I am Still Alive!

Hi All!
I am a terrible partner for poor Karen as she has had to carry the brunt of the blogging and everything else for our wonderful little business. Work does take up a lot of my free time as well as my "adorable" daughter. Just a side note, Molly (the adorable daughter) does take ritalin, among other drugs for her insane hyperactivity. Well, her doctor ran out of the triplicate prescription pads that are required for prescribing ritalin. We are talking about 1 month here of Molly on no ritalin! I am ready to go undercover and try and buy some off some street corner! I'm sure that if she lived with the doctor, he would have filled that prescription long ago! Anyway, as usual, i have digressed. Although i had a sewing flop, (tried a new apron pattern that turned out horrible), i am still hopeful that our aprons will take off. They are super cute. We just have to find the right audience for them. We will continue to work away at our machines and just hope that someday somebody will discover us and the word will spread that our stuff is great! Maybe i need medication!

Back on Earth

Yes, we took a little trip to HELL last weekend. The craft show did not go well again. But we are still glass is half full people because what other choice is there? It's not like we're going to stop making our fabulous creations - right? Someone, somewhere, is bound to buy them! I really think Crafty Ladies was just not the right place for us. We are going to try the Simi Valley Street Fair in May as well as the Red Rabbit Craft Boutique. Hopefully we'll have better luck! I did get a wonderful order from Bev. So that made me feel good. I really want to figure out how to publish images inside the blog text like other people do. Then I would do more tutorials. (Where did that come from you are wondering...my mind is always flitting from one topic to another. Plus I am very tired but I can't go to bed until my son finishes his math homework. I feel very old!) Anyway, I am just rambling now so I will sign off and write later.

Blog on the Run

I realized I have not been blogging very regularly. I know you have missed me :). Just kidding! But just wanted to keep you apprised of what is going on in the exciting lives of this and that by k and t. Tina is swamped with work and planning the demise of her father-in-law. Kidding!!! But she has been extremely busy at her actual job and then in her free time busily churning out items for our show this Saturday. We are really hoping to do well this time because we have not had the best of luck with craft shows so far (in our vast experience of 4 shows last year!) We have only been able to break even on two shows and the other two we made minimal (100or so each). But we are learning with each one what to expect. And we are continually expanding our inventory so we can see what people want. Mary Ann and I opened a card store together on etsy. check it out here. I decided I was taking too much space up with non apparel items in our this and that store. We haven't had any sales yet but I am hopeful. Mary Ann hooked me up with a lady in Solvang who owns a bookstore and I send her samples to see if she wanted to sell them. So again, I am waiting to see. I figure one of these days, something is going to work for all of us! I honestly don't know how some of the etsians find the time to work on their inventory and do all the social networking, marketing and blogging they get done. It is quite amazing to me (and far beyond my limited skills!) Wish us luck on Saturday.

Busy as a Bee

Tina and I are busy sewing our little hearts out. We are preparing for our first show of the year in two weeks. The pressure is on! We have changed our strategy to limit the number of each item we sell. And we have so much more to offer this time around! We are looking forward to seeing which items are the big sellers (keep your fingers crossed that we have big sellers! The only down side to this next show is that I cannot sell my cards and bookmarks. But my dear friend Mary Ann was kind enough to get me a contact at a bookstore in Solvang and I got the okay to send her samples of my cards and bookmarks. So hopefully that will be an avenue where I can sell a few. And the two shows we have in May are okay with the items. The March show already has enough cards. We also plan on expanding to include t-shirts that match our bloomers. And Tina got a sale Saturday! The first pair of bloomers! Yea! We love making them because they are soooooo cute and (at least for me) it brings back memories of when my boys were little. Don't worry, they didn't wear bloomers! They will need massive amounts of therapy because of me, BUT NOT BECAUSE I MADE THEM WEAR GIRL'S CLOTHING!! LOL!

How to Make a Fabric Rosette

Okay, I am giving up our secrets. I have pictures but I have to admit I forgot to take them when it got to the end of the program. Sorry!


Step 1

Cut a strip of fabric (we use a rotary cutter - it's fast) 4 inches wide and the entire width of the fabric (usually 42 - 44 inches). See Figure 1.

Step 2

If there is a band of white on the salvages, turn them under so the fabric print is all that shows.

Step 3

Fold the fabric strip in half wrong sides together. Stitch using the gathering stitch on your machine (it's number 4 on mine). See Figure 2.

Step 4
Gently pull one of the strings and gather. You kind of have to play this one by ear. Just see how gathered you like to work with it. I usually tie the ends when I get it right, just so it won't lose the gather. See Figure 3.

Step 5
Start turning one of the ends in and sew it by hand to keep the curl. See Figure 4. Keep turning this until you're done with the fabric. See Figure 5 and 6.

Step 6
Cover the bottom (the raw edges of the sewn part) with a piece of felt using a glue gun. Sorry, this is where the pictures end. I will try to put some up tomorrow!

Step 7
To make it a pin, glue on a pin fixture (you can get them at fabric stores or stores like Michaels). Have fun using this on a purse, hat, blouse or jacket

Using up the Old, Bringing in the New

I always love it when I buy new material because it is like Christmas in February. However, that said, it is an even better feeling when I can use up some old fabric because it makes room for me to buy more! Plus, let's face it, our "old" fabric is still pretty darn cute. These bloomers are the cutest thing, aren't they? Tina made them using some fabric we bought at the beginning of our venture into the etsy arena. The orange ruffle is old (well, relatively speaking) too. Kudos to Tina. The nice thing about going through your fabric stores is you find cute stuff you totally forgot you had! Yesterday I made a child's apron using two old fabrics and one new. Which made me very proud. And they looked so great together. I will post a picture soon.