A busy week

Well, I listed several new items in the store this week. I tried to do at least one new item per day. Hopefully I will be able to keep this up though I am not sure as you never know what is going to happen around here, LOL. Anyway, here is an overview of what the last few days have brought to the store.

Well, I forgot to show you the key fob that I sent along with the custom order curtains I shipped off to Canada a few days ago. Again, I was in a black and white sort of mood, lol.


Just another three weeks and these will be for sale in my shop so if you have your eye on something, why not get it while you can snag a little something for yourself and get it for free?! Sounds like a good idea to me, lol.

Later in the week I got back to the world of color. I made and listed these letters in the store. I have done one for my office that I will show you later as I am using the image for my custom listing on these. I also am working on doing the girl's names. Theirs will be in a zebra print with the sides painted hot pink and I can't wait to get those done as they will be featured in my custom shop listing too.

Anyway, I did one letter for a boy's room in blue and brown and one letter for a girl's room in pink and brown since these still seem to be the predominant colors in nursery themes.




I really enjoy doing these as I am still able to be creative yet get to do something besides sew. As much as I love to sew, it is nice to do something a little different once in a while. I haven't been into my paint box in quite some time so it was very nice to play with them once again.

Funny how this sort of stuff never feels like work to me in the least. I always feel like it's playtime, lol. Now, if only someday it will pay the bills. Now THAT would be the best thing ever as far as I am concerned. Supporting your family by doing something that you love so much that it doesn't feel like work. Don't we all wish for that. Imagine how much nicer the world would be if we all loved what we did for a living!

I am particularly fond of my last project this week. I have always wanted to add some hair accessories to the store to go with my dresses and have been planning on doing matching fabric headbands to pair with the dresses for what seems like forever.

Well, I did finally make a hair accessory and it is a headband, but I did not use fabric for this one. Everywhere you look these days, you see these large flowers showing up in little girl's hair, so I decided to make a version of my own and came up with this.


Instead of using the already covered headbands, crocheted headbands or other stretchy headbands that so many sellers are using, I decided to make my headband a bit more dressy and covered it with satin ribbon, by hand of course. I also never did care for using glue on my hair pieces since the glue never seems to hold up no matter what type you use, so I handstitched my flower petals on and then handstitched some Swarovski crystal beads into the center for just a hint of bling. I believe it turned out rather cute myself :).

I think I may have actually finally made something completely girly that my tomboy daughter will actually wear! (gasp) I have several other colors I am in the process of doing so be on the lookout for more of these.

I also fed my fabric obsession some more this week, but I will get to that another day. :) I am sure I have bored you all long enough today, lol. Plus, I still have things that need to get done, so I shall say good-bye for now.

I hope you all have a have a wonderful and very blessed day. :)

I'm sensing a theme here

There must have been something in the air today. Seems most things I created were in shades of black and white.

First, I have another of the Minky blankets I have been working on, this time in a black and white toile pattern. I completely love this.




I also made these wall letters today, again in shades of black and white, only with a more antiqued look. I love the way these turned out too.


Both are now available in the store for purchase if you want to snag them.

Anyway, I'm keeping it short today. Both girls are at friend's houses tonight and Justin, Jesse and I are going to spend some time chillin' on the couch.

Hope you all have a wonderful and very blessed day. :)

Just a Quickie

Well, I promised you the pictures of the girly version of the disco dot quilt and here it is. Isn't it cute? Gotta love all those fun dots, LOL, and in such great colors too! I also finished a set of curtain panels that are now on their way to Canada. They were a custom order on Etsy. They have this great tool where people who are looking for something specific can post what they are looking for and those of us who make things can put a bid in on the job. Well, that is how I managed to snag this job and I actually have another one in the works for an even larger order, again for curtain panels. Anyway, I have work to do (and I think I am coming down with something - low grade fever tonight - yuck) so I will leave you with the pics.




Well, that is it for me. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day. :)

Who doesn't love dots?

I LOVE dots. No, not like, love! LOL. There is just something so very fun about dots, no matter what size they come in. If you have ever had the chance to look through my fabrics or check out my stuff for sale in my shop, then you can see this love in action.

Well, I am at it yet again. Today, I made this fun blanket and added it to the store. It features white Minky dimple dot fabric and a great Michael Miller disco dot fabric. I absolutely love it. This one was actually one of the hardest for me to give up for sale. I wanted so badly to keep this cutie for myself, LOL. Of course, if I kept every blanket that I made and loved I would have enough that I could use a new blanket practically every day of the year.






I told you it was cute, LOL. I only have the one blanket in this style/pattern so if you can't live without it, you'd best head on over to the store and snag it (you can just click on the last photo to go right to the listing if you want). I have a feeling this one won't be around long. For those of you wondering; yes, I am doing a girl version which should be in the store soon. Of course, I will post here for you to see it as well.

That's all I have for today. Time to get back to reality and do my work. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day. :)

Are you obsessed? I am.

Not in a bad sort of way (at least in my opinion anyway :D). I am obsessed with my crafty work. I love the entire process from choosing the raw materials to completing a project and seeing the final product. I LOVE it. Yes, i am obsessed with it.

It doesn't really matter what medium I am working with either; sewing, paper crafting, scrapbooking, embroidery, cross stitching, painting, etc. I am obsessed with the thrill of taking something simple and turning it into something special, especially when that something is on its way to someone else's home. I consider it an honor that someone likes something I have made enough that they want to purchase it and make it their own, or give it as a gift to a special someone.

Speaking of items on their way to a new home, I mailed off a custom order today and I love the way they turned out. Here are a couple of pictures I took before I packaged them up and sent them on their way. They are reversible, so the second shot is the inside of each of the items from the first shot, in the same order.





So what do you think? I just love them, and I hope the buyer does too. :) I didn't snap a picture of her free gift so I can't show you it but I have a feeling she will like it as well.

This brings me to my other obsession - fabric. As one of my friends so "lovingly" pointed out the other day, I can't go near a store with fabric in it without finding something that I just "have" to have, LOL. Well, yesterday was no exception. I had to take a trip out of town to get more velcro for the koozies above. Of course I run out in the middle of the project and my local supplier has decided to carry nothing but sticky back velcro, which is not at all kind to a sewing machine needle. Anyway, I went to one store and couldn't find what I was needing. However, I did find some wide zebra grosgrain ribbon that my friend and I have been trying to find for the past few weeks, so I had to buy all of it on the shelf (no it wasn't all for me!). I figured I had best grab it while the getting was good and at 50% off there is no way I was passing it up! Of course, I also found this fabric that I had been searching some time for as well. It is a black and white giraffe print so when I saw it I had to buy some of that as well.



Well, I moved on to my second and last store to try to find my velcro and, hooray!, I found it. I also found (you guessed it) more fabric, LOL. I saw these two prints and knew they just had to come home with me as well. Can you blame me??



I also came home with some materials for a new item I am going to start carrying in the store. I have decided to make some custom decorated letters up for sale in my shop. I have mine almost done and all the materials to do the girls names to match their room. I already made some for my son's room months ago. I will use the photos of these to make a custom listing in the store. I also bought letters to spell out "baby" that will be done in a gender neutral black and ivory patterns. Hopefully, I will have my custom listing up in the store sometime next week and, of course, I will have photos to share with you here as well.

I need to get my medical reports finished now, so I will leave you with this final thought. Find your obsession. Find it and hold on to it. Nurture it. You will be glad you did. :)

Thanks for reading. Hope you have a wonderful and blessed day!

WOW - has it really been that long????

3 months? Really? Wow. It most certainly doesn't seem like it has been that long since I last posted here. Certainly doesn't do much to promote my business or keep any followers up to date. So much has happened in the last few months. Many, many changes with some changes still yet to come. Suffice to say, it has been more than a little busy around here and I think it is all starting to catch up with me. But, I will push through as always :)! I will give you a quick run down and then show you a few custom orders I have completed recently.

Let's see....since April, I have quit my job working at a medical clinic and now am doing the same type of job but from home (much easier on the budget with no daycare, work clothes, etc. with the bonus of actually making more money - yeah!). I love the fact that I don't have to get up at a specified time each morning (well, until school started anyway) and my son does not have to attend daycare but it has been a rather huge adjustment for everyone and I am still trying to get a schedule worked out, which will probably never happen. :) As some of my readers may know, I have been taking care of my grandmother since early 2005. Well, in the time since I have posted here, I had moved her from her apartment and into the nursing home, spent a week with her at the hospital and now she is rejoicing with the angels in heaven. While this is wonderful as it is what she has wanted for quite some time now, it has been quite a stressful period for me. I never imagined there was so much work to be done in finalizing a person's affairs.

We have also been looking for a new house closer to where my husband is now working, though we haven't had much luck in this area due to several issues. It really would be great if we could sell this house first but there is work that needs to be done and finding the time to do it is not an easy task. Oh, we also had a fire in my husband's shop since I have last posted and have had to deal with all those issues; cleaning it out, determining what was in the building for insurance purposes, etc. All of these things have gone on in the midst of my working full time doing transcription, still sewing and filling orders and general summer activities with the kids. Whew! It has been a busy three months!

Now to show you some of my custom orders and one of my new products (not yet in the store).

First, I will show you some pics of a custom order I did for my SIL. She has a side business doing in home parties and wanted some aprons made for both she and her friend. Her only stipulations were that one have pink camo, the other green camo and she wanted them monogrammed. Here is what I came up with.



And here is a close up of the monogramming (thank you Laura!) -



I thought they turned out rather nicely. Hope you gals are enjoying them!

One of my new items is a key fob that fits on your wrist allowing you to keep your keys handy and easily accessible while keeping your hands free. Here is the one that I gave my SIL for her order (these are free with every purchase through the end of September).


The freebie key fobs are made from one of the fabrics used in each order. In this case, though, I made an exception since I knew she would enjoy a Razorback one more. :) I will have them available in the store for purchase in October. Of course if you really, really want one sooner, I would be happy to make a custom listing for you.

This is a custom order I just shipped out last week and a picture of her free key fob. I really love this fabric.

Of course, these are just 2 of the orders I have done in the last few months. I have a couple of other orders I am working on and then I can get back to the other new items I have for the store. One of them is an Razorback dress in an adorable new design.

Well, that's it for today as I really need to get back to typing my medical reports. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day. :)

Spinning in circles

Well, at least that is what I feel like I am doing. Maybe not in circles, as I do get things finished, but definitely spinning - nearly as fast as the wheel on the side of my sewing machine, LOL.

I have all the initial and follow up fittings done for the bridesmaid dresses I am doing for a local wedding and am now officially ready to cut the "real" fabric. Hopefully, I will have those ready for the (crossing fingers) final fitting sometime between Wednesday and Saturday of next week. I am also making some flags for the pews that will be monogrammed so I will be taking them over to the store tomorrow for her to sew on then I have to finish them - very doable though.

(This is a sketch of the bridesmaid dresses I am doing. I have it

backwards here though as the main color is orange with a
pink sash that will tie behind and underskirt.)

I also have the curtains done for 3 rooms of the house I am doing completely finished and helped hang the 2nd set Sunday. I will be delivering the curtains for the 3rd room tomorrow. These are some fun ones! They are for the girl's room and are pink with white dots and zebra, and they are 106 inches tall!!! That is a LOT of fabric, LOL. I hope to have some pictures for you all soon. I will be doing the valances for a bay window in her living room and for the windows in the eating area of her kitchen once I am done with the girl's room. They are an awesome leopard print! Then, only one room left to go!

Other than that, I finished up the order for the lanyards from the alchemy section of Etsy. It turned out that I had to do 175 lanyards total. Whew! that was a lot of denim. I don't think I will ever get all the denim lint out of my sewing area, LOL. I also did another alchemy order for 5 pocket squares (the handkerchief in the pocket of a man's suit) Monday and got them shipped out.

I would have never thought to do pocket squares in red with white dots, which I assume are for a wedding, but I think they will look quite nice. I have been told I have won the bid on another alchemy request, this one for a roll up for make-up brushes, that I will be getting the final order on this weekend. On top of that, I have a custom order for a Razorback dress and another person interested in an adult version of my Razorback apron! Yeah!!!

(Seriously need to retake this picture!)

Things are really picking up for me and I hope the trend continues. There are so many alchemy requests I want to bid on, but I have promised my hubby that I won't seek out any more sewing work before we get the house ready to sell. :( Oh, I about forgot though, I am in the process of submitting a quote to a furniture store to do the decorator pillows for a special furniture order for OBU (crossing fingers again). This could turn out to be a great opportunity for me even after we move, so I am really hoping to get this job.

With all that said, I'd best get back to my sewing machine as these things don't get themselves done for some reason! Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day!

Girl's Easter Dresses and Jesse's Birthday

This year I got to go back to my previous tradition of making the girls Easter dresses! They picked out their fabrics and the dress pattern themselves. I think they turned out pretty good if I don't say so myself, LOL. The little girl in the front is my niece. My mother made her dress.




Of course, I just had to show off my little boy in his Easter outfit. Rather handsome, isn't he? :)


My boy's 1st birthday was this year and it landed on Easter Day. I had this shirt made by the friend I have do all my monogramming. It turned out so very cute, though it is a bit hard to see the whole thing in the picture. He wasn't wanting to sit very still, LOL!


He was so cute when we sand Happy Birthday to him. He kept looking around at everyone with the cutest look on his face. He was clapping so we started clapping too. Of course by the time this picture was taken, he had stopped clapping. Figures!



At first, he just pinched off pieces of icing and ate those.



At this rate, he was going to stay pretty clean. Wow!!



However, before long he decided that it would be much easier just to eat the darn thing!



Oh yeah! Now were talking!



Not long after that, he decided to just try to crawl up on the table and go after the entire cake! We didn't let him though but he did manage to mash his piece of cake!

How fast are you daddy??

Finally, we got all cleaned up and our presents opened. Here he is after all the excitement playing with one of his new toys on my Mother-in-Law's kitchen table.



Even though it was very busy, it was a fun weekend. My husband's mom and dad as well as his siblings families were there. My mom, dad and niece were there as well. So, he had all his cousins there for his first birthday. It isn't very often that all of these people are together at once and it was great to see everyone.

This week, I also finished up the trial run of the bridesmaids dresses and did our first fitting. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out (size wise that is since they aren't made from the final fabric). I have only a few minor changes to make and we're all set to start the real ones. I also finished the curtains for one room of the house I am doing and am finishing up cutting the denim strips for the large order of lanyards. I will try to get pictures for you later.

Well, it is time to get back to my sewing room.

Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day! :)

Custom "Yuppy Koozy" for Beth

Just a quick post tonight. I have all the bridesmaid dresses resized and the trial fabric cut for the first fitting. My youngest daughters Easter dress is cut and ready to sew and the fabric for my oldest is waiting to be cut even now. I finished a custom koozy order for Beth of Kiwiarts and wanted to post some pics here so she could see it before I shipped it. I am definitely going to be using this in custom listings to show that the larger sizes for "adult" bottles and cups can be done as well. I LOVE the green and pink brocade fabric and it turned out quite nicely. Hope you and the "yuppies" like it Beth, LOL! :)



These next 2 pics are a little blurry, but you get the idea :)





That's it for tonight. I will post pictures of the girls modeling their Easter dresses next week when we get back from my MIL's house.

Have a wonderful and blessed day :)

Meet Megan and a special designer friend Marisela of Magnoly Designs

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. :)

I just wanted to introduce you all to Megan. She was very influential in my decision to try to turn my sewing from simply something I did for family into a business that I hope will eventually turn into my full time job. Here she is

If you'd like to learn more about Megan, simply click on her name or the photo to be taken to her page in my store and you can read all about her! Megan is the first dress style I decided to offer for public sale and she has been one very popular girl. I think what makes her so special is her versatility and her colors. I make her in all different colors and patterns. I have a very large selection of fabrics that can all be seen either in the Customize It portion of my shop or in 2 of my FaceBook albums here and here. I can also do these in the ever popular Minky fabric, which I order as requested. See available colors and styles here. I will be updating this album to include many more choices very soon.

For the month of April when you purchase a dress from my shop, you will receive your choice of a matching headband for FREE!!

I have met a lot of really great people on Etsy and have to give a special shout out to all those who participate in a very special promotional thread in the forums there. (you all know who you are!) Everyone there is so very nice and encouraging. It has been great to find such a large group of people who help each other with things from promoting, photo taking, customer relations and just about everything else, all without any of the drama that is so often found in places where you have so many people. It has been great and I appreciate you all so very much!

One of these special people is Marisela of Magnoly Designs. When I discovered her shop, it was like visiting the shop of a kindred soul. She has a wonderful shop filled fabulous baby booties that match my dresses perfectly. She also has handmade magnets, many of which perfectly match some photo frames I have made but haven't listed in my shop yet. Since I have shown you Megan in brown and pink fabrics, I must show you the matching booties available in Marisela's shop.


Just click the picture to be taken to this product in her store. While you're there, you should definitely browse through the rest of her shop. She has many great items available.


Well, I must be off for the day. I have bridesmaid dresses waiting for me. Have a wonderful and blessed day! :)

Busy weekend ahead and a huge sale!

Wow! Where does the time go?? It's April already and I haven't even begun to make the girls Easter dresses. I'm wondering now if I will even have the time to get them done, though I am going to try. This weekend is already shaping up to be a busy one. There is a wedding in May that I am making bridesmaid dresses and pew flags for so I am getting that going. I plan on working mainly on getting the dresses for the 1st trial fit done by Sunday evening. I actually make the dresses twice so I don't waste any of the good fabric on the first fitting. I would just die if I had to go get more fabric because one of the dresses needed to be remade. Plus knowing my luck, I wouldn't be able to find the exact match either, lol. If I get those done, then I will continue to work on a special order I received on Etsy.com. I am making over 150 (started out as 100!) lanyards. The customer wanted them made from recycled materials, so I am making them from these -

.....old jeans. I knew there was a reason I had kept all those old pairs of jeans with holes in them, lol! :)

I am cutting them into long strips and finishing them with a simple zig-zag stitch so they keep that old, worn out look. I am making sizes for adults and little ones.






This is what they will end up looking like. Of course, they will have a ring and clasp on them!



Apparently, my son was having a lot of fun with this project too. He was so cute playing with the "trash." He would pull the seams that I had thrown away out of the trash can and put them back in. Then he'd push the trash can around the floor. I managed to snag these shots of him playing with the cut up jean legs as I finished with them.












































Isn't he just adorable?? :)

I am also making a custom koozie for my friend Beth of KiwiArts. I especially love the pink and chartreuse fabric she picked out. I'll post some pics of it once I finish it.

Speaking of custom orders, I finished one this week. It was an order I had from Mom's Mall in Little Rock. I really like the fabrics she chose, especially the brocade. I even made a couple of headbands for it to match each side of the fabric.



















I really like the headbands and have decided to offer them for FREE with every dress purchased during the month of April! Just visit my shop. Make sure you let me know at checkout what fabric you want your headband made out of.

Last, but certainly not least, there is an awesome sale taking place on Etsy this weekend. The Etsy Supply Street Team is having hosting a First Weekend Shopping Extravaganza from April 2nd through the 5th. Visit their team blog for more information on some of the great shops participating in this sale. They have opened it up to every seller on Etsy who wants to participate so there will be a little bit of everything!

Well, I suppose I'd best be off to bed for the night. Have a wonderful and blessed day. :)