New upcycled/recycled creation by my youngest daughter

I just had to share this new creation with you. My 10 y/o daughter was about to throw out one of the cans that premeasured drink mixes like Crystal Light come it when she suddenly had an idea. "Hey mom, I could cut a hole in the lid and make this a bank for my money." Yeah! At least one of my kiddos is thinking of ways to upcycle things that we normally would just toss in the trash. Of course having the love of fabric that I do, I immediately suggested that we cover it with fabric, so off to my scrap pile she went in search of the perfect fabric for her new coin bank. She just loves anything rock n' roll and guitar so she chose this Michael Miller fabric Groovy Guitars. She cut a hole in the lid and I covered the canister part with fabric and done - one super cool upcycled coin back! We love the way it turned out so much that we decided this just has to be a new item in my store. Be looking for some to be available in a couple of weeks. :)

A funny moment...

This weekend was pretty eventful in my neck of the woods. I had my booth set up in Searcy at Rhea Lana's from Wednesday through Saturday and then had my sister-in-law's baby shower Sunday. The weekend ended with a hilarious moment that I will share with you at the end of this post, so stay tuned. :) LOL



Here is a picture of my booth in Searcy. I just bought materials yesterday to redo it and I hope it turns out. I'm getting way too many dresses, shirts and onsies to just hang them on the lattice at the back and those panels are getting too heavy and large to haul around anymore. They come apart in 4 sections (2 4x4 panels hinged together makes 1 section), but they still take up too much room and being solid wood are far too heavy for all the shows I'm doing lately. I am still sticking with the lattice, but moving to a white vinyl version so it's lighter weight and I am making PVC frames for them. I'm also making a 2-tier clothing rack out of PVC that I can take apart into 4 sections so it slides easinly into my vehicle and is easy to transport. I should have this done sometime this week so it is ready for The Memphis Flea Market in Jacksonville this weekend. I'll also have a friend with me this weekend who will share my booth space with me. She is selling her Sentsy stuff - you know those awesome smelling decorator wax burners. Ahhh...my booth is going to smell wonderful this Saturday and Sunday!!! LOL







This is a picture of my youngest daughter who attended the event with me. On Wednesday, she decided to stand up in one of those flimsy little folding chairs I take along for sitting and of course it collapsed on her. She was complaining of a lot of pain and not being able to move her wrist without it hurting. I figured she had just sprained it really well, but wanted to stabilize it since she is so active. Mommy McGyver to the rescue! I made a homemade splint out of a couple of my skirt hangers and some tulle on a roll that I keep with me. Not the most glorious bit of work I've done and it looked a bit strange, but it did the job nicely. I had given her some ibuprofen and told her to keep it elevated. She decided that having the hook on the skirt hanger attached to her arm was kind of cool after all. She hooked it around the lattice on my display so she didn't have to put any effort into keeping the wrist elevated, lol.






As I mentioned, Sunday we had a baby shower for my SIL. My mother-in-law, other sister-in-law and myself made her baby bedding for her. She is doing the room in Razorback and told me she just HAD to have one of my Minky and Razorback blankets for the baby, so we took that and ran with it, doing the blanket, bumper and bedskirt. She was an avid basketball player and her husband LOVES football, so the print we used work perfectly.



Here is a pic of my SIL showing off her baby bump by the food table. I think she looks awesome for this being her third child! By this time on my 3rd, I looked like the Goodyear blimp, lol. The diaper cake in the middle was made by a couple of ladies from her church.






This is her best friend, who is also pregnant, playing one of the games at the shower. These two have been besties since they could walk.




I just had to put this picture in here too. This is my SIL and MIL. Don't you just love the looks on their faces, lol!




And finally, that hilarious moment I was telling you about! My oldest daughter went to stay all night with a friend who is about to move. We thought my youngest daughter and son were back in his room watching a movie, but noticed that things got very quiet. We went to peek in my son's room to find my daughter sleeping in the floor but no little boy. Where was he? Well, my husband found him - in his sister's closet. By the sound of my husband's voice, my son had done something simply horrid. I headed down the hall to see my husband holding my son up off the ground but as far away from him as possible and headed to the bathroom. I joined them just as he placed our son in the tub and got to see what all the commotion was about. I nearly peed on myself laughing! Of course my husband saw nothing hilarious in my son's appearance whatsoever. He had found his sister's hot pink fingernail polish and decided that he wanted to paint his toes! He sees mommy and his sisters doing it all the time, so why not? LOL Well, his legs were nearly covered in the mess and he had spots on his torso and arms as well. I was the recipient of many dirty looks as I could barely get the fingernail polish remover and help get the polish off of him because I was laughing so much while my husband was trying to scold our son. How dare he try to paint his toes - hot pink no less!!



Now that I have given you something to smile about today, I must be off. I have medical reports and custom orders waiting. Have a great day. :D

I made a new outfit!

This week was another busy one! I had custom orders to complete and I set a booth up at Rhea Lana's in Searcy from Wednesday through Saturday. While I was there, I did a ton of keychains and a few other new items that I'll show you below. We also had my sister-in-law's baby shower yesterday. With all of that and my medical reports, I have had one super busy week. This one doesn't seem to be shaping up to be much less hectic. I am setting up at The Memphis Flea Market in Jacksonville this weekend and am redoing my booth displays. Since I have so many more dresses and now the appliqued tops and outfits, I am heading to Home Depot to buy the supplies to make a three-tier clothes bar to make the most out of my booth space. I am also redoing my backdrops that I use to display some of my stuff. I have been using wooden lattice backdrops my husband made for me which work great but they are a bit on the heavy and awkward side. When I first started, I was driving an Explorer so they fit just fine still leaving me enough space to stack other things on top of them. Now, however, I drive a Journey and, while the fit just fint, I don't have the space to stack much on top of them. So, I am changing to a lighter weight vinyl lattice and making a light weight easy to set up frame. I'm rather anxious to see how it turns out!

I shipped out a few custom orders this week including this bracelet which was an order on Etsy.



I also did a couple of Razorback hooded towels for a local customer. This picture just shows what the towel looks like on (and I just like to show off my super cute little man, lol).



This is what her towels looked like.




And this is the personalization on the back under the hood. My embroiderer, Mindy, did these for me while I was out on vacation. I had my hubby drop the towels off with her so when I got home I just had to add the Razorback fabric and ship them out. It worked out great and the customer just loved them, which is the best part of all. ;)




I also had her embroider another towel for me that I sold on Etsy just as I was leaving town.





My first order in Searcy was for 2 Razorback wall hangings. I had an "E" already done and for sale in the booth so she purchased it and I made an "H" for her as well. Here is the "H"

I found a few shirts on sale while I was in Branson and brought some along with me to applique while at Rhea Lana's and this is one that I made while there. Isn't it cute? The shirt is by JK Baby and is normally $12. I have added frayed applique and passed my savings on to my customers. This shirt is for sale for $15. It is a 12 month. I also have a 24 month that I have not put anything on if you would like one in that size.

And here, is the outfit I am most excited about! I found the top and skimmers on sale in Branson. I let out the cuff on the pants and added a zebra ruffle to the bottom of each pant leg to make some super cute capris. Then I added a peace sign applique to the top in the same zebra fabric. Isn't it just adorable??!! The top and pants are by Jumping Beans and are normally $12 each. I am selling this outfit for $25. It is a girl's size 5.

Well, those are all the sewing pictures I have for the last week. I took pictures of the keychains but don't want to load you all down with those, lol. I must be off now. Time to head into Conway to purchase my supplies for my new booth displays and pick up some fabric for some custom dress orders! See you all later. Hope you have a wonderful day!!

Hello out there...

Oh my, it has been way too long since I have posted here! Things have been so absolutely crazy in so many different areas that I forget to get on here and post or I have my hands in the middle of something and can't get to it. Seems I'm always in the middle of something these days (sigh). With the kids, a full time job and my sewing......well, the time just seems to slip away.

I think I am going to try to post at least a little something each day about what that day has brought in my life and what new things I have been creating. With 3 kids in the house, one of which is a 2 y/o, something funny or crazy is always happening. I think making this more of a place where I can journal about the happenings of my life, is more of the direction I want to take this blog.

I also have been trying to decide just what it is I want this blog to be. It needs to help promote my business but I want it to also show people a bit of who I am as a person instead of just posting the same photos I post on Etsy and Facebook with the same information in it. I need to use it to promote what I do, but I don't want to post the exact same information I do everywhere else either. To me that's boring and its spammy and I really don't want people thinking I am trying to spam them. :)

I also want the look of my blog to be much more creative and represent more of me and not just look like a boring landing spot on the web. These templates are so very boring! I seriously need the help of someone who writes HTML. I love to design the look myself and have the software to create the background, banners and such; it's just writing the code so it all goes just where I want it that seems to be a problem. If you have experience in this area or have any tips PLEASE let me know!!!
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So, in the spirit of making this a daily journaling, sharing spot for me, here is a short run down of some of the recent happenings in my life. I know, you're thrilled, right! All those months of no posting and your going to sum it up now?? LOL. Well, to keep it short, we're going to stick to the last few days, lol.

This last week, we have been in Branson at my mother's. I have not been able to stay here for more than a couple of days on the weekend here and there because there has been no reliable internet connection at their house. My brother has a router with a booster so he can pick up signal from those in the neighborhood who don't have secured networks in order for them to have internet at the house without paying an arm and a leg. Not the way I would advise one to get their internet, but it isn't my decision to make for them. Well, inevitably I end up going home earlier than planned in order to complete my "real" work (medical transcription) which requires me to have internet. Before this last trip, I decided I was not going to end up making the 3 hour trip back home at the last minute to allow me just enough time to get my work done because my brother's internet system had failed me yet again, so I changed my internet over the AT&T laptop card so I knew I would be able to work without relying on his internet. Wouldn't you know it, this entire week I have had a full signal but my internet has been as slow as dial up, which is making me absolutely nuts. I seriously do not have the time to sit here waiting on a job to load - UGH! All this time, however, my brother's internet has kept a strong signal and worked the entire time!!! Seriously??? If I had not changed my internet, I long ago would have had to head back to Arkansas because of a lack of internet signal. I switch to a more expensive internet service and now his works the entire time. Go figure! AT&T is definitely going to be hearing from me this week, though. No way am I going to spend $20 a month more for my internet and have to sit here waiting....and waiting.....and waiting in order to get my work done. I just don't have the time (or the patience, lol).

Since I was able to stay longer this time, I was able to have breakfast and spend a few hours with a good friend whom I hardly ever get to see and it was great. I wish we had more time to sit and talk. We took the kids to Silver Dollar City and boy was it HOT! We decided, of course, that the first thing to do was ride one of the water rides. Once we got wet, it wasn't so bad. Everyone had a good time and, as usual, the day ended before we could do everything we wanted. We also attended the wedding of one of my husband's close childhood friends while we were here and it was beautiful, as was the bride. :) It was great seeing several people I had not seen in years and hanging out with some adults for a change, lol. We had never met the woman he was going to marry until after the wedding was over. After watching them together for just a short time, however, they seem perfect for eachother and I wish them many happy years together. She lives fairly close to us and he now will be closer to us as well so I am hoping we will all be able to get together more often. Maybe we can start our own monthly Texas Hold 'em tournament. I know he and my husband would really enjoy that and I must say that I enjoy a night of it myself, lol.

We also did a ton of back to school shopping while here and saved a ton of money - yeah! I think I just about have everything done - well, until they actually start school and the teachers tell them some other things they need to get! Seems they never manage to get everything on the list that should be there. On top of being able to still do my regular job while here, I have received several orders for my sewing business, which is awesome. I truly believe that I need to leave town more often as that seems to be when I get the majority of my orders, lol. Since I introduced my hooded towel, I have sold just a few. Suddenly since last Sunday, I now have orders for 12! I also have had orders for 3 more pillowcase dresses and maybe one bed canopy, though I have not heard for certain on that one yet. I'll be one busy beaver when I get home!

Home. I love to get away, but I love to return! We head home today and I must say that I can't wait to get back. Well, that means I must get off of here. I have at least a 3 hour drive ahead of me, a few hours of typing that needs to be done and some embroidery to pick up tonight so I can mail out some orders. Hope you all have a wonderful day.