HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME...

...it's that time of year again folks - you know, the most wonderful time of the year!  Happy birthday to me today, and then just like clockwork, seven days later it'll be Christmas Day.  It always happens, and it's ALWAYS been such a joyous time of year for me.  I could write a book about my wonderful memories of birthdays and Christmas' past -  but never fear, I won't do that here.

As you may have noticed, I've experienced a recent sewing slump, and I'm pretty sure that the stress/ excitement of the craft fair brought it on.  If I'm nothing else - I'm one-tracked when it comes to focusing on a project.  All that time I spent working on those scarves I would have much rather been sewing for myself.  But, alas, I committed myself, and I had to see it through.  Only thing is - all that one-tracked focusing put a dent in my sewing motivation.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I DO want to sew.  It's the getting started part that's holding me back.

You know me, I'm the type that will force sewing motivation.  I tried doing just that this week and it yielded me not 1 but 2 pair of ill fitting p.j. pants.  I was sure that making a couple pair of quick and easy pajama pants would do the trick for me, and it would have - if not for the wrong fabric choice.  I made knit p.j.'s, but used a knit that grows and grows and grows some more with were.  I wanted to learn to make yoga waistbands and thought p.j.'s would be a good way to practice my technique.  How disappointing to say the least.  Last night I was thinking of canning both pair, but today I'm thinking "cut that band off and stitch in some elastic", what a downer. Nuff said.

I also thought about making a new birthday dress, but that didn't unfold.  But low and behold a package from Vogue Fabrics was waiting on my porch for me this afternoon and that cheered me up sewing wise.  A surprise gift of 2 beautiful yards of bamboo knit fabric from my friend Cecil!!!  She me tricked ya'll during our weekend sewing/pattern/fabric talk.  But what a wonderful trickster she is.  I've never had bamboo knit before.

CELERY BAMBOO KNIT

The first thing that come to mind was pairing it up with a brown ponteroma knit magic pencil skirt.  What do you think?  Got to find just the right pattern for the bamboo knit top.  Thank you so much Cecil, what a beautiful birthday present! 

If recall, I did have some scarves left over from the craft fair.  This week I sold 5 of them and also made two special order scarves.  That made me feel real good!

Only one more day til Christmas vacation - how wonderful!  I've already closed out the records for the College, and tomorrow I'll finish closing out the High School.  It's really been a great semester.  Now to see if I can get this sewing thing cranked up...

IT'S OVER...

...My Reindeer Marketplace experience has come and gone! I'll have to admit that participating in a craft fair for the very first time was a bit stressful.  I just didn't know what to expect.  It's so hard knowing how much merchandise is needed, or exactly how to price items.  I decided to just go with my gut and try to price these scarves so they would SELL - and not have to come back home with me.

Interacting with all the customers was interesting - I just tried to make the whole experience as much fun as possible.  I think I sold a little more than half of what I had which isn't bad at all.  I learned some things, and can't say that I won't do it again next year.  I know that if I do decide to go it again I'll start production by the end of August and not be stressed with last minute preparation.   

I think the fact that I focused on only one product genre helped my sales, but making all these scarves within the last three weeks did get rather boring.  Thought I'd post a picture of my humble booth since ya'll have had to read about this for several weeks.  Uploaded through Picasa this time so I hope I'll have no further picture posting problems.

 

I am such a one-track minded person that I have not had time to focus on garment sewing AT ALL during this process.  Now, finally, I can get back to the type of sewing that I love so much - sewing for myself...

STAYING CALM, AND (CARRYING) MOVING ON...

 "The Reindeer Marketplace Craft Fair"
DATE:  Saturday, December 8th
TIME:  9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
LOCATION:  Houston County Career Academy
                        1313 Cordor Road
                        (Corner of Corder Rd. and Russell Pkwy)
                        Career Academy entrance from Corder
                        Middle Georgia Technical College GED component entrance from Russell

...Happy December every one! Seems like I blinked, and poof - it's here already!  It's been quite a weekend to say the least; but I'm staying calm and moving on!  On top of everything else, I had a little glitch with Picasa's storage limitations as referenced in my last post.  It's still not fully resolved yet, but I did get GOOD answers to my call for help from Lynn and Carolyn re:  picture size and revolving slide shows on my side bar.  In an effort to reset my camera to use less pixels I accidentally deleted my entire memory card.  Oh well...  I'm also sorry to say that I had to remove all slide shows from my side bar, but I guess that has allowed me enough storage space to be able to post pictures here.  Obviously, I definitely need to find out more about how Picasa works in the very near future in order to continue to operate this blog.  I won't go into my other woes here - I'll just say "it could have been worse"... 

Moving on --- you may recall me mentioning that I'll be participating in "The Reindeer Marketplace Craft Fair" at my school next weekend (I'll be so glad when it's over).  I committed last year, but the pressure got to me and I backed out of it.  Being my usual glutton for punishment self, I not only committed again this year, but encouraged two of my friends to participate.  Let me tell you, I've felt like backing out several times this year. I did reach my self imposed quota of scarves:  16 silky print infinity scarves,  12 fur snoods, and 2 big button scarflette neck warmers.  Hope there will be 30 marketplace attendees who feel the need of having fashionable scarves to keep their necks warm and BUY up!  Anyway, thought I'd share photos of the fur scarves I worked on.

What fashionable lady wouldn't want one of these fur beauties to enhance her wardrobe???

If course I'm very eager to get back to my selfish sewing.  Sewing, but not sewing what you really want to sew creates stress in ones life.  Needless to say I've had enough of that for a long while...

HELP NEEDED RE: Picasa Storage Quota....

...while trying to upload pictures for a blog post this evening I discovered that I've used up 99% of my free 1 GB of Picasa storage quota.  The notice says that I still have 10 GB Gmail and 5 GB of drive still available, but that I can purchase more space.   I'm confused.  Can I now use the Gmail and drive for storage????  Or do I now need to start purchasing additional storage for a monthly fee.

Has anyone else experienced running out of space??????? 
Can anyone advise me on this?????
How can I avoid paying a monthly fee for additional storage????

OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF...

...continues to be a  source of inspiration to me.  That's a good thing, right?  Yes it is!  Other People's Stuff causes me to have an ever growing "List of things I want to make or try".  Seeing the creativity of others causes me to s-t-r-e-t-c-h or challenge myself to greater heights.  It's exciting!, and I always thrive on excitement.  When I'm really excited about a project I seem to do my best work - and that makes the time spent in my sewing room a sheer joy.

I've spent all my sewing time during the last two weeks working on SCARVES, since I committed myself to an upcoming craft fair (December 8th) a school fundraiser.   I've been going a little bonkers.  I'm thankful for the constant stream of  inspiration provided by other sewing and crafting bloggers (and of course Pinterest)  Other than this I wouldn't have had much excitement lately.

I've wanted to learn how to create a blog collage for a long time and finally got around to it today.  So I'll  share my weekly source of inspiration here in my very first college.  

1. Virginia's Sew Blessed Daughter's Working Girl Cargos
2.  Cotton and Curl's Week of Leather
3.  Erica B's Team Spirited Houndstooth coat
4.  Kojo Design's J-Crewy wool tweed skirt

Happy rest of the week ya'll...

HAVE YA'LL MET RHONDA BUSS...

... if not, you simply must drop in to peruse her blog.  It's ALWAYS filled with such wonderful things and I'm sure you will think so too.  She has two blog features in particular that I look forward to each and every week:

•   Fabulous Free Pattern Friday and,
•   Sleeves on Saturday

I just visited her blog this afternoon and found this Fall Gem posted:

So fashionably cute, and reversible too!

I've got far too much plaid in the fabric closet to pass this one up; just need some fur, and I know exactly where to get it from.  Thank you Rhonda...

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING...

...would you believe  - Today I shopped on Black Friday for the first time ever.   I've always managed steered clear of all the madness.  But today, for the very first time I ventured out because the Vogue Pattern sale FINALLY started at Hancock's.  Seems like I waited FOREVER for this pattern sale.  But does this really constitute Black Friday Shopping.  I did think that there would be a crowd of people at the pattern cabinets, but that wasn't the case at all.  I didn't have to fight for patterns, but rather shopped at my leisure.

What were my choices???  All of the new ones of course, but these were the ones that came home with me...

V8845 - had to have this Claire Shaeffer beauty

V1327 - and this darling Anne Klein dress

V1329 - love my self some Kay Unger, she designs such classy dresses

V8865 - hope my butt can handle this bustle peplum

V8859 - I need skinny pants pretty badly, got to try some soon.  These look easy, but I'm not too sure about Tilton girl patterns.  We'll see.

V8849 - Who can resist this interesting design?  When I first saw it, it so reminded me of a dinosaur or some sort or reptile with that elongaged ruffle peplum sewn down the back.  Don't know exactly what I'll do with this pattern, but it was so darned cute.  

V8861 - Thought this coat was very interesting, especially worn with those elbow length gloves.

I didn't get this one - it can only be obtained on line.  But I just want to ask - "What is this?", or better yet, Why is it?"  Am I missing something here or what????  I'm just saying...

TO ALL MY BLOG READERS...

OH SHEILA!!!!

Who in blogland has not virtually met Sheila?  Well if you haven't happened upon her blog you should really make it a point to do so - you can find her here.  I've been reading her fabulous blog for a number of years now, and find her to be so multi-talented in that she sews, knits, and crochets just like a pro.  There's another thing about Sheila; she ALWAYS thinks enough of my humble sew-a-longs to join up and submit some of her beautiful designs.

For example, here's a picture of a design she submitted on the recent (and still ongoing) Carnival of Skirts Sew-a-long.

Her skirt made from the most interesting embossed faux leather using her favorite TNT (and also mine) pattern - McCalls 3830

When I saw her completed project weeks ago - of course I had to comment, but also made note that her fabric put me on the hunt for it in my local fabric stores to no avail.  To my surprise I received an envelope from Sheila last Thursday that contained 1 1/2 beautiful yards of this same fabric.

Can you hear me shout YAHOO!!!  So I have to send a shout out and a big THANK YOU to Sheila for her generosity! Needless to say, you will soon see me posting Sheila's skirt twin on my blog - so be on the lookout!

Guess what NEW PROJECT SUNDAY finds me working on?  Not a garment, but rather a bunch of infinity scarves for a craft fair called the Reindeer Market Place to be held at my school on December 8th.  I could KICK myself!  And you know that I've been procrastinating on getting them started.

Making one or two of the scarves for wardrobe enhancement is nothing at all.  Try making 25 or 30 of them.  Can you tell that boredom has slowly set in???  I'd much rather be working on Sheila's skirt twin.

I just noticed that today is November 18th - exactly one month from my birthday.  God willing I'll be at another milestone, and I really need to start planning a special outfit for that day.  Any suggestions???

NEW PROJECT SUNDAY EVEN THOUGH IT'S MONDAY ...

This Sunday's project, although not as planned, found me working with Vogue 8815 yet again.  I know, I know.  How many of these do I need?  I love this top and love wearing them - so there might be even more.  I was so intrigued with Erica's and Rachelle's knit versions that I felt I needed one for myself.   I was a bit timid even though I've made 3 of this pattern with woven fabric.  I toyed with going down a size, but after talking with Rachelle about it, went with my regular size.  I did not use a zipper and things work out just fine - HURRAY for that!  I finished the top this afternoon, which by the way feels a lot like Sunday even though I know it's not.  Been wondering all day long if I should have gone to work  - I know, sad right?

Black Ponte de Roma from Hancock's 30% off  - because I am a bit obsessed with this fabric.       Added 2" to the peplum back and front.

Increased the width of the front peplum to add a set of four pleats on the left side.

Used a self Single-Fold Binding technique from "The Dressmaker's Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques (Linda Maynard) because I needed to try something new.  Title can be found here.

Now I'm feeling the need of some off-white (I'm still not free yet, but I am working on it ) skinny leg pants.  Boy oh boy, inspiration will sure keep you working... 

Happy...

TO ALL THE BRAVE WOMEN AND MEN WHO SO BRAVELY SERVE OUR COUNTRY...