Leafy jacket pin

So I really need a new winter coat. I think I have had mine now for 8 years. It might be the most unflattering thing ever not to mention not the best jacket for Minnesota winters. But I really do not know how to get without it since most jackets seem to run in the $100-200 range. Maybe I could try to attempt making one but the idea of that just exhausts me right now. So anyway I decided to make myself feel better about said coat by giving it a little pizazz with this leafy pin, which is my first (and a bit sad) attempt at embroidery! I know that true embroidery needs like patterns and what not but I just wanted to play around with a couple of the stitches to start out with. I think my jacket will be better off with it.

Oooh! I got a treasury on Etsy!

Isn't it puuuurty?
I am especially hankerin' on that yellow and grey hand spun yarn, I mean only $13 for hand spun yarn?! Problem is I have no idea what i would make with it. I was just checking out the treasuries yesterday and noticed that I was about 5 minutes away from being able to get one. I had to think fast of what I wanted to showcase to come up with a title and I was inspired by these puppies that are my latest obsession!Yikes I am in love with these shoes! But with a price of $88, just a bit (or more) out of my reach

Charmed I'm sure

Wow, I really cannot believe it is October already. I feel like I got NOTHING done in September and the last two weeks have been really slow sale wise. But it seems to be etsy-wide so I am not taking it personally. And I keep getting these opportunities that fall flat for one reason or another. A bit discouraging :/

But I just ordered some super cute charms from a supply seller on etsy, Card Blanc
I am so excited! I also got some bees, keys, and random assortments. I am working on this new idea for my craft show to incorporate felt, fabric, charms, and the like in with my own polyshirnk parts. Also I have having to save up my pennies to make this huge order from fire mountain to restock my dwindling jewelry supply. I hate making orders if I can't get to the 200+ assortment price. But I just got a fortune from a cookie saying I should expect an inheritance from an unexpected source soon. *crossing my fingers for an unknown great uncle to remember me in his will*

Ame hoodie

So I cooked up this little number from a zip hoodie that was on sale at Target for only $5 and some felt that I had hanging out
It is a bit big on her but lucky for me she is growing like a weed and she should fit in it tomorrow (okay a slight exaggeration but it feels like she grows that fast!). And then here is the awesome action shot
The ears look wonky since she is not one to sit still for a picture and the hood was moving all around. But I really ike how it came out. I mean how can you go wrong with a pink panda on a baby?

I got into No Coast Craft-o-rama!

Huzzah! I got accepted as a vendor at the Minneapolis No Coast craft show this December! This is going to be my first craft show so of course I am just as nervous as I am excited. But I am anticipating that no matter how much I sell, it will be a valuable experience. Now I only have two and a half months to prepare...

Crocheted Baby Jumper

So Miss Ame has learned how to pull herself up and cruise around on the furniture. It is a remarkable thing to see, this person that only nine months ago couldn't even hold up her own head is basically walking around. However, this requires her to be constantly supervised leaving me very little time to do, well, anything. But I have learned a great secret. I am able to easily watch her and crochet at the same time. So I am expecting that I will be posting a lot of crochet projects in the future. I am also finally going to teach myself how to knit since I am dying to make this one sweater. But anyway, I was messing around and came up with this little number for Ame Bean. I am really digging grey and yellow together right now. I didn't follow a pattern, just winged it. But I wish I would have tried to write down what I was doing since I really like how it came out and would like to do another. Oh well, such is life.

Lucy is Home!

Lucy got home on Monday and brought along a smash of souvenirs and pictures. Here she is showing off her new Arsenal scarf that Paula knitted for her as well as her new friend Chas Oiseau. I really can't describe how awesome of a swap partner Paula has been, you should check out her flickr album of Lucy's vacation, it's a riot. And she generously included tons of treats, magazines, maps, and generally great stuff (like Guinness bread mix! Yumm!!). Lucy is still decompressing a little from all the excitement but she hopefully may get a chance to go on another trip again someday!

Bentos are back!

Are a long hiatus due to the fact that hubby was a little unsure about how his new co-workers would react to his cuter than cute lunches, bentos are back! He figured if he told his co-workers that I made him his lunch (of course of my own accord, not that he even asks me too) that they would probably think it was cute and over look the bunnies on the box. Also, this was food to compliment his PBJ sandwich would is too big to fit in any bento box.

Wardrobe Refashion

Well I did it. I didn't buy anything new for two whole months. Well I guess I did buy a sweater from Anthropologie but it was on sale and I only spent .90 of my own money (the rest was a gift card from my birthday). Otherwise I made myself a new pair of pants, refashioned a two sweaters, a sweatshirt, and three t-shirts. I also purchased a couple of things from the goodwill outlet for a total of $4 and a track jacket from another second-hand store for $8. Also, no shoes were purchased (I still don't know how I managed that one) and also no accessories.

And now I am hooked. I mean why would I need something new when I can either make it myself or just take sometime to rummage through some second-hand stuff? So I am going to keep on going with this and see how far I can go before buying anything. The only thing I need to refrain from is being tempted to buy things at the store I work at with my wicked awesome discount.

A little something for me

It's funny. I started creating/crafting things because I wanted to be able to make things for myself. Then after starting to sell my designs and whatnot, I rarely made anything for just me anymore. So this week, while trying to get samples together for a craft show submission, I made a ring I had an idea for a long time ago. It took a couple tries (I had never done a wire ring before), but I really like how it came out. And it's mine, all mine.

New necklace

So I heart my new job. There are really great people who work there, the shop itself is amazing, and it's really easy :)

But I cannot describe all the inspiration I get from there. Right now they have large tree branches hanging from the ceiling to hang wind chimes, chandeliers, butterflie,s etc. As I was looking at them, I thought "how cool would it be to have a branch hang around your neck?" And tada! I made about three for myself and I am testing one or two on my etsy store. But the best is how many compliments I get on them when I am out. I always feel awkward being like "I made it" (blame it on that typical-artist-hates-promoting-themselves thing I guess) but when I do they always seem really impressed.

Christmas in July

At least it felt like Christmas on Saturday when I received my Loco for Gocco swap package filled with the best goodies a girl could dream of! Loco for Gocco is a flickr group of etsy artists and sellers who work with gocco. People submitted prints, badges, cards, etc and the lovely Phoebe was kind enough to wrangle it all together to ship out. I forgot to include in my picture a most awesome Tab from Circa Ceramics that was promptly nailed to the wall. I was basically squealing with joy as I opened each one.

I C U

Okay so my kitty isn't a crafty project but I just love her. She nestled herself under our bedroom rug today and I caught her peeking out. Did I mention she is the world's meanest cat? Well, not to us but if anyone visits she goes into super "hiss-and-bat-at-you" mode.

You and what robot army?

Oh, THAT robot army.

Working on some necklaces to take to a local boutique and see if they would like to sell them. Hopefully I will have good news about that next week! :)

Yikes!

Man it has seemed like it has been forever since I posted something on here. And it has been over a week. But I just got so busy that I totally forgot about blogging. But I never forget about craftin' :)

So here are some things I have been working on the past week. We made a huge trip to the Goodwill Outlet store where you buy all items by the pound. And it is a crafter's paradise. I like going there for random XXXL men's shirts that are basically 10 cents and make great fabric for totes. But I picked up this little gem.


Straight out of 1986, it even had huge shoulder pads that I cut out. I also shortened the sleeves up, took some in on the sides and cut out this horrible mock-neck thing. I wish I had remembered to take a "before" shot. Then to make it totally all mine, I cut-out a little felt dino and hand-sewed him on. I can't believe I worked on a sweatshirt in this July heat, every time I had to try it on to make sure I sewed right, I about died. But now I can't wait until the fall to show it some love.

Then we decided to re-arrange our bedroom (another bad idea in the July heat/humidity). I finally got this picture back from my dad who had it hanging in his office for a while. It is a copy of a Matisse that I was required to in college. I always liked how it turned out and now we had a chance to hang it up in our bedroom.


















Mine is on the above left and the original is on the lower right (as if that isn't super ridiculously apparent!)

Lucy's summer vacation

Paula (aka swap partner extraordinaire), posted some pictures of Lucy and they really have me cracked up:


Here we have Lucy enjoying some lovely Yellowtail wine


And here we have Lucy the morning after. Ha! I can't wait for Lucy to come home to hear all the details :)

*insert lots of swear words here*

Please pardon the following rant, I just need to cyber-yell for a couple moments.

WHY CAN'T I SEW FROM PATTERNS!?!?!?!?! I have tried TWICE now to sew the shirt from the Built By Wendy pattern above and both times it have turned into such a mess that it is basically un-salvageable. And it suppose to be so easy! And I have seen other people have BEAUTIFUL outcomes with it. And I just can't sew it worth a damn. So now I have ruined about $15 in fabric and wasted another $8 on a pattern that I can't sew to save my life. *pounding head on sewing machine*

Whew!

It has been a crazy week. Family in town from all parts of the country, started my new job, and it has been hot and humid and muggy, blah! I mean who is in the mood to walk from the living room to the kitchen for a glass of water much less craft? The only really exciting things is that Denise of dc designs alerted me that I made the front page again on Friday night!


What I did karma-wise I would like to know because I am willing to do it again :)
But I still haven't been able to nab a treasury even though I have been keeping a watchful eye. And in an effort to de-stash I opened a second shop called razzle dazzle berry. Just some beads and old vintage books so far.

And no bentos. With all this heat going on, it has just been easier to microwave a lean cuisine and call it lunch. But I will be better, I must to satisfy that growing voice inside of "please create something"

Front page love

Yesterday on Etsy I made it to the front page! It was so weird logging in and recognizing my own print there (little teapot on the bottom right corner). Now I am going to try to snag a treasury and show my love back to the wonderful Etsy community.

Little projects from over the weekend

I've gotten really inspired by people fusing plastic bags and then using them to sew with. I really wanted to make a re-usable plastic bag for the store but I found that I didn't have quite enough recycled bags to do the trick. So in the mean time while I save up more, I made this flower pin cutting out shapes and using some old beads that were about to be throw away.


Hooray for up-cycling!

Then I got a sewing bug up my bum and used up some left-over fabric from my pants to make a little clutch. And of course since I am obsessed with bunnies, I made one out of felt to go on it.


But it was hot and humid here this weekend I really got nothing done. I mean nothing. And now I start my new job tonight so that will leave even less time for doing stuff. Oh well, all for the greater good :)

We are just having a fabulous time

We received little Pierre last week and we are just having the best of times! He was introduced to Sweeti (the cat), Ame (the baby), and all the little creatures we have around. Then we went for a walk around our neighborhood. We live just a block away from the Minneapolis Art Institute and Pierre wanted a picture with the large lions that sit out front. Well, we couldn't quite reach that high so I got this picture to show his mom Paula


And Lucy arrived safe and sound to Ohio and is having a fabulous time from the sounds of it. Her host Paul snapped the best picture ever of Lucy taking a ride with the friendly neighborhood UPS man!!


This is by far already my most favorite swap I have ever participated in.

Insert drumroll here

Announcing the grand opening of gerrijo.com!!!!!! This has been the hubby's project for the past month and I really like how it turned out. I also updated my "brand", the old pear was a little 2.0 for me. Now he is going to work on getting my site even snazzier and also have it's own shop. Such a smart guy he is.

Thursday Bentos

I hadn't had a chance to bento it up this week until now. Problem is that our refrigerator was having some issues and freezing all the food. Which resulted in us being tentative about buying fruits/veggies to keep in there. Which results in bentos that aren't exactly super healthy and colorful. Oh well, still fun!



Here we have my bento featuring some starbursts, veggie hot dogs with a pita star, mustard in the sauce cup, a little cheese below that, and some more pita stars. On the bottom there is cottage cheese with cinnamon, savory rice minis, and some Wasa crackers. Then for hubby's bento:



Very similar items but the veggie hot dogs "octopused" better so they got little mustard eyes. And instead of cottage cheese, the cup on the bottom holds hubby's favorite stuff in the world, Salsa Lisa-Really Hot. I am a bit concerned about how the salsa will do since I could find anything with a cover.

dance-dance-everyone look at your pants

Holy crap, I made myself pants. And I lurve them. So much so I am going to make myself a pair of jeans using the same pattern. Which was "Built by Wendy" #4110. I was a bit scared that the largest pattern size wouldn't fit since I am a RTW 14 but it worked out perfectly. They are even a bit baggy so I can adjust that when I make the jeans. And then more capris. And then more pants. And then I will have a different pair of bottoms for each day of the year, muhahahahah!

Lucy just left today

*sniff* Lucy is gone and on her way to Ohio to spend the summer with her host Paula. I am excited since I have never been to the Cleavland area. And Paula has hinted at a surprise summer trip that Lucy will be going on. In exchange, I am getting sweet little Pierre for the summer to show him a good time around Minneapolis!!

Do I have something on my face?

Hubby and I were playing photographer this weekend and caught the girlie girl with this face. Did I mention she is my most favorite project I have ever worked on?

Life happens

That was my motto this weekend as I watched the hours whittle away. I had all these plans for crafts but life just kept happening and there was nothing I could do about it. Oh well. I did have fun though. We finally got over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on Saturday. It is a short walk there from our house but we always forget to go. I hadn't been there since college and it is always fun just to see the people milling about. That is the hubby above getting frisky with some of the artwork in the pic above.

Anyhoo, I finished two clothing recons for my Wardrobe Refashion pledge. The first is an old maternity sweater that was way too stretched out in the belly region. I chopped that off, sewed some buttons on and also shortened the sleeves.

I kinda was mad about that after the fact since I could have left the sleeves as is and just rolled them up in the summer but oh well. I really like it though, it turns out to the be the best little cover up when the wind picks up at night.

Then I made up this little number trying to make a yoke. I REALLY struggled with this one mentally. For some reason I thought it would be a super simple "cut out this and sew in that" project. But I had cut too much of the patterned shirt (which is better than not cutting enough) and just could not figure how to get it all to line up in the end. I have learned a little since starting to sew and I just made sure to baste stitch the whole thing first. I had to redo it a couple times but it is a helluva lot easier to rip out baste stitches. But then I decided I didn't like the sleeves of the black tee shirt so I made some different ones. I hadn't really made a sleeve before either, so this whole shirt is a whole lot of experimentation.



Now today I just bought two patterns from the "Built by Wendy" line. One is for pants and one is for shirts. I am REALLY bad at patterns but I have to keep trying I guess. I really had wanted to work on these all weekend but life happens and I just couldn't get to it.

Friday Bento

Well I am just smitten. Although I may not be a fan of Super Target, I still love Target. While there last night, I found cute bento-like containers! Best part is that they were only $4. Only sad part is that the way they are constructed, you are really limited what you can put in the top part.

Sorry for the horrible picture. Anyhoo, it is hard to see but there is a flap above the lower portion (in this pic, the part without the sandwich) that folds down and then the sandwich part fold upside down over that. Which results in you only being able to put large "dry" objects in that compartment (if I am making ANY sense). But I am happy to have found another alternative to expensive bentos from Japan. Plus they hold a lot of food. Like twice as much as our bento boxes we have right now. And I was excited to have thought of the idea to make cut-outs of fruit roll-ups for the sandwich.

I have a lot of plans for the weekend (craft-wise). I am going to try my hand at fusing plastic bags to make a re-usable grocery bag. And I am going to make a trip to Jo-Ann fabrics to get a "Made by Wendy" pattern for pants and a shirt. And I am going to make up some more greeting cards with the gocco. Also, my website should be up by Monday *crossing fingers*.

Happy Friday!!

Lucy is going on vacation!

Name: Lucy Rose Havana
Age: 3.5 years old (24 in cat years)
Birthday: May 30, 2003 (Gemini)
Sex: Yes, very much. Oh-I mean female
Occupation: Student studying Graphic Design
Likes: Tree climbing, traveling, art, reading, spending time with friends, volunteering
Favorite band: "Cat Power"
Favorite color: Green
Favorite food: Tofu
Dislikes/Fears: Water, conformity, spiders, vacuums

I joined the "Little Visitor Swap" on craftster and I made up Lucy here to go on an exciting trip somewhere in the world. I should find out later this week where exactly, I am rooting for somewhere overseas or on one of the coasts. Then I will get a visitor for the summer from my swap partner and we will have adventures around of the city and take pictures. I am excited to start! Lucy is made of a combination of felt and polka-dot satin. And she has a little wire in her tail so that it can bend. I made up the pattern and kinda just winged it. I took some more pictures of Lucy saying goodbye to her friends:


Here she is saying good bye to her best friend Sweeti. Earlier they had a spat about a boy but they have made up and Sweeti promises not to move in on Pitter while Lucy is gone.


Here is Pitter, Lucy's boyfriend. They just started dating but things were getting hot and heavy so they agreed they need a cooling off period.

And of course Lucy had to say good bye to the basket of buddies she has.

Tuesday Bento

Only took a picture of mine because hubby's was exactly the same. Usually I have to make small changes to his since we don't always like the exact same things. We are again needing to go grocery shopping so it is a kinda random mix of food. We made the spring rolls for dinner last night and they turned out really well despite our rice wrappers kept on breaking. So on top there is tofu spring rolls (mint leaves for decoration), peanut sauce in the cup, and edamame/broccoli mix. On the bottom, Savory rice mini's nacho flavor, wasabi peas, cottage cheese with cinnamon, and a chocolate under the rice crackers.

I applied for a PT job at a local gift boutique. I really need to get out of the house more and the extra income won't hurt. So hopefully I will have a reason to make bentos for lunch/dinner everyday!

Etsy artist feature - DC design

The number of talented artists on Etsy numbers in the hundreds. But every now and then you find a shop that will stand out in your mind. One such shop for me is DC designs. She has such defined style that I am able to easily spot her work and I always enjoy her creations. She was kind enough to answer some questions below!

A little about myself and my background:
By day I teach five year-olds to read and write and share and count and be happy while I'm in my disguise of Mrs. Culberson, kindergarten teacher. But at night, I whip off my teacher facade and become a mad claying artist and frenzied beader. But seriously: I often hear, "Oh that's so cool! Did you make it?" Then I often get asked by friends why I spend my spare time playing with clay and stringing up beads. When I was a kid I could always be found coloring, painting, drawing, etc. In middle school (man I'm old now!) we had a great art program and I got really into watercolors, pencil sketching, and pen and ink drawing. My freshman year of high school I learned to hate what had always been my favorite class. That's right by the end of my freshman year I hated art class. What brought me to this most unfortunate fate? Hmmmm maybe it was the hours spent copying transparencies of line drawings and not EVER creating anything your own. Hmmmmm maybe it was the guy who sat next to me and would roll joints under the table (first time I ever saw a drug, sheltered child that I was). Or maybe it was the guy who sat on the other side of me and would look at nasty magazines with freakishly strange people in them and try to get me to look at them. (He was scary!) Maybe it was the teacher who would walk in flip on the overhead say draw this and sit back at her desk to file her NAILS the whole class period. Anyway, I abandoned art classes! Sad eh? I kept drawing and painting on my own but then I got a boyfriend, a job , a new boyfriend, a car, etc. went to college and was very practical. Never thought twice about taking an art class. Fell in love with kindergarten switched to be an education major and boom there you go. Soooo when did I start claying? Why did I start claying? I needed something fun, I needed a creative outlet, I needed that wonderful feeling that a six year old gets when they open up a brand new 245 count box of crayons! I needed to do something I love for no other sake then to just do it. I stumbled upon polymer clay quite accidentally and became hooked. It started out as a great stress reliever. Then I got into jewelry and I'm now hooked on beading. Beading is a very zen thing. Working with clay is exciting and fast paced. Beading is very meditative and allows me to just enjoy not thinking as I concentrate on the patterns of the beads. It is an escape. The mother of one of my teacher buddies owned a piece of a co-op craft store. They encouraged me to put some of my work in the little shop. Three sets sold and yay! DC Designs was born. What was once a hobby and stress relieving activity has now become a part-time second job that I absolutely adore.

What inspires me:
I'm inspired mostly by nature, color and of course words. Sometimes a piece is inspired by a word or a saying that I think of such as my pocket mirrors. I thought of the "If only you knew how beautiful you really are" saying and then tried to think of what I could put it on. My tweet tweets and wave necklaces sort of came about by just messing with the clay. Tweet Tweet just kind of emerged one day when I had a little lump of clay left over after making a batch of leaves. i'm also inspired by materials. I try to pair materials that might be surprising to find together like wood beads and Swarvoski crystals.

Favorite Artists:
My favorite artists from the polymer clay world are Kathleen Dustin, Meredith Dittmar, Lisa Pavelka, and Sarajane Helm, I also love the claywork of my friend Heather Powers who is also on Etsy now. One of her flower canes inspired my Perfect Wave Necklace.

Best/Worst job
I have to say that the best job I ever had was bagging groceries while in high school. Its how I met the hubby of almost nine years. But I do love teaching kindergarten and making jewelry and other tidbits from clay. My worst job had to be waiting tables downtown on the riverwalk. The money was great but drunk tourists are not fun at all when you are trying to carry giant trays loaded with platters of bbq across a crowd.

Be sure to also check out her blog and her website, both equally awesome.

Wednesday Bentos

Bentos, bentos, bentos. I have become obsessed with making them. Here are the ones I make for Wednesday, mainly just of our favorite foods.

Hubby's bento with Morning Star veggie hot dog rabbits, a cup of mustard, pita bread, and edamame on top. And then apples, cheese, brown rice crackers, and peanut butter. Also some starburst candies mixed in. Az said that this was his favorite bento I have made so far.

And here is my bento with basically the same thing but no crackers (no room!).

Also, I did make the deadline to join Wardrobe Refashion for June. I am pumped to start making things, already have my first idea cooking.

More cupcakes

So I finished the cupcakes for Amelie. I had to adjust the pattern a little otherwise I was getting a bubble butt bottom and they would not sit up. I also made another one that is not pictured for my friend's daughter who is turning 5 in July. Hubby kept on saying all weekend, "Are you still making cupcakes?" Yes and now I just have to put them away until Ame is a bit older and can play with them. I am thinking I am going to move onto making her some felt strawberries next.

Tuesday's Bentos

Our refrigerator has gone on overdrive and decided to freeze everything. Yuck. So we had to toss a bunch of perfectly fine food because it was beyond edible but I tried to scrape together some bentos from what remained.

This is the hubby's. On the top carrots, Italian dressing, wasabi peas, and strawberries. On the bottom, broccoli, edamame, and tofu noodle casserole with carrot stars.

Mine is pretty much the same except I added kumquats to the top.

I sometimes struggle with what to put in a bento since you really have to think out what will fit and what will look good. But last night, being the true nerd that I am, came up with a bunch of ideas on paper to help me out. Also, I am really considering making bentos for myself for each meal. They really make you think about what you are going to eat and make you portion control your food. Dinners around here are normally "fend for yourself" since hubby and I have different tastes. And it would be nice just to grab a pre-made meal from the fridge every day. Otherwise I get low on time and just grab something fast (read: unhealthy).