More Mug Covers

The Why Slice design cards also have alphabets on them. It does some very intricate shapes also but I am not sure how they would come out in fabric. Making more mug covers for the upcoming holidays for the group that works for me. Not sure how the two guys will feel about hearts and pink fabric.

My crafting mojo is coming back...

Why Slice?

David bought me a Why Slice for Christmas. Cool little cutter. It even cuts fabric. I did cut out some initals to monogram.

Quiet no drama Christmas. I must say Christmas was much more fun when Mason was 7 than 17.

Antler Purse

I found a way for my sister to get rid of some antlers from her house. This purse is on ebay for $600.

Last night was the first night in 2 1/2 weeks I slept through the night. The cough and sinuses are finally under control and I have some energy back. Short work day at the office today, then four days off. Nothing big planned for the holidays. Of course I had a flat tire last week and David had a dead battery yesterday. Just not enough hours in the day right now.

I do have a crafty gadget under the tree waiting for me to unwrap. Can't wait to get creative.

Gave out mugs, covers and hot chocolate to the group that works for me. Need to pick up some winter and Valentines fabric so they have new covers they can use after the holidays.

The kids had semester exams on Thursday and Friday. Kim sent me a text message when she got home telling me she "past".... I am guessing she might not have "passed" her English class.

Bonus Photo

The photo of the kids yesterday looked like they get along too well. This is more like how they treat each other. Kim's oldest sister went into labor last night. Her baby wasn't due until February. Haven't heard an update this morning.

Mason and Kim

Mason and Kim before the Daughtry concert. We had a great time. Ears were ringing for hours.

Early Christmas

An early Christmas present for me and the kids. We are going to see Daughtry in concert Saturday night. I think David might be the wise one staying home. But it should be fun.

More Mug Covers

Another dozen mug covers. I need to gift a few of these before I make more.

Busy Time of Year

This is a busy time of the year. Not enough time to get everything I want accomplished and then coming down sick surely didn't help.

Stocking I made for a swap partner. It was filled with lots of goodies.

Christmas quilt I am making for my secret Santa partner at work. Panel quilt went together very quickly. I actually put the binding on before I finished all the quilting. Hopefully no one will turn me into the quilt police. I want to quilt large stars in the green border. I have until Friday.

A close up of some of the detail in the panel. I think she will like it.

Holiday Mugs

I finished a half dozen mug covers last night. Good way to use up holiday scrap fabrics.

The closure is a elastic hair band and a button. Gives a good amount of stretch.

Gloves

I can't take credit for this, I actually saw it on a blog earlier this week.

Boring stretchy gloves. The ones you buy for a dollar this time of year.

Fabulous little stars embroidered in purple, green and pink. They will go into stockings for some of the ladies that work for me.

I have been sick all week. Finally starting to feel a bit better today. Somehow I managed to sew David a messenger bag last night. It must have been OK because he has ran off with it before I could get a picture. I need to make a Christmas stocking by tomorrow. I had better get sewing.

More Mug Covers

I did get a chance to sew a few more mug covers last night. My husband totally doesn't get the concept. He likes the covers but wants to buy mugs to give them to his co-workers. Doesn't that defeat the whole process of covering up ugly mugs. Go figure.

We have a Winner

We have a winner from the SewMamaSew giveaway.

Amanda from Giggly Monkey

I am so glad I participated in this giveaway. It was so much fun checking out other blogs. Hopefully tonight I will get a chance to follow some additional ones. So many blogs and so little time.

Marvelous Mugs

Busy day with very little sewing.

If you are like me you have a kitchen cabinet full of ugly coffee mugs. I am not a coffee drinker but I do like hot chocolate this time of year.

A little measuring and sewing later and you can have some marvelous looking mugs. I used some left over Insul-bright in the middle, that should help keep my hot chocolate hot. The LSU one is spoken for but the holiday one is being added to the Very Vera bag giveaway (ugly mug not included).

Here are the Giveaway details:

One entry for each comment left on any post from December 1, 2009 through December 6, 2009.
Three entries for becoming a follower of my blog or if you are a current follower.
I will draw one name randomly on December 7th. I am in the US but will ship internationally if you are the winner.
Since I am a little late posting this today (blame my husband and kids) and I know I am going to be tied up at work Monday morning you have until noon Central time to leave comments or become a follower to win the bag and all its contents.

This Little Piggie

This little piggie will go wee wee wee all the way to your home.

Matching baby bib and burp cloth have been added to the Vera Vera bag giveaway.

One entry for each comment left on any post from December 1, 2009 through December 6, 2009.

Three entries for becoming a follower of my blog or if you are a current follower.
I will draw one name randomly on December 7th. I am in the US but will ship internationally if you are the winner.

I have been working on a new sewing project today. I finished the wedding bags for my friend and had enough time and energy to work on something new. I will show you that in the morning.

Playing Fetch

We have a long haired Chihauhau dog, sweet little thing, spoiled but sweet.

I have made her some fleece stuffed bones to play fetch. The bones fly very well and if you are a bit off on your aim you won't break a lamp. How do I know, well let's just say Buttercup and I play fetch everyday. One of the bones has been added to the Very Vera giveaway bag. If you don't have a little doggie in your life it would still make a great conversation piece for you.

Not included in the giveawy... A friend at work is getting married in Jamacia next week. I have 9 little jewelry bags to make for her bridesmaids. The prototype is a little tight fitting for the box. The flap needs a little bit more length and width. Kim is babysitting tonight. Which means I get to stay up until 1am to pick her up. Hopefully I can knock them out tonight.

Here are the Giveaway details:

One entry for each comment left on any post from December 1, 2009 through December 6, 2009.
Three entries for becoming a follower of my blog or if you are a current follower.
I will draw one name randomly on December 7th. I am in the US but will ship internationally if you are the winner.

Sweet Stuff

More sweet stuff added to the Very Vera Giveaway Bag.

What would be sweeter than a cupcake cosmetic bag for your bag?

Lined with scrumptous pink satin.

Here are the Giveaway details:

One entry for each comment left on any post from December 1, 2009 through December 6, 2009.
Three entries for becoming a follower of my blog or if you are a current follower.
I will draw one name randomly on December 7th. I am in the US but will ship internationally if you are the winner.

Giveaway Day - In the Bag

Four of the fleece hanger covers will also be added to the Very Vera Bag.  Hmm... What will I add tomorrow?

Here are the Giveaway details:

One entry for each comment left on any post from December 1, 2009 through December 6, 2009.

Three entries for becoming a follower of my blog or if you are a current follower.

I will draw one name randomly on December 7th. I am in the US but will ship internationally if you are the winner.

Giveaway Day

SewMamaSew is coordinating another Giveaway Day!!

My friend calls this bag Very Vera. It has a very Vera Bradley looking fabric.

With a gorgeous blue swirl fabric on the inside.

And a button closure. The tote bag will also have several other goodies in it when it arrives at the winners home. (I have lots of left overs from the craft fairs.)

Here are the details:
One entry for each comment left on any post from December 1, 2009 through December 6, 2009.
Three entries for becoming a follower of my blog or if you are a current follower.
I will draw one name randomly on December 7th. I am in the US but will ship internationally if you are the winner.

Week of Kids

A full week of embroidered kids.

Whoever originally did the transfer for embroidery was smart enough to also cut two blank pieces of fabric. It worked out perfect making the quilt top 3 by 3. Now just to decide what to put on the blank pieces. That is about the full extent of my sewing this weekend. Pretty lame huh?

Missing List

My list was missing when I started the weekend and it is quite evident. I haven't made any real progress. The days of the weeks kids are completed and I even have fabric to put together a quilt top with them. How much can I actually accomplish today?

Black and White Quilt Fabrics

I washed all the fabrics last night. 11 half yards of black and white. I need 128 five inch squares to make Kim's quilt.

So if I cut 12 squares out of each of the 11 fabrics I should have enough to random assemble the squares.  I don't think Kim will get suspicous if she sees me cutting the fabrics. Although I won't do any assembling or quilting while she is around.

One More Day

One more day until my four day weekend starts.

And one more day to embroider. Just have Saturday's child left to work on.

Giveaway Day

SewMamaSew is coordinating another giveaway day. If you want to give something away go join now. And if you want to win a giveaway check back here on December 2nd to see what I am doing.

Friday's Child

It feels good to relax and work on something for myself again. I don't think the craft fairs really stressed me out but I would rather sew for fun than profit.

I can see an end in sight with these embroidery panels. Friday's child should be done in a night or two. I will try to find some coordinating fabric this week. Need to get a realistic list of what I want to accomplish this weekend.

Back to the Mill

Back to working on the Mill House Inn Quilt.

There is no secret where this quilt is going. I was originally planned for my sisters birthday but got delayed due to sewing for the craft fairs. Craft fairs are over and my regularly scheduled sewing continues.

Craft Fair #2 Wrap Up

Smaller craft fair this weekend but much more traffic coming through. The serious buyers were there in the morning. By afternoon it was just browsers but it was constant traffic. Made about the same as I did last weekend but it felt more successful due to the amount of people there.

Some thoughts running through my head. I need to force myself to sit down more when I get a chance. This getting old thing isn't cooperating with my body. Wish I had a degree in marketing. Trying to figure out what makes things sell or more importantly what makes people buy.

Mason has been looking for a part time job. I told him tonight I would hire him to get my Etsy store fully stocked. More on that coming soon.

Black and White Quilt

I started buying black and white fabrics in August for a project I had in my head.

I finally started designing it this week. Do you see the little triangles of hot pink and green? The question is do you think I can get this done for Kim before Christmas without her seeing it?

Custom Order Finished

Do you ever have a project you dread working on? I was kicking myself all week for commiting to a custom order that I knew I didn't have time to sew this week. I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders when I finished this last night. Funny thing is I had it so designed out in my head it took me less than 30 minutes to make. I have about 5 minutes left of sewing some reinforcements tonight (ran out of dark brown thread) but it is done.

It is a doggie sling. My dog unfortunately was curled up on the sofa and wanted nothing to do with getting a picture taken. The stuffed doggie is our dog's "baby" which is bigger than she is.

The beginning of the story. A woman at the craft fair last weekend asked if I had any baby slings. I told her no, laughed and told her my husband wanted me to make a doggie sling for our dog. She laughed right back at me, she wanted the sling for her dog. Her dog likes to go on walks with her but is getting older and can't keep the entire distance. She wants to be able to carry her dog safely and continue her walk. The strap is adjustable so the dog can be held snuggly to her chest.

I am almost hoping she doesn't come to the craft fair tomorrow to pickup. I really want to keep this for Buttercup.

Peppermint Popcorn

A great idea for a handmade Christmas gift. Would be great for people in the office.

Peppermint Popcorn

I may need more than four days next weekend.

Journal Covers

We will be at home Thanksgiving weekend. As much as I would like to travel to see family it just makes sense to stay home. I wonder if I can get away without leaving the house for four solid days. The sales are not even tempting me this year. I would rather buy things online and have them shipped to me.

I did find an adorable project I would like to work on next weekend. You have got to check this one out. Journal Covers. It could even be turned into a sketch book cover. I am sure I will have a jumbo list of things to work on by next week.

Craft Fair Photos

I promise to get some better photos this weekend.

But at least you can get the idea. We may change things around a bit this weekend. Depends on the size and shape of our booth space.

Custom Order

I did pick up the items I need for the custom order. Hint- It is not a bag but it does hold something. Any guesses?

Sewing for Fun

I thought I would actually sew for fun yesterday. I had bought the hooks several months ago to make Buttercup some custom dog leashes. This one is from left over binding scraps from a quilt, a dog and cat quilt to be exact. Think I will have to find another fun fabric to make another one for her.

Still trying to work out the details of the custom sewing order in my head. I will just have to keep you guessing on that.

More thoughts from the craft fair Saturday. Spent some time talking to a sister and sister-in-law team that does embroidery. All their items were commercially made and just monogramed. They had the large insulated tumblers (no lid) one letter embroidered on the fabric for $18. I wouldn't pay that price for one and  they were selling like crazy. Woman in the booth next to me bought three of them. Very interesting.

Craft Fair #1 Wrap Up

I forgot to take photos of the booth. But my friend did get some and promised to send them to me. Foot traffic at the craft fair was down from previous years. I went as a shopper to this fair 3 years ago and barely had room to breathe. This year there was never a time when we were busy. We did make our money back for the booth fees and even made a decent profit. The biggest seller for me was the hanger covers, now affectionately called Hanger Hugs. One lady even came to the booth because a friend called her and told her about the hanger covers.

My friend sells paper covered journals, her smaller sizes sold very well. I talked to several of the other vendor and their sales were down considerably compared to other years. One shared her booth with her mother and neither made their booth fees back.

I love chatting up with people. It did help draw the people in and keep me entertained most of the day also. Got invited to a quilting guild. Met a lady that crochets shoulder sized tote bags from recycled plastic bags. Couple fun suggestions... Adult sized bibs, fleece seat belt covers. I did get a custom order, more about that later in the week.

Doing Hard Time

It took the three of us 2 1/2 hours to set everything up. We have an odd shaped booth location. In a corner. I will get photos in the morning once we get the finishing touches on the booth. As we were setting up I realized I REALLY needed a coat rack to display my tote bags. I was ready to open my wallet and spend $100 in hopes to make my money back tomorrow.

As a twist of fate would have it I had my friend from the office with me. I joking told her there was a coat rack in one of the conference rooms that would work perfectly. If you don't see a post from me by Monday I am doing hard time for petty theft.

No Ruffle

The ruffle is gone off both aprons now. I will try to get a photo of my friend wearing hers. Hopefully she will model it in our craft fair booth for you. My car is loaded down, I will head over right after work and start setting up the booth. I have also enlisted the help of one of the girls at my office so hopefully with the three of us together we won't be there too late.

I walked (ran) through the antique mall yesterday. I never could find what I was looking for to display the tote bags. Well I did find what I was looking for but could not bring myself to spend $90-120 on a coat rack. About a month ago I started to question why I was doing these craft fairs. As much as I love to sew, craft and share what I make, the ultimate motivation was to make some extra money. So I started to rethink where I was spending my money.

It has been really hard for me to find good information about craft fairs on the web. Most of it seems generic, but very little written by anyone that actually lived through it and willing to share advice. I haven't done craft fairs in many years so this is like learning to walk all over for me. Besides all the inventory and merchandising items, this is my list of what to bring along with me. Maybe it will help you plan for your craft fair.

Change- My plan is $50 in small bills. But remember I have a friend I am sharing the booth with. She will have some also.
Calculator
Small notepad
Apron (of course)
Customer bags. It was a toss up between spending $12 for 1000 bags at Costo and using my Walmart stash. The Walmart stash won out.
Tape
String
Needle and Thread
Lint Brush
Snacks
Business cards

Hopefully my items are priced right to sell. Cross your fingers for me. I have another one next Saturday also. Yikes.

Ruffle

All the pockets are on the aprons. I am not loving the ruffle on the apron. I think I will leave it on the one for my friend and leave mine plain. Just not a ruffle kind of gal. I didn't put ric rac on my pockets either. I am the no frills one of the pair. Need to finish these up tonight.

Running Out of Time

I am running out of time pretty quickly now. We are able to load into the church and setup Friday evening for the craft fair. I still don't have the legs for the peg boad the way I want them. Off to visit Home Depot at lunchtime. Must finish the aprons between tonight and Thursday evening. Luckily I don't have other last minute sewing to do. Will change the peg board around later today and see how the hangers display.

Aprons

Working on aprons for my friend and myself for the craft fairs. Think I need to pickup some dark brown for the ruffles and pockets. Hopefully big enough pockets to hold all the cash we are going to make. I girl can dream can't she.

These are the last two tote bags that were cut and waiting to be sewn.

Be Attitude

The craft fairs will be over in a couple weeks. I have been looking for an applique project to work on this winter. I think I have finally found it.

Art to Heart's Be Attitude. Check out some close up photos on this blog.

I spray painted the peg board dark brown. My craft fair partner likes pink and dark brown and it matches well with the aprons I am making us. Now just need to find S hooks and spray paint them pink.

Merchandising

I talked David into buying peg board today. I can use it for my craft fair displays and then he can put it in the shed.

I do think I need to paint it white and buy many S hooks.

I bought two 2x4 foot pieces. One to display sample hanger covers.

And I think I need to bring props for displaying the bags. Dog bones, toys, cosmetics... any other ideas?

Hope to make it to the local antique mall tomorrow to look for a reasonably priced coat rack.

Craft Fair Inventory

I probably won't make another big sewing push before the craft fairs. I might add a couple items in smaller quanitites if I have time and the creative urge hits me. But it is looking doubtful. First craft fair in 10 days. Remember I am doing this booth with a friend. She has other inventory primarily beaded pens and journals.

So right now my inventory for the craft fairs is:
59 Bibs and burp cloth matching sets
28 individual bibs
29 individual burp cloths
23 tote bags (I do have two more cut, maybe 30 minutes of sewing to finish them)
412 fleece hanger covers
73 cosmetic bags

My first merchandising thought is a coat rack (tree) to hold some of the tote bags. It will give me height at the booth. I don't own one so finding an affordable solution should be interesting. Second thought is to hang them off the front side of the display tables. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The Edge

Life would be boring if I didn't live on the edge. My sister may try to disown me after this but I am going to do it anyway.

Look at the fabulous tote bag my sister made. Love the choice of fabrics. The pocket between the straps is adorable. Very, very cute. So if you want to keep me out of trouble with my sister leave her an encouraging comment.