Please do not do this please

If you’ve been keeping an eye on my Instagram, you’ll see that I have been gushing over the new bag I made for myself.  It is so pretty, and there are aesthetically pleasing buckles that don’t do anything but add to the prettiness factor, and it’s so roomy!  SO BAE!!!! (HAHA!)  I’ve also been showing it off to people, because hello?!  WOULDN’T YOU?!  I mean, I made this bag.  ME!  Not knocking my other bags I’ve made before, but this is kind of a big deal.  There’s a lot of hardware that went into this, lots of planning, lots of materials!  Anyhow, like I said, I’ve been shamelessly showing it off and everyone’s said all nice things.

“oh that’s great!”

“that is so pretty!”

“that looks very Vera Bradley!”

Okay…I understand that he meant it as a compliment (he being one of my bosses)…comparing my bag to a well-known quilted bag company’s product…but it has rubbed me the wrong way.  Why?  Because Vera Bradley didn’t make it!  I did!!!  ME!  You wouldn’t tell a small chocolatier that their new batch “tastes like Hershey’s” would you?  No, because they’d be like, go take a long walk off a short pier!  Maybe he meant the patterns, maybe the look?  I don’t really know…but I just didn’t like it.

So, what I’m trying to get at is that if you know that someone handmade something, maybe don’t say “hey that thing you spent hours on look like something mass-produced by anyone” because it might not come across as “that looks very -insert big name here-.”

ANYHOW…Rant over.  Here are pics of my bag 😀

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Also, bae dog

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In other news!  I’m starting ANOTHER NEW PROJECT! HAHAHA!    I am just out of control.  But I do love having a specific thing to do, not just letting my mind wander…because I don’t need that kind of stress in my life.  I’ve been knocking things off of my to-do list for sewing, and adding new things daily it seems.  I guess it’s probably a good thing.  🙂  Sewing = Happy so more projects = more sewing = more happy right?

Anyway, new project is a baby quilt!  All the fabrics are on their way to me now, but it’s going to be made using Riley Blake’s The Cottage Garden.  No, this will not be my entry for the fabric challenge!  I’ve got that planned out too, which…I might think about starting that soon, too.

So let’s talk shop for a minute.  I am very proud of my little etsy pricing tool I made for myself, since you know, I love excel so much that I make sheets for my own personal stuff.  But, it’s really handy when someone asks you about how much something would cost.  I can at LEAST give them a ballpark range, if not an exact dollar amount.  I might…MIGHT share it one day.  I have even tried using pricing apps, but there was always something being left out.  I just got tired of it and made my own formula, which, by the way, is perfect.

Anyhow!  What have you been up to?  Sewing?  Being amazing?  That’s what I’ve been up to, so you probably are, too. 😀  Until  next time!  Happy sewing!

Such a busy week!

In a good way busy, not like a crazy hair pulling out week.  I somehow feel like I’m ahead of the curve today, which makes me think I’ve forgotten something.  I’m on the look out for…whatever it is.

I’ve been sewing up a storm lately!  And Filofax-ing!  I have been doing a instagram daily photo challenge which has made me kind of pay attention to things a little more.  One of the days was “motivation” and I made something for my filofax just for this day.  It’s a little “tag” that goes into the current month with my monthly goals.  Here it is:

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it was really easy to make, just a tag, some washi tape and highlighters.  I really did want something kind of in my face every day that would reaffirm my goals, and this was really helpful to me.  If you’ll notice the first goal is “Finish a Project” which…hello I don’t do that.  But, I figured, even the slightest nudge can get the rock rolling.  Apparently I was right!

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I got all those wallets made, which, the last two were unusually easy on my sewing machine and made me very suspicious.  The finishing stitch that goes all the way around is really difficult, even with a denim needle, and I almost thought I’d need to get a different needle, then those two were so simple that I guess not.  I finished making my niece’s little rag quilt bigger, which that was the easy part, the snipping was the killer.  I’d half snipped this and it hurt my my hand so much I just let it sit there for a while.  Some recent events made me decide I need to hurry up and get it sent back.  And then I didn’t want to send her something in the mail and not send my nephew something too, so I made him a little puppy.  What little boy doesn’t need a puppy!?!

I also got in some fabric that my sweet husband ordered for me so I can make myself a new bag.  My purse is still just fantastic, but I need more room now!  My old planner fit perfectly, and my filofax is just a bit bigger.  I’m making The Kennedy Bag using a couple of the light blue and navy patterns from Studio M for Moda, Mixology (cosmopolitan ice blueberry, manhattan blueberry and old fashioned blueberry)  I’m pretty excited about this bag.  I’ve not made a bag with this much hardware, so I’m anxious to see how it’ll turn out.  I ordered some soft and stable to finish it, which should be delivered today, so I can get back to work! 🙂  I also started a cross quilt (because one can never have too many projects at once!) but I think my math may have been a little off, and I need to tweak it.

Another new development: Bread.

I wanted to get a bread maker once we moved, but lucky me, the previous owner left one (amongst less desirable things…) in the kitchen!  Well it’s been sitting there, waiting, and when we got snowed in last week I got a recipe from the devil and tested it out. (After about an hour of cleaning it up omg)  The results:  perfectly edible and yummy bread!  The only tricky thing is making sure it has enough flour or water.  Thankfully my days of working at Papa John’s left me with the knowledge of how dough should feel, not too sticky but not too dry.  Just…almost…tacky.  I immediately wanted to make more bread.  I quickly discovered that some people don’t put the loaf size on their recipes, and my loaf of cinnamon raisin bread (which, was delicious) turned out MUCH larger than my machine was ready to handle, and I caught it just in time to toss it in the oven before it got much bigger and perhaps would have popped the top off of the machine.  It was kind of like the blob.  I then found a much more suited for my machine recipe, and I made a loaf and brought it to work this week.  I think the locals were pleased.  My next loaf project: banana nut bread.  Despite this story I’m going to go get some bananas and walnuts today.  Details to follow.

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That’s what’s been going on over here!  Until next time!  Happy sewing!

Someone was listening

Someone read my blog who controls the weather, because last week I got a five day weekend! This big storm blew through and there’s still snow at my house! 

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These were just from Monday, the initial snow!  A lot of people to the south of us got mostly ice, but we got about 3 inches of snow on top of a little layer of ice.

Lucky for me this meant I could get a lot of sewing in!

(Note: I wrote this two weeks ago and have been so busy trying to catch up at work I never got to finish.  Now, there is more snow today!  And more sewing has been done!)

I also wanted to touch on something I’m doing in my shop right now. A friend of mine has these two great little kids. Her son has a disease that for a long time they thought was Leukodystrophy. Leukodystrophy is a complex neurological disease that I can’t start to explain. A recent doctor visit has determined that is not what is going on, but it’s something else that they need to do more testing to determine. This little guy is six years old and just as sweet as any kid around. I wish something could be done to finally diagnose him correctly. All these years of doctor’s visits have made things hard for his mom, my friend, financially, so I wanted to help. The navy and white colored wallets for sale in my shop are being sold to raise awareness for Leukodystrophy, and half of the profits, (yea half!) Are going to his mom to help pay for some of his medical bills.

Anyhow, I hope you all are enjoying the weather as best as you can! Al enjoys the part where we are stuck at home.

Until next time! Happy sewing!