I have so much fabric piled up, and I continue to buy new fabric all the time, because I love love love to sew. While my mom was in town, we decided we’re going to go in half and half on a viking quilting / embroidery machine. I will be moving back to Jersey soon, and am more than happy to share it with her. The machines cost a few grand, so I decided to start up an etsy store so I can make it pay for itself!

So far I only have one item listed, which is the tote above, but I plan to build on it fairly quickly. I’ve been working on the following tote tonight to add to my store. I used the remnants from my beloved place mats. The problem is, I fall in love with everything I make, so it makes it really hard to list them! How fabulous are the pearl snaps I found at JoAnn’s?

The tote above isn’t done yet, as you can see some pins holding the handles in place at the moment, but it’s almost there. I also need to add one of my labels which I printed onto fabric myself last night. I’ve been printing on fabric for at least 10 years now, no joke, but have never made labels for my items, so I’m geekily excited about this.

I’m still pondering about how to price things too. I try to weigh out the time I put into each item, the cost of the materials used, and the uniqueness / quality of each item. When you put your own passion into creating handmade items, it puts a lot into perspective when you’re purchasing custom / handmade products. I find that I have been critiquing who is charging too much, who isn’t charging enough, etc. I hope I can find that balance between selling my items for a small profit while really just enjoying the fact that someone wants to own something I made!

Honestly, I won’t be upset if I don’t sell anything. It just seems like a fun venture and if other people like my work enough to buy it, it gives me a reason to keep creating new things!

I haven’t had a chance to post in a while, because my mom was in Florida visiting. While she was here, we did a lot of shopping. I found a lot of fun things while we were out, so I decided to post about some of the odds and ends I picked up last week.

These were in the dollar bins at Michael’s, and they just looked fun!

I thought this key was too cool. It’s a decorative “bottle opener”. I made the mistake of announcing my excitement for what I had found to my mom, and then had a woman hurry over and step in front of me so she could look at them. That always happens to me!

We also came across a great sale on the Ariel fabric at JoAnn’s, so we got just enough so I could make my niece, Ariela, a little dress.

I really didn’t add anything special, just had to shorten it a bit and then sew it up according to her measurements.

I also came across these tea light lanterns at world market, which I thought were so pretty, so I got three to hang on the porch.

My mom likes my taste, so she got a few for herself as well. We had a lot of fun shopping, aside from all of the other fun stuff we did.

• Wekiwa State Park
• Epcot
• Clearwater Beach
• Dunedin
• Downtown Orlando
• Elton John Concert

We picked up a few huge pine cones as well, and I regret not grabbing more. I think I need to gather some more of these, they have a lot of crafting potential. Please excuse the background mess.

In Dunedin, I picked out a really neat basket for my mom at a designer consignment shop. Unfortunately, she couldn’t take it back to NJ with her on her flight, so I generously offered to bring it back for her next month. I don’t mind showing it off in front of my fireplace in the interim.

OK, there’s one last thing that I found that I decided to share. I paid way too much money for this thing, so we’re not going to talk about that, but I found this amazing fleece lined sweater in a boutique in Dunedin. Personally, I love it. The husband’s reaction, well let’s just say he is not a fan, lol! He say’s “at least it’s comfortable”. Little does he know, I will be wearing this out in public with him in the Fall

I kinda have my own quirky style. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t matter, it’s mine!

We have a few birthdays coming up this month, and we have picked up some gifts here and there. Today I figured I’d whip up a tote to use as a gift bag for one set of gifts.

Unfortunately for me, I’m a perfectionist, and this tote turned into a big project. Now don’t get me wrong… the tote has some imperfections, however, I did my best to make it well since it’s part of a gift.

I sewed pockets into one of my totes, and I love it, so I decided to do the same with this one. I also added some embellishments, since I have yet to find big buttons at a decent price.

So I really like it, and as I was finishing it tonight, I decided I’m kinda jealous and I wish someone had made this for me instead No sneak peeks at the gifts inside, but honestly, I think this is the best part of the gift!

Although the real sunflowers with the orange slices were really pretty, the flowers died in about a week. The oranges held up great, however.  I decided to go with some fake flowers this time, however.

My husband and I were in Michael’s Crafts, we were discussing how most of the fake flowers looked kinda cheap. I love fake fall colored flowers, but there’s something about the spring colors, they never look “real” enough.

While I’m on this topic though, I just thought about these really pretty fake sunflowers my mom puts out every year. I’m going to have to ask her where she got them. I like the texture of the ones we found, however I’m not certain about what they’re made of. They kind of resemble dried orange slices.

We found those conch shells at the beach last year, and tried to be careful not to take any that housed live snails or hermit crabs. Unfortunately, we did take one or two that had hermit crabs in them, and I found out too late… they had died. I felt pretty terrible about that, so I’m not sure I’ll pick up any more conch shells.

We did end up with a nice assortment of shells though, but I have yet to find a nice way / spot to display them.  I also came across the cutest itsy bitsy shell when I was cleaning them.

That’s a small white rock that it’s set on! Now that I have them all cleaned up, I think I’ll start seeking  some ideas out and decide how I want to display them.

This morning, we were getting ready to go to the gym, and Isaac decided to run to the corner 7-11 and grab a gallon of spring water. Oh, let me slide in here real quick that I caved last week and we got “smart phones”. As he was walking out the door, I realized this gave me about 5 minutes to sew up a pouch for my phone to hang from the elliptical.

I literally made it with the top pieces of scrap fabric from the pile, but it actually ended up matching my headphones too. The pink rope came from a ‘Bebe’ shopping bag. Hey, if you’re going to pay that much money for a pair of jeans, you may as well upcycle the handles from the shopping bag

When my husband got home, he was like, “You’re kidding me, you really just made that while I was gone?” I teased him asking if he wanted one, but he quickly said no, not realizing I do have more manly fabric in my stash.

I noticed his phone sitting up on the ledge of the elliptical while we were working out this morning, and it made me nervous. I could just picture it falling. So, I went ahead and made one for him tonight too…

After the fact, I glued some on WVU appliques from an old tee-shirt to jazz it up. Needless to say, he really likes it.

I realizethat these types of things are made to wrap the device around your arm while running, but I’ve tried them in the past with iPods, and they drive me crazy. With these, we just wrap the cord around a pole / handle on the elliptical and clip it together so it hangs right in front of us and out headphones still reach. Two quick 5 minute projects to prevent the phone from falling off of an elliptical / treadmill… totally worth it!

I decided with these pillows, I should make them as covers rather than stuffing them and sewing them shut.

I did this for a few reasons: I don’t have any cotton / stuffing on hand at the moment. Also, we are moving soon, so its less to transport. In deciding this, I also realized this means they’ll be easily washable which is really nice when you have little dogs who help themselves to the bed / couch!

It’s pretty easy to do, and another nice thing is you don’t have hand sew the pillow at all. I just measured my cuts up to fit the two 18 x 18 pillows I had previously made.

I also purposely offset the fold to the side so the overlap isn’t pulled open by the bulge in the middle.

I really love the way the other pillows I made look, but it’s nice to change it up now and then, especially if it means just popping a cover on them from the linen closet!

Do you ever gasp at the price of place mats in stores like Pier1 or World Market? Well, you really shouldn’t… unless of course, you know how to sew A nice piece of fabric can run you about $49.99 per yard. If you’re not too picky about it, you can hit the sale racks. Or, if you’re like me you can hit the remnants bins and get double the discount. After the sale price was applied and the additional 50% remnant discount was taken off, I paid under $10 for just under a yard of fabric, which is normally $49.99 per yard.

 I have found that when I hit the remnants bins, I can’t really have a specific item I intend to make. If I like something, I try to come up with a few ideas of what I can make with it. This fabric had place mats written all over it. Place mats are the easiest thing to sew, in my opinion.

The best part is, there is no hand sewing involved, because a double stitch around the outer edge to keep the place mat flat also takes care of the opening you have to leave to flip it face side out.

I think they compliment the chairs really well, which is probably why the first thing I though of was place mats when I saw the pattern. I’d say they’re very comparable to the one’s you will find pre-made for $7 each. Cheaper, custom decor… if you have the tools and the time, why not?

Oh, and don’t mind the lumpy dog bed in the background. It’s getting tossed next month before we move. The dogs love it, so for now I deal with it. I almost feel like I should salvage the stuffing and use it for the new one I make so it still has the same scent, or stink rather, because I’m sure that’s why they like it so much.  (If you have dogs, rather than finding that last statement to be gross, you’re laughing to yourself thinking “Sounds about right!”)

I used a slightly cheaper matching tan fabric for the reverse side which I also found in the remnants bin, but I suppose that makes them reversible? I do like the texture of it! I used it as a background for the picture of my espresso beans below, so if anything, I can flip them over and use them when photography small items.

Just looking at this picture makes me want to brew another pot of coffee. These things definitely support caffeine addictions, they’re so yummy!

You guessed it, Pinterest. Recently I’ve seen a lot of pictures going around of vases stuffed with sliced fruit, and decorated with burlap. I know I have a ton of vases back at my mom’s house in Jersey, but I don’t have any here in Florida so I grabbed one in the dollar store today.

I picked up the orange and sunflowers at the grocery store, and while we were in line my husband jokingly said to me, “You know, this pinterest thing is getting expensive”. This whole project cost me $5.

I like it, but now that I’m looking at it, the sunflowers would have looked better with sliced limes. I’m interested to see how long the sliced oranges hold up, I will keep you posted on that!