New Hipter Clutches!

Some days I love my job. And finally today is one of those days. It started slow, sewing patches on Girl Scout Vests, answering email. But once I got down to my studio things went well. Then I had to hop in the car for a meeting. The meeting went well and I can say be on the look out for some cool new crafty events from me! 

I spent my morning studio time cutting out. Which never feels glamorous. But in reality is the most important part of the whole "sewing" process. It is when you make the decisions that will determine how your finished project will look. The cutting is what determines if your project will succeed or fail. It is cutting mistakes that can be impossible to come back from. Cutting is my strong point. I am brave, I am bold, I make snap decisions and I do not have a lot emotionally invested in my fabric. Especially if it is to be sold. I cannot fall in love with something and then sell it. It is like a farmer naming her hogs. Don't name them if you're gonna eat them (or sell them for someone else to eat).

But I digress.......

Today when i was sewing I fell in love. Breaking my own rule. 

I know she's beautiful right? Sparkle tweed and stretch lingerie lace. These are some of my last pieces of sparkle tweed. It is one of my favorite fabrics ever and I really hope to find some more. I thought I was in love with this gal until I starting making the next one.

She is sexy right? Lace, red lining but the tweed keeps it from going too sexy. It hits just the right note. And I am keeping this one because I am in love!

I hate to separate them because they do look pretty great together. But I am going to keep one and sell one. Maybe one day they will meet again.

The fold - over in the back will be off to HomeGrown Decatur soon, with many more creations I plan to make in the next few days. I will be sad to see her go but like a farmer I need to make money off the fruits of my labor. Sometimes it is hard.

Hope you have a safe and Happy, HALLOWEEN!! Tomorrow I will have a new costume to show you!

Peace Out - Chrissy

Studio Clean Out! And Sale at HomeGrown Decatur

This morning I decided I was going to give myself a "day off". Which of course is why I am writing this. Why is it when you finally give yourself permission to rest (partly b/c you feel like crap) you manage to rally and feel like doing some work.

Ok so my phone does not take as good a pictures as my real camera is the lesson here. But I want you to focus on the fact there is floor space to be seen here. And that there is also clean table space.

Things are put away so that the closet curtains can be closed and not look like the closet is barfing up the stuff in it.

It is amazing that when everything is put away where it goes it really does seem like I have a decent amount of work space.

We even managed to tame the mess that was taking over M's studio space.

Getting all my mess down to this pile of cut stuff that is ready to sew is pretty manageable.

Well ok there is this pile too but all in all pretty manageable. And having a neat organized space has improved my attitude and ability to focus. Last week I accomplished my main goals, which were to finish sewing snack bags and to get my Etsy shop back up and running. I actually accomplished these goals. The goals for this week I think will be smaller. Resting is high on the list. I have been having a battle with vertigo and the vertigo is winning today.

But I accomplished my goal for yesterday which was to get my sale items over to HomeGrown Decatur for the big studio sale this week.

Starting Thursday! There will be lots of cool stuff on sale. I know all the stuff I brought over I marked 60% off. There were lots of class samples and one of a kinds as well as fabric and scraps from me. Other artists are selling discontinued items, off season stuff and all sorts of interesting gems as well.

I will be working Thursday 10 - 2 and 5-9 so come by and see me!!

Peace Out - C  

Art, on display now!

Hey Peeps!

So the super cool artist co-op where I work, HomeGrown, is hosting a mini show within the Decatur Arts Festival. The theme is Pop Art! The fun and fantastic owners (Lore & Beth) asked us to make new pop art pieces for the weekend. So for once I actually did manage to get something done, before it was due. And even more amazingly I love it.

First I must tell you my original vision was much different than how the final piece turned out. However that is pretty much how life goes so as I too often say; it is what it is.

 This is  close up of the piece. I am calling it "Pop Goes Decatur". It is a quilted wall hanging. I took all the pictures, then did a little Andy Warhol inspired editing, printed them on fabric (process is a secret), sewed them together and embroidered a few accents on the Georgia outlines and backed it in solid muslin. 

I bound the edges in black fabric, like a frame.  And now it is hanging over at HomeGrown Decatur for you to come and see. 

We are having a party tomorrow night (Friday May 24), cake, free beer and wine! And I will be there! Well and a bunch of other cool people who work in the shop will be there too. So come on by and say hi, I would love to see you. Oh and you know you could buy something or whatever. 

While I will be working in the shop a large chunk of the weekend, I am off Sunday. Next week I am hoping to actually... wait for it .... have time to sew some clothes for myself. Shocking I know. But I am taking a break from sewing for work and other people and selfishly sewing for myself. It is just time.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Do something selfish and induldgent for yourself.

- Chrissy 

Work, work, work......

I have to admit, I was a little bit lazy in January. Which I am now glad of because as the old saying goes, "when it rains, it pours!". And man has it been pouring. I will spare you all the sorted details.... for now. But in the midst of all my drama I managed to get some  work done. Here is a list that may or may not interest you but it makes me feel better to see it:

- New spring napkins over to Home Grown. You may be admiring my lovely new packaging. I am hoping these hold up a little better than the baker's twine. Also noticce how I have large and small napkins all matched up and pretty.

- My Etsy store back up and running. There are only a few things up right now but I plan to get more on there over the next couple of weeks.

- I am also working on re-organizing some things in my studio at home. And I am teaching more sewing lessons. While I really do not mind working and working hard I always look forward to January. It is always the one month that I feel no guilt about taking a break and re-assessing.

I spent a lot of January thinking and planning and buying supplies. Now it is time to put all those plans and thoughts into action. But of course many things are trying to get themselves in the way! It is what it is and I can only do what i can do!  Right?!?!

Did you notice Easter is crazy early this year? You think there is any chance my family will be getting new Easter clothes? A dress for M, a shirt for E and perhaps a little something for me? Well there is at least a chance this will happen. One of my resolutions this year was to make sewing fun again and not just a business. So we will see.

What have you been pondering so far for this year? Are you out of your January re-charge phase and back to work? Speaking of which I better get to gettin.

Peace Out - C

Ode to my hammock!

Alright so I just like to use the word ode. One day several years ago I said "I wish we had a hammock". And for some strange reason my husband actually heard that request and got me a pop up hammock and frame for our deck.

When I was pregnant with my daughter I sat in the hammock until I could no longer get in and out of it. And in the years after she was born we laid in it together. Then it started to fall a part and I could sit in it no more. Also it was so stretched that my butt was hitting the ground. One of the things on my long list of September projects was to make a new hammock.

Today I did just that.

 The only weird thing it that, the middle is higher than the sides. I do remember when I first got the old hammock I felt like I was sitting in a giant V and it eventually stretched. I am hoping that this fabric relaxes a little too. It is a little stiff and awkward now. But in a couple of months it should be perfect.
However when this one wears out I will probably just buy another one. Would have cost about the same as all the supplies it took to make this one.

I made the cute little pillow too. Which is nice. I got a lot done yesterday and today. It has been fun to have my room back and do some fun personal projects before I have to get back to the one woman sweat shop. Did I mention I am scheduled to be back selling my wares at Homegrown on October 1? I guess I need to make some stuff for that.

Peace Out - C

Been busy working all week.

It seams like Halloween was weeks ago already. I spent most of this week working on getting new products ready to take over to HomeGrown and listed on my Etsy site. On Friday I was one of the featured artists at HomeGrown for the art walk as a part of the Decatur Wine Festival. Basically I hung out at the shop and had snacks and talked to my fellow artists and met some fun customers.

I managed to get some more of my big lunch bags ready and my display at HG was looking pretty spiffy. Forgive the slightly grainy and out of focus phone picture.

I also got these cool little pouches over there. They come in various sizes and range from $6.00 - $18.00 dollars. These are some of the items I came up with to add to the shop for the holidays.

I am doing 2 more craft shows this year as well as having my Etsy sight pretty well stocked right now. I have 40 items listed which I think is the most I have ever managed to get up there. I made 60 napkins yesterday and hope to make at least that many tomorrow.

Here are some better pics of the lunch bags. They actually could also be a make-up / toiletries bag rather than a lunch bag if you wanted.

On a few of the bags I tried to be a little extra creative and added some applique. The flower on this one is felt and silk.

For the fist time ever Fabric.com let me down a little. I ordered more strap material and it took over a WEEK! for my order to get here. I was a little desperate to get some bags finished so I scoured the house and found two old belts and was able to use those to make handles. 

Over all it was a long week and had some challenges. But now it Sunday and I have had a nice morning of puttering. Guess I better go get dressed.

Have a great week! Hope I am back to talk to you before the week is out. Peace Out!
C

HALLOWEEN!!!!

Ok people Halloween is coming. So far The Devine Miss M is going to be a Super Monkey! Eric is contemplating being a vampire and I am considering all things related to the poodle skirt. I know it is a little shocking that we are not planning a group costume. But it is early days and no purchases have been made yet so there is a chance things will improve.

Today I managed to finish 13 (a very Halloweeny number) new Trick-or-Treat bags. Most of them are now over at HomeGrown waiting for you to buy them but I have a few left here at the house.

This is a close up of a new bag design I came up with. There are 4 panels sewn together and some gathering as well as elastic. But I have to say I am really loving this design. It is actually a new take on the plain old tote bag. I may have to actually keep one of these for myself I love them so much.

Something about the green and brown dot and the funky Jack-O-Lanterns is just cool. They are modern and fun without being too cutesy.

Did I mention I LOVE Halloween?

So I am just going to show you pictures of the bags I made because I sort of loved them all.

Here I am trying to take a picture of myself looking cute and casual carrying this awesome bag. I had the camera on the self timer on the ironing board. Given the conditions I think it turned out all right.

 I am calling this one the Hearse Purse! Really tell me you don't love it.....

Some little guys for the little ones. Really these would hold a ton of candy! And that is what Halloween is all about right? The dressing up and oh yeah... the candy.

The Cat is ON the bag. I normally hate cats but I make a Halloween exception. The little bags are $10.00 and the big bags are $15.00. Let me know if you want one and will not have a chance to get over to Home Grown to check them out.

Ok enough with the bags. What are your Halloween plans? So far I am running the Octo-Boo! Festival (10/22) at the kiddo's school, There is the AWESOME Halloween Parade and Ball in Decatur Square (10/30 more below) and then there is the Trick or Treating.  One of the perks of having a kid is getting to go trick or treating again.

I know it is hanging off the page - but I wanted it big enough for you to see! Ok I am sure there will be more posts about Halloween. But I warn you after my favorite holidays passes I may be decidedly less perky as the other holidays please me much less. I will work on not being too big a Grinch this year ;)

Peace Out!
C