taking time out to grow a little tree hugger

I should have been doing the dishes, I should have been working on clothing for my site, I should have been cleaning and reorganizing my sewing room, I should have been cleaning in general, I should have been updating my website..... shoulda shoulda shoulda..... But instead I was taking some time out to grow my little tree hugger. It all started Thursday night when I came across this fabric at the fabric store.

It was too cute that I couldn't pass it up, but at first I couldn't figure out what I would do with it.... then as I passed through the aisles of flannels and nursery prints.... Duh!..... a baby blanket! What better way than to start instilling values into our kiddo from the get go with this adorable cozy little blanket. I decided to back it with some cozy brown flannel, and while I was in the flannel aisle I spotted two other adorable prints. And even better, I actually managed to sew up my ideas right away! Between a few hours last night and a few hours today I sewed up these two baby throws.

The other print is a flannel elephant print, too stinkin' cute since I do adore elephants. I'm set on doing the baby's room (when we eventually get to the point of having a baby room) in a bright green and seem to be drawn to an animal/tree theme. The third fabric I bought for a baby blanket is the same green and brown color scheme and has elephants, tigers, and monkeys on it. We'll see if I get around to making the third blanket, I'm just super impressed I got myself to whip these up.

And while making up these blankets I even learned a new skill- how to apply a binding. I somewhat followed these great instructions by the Heather Bailey fame. I binded these blankets with the chocolate flannel.... and LOVE how professional looking my mitered binding corners came out! At first I was just going to take the lazy way out and stitch and turn, no binding. But I'm in the process of making some baby quilts so I figured this would be the perfect chance to learn how to do a binding. And I was psyched to see with a little tutorial it's easy!

Oh and I even tried out my latest sewing tool, the magnetic seam guide. It worked pretty well, but I quickly realized it really depends on how evenly your hems are folded..... and since I was whipping up these blankets pretty quickly mine weren't very perfectly folded. But I think it will come in handy in future projects.

look ma, i done good...

Ok i got a little excited when I saw that I have 17 things in my Esty shop after adding these two new tops :) Up next for the shop, a mini wrap skirt. Yep, the sleeves are getting shorter, the skirts are getting shorter, and the skin is starting to show..... spring fever (or should I just skip ahead to the good stuff and say summer fever).

I'm also in the midst of working on a plus sized wrap top for the site (still....) and am designing a full length one of a kind skirt for the site, something I haven't sewn up in a while but have been feeling the itch to stitch :)

eeeek! i'm shutting the door!

So I'm fairly new to etsy (atleast upkeeping my shop) and while waiting for my newest top I sewed up to get out of the dryer, I decided to get to know etsy a little better. I've heard all about the forums, so I decided to check them out tonight. All I can say is EEEEEEK! I don't know if I was just picking the wrong threads to read, but man there was some serious bad vibes going on in there! People getting all competitive or accusing people of things or jumping down one another's throats! No thanks.... I really didn't find much of interest so I got out of there before it turned me off even more to etsy!

When crafties get nasties...... dun dun dun.....

the color of love

I just added this little tunic dress to my etsy shop as part of my made to order eco line. I dyed up that red color this week and am pretty happy with it- i like the color itself, but was expecting something a bit darker and more burgandy-ish I guess. It's Oxblood Red by Dharma Trading- but I'm calling it Twilight Red :) The bamboo jersey came out a much darker and vibrant red- more of a true red, more of what I was expecting. It always amuses me to see how the different fiber contents take the dye so differently. I've found that bamboo without a doubt takes the dye the best- it just sucks it right up and always is several shades darker than the hemp. So I'm still on my quest for the "perfect" red.... I may try mixing Burgandy with some black as recommended by a fellow fabric dyer. Adding black to this oxblood red may even do the trick, guess I'll find out next time.

I have plans to dye up another color this week- maybe some avocado green? That is if my washer doesn't die on me during today's laundry..... it started making some strange noises several months back when I put it on the heavy duty setting- which is what i use to dye fabric (for lots of agitation) and for Pat's work clothing. Well this past week while dyeing the red fabric it all but died.... the screeching noises coming from that poor washer could have only been the screech of death nearing. It actually did die during the spin cycle, that poor engine just couldn't do it anymore. I turned it off for a bit and got it working again. I'm hoping with a little love I can get it to last atleast a few more months. I hate the idea of dyeing fabric in a new machine.

Well I should get back to doing something a bit more productive. I have plans for a few more tops for my eco line, and have a one of a kind hooded wrap top in the works. Depending on my day job work schedule this week and if the weather will cooperate with my plans, I'm hoping to do a photo shoot this coming weekend with my friend Emily with all the new eco line pieces. It will be nice to have better pictures of the items being worn since so many of them will be more flattering looking on someone who isn't almost 7 months pregnant! There's only so many poses I can do to minimize the bulge! With alittle motivation and self control I think I can get the pieces done up in her size this week :)

OH! And to celebrate the weekend of love, I'm offering free shipping on any clothing item (on my etsy shop or my website) to my friends and mailing list folks through Friday February 20th- just leave a note in the transaction that you are on my mailing list or read my blog and I will refund the shipping :)

behind the seams

I spent a few hours yesterday trying to reorganize my sewing room- mostly to "catalog" all of my new patterns that are strewn about the room, covering every surface and littering the floor. With my little eco line of made to order clothes comes LOTS of patterns since i need 4 patterns (4 sizes) for each item. So I bagged up all of the patterns.....

And was psyched to find a perfect use for this Clementine crate.... it was just clementine season here for our grocery stores and we went through about 4 of these crates.... they're made of wood and have that pretty little clementine painted on the front- i couldn't bear to throw them out and since they are wood we couldn't recycle them. I usually store my patterns that I make in quart size ziploc bags and then organize them by garment piece (tops, skirts, pants, etc) into those plastic shoe box storage containers- this works out awesome for me....

But with the made to order patterns I stored them in gallon sized bags so I could fit all four sizes into one bag, and the clementine box was the perfect size for the gallon size bags.


I still have some major cleaning and reorganizing to do in my sewing room. It's starting to look like it did shortly after we moved into this apartment just over 2 years ago. It was so bad I did before and after shots which I'll share with you! When we first moved here I realized just how much crafty stuff I had managed to acquire. It was actually pretty embarrassing on the moving day when I had an entire pickup truck bed packed to the max with just my crafting and sewing stuff. Not including the tables or chairs. When I first started sewing I worked out of my closet. All of my fabric and machines fit perfectly in one little corner of my closet, and when I wanted to sew I would pull out my machine, set it up on a tv table and then tuck it away when I was finished. Then I upgraded to a full room when pat and I moved in together the first time. I was primarily sewing stuff for myself then so I still only had my sewing machine and a small stash of fabric (maybe a tote bin full if that). Then I decided to go back to college and get a degree, so i moved back in with my parents to make things easier for myself to accomplish that goal. There I had an entire corner of their basement for my crafting/sewing area. It was during that time that I started making clothing to sew, accumulated a massive fabric stash, got my serger, and started working with body herbals. So when I moved from my parent's house back in with pat to this apartment just over two years ago, my crafting stash had morphed from a sewing machine and a small tote of fabric into 3 machines, several extra large totes of fabric, a dresser full of fabric, several totes of body herbal supplies, and a few totes and several boxes of miscellaneous crafting supplies..... along with a table and a couple of chairs. And here's the mess it was 2 years ago.....

After a couple of months of trying to work in that disaster area, I finally took a full weekend and I managed to declutter and reorganize quite a bit. Turned my sewing station a different way which made more sense, went through all those boxes and bags and bins that were scattered all over the floor and tucked in every corner and stacked against ever inch of wall space. Most were supplies that I just hadn't managed to unpack- i cringe just looking at these photos- look at all those freakin boxes stacked up under that table! Anyways, this is what my sewing room looked like after that weekend (and currently does now.... errrr.... kind of..... it definitely needs another purge and reorganize, those damn boxes are starting to take over again!)

The one corner where I have all my tote bins stacked still is pretty cramped but alteast it's much better organized. By adding the table I was able to make a space underneath to slide several bins- before it was just bin stacked on top of bin, in order to get to the bottom bin i had to remove the several on top. Now i'm able to get into every bin without having to unstack anything. And look, there's room under the table to put my legs! I left one bin under there for my scrap fabrics, this way as I cut and sew I can just toss them into the bin.

As I look around the room right now, I'm happy with the setup but am ready to do another purge and reorganize. Actually this entire apartment and our enclosed back porch is in need of one. I found out a few days ago that we are going to have to wait about 6 more months to get the mortgage. While I'm bummed that we won't be moving before this baby comes, I am so thankful I was referred to this new mortgage lady, she's been so helpful in guiding us and giving us the info we need. The other lady failed to tell us so many important things about the mortgage- I had contacted her 6 months ago to find out what we need to do to get ready for getting a mortgage. If she had taken the time of day to actually work with us (like the present lady has done) we probably wouldn't be in this situation. Turns out Pat's bad credit wasn't the reason for not being able to do the state loan (like the first lady told us)- it's b/c he currently doesn't have any open credit accounts, and with the state loan program one of their only credit requirements is that each applicant has atleast 3 open accounts. If the first lady had told us this 6 months ago when I first approached her, we could have made that happen by now. *sigh* But I'm looking at the positives right now- we have an awesome mortgage lady now who has us on the right track and is keeping us well informed, it will be summer when the baby arrives so even though i'll be dealing with 3 flights of stairs there won't be 3 inches of ice on them like there is now, i've been reassured by friends and family that the first months the baby requires very little space, and now we won't have to worry about breaking our lease. Not to mention we have several more months to stockpile more money.

So on that note, it's purge and organize and rearrange time in this little apartment of ours!

brown around town

part of me feels like I didn't get much accomplished this week..... but I did. First off I put in quite a few hours at the day job this week, which caused my whole week to be one big blur. Things are probably going to be changing a bit at the day job- my boss has found it's time to move his home office to a "real" office, with an office manager and all. I always find it funny how things in my life just seem to fall into place. This move has come at the perfect time.... I'll be taking on the office manager position for a few days a week as well as put in a day or so of field work each week until i take my pregnancy leave. And then when the baby is here and I'm ready to go back to work I'll do the same thing, and my boss has already said I can bring the baby into the office so no need to stress what to do about that. Childcare is one thing I was starting to ponder before this office move came about. My hours have always been completely random and often last minute, so I wasn't sure how that would work out with trying to find someone to watch the baby- but then life falls into place. First things up for the office manager position is doing all the legwork on how to make me an official employee instead of an independent contractor, woot woot to that, no more getting screwed by self employment tax!

Aside from working the day job I also managed to do some behind the scenes work for Magnolia Skies, as well as get a few new pieces added to the etsy shop for my little eco line. It's a brown weekend- from all the dirt and sand littering the snowy sidewalks to my new brown pieces to the handsomest of brown boys helping me model outside.......

The Cruziana Top in stretch hemp jersey- I love the gathers in the low scoop neckline! Hehe, and lots of stretch so that I could still fit my big ol' stomach in there to model..... My goal for this month is to do a photo shoot with these new eco line items with my friend Emily.

And the Easy Rider Fleece Skirt- both of these items were samples I made up a few months back- I had to dye up some Expresso brown fabric yesterday so I threw these guys in there too. The skirt was made before I had that lightbulb moment about stretching the waistband I attached it, so I'm keeping it for myself..... it fits me perfect and I think I'll probably get use out of it until the end of the pregnancy.... that and it's so damn comfy!!!

And then the handsomest of brown boys who was helping me model outside today. Speaking of today, it's in the 50s!!! I know it's just a mid winter tease, but it's a huge difference from the teens and single digits we had during the week! The combination of the warm weather outside and starting our day off to a Beatles outtake album put me into an instant good mood this morning. After I soaked up some of the sun while modeling these new pieces, we took a car ride around town to check out the locations of some houses we found online in our price budget. I have a meeting with my bank's loan specialist to get the preapproval going- so far it looks like we'll be getting the mortgage! So now it's the big question of whether we'll find a house in our price range in the next month or so, wish us luck!

hey all you self employed, it's tax time!

I just finished up our 2008 taxes.... and man do we owe big time again this year, way more than last year even though this year Pat had federal taxes taken out of his paycheck (compared to last year's taxes when both of us were self employed and neither had any taxes taken out). The difference is last year I "worked" some of the numbers to get our payment down.... this year we're attempting to get a mortgage so I did everything on the up and up.

So I'm not here to bore you to death about me doing my taxes, I'm here to share a few tips (mostly for the self employed) that saved us almost $1000 this year in taxes. First and foremost, if you're self employed, DEDUCT YOUR MILEAGE!!!!! This saved us thousands of dollars last year. For every mile you drove, you get to reduce your income by about 5o cents. Didn't keep track of your mileage? Than take a few minutes to add up approximates now...... all you crafty mamas, how many times did you drive to the fabric/craft store? how many miles to that festival or craft fair you vended? And hint hint, remember, mileage isn't something you keep receipts for (no paper trail), it's all up to you to report the mileage, hint hint.

This year I got to claim the "self employed health insurance deduction"- I only started buying health insurance for myself in November to cover my pregnancy, but for those two months left of the year it knocked $400 off of our gross income. So if you're self employed and buy your own health insurance (as long as your spouse's employer doesn't offer to pay a portion of your health insurance through their group insurance- like pat's work, they offer me insurance but don't subsidize any of mine, i would have had to pay 100% so instead i bought my own insurance somewhere else for cheaper) claim your health insurance (line 29 on form 1040).

Got student loans??? Make sure you claim your student loan interest deduction if you qualify (line 33 on 1040)- it knocked $600 off our gross income.

OH and this one should be super obvious, but if you're self employed and pay self employment tax, don't forget to deduct half of it (line 27 on 1040).

And lastly, for those of us who got screwed out of (or part of) Bush's economic stimulus check like Pat and I did b/c we were self employed (instead of $1200 that married couples got, we got $600 b/c we were self employed- paid self employment tax but that didn't count, go figure!) make sure you look into the "recovery rebate credit" (line 70 on 1040). If any of you used to read my Myspace blog, you may recall my rant and rave about how we got screwed out of half of our incentive check b/c we were self employed- CAUTION: clicking on that link will lead you to my raving blog post, for mature audiences only for Language (what can I say, I was super pissed and my trucker mouth took over, hehe). Well guess what? I just got to credit the full amount we got screwed out of, as a rebate credit- this reduced our taxes owed by $600!

OH and for anyone still going to college- look into the "education credits" (line 50 on 1040)- when i was still in college these were the Lifetime Learning and Hope Scholarship credits and they used to get me every cent of my taxes back when I was in school (one year I got $3600 back just b/c I claimed these), and same with my little bro when I had him start claiming these- there are some stipulations but it's a pretty easy to understand credit if you read through them.

Anyways, those were just some of the goodies that saved us lots of moola in this year's taxes- obviously everyone's situation is different when it comes to taxes and what credits and deductions you can take (we don't own a house or have kids, that's a whole other money savings ball game in taxes.... next year!). My advice to those who do their own (and aren't trained at it) is take the time to read through the booklet- as you go line by line on your 1040 (or whatever form you use) make sure you know what they're asking, it only take a few minutes to look it up and it might just save you some (or alot) money!!!!