A New Bag

Trying to decide if I want to carry this one. The fun thing about making purses is you always have something new and different to carry. I handpainted the flap fabric quite awhile ago, then found that I had some nice thick uphostery-weight brown dotted fabric which looked good with that light seafoam blue-green color. The buckle is rosewood, I think, and maybe a bit too warm a brown for the rest of the purse?
Anyway, I heard back from First2Print and the person who contacted me was wonderful! Her name is Michele Lowell and her email she was very friendly and informative. They can print runs as small as one to three yards, all to your specifications, on all types of fabrics. The price then depends on whether you want washable fabric, type of material, etc. She seemed very oriented to working with artists on small projects which need to be done quickly. I don't know why this has me so jazzed, with all there is to do already. I've said it before and I'll say it again: how does a person EVER get bored on this planet? I'm loving life today.

Just a doodle from my journal

No text, just scribbles. I made the left page one day, the right page the next. I may go back in and journal a bit, but something about the way these two pages seem to talk to each other tells me to maybe leave them alone. Anyway, tonight is the second time in a month or so that I was rescued by an angel in the guise of an ordinary person, in this case my neighbor. Just when I was thinking about throwing together some dinner and getting the apartment neatened up, the door bell rang. Carol invited my three restless kids out for a walk to the playground, then later to all get some dinner at Hangtown Grill nearby. Translated: 45 minutes of blessed peace and silence, time to put myself together, et voila: fish tacos, cheese pizza and french fries prepared just for us! As I looked around the patio, for it's a gorgeous night and we were able to dine alfresco, I took in the balmy night air, the other families out for Friday night dinner and a friendly, happy basketball team celebrating a win. I enjoyed a chat with Carol and my children. Simple pleasures. Note to self: must get out more.

And one for Henry

Ok, so Henry wanted a messenger bag, too. How could I refuse?

Valentines

Valentines from the swap are still coming in. Here are some I've photographed. One nice lady even sent handmade stationary for me to use. Aren't they pretty?

Doll Jeans

I've been stitching up doll jeans for Raven, Katie's doll. Making doll clothes is the perfect way to teach kids how to follow a pattern and sew. Katie and I are getting the hand for sewing for the 18 inch set. The pattern we had for pants was a bit boring, so we flared the bottoms and added a side seam and fly in front. Now they look like real jeans, so we've made a few pairs of them. Katie, age 8, has just enough patience to make these, especially since the embellishment breaks up the sewing. It's a fun afternoon project.

Boys need bags, too

After making dozens of handbags and totes of all sorts last fall I realized my littlest boy (age 3) desperately needed a bag of his own for the little treasures he carries around. I stitched him up a small wristlet and it was fine for a few little dinosaurs and cars. Then my older son (age 5) decided he needed a larger bag and requested a Star Wars bag. Here it is, a small zippered messenger bag...I think he really likes it.

It won't be long before my website www.sweetboo.com launches! After all the work and planning it's so much fun to see it actually start to take shape. I had no idea how much work it would entail. I thought the challenge would be amassing enough handmade things to justify an online boutique, but in reality the real work was in the screwy little details. For example, yesterday I went to download the font I liked, then spent the next hour learning all about zip files and how to extract them using freeware by Big Speed Zipper (liked the name), which wasn't really that dificult until it came time to actually finding the file to upload to my fonts file. Ick. It's tedious stuff like that which wastes hours in a perfectly good afternoon when I could be sewing something pretty. Truth is this: my wonderful web designer Beth Sams Been has done the real work of making my website. She's a whiz kid at this and has done many Austin artists' and bands' websites as well as the Texas Rollergirls site. You can see her other work at www.grooveefortune.com Beth is an artist herself and she had some helpful and creative input on the design while allowing me to steer it in the direction of my original concept. Meanwhile, I post a photo of a new little wristlet I made in celebration of the "fun" parts.

The Reason I Splurged on Photoshop...

I discovered a service today by a company in New York called First2print which prints designs on fabric (all kinds) without needing a repeat. I'm always curious about services which are used by professional design houses and artists. I took a leap and emailed them for information to see if I could afford a one-time run of a design of my own and if I have the technical knowledge, as a self taught artist, to pull that off. I'll keep you posted re their response. Wouldn't it be fun to have a bolt of fabric from your own imagination?

Making stuffed animals is the equivalent of comfort food. I enjoy shaping the bodies with my lap full of muslin and string and polyfil. When I have an approximate shape I pull out my laundy basket of scraps and embroidery thread and haphazardly stitch on little pieces. For the record, I almost never watch TV because there is always something I'd rather be doing, but if I have an animal to work on, I watch reruns of Six Feet Under on Monday nights and stitch away.

Art Doll Quarterly, Spring 2007
I can' decide which thrills me more -- seeing my dolls (See My Heart, on pp. 74 - 77) or seeing my daughter's dolls and story on pp. 2 - 3. I wanted to share Katie's creativity and artistic enthusiasm, so I sent a few pictures of her dolls. To Katie's and my surprise they were featured in Michelle Flores' editor's letter! Of course it's gratifying to publish my stuff, but to see the look on my daughter's face when I showed her this issue was better.

Handmade valentines are the only kind, in my book. the surest way to guarantee you receive some is to join a valentine swap. Clever, isn't it? I've already received one from The Netherlands (lucky me). Mine went out a few hours ago. Yes, I used those plastic melty beads you get in buckets of 6000 for the kiddies to iron into shapes. I can't bear to sit and watch the kids have all the fun. I sewed the heart shapes onto magenta silk, then tulle, then purple metallic vinyl and stitched on words like "lover," "sweetheart," and "flame." I backed it with a favorite (loud) vintage fabric. Made with love for one friend and nine complete strangers. I heart swaps.

Lori's lettuce leaves Austin, full of fiber veggies and other goodies balanced on top. Once she sees all the gorgeous work here, she can arrange the ingredients and stitch them down. I didn't want to be the one to cover up the stunningly realistic greens toward the bottom. This dish was made by the same group of gals as the sushi box. They are: Lori Seavey-Christian (Lori's blog); Deb May (Deb's blog); Carla Barrett (Carla's blog); Laurie Giberson "morningk" on Flickr and Suanne Summers, the one who came up with the idea.