Made by Mom

Belle from Beauty and the Beast
I'm not even going to tell you how many fabric rose tutorials I looked at and tried out. This was the best I could do and I actually like the fabric flower so much, I'm incorporating it into a new bag style.

Can't a girl catch a break?

Remember how I broke a molar on my birthday last month and was totally freaking out about having it removed? Well, a full month later, I notice that part of it suddenly isn't healing properly and there's something white and hard poking out of my gums. Crafty Papa apparently watched some kind of info. video while I was having the surgery and he told me he thought it was a piece of bone sticking out. Say what?! I tried to pull it out with tweezers but that hurt so I had to go back in today. Pops was right! It was a bone shard that had worked its way up and was irritating my gums. So, the doctor had to yank that puppy out and now I'm stuck with another bloody hole in my mouth. Breaking the tooth and having it removed was bad enough, can't the universe cut me some slack and let me go without bone shards?

We're still working on unpacking the last few boxes at the new house and found out that we have two roommates...a pair of skunks! There's no other way to say it, this seriously sucks. We noticed our friends the very first night we slept here. We both woke up in the middle of the night and heard scratching and rustling around loud enough that it sounded like the house was being broken into. Crafty Papa did some investigating and determined it was an animal under the house. After two and a half weeks here, we've been woken up every single night with the exception of one. They get under the bathtub and go crazy. Steve said they were actually scratching the tub the other night while the girls were in it!

During his detective work, Crafty Papa figured out that the animal wasn't a racoon or possum like we thought, but a pair of skunks. And trust me, you can smell them! We're working with the landord to keep them out but figuring out when they leave isn't easy and means Steve is up until the wee hours of the morning, waiting to hear them. Seriously, I've had to go back to renting and squeeze all of our crap into a smaller house...isn't that enough without a pair of nasty critters living underneath me?

Enough with the bitching. I have been sewing and have a few things to list tomorrow. Life has been super busy and I'm having problems balancing everything. I'll be back with new stuff and a better attitude.

Missing: Motivation

I was so excited to get my new sewing space all set up at the beginning of the week and then I seemed to be totally lacking motivation. Maybe I'm still getting use to my new setup. Or maybe it's because it's been so damn hot and humid and none of the homes here have air conditioning. Maybe I need to draw up a few new patterns. Whatever it is, I need to get crack-a-lackin. I have two last minute trick or treat bags to finish up and I suddenly realized that I never finished Bella's Belle costume for Halloween. Yikes!

I did manage to get two new bags listed this week and have added a few more to the "sale" section in my shop.

Two Down, Four Two Go

I think I've mostly finished two rooms in our new house, the (only) bathroom and play/craft/dining room.

To create our new bathroom, I spent $42...$28 for a new shower curtain to block off the shower and laundry area, $6 for soap dispenser and toothbrush holders, $6 for new hand towels, and $3 at a yard sale for the set of three carved plaques on the wall. I used outdoor decor from our old backyard and behind the door is a shelf with hooks for towels. I've ordered vinyl to cut something with my Cricut to put above the curtain but I'm not sure what yet.

In the play/craft/dining room, I spent $14 on paint for the toy bookcases and that's it! Everything else is stuff we already had. I used the Amy Butler fabric canvases that were in the livingroom in our old house. Fabric from my stash for the window "mistreatments" (do you all read the Nester too?). Rug from our old play area and shelves from my former scrapbooking area. I know the room is packed with stuff and is just a weird multi-purpose kind of space but I really like the blue/green/brown color combo and think we're using the space in the best way we can. Oh, and I know the wall above the toy shelves is empty. I plan to fill it with a bunch of letter "G"s but I have to collect them first:)

Any Faux Finishers in the House?

We have three short bookcases that we use for the girls' toy storage in the playroom. We got an awesome deal from an unfinished wood place that had lost its lease and was literally going out of business the day after we were there. We bought the shelves because they were the perfect size and we planned to stain them a dark cherry finish to match the rest of our furniture. That was almost two years ago.

So, here I sit looking at those unfinished shelves. I've decided to paint them a sort of aqua/turquoise/smokey blue/tealish color and really want to do a color wash so they look kind of shabby and worn (um, that's partly because they're starting out shabby and worn and I don't want to put in the effort to perfect them). Can I color wash with just paint and water? Like mix the two and rub on with a cloth? Or do I have to use a glaze? I don't want them to look heavily painted, thus the reason for not rolling or brushing the paint on. I just want some color and brightness. Am I on the right track? Or should I sponge paint? I kid, I kid. My sister and I had a dresser that we sponge painted the hell of growing up. I can't even remember how many different combinations we had. I know that when I went away to college, it was white with red sponge paint. Klassy.

Also, I declared a spending freeze this week. I notified Crafty Pops on Monday that I thought we should try not to spend any money at all Monday-Friday this week. And here I am on Wednesday, going out to buy paint. I'm selling some stuff on Craigslist and I have some cash so he'll never have to know I'm cheating. At least that's how I'm rationalizing it this morning.

Back in Business!

We're all moved and mostly settled into our new house. There are just a few boxes left that I'm guessing will just sit in the garage until we move again - doesn't everyone have boxes like that? I've had to really scale down and alter my craft space. No more separate craft room for Crafty Mama:( But, I did set up my sewing table and shelves in the play/dining/craft room and took over the girls' old dresser to store all of my fabric. Scrapbooking moved out to the garage but it's actually going to work out better (I think). I got our old office desk which has tons of drawers, perfect for storing all of the little junk that goes along with scrapbooking. Our garage has lots of built in cabinets so I have several shelves to store the stuff I use to store in my craft room closet. So, it's been a big adjustment, but I think it's working.

I'm still working on decorating the house and trying to find some kind of balance with Crafty Papa. I like a flea market/feminine/colorful look and he likes modern and brown. As with pretty much everything in our marriage, we're on totally opposite sides of the spectrum (seriously, we couldn't be more different, I'm still not sure how we ended up together and haven't killed each other). It's really hard to resist the urge to just do everything how I want it and hope he doesn't say anything. I'm working on choosing fabric for little valances throughout the house and working on getting Steve to wrangle the electronics and cords that seem to be out of control. Other than that, we're settled and I'll share pics soon.

So, back to the title of the post. Etsy shop is reopened and I'm really hoping to get something new listed tomorrow. I have four days in a row off at work so I don't have any excuse for not sewing. For some reason I'm determined to ride my bike to Crafty Papa's work tomorrow morning while both girls are in school. I think it's about 4 miles round trip which is actually quite a lot for this out of shape mama. So, if I don't list something tomorrow, it's probably because I can't move my legs to press the sewing machine pedal.

The Mama Has Landed

I repeat, the Mama has landed.

We got all moved in to our new house over the weekend and close escrow today! I got my little sewing corner set up - no more separate sewing studio for me:( -and am hoping to get back to sewing within the next few days. There are still boxes to unpack but it's all that miscellaneous stuff you can't find a good home for and probably don't really need. Plus, our whole lives have been about moving for the last two weeks so I'm ready to do something "normal" again.

I have a homework assignment for everyone: find window treatment ideas for me. Since we're now in a rental and can't paint, I want to cover the whole house (or maybe just the windows) with fabric to give it some life. The problem is that we live in a really old house with really old walls (plaster? it's like hammering into concrete). So, I don't want to totally damage the walls by using the screws required for normal drapery hardware. I'm looking for curtain ideas that only require small nails. The only idea I can come up with is to use decorative nails to just tack the fabric to the wall but I can't think of a way to tie them back to the side. So, get crackin' on your homework!

Last Call

For bags at the 20% discount.

We plan to do some major packing this weekend, including Crafty Mama Creations operations. I'll be putting my shop on vacation hold tomorrow afternoon and will hopefully be back to sewing from my new funky retro house in two weeks!