3/30/2007

Swamped!

Well, I have to say I'm sorry for not posting for so long, but I have been swamped with custom orders this month for some reason. A neckwarmer, 5 dozen paper cranes, 2 paper crane mobiles, and a special amigurumi nest project all in the span of about a week and a half. Not to mention all the little ones I need to finish for my mom before I see her in a couple weeks. Some way to spend my week of vacation form school, eh? But you know I love it. So I'm glad I got those Easter projects done early, though none of them have sold yet... I've promised the little one with the chick to my mom if it's still in the store after Easter. The best thing about being so busy with stuff for the store is that it really makes it feel like a viable job. For the first few months I was making enough for spending money, but this month it has exploded and I've made enough for the rent. It feels amazing!
Okay, off on a tangent for a second, but I guess this is related to crafting:
I'm watching Survivorman on the Discovery channel right now and he just did the coolest thing ever! He's stuck in the desert, and he needed a needle and thread (for sewing a gash, etc.) so he found an agave plant and carefully stuck his face down in it and bit an end off just below the razor sharp brown part. When he pulled it out of the plant it had a bunch of super strong, long fibers attahced and it really was a needle and thread! Man, I love this show. But eew, he just tore the head off a cricket, cooked it, and ate it. I've always been fascinated with all of this "how to live off the land" stuff. I'm a firm believer that if civilization as we know it goes bye-bye I'll be able to live like a native in the forest. And heck, since I like to make stuff with my hands so much I guess I'd never be bored. It would give me an excuse to learn basket weaving, which I've always wanted to do anyhow. Okay, I told you my mind wanders.
Back to the subject at hand... Now that I've finally gotten the custom orders all done I can start making a few new things. Though, I'm taking a lot of classes for this upcoming quarter and I'm considering getting a job at JoAnn's if this whole etsy income month has been a fluke, so I can't say for sure how many new things there will be. But I sure hope this month is a sign of things to come. Wish me luck! (By the way, that's Hedwig the Easter penguin; one of the custom orders from my store.)

3/18/2007

Very Nearly Done...

Finals week and spring break are fast approaching, and I'm so happy to be done with this quarter, though I will desperately miss my bookmaking class. It's not offered again until fall next year, I can't wait to get back in. This is the only art class I've wanted to go into the advanced part of. I think my final project may be too ambitious, as always, but I'm sure I'll get it done. I have some nice new journals for sale in my shop, as well as a paper crane mobile and some more funny plush animals. The house is such a mess between my art stuff and all the things I'm listing for my shop and my mom's. I can't wait for mom to make her first sale on Quirky Bindi, I know it's going to happen any time now. Right now in the crafting lineup are: the zakka purses I talked aobut a while ago (having some trouble attaching the bottoms; I get frustrated and my mind wanders...), a clutch purse, barettes made from vintage buttons, billions of custom orders, more journals, and the list goes on. The living room looks like a craft store exploded in here, so I guess the thing that should be at the top of my list is to get this place organized again. I can't seem to get anything done when my life and my livingroom is so cluttered. It'll help me finish my final projects too, so off I go to put all my crap away! Huzzah!

3/14/2007

Back with a Vengance!

Alrighty, I finally got out of that crap mood thanks mostly to my dear boyfriend and bestfirend and a gaming marathon on top of good food, lol. So I finished a lot of the little projects that had been sitting around waiting for some love, and I ended up selling some more things on etsy. It's been a good week thus far. Here's my latest Easter creations, I think they're just about the cutest things in the world!
I also got the black and white harajuku neckwarmer listed because the lavender one sold already! And I finished the first bear from that huge pile of felt cutouts I posted a long time ago. I'm such a procrastinator! But at least now I don't have to worry about it too much, I'll just do what I can because finals are next week and my bookmaking final is very time consuming. When I get my midterm project back (got an A!), I'll post it on here cause I'm pretty proud of it. That's all for now, let's hope I stay on a roll as long as possible!

3/10/2007

Still Poopy...

Man, I can't quite seem to get out of this foul mood, but at least I mustered the patience to finish one of the zipper pouches I wanted to do this weekend. But now I'm going to go out to lunch with my buddy Ryan and I know I won't get home till later, so the bunnies for the easter baskets will just have to wait. I'm starving and I need to get out of the house. Something has to get me out of this mood, I want to make stuffed animals but I just can't make them cute when I'm disgruntled.
I got a message from Anne of ReLoveProjects (she's the one who bought Gertrude the elephant), and she made a cute little postcard inspired by my Gertrude. Check out her blog here. Thanks so much Anne, that makes me smile. :)

3/09/2007

Poopy Day

I've been kind of down today. My sister flew out yesterday and I miss her already. It was so nice to have her and my parents here together for a while, guess I'm just lonely. I feel better now that Michael's home, though. He's in the kitchen making me a snow cone, what a guy! I got up thismorning and tried to work on some sewing projects I want done by tomorrow, but I wasn't in much of a mood for crafting so they're not finished. Maybe after the snow cone I'll try making some felt bunnies for the Easter baskets I'm working on for the store. At least the night before last I was totally in the zone and I made this cute little makeup bag:
Not bad for my first try. I didn't use a pattern and I had to read up on the proper way to sew on the zipper. It came out taller than I was expecting, but I know where I messed up my math and hopefully the next one will be more like what I envisioned. Hopefully I'll have some cute Easter goodies for the store by tomorrow morning if I can get out of this funky mood in time. Wish me luck!

3/07/2007

I finally finished the Harajuku-style neckwarmers that I crocheted ages ago and just needed finishing touches. I really like the way they came out, I was thinking about keeping the purple one, but I have all too many scarves and such. I hope someone out there will like it as much as I do. I still need to list the black and white one, but it came out just as well. I'm moving right along down the list of things to do. Next on the list is to carve a stamp from my cupcake logo and make hand-printed tags for my purses. I've been thinking about doing it for a while and I think it's a good idea. I'll look more like a professional that way, and it might even help me get my name out there if my purses have a tag. More on that later.

3/02/2007

Spring Has Sprung

Well, at least it hasn't been pouring rain for a few days, but it's still bitter cold around here, especially at night. So I've made a few scarves and neckwarmers and all day today I've been working on a series of four purses. My mom gave me some awesome tea towels with herbs embroidered on them a long time ago, and I just couldn't bear to use them and muck them up. So they've been sitting in my cupboards for literally years, much loved but unused. And now that I've got so much fabric and ideas floating around, I decided it was time to use them. At first I thought aprons, but with my love of zakka purses growing stronger every day I knew they had to be turned into cute bags. Especially since I just got 4 bundles of colored jute twine that match the embroidery colors like they were made for eachother. I wanted to make baskets for the bottoms again but there wasn't enough jute, so I just made circles. But they're still rather small. Hear me out... I'm going to make cylinders of fabric that will turn out to be bigger than the jute circles, but I want to gather the bottoms slightly and sew them to the circles. It will give them substance and a fluffy bottom, it'll be quirky but I think if i t turns out the way I envision it, it should be cute. I'm going to do a drawstring top and a long leather handle, kind of like a backpack. Trust me, I know half of what I just wrote probably doesn't make much sense, but it will when I post some pics of the finished products. Really, I swear it will... o_O