My Hubby, the Arty

I gotta give Ron props on his latest venture: posting his old sketches (from h.s. and college days, i think) in a new blog: The Wygal Drofnor Sketchbook. Check it out - some really funky, fun, creative stuff.

I love you, babe.

Am... Dying... Must... Eat...

Today is ROUGH, mang. This whole Weight Watchers Core Plan thing is mocking me, shooting spit wads in my face and saying NEENER NEENER. I wanna eat everything in sight, be it good, bad or preferably, UGLY. Ugly meaning YUMMY-n-JUNKY, if you haven’t figured THAT out.

SO - - - I post this as another testament to myself (and for your enjoyment) to STICK WITH IT, !@#$%!!!! I just reread my initial Weight Issue missive for support. And as an alternative to blowing what decent dent I’ve put in my weight loss (a fluctuating 10 lbs), I’m going to eat as much Core foods as it takes to chill me out. I’m HUNGRY first, before craving junk, so I’m going to follow my heart on the veggie/fruit train! Right now I’m eating ½ a container of fat-free cottage cheese with a medley of fresh pineapple and cantaloupe that I cut up a few days ago (with a couple canned Mandarin oranges tossed in). All this is “free” on the Core Plan.

The Core Plan makes sense to me, so I need to push my mind’s RESET button on this. I’m determined to stick with it, because in this life, I need to eat these foods, and quite frankly, I LOVE THEM. I love just about all fresh veggies and fruit. And my body is responding to this intake mostly positively (i'll spare you the details). And I gotta plug the Fiber One family - AWESOME!

Anyhoo… now I know I’m babbling. You are thinking “get back to the crafties, hunny… enough about your body.”

I hear ya, I hear ya. Will do.

I'm Still Purse/Zipper Obsessed

I'm still trying to perfect the whole coin purse - purse - zipper thing. I know this is boring for most of you, especially poor Ron. But while i'm learning this whole technique, i'm also working on mastering it. I'm not 100% comfortable with the outcomes of these little purses/pouches. I want to get it to where the inside looks as good as the outside and i want the zipper to lay in a manner that feels right. Sometimes the zipper is getting "crinked" in the seams, and that's bugging me. I've been looking at other coin purses on etsy and particularly their photographs to see if i can see how they do their zippers. Oddly, a lot of the coin purses for sale out there are using the style that is bugging me! The corners are 'tucked' and i don't like that. You can see this in the purse with the pink zipper and ribbon cross on the front. I'm working on it.

The TINY zipper pouch that came out square with the zipper laying flat near the top is my favorite pattern so far, but i want to perfect the INSIDE. I'm pleased with this little cutey, but its decently useless, in a cute way. Maybe if i attach a cute beaded zipper pull, it will grow on me.




I'm close. I'm close to getting this right and whipping out a bunch that i really love, and then i WILL post those on etsy to sell.

A note on etsy at this time: i've picked (not intentionally) very competitive THINGS to make and try to sell on there. Jewelry is about the WORST thing i could pick. My things are not that unique. I think they are cute, and i've got a mini-something going with the sculpey beads. But there's SO MUCH jewelry on there. And there are a TON of coin purses, though not TOO MANY patchwork ones, so i might have something going for me THERE.

Bizzy Bee

Maybe you've logged on here a few times since my last post and thought, "Man, Telford is SLACKING! Where's the GOODS!?"

Well, i've been far from slacking. I'm still catching up on Nip/Tuck, but while waiting for those to come, and between laundry, boogar faces and various other THINGS to do, i've been BUSY!

First, i found a coin purse pattern online that i printed out and was really dying to try (this time, using a sewing machine zipper foot - funny story about that in a second) and could never seem to find the time to try it out! If i wasn't at work or busy with the boys, then i just wanted to VEG, and not drag everything out. Blah blah blah, and so it goes.


Well, i found an HOUR one evening, before going to Chinese Buffet to celebrate my dad's birthday, to try it out. I didn't use rulers, a pattern or even many pins. I eyeballed the whole thing. AND THE END RESULT (a 'space-themed' coin purse) ROCKED! I should go back on that sewing forum to give the gal props who wrote up the pattern. It was easy and fast. And i pleasantly surprised myself by figuring out how to not only install my zipper foot (God - WAY TOO easy - i can't believe i've been avoiding them all these years!) but create clean and professional results. I was literally RELIEVED to have gotten the HANKERING to try the pattern out of my system.

But quickly I wanted to take it a step further. I have a little shoulder-strap purse (left pic) that i've had for years. I wanted to see if i could copy it. After a trial-n-error first sewing (Sorry i snapped at you Ron, i was frustrated!) and some minor seam ripping... **I DID IT!** I was beyond excited that i was able to recreate my favorite purse pattern all on my own. Now i have TWO zippery pouchy pursy patterns to delve into. The next focus is to embellish the outside of these creations, as i might have mentioned from the git-go. We're talking ribbon highlights, some beadwork, some embroidery. All when warranted. Sometimes, i realize, a nice patchwork can hold its own nicely.

So - - the zipper foot story. I'm going to attempt to keep this brief. I went to a specialized sewing shop and asked if they sold them. They did. Lady wanted to know the make/model of my machine. All i could tell her was that it was a Singer. About 10 years old. I convinced her to sell me the two she had, i'd try them, and return the one that didn't work/fit. I got home, and this is when i did the FIRST coin purse (see entry below). I decided it would be way too tedious/tricky to sew with a zipper foot on the machine, so i packaged the feet up to return them. And i did.

Then i found this NEW pattern and thought, "no... a zipper foot WOULD work.... i HAVE to try it." But i didn't want to go back to that lady and RE-buy the feet only to have to return one of them anyhow! Back to square one. My friends at work thought this was all very comical. One friend volunteered to buy the feet for me! Until another friend said, "you know... your machine COMES with a zipper foot." I said, "No it doesn't............... WAIT! - - you mean in that little compartment box attached to the machine!?!?" I knew about this box, but had completely forgotten about it. When i got home, i checked the box and WOW! - there was a BUNCHA stuff in there. Zipper foot, three other feet i have no idea about, spare needles, some thread holder thingie - - GOLD MINE BABY! i was siked. Sewing-Shop-Embarassment-Debacle AVERTED! Take that (... um, whoever). :-)

UPDATE (2/20/09) - - I like THIS pattern even better. Even EASIER. Now i'm siked to try THIS one out soon! ;-)

I'll be back. If you check here and you see electronic tumbleweeds, check etsy. I've been a posting maniac on there. Last night i whipped out ELEVEN (count 'em!) super cute and fun dangly earrings while sitting in front of a french movie, sans subtitles. I really like how they turned out.

Craft Night a Success!

I was rushing around from the minute i walked in the door from work to when i finally left for Craft Night, so i accidentally forgot to bring the camera. Three of the six of us worked on things: I worked on 2 necklaces, Amanda worked on a St. Patty's Day green-themed necklace, and Christa fired up her scrapbooking for the first half, and making Valentine's treats for her kids to take to the school for the second half! She was ambitious!!! We all had a great time, and I really appreciated being able to get two creations completed. i think everyone thought it was a good idea and we'll keep it up. The three who did not work on something sat around and chatted with us and helped some of us with parts of our projects. A good time.

In making my necklaces, i was surfing around my supplies and i found this old Crystal Light container with two sandwich bags full of - - - NECKLACES! THAT was an exciting find! Most of them, i was telling Ron, are really cute and i will definitely be taking pics and posting them on etsy for sale. A couple i need to redo and a couple were just plain ugly. But i must've found about 15 altogether, including about 7 child-sized seed bead bracelets. I gave three of them to Christa to give to Hannah.

The First of Many?

The gals and I are having a “Craft Night” tonight, suggested by me.

Needless to say, there are many nights (and days) where I’d like to just hunker down with all my supplies of Given Interested Craft At The Time and just go to town. When one is a mom of a curious (but VERY good) 3 year old toddler and a baby who can’t just bounce happily in his Johnny Jumper for a couple hours, between feedings/naps (ha!), then spreadin’ out is rather difficult, not to mention time-consuming. I don’t mind the time-consuming part; quite frankly, I love getting so deeply involved in my work that I look up and 3+ hours have gone by. But I just can’t do that these days.

So I suggested to the girls that we pick someone’s kidless house at which to meet. Spread our respective crafting interests out, share supplies if we’re working on the same kind of project, and each of us bring a munchie. The girls seem into it! I’ve also made it quite clear that if you don’t have a craft, then just come to watch and chat and hang out. I wanna take pics of what everyone’s working on, so I’ll post them here next entry!

WOO HOO!

My First Etsy Sale! Thanks, Sue. This mighta been the boost i needed to get me outta my arty slump... :-)

Purse Learnings

Well, i gave my scrap material purse a go today. I love the free pattern i got for it online. Sewing it was a cinch.

Then came the zipper.

I've avoided zippers in all my sewing endeavors my whole life. My mom taught me how to sew and i've got it in my head that she discouraged me from zippers if at all possible. I learned buttons. And snaps. But never zippers.

I wanted to give it a shot.



I went and bought a zipper foot for my sewing machine. When it came time for the zipper and installation of the foot, i looked at this little purse and the curve of the zipper and thought "how the heck am i going to get that under the machine to sew it?" So i decided to stitch it by hand.

I think my first pursie attempt turned out great. There are some things i would do differently. I would find a more convenient start and easier way to stitch the zipper by hand (my pins kept getting in the way and it felt like my hands were crossing over one another).

Stay tuned, or like i said, check etsy. I have a feeling the next few attempts (successes) will be posted for sale. Seems I've already got a buddy slippin' me winks and nudges for her own patchwork pursie. ;-)