Etsy Shop Update

It's December 19, 2013, and the Christmas rush of orders has subsided enough to allow time for a blog update.  I'm very pleased to say that my Etsy shop is off to a wonderful start.  It has been so much fun making several personalized Christmas onesies and t-shirts for my customers.  Now that Christmas is almost upon us, I've already started planning for releasing a first New Year's onesie, and several Valentine designs.  Valentine's Day has always been my all-time favorite holiday.  I'm hoping that my customers will love my Valentine designs as much as I do!  I can't wait to stitch them all!  Here's a preview of my baby's first New Year's design:

Let me know what you think!

Etsy shop is finally open!

After more than two years of planning, creating inventory, filing paperwork, learning all the rules regarding labeling and safety for children's toys and clothing, retiring from my job, and moving from New York to Arizona, my Etsy shop is finally up and running! I can't even put into words how excited I was when after being open one hour, I made my first sale! You would have thought I had won the lottery :) if you follow my blog, please take a minute to visit my Etsy shop and let me know what you think. It can be found at www.cpadesigns.etsy.com

Some finishing touches

I've added a few finishing touches to the Arizona sewing room that I just have to share!  Both were ideas or products that I saw on Pinterest (of course), and I just love them both.  Check out the little craft project I did, and the most awesome ironing board that hides in a drawer!

I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby and glued them together using Popsicle sticks (as seen on Pinterest) 

Then painted them white...

Then embellished with more paint.  I'm no artist, but I think it turned out just fine.

Mounted with double sided foam adhesive strips to keep it in place.

I love, love, love this product!  Warning - installation instructions were impossible to follow - but with a few choice swear words, and a drill, hammer and a whole lot of sweat, I got it installed...all by myself!

Arizona Sewing Room is almost complete

The move to Arizona is finally complete!  I have almost completed setting up my sewing / craft room, and I wanted to share some pictures.  The furniture all came from IKEA.  I used three of the EXPEDIT shelving units in high gloss white, two AKURUM base cabinet / drawer units which I put back-to-back for my cutting table, and two above-the-refrigerator AKURUM cabinets that I am going to turn into a window seat (still need to make that happen).  I topped the cutting table with a self-healing cutting mat that I purchased here.  I wasn't satisfied with the shelving unit baskets at IKEA, so I searched the internet and finally decided on the large gingham storage bins from The Container Store, which I just love! Once I had all the IKEA furniture put together, and all my sewing / crafting supplies unpacked, I hung up some of my wall hanging quilts, my 120 spool thread organizer, and a cross stitch picture I did years ago.  I then used some antique canning jars I inherited to store thread, knitting needles, crochet hooks and buttons.  I just love how they look!  Here's some preliminary pictures.  I'll post more when some of the final details are complete.

Antique canning jars to hold thread, knitting needles and crochet hooks, with a basket to hold balls of yarn from past projects.

Antique canning jars to hold thread and buttons, sitting on a miniature quilt I made. 

120 spool thread holder purchased from JoAnn Fabrics

Wall hanging quilt

Brother -770 Embroidery machine and Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 850 sewing machine.

Paula Vaughan Cross Stitch I did years ago.

Log cabin wall hanging

IKEA shelving unit with storage bins from The Container Store.

Cutting table / storage unit - 8 drawers with cutting mat top - a dream come true!

Time flies!

I can't believe my last post was in January! How is that possible? Honestly, I knew it had been a while, but good lord, the time is really flying by! You see, we have lived in the same house for 32 years, and we are getting ready to put it on the market. Well, a whole lot of stuff accumulates in a house over 32 years and we've been working day and night to clean, sort, throw away, give away and organize everything we own, and there just isn't time for anything else...even sewing! I miss it so much, but just keep looking forward a couple more months when I'll be retired, the house will be sold, and we'll be living in Arizona where sewing will become my full time "job" and I'll be able to finally open my Etsy shop. I can't wait, but if time keeps going by at the rate it has been, I'll blink and it will finally be a reality. I promise I will post more often once we have moved, and since tutorials seem to be a big draw to my blog, I'll dream up an extra special one...maybe one on how to organize your whole house...no, just kidding about that one!

Rotary Auction

I just downloaded the google blogger on the go app on my iPad, so I thought I'd try it out by putting together a short post about a little project I did this weekend. I've been asked to donate a handmade item for our annual Rotary auction. Since hooded bath towels are my latest craze, that's where I started. After that, I added a little sun hat to match. Last but not least, what outfit is complete without an appliquéd onesie?! What do you think? Think anyone will bid on it? I sure hope so!

Easy Peasy Button Holders

I decided my sewing / craft room was too messy to work in Saturday morning, so I spent some time cleaning up and organizing. Here's a little tutorial of what I decided to do with all those prescription bottles I'd been saving.  If you read my blog on a regular basis, you may remember this little project:

At the time I made it, I mail ordered a pound of buttons.  Well, the project did take quite a few buttons, but it sure didn't take a pound! So... I have a bunch left over, in addition to all my other random buttons I had stored together in a plastic leftover container. Every time I needed a button, I was pawing around in that plastic container, never finding what I needed. Today, necessity was the mother of invention. Here's the supplies I started with:

Using my paper cutter to keep my lines straight, I cut different pieces of scrapbook paper the height of the prescription bottle, by the length around it. Mine measured 2 7/8 inches tall, by 4 1/2 inches around. Then I used a glue stick to stick the paper around the bottle. Once I had that done, I used the lid as a pattern to trace:

Once again, I used the glue stick to stick the paper on top of the lid. For the next step, I used a glue gun, but any kind of glue would probably work. After sorting buttons, I glued a button on top of each bottle so I could see at a glance what was in each bottle:

How cute is that!?

Here's the rest of them - an even dozen. Now I smile each time I see these cute little containers and know that next time I need a button, it will only take a second to find the one I need! 

Hooded towel tutorial

I've been looking for a hooded towel tutorial, but just couldn't find one that made the hood the way I envisioned it.  As the old saying goes, "if you want something done right, do it yourself", so I decided to put together one myself.  I have made one other hooded towel in the past using a tutorial I found on Pinterest, but I just wasn't happy with the hood.

Step 1 - Gather the supplies you'll need - one bath towel, one matching hand towel.  If you want to embellish the hooded towel, you can use fabric, ribbon, embroidery, or any other idea you like.  I used some hot pink towels I found on sale.

Step 2 - Cut the hand towel to use as hood.  Lay the towel out lengthwise, and cut one side 9.5 inches wide.

Step 3 - Now is the time to add any decorations you have chosen to put on the hood or bath towel.  I've seen cute pictures of appliqued names on the back of the bath towel, and all sorts of decorations for the hood.  Let your imagination be your guide.  Since Valentine's Day is coming up, and I was making this hooded towel for my sweet granddaughter, I choose a "Love Bug" machine embroidery applique design that I purchased from Planet Applique.  

Step 4 - Pin and sew hood seam - fold the 9.5 inch wide hood piece in half with right sides facing each other (any decorative items will be on the inside).  Use a zigzag stitch or some other stitch that will keep the raw edges from raveling.

Step 5 - Now that you've constructed the hood, it's time to attach it to the bath towel (almost done!).  Lay out the bath towel with wrong side up, and mark the center point with a pin.

Step 6 - Lay the hood you just constructed on top of the bath towel with the edges of the folded hood lined up with the outside edge of the bath towel and the center hood seam lined up with the center of the bath towel. Pin in place and sew. You will be sewing a rectangle along the edge of the bath towel, down each side of the hood below the fold, and along the bottom of the hood.  Use thread that matches your towel color as close as possible so the seam will be barely noticeable.  

Step 7 - You're done! Wasn't that the easiest thing ever?!  I'd love to see pictures of your finished product!

This is how I fold them up to give as gifts :)

Arizona sewing/design studio

My goodness, where has the time gone! The Christmas/holiday/cold/flu/vacation season seems to have made two months just fly by with no time for posting. The most exciting news I have to share is that when we were out in Arizona spending a week at our vacation/retirement home, we went to IKEA and bought furniture for my sewing/design studio! It's the most fun I've had in a long time. I bought two sewing/crafting tables, a nice big counter-height cutting table with tons of storage underneath, a window seat with storage, an ironing board that hides away in a drawer, and tons and tons of supply storage space!  It's just about killing me knowing I won't be back there to finish up the room and be able to start using it until at least August, but hopefully the time will go fast and I'll be there before I know it.  I've taken pictures of the room as is now. I'll share a few, but keep in mind there are lots of finishing touches left to do. As soon as I can get back there and finish up, I'll do a grand unveiling of the finished product.  I can't wait!