Supporting the March of Dimes!

Hey everyone!  This is going to be a short-ish post with a lot of horn blowing advertising.  BUT...it's for a good cause.  I have a friend from church who has an adorable baby named Ruthie.  Ruthie was born at only 24 weeks and spent her first 3.5 months in the NICU.  Ruthieis doing much better now, but sadly, Jay, Gina and Ruthie aren't the first family that has had to go through this and they won't be the last. 

The March of Dimes aims to help more babies be born healthy and full term.  Gina will be walking in and Ruthie stroller riding in a Greenville March of Dimes event in October.  I'm helping her to raise money with this little cutie:

This is the Ruthie Bag.  Made with colors and prints that Ruthie loves.  It's small, but very versatile and sells for $15 in Evan Becky's Gift Shop.  Good news is, that $10 of that will go to Gina's efforts to raise money for her walk.

So go check it out!  You'd be getting a cute bag and helping babies! 

Late Night Genius

Today, I am very tired.  Very...tired...  Ok, so there are probably more of you out there more tired than me, but my tail is dragging today.  I will be going to bed early tonight.  But I have good reason for it.  The reason I didn't go to bed until 4 AM this morning is because I was making this:

This is my flap top, clasp closure zebra zipper bag.  Excuse the crappy pictures on my sewing room floor.  I have been dreaming about this thing for the last 3 weeks and I finally just had to do it.  The design has shifted in all different directions.  The little extra elements have come and gone.  And yesterday evening at work, I finally drew it out and wrote out the steps and came up with what I wanted.  I'm just so excited, despite my level of tiredness, because it came out how I had dreamed!  In my eyes it's just gorgeous!  I know I'm blowing my own horn here, but this doesn't happen to me much!

I put a little flat zipper pocket on the back using this tutorial from Creating My Way to Success.  The zipper around the bottom isn't functional, for trim only, and I bent the heck out of a sewing machine needle on it.  Learned to do that part by turning the wheel by hand.  It's amazing what uses you can find for zippers when you have a whole hoard of them.  The strap is double interfaced with fusible fleece to give it some structure and padding.  This comes in handy when I throw my Daddy's copy of John Steinbeck's East of Eden in there.   

I took a picture of the inside, but I just noticed that my camera decided to focus in on my arm instead of the bag, and it looks quite crappy.  I'll redo that one for later.  But the inside is lined in white cotton, so I can find stuff in there.  The only closure to it is the clasp closure on the front, there's no zipper under the flap, but that's so I can just chunk stuff in there. 

This bag was a great learning experience, as well as a great new product for my Etsy shop!  And on top of all of this, I have something cute to carry around!

Tuesday To-Do, June 14, 2011

For alliteration's sake, I'm making my To-Do List posts on Tuesday now. 

The SS cookout was great!  My house was clean, the food was good (we are all very good Baptists), and the kids had fun.  Our neighbor has pecan trees and one of the kids found a pecan.  It was from that point on a coconut.  But we won't be having company again for a while, so I'm completely nixing the "prep the house" To-Do list.  But my crafting To-Do list keeps growing.

Hubs is gone on business again.  I don't like it.  He'll be gone until late Friday night, so I'll have to find things to amuse myself until then.  My problem is prioritizing things.  There are a bazillion and one things I'd like to have done by tomorrow morning.  The reason I'd like to have them done by then is because my Tools4Etsy ad goes live tomorrow morning!  When I signed up for the ad, I really thought it would be months before it appeared since it's free and the featured advertisers are chosen lottery style.  But nope, it's tomorrow.  So here's my attempt at prioritizing my To-Do list:

~Make the graduation gift wallets

~Make a couple more wallets to put for sale in my shop and list them.  Due: tonight

~Newest project:  Beach Roll--I've bought two large bath towels that I'm going to attatch a printed roll pillow to (handmade pillow, of course).  I'm also going to sew a strap on the back of the towel so that when it's rolled around the pillow you can tie it up.  Due: tonight

~Finish cutting out shapes for our Church Youth Card Ministry.  The kids were supposed to make cards last week, but someone only put out the cheesy boxed cards for them to sign.  This is no good.  I'm using the trusty Cricut to make some stuff for them to glue on.  This means that you will get free SVG files soon!  Due: tonight

~Sew the ribbons on the luggage for my Mother-in-law

~Sew beach gifts for my nieces (This is one of those things that keeps growing.  There is the Reversible Skirt, the Appliqued Tote Bag, and now the Beach Roll) Due: June 24

~Make the tutorial for the Reversible Skirt while I'm making one

~Finish the duffel bag and matching makeup/tote/toiletries bags that I started months ago and intended to carry to the beach Due: June 24

~Make the tutorial for the Crochet Zinnia.  Due: whenever it gets done

~Redo my shop banner, avatar, and some other things to finish rebranding my shop. Though I do have my outfit picked out, just gotta take the picture.  The picture will probably be made at the beach.  Due: whenever it gets done

~Make the concealed carry handbag I've been dreaming up for the past few months I have decided on the fabric and mostly the design for this.  I'm using the primary birdie fabric.  So there will be this cutesy little bag with a .38 revolver hidden inside.  I like the irony.  Due: whenever I can get it done

Look for pictures and posts in the next few days.  I'm hoping that even though I'm not happy with the fact that Hubs isn't home, his absence will make me get stuff done.  I'm in serious need of a fire under my hiney to get things done.