What a crazy first week of the new. Work is always busy in January, but this past week was especially so, for some reason. And I made a resolution (don't I always?) to be more rigorous about exercising. I didn't do terrible. And after all the junk I inhaled throughout December it actually felt really good to get back to fruits and vegetables and eating lighter in general. I had to cave and buy these lovely little bits when I saw them today (I'm a sucker for cuteness--see what I did there)? A few are already missing, of course...I deserved a treat :)
Anywho, I bought meself a new sewing machine. I love my old one--it was a Christmas present from my mom, and was ridiculously inexpensive, and she only bought it so I could sew linings into the knitted bags I was making at the time. I don't think she had a clue how much that baby would pump out in a few short years. She (her name is Lola) still works great, and will be a better machine for when I'm piecing quilt blocks, but this new machine powers through layers like a hot knife through butter, which is better for bag-making. A blog I follow did a review of this machine, and I had my eye on it before, so I figured I should just go for it. I named this one Maggie. Mostly I name them so when I'm getting frustrated I can yell at them like it's their fault (i.e. "Dammit, Lola. Why can't you just flippin' do what I'm telling you to?").
In other news....I watched an episode of "Hoarders" the other night, and was overcome by an inexplicable feeling of having to get rid of things. So I took a good, logical look at all my stuff, and got rid of a ton. It's amazing how good it feels to just clear out things that have sat there collecting dust for years. I'm too lazy to bother with ebay, so I boxed it up and am going to take it over to my church in a few weeks when the St. Vincent de Paul Society does their pick-up.
And since I've had a bag of fun fabric waiting for me to reform it, I of course did some sewing. My grandma had this adorable little bag when we were out there over Christmas. Here's a crappy picture of it (I didn't intend to show it here or I would have taken a better shot--I just needed shots to try to copy from):
I reeeeeallllly love the fabric but couldn't find anything comparable.
It's a cute little simple bag that she stashed her quilting supplies in, and it made me want to make a few. They're already pushing Valentine fabric at Joann's, so I bought a few things along that line, but not really holiday-specific. Here are the two I made:
These are for sale in my shop--link is at the right. Trust me - they're cuter in person.
The one on the left makes me think of cheesecake for some reason. And the one on the right makes me think of milkshakes for obvious reasons. They're pretty darn cute. All of these fabrics did not want to become a tote bag as they fought me every step of the way. I kept making one rookie mistake after another, and by the time all was said and done--I had a loverly headache. I kind of don't want to sell these because I'm in love with them, but I have no practical use for them right now as I have about 500 bags already. I made these on my new machine, so the stitching is really nice because all those layers weren't slipping around all over.
And now, my observations for the week:
1. In college, they told us that kids don't understand sarcasm until they're about 11. Whoever originated that theory never met my nephew.
2. No matter how hard I try not to, I will ALWAYS find the slowest line anywhere.
3. Only in my yoga class do I have no balance. I stomp around and look like an angry bull trying to pull off a tree pose (MODIFIED, at that), and yet when I show my brother what it is--no problem.
4. I should be a crime solver. I'm pretty good at detectiving. Or else this book I'm reading is written so I can solve it before the sheriff does and just feel good about myself.
5. I couldn't leave it at 4--I needed a nice even 5th observation. I must have OCD or something.
Oh I am jealous of your lovely fabrics :)
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