I sold something!

My first internet sale...the coasters and trivet set. I plan on making more of those since they were pretty popular at the craft sale, and I'm planning a few different styles (different types and thicknesses of wood). But that won't be until I get back on the horse (mitre saw). On the plus side, I can knit again, even with the stiches! I've got lots of gifts in the works, and now I'm only a week behind!

mitre saw 1, fingertip 0

So, now I know that this symbol means DO NOT put your fingers under the blade. I must have misunderstood this before, because that is precisely what I did today. How it happened is kind of a blur, but 45 mins in the emergency room and 3 stitches later, I have learned my lesson. And that lesson is that your index finger is crucial for typing. From now on in this post, I will ignore my typing errors (and you should too!).

If you're keeping the real score, it's:

mitre saw 1
kitchen knife 1
margot's pride -2

I also plan to lose one fingertip for each province, just to check out the emergency room wait times. So far PEI is WAY ahead of Ontario, but that's probably because I actually needed stitches and not just tape and a tetanus shot.

So, on to the real business, and that's that I'm in business, for real this time! The craft sale was a huge success, I sold all but one frame, lots of purses, all but one set of coasters, two trays AND an ottoman! The magnets, while completely unoriginal, were great because everyone leaned in close to see them, thus examining everything on the table on the way back up! Oh, and someone offered to buy my ratty old screen that's been moved, painted and broken more times than I can count! I couldn't in good conscience sell that to someone, but now I know for next time: make screens to sell!
I made a few contacts with shop owners in Charlottetown, as well as ACOA's Women in Business Initiative. I was debating whether to enter another sale next weekend to see if I could sell my remaining items, but I think I'll give it a rest for a while.

Here's my final setup (well, it changed each time I sold something, the table was pretty bare by the last day!):

I'll be putting the remaining items up for sale on Etsy tomorrow, I think I've had enough typing for tonight. Work on Monday's gonna suck :)

Oh, one final funny thing...here's a picture of the truck I was following on my way to Summerside on Saturday:

Three Oaks Craft Sale!

If you've been wondering where I've been for the last 3 months, it's locked in the workshop getting ready for this craft sale! Getting down to the wire I start to get so stressed out about having enough stock that I have to remind myself that I actually LOVE making crafts. Actually, one day last weekend Chris was the one to remind me, that's how stressed out this sale has made me.
Then this Sunday, I realized that I'm pretty much ready! I have a few last minute things to finish, and I'll be bringing some hand-sewing to finish while I'm there, but I actually have a lot done! I set up my display on the dining room table, and it looks so much better than I was expecting. Lise loaned me some tablecloths, so I won't have to use my bedsheet for a table cover. My poor old screen is getting lots of use as a backdrop/hanger, and I fashioned a purse hanger that I'm pretty proud of (that's the empty black thing on the left).

Here's a little preview of the items I'll be selling:
Craft Sale Photoset

Wish me luck!

slippers for the mom

how far can you stretch a metre?

I fell in love with this fabric at the 50% off sale at Fabricville this week. I was only supposed to be buying supplies for my upcoming craft sale, but I couldn't resist (it was 50% off!). I had a little fabric left over, so I made 2 purses and cut out 4 more! I wasn't cheating after all!




Here's a close up of the bags:
And yet another handbag:


This project has been on the table for a while! I started cutting out the stencil last month, but the writing was so tiny and I kept making mistakes, so I shelved it for a while. I got the urge to finish it last night, and it turned out great!

I finished one more project this week, but I can't post it until it has been received by the birthday girl! Happy birthday to The Mom!

Funny story...the power went out at 5:00 today, no big deal, it's pretty bad weather. We got out the candles, ate hummus and pasta salad for dinner and started a game of Scrabble. I kept looking out the window to see if any of the other houses on our road had lights on. Every time I looked, someone was flying a kite at our neighbour Ricky's house. I didn't really think anything of it (windy weather is great for kite flying!) until it started to rain really hard. It didn't click in until the Maritime Electric truck came down the road. They stopped about halfway down the road, just past Ricky's, and got in the little bucket thing to get up to the lines. We couldn't figure out what they were doing. Then we realized the kite was stuck IN the power line! It had stayed up that whole time by itself! Chris was mad that he missed 2 hours of football for a stupid kite. I just felt kind of dumb for thinking someone would stand out there in the pouring rain to fly a stupid kite :)

how bout this new look?

Much easier on the eyes if I say so myself!

gonna sell some bags!

This is quite possibly the most anti-climatic grand opening ever! I've now got 5 bags up for sale in my new Etsy shop, which I'm secretly hoping don't sell because I want to save them for the craft sale I'm doing in November. I suppose I could just not put them up there, but I at least want to have something to show people when I hand them...my new business cards! I got 2 made, one for the handbag shop and one for the home furnishings shop (which is still sadly empty...and, oops, I don't have a copy of it saved on this computer).
So these are the latest bags I have made:

padded tote:

brown cordoroy handbag:

green and paisley handbag:

stencilled khaki knitting tote:

The link to Etsy at the right should be working now, but here it is again anyways:

inahandbag.etsy.com

Somewhere in the middle of all these bags, I've been finding time to knit too! Here is my latest work in progress (that I'm pretty sure won't be done until Christmas at the rate I'm going!):

And these little slippers only took 1 weekend! They are supposed to be a little more mary-jane-ish, but I got a little carried away knitting in the round (which I finally get now!). Now I know for next time!

my craft room rocks!

So, whenever I use the flash on my camera, the colours go all off, but when I don't use it, everything's blurry. So here are the weird colour pictures of my rockin' craft room!

This is the same desk I've always had, but I got that filing cabinet at a yard sale for $10 on my way to the dog park one Saturday. I've always wanted a filing cabinet! Now my papers and bills and stuff aren't in a box in the closet labelled "desk stuff."

I got this desk at Value Village a few years ago, but I repainted it (it was baby blue) and added the new handles.
So organized, finally! I've got two bookshelves!
This is la piece de la resistance. I needed a big cutting table, but I didn't have any room for it, so I was going to get one that stores away, but we really don't have enough storage for that either. Also, this room was meant to be the guest room too, with a murphy bed, but we scrapped that idea. So, I decided to make a murphy table instead! This thing is great! Last weekend during the great fabric destashing (I cut out about 15 bags, soon to be for sale on Etsy!), I had 5 different fabrics all spread out, with handles and clasps all over the place, and I still didn't lose anything! THAT'S how big this table is! (3 feet by 6 feet if you were actually wondering).


So it's done! Now all I have to do is use it!

the land of long lost projects...

Have I dropped off the face of the earth? Nope, I've been a busy bee! I couldn't take the guilt of all the half finished projects I had stashed all over the house, so I finished everything, except for two shirts that I'm not sure what I was thinking when I cut them out...

First, my shopping bag! I took it for its inaugural trip to the grocery store last night, and even with the Bin too, I still came home with 5 plastic bags. A lot better than before, though!

That project wasn't on the shelf for too long, I (Mom) just started it in June. This one was on the go since March!

It was originally going to be Knitty.com's Tubey, but I decided that since the yarn was so HATEFUL, there was no way I was going to do the whole thing. I couldn't even fathom making it with long sleeves, so I just stopped at 3/4. Here's the back (it's really hard to take a picture of your own back!):
It was my first time using double pointed needles, and that doubled with the fact that the yarn was so splitty resulted in one sleeve ending up about 20 stiches bigger than I started with. I tried to do a little repair/alteration, but it's still a bit wonky, so I'm going to try washing it to see if it magically shrinks into a normal shape.

Then there's this purse. It started as a pillow case from Value Village, and I cut it out MONTHS ago (now that I think about it, it was BEFORE Christmas!). It was meant to be for sale (really, I have no need for a shiny evening bag these days), but I'm in love with it! I'm going to put it up for sale, and if it doesn't sell by the time the listing runs out (I think Etsy gives you 3 months per listing or something like that), it's MINE!
Front:
Back:
One more, and this is perhaps the most embarrasing. Last year before I moved, I cut out a bunch of patterns from fabric that I bought specifically for said patterns, but bought 3 metres too much of all of them. We're talking 4 metres of green knit, 4 metres of PURPLE STRIPE knit, and 4 metres of some weird stretchy polyester stuff with weird writing on it. I gave the leftovers to Mom for Guides or church or whatever she could do to get rid of it, and I only moved with one bag of cut out patterns. Well, those patterns sat on the shelf for a couple of months, then I started a green zippy sweater (the rest of them I never touched!). I got as far as the zipper, then I got caught up in painting the little house so we could move in, and I put it back in the bag.
That was last August. I just finished it Friday.
I always forget how much I hate sewing knit fabrics. So, other than the pink terry cloth that I bought on sale that's sitting in my closet, I vow to never buy another knit fabric as long as I live! So I ditched the purple stripe and weird writingy polyester shirts, and now I have no more guilt (except for the terry cloth).


The other big thing that's happening here is...my craft room is done!!!! Well, that's a bit of a lie, I still need to put some trim around my super-fantastic-bulletin-board-thingy, but I hope to have that done tomorrow. So I'll be posting a huge entry dedicated to my wonderful dream craft room.
How wonderful is it? So great that on a sunny day, I just spent 5 hours cutting out handbags. Then I drew up some plans for some deck furniture, and just as I was about to go outside to figure out how much wood I need from the pile of scrap decking, it started pouring. So now I'm back in my wonderful craft room and I will never leave.
m.

knitting bag for Julesia

I finally finished this bag for Julia! It was one of those projects that I cut out, then let it sit for a bit. Then I started putting it together, then let it sit for a bit. Then decided it needed a flower pin to be complete, so didn't finish it until the flower pin was done. Now it's finished, shipped, and recieved! Happy Julia!

shadow box frame

It seems like a while since I've done a just plain old craft that wasn't part of the house! This is a shadow frame I made for Mom for Mother's Day (only a little late!). The picture is from the Second Line at Gill's wedding, taken by Brian Sherman. Luckily, I made it home with more than a few sets of beads, so I was willing to give one up for the sake of crafts!

MacGyver ottoman

So, this Saturday, I finished an ottoman that was the ultimate test of my MacGyver crafting skills. I started it on Victoria Day thinking, "Alright, so I need to cut some wood, stain it, upholster the top half, screw it all together, it'll be a sinch!" (Who says sinch anymore but me?!)
Well, the process was quite the opposite. First off, I used an old cedar fence post for the legs. I thought the sanding would be the hard part, but no, it was the fact that my mitre saw doesn't fit a 4" post, so it had to be cut by hand. Hello, carpal tunnel syndrome.
So, the rest of the woodworking went pretty smoothly. Here's a shot of the posts post-finishing (yup, I only finished the part that was going to show), I thought the transformation was pretty cool.


Then came the upholstery. I started it Friday after work, and the first part went following to plan. I did find a new way to cut 4" foam that works waaay better than an exacto knife, and that's with a hand saw. Much easier to cut through 4" foam than 4" cedar.
So Saturday morning I got up thinking, "Alright, just the buttons, then put it all together!" I was sooo wrong. First off, you're not supposed to use a thick material like velvet for those "cover it yourself" buttons. Thank goodness I bought 6 of them, even though I only needed 4. When I screwed up 2, I got to the last one knowing it was my last chance. Luckily it worked, and "all" I had to do was thread the cords through the upholstery.
Well, I had a 4" needle thinking that would get through 4" foam. Nope. I tried pushing the cord through with a knitting needle. Nope. Taping the cord to the end of a bamboo skewer and pulling it through. Nope (there is now a wad of electrical tape somewhere in the middle of my ottoman). I thought, if only there was a way to make the skewer into a giant long needle. Well, there is! I decided to try drilling a tiny hole in the skewer with my Dremel. I really didn't think for a second I would have a steady enough hand to pull it off, but somehow it worked! Here's my ingenious new invention:

I then made use of the CSI gunshot-trajectory-method to find the hole in the underside of the top section, and used giant nails as toggles to keep the cord from sliding back through. Yeah, the underside of this thing is not pretty.
It's now 2 hours later, and sure enough, all I have to do is screw it all together, and this part really was a sinch, although it took almost an entire carton of screws.
I would like to welcome you to the newest addition to my family, the MacGyver Ottoman:

Isn't it precious?

crisp curtains

Well, these pictures are cross-posted from the house blog, because I couldn't decide between the two...house/crafts/house/crafts...why not both!

I made these new curtains for the bedroom and theatre room. I'm calling them my 2-metre/2-hour curtains. Here's how to make them: Buy 2 metres of fabric. Cut said fabric in half. Hem all edges. Cut holes for grommets along one side. Snap grommets into place. Hang new curtains!

The bedroom (this is some pretty rigid upholstery fabric that kind of looks like cordoroy):


The home theatre room (these are chocolate brown cordoroy...mmm, chocolate!):


Then I ran out of grommets, but I really could have kept going! I've got some big plans on the way for some new furniture, stay tuned!

New Orleans - part 5

Well, I woke up Monday and headed over to the hotel to start sewing. Nope, just dreamed it. Yup, I dreamed that I was still sewing. It took me a few minutes to get over it, then I was able to wake up stress free!

We took a walk down to the (newly discovered) pancake house, where I had the best blueberry pancakes I've ever had. They didn't have blueberries cooked right in, but were folded in half with kind of a blueberry jam in the middle. YUM! The restaurant was called Betsy's Pancake House on Canal St., just so you know :)

Brian and Julia had to leave for the airport in a few hours, so the four of us took the streetcar down to the waterfront to check out Riverwalk. We saw some cool boats, one of which had a helicopter landing pad on it!

Then they left to take the streetcar back to the guest house to check out, and Chris and I headed to the Mom's hotel to hang out by the pool for a bit.

Bye, Julia & Brian!:


Then Chris, the Mom and I did some sightseeing. I was very glad to have an extra day after the wedding to kind of decompress, and we saw a lot of the French Quarter that we hadn't been to yet.




Then Monday evening, the Mom, Dad, Kathleen, Dorice, Chris and I went out for dinner to celebrate his birthday, which was the previous Monday. We ate at the Red Fish Grill, and most definitely the best part of the meal was their signature dessert, chocolate bread pudding...mmmmmm.

We didn't really have any plans for the night, so Mom, Kathleen, Dorice, Chris and I decided to do the New Orleans Ghost Tour. Our tour guide was Scary Mary, a wonderful little old lady who reminded me a lot of Maude from Harold and Maude. We got lots of little tidbits of history as well, and again saw some sights we hadn't yet seen.




After the ghost tour, we went for a drink in the lounge at the Royal Sonesta, which (other than the girl in the silver bikini outside the front door) was so classy I couldn't believe we were on Bourbon St :)

The next morning, there wasn't much time to do anything before heading to the airport, so it was back to the gas station for more muffins and milk. We took a cab to the airport, and the cabbie took us off the highway and through the Lakeview neighbourhood to see some of Katrina's devistation. I kind of felt weird taking pictures of this part, but here's one of the water line on a house:


It's incredible that if you only went to the French Quarter, you might not even know that there are still areas that are nowhere near back to normal. The guest house had about 4 feet of water, but they were able to recover fairly soon after the hurricane since they're on the second floor. We saw so many homes that were abandoned, still with broken windows and trees down. Our cab driver had a nice story, even though he is still living in a trailer on his lawn. He went to stay with his daughter in Minnesota for 3 months after the hurricane, and her church got together and donated a van for him to use for his cab so he could go back and start working again.

So, that was our trip to New Orleans! The hospitality we received was amazing, from the guest house owners to the (numerous!) cab drivers, to just friendly people who say "hi" when you're walking down the street. The sprit of the city is amazing, and it was such a suitable place for Gill and Grant to get married. It was so much fun, and so wonderful that I still can't stop thinking about things that happened there! I swear, I look at my pictures every day:)
Here's the link again, and there are lots more photos than I've posted here:
photos

I also want to give a HUGE thanks to my Mom (THE Mom), who helped me sooo much finishing off the bridesmaids dresses. This was, by far, the biggest project I've taken on, and even though I thought I was all set before I left, there were so many unexpected changes to be made. If it wasn't for the Mom, Jen B's strap would have been all twisty, Mairead's bust would have been too loose, and Jen H's dress might have fallen right off :) You took out so much of your time in New Orleans to help me out, thank you so so so much.
Also, thank you to Nicole in Toronto for seriously coming through on very short notice to do Julia's alterations. She did such a great job, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Well, I think that's it! If you notice any spelling errors, PLEASE let me know, I'd hate to look stupid on the internet :)
Thanks for reading!
m.

Oh yeah, and now that I'm back I can't wait to get going on some projects for me! But first I've got to catch up on all the birthday, wedding and Mother's Day gifts that I've missed/will-miss-if-I-don't-send-out-today!