I'm not dead yet.

But I have been very busy this week.

The Mess Girls went back to school Wednesday. This is a big year for them; E started middle school and MiniMe is now a high school freshman! They both have to get a lot earlier this year than last which means I also have to get up earlier. I feel like I've been on a treadmill set on high speed from 5:45a.m. until around 11:30p.m. every day this week. Getting up early has been beneficial to my schedule a little bit because it gives me a little extra time every morning to get a few loads of laundry done or some basic chores done before leaving for the store. But the after work schedule has been mad. Every night I close the store, run home, either bring food home with me or figure out something quick and tasty, take one or both girls to some activity (gymnastics, piano, babysitting, etc.), help with homework, sign papers, watch a few minutes of the convention (or Project Runway!), and go to bed.

Things have been pretty quiet here at the store lately so I've been forced to had time to get some alternative modes of income generation going. I have the fall class schedule all up and ready to go. Next week I hope to figure out how to add a way for y'all to actually register and pay for classes through the blog or I will add class listings to my etsy shop. Today I started getting things spruced up at my etsy shop and added a few items. I'm starting with fabrics, particularly holiday/seasonal yardage. Eventually I will have fat-quarter collections and more of my designer fabrics listed. I would also like to put together some kits with my own patterns and fabric. I'm just going to keep chugging along until I come up with the right combination of product/service/price/customer. No one ever told me that this small business ownership thing would be easy!

I've also been working on my fall email newsletter. I intended for it to go out last week but I keep adding and tweaking things. Tomorrow hopefully I will get the final touches on it and get it sent out. I also just realized that I lost the email newsletter sign up with the blog template change. I'll add that to my to-do list.

Also on my To-Do list:

Plans for "Project Scarecrow" contest for the St. Charles Scarecrow festival in October

Plans for a holiday open house event in early November. There will be wine and cookies!

Finalize projects for Girl Scout badge program. They are all on paper, I just need to get all the supplies lined up, hand outs typed and samples made.

Find time to revamp my accounting/bookkeeping system because what I'm doing now isn't working and I can't afford an accounting firm to come in and do it for me.

Assess my holiday inventory needs and decide how I'm going to pay for what I need and get it ordered.

Contact PTO person in charge of After School Enrichment program at our former elementary school. I decided I didn't have the resources to attempt a district wide offer but I would like to help out at our school if I can.

P!nk (and Blue)

 

Little E wanted a new look for Middle School next week. She decided that dyeing the underside of her long hair hot pink and bright blue was just the look she wanted.

BEFORE:
  


TEST SWATCH:
  


DURING:
   


AFTER:
   

Friday morning she gets a new cut to go with it. She's thinking something layered and spiky will show off the new color best. She also really liked the bright gold/blonde it turned when we bleached it out so she may get some blond highlights after her cut.

I must admit that I love how it turned out. I also loved how excited she was about it. She even decorated the inside of her locker with hot pink fun fur fabric to match!

Hey You! Yeah you reading on that blog feeder.

If you normally read this blog via a blog reader like GoogleReader or Bloglines, you really need to click over to the full site. I have a surprise over there for you. I'll meet you there...

I'm not from here, I just live here.

If any of my readers recognize that song lyric (my sister Pam may not count) they get a bonus round question.

Today I found myself somewhat blissfully sans family. Mr. Mess' siblings planned an extended family reunion of sorts for this weekend in Northern Michigan. I decided that I really needed to stay home and man the store. So he and the girls headed north this morning. I was left with two nights alone and no plans. I had sent off a few last minute emails to girlfriends I don't see often enough, but it was too little to late.

So here I am at home alone with only two fingers of vodka and a Lean Cuisine to appease my needs. To add to my agony, someone erased most of my Deadliest Catch tivos, there were about a half dozen but they were from this season and I've already watched those. The season two episodes I was going to watch were gone.

So I was left to watch two episodes of Kathy Griffin's Life on the D List. I have no snark for her tonight. Although I couldn't help but think at times that if I had grown up anywhere but where I did with the people I did, I may just have ended up with her career. Marlette Michigan was just too damn nice and supportive!

After that I was left to cruise the channels. I happened upon Austin City Limits featuring James Blunt and James McMurtry. (Watch the interviews!) I immediately hit the "record" button on the tivo. My sister and her husband turned me on to James McMurtry back in the late 80s early 90s with his "Too Long in the Wasteland" album. He is a east Texas blues-rocker. The thing is that his father is the author of my favorite novel of all time. The reason I love Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove so much is because of the strong characterizations. There is so much 'voice' to all of the characters in this book. James has inherited his father's gift of painting word pictures, in song lyrics rather than novels. I also love how he captures life in small towns and rural America so dead on.

Of course the majority of the show was James Blunt. His performance was really good. I'm not a fan, nor am I a hater. His voice is unique to say the least. Yes, it can be annoying at times. I can hear a bit of Cat Stevens in his voice and music. That isn't a bad thing in my opinion. I was impressed with his passion and his song about his visit back to Kosovo almost made me cry. I just can't help but hear an SNL skit every time I here him talk with his highly affected nasal Brit accent.

So here I sit at 9:45pm on a Friday night with the perfect excuse to go out and cat around and live up to my reputation. But instead I'm home on my comfy couch watching PBS and the Olympic opening ceremonies writing a blog post. I think I need to get my dork card laminated now.

Now I will share a YouTube video of James McMurtry. (For the record, even my very conservative Republican husband likes JM and this song!)

Got time for a quickie?

I know that we are all busy people and we don't always have time for the large, involved and time consuming craft projects that we'd like to spend time on. I've been thinking up projects that can be completed in less than an hour, are relatively inexpensive, and the end product is worth making.

This has brought me to today's Quickie Tutorial:
The Reversible Ribbon Belt

 

Materials:
1 1/2 yds. each of two coordinating 2" woven ribbons. (You may need less if you need a shorter belt!)
One set of 2" D-rings.
Coordinating All Purpose Thread

(All the pictures below can be made bigger by clicking on them.)
Place ribbons right sides together and sew across one short end.

Slide D-rings onto ribbons. Fold ribbons, wrong sides together with the D-rings at the seam.

Using a zipper foot on your machine, sew close to D-rings across ribbons.

Topstitch down long sides of ribbons, pivoting at the corners of short end.

You're done!

New Classes!

I just updated the Classes Page!

I've added descriptions and materials lists for the new classes I'll be offering this fall/winter. I'm still working on firming up times and days on the schedule so if you have any special requests, get them into me SOON!

By Popular Demand

 

Amy Butler's newest handbag pattern, The Birdie Sling, is by far the most popular pattern in the store. Last week I finally had a chance to make a sample for the store. After the fabulous results of combining Heather Bailey Pop Garden fabric with an Amy Butler pattern I decided to do it again.

This time I used the "Peonies" in red for the main bag and "Sway" in ivory for the upper bands and handle.

The pattern went together for me much better this time than it did when I was teaching it for the first time last month. I also made one modification to the pattern directions. The pattern calls for fusible fleece to be applied to the lining pieces. We did that the last time and I liked the results but I wanted to see what it would be like unpadded. The fleece lining does give it a nice body and adds a layer of protection for your belongings. Without the fleece the bag is more like a tote bag. I think it works either way.

I've been working diligently on putting together my fall schedule of classes. I've decided due to the popularity of this bag to add it as a class. If you're interested please drop me a line and let me know what fits your schedule best and I'll see what I can do to get some times on the schedule that meet those requests. I'm also working on new classes for holiday projects. Quick and easy gift and decorating ideas.

Reading at Dawn

I spent a good part of my weekend getting up early and reading before MiniMe got out of bed. She went to the midnight release for Breaking Dawn Friday night with friends. (That is another way to know your children are growing up, when they don't want you to go with them to geeky book release parties anymore.) She stayed up almost all night Friday reading. Then on Saturday while I was here at the store working she'd randomly call me throughout the day just to say, "OMG!" in my ear as she continued to read. When I got home after 5:00 she was chomping at the bit to have someone to talk to about the book. None of her friends that also bought the book at midnight had stayed up as late to read so she was way ahead of them. We were having friends over Saturday night so we couldn't read then.

I told her to leave the book outside her door and I'd get up and start reading Sunday morning. I got up around 7a.m. and had almost caught up to her by noon. I had at least gotten past the "OMG!" moments and was able to commiserate and discuss what the heck just happened in the middle of the story. We then traded off and on for the rest of the day. Monday morning I got up early again and snuck into her room to steal it back so I could try to finish before she got up.

I finished by noon. I won't give any spoilers away but I will say that in my opinion, the first half of the book was better than the second. If I didn't know someone was waiting for me to finish, I'm not sure I would've kept reading at full tilt.

Ironically, she still hasn't finished the book. She found like I did that the second half isn't all that compelling and she can pretty much tell where the story is going to go so she doesn't really care anymore.

At least now we can move on with our lives.

Event Cancelled

 
Even though I sent out emails, posted posters, and passed out postcards I didn't generate enough interest in tonight's Breaking Dawn pre-release craft party. A few people did say it sounded like fun and passed the word on to others but no one actually called and made a reservation. So I've had to cancel my plans for this event.

Lesson learned: I have to plan these kinds of events well in advance of the date in order to get the word out. I also need to figure out the best way to get people to act and make the call when they see something like this that may interest them.

Also Cancelled: Next week's Summer Camp. I actually had an almost full slate of participants for this one. But two canceled this week and another never came back with their registration/deposit. That left one girl.

On a positive note; birthday party bookings are up 100% over July for August!

Kismet

 
Sometimes you find things that are just supposed to go together. Like Amy Butler's Gum Drop Pillow pattern and Heather Bailey's Pop Garden, Pop Daisy fabric.
   
Isn't it just cool as cool beans how the pattern creates a kaleidescope like pattern? It took some careful planning and cutting to get everything to line up just so but the effort was well worth it for these results. Even with the extra care needed to get every piece cut precisely this project didn't take that long at all. Probably just a hair over 2 hours from start to finish. (I really intended to mark the time but got so into what I was doing that I forgot!) Honestly, the stuffing took longer than the sewing.

This is the second pillow/ottoman I've made from this pattern. Yesterday afternoon I decided to make the larger (24") size out of some Amy Butler home dec. fabric. It went together so quick that I decided to make the smaller one with the Heather Bailey fabric this morning.