The newest addition to our family...Maggie!!

I try not to make my blog totally about business...so I'm here to announce the newest member of our family. This is Maggie!!!

Early Christmas morning we lost our beloved Belle - she was a shepard lab mix and had been with us for 14 years. It was very sad as we loved her dearly, but it was her time. We've been greiving and the house has seemed so empty without our Belle, so we started to think about welcoming a new member to the family. My husband began to look at local shelters and on the internet. We were so blessed to find Maggie - she is 7 years old and is a lab/golden retriever mix. She's a big girl at 85 lbs as you can see. She is cuddling with my nearly 18 year old son, so you can see how big she is.

Maggie was a beloved pet to a family that had to make the hard decision to let her go to a new home. Personal hardships made it no longer possible for her to stay. We've now had Maggie two weeks and she is just a love. She's wonderful, playful, and has a kind soul. I feel certain she was meant to find us and we were meant to love her. The house is now full of the canine life it was missing...and I think our Belle would have approved whole heartedly. Now, my Siamese cat may have something else to say about that. Although it didn't take long for her to re-establish who was boss!

I am back!!

Hi all!! I'm so happy to say that I'm back. I last posted in November after the very fun Northwood show. I had a show the following weekend, then a week later I was involved in a car accident. Of course the rest of my shows had to be canceled, my car was a total loss and the at fault party had no insurance. When I think back on it, I really am lucky to come out of it as well as I did. I still have lingering back pain, but finished physical therapy last week and am really excited to get back to the business!!

So...watch the site in the next week or so. I am going to be adding so many beautiful new hankies from the LuRay collection...the cutest is one with a little girl walking her dog!! I also have some new rag totes for spring, and the most darling aprons I've made - they were a great hit at the holidays - vintage and cottage flavor - some with vintage tablecloths! I'm just sooo excited to start sewing!

Please check the blog again soon - I'll be posting regularly again :-)

Pictures from Northwood Boutique

Here are some pics from my little 6x10 space at Northwood. I did fairly well here, and of course the LuRay hankies were one of the most popular items. Another favorite was my variety of aprons (pics of those later). I have a medium sized white Christmas tree, but it takes too much room so I got this smaller size. It turned out to be just the perfect size, and when it's lit up it has a pale pink tinge to it. Several folks asked me if it was a pink tree, and everyone loved it!

The lavender sachets and stocking sachet ornaments were also popular as they usually are this time of year. They look pretty on your tree, or so sweet as a gift for your best friend. I was also scouted for an invitation only event in December, so that is always a nice compliment. That's all for now!!

Northwood Boutique was Yesterday!

Well, yesterday was the Northwood Boutique. I've done this show many years ago, and it's very obvious that the current economy is having an impact on folks shopping. Attendance was down, and alot of the people attending were looking, but not necessarily buying. I can totally understand this as we are all being very careful with what money we do have.

A bright spot is that I think I did better than alot of vendors who were there. It was a fairly successful show for me and I got to meet some incredibly nice people. I also had a large variety of items selling, but of course, the LuRay hankie line is always a favorite!!!

I took some pictures of my booth and will post them later tonight. Have to get back to my economics homework now...yucky class! Not my favorite subject :-)

Machine Scare!!

So...the same night I cut my finger...see previous post...my machine started binding up. I have an Elna 7200 which I just love. However, a few months after I got it, it had a catastrophic bobbin case and hook/shuttle failure which required many $$ and specialized expertise to fix. Ever since then I've been really nervous when something binds up. So...I'm running transparent thread, and it's running just fine. For some reason, it's just starts binding up. When I pull the bobbin plate off, the entire case is shifted. Now I'm worried the timing is off again. Holy cow, what else can happen??? So...I pack it up and get it ready to take in.

However, do you remember me mentioning I have a show? So...out comes the old reliable Singer 301. Gotta love her...tried and true. My son asked me why I was using it and I told him I was going "old school" and he said "sometimes old school is the best school"...he's building a '55 chevy truck, so you can see why he would say that. This is my faithful machine that was given to me by my grandmother over 23 years ago. In fact, I picked up another one a few years ago as a second backup. I even learned how to service and oil this myself. So...off we go on the 301.

Now, here is my Public Service Announcement for quality thread. I took my machine in two days later expecting the worst, and it turns out the old Coats and Clark cotton thread I was using was causing me issues. Apparently according to the store staff, it's made in Mexico and is not high quality. It has high and low spots, leaves lots of lint in your machine, and ball up (that is when it's not breaking). If those balls get in your tension discs, they throw everything off and bind you up. Inez (the manager) put some high quality thread in from the store and she ran like a champ. I went straight to the fabric store and bought several large spools of the good stuff. How was I to know I was using the bad stuff? It looked good...come to find out that is because they put a coating of wax on it to make it look good. So...USE GOOD THREAD!! Your machine and your projects are worth it!!!

PS...in the maching is baby burp cloths for my holiday show. Aren't they just the cutest?

Rotary Cutter + Finger Tip = OUCH!

So...I was sewing like crazy last Saturday, trying to get things done for a holiday show coming up in a week. I was cutting through some very thick webbing with my rotary cutter, and like a dummy, I was using my small ruler. Of course a small ruler makes you place your fingers closer to the cutter. I'm cutting away, and I grazed my finger. Nothing big, just enough to shave the outler layer - made a little shiny spot. I think - whew, I could have really cut myself.

So...I change rulers, right? No, of course not. I thank my lucky stars and keep on going. Then it happens...ouch!!! Cut halfway through my fingertip with the rotary cutter. Actually left blood on the cutter! So, I grab my finger (don't want to look) and I run downstairs. My husband is watching football or some other sporting event and I calmly ask him to help me. I can't look at it. We wash it off and I have to keep pressure on it and keep my arm up. I tell you what, I have a very high tolerance for pain, and it still hurt like heck!!! So, lucky for me it was a new blade, and the cut is very clean. We hope for the best, otherwise it's off to emergency on a weekend night..not a good experience. Here is a little pic of my beautiful finger the next day. Just looks like someone drew a line on my finger with red marker. It's now a week later and it's looking better. The wierdest thing is that my finger tip above the cut is still numb...cut all the nerve endings. Only time will tell if I get teh feeling back right there.

Is it Friday Yet?

Thank goodness it's Friday! I'm going to be busy sewing again for my show in two weeks. But...before I can get to that, I have to do my homework. In addition to my day job, and my little business here, I am a full time student. I am suffering in an economics class. While I want to understand the economy more, I just don't see why I need to know the slope and the curve and all the mad calculations you need to get there!!

Stay tuned for new pics of the studio this weekend. It's finally totally installed, my back was killing me though. Now I'm trying to put stuff away and work at the same time. I must say I love having a seperate desk and sewing station. I can pop over to the computer every now and then in between seams.

Ok, off to bed now...what a week!