kattitudes

Oh my, it was LOVELY!

I have not seen my only uncle and his wife, my dear aunt, for almost ten years. And my only remaining Grandmother - my precious, dear Grandmother - whom I absolutely adore and I do believe that the sun rises and sets upon her - visited also.

And yes, my Mister and I were able to wreak amazing transformations upon our home (now it is a home, no longer a house). Amazing. In fact, we are currently most of the way through a most unique infection that oh so many of you will recognize.

We have been calling it the “as long as we are here fever”. And that is truly the best description. I admit I suffer from a significantly higher degree fever than poor Mister, who simply has to keep up with the ever increasing list of “do you think we can get this done by tomorrow/this weekend/Thursday/March?”

“As-long-as-we-are-here fever” symptoms are varied from case to case, but all involve an invocation of differing varieties of the namesake phrase. Victims fall sick most commonly during a flurry of home improvement activities, and if proper precautions are not taken, inevitably, one or more of the participants will be heard to say, “you know, as long as we are here, we might as well (fill in the blank, which could include anything. Literally anything, including something innocent like changing the curtains in the room, or, in our case, painting the entire three floor house, steam cleaning the floors of all three levels of our home, changing all the window treatments, getting new furniture and rearranging through the house the furniture we did already own, and creating an entire new in-law suite for my wheelchair bound father on the first level of our home).

Yes, I believe that in retrospect I actually did achieve all my goals. I even recovered said ottoman I originally mentioned.

Lest I believe for one moment that I let crafting and creative pursuits slip by the wayside, I am proud to say that I finally (and I do mean finally) re-opened my eBay store. Tonight I am in the process of listing a number of the jewelry pieces that I have been making over the years. But I admit, I am having a new and unusual problem.

Does anyone else suffer from this problem? Having used so much of our budget to update the house, it is definitely time to contribute to the household budget as much as possible by selling some of my larger budget creations. But I am finding that as I prepare to list these on eBay, I just do not want to let them go. I have easily sold the smaller pieces without issues, but some of these pieces I just adore myself. There is the problem with making things that you love. It is hard to let them go!

On the flip side, if we do not let our creations go out into the world, then we would never have room for the next creation and the next, or the next challenge. So I guess it is just as well that I bid these pieces farewell and hope they go to a home where they will be as loved as they were with me. Oh, but I hate to see them go. Anyway, there are only so many pieces of jewelry one human being can logically (or tastefully) wear anyway (or so I keep reminding myself).

Now that the house has been internally remodeled, there is a new sewing place, so I hope to start listing some of my sewn creations along with the jewelry. My baby sister-in-law is preparing for her wedding in July, so we are still working on making so many of the things for that event. She has asked me to make the jewelry for all the bridesmaids and the groomsmen, along with her jewelry and whatever her groom will wear, so that is a combined total of jewelry for 22 people. I will have a lot of pictures to post for jewelry suggestions!

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter and the Spring season has sprung for you and yours in a wonderful way. There is a lot to do this time of year. Are you keeping your head above water?

These things are a charm! I have two or three dozen, if not more. Sounds crazy, right? Well, they are amazing.

First of all, they work miracles when it comes to keeping accessories together with the correct outfit. Belts, clips, pins, jewelry, scarves and all that sort that go with one particular outfit get stored with just that outfit when hung together. And if you have to pack and go in a hurry, talk about a time saver! Store your underthings and the like for each outfit with each change and bingo, you can just grab the hanger and go.

Children’s closets are simplified down to socks and undergarments into the zippered section and then there is never again a question about what matches which outfit. Just grab and go.

The construction of this safe is absolutely insanely easy. Literally you are sewing what amounts to a square with a hole in the top for the hanger hook to emerge, plus you need to leave a large seam open on one side so you can access your goods. In this particular example, the seam is closed with a zipper, but you could use velcro if you aren’t proficient with putting in zippers, or you could just leave extra fabric and create a large fabric flap (but I do not recommend this method if you plan on storing valuables in these).

I have so many of these particular hangers because I use them when I travel. I store my accessories and my (non-valuable) jewelry pieces in each individual outfit. This way, when I grab the hanger to get dressed, I literally have every last thing I need to complete my outfit from head to toe.

These hanger safes are one of my favorite hidden treasures. One of those items that I never thought I would end up loving, but have discovered that they have made my life so much easier and so much more organized. With a little forethought (putting away all the accessories when the clothes first get cleaned and hit the closet) I don’t have to search and try to find anything again. There is a place for everything and everything is in its own place. Talk about organizational peace.

If you can pass this type of organizational peace along to a friend, by all means, do it! I wish everyone could feel the peace of a well organized home!

I often encourage making jewelry for gifts. The time you put into making something is as much a gift as the jewelry piece itself. Most jewelry is easily duplicated, if you know the pieces to use. In order to help with that, here are some pictures of basic jewelry parts, along with some basic jewelry making techniques.

Jewelry Parts:

These are called headpins. Specifically, because they have a ball at the end, they are ball headpins. I use these pins to thread pearls onto chains, beads onto anything and pretty much anything drilled with a hole onto anything else. It’s also great to stand on its own for things like mobile phone charms and more.

Putting photos on things are all the rage now, and there’s no reason why you can’t get in on it. There are about a kazillion different products available to accomplish this.

The main idea here is for you to find a photo that you can play with on your computer. Using your own creative juices, manipulate the photo to your heart’s desire, and then print the photo on special crafting paper.

The paper comes in multiple forms. Paper that you freeze and then send through your printer. Paper that you print on and iron to your craft object (in this case, the tote). Paper that you then chemically transfer to fabric.

Read up on the different types and decide with which paper type you are most comfortable.

Once you get your picture on your fabric, you can then transfer to your craft object. In the case of this tote, I would transfer to a 4×6 (or bigger as the case may be) piece of fabric, and then use a blanket stitch to attach the photo appliqué to the craft item.

If you are too busy to do this yourself now or you want it NOW, this particular tote is available (along with a multitude of other Christmas totes) my online store. Just click to get there.