Toddlers make for difficult models

I took the suggestion from a fave blogger of mine (*cough* Pamela *cough*) and decided with my next reversible dress listing on Etsy that I would have Sophia, the toddler wonder, model the dress for me. May I just say that my free spirited child proved to be a very difficult model. She insisted on playing with magnets. Not picture is her sitting down and showing off the shorts she was wearing under the dress. Oh well. Enjoy the out takes. I know I did!

A tip, perhaps

I can't stand tissue paper patterns. I hate how they move and pinning to them to the fabric never works for me either. Maybe I am just dense when it comes to the best way to use tissue paper patterns. For my reversible dresses, sometimes due to the pattern not staying exactly in place, the material for the dresses didn't come out exact. I had to give myself some wiggle room in lining up the fabric pieces to sew. Not a big deal, every dress turned out cute as a button in the end. The other day I had a major AHA! moment. And then I smacked myself upside the head for taking this long to figure out a different option. I transferred the pattern to poster board and cut it out. The hard board didn't move at all when I cut out my fabric pieces for the next dress. The pieces lined up exactly this time and I didn't have to fudge anything. (insert crazy laugh here) I only wish I thought of this sooner!

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful 4th. For those of you outside of the US, I hope you enjoyed a nice cold beer just because.

(Cute picture of my kid that has nothing to do with this post at all. Can you blame me?!?!)

Scatter brained

Okay. I admit it. I am the least organized person I know. The saddest part of this is that I love anything that has to do with home organization. Drawers, bins, folders, files, pens, paper clips, shelves - I love them all and would easily drop hundreds of dollars if I had it just on organization products alone. If I do go all out and purchase a new shelf or something, I go and clean my studio. Everything goes in the proper place. All my fabric gets folded and put in it's own basket. Colored pencils get placed by color. And it all stays that way for approximately 2.5 seconds and then it goes into complete disarray and stays that way for most of the time. The only thing I can relatively keep organized are my scissors and that's because I am super neurotic about keeping paper scissors and fabric scissors separate. Partly I think it's because I have the attention span of a flea. I cannot concentrate on one medium. I like to paint, draw, sew, make jewelry and sometimes I even make sculptures. Thus I have about 18,000 art materials crammed into one itty bitty area in my basement. Although I threatened my husband the other day if I get any busier in my studio I was going to have to overtake some of the kid's play area (note - they really don't play down there much at all. Aaron is the only who sometimes goes down in the basement when he needs to escape the toddler.) So, I give up. I need to find a better way to organize and stay organize, but obviously I lack the discipline and time to keep it that way. Therefore I turn to you lovely people through my computer screen. What are your organizing techniques and how to you make yourself keep it that way?

Thanks a bunch. Smootches!

More dresses and a question

Sorry if the pictures are all wonky. I still can't get blogger figured out. I am an original Typepad user. Blogger is all kinds of wacko to me, so bear with me. (As apposed to bare with me. That would be wrong.) 

I am loving these reversible dresses. They are fun and easy to make, plus the fabric options are endless. Fabric shopping makes me very, very happy. I just ordered a pattern for one of those ruffled looking tiered skirts. That should be tons of fun. Plus the pattern is for girls's sizes 2t-12. Yay! More fabric shopping. JoAnn's and Fabric.com love me long time.

Okay. Question. Etsy (www.etsy.com) or Big Cartel (www.bigcartel.com)?  I'm somewhat established on Etsy, but Etsy is beyond over packed with artists, making it very overwhelming to shoppers. Big Cartel is not as large. It charges per month - a flat fee and you can pick the level you want to pay. That is all they take. They do not take a percentage of anything people buy from your shop. Where Etsy charges $.20 per item to list and then takes a very small percentage of the items you sell. Big Cartel also has a more personalized look to each shop. On the flip side, Big Cartel is not nearly as widely known yet and most people still go to Etsy when trying to find a handmade item. Decisions, decisions! Your thoughts?

Projects? What are those?

Funny, I set up a blog about my projects and things I create for my Etsy page (see linky doo app on the side there) and yet I don't show anything I've been working on. Logic, I have none. So, I thought I would share a few projects that I finished within the last week.

An adorable felt doll I made for a friend's daughter. I really love making dolls. They are fun and the best part is when I know the children that receive them adore playing with them. It warms the cockles of my heart. Or whatever cockles are.

I started making little girl's reversible dresses. I love them!! I can make them up to a size 6. I am trying to figure out the best way to sell these. Do I show a sample of the dress and then when a customer purchases it, they give the size of the dress? This way, every dress is made per order. This would give a 1-2 week shipping time. Or do I create the dresses and have a variety on hand in different sizes and sell them by size only for fast shipping? Thoughts? I love this dress for the simple reason that a child will get a ton of use out of it. It's two dresses in one and as the little girl grows that it will become a shirt when too short for a dress. Love it!!!! I hope to get the dresses up for sale on my Etsy site soon. If you are interested in one before I get my act together, just email me.

Smootches! (on a side note, it may be wise for me to ease up on the caffeine.......)

I just sneezed about 52 times in a row.

And I didn't tinkle my under-roos one bit.

Ya'll should be proud of me.

Excuse me, I have some kiegal exercises to do. Or however you spell kiegal. Stupid spell check doesn't know either.

Sigh.

Struggling

Did you ever have one of those moments where you realize that you're not perfect? That you can't do everything? I am right there. Having that moment.

I am not someone that knows how to ask for help. Or admit that I can't do it all myself.

But I can't do it all. And I'm completely fried. To a crisp. To the point that writing in complete sentences is more that I can handle. My high school English teachers are probably cussing at the computer screen as they read this. Not that any of them read my blog. Hypothetically speaking.

I want so bad to start my own business. To sell my art. To stay home with the kids and not have to shit out money for daycare. But I can't seem to get things in motion. (whine, whine, whine) After I work all day, take care of the kids and get them to bed, all I can manage is to sit on the couch with my thumb up my butt and drool.  And that's on a good day.

I can't get out of debt. I miss my mom so much and I feel like my kids or my husband aren't getting the best of me. (Why does the word aren't not look like it's spelled correctly?) I just want to throw in the towel and give up. (Is aren't even a real word?)

But I can't.

So what the hell do I do?

(aren't, aren't. aren't, aren't)