Well I just can not figure out what to do with my pink Alexander Henry fabric so I have moved on to blue world. Not all these are new aprons, some I have had at shows but have yet to list on my Modern June Etsy shop. Some are just being re-shot using my new camera tricks.
In addition to the Etsy Lab information I was lucky to have a quick photo class with Tasha and some other crafty divas. We all gather at Tashas house and had a how to set up a light box. With these pictures I am trying to set up a big ol' light box. I have a LONG way to go. I need to go shopping & get some proper lamps, daylight light bulbs and some more white fabric. But for today this will have to do. It is fun to play around with it. The kids have learned a lot today about light and shadow. So is that an art or science lesson?
I sent my awfully washed out photos to Tasha to get her opinion. I love her, she did some serious photo shop wizardry and got them to look this good. Now I need a photo shop how to. Tasha how about Tuesday? No seriously check out my listing for this blue cherry apron, the first shot is her doctored one and the other four are my doctored photos. She is good. I have a long way to go!!! Oh, help me.
I finally cleaned out the other corner of the bathroom and hung up my UFP's. Now I have no need for the rack in the main room. That has made a great difference, I love having the extra room.
My MIL gave me these red serving dishes. I was really grateful for them but storing them between parties was going to be a challenge, until I realized how great they would be in the drawer. This eliminated a bunch of jars and bins that I have on the desk! Again more room to breath. LOVE that!
I am determined to keep my homeschool pinky swear that I made last June. I have been really at keeping everything in the files. There are times when I get lost in a sea of school work. When this happens I just collect all my piles and file it all away. Each child has a accordion file and a big art portfolio. I made portfolios out of a sheet of poster board and some tape. Easy peasy! I needed to do this today. I needed to prove to myself that we do accomplish a lot over time even if we didn't get much done today.
I tell you those kids are making me insane. Home school has been fight school. This morning they were so snippy with each other that we ended up doing school in two different rooms. That was not fun for me. I spent the day saying no, and be quite and please be nice to your sibling. URG. I know that it is winter and all that but I am dying over here.
Maddie had a great idea at lunch she suggested that we played a game. So after 15 minute of me time on the sunny front porch we all played The Kansas City Monopoly. We actually made it through an hour long game with out tears, even though I won. Don you were wrong the game is not evil : )
I have had this game for years and years and haven't played it until today. I believe that my Mom sent it to me on my first Christmas away from home. It is nearly 17 years. I guess it is about time somebody plays with it. I wonder how many of the businesses are closed or under different names. For example I know the Jones Store Co. is now Macy's.
Funny how even with all the trouble we had a really great day. Who would have figured?
Look what you can do now! Create your own banner in just minutes. Created by Kelly Ferrel for Etsy. Kelly is one our esteemed RCM alumni. While you are there check out the free downloads for your external sites. Have fun!
Oh MY, gone are the days when all my hair was red, and without the any grey -- when I was in a band and wore crazy tights and mini skirts. When I grow young again, I want to be this chick. I may be 40 very soon, but that does not mean I have to stop rocking out. I bet the phrase is dated. DAMN I feel just a little bit old.
The Richmond Craft Mafia will be hosting "I *heart* Craft" on Sunday, February 10th from 4-6pm at The Camel. The event is open to any and all crafty peeps. No need to RSVP or anything like that, but a comment here on the Off the Record blog to give us a heads up would be sweet (we luv comments!). The Camel will be sporting a full menu and bar so you can purchase a bite and nosh with us for a bit. Members of the Richmond Etsy Street Team will be there as well...come out and meet some of the folks you know from online. And bring a friend!
Wanna help us promote the event? Grab the image and the deets below! What: I *heart* Craft - a crafter's social When: Sunday February 10, 2008 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm Where: The Camel, 1621 W. Broad Street
Entire post stole from the Off the record blog originally posted by Dawn Anderson. She is good I had to just copy her work! *************************************************************************************
This event is for ALL CRAFTERS and for ALL CRAFT WANNABES!!!! : )
Hi all here is a few links to keep you busy with. My original post for this information can be found on Off the Record. As for me I went shopping last night and I am busy working on something new. Show ya soon!
Winter has me down in the dumps...I need some spring action, hope of bright sunny days.
I just received an email from a national clothing company that doesn't need any more plugs. Even though I pledged to buy handmade I still have to get these emails. I love them. The insprining trendy clothing and fashion forward photos bring me happy joy.
But I will link to the following indie designers that have like items.
A few years ago I had the need to buy tons of that el cheapo Christmas garlands at Target, it was during the 90% off-everything must-go sale. You know how it goes... there they were, tons of the the tacky little devils, needing a home like a little lost puppy. And well at .20 cents and they all came home with me. The next winter I had to do something with the junk, opps I mean wonderfully attractive stuff.
I took the Wire hangers and cut off the entire hook and then opened them up. I then bent them into straight lines. Once I had about 7-8 of the heavy wire rods I made a heart shaped wire frame. This took some time and some tools, I needed wire cutters and a pair of pilers. Once I had both hearts in a nice shape I took floral wire & lashed them both together.
Last but not least I used yards and yards of the el cheapo garland and wrapped the entire frame until it was completely covered. Thicker is better. So Christmas is over and you might have just packed this up some red garland if that is the case go get it and get crafty!~
Be sure to send me a photo if you actually do this!
A few years ago I had the need to buy tons of that el cheapo Christmas garlands at Target, it was during the 90% off-everything must-go sale. You know how it goes... there is was, tons of the stuff, needing a home like a little lost puppy. And well it .20 cents and it all came home with me. So that winter I had to do something with the junk I mean wonderfully attractive stuff.
I took the Wire hangers and cut off the entire hook and then opened them up. I then bent them into straight lines. Once I has several of them heavy wire rods I made a heart shaped wire frame. This took some time and some tools, I needed wire cutters and a pair of pilers. Once I had both hearts in a nice shape I took floral wire & lashed them both together.
Last but not least I took my yards and yards and yards for el cheapo garland and wrapped the entire frame until it was all covered. Thicker is better. So Christmas is over and you might have just packed this up some red garland if that is the case go get it and get crafty!~
Right after Christmas my DH was sent out to Michael's for last minute birthday favors for Maddie's 10th birthday party and came home with a present for me! I had my eye on this great organizer for weeks. I have to say that it was lost for a week or two on the sewing table from hell.
I could not figure out what to do with this. Once in my studio it was big and overwhelming. But then I got inspired to create a "cutting carousel". Now everything I need to cut is in one place. And best of all I can simply move it from the studio to the "cutting counter" in the kitchen.
Now I have no going back and forth gathering up this and that. And clean up is a snap. It all lives in one handy carousel.
I believe they are still in the stores but if not I found them on line at Kaboodle's. Happy organizing!
My ribbon solution is not nearly exciting enough but it was free. Because the others solutions are just so tasty! I got this idea from the creative Mary Ellen from Twist Style. ME made it look much better, she has more ribbon than me! I have to shop soon. I saw her studio shots over at flickr and said "hey I have one of those racks in my attic"! Some day when I stop moving furniture around I will do one of these other ideas, I can't put up shelves if I keep my stuff in one place. I am a nomad at heart.
Note that the top two shelves on my rack hold gift and merchandise bags, along with tissue paper. This makes for quick and easy wrapping for a gift or sale. I should integrate these into the shipping and handling cabinet but I have to have more ribbon first! I can't have an empty shelve, that is just WRONG.
Check this out! WOW, right. Monica from Happy Zombie calls these her shelves of joy. I say she's got that right! For more photos of her fantastic studio check out her flickr shots. Big thanks to Monica for letting me share these photos. You are just swell.
I did not realize that my inspiration for my ironing center came from this photo. Monica how do you add the subliminal messages? Again my version is not nearly as dreamy! But it was all from found objects that were in my home somewhere. (so far I have spent only 10.00) So here are a few other "good things" you can do with your ribbon. Inspiration is a great thing! Martha has this in her Basement...A set of slim metal cafe-curtain rods, attached to wooden shelf brackets, holds a colorful assortment of ribbons and twines. The rods are removable, so spools can be easily replaced
Marta says...To keep ribbons organized, build storage racks from copper gutters. Have a lumberyard cut a half-round gutter and cap the ends. Punch holes along top edge; mount in a dry place away from sunlight to keep ribbons from fading.
I saw photo above over at the Domestic Diva Blog she has the complete guide to ribbon organization. AND much, much more. She has a six part series on Sewing Room Organization. DAMN its good! This girl has it all.
Now go and clean your room! ; )
xoxox, Kelly
Update: Look what I found, LOVE IT! The Ribbon and Wrap Organizer is what I want on the back of that door! this if perfect. Oh honey that birthday is coming up soon! It is the big 4 0 too!
Here is what Margaret had to say... A beautiful apron~! My daughter has been begging me to make her one...maybe I'll giver her yours instead! ;)
Your daughter will be so happy, that is if you don't keep this for you self! Congrats!!! If you could just email at kelly@modernjune.com I will send this out to ya.
I want to tell you all how much fun I have had reading all the comments the last week or two. They make this blog thing that much more fun! Thanks for reading.
I am getting there that is for sure, last week it looked like the photo below. Yikes!
What I love this that there so very little on the desk. I am using the kids old plate from their toddler days for all the pins and snips. I will be putting the tread up on the wall this weekend. I would like to add shelves too.
I am in love with my little fifties wire shelves. It think my MIL bought it for me years and years ago. They hold my studio movies, the movies that I can plug my self into and not really miss any thing because I know them so well. I also took the books off the fabric shelves so that I can use that space better. Soon, soon!
Yesterday while I was talking with my best buddy Christi, I was grumbling about my stupid Bernina sewing machine and how is really has got to go back to the factory. (I know, I know I am stalling) At the same time Maddie was constantly interrupting me for one thing and then another. Christi then told me about this cartoon.
Hee Hee hee, yep that was me! Sewing while hormonal! Not a good combo!
Disclaimer: I did not make her cry, but she was not allowed what she wanted. ; )
Let me start off by warning you: this is a rant, a massive homeschool momma diva rant! Last night my husband called someone to wish them a happy birthday. This is someone that we are related to, and someone that we see for about 7 hours every year, even though we live 15 minutes away. This is someone that has children basically the same ages as our own. This is someone that we should be close to.
While chatting, my husband made a passing comment that I would love to have a super cool mid-century home out in the county. Then this person proceeded to tell Don that "we needed to put the kids first for once, move to the county and finally put them into public school."
Who would say such a thing? Not even my own Mother would say that to me.
So let me break this down. According to this sage advice, we are selfish for living in the city, and for home schooling. Any one that knows anything about my life could see that home schooling is not the least bit selfish. And, why is so impossible to believe that we could have actually chosen to do this out of thoughtful concern for our children, or because we want to or because we love it?
What this person doesn't understand, is that our oldest child would not do well in public school. Not in the city, and not in the county. It is not about demographics. We are not trying to keep our children away from people who look different, or think different, or have different religious beliefs. No one has tried harder than me to find a better solution for her.
I see teaching my children at home as being the single most Unselfish thing I have ever done. I could just drop them off on someone else for 7 hours and do my work in peace. Can you imagine how successful I could become then? Martha, watch out. If anyone even thought of it that way they could not call me selfish.
I am all for people having their own opinions on education, politics, child rearing and religion. I understand fully that we will all never agree to all of it. And that is cool -- that is the key to success in this world. Hell, that might just be the answer to world peace... acceptance.
But what is really NOT OK is when some one flat out tells you that you SUCK and you are doing everything WRONG. No one can say that. NO ONE!
I try not to be spiteful person (even if it does come easily), so I won't call him up today and tell him what I think about his parenting. Even if, I thought I would love nothing more than to even the score.
Let me start off by warning you this a rant, a hugh homeschool momma diva rant! I see teaching my children at home as being the single most UNselfish thing I have ever done. I mean when I could drop them off for some 6-7 hours and do my work in peace. Can you imagine how successful I could be. Martha watch out. If anyone even thought of it that way they could not call me selfish.
I am for people having their own options on education, politics, child rearing and religion. I understand fully that we will never all agree on all of it. And that is cool that is the key to sucess in the world that is the answer to world peace, accpetance. But what is really not ok is when some one flat out tells you that you suck for doing what you are doing.
I try not to be spiteful (even if it does come easily) so I won't call him up today and tell him what I think about his parenting. Even if I would love to even the score.
I am not feeling so hot today and I need to get some work done today no time for playing organizer! So for now I am going to redirect to my post about the shipping cabinet that I created a while back! I can not tell you how much time this saves me! And yes I know that I misspelled business! No need to remind me of my inability to spell! ; )
If you are selling and shipping I highly recommend doing this for yourself. My Friend Beth has a shipping drawer. I was thinking the other day you could take vintage suitcase and make a shipping center out of that. You may need to hot glue in some added pockets but that would store nicely and look good anywhere. I like it! I want to make one just for fun!
When you are running your own little shop you are surrounded by paper. What do you do with all those orders, the shopping lists and the endless to do list? Well you head over to Suzanne's site Let's talk organizing and see what your organizational solution is. Personally I am a visual person through and through, if I put a list in a notebook you can bet I will NEVER EVER look at it again. So dry erase board and 4 clip boards to the rescue.
I use the magnetic dry erase board for notes to self and what I need to do right away! It is my in-my-face-can-not-forget spot.
As for the clip boards I got that idea from Ace of Cakes, they have an entire wall of clip boards that they use for orders. I had to do this. I rounded up the stray clip boards that we already had, yes we actually have 5, who knew? We used to have them for the kids to color with in the car. Any who, I took them out back and spray painted them all one color so make them pretty.
What are they for you ask? Etsy orders, shopping list, Weekly To Do list, and Craft show info. The shopping list has 3 columns one for local fabric stores, one for oilcloth orders, and the other for I wish I had items. I am constantly forgetting what I am running low on so I use this sheet to right it down right away. The craft show clip board is for the applications and for the show details, no more looking through piles of paper looking for where I am supposed to park or what size my booth is.
Thanks so much to all those that have been so nice in the comments. You all are right, I don't have a big budget in fact I have no budget. I like using what I have. It just makes sense. Plus my stuff is cuter that the typical org stuff. I love going to the attic or shed and looking around to find something that could be used for a new purpose. So come back soon there is much more to come!
Later that night.... Hi again I am down in the cave tonight trying to focus on getting this clutter off my sewing table. I just had the best thought what if I had a budget. Sweet Dreaming! Here is the fantasy workroom that I wrote for my RCM profile.
Now I have given my fantasy space a whole lot of thought! I would fill the room with 1950's metal cabinets painted lipstick red. There would be so many drawers that I would have empty ones for at least a year. I would have Boomerang Formica surfaces with the chrome edges.
There would be French doors looking out onto a garden patio. On the patio there would be electrical outlets and a great big table so I could sew out there on nice days. There would be a wall of shelves for fabric and a wall of windows for light. Instead of ironing boards I would have a pressing table, just like they had in the costume shop at Theatre Virginia. I would have a cutting table with the same metal cabinet underneath. Yep lots of drawer there too. I would have place set up just for wrapping, tagging and shipping, all the supplies on hand. A perminate place to take photos would be totally dreamy. It would save so much time to be able to just have it all set up, organized ready to go.
What to do with all that paper work all those lists, the memos from the boss. (Man I hate when she gets snippy and sends those out, she can be are real hard a$$.)
Late Fall I started using four clipboard and a dry erase board to stay on top of my to do list. Suzanne at Let's talk organizing taught me that I am a visual organizer. The four clip board was an idea i got from that very cool show Ace of Cakes.
I am so in love with this fabric, I got it at the cool locally owned fabric store here is Richmond, Quilting Adventures. Save up you pennies and go shopping, it is dreamy! I can not wait to cut into this. OH I have a great idea for the likes of these pretties.
If you all are local to Virginia please check out tomorrow's Virginia Currents The Richmond Craft Mafia will be featured. In Richmond the show will air on WCVE on January 17th at 8:00 pm. If you miss it you can also check it out on Saturday at 5:30 pm or Sunday at 12:30 pm.
... learn how a group who call themselves the “Craft Mafia” take on mass production with a vengeance.
I have been storing my patterns in the shower for awhile now but this weekend I added a much needed second bar to store my extra hangers. This is so much better that then all tangled up in a plastic ice bin from target. That was always a fight and an eyesore. That shower rod was worth the 5 bucks!
Well there is one corner left in this room and I am not sure that I will show you that corner. It is not pretty but I will see what I can do! A little plumbing is in order if you know what I mean! Scared yet Don?
Wow, how cool is this, 300 blog posts! Wahoo! I feel a little Modern June Freebie coming on! Leave me a love note and enter to win a free Diner apron! You have from now till Saturday to leave a comment. I will have the kids pull a name out of the hat again!
Speaking of which Silvia did you get my email?
Sending you all as much bloggy luv as you can stand!
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