a handful of people. Most of them were couples so it was quite festive even without all the fancy bombay gin drinks.

Once we were good and happy we went to our seats. Our seats were in the second row center isle. Needless to say they were fabulous seats. The performance was bar none the best theatrical performances I had ever seen. The set design was awesome. The costumes were unbelievable and ranged from really simple pj type outfits to elaborate angel costumes like you might see on an ornate Christmas card from the victorian era. I wanted to come right home and start sewing myself a costume!

The best part of the performance was getting to really see and connect with the expressions on the faces of the performers though. It made the acts so much more real and meaningful to me. When you see something in a movie you are so far distint from it you don't realize the creativity that went into it. I got the same thrill I get from being around my crafty friends. It is such a rush to be around such monumental creativity. It is like a drug!

Speaking of creativity and crafty friends... Crafty wonderland was great! I have already sent in my email to the organizers begging to be included in the next one. As I mentioned before I went with my friends Molly and Kathy. It is great going with them as I am so shy around strangers that I would have never asked as many questions as they did (really, sometimes Molly can be a little scary... she is so excited!). Then after our brunch and Crafty Wonderland fun Molly took off and Kathy and I spent about 4 hours shopping. We went to the art store, fabric store, yarn store, kids boutique, and 2 paper places. We also had dessert at a badly organized cafe in the Pearl where my iced latte came hot in a mug and Kathy had to ask for her tea twice because they forgot they needed to get ice. At least it tasted good. Kathy had a canolli that she kept saying some guy in Italy made. No idea what she was talking about, but it was funny.

So all in all a pretty fab weekend.

The Funniest Cards Ever

These are from someone who favorited me. I love it and might sign up. Just had to share.

Cards
Etsy Sale

Bootie Success!

Well, Patrick woke me up bright and early today and told me that... wait for it... I HAVE A SALE! I guess he was talking to father-in-law Bob and Bob looked at my site and told him "she has a sale!" So of course he woke me up and of course I have not went back to bed! (If you are reading this Bob, thanks for letting us know and please comment and tell me what you think of the site! Love you guys!)

Pam, if you are reading my blog, I am very pleased your friends are getting the Jet Set booties. I hope they are a big hit and a gift that can be kept as a keepsake as well. I am going to try and wrap and ship them today as I know your friends are expecting any day now (how exciting!!). I will gift wrap them. I should give etsy the idea of making this an option on the site. I think it is useful to buyers to be able to request it.

I also had 11 people mark me as a favorite since last night. I am not sure what I did, but I hope it keeps working!! These little shoes are too cute to just sit on my dining room table. They need to be worn and kicked in the air by little feet!

Bootie Making Machine

This weekend I am going to Crafty Wonderland at the Doug Fir with Molly and Kathy. Yay, crafts! I am really hoping this is a cool thing because it only costs $35 to have your own table so I may well do this next month. We will see what Kathy thinks as she is the expert!

I bought some new fabric at the Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe in West Linn. I got 5 fat quarters for 12 something. They are really cute and one of them has cupcakes on it. Love the cupcakes! There is a collection of new Moda fabrics (Posh by Chez Moi... this is a HUGE file) that I have to try soon as well. I am just waiting for the fat quarters to be cut.

As you can see from this picture, I have been working hard on the baby booties. I have 11 for sale on etsy now. I still have not had a sale. I am not sure what is up. Other booties of similar cuteness are priced higher on etsy and selling. I am getting a lot of hits though. 129 on the jet set booties! I keep telling myself that I just need to add more stock.

Yesterday I bought Patrick a great t-shirt on etsy. A rather odd shirt about zombies. He wanted it though and it is cute. Not as cute as my sheepy though. Here is a neat pop-up card that I found. I bet Molly could make something like this.

The weather was so nice today that the dogs spent a good amount of time outside. Duncan got out of his new collar and took a walk around the neighborhood. This photo is after he had been re-leashed. Annabelle was very glad to see him.

Dogs are Funny

Duncan and Annabelle were being cute today so I thought I would post their pictures. Annabelle is all of the sudden really into panting at things she likes. Whenever she gets excited this is the face she makes. Pretty darn funny.

I also wanted to share a funny little do-dad I am buying on etsy. I HAD to have this.

Bootie Insanity

The number of booties now produced grows....

Well, I have spent the whole weekend freaking out about my etsy site. On Saturday a nice lady in CA contacted me and asked me if I would be willing to donate some booties to be auctioned off to support a Birth and Baby Resource center in her area. I would have totally done this just because I was flattered she thought my little booties were cute enough, but she also said I should send 400 business cards to be given out at the event.

So now I am freaking out. Yesterday I went to Fabric Depot and a few other places in town to get more supplies. I have been thinking that I needed some different fabrics and I also wanted to start using eyelets with the ribbons. It just finishes things better.

Today I made 2 really cute new pairs of booties. I also cut out a few more so I may be able to finish another tonight.

I found a place online where I think I can do some cute business cards... now I just need to think what to put on them. Cripes! I am in a real state. I am not sure what I will do if I actually start to show a profit. I was just thinking this was a fun diversion and I might sell a thing or two. Really, there is no reason to panic. I still have not sold a thing.

In case you are wondering, no, I did not go fishing. Oh, well it was raining and Patrick was playing on his playstation all weekend so it would have been a grumbly afair to get him to leave his new game alone. Once my package to CA goes off in the mail I am sure I will feel better. If it is going to auctioned to help people I just want it to be perfect.

Migraine Week

The ups and downs of our spring weather has put knots in my brain and my shoulder I think. I am always a little effected by the weather, but with it being 30 degrees and hailing one day and 50 degrees and sunny the next the pressure changes are starting to upset what little balance I am able to maintain. So it hasn't been a good week. It certainly has been hard to drag my butt into work this week! Tonight I came home and took a 3 hour nap. That helps sometimes and tonight it did.

I did manage to start making some baby booties for etsy.com. A few booties went up this weekend and then I completed a couple more during the week. I have been really wanting to sew lately so this will be a great outlet for me. I took a few patterns that I found and have been experimenting with lots of different combos and incorporating my own ideas along the way. I think the booties are turning out pretty snazzy and I have been getting quite a few hits on etsy... no sales yet, but people are looking and marking items as their favorite. I need some more ideas of tiny things I can sew. I like these small, creative projects!

This weekend we are hoping to go out on our pontoons and catch some trout. We are going to try Battle Ground Lake again and see if we do better a month later on a boat. Yay! I will try and remember to bring the camera so I can post a few pictures here.