The Purse That Wouldn't Be

A few weeks ago, as part of an auction for a friend, I contributed a custom purse. The winner of the auction, Lula, let me know her wants, which were:

• an 11" drop from shoulder to top of bag
• a brown or grey purse, not anything black

It seemed easy enough, but then I asked a couple of clarifying questions and that's where things got confusing. In her first email, she said she wanted a large purse. In her second email, she said a small purse. In her first email, she said she wanted something more tailored, in her second email, something not tailored.

So I dithered and sweated and stressed, drew up a sketch, made a practice purse (which didn't work), let it sit, drew up another sketch, grumbled, whined, and finally just took the plunge. Here is the original sketch.....

...and here is the finished product. Not too shabby, eh?
I'm mostly happy with it. I wish that the bottom was a little bit wider, but other than that, I really like it. The shell is made from a very warm cocoa brown wool and the lining is orangey-pink cotton. I wanted the bag to be able to open wide when it was on her arm, as she is a mom, so therefore probably does quite a few things one-handed. So on the sides, I put in 4 grommets and an adjustable tie. The base of the purse is only 2 inches wide, but the top, when untied, is 5 inches wide. This, along with the U-shaped design of the opening, helps keep sticky fingers at bay. She also requested pockets, so I got the exact measurements of her cell phone and made a custom pocket (which is why mine doesn't fit so well). There is also a small flat open pocket on the same side and a zippered pocket on the other side. I wanted a little bit of color on the outside, so I put in a box pleat that has the lining fabric on the reverse, as well as tiny (1/4") "piping" between the two sections (I call it piping, but it doesn't have any cording in it). I also wove some brown wool into the chain to tone it down a little bit.

Anyway, it's done now...and ready for shipping. I hope she likes it. I don't know that I have ever stressed out so much about a purse, and I don't really know why. =)

Tears today....

My dear friend Kori, who I've posted about a few times before, lost her beloved husband Richard last night to cancer. Her facebook status was:

• Kori M. At 12:26 AM my wonderful husband graced the gates of heaven. "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Corinthians 5:8

So true, and yet my heart breaks for her as I know that this was the love of her life and 30 is too young to say goodbye to him. I know prayers will be greatly appreciated at this time in her life, for both her and her two sons.

Auction for Kori - slightly extended

When I started this blog, I never thought I would make some of the connections I have made so far. One of the women I have become close to through this blog is named Kori.

Kori had had to set her blog to private for reasons I won't go into here, but she is dealing with a lot of stuff right now that no one should have to deal with. Kori's husband is named Richard and Richard has cystic fibrosis. He is also in the last stages of colon cancer, which is spreading through his body as we speak, attacking many of his organs and making his pain almost unbearable.

Kori's life right now is full of wills, funeral planning, and watching her best friend die in front of her eyes. She is also dealing with some crushing financial burdens due to hospice and hospital stays and an upcoming funeral as well as helping her two sons deal with the loss of their father. One of her other online friends, Shannon from the Nut House, is hosting an online auction on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 11 and 12, and I was blessed to be asked to contribute some items for this auction. 100% of the proceeds will go to Kori and her family to help defer some of the costs she is dealing with...and as a way that some of us that are far away and can't be there to physically support her in person can help her.

If this is something you can do, I would encourage you to go to Shannon's blog on Tuesday and participate in the auction. I will be contributing a messenger bag and a custom designed purse, but there will be many items available for sale. Thanks......Christy

Online Fabulousness

I started blogging on a separate blog about 18 months ago as a way to keep in touch with friends after I moved back to the Northwest from Texas. I started this blog a few months later to keep track of what I was making and gradually started making connections with extremely talented artists and crafters online. Over the last year or so I have really connected with a few bloggers in particular.

One is Antoinette. Antoinette lives in Austin and has a huge amount of talent packed in a tiny frame. She has mad refashioning skills and is famous in the refashioning community for her creativity with men's shirts. Antoinette has bravely struck out on her own and launched a website called Vocabulary Clothing. It's freaking awesome, seriously. If I was tiny like the wraiths I teach every day, I would buy everything in her shop.

Tina is another awesome artist, who actually lives here in the Seattle area. I've met her at the spring Urban Craft Uprising show. She also refashions clothing into beautiful works of art for her company (called glam.spoon )and I love how she recombines sad bits and pieces into delightfully whimsical happy clothes. She sells her clothing through several area boutiques and has an awesomely informative blog about thrift stores through the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

These bloggers (and others) are so supportive of me and I am proud to count them as my friends. So thanks everyone!!

Weekend Projects

I love weekends!!! In fact, my facebook status said; "Columbia Lily wishes she could make a living by sewing. Or teaching sewing." And it's true. This weekend I had to work on school stuff, so I did some of that but more of sewing. =)

First, I am doing an exchange with Aimee over at Jewel Street Designs. She liked the little elephant pouch I made over my birthday week and I love her jewelry, so we made a deal. Here are her elephants:

I think I was supposed to make 4 of them, but I got really annoyed with the last one and it ended up in a pile on the floor and will soon be in the trash after I remove the zipper. I used a really light linen and had to line it with really stiff interfacing and it just was not working. Then I lined it with a really loosely woven ticking and it just ended up with a lot of holes. SO.....I made another smaller elephant pattern and ear pattern and put an elephant on a mini pouch. I hope she likes them! The eyes are super tiny buttons (about 1/4 inch wide) that I got at a quilt show several years ago.

Secondly, my friend Shannon is having a baby in a couple of months and so I made her a baby blanket for her shower. I had a LOT of leftover fabric from a quilt I made a couple of years ago so I just pulled a bunch of those scraps and put them together in a brick pattern. I am wavering about outlining 3-4 bricks in black but I can't decide. I make baby blankets larger than traditional ones, usually about 36"x48", and I really like the way this one turned out. I think that this combination of colors and patterns looks a lot like water. It still needs a backing and to be sewn together, but that will happen later.

I also made a purse for my friend's mom, but I don't have any pictures of the outside yet, so I will post about that in a day or so.

Presents

Today I got my mail. This seems like a "duh" activity, but it is a LOOOOONNNNG way to my mailbox and the only things I ever get are bills and ads so who wants to check the mail on a daily basis???

But today I went down there since I was expecting a check from my aunt, and lo and behold, there was a key in my mailbox! I opened up the big mailbox where they drop packages, and there was a large box inside with a return address I didn't recognize. All the way back to my apartment I wondered, "who is this from?" "who is this person?" "who do I know in this state?" "how did they get my address?" "Is this a bomb?"

I know, that last one is a little crazy, but hey, I am a high school teacher, and it is finals week, I HAVE TO BE PREPARED. I did keep myself from ripping into the package in the car, since the last time I opened a package in the car I ended up with packing peanuts all over for a month. I brought it into the house and dropped it in a chair while I fed the cats and then opened it up.

And then I shrieked, "JOHN DEERE MOM!!!" I had forgotten that I had won something from this mama and fellow teacher a couple of weeks ago!!! Inside this glorious package was a black and white John Deere bag, a Starbucks gift card, 2 books, a movie, lotion, stain remover and truffles! It was a little creepy how well she knows me and yet we've never met. It was like I had designed a care package for myself!

I may or may not have torn into the truffles before making dinner tonight...er....um...but the rest is mostly intact. I did use the picture from her website since it was DARK here already....at 4:30 in the afternoon. And her picture shows all the glorious goodness that is now mine. Mwa ha ha!!!

AND...I got the check from my aunt and a funny postcard from one of my best friends. A good day all around!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!

Seriously, I only rarely check my mail, there's never anything fun and it is almost a mile to walk there and back (and I live in an apartment complex!!!) but when I noticed how many people had posted on Kori's Secret Santa link, I thought I would run down there on the way back from the grocery store (er....that's another story....sigh....) AND THERE WAS A GIANT PRESENT THERE. I don't care what people say, THE BIGGER THE BETTER when it comes to secret santa presents. The only problem is....I don't know who it's from! The return address has only a last name (Romero) and a city in California...so if you are it, let me know so I can thank you personally!

The first thing I noticed was the smell....like clean laundry! (One of the best smells EVER) and I was grinning like an idiot the entire way back to my apartment. I ripped into it, and here is what I found:There are TWO soft, fluffy towels, vanilla scented bath mitts, a special hair towel, journal, reed diffuser (I have been eyeing those for several years!), and lemongrass sachets!

Thank you so much Secret Santa!!!! Now if I could only get a snow day to USE IT!!!!

Urban Craft Uprising

I went to this today - it was super crowded and there were TONS of uber-crafty people there. It made me feel like I am SUCH an amateur. Which I am. I really try not to steal other people's ideas, because it's, well, STEALING, but there are a couple of things I will be making for myself. $26 for a wrist cuff is a bit steep. I know how much snaps cost.

I met the fabulous Tina of glamspoon (her stuff is BEAUTIFUL!!), who is one of my favorite bloggers, and saw the craftzine booth. There were lots of really neat artists and designers who are incredibly talented. Here are the cards (with links below) for some of my favorites...

clockwise from bottom left corner:

Taryn Davis of Fernworks - incredibly delicate and amazing jewelry

Justin Hillgrove of Imps and Monsters - the Edgar Allen Poe shirt is AWESOME.

Dawn Tyler of Pitter Painter - I got a magnet from her which I will post about tomorrow

the ladies of Yarnia - extremely cool yarn store newly opened in Portland - can we say DIY yarn???

Erin MacLeod - nifty things with snaps, including a snap skirt "that fits no matter what size you are that day"

Amy Mueller of adorn jewelry - very cool moss rings, like mini zen gardens

I did buy two things, one that I will show you tomorrow, and this ring (which I forgot to pick up a card for!)

We Fish Ewe A Mare Egrets Moose

When I was like 9 or 10, my aunt gave me a present wrapped with paper that had the song We Wish You a Merry Christmas all animaled up written on it. The song went like this:

We fish ewe a mare egrets moose
We fish ewe a mare egrets moose
We fish ewe a mare egrets moose
Panda Hippo Gnu Deer!

Definitely the best wrapping paper ever....and I have remembered the song for about 20 years.

So Mare Egrets Moose everyone! No pictures of me...I don't do those. But here's some people I love instead!
And here's some links to people who assist me in maintaining my sanity:
Antoinette at Clever Girl
Stacie at Stacie Tatum Photography
Dana at MADE
Bethany at Bethany Haile Photography
Mrs. Magpie at the Magpie Files
Colleen at Anything But Nice
***************************************************
And Pink Ink is the next link on SITSmas.....

BookWorm Award/Tag

I was tagged by one of my favorite bloggers, the tiny Antoinette over at Clevergirl. This award is called the Bookworm award, and here are the rules:

* Pass it on to 5 friends
* Open the book closest to you - not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment - to page 56
* Write out the 5th sentence, as well as the 2-5 sentences following

The closest book to me right now is the textbook I have to use to prepare lesson plans for Monday. It is called The World, A History by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and is my favorite world history textbook (I am SUCH a nerd!)

P.56 is part of the pages between chapters that have source readings and this particular one is about Chauvet Cave in France. The 5th sentence reads:

"Sensing a draft from within a rock fall, they dug through earth and stones to create a gap wide enough for the thinnest of them to crawl through. When she realized there was a corridor ahead, she called the others. They shouted into the darkness to get an echo, which would give them a sense of the cave's dimensions. The noise seemed lost in vast emptiness. When they returned with full equipment, they found that the corridor led to the biggest cavern ever discovered in this part of France. Yet more astounding was their discovery in an adjoining chamber: a portrait in red ochre of a bear, rearing over 3 feet high - preserved for who knew how many thousands of years?"

Hm....five more people. I don't think I even have 5 regular readers, and Antoinette tagged three of them, =) but here goes. If you want to.....

Colleen at Anything But Nice
Bethany at Bethany Haile Photography
Aimee at Jewel Street Design
Rachel at One Pretty Thing
Stacie at Stacie Tatum Photography

Hopoe you all had a great Thanksgiving. Click here to see mine!

SERIOUSLY FREE STUFF

Not that I want you to win or anything, because I am kind of selfish and would like to win this. =)...but Red Hen Studios has a really cool blog (and some really cute kids), and she's trying to downsize and rather than filling landfills with stuff, she's giving it to someone to use! So if you are interested in things like trim and vintage fabric (AND I AM) go check out her site. She has some awesome stuff on etsy too and you know you want to buy handmade stuff for Christmas, so much cooler than Wally World. =)

**IF YOU DO ENTER - mention my name pretty please!** And good luck!

Oh....and this isn't her Red Hen sign, I stole it from the internet, but I couldn't get hers....so....

Leafy Goodness and a Giveaway

I cleaned house today, but while taking trash out, stopped to get these....

And....whilst perusing my extremely long blogroll, one of the blogs I have sort of recently discovered, Red Hen Studios, is having a giveaway. She is very talented and you should go check out her site and her etsy shop. She collects many things, and sells many things, and has wonderful taste. Go check her out!!! Christmas is a-coming soon!!!

Halloween Ruminations

I'm kind of a loser when it comes to Halloween....I used to go to a friend's party in Texas, in fact last year I flew back for it, but this year I just didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. I have been working every Friday night at football games since the beginning of September, but the game tonight was cancelled, so I am at home watching tv and working on blogs. I have also been tagged by Antoinette (aka clevergirl...and she really is!) to do a 7 random things meme...

1. I am a really good speller - no really! I competed in the Oregon state spelling bee twice and would have done it a third time but I had to go off to college. I finished in 2nd or 3rd place one year (it's been a while, I don't remember)...I still grammer and spellcheck (and often retype) my teaching partner's work (at his request!).

2. My favorite movies are action movies (my favorite is The Italian Job) and I mostly hate chick flicks. I think this is because I am an embittered old maid who thinks that love stories are unrealistic and dramatically increase the divorce rate. I passionately hate The Notebook with every fiber of my being. On the other hand, give me Orlando Bloom in any movie and I'll swoon away....

3. My original major in college was interior design. I loved parts of it, but unfortunately soon discovered that I have a low tolerance for bad taste and had a hard time taking my classes seriously when my classmates were named "Buffy." Yeah. Her actual name. That her parents gave her. On purpose.

4. I spent Thanksgiving of my sophomore year in college at a friend's house where I was hit on by a guy whose GIVEN name was "Bubba" and where the topic of conversation at dinner was a debate on the best way to effectively kill a chicken. Definitely the most culturally interesting vacation I've ever experienced.

5. My mom made me learn to sew when I was in elementary school for 4-H. I was mad because I wanted to raise cows instead, and whined and complained a lot. It wasn't until I was in college that I started to get back into sewing, and it has only been in the last few years that I have started to truly expand beyond fixing buttons.

6. I learned to drive when I was like 10 or 11, because my dad is a farmer and that's when I was old enough to reach the pedals. I drove farm trucks, tractors, combines, etc, and I learned to shift gears pretty well. Consequently, when I got "my" first car, a Ford truck (that's right...I'm a country girl....) that had something stuck in 1st gear, I could successfully drive it without 1st gear...and that baby was smooooooth. =)

7. I started blogging a little over a year ago because I had moved far, far away from my best friends. I have learned a lot and met a lot of cool people, who have given me support and often cheered me up when I was friendsick (like homesick). Yea for computers!! =)

So...here are some of those friends...tag, you're it!

Bethany at Bethany Haile photography
Colleen at Anything But Nice
Julie at Keeping Up With the Chrestes'
Nikki at Whimsy Love

And anyone else who wants to participate....no pressure.

Purses Never Don't Fit

Seriously. I want to win SOMETHING at some point in my life. And you have hopefully figured out how I feel about purses by this point. I'm pretty sure Julie will win this, since she has won a bunch of stuff online already, but I'm in anyway! Hurry, the contest ends tomorrow!! (Click the picture)

Pretty.........

On my daily check of the SITS site, I found a reference to Jewel Street Designs, whose owner is having a giveaway of some beautiful jewelry! I hesitated about posting here, since I WANT IT FOR MYSELF, but.....this is the season of giving....or something. Good luck!

Mammalicious

I found a fun blog while poking about on blogger today....it's called Mammalicious Finds, and it is pretty cool....if you enjoy free stuff....which I do.

Check it out!

Favicon Madness

Notice my spiffy new favicon to the left of my address in the address bar? Thanks to Julie for directing me to Oikology.com and her super easy directions!

If you go there, I used her directions exactly except for the second half of number 5. I pasted the html code in twice and did not delete anything, as deleting things did not make my favicon appear. Other than that, no problems!!

Market Bag Giveaway

No, not by me...but Film in the Fridge is giving away some really cute market bags! Go to her website byWednesday to enter!

Very Cool Blogs

I check far more blogs than what is listed, but these, along with those listed yesterday, rank among my favorite crafty sites...

tinyhappy is a blog by a woman who lives in Norway (I think) and does beautiful, intricate embroidery, usually inspired by nature. I totally admire her work!

glamspoon is another woman who lives in Seattle somewhere and she makes the clothes I would wear if I was a slightly different size...I love her look and I think she has great style!

Nicole at Nicole Mallalieu Designs makes adorable bags...but it makes me jealous when she posts info about her classes....in NEW ZEALAND....that I can't possibly go to!! =)

Dana at MADE has really interesting and unique solutions to "problems" when sewing, the clothes she makes are very stylish and totally cute!!

Christina over at Assorted Notions sews a lot of knits...which has almost (but not quite) encouraged me to not be afraid of knits...and she has GREAT style!

Thanks to all you crafty ladies, and know that even if I don't comment, I check your sites every day! (Sad, but true...it's my way of transitioning from teaching to other things)

Shoutouts

It's funny...a year ago, I barely knew what a blog was. But when you move 2000 miles away from your bestest friends, you look for ways to stay in with them as well as connect with people in your new area. So, I started poking around and discovered the "next blog" button on blogger...leading me to some amazing blogs that started totally inspiring me! Blogging led to sewing, which led to making bags, which led to my etsy shop, which has led to me meeting some awesome people and starting to get some cool press! I noticed today that one of my favorite crafty bloggers put me on the list of their "homies!" So cool! So, I thought I would run through a list of my favorite crafty sites. Please note, those of you I have either worked with or lived with, I am only listing craft sites this time, but I still love you!!!!!

1. Clever Girl has fabulous taste in clothes, she has contributed to my effort to actually sew clothes instead of only things with straight lines.

2. WhiMSy Love is deeply creative. She has such great ideas for incredibly cool stuff and I love how she does lots of different kinds of crafts.

3. Darling Petunia also makes totally cute clothes. She is the one who has really encouraged me to not be afraid of clothing patterns.

4. Lisa Lam at UHandblog makes the most incredible bags I've ever seen. I wish I had even half of her talent (and at least one of her purses!!).

5. One Pretty Thing is the site that has made my "tutorials" folder bulge with the most amazing projects! I don't know what job this chick has that allows her to find all this cool stuff...and post DAILY, but I totally want it!!!!!

More tomorrow....it was hard to narrow this down, so I'll give you 5 more tomorrow. =)