29 Cherry Blossoms from Etsy

I forget about this blog way too much!

2011-09-21T17:36:00.001-07:00

Almost 13 months since my last blog post here? Oopsie!

I have been busy chasing after my boys, helping out with the elementary school PTO, knitting, dyeing yarn, hanging out at the local outdoor swimming pool, seeing an old friend from childhood and meeting her daughter, breaking my foot, you know, because we all break our foot, right? I broke it on a toy rifle that is under $15 in the toy department at Fred Meyer. I am staring down at a $2800 ER bill. Lovely, don't you think?

So while I was laid up this summer with the broken fifth metatarsal, I knit a scarf for my mom, a hat for one of my sons and niece, started hats for the other son and my nephew, and a few cowls.

I lost 22lbs during the first six weeks of the break, and I almost to week 8. I still have some swelling right where the break was, but it doesn't bother me until I have some soy sauce or a few potato chips.

I actually got out and went for an amazing walk yesterday morning! My youngest started preschool, so I took the opportunity to walk 2.6 MILES! I was so proud of myself, but I am sore today and have two blisters on my little toes. But it was worth it.

I have been working on a custom diaper bag for my sister-in-law, who just had her first baby on Sunday. I am planning on some new offerings in my shop in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

2010-08-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

I have been too busy this summer to do any sewing. The sewing machine has been neglected, but it is summer vacation and my oldest will be starting school in two weeks.

A friend is getting married in three week, so I have been helping here with getting stuff together. I will need to use the sewing machine for the placemats and napkins she wants for the rehearsal dinner.

My summer has consisted of swimming and camping up the river with friends, swimming lessons at the pool for my boys, and lots of canning. Peaches and applesauce to be exact. I need to make more vanilla extract next. My garden didn't do so well this year, and I don't know why. Oh well, maybe next year.

Hopefully I will be around here more often after school starts.

Still here...

2010-05-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

I have been super busy with the PTO at the elementary school, so I haven't got much sewing in. What sewing I have done, well, that is for me. I am doing the "block of the month", which just started in February. School gets out on June 9, so I will hopefully be back to to sewing sometime after that.

I have so many things that I have gotten behind on. Housework, yardwork (oh, what a mess!), sewing. You name it, I am most likely behind. Oh! Especially my veggie garden in the backyard! I haven't even planted anything yet! I had the whole thing planted the last weekend of APRIL last year. Um, yeah. June is less than 72 hours away. Told ya I was busy!

I did sell the last set of dryer balls I had listed, so I need to get more made and listed. I had originally started all of them back in July 2008, but never finished them until October/November 2009. I don't know why, but I guess I was just busy with something else.

A few more weeks and I will be around a little more often.

I should have knocked on wood!

2010-01-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

I woke up Thursday morning feeling tired, but good. I was tired because I had about 3.5 hours of sleep. I just couldn't sleep. Don't know why, but I couldn't.

So I take my oldest to school, but realized once I got him in his classroom, that we had forgotten his Chapstick at home, but I had another in the car. So I ran back up to the car, in the rain. The ground is soggier than a piece of bread left in the bowl for french toast. We have had so much rain in the last week, it is UNBELIEVABLE!

But I slid.

I slid far down a little hill.

And then my left knee hit the ground.

I am still sliding away here.

Then my right leg does this weird little twist thing, and I am still sliding.

And then I stop...about two feet from a huge puddle.

Nevermind that I just slid about three feet - while still on my feet, and then about five feet on my knees.

I was embarrassed. Very, very, very embarrassed. I had just said to my son two minutes before that we needed to walk very carefully because the ground is soggy and slippery.

I get up and pick chunks of mud and grass off my knees and between my toes.

Yes, my toes. Because see, here in Oregon, if you are an Oregon born-and-bred girl, you don't use an umbrella (unless you are escorting your child somewhere - but it has to be pouring down rain), and if you are into Birkenstocks, chances are you don't wear socks. I own a whopping four pairs of socks at the moment, and three pairs of trouser socks for my Dansko clogs.

A dad had missed the show, but three women had seen it all. One of them is the mother of a boy in my son's class, and she happens to have been a year behind me in school when we were kids. The entire time I am sliding, I can hear one of the women, Jacquie, yelling my way, "Melanie! Are you okay?" Yup. All okay, just very embarrassed!

I give my son his chapstick, drive back home, and go back to sleep for a few hours. I was dead tired. When I finally woke up, I had a sore throat. Seriously, what is up with that? Didn't I just wrote about STILL having a little bit of a cough left from my cold I got a few days before Christmas? Yes, I did.

Anyway. I went about my day, and then the soreness kicked in.

And then the soreness was even worse this morning. And it is still kicking my butt. My legs are sore, my back is sore, even my butt is sore. I never landed on my butt, but I must have been using the glutes for something when I was doing a new version of "Slip and Slide", which I swore off in the 3rd grade because I kept spraining my wrist. I am just thankful for not wearing my Dankso's. Had I been wearing them, I probably been a little more than sore today. I probably would be sitting here with a cast on my leg - which is what I heard happened to another mom earlier this week. She slipped on the same patch of grass and cracked her ankle. Eeeks!

I just want to be cold free for at least two weeks. I have a lot of sewing to get done, and I need to get a bunch of my pictures moved onto this computer.

So for now, I cross my fingers and hope that I don't slide down any more grassy hills, or get any more sore throats.

I need to set a goal of how many bags I want to get done by the 31st. I have that showcase on Etsy on Feb 1, so I need to be ready to go.

Well, hello there!

2010-01-20T00:50:00.000-08:00

Okay.

So I have super slacked off and I am sorry. I got sick a week before Thanksgiving, ended up in the ER the day after Thanksgiving because my tonsils were so swollen, I was having a hard time breathing at times, was put on Zithromax for 5 days as a result, and also had a nasty shot of antibiotics in my hip so that whatever "virus" I had - wouldn't damage my heart or kidneys.

I seriously had a panicy moment in the ER at 12:30am at the thought that I could be dead in a week because my heart had been attacked by a virus. It had happened to a former local man just five years older than me a week after Labor Day Weekend. He ended up being flown to San Francisco and underwent a heart transplant, but the virus had down too much damage to his body. So, I sat and silently panicked in my little room, all while my husband was a half hour away, at home with our two little boys.

My tests came back negative for both strains of the flu, one of which was Swine Flu, but dang! That test was horrible! The taste in the back of the mouth for a few hours after, the runny nose because of it, and the horribly watery eyes. ICK!

If any of you have ever had nasal flu test, you know EXACTLY what I am talking about! For those that don't, here is a run-down:

The nurse came in with a tray with all sorts of little goodies. (insert multiple eyerolls, please. thank you very much!) One was a swab to swab the back of my throat to test for strep. The other was the long swab thing for my nose - the flu test. It has a red line up a little way from the "swab" part. Oh yes. A little red line. The nurse was telling me that the little red line needed to be lined up with my nostril. So I am looking for this little line, but I am not seeing it. She then directs my eyes to a little red line probably 10-12" from the tip of the swab. Oh no! Oh boy....here we go. Oh YUCK! My eyes were watering and I was gagging. I seriously couldn't wait to gag on the tongue depressor to have my throat swabbed for the strep test. I hate that, but I was really welcoming it at the moment. PLEASE!!!!

I finally got home at 2am and was dead tired.

Fast forward a few weeks, some listings on Etsy and a post (or two) here, and I found myself doing a ton of stuff my oldest son's kindergarten class. I had this wonderful idea to have the kids stuff a little Christmas tree ornament, write their name on the back, and then I would sew it up at the bottom, after I had pinned the already stuffed tree trunk in.

Yes, I was gutsy and took my most favoritest sewing machine with me to a classroom with 20 5-6yr olds. Some people thought I was crazy. I even thought, AFTER the fact of course, that maybe I was crazy for doing it. But seeing those kids have fun with the project? Totally worth it!

Then I had to finish up all the loose ends for their Christmas party that was on Friday, Dec 18. My oldest had been home sick on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday that week. He had a bad headache and fever on Monday, and early Tuesday morning, and then he woke up throwing up at 4:15am on Thursday.

He was seriously throwing a kink in my holiday sewing. He was fine around 10am that morning after he had thrown up, and was ready to go to school. Um, no.

By 1am, Monday, December 21, he was sick AGAIN! An ear infection. Lovely! We were able to get into the doctor at 5:30pm. Our doctor's office is 30 minutes away, in the next town over, so we ended up having his prescription filled there, and having dinner at Pizza Hut.

I slept like a rock that night, only to wake up the next morning, the 22nd, to find myself with a funny feeling throat, and sneezing. LOTS of sneezing. JOY!

So I was sick. Great. Didn't I just get over being sick...like 6 days earlier?

Here it is, four weeks later, and I am still with a tiny bit of a cough left.

But hey! It is a new year! We finally have a new computer, which is great for my Etsy shop. I had a really hard time getting pictures off my camera when I did my last listings in early December because my computer was getting so slow. Now my only excuses will be laziness to take pictures, etc., which does happen - but usually in the spring and summer months because I am usually in my backyard hanging out under our huge yellow plum tree, or weeding my garden beds. I would like to eat lettuce and not some nasty dandelion weed that has snuck in there.

I have a few pieces of new fabric, which will only make a few bags. But I may be able to get some more. Those will be in the shop soon.

I also working on some tie hairbands, but need to get the length right.

I have also purchased a showcase slot for the "Bags & Purses" section on Etsy for Feb 1, 2010. Keep an eye out for a special sale section for that week in my shop!

Take care!

coming soon to an etsy shop near you!

2009-12-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

I will have some more bags to list this weekend, and FINALLY will be able to list my wool dryer balls!

Stay tuned for more details!

Just keep sewing, just keep sewing...

2009-11-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

I seriously get Dory from "Finding Nemo" stuck in my head when I say this. Instead of her line from the movie of "Just keep swimming...", I get have "Just keep sewing, just keep sewing, sewing, sewing!"

I have finished several bags this week, and need to get pictures taken of them. I have a bunch that are waiting on snaps that I ordered earlier this week.

Hopefully I won't start to lag behind in my sewing adventures. Yesterday my husband surprised me with a five-week old puppy yesterday. I had been helping in the kindergarten class of our oldest son, while my husband took our youngest son to go pick up the puppy. The man that was giving them away had 10 in the litter, and only four left. He was giving them away so soon because he found the mom had died. Jake is the runt of the litter and is probably no more than three pounds.

He whimpered and whined so much last night, probably because he was missing his siblings. I was awake for most of the night with him, or with our oldest who has a mild cold, but a horrible cough. He sounds like he is a sea lion with a big bark when he coughs. My husband finally got up to hang out with the puppy before he had to leave for work at dark-thirty (5am is when he leaves, so he can be there by 5:40 to relieve the officer ahead of him). When he left for work, I decided that I would have Jake sleep on our bed. I think that was the best decision I made all night! He slept straight to 7am, when I found out that I needed to call the school and say DS#1 was staying home from school.

So now I need to see what I can get done while the puppy is napping...and dealing with a sick 5yr old, and a super feisty 3yr old.

Lauren Handbag in Lecien's "My Folklore"

2009-11-12T11:47:00.001-08:00

This bag is not for sale, but will be making a special appearance SOMEWHERE special and important in the very near future. Keep and eye on out on my blog on where to go to see all the details about where this bag may find a permanent home!

Etsy time!

2009-11-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

I have been busy sewing away these last few days, and I listed two items in my Etsy shop. One is a custom bag for Laura, of 29 and Counting. She told me which colors she was interested in, and I pulled up some links to Amy Butler fabric, and a few others for her to look at. She decided on two different Amy Butler prints, and this is her finished bag. It was really windy when I took the pictures, which also happened to be in a FIVE MINUTE WINDOW with no rain!

This is another one I listed. It is made out of Lecien's "My Folklore" line. It is a Japanese import fabric and is so beautiful! It has to be some of my favorite fabric in my huge stash. The dark red and blue floral print is surrounded by the kaleidoscope print, and the floral print is also used for the two pockets on the inside.

I have another "My Folklore" bag that will be making a special appearance somewhere soon! Pictures will be in a post later on today.

Hawthorne Threads!

2009-11-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give you a head's up that Hawthorne Threads is having a giveaway for some very pretty fabric. I am a fabric junky, and can always find something to do with it.

Go to http://www.hawthornethreads.com and there will be a link on the right column under "Giveaways".

The fabric being given away is by Patricia Bravo. Beautiful fabric!
http://www.hawthornethreads.com/fabric/designer/patricia_bravo

So go check it out and make sure you enter. And don't forget that Charlie and Lindsay have other beautiful fabrics to choose from.

I'll be back later with an update on some special stuff!

-Melanie

I change blogs way too much!

2009-11-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

I know I started this blog back in January because I wasn't feeling the wordpress format. Then I thought about for a few days, and then made the switch back to wordpress. But now, ten months later, I am finding myself crawling back to this one. I got tired of some of my posts on wordpress being eaten up, never to be seen again, never posted, or whatever else can go wrong in blog posting land.

So here I am. Again. Crawling back and begging my sorry and pitiful looking blog for forgiveness.

So in an effort to make a fresh start, I will leave you with this:
I am working on a ton of new bags, in addition to the others that I already had done. I am waiting to list them, that way I can do them all at once. I gladly ship to APO and FPO addresses.

I have one super cute diaper bag that is about halfway done. A bunch of Lauren's will be making their way to the shop, and a handful of embellished prefolds will be listed too. I haven't decided if I want to do any more "DUOS", or a bag and prefold combo.

I don't even know if I want to keep doing the prefolds since I can't sell them online. I have noticed that people are more willing to pay more money for the Gerber birdseye prefolds that pill like crazy and look horrible after they are washed. People seem to not even bat an eye at my non-Gerber Chinese bleached prefolds that I have already prepped for them. Prepping takes a lot of time: at least 4-6 washes to get the twill to shrink up. Can you imagine what a prefold would look like if I had embellished it with the fabric, sent it off to someone to use, and then they washed it to use, only to find that the prefold shrunk several INCHES?

But if people prefer to buy the more expensive Gerber prefolds, then they can do that. All I will say is that the quality is not there like there is Chinese or Indian diaper service quality(DSQ) prefolds.

I am working on a style and size similar to the Lauren for the Holidays. Fun and funky Christmas fabrics will be used. I am going to be using some for gift and goody bags for family members.

And a word of note:
I still am using my "old" labels with just the "Cherry Blossoms by melanie" on them. I am almost out of them, and then I can reorder some new labels with the '29' in them. YAY!

Hopefully that is all for tonight. I will probably list a few things later this week, just so I can get some form of better organization going on. I don't want to get flooded with things to list, only to miss something.

Ooh! I almost forgot! I have some wool dryer balls that I am going to list too! They will be in sets of 3 or more. A set or two will have five or six.

Look at http://29cherryblossoms.etsy.com this Friday the 13th!