tagged! what i'm thankful for...

my friend justice has tagged me again- 5 things i'm thankful for this year. I'm going to change it up alittle to 5 UNIMPORTANT things i'm thankful for. The most important thing i'm thankful for is my family and friends (including my furry family members) so it would get kind of boring repeating 5 things about that :)

1. Wrist warmers for when i'm spending too much time on the computer.... no more ice cold hands!

2. That toasted Portugese roll and butter I just ate- man I wish I had another!

3. Reminiscing with my best friend Amber about when my grandpa used to bring us home "porkchop cookies" when he had a job in Bridgeport- they were these ginormous (about 8 inches round) chocolate chip cookies from a portugese bakery, like no cookie i've ever tasted. We crack up now that we know where the "porkchop" part came from, if only we had known what we were saying back in the day.... we just thought that was the name of the cookie, not some rude nickname for portugese people. (FIY i don't think my grandpa had anything against portugese people)

4. Hemp socks from my hemp supplier- man these are the most kick ass socks around! Thanks Justine for introducing me to them!

5. This one falls more under the important things i'm thankful for- the beyond generous bonus check my boss gave me this year. I have one of the most kick ass bosses around! And it's the times like when i looked at the number on that check that reminds me that I'm thankful for finishing up my degree depsite how hard it was those last few sememsters.

I'm not tagging anyone specific this time, so consider yourself tagged if you're reading this! tag, you're it :)

why hello there....

I've been desperately wanting (and partly needing) a new digital camera, both for personal use and for photographing stuff for my shop. I was still using my very first digital camera, a bottom line Kodak EasyShare 3.1 megapixels. The one that I dropped accidentally several months after I got it for my birthday, ever since having to tape the battery door shut with packing tape. It has been a wonderful friend, capturing many good times and enabling me to have my website. But since I used to be into photography for a hobby, back when digital didn't exist and I had my lovely SLR film cameras, I longed for a better quality digital camera. So when my birthday came around this year, falling in time with my very generous bonus check at the day job, I splurged on myself and got this lovely Canon Power Shot SX10 for my present. From the moments I laid eyes on it on Amazon.com, I heard Carrie Bradshaw's voice echoing in my head, "why hello there..." (only i think that line is probably her saying that to a pair of designer shoes, hehe). This baby has a whopping 10 megapixels and a 20x optical zoom! SWEET! I think I can finally get those pictures I've been envisioning. I still have to go through the manual better and adjust the flash settings if possible, but overall I'm enjoying this camera tremendously!

Here are some of my subjects for practice..... Guyman (the black beauty) has such a shiny silky coat that it is almost impossible to get a decent picture of him. If I use a flash, he's all blown out from it reflecting off his super shiny coat (we call him the oil slick b/c he's so silky) and if I don't' use a flash he's too dark unless I get him in the perfect natural light. But Rusty Peanuthead and the Dukester photographed up pretty well.

I also tried out the macro setting and photographed a bunch of these shell earrings that I found in a drawer in my sewing studio. 2 years ago I bought a bunch of pretty shells from a bead store and made up a bunch of earrings. Apparently I got bored (lazy) of photographing them and getting them on my site, b/c half of them were tucked away in this drawer, forgotten about. The other half have sold, so I decided these needed a good home and am working on getting the pics edited and getting them onto etsy. I hope to have them in my shop and possibly on my website tonight or tomorrow.

Well it's 11:30am and I'm still sitting here in my PJs.... need to get showered and head over to my Dad's for Thanksgiving dinner #2 (all those leftovers I ate don't count as meals, right?)

the price went up HOW much???!!!!

This is a rant, so beware.... I'll try to make it short :) Today I spent a good chunk of time going through my herbal supply bins trying to figure out what I need to restock. I decided I wanted to restock my roll-on body oils and body butters, as well as my soy candles for this holiday season- so I needed to figure out what essential oils I was out of and what containers needed to be ordered. When I made this decision to restock these items a week or so ago, suddenly I've had a whole bunch of orders from my bath and body page for the roll-ons, so I took that as a sign today to get my ass in gear and get things ordered.

I haven't placed a body herbal order in what seems like forever. I recall Danielle telling me months and months ago how Patchouli essential oil prices skyrocketed, but since I still had plenty of patchouli left, i kind of forgot about it. Well I'll tell ya, i nearly died when i saw just how much the price went up. It alteast tripled in price since my last restock. SO NOT COOL. I'm pretty sure last time i ordered it (probably last year sometime) I paid about $20. Today that same size was listed for $66! Are you kidding me!??? And as I added everything else into my cart I noticed a few other things that had ridiculous increases, such as the jars I use for my body butters. And my soy candle supplies- almost everything doubled! Luckily I bought massive amounts of soy wax the first time I did the candles, so I have lots of that left. And shipping prices! Yep, those were quite obnoxious as well! And I understand why, I mean diesel fuel is still really expensive even though regular gas has now dropped to below $2 at about half of the gas stations around me (YAHOOOOOOOOO!).

So now I have to add onto my jumbo list of things to do, "recalculate prices". Unfortunately I forsee having to raise most of my prices in my body herbals. After making all of my purchases today, and crossing off that on my to-do list, I had to laugh at my "see if it will still be profitable if I lower my soy candle prices"- whelp I guess I can cross that one off my list with a big NOPE! BOOOOOOOOOOO!

If I had $45 to spend....

.... on a calender, it would definitely be on this gorgeous one by The Nora Whynot Press. I've really been digging all the letterpressed and printed calenders so many of my favorite blog reads have been featuring, but this one takes the cake! I think it's the contrast of her bright prints against the lovely recycled boardbox (Ooooo and it's even got an eco-friendly spin!). I've always been drawn to that color contrast. If you happen to have some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket for this calender, head on over to her etsy shop. Oh and I love the idea that you can use the images as artwork even after the year is over, sweet!

Anyways, I spotted this calender while browsing my bloglines and in the spirit of procrastinating (I formed a HUGE to-do list today at work, gearing up for the holidays this year), just thought I'd share :)

My sincerest of apologies

Dear Stretch Hemp Jersey,

I am writing with my sincerest apologies to you. I'm sure I don't have to remind you of the humiliation I must have caused you several weeks ago as I badmouthed hemp jersey. I admit I was blinded by the sensual qualities of bamboo jersey- the beautiful sheen, the buttery softness. But now I must admit I was very wrong to write off hemp jersey as a whole. I was presumptuous in assuming all hemp jersey was created equally- and as the old saying goes, I've made an ass out of you and me. You and lycra make the most wonderful team- so easy to get along with in all aspects, excellent at working well with others. Even my most trusted assistant Mr. Kenmore Serger and Ms. Huskystar Sewing Machine hold you in the highest esteem after dealing with Stretch Bamboo Jersey yesterday. While they are the most open-minded assistants I know, and don't hold judgements until working with you fabrics, they fully agree that you are much easier and wonderful to work with than the single-minded Stretch Bamboo Jersey- who caused hell in the sewing studio yesterday.

I am happy to announce that I will be using you in all my designs that I was planning on using the boisterous Stretch Hemp Bamboo in and I look forward to a wonderful working relationship with you. Once again, please accept my sincerest apologies for assuming all hemp jersey was created equally, for now I know that you, Stretch Hemp Jersey, have proven me wrong.

Most humbly yours,
ms.magnoliaskies

PS- Please let your cousin Regular Hemp Jersey know that although we had a wonderful relationship in the past, I have to move on to bigger and better things- you Stretch Hemp Jersey!

oh these??? oh they're just to keep my sewing sanity

Every so often I need a quick sew to make me start to feel accomplished again. I whipped these cute wrist warmers up last night out of some bamboo fleece scraps. I own a couple pairs of knitted wrist warmers but none of them compare to the buttery smoothness of these ones! Come the cold weather I live in my wrist warmers when on the computer, all that typing gets my hands cold!

So I whipped these cuties up for myself last night in the middle of feeling slightly unaccomplished. Earlier in the day I was feeling quite accomplished when I finished the final sample of the newest top I designed- I LOVE it (I'm hoping to have a sneak peek pic in my next post)! But later in the evening when I was hoping to have already started/finished the first sample of my newest dress, I hadn't even finished my pattern yet. And today as I'm having sewing woes with this new dress (well the fabric chosen for the new dress.... remember that blissful bamboo fabric.... well i'm in fabric hell right now..... but that will be a later post) I slipped my hands into these little wrist warmers and suddenly everything was better.... well not really but my cold hands were nice and toasty :)

thanks for making me smile today

Over the years I've been blessed by lots of feedback on my products. I've had several people email me wondering how I got so many people to give me feedback, so I figured I'd share with everyone. When I make a sale I try to always send a "thank you" email (although I must be the first to admit I'd been slacking on this over the summer but have forced myself to make this a necessary again) and in this email I let the customer know that I would love to hear what they think of the item when it arrives. And when I ship the item, I always make sure to hand write a little note thanking them again and letting them know I'd love to hear what they think. I think the email is key b/c then you are already making it easier for the person to send you a quick note as they don't have to search for an email, just hit reply.

The reason I always let people know I would love to hear what they think is because in my opinion we as a society have grown so used to buying things online where things are so anonymous and impersonal, that sometimes we just need a little reminder when we're dealing with an online seller that tries to make things personal and cares tremendously what people think about their products- the products they have put their heart and soul into making. Taking the moment to let people know that I really love to hear what they think of their new purchase has brought me many "made days" when I receive a nice little note, kind of like today.

Over the weekend I finished up a custom crocheted hat for a lovely gal Katherine. She received it yesterday and was kind enough to send along this little note, making my day:

Heather,
I just got the tam yesterday and it is beautiful! I absolutely love it! Your craftsmanship is excellent and I can't forsee taking it off anytime soon. The other tams I have don't even compete with yours! I would love to seek you out in the future perhaps for another tam since what you made for me is so perfect! Again, thank you so much for working with me to create my ideal tam. Be well,
Katherine.

It's the notes like these that keep me going when sales are dreadfully slow like they currently are. When I start questioning the appeal of my products, when the little bit of doubt starts creeping in- a customer like Katherine takes the moment to make my day and remind me just why I do what I do.

A few other things that have made me smile today is the new design for a stretch hemp jersey top that I made up the sample for today. I adore the shirt and the fabric even more- I was afraid that having so much stretch to it would cause the fabric to "ripple" at the seams- a problem I sometimes have with the non stretch jersey. But much to my surprise there was absolutely no rippling- I guess the lycra helps prevent the stretching out, as odd as that seemed to me. This is a beautiful fabric and I can't wait to see how it dyes up. I just have to tweak the pattern slightly, then finish drafting the pattern for a bamboo dress and make up the sample/tweak the pattern, then I'll be ready to do a garment dye batch with all my new patterns! I'm expecting by the end of next week (well depending on how much work I have at the day job) I will be able to debut the new designs, finally!

In all my eco fabric bliss, working up the samples, the Dukester patiently awaits our outside time. Yesterday him and the cats were rolling around in a pile of hemp fleece scraps bound for the garbage that had fallen to the floor. Afterwards he nudged me and I looked down to find his head covered in little white fleece balls. Adoring the way the white fleece looked against his shiny chocolate coat, and always loving to "torture" my animals with too much love, I gave Dukie a little bow tie of hemp fleece..... see, everyone looks good in hemp! Isn't he just adorable? I've been smiling since yesterday everytime I look at that white fleece bow tied around his neck.

and of course I can't forget about the other two furry friends that keep me company during the day. I miss the days when they used to sleep together like this.... the little things that keep me smiling....

tis' the season- bangin' bran muffin recipe & indian apple fun

When we were grocery shopping last weekend, I was picking out the fruits and vegetables when BAM! a big ol' display of pomegranates had me at a dead stop. Instantly I started reminiscing my childhood with two of my favorite people in the world, my grandma and grandpa. WAYYYY before pomegranates became the "in" thing to be eating, way back in the mid 80s, my grandparents would get us all worked up for our "indian apples". It was a treat we only had once or twice a year, usually in the same month. Every year my grandparents would give us each a pomegranate to eat, which they referred to as indian apples. I haven't had a chance to look up if anyone else refers to them as indian apples or where that nickname comes from, but I'm guessing it has to do with their color and the time of year they're available (what we always called indian summer- early fall). I loved getting my indian apple. So when I spotted the pomegranates in the store last week, I couldn't resist buying one.

I haven't eaten a pomegranate in probably over 10 years. When we got home i dug right in..... well, kind of. I was kind of clueless as to how to eat it. I racked my brain for any memories of actually eating them, but no luck. So I resorted to a quick search on the internet which informed me to cut it in half, peel back the skin and membranes to expose those gem like fruited seeds, grab a handful, and suck away, spitting out the seeds once you've mashed and sucked all the juice off of them. Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmmm. So good!

And as an hour passed as I picked and sucked one half of my indian apple, I realized my grandparents were pretty smart about giving us pomegranates. Not only are they super healthy, but they take FOREVER to eat! Just think, hand out an indian apple to each grandkid, get them all set up for eating, then precious silence for a good chunk of time as all the kids picked, sucked, and spit. Yep, I'll be using that on my kids!

Fall- the season of pomegranates here in CT and the season I get back into baking. I love to cook and bake. I hate cleaning up afterwards, but the process of cooking and then getting to be in food bliss, I love it. I find that during the spring and summer I don't bake very much, but as soon as the leaves start changing I get the urge to bust out some baking. Today is the first baking I've done since last winter, with the exception of a few birthday cakes, but those are mandatory so they don't count.

I've been needing something packing a punch with nutrients and healthy goodness to snack on, and stumbled across the mention of bran muffins in some reading. When I think of bran muffins I think of kind of bland, eh muffins. Not my favorite. But I thought with some raisins and some walnuts they could be OK, so I bought a box of oat bran this past weekend too. And to my delight, there was a delicious sounding bran muffin recipe right on the box, Banana Bran Muffins.

Here's the recipe, along with changes/additions I made to turn these delicious sounding Banana Bran Muffins into some Bangin' Banana Cranberry Raisin Coconut Nut Bran Muffins.... hehe, yep, I like to pack in the ingredients! The first part of the recipe is off the box, straightforward. The second part is what I added, but I don't use measurements, I'm more of the pour and pinch kind of gal, so use your own judgement. If your super anal about measurements, stick to the first part and I'm sure you won't be disappointed either.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup oat bran

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

2 mashed rip bananas

1/2 cup butter, at room temp

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

My Additions:

I doubled the recipe so this is for double-

I decreased the banana to 3 instead of 4, added some fresh cranberries (just poured them in, probably about enough to get 3 cranberries in each muffin, maybe about 1 and 1/2 cups), added some raisins (probably about half a cup), grated unsweetened coconut (again probably about 1 cup)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 F. Butter or line standard muffin tins.

In one bowl stir together flour, bran, baking soda, salt, and nuts. In another bowl beat together banana and butter until mixed. Add brown sugar, egg, (cranberries, raisins, and coconut) and beat until completely mixed. Add dry ingredients from other bowl and stir until just blended.

Spoon into muffin tins, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes about 12 muffins (remember the additional ingredients I added were for a doubled recipe, yielding just over 24 muffins)

Taster's NOTES: Naturally I had to sample one muffin from each tin, just to make sure they were OK, hehe :) These are DELICIOUS! The bananas really add a great sweetness to the muffins, in fact if you're trying to limit your sugar intake I'd say you could cut the amount of brown sugar in half and still have a tasty, slightly sweet muffin. With the full sugar and bananas (even eliminating one banana on my doubled recipe) these are nice and sweet. The coconut adds another dimension to the taste, and the raisins are of course sweet little nuggets in the muffins. The fresh cranberries are soooo good in these muffins! Not only do they add a nice burst of color to them, but they taste great mixed with the sweet muffin. No bitterness at all.

And the best thing about these muffins is the nutritious punch they pack. These are the ideal snack for a pregnant woman too, with all the key nutrients she needs- the bran is high in protein and fiber, the walnuts high in protein and omegas, the bananas high in folic acid, and the cranberries high in antioxidants.

HOpe you enjoy!

sewing- pushing the limits

Work at the day job has been non existent this week. Only the most flexible of people could handle my day job- I have no set hours or days, as the work comes in my boss calls me. Sometimes it's a week ahead of time, most times it's the night before. I love it. I love not having to dread going to work. As much as I enjoy my day job, it's a job, working for someone else, and I do find myself dreading it when I know a week ahead of time. It's that nagging thought of geeze I have to go to work. When I find out the night before there's really no time to think about having to go to work.

Anyways, I'm trying really hard to use this slow week to focus on my personal business. As I've mentioned in previous posts I got a huge shipment of eco fabrics in a while ago now, and have some brand new ideas for this fabric. I have all the ideas sketched. But then comes the part I dread the most about sewing clothing. Designing the pattern. All those measurements, the trial and error of getting the fit right. I hate it. I love dreaming up ideas for new styles, I love sewing them, I love wearing them..... But I hate drafting the patterns for them. It's such a time suck. So this week I've finalized the pattern for a pair of gauchos and for a skirt. I have the patterns for a top all drafted and the pattern for a dress partially drafted, but still need to sew up samples and start the pattern tweaking. Oh how I would love if just once the first pattern drafting would work out perfect, no tweaking. And I say that I have the patterns for the skirt and gauchos finalized, I should clarify that I have them finalized for ONE size. That means I still have four other sizes to draft. But I consider it finalized b/c the hardest part is over. Now I just compare the pattern to actual measurements and transfer that to the other sizes. It's a cake walk compared to initial drafting (ummmm I sound pretty confident here.... I'm hoping confidence will transfer into actual doing..... yep.... I'm confident that the other sizes will be so much easier now..... yep..... ummmmmm..... oh yeah, confidence..... yep)

The fabrics I'm working with and the styles I'm designing are really pushing my limits as far as pattern drafting goes. My goal for this group of new styles was to completely eliminate adjustable parts (ie drawstrings) and have each item be completely fitted. I've found this very challenging without having been taught any formal pattern drafting. In my ideal world there would be a fashion school closer than 2 hours away (F.I.T. in NYC) that I could take a pattern drafting class at. But there isn't so I settled with buying pattern drafting software for the computer several years ago. While this software has helped me immensely, it leaves much to be desired. It doesn't work well for fitted stretch garments at all. It gets the patterns extremely close to perfect size wise (for non stretch/fitted garments) but still requires tweaking almost all the time. So this means you still need to have basic pattern drafting skills, or atleast be a good problem solver. I started off just being a good problem solver, and then through trial and error and this software, began to learn the basics of pattern drafting.

So with all my frustration with the pattern drafting stage of things right now, I'm VERY excited on one thing- it looks like I'll be able to garment dye all of my pieces!!!! Originally I was putting off drafting the patterns because I wanted to garment dye everything, but didn't know how to go about accounting for fabric shrinkage. Well I did but it seemed like way too much work and brain power. But the other day, after putting this off for weeks now, I broke out my new rolls of fabric with plans of cutting up the yardage and pre dyeing it all. No garment dyeing. But as I unrolled the fabric I noticed how perfectly flat everything was, how perfectly lined up the folds were in the tubular knits. Oh man this would be perfect for my patterns, no ironing, no relining up the grain for folds. I couldn't resist. I laid out my pattern for the gauchos and cut away. I figured one yard of the fabric wasn't too much to waste. And this would be the ultimate test since not only was I using non preshrunk fabric, but I was mixing 2 different fabrics that I thought for sure would have different shrinkage rates, resulting in a wonky looking item. But I sewed up the gauchos, tossed them into the wash and dryer, and wha La! PERFECT! I noticed a little bit of upward shrinkage on the hemp fleece, but the two fabrics didn't seem to shrink "in", and they didn't seem to shrink at different rates. Man I can't tell you how relieved I felt! This eliminates so much time in my process. Now I can unroll the fabric from the bolt, cut my pieces, sew, prewash sewn items, dye, done. Compared to making the items out of predyed fabric which I was going to do because I didn't have the energy to figure out shrinkage factors in pattern making- unroll fabric from bolt, measure out the yardage I need for each piece, cut, wash fabric, dry fabric, dye fabric, iron fabric, cut out pieces, sew, wash and dry item. Not only does it save SO much time, it also conserves so much energy. I'm completely eliminating a wash and two dries. WOOOOO HOOOOO!

Well I guess I should be off doing something productive.... like finishing the patterns and samples for the top and dress.... and scrubbing down the shower before other life forms start growing in there....

Oh but before I go I'll share this cute picture of my family (minus Guyman)- this is the second time this week I've caught the Dukester and Rusty Peanuthead sleeping together- when we first got Duke the cats were terrified of him, but came around pretty quickly. But still they have never been comfortable enough to sleep together. Yeah it's the Duke's fault, he likes to chase them around and bite their heads (not viciously, playfully- it mostly ends up in the cat's being covered in dog drool). Guyman still keeps his ground with the Duke, but it seems like Duke and Rusty have formed quite the bond lately. And isn't it sweet that they're sharing Pat's attention, instead of Duke getting jealous :)