What the Friday?

So besides the post on the Foil Pack Chicken Dinner, I have fallen off the face of the blog world this past week.  I was trying to get things done, and they just didn't happen as planned.  I'm not quite sure where my 3 days off went.  I even made a list, which ususally helps me get things done, but it didn't help.  I think I will perpetually be two steps behind.  

I did get a couple of custom orders made:

And I figured out why the white balance wasn't working that well on my pictures.  I had two different kinds of light bulbs.  I thought Hubs put the same kind all together in a box.  I was wrong.  Thus the difference in the top and bottom pictures. 

A high school friend also bought a Train Engineer Hat for her new nephew, and that was pretty exciting too. 

I think I'm finally building a customer base.  I've been trying to wear and use my products and some people that I meet in real life are starting to ask about things.  Hopefully this will continue.  July has been a very good month for my business.  I should probably start doing some book keeping.  Time to get out Excel, and make Hubs help me since he is and Excel guru. 

Now...on to the weekend!

Tomorrow night I actually get to go out.  It seems like it's been forever since I've gotten to go out on a Saturday night.  My middle niece is going to turn 10 on Monday and wanted to go to a Japanese steakhouse for her birthday.  Bless this child's heart, she always wants to make sure I can come because she is one of the few people who understands that I have to work at night.  Did I mention how much I love these girls?  So we are going to Wasabi in Greenville.

For some reason this one is never crowded.  It's a year or two old, very clean, very reasonably priced, they give you TONS of food (I take home about half), and it's in the busy part of town.  But it's never crowded.  I'll take it.  But before we go to eat, I have a mini To-Do List for this occassion.

~Emma is a HUGE Harry Potter fan.  She saves her money to buy the Harry Potter Lego sets.  She's very artistic, loves to read, loves to craft.  My sister-in-law told me that she wants to make a Harry Potter scrapbook and asked that if I find anything while I'm shopping that would work well in a Harry Potter scrapbook, that I get it for Emma.  I didn't find anything in the stores Monday, so I decided that I'm going to break out the Cricut and make her some alphabet cutouts using a free Harry Potter font I found online.  So that is to be done.

~I'm also making Emma's card.

~I need to take up the skirts I made for the girls.  They were about 4 inches too big, but I think that shouldn't take too long.

~I need to finish my mother-in-law's crochet flowers.  I don't know why I have been avoiding this.  They are practically done.  I just need to finish them.

~I need to sew and pack up another wallet that I sold.  I had every intention of doing this last night, but I had a few kinks in the custom ordered heart wallet and at 3 AM I was tired of dealing with wallets.

~I have got to wash clothes.  I know this is TMI, but I'm out of underwear.

I think i'll leave it at that.  Hopefully it will be a good night here at the hospital, no computer downtimes like last night.  If so, I'll go home, sew up the wallet, pack it up, and go to bed "early" (1 AM-ish).  Then get up early-ish and get to the post office and finish all of the goodies I need to finish.  I need to get back on a regular sleep schedule anyway.

Finally Another Freebie Friday!

Yeah, I've been slack with Freebie Fridays.  I have so many dreams and ideas that it's hard for me to figure out which to do first.  I have time management issues outside of my "real job." 

A few weeks ago in a To-Do post, I said that I cut out some shapes with my Cricut and SCAL software for our church youth group to make cards with.  I finally got around to pulling those SVG files together and I think that since there are three, I will post one a week for this week and the next two weeks. 

First up, is the ever popular Jesus Fish or Ichthus.  They are used to mark common objects to indicate that the person it belongs to is a Christian.  They are on cars, jewelry, stationery and many, many more things.  Now that you have an SVG file for one, you can put it on just about anything you would like.  It would probably come in handy for Vacation Bible School, GAs, RAs, AWANA or any number of different church crafts.  For the cards that the kids made, I used a length of about 2 inches and they came out nicely, although I will say that one too much smaller may have lines that are too thin to easily work with.  I have included both my SVG and JPEG files below. 

Jesus Fish SVG--This is a Google Docs File.  To download, click "File" in the upper left hand corner and then click "Download Original." 

Jesus Fish JPEG--Also a Google Docs File.  To download, click "Download" in the upper left hand corner. 

Let me know if you have any trouble with either and enjoy the Fish!

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.

Freebie Tuesday?

It's just barely still Tuesday anyway.  I've determined that it's been waaaaay too long since I've had a Freebie Friday, so I made today Freebie Tuesday.  Plus I just trying to get stuff marked off my to-do list.  I know, ulterior motive.  Anyway, today's freebie is an SVG and JPEG file of a daisy.  They look especially cute with a brass brad stuck through the center and fastened to another piece of paper, or a lab coat, whichever.  Here you go!  These are Google Docs Files.  To download the SVG, click "File" in the upper left hand corner and then click "Download Original."  To download the JPEG, just click "Download" in the upper left hand corner.  Again, please let me know if these don't work.

Daisy SVG

Daisy JPEG

Have fun crafting!

Happy Monday!

Ok, so I didn't really feel very happy while trying to find a place to park when I got to work this afternoon.  In fact, this may be the most unhappy Monday of the year since the weekend was gorgeous and DST started yesterday and I'm all out of whack. 

But I don't have a cold anymore, and the weekend was amazing.  I went shopping with Mama on Saturday, then Dave took me out to dinner Saturday night.  Sunday morning church was just what I needed.  Middle School Small Group's Service Night went very well.  The boys made birdhouses and the girls made cards for the shut in members of our church.  Next Service Night the girls will paint the birdhouses and the boys will make cards.  And I'm sore from doing cartwheels and wrestling with said middle schoolers in the front yard.  I know I'm about 10 years older than they are, but most of them are bigger than me, so it's ok! 

I guess overall it's a happy Monday.

In craft news, I did some research this weekend regarding selling my crochet patterns online.  I'm thinking that this may be beneficial for me.  Right now, my key blog traffic comes from Crochet Pattern Central, a site that I love and adore.  But it seems that people want the patterns for things I'm selling in my Etsy shop, which is no way to make money.  So I think I'm going to sell patterns, as well as submitting my little freebies to CPC.  I may also start selling some SVG files for the SCAL and Make the Cut software and Cricut machines.  To say the least, I've got to get busy whether or not I sell patterns because I have so many ideas in my head and none of them are in yarn yet. 

In the meantime, I found this on Etsy today.  I know I'm not a knitter, and this particular item was a custom listing that sold already, but I had to share

Is that not the cutest thing?  The creator is wearthou.  Here's the link to her shop, you should go check it out http://www.wearthou.etsy.com/

I'll see y'all later for another Freebie Friday!