Christmas New bags and Home Shopping!

So there are so many things going on. Christmas is almost here, and this year we get to spend it with all the Fam's. Sunday before Christmas we are having a Christmas Brunch with my Fam. I can't wait to see Jack at Christmas this year, as cute as he was last year he will be so much cuter this year!!! I got him the cutest little outfit. First a Tweed blazer (see above photo) from baby gap, with a sweater, and khaki pants to wear with it. he will be a perfect little yuppie in no time!


And then on to Seattle to see Matt's Fam. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that Matt's sisters have moved to the NW and are only a few hours away. This will be the first Christmas that we get to spend with Lea, and she is almost three. I have to say that I have gone a bit over board with the presents, but I don't even care!!! she is getting a little play kitchen, so I got her this cute little set from Target with a real little set of pans, and spoons and stuff...FUN!!! We also got her fake sushi kit (see above) to "cook" they are made out of wood, and so freekin cute!


Next I have several New bags on ETSY that I'm pretty proud of so you should check them out. The more I make the better they get!!!


Last I'm sooooooo excited Matt and I have started out house hunt. We looked at several last weekend, and found one that we LOVE (see above photo) We are looking at more tomorrow, and hope to make a decision on which one we love the most to make an offer on. The one below is one we think may be a close contender to the one we LOVE so far!!! I'm so excited!!!!



I will keep you posted on how things go on the house front!!!
Have a Merry Christmas!

Bigger Better My Ass!!!!

So my craft fair experience this weekend was a bit less then stellar. In fact it sucked ass. It was a badly ran, small and there were just no customers to buy anything. We made a whopping $24.50 which was not even enough to pay for the space.

All in all it was not that bad of an experience, and I learned some valuable lessons, and had an amazing weekend away with my wonderful husband, that did nothing but cheer me up when I was upset, about how much things sucked.

Things that I learned:

1. My core customer base IS NOT little old ladies that frequent holiday bazaars at the coast.
2. Being the most prepared, best looking booth at a small craft fair just means I really am ready for the "Big Leagues"
3. People really do love Monkeys in Hats!
4. My bags really do ROCK!!!!!
5. I have the best most caring big Teddy Bear of a husband, and I don't know what I would do without him.

Craft Fair

So I have decided to take a leap and bring my bags and cards outside the computer... to the people. I will be attending my first craft fair this weekend in Lincoln City. I'm a bit nervous, because I have never done this before but I think I have the possibility of doing pretty well. I will have over 20 bags, some monkeys in hats cards, some ABCs and a few misc. other things.

I have been working my ass off over the last week to get everything ready and have the rest of this week, so I think I will be set. Over the weekend my Mom was my savior helping be make 2 full bags (great leather ones) and 2 partial bags.

I still have a lot to do and hope I will get it all done.
Wish me luck!!!

NEW BAGS!!!

I just posted like 4 new ones! CHECK them out!!

It's Here!!!

So I got my new sewing machine early last week, and I love it!!!! It sews through so much stuff nicely. I have made a few bags with it and have posted one that I hope to sell. Now that I have had a bit of time to practice I will soon be a bag making machine!!! I hope to start using leather (and not just the cheap scrap leather) to make the majority of my bags. I figure I would make a few more out of more cost effective materials, to get a hang of my machine...

I tried to post some photo's but bloger would not have it so you'll have to go to etsy to check it out...

stay tuned for even more creations soon!

How you can tell when you husband really loves you.....

He runs over your foot with the car?

Well that is what Matt did to me on Monday! He was dropping me off at the gym, he thought I was crossing in back of the car, but alas I was crossing in front, and he went right over my left foot...OUCH!!!!! everything is alright, I went to the ER and got an x-ray, but nothing was wrong. It is pretty purple and splotchy, but only hurts now if i touch it or bump it on something hard, which I try to avoid.

One upside of having your foot run over, NO GYM, but the downside of that is My lazy ass just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and I was trying to be good and get back at it....aw well there is always next week!

God bless small cars!

My new Toy!!

I just bought her on Ebay!!! I can't wait to get it! It is a n industrial strength model, for sewing through leather and vinyl. My old machine pooped out the other day. Instead of getting it fixed I decided to use the money toward a machine that was meant to sew the heavy stuff, I can't wait!

Look what it can do...

More bags...

So I have just posted a few more bags.... check them out

BAGS!!!!

So I promised you all a preview, before I posted these on ETSY to sell so here they are.....





Let me know what you think, I'm super excited!!! Go to my ETSY shop to check them out.

Tell all your friends to check them out as well!!!!

Change of Plan...

So I have decided not to go back to school. I came to the conclusion the other night that really the only reason that I had decided to go back to school was because I felt the need for the title. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I'd be more happy with is just taking classes... so that is my plan! There is just way to many thing I would rather be doing right now with my money and my time! I want to have a house, and start a family, and make things, and if I were in school I could see all of those things being put off... Also the more I sew, the more I was thinking that book arts was not the right choice of a major.

Even thought I will not be enrolled as a full time student I still plan on taking as many classes as I can, because really what I want to do is learn. I hope to take a silk screening class that starts at the end of September. I will keep you all posted on my progress, and my artwork, soon I will have photographs of all of my bags, and I will show them off before I put them on ETSY to sell.....

T Loves Bags!

So I know that I did not finish talking about my trip, but I got busy doing other things, and frankly did not want to write about the trip any more. As I feel like it I will post info about all of my stops, and keep all my pictures up to date on my flickr account!

I have been up to some sewing which has taken all of my time! I made a reversible skirt (from my Sew What! Skirts book) I don't have a photo of that yet though because the ones I took myself did not turn out well so I will have Matt help me tonight with that....

I also made a couple of bags!!! The first one I made from an Amy Bulter pattern. I really love her bags, and it was really easy to make. It was my first attempt at making a bag, and I think that I did a pretty good job! I need to make a few more from patterns, because I would like to come up with some of my own designs, but before I do I need to learn some basic skills.

Next I decided to not wait to learn new skills and just attempt my own "pattern". It turned out alright, and I really love the fabric, but there are things that drive me nuts about it. First of all the fabric was vinyl , and vinyl is just plain hard to sew, because the feet don't want to grab it. Since I have really never made my own bag pattern it is really simple, and kind of boring, but it is a start. I think that the more I make the better, I and they will be...

There was this class offered at OCAC this summer about drafting you own bag patterns, and making your own bags, but I did not find out about it until the class was over...I was so sad, and am hoping that they offer the class again soon!

Stay tuned for more exploration into my BAGS!!!!!!

Trip Photo's

Click the my photo's link (off to the right) to viw more photo's from the trip. I don't have them all posted yet, but I do have a bunch!!! Or Click here!

Paris! Paris!

We flew from Dublin to Paris the morning of the 3rd. Our lovely friend B (who was living there at the time) met us at the airport, and we all took the train back into the city. I have to say right now that B was the best part of our time in Paris, she was so much fun, and was willing to be a silly tourist right along with us, plus she spoke the language... she was our Parisian savior!!! Our hotel was not quiet ready yet so we dropped off out luggage and went to get some lunch...we were all starving! We had a fabulous crepe lunch. afterward it was tourist city!!!!

*this is us acting "french"
First we took a bus over to the Eiffel tower. We did not go up, even though there was not much of a line because it was raining off and on all day, but we did take the time to take all the cheesy eiffel tower pictures. The rest of the day we just wandered around the city to see all the sites, arch de triumph, the louvre, and a bunch of other cool old sites I can't even remember. For dinner we went to a French chain restaurant (I can't remember the name) who's specialty was mussels. I got my own huge pot of mussels...they were soooo good.


The next day we did more wandering around the city, and a bit of shopping. We were outside the pompidou (paris' modern are museum) and there was this guy with some really cool art work. B ended up getting a piece of his, and a bit latter after a coffee, and some thinking I went back and got a a painting for myself, because I knew If I did not I would regret it. We had to get back to our hotel by 5pm so we could start our "tour".

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the tour group I was about to spend two weeks with were not all fanny pack toting, black socks with sandels wearing people. They were mostly families with children ranging from, 15-26 and a couple of girls who were about to start medical/optometry school. They ended up being a great group of people. After a meet and greet we took the metro to a wonderful restaurant, and all had out first dinner as a group.


The next morning the whole group went to the Sainte Chapelle. It was very beautiful, and the stained glass windows were just amazing. We walked from there over to the Notre Dame which was also amazing. After our walk and site seeing, we broke for lunch, and had the rest of the day free to do what we wanted. We had a museum pass that would get us into a mess of places, so we chose to go to the pompidou (the modern art museum) There was so much great art to see.

There was this great exhibit called Détours d'objets Hijacking objects by Claude Courtecuisse. If you know me at all you will see why I like it so much. It was actually a children's exhibit. The artist took objects, toys, containers, blocks, anything you can think of, and stacked them up, and took photo's of them. There was also this room set up where you could go an sit on a plat form, and push a button, that took a picture of you, you then went over to a monitor and could choose from a list of images, including your photo, and make your own stack. You then printed out a receipt so you could go to a website and print out your stack. IT WAS SO COOL.

The next morning we went as a group to the louvre on out way out of town. We only spent about 3 hours there so we only had time for the highlights. One of which was the Mona Lisa, which frankly was a bit of a let down. It is an amazing piece of artwork, but there is something that 6 inches of bullet proof glass just takes away. All in all the museum was pretty amazing, and I'm glad we just got to see the highlights, because it is so huge it would really take weeks to see everything. ur

Thats about it for paris....Stay tuned to the next installment Beaune (bone) France!!!!

Beautiful Ireland

Matt and I are back safe and sound, despite our 30 plus hour ordeal on our trip back from Rome. We had so much fun, ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine (and beer thanks to Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria) and did a lot of walking.

Since we went a lot of places, and had so much fun in each place I thought I would break the trip up into several posts. I also plan on posting more pictures on Flickr so keep yours eyes peeled for those.

FIRST STOP--IRELAND!!!!

First things first, Guiness does taste better in Ireland.


Full Guinness=Happy T


Empty Guinness=Sad T


We flew into Dublin on the 27th of June. We had rented a car so as soon as we got there Matt got to learn very fast how to drive in the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. He did very well, and I'm so glad we rented a car because it gave us so much more freedom, even if back roads in Ireland are barely big enough for two cars, and both those cars are going way way to fast. After going to get some lunch we headed back to our B&B which was so very cute. I felt so bad, because all I wanted to do was go to sleep, and our super cute hostess wanted to talk. After a great nap we woke up and went to find some dinner, but nothing around where we were was open, so for dinner we had a pint of Guinness, and I have to say it really does drink like a meal.

The next morning we headed off to the dingle peninsula, which is on the SW corner of the country, in the county of Kerry. Our first night we stayed just five minutes outside of town. It was just the cutest little town, full of shops, and pubs, and surrounded by the most beautiful country side I have even seen. The Next day we moved on to a B&B in downtown Dingle right in the middle of everything.

Our first day we rented bikes, we could have ridden the whole peninsula (about 25 miles) but ran into some problems. After about 2-3 miles into the trip Matt's bike tire popped, so we had to walk our bikes all the way into town to get him a new bike. We set off again, this time in the other direction, rode about 5ish miles, took a break for lunch, in a wonderful cow pasture, and decided to call it a day. Who were kidding 25 miles...

That night we decided to take advantage of the local dingle night life. Most pubs after 9ish have Irish music jam sessions. There was a big pud right across the street from our B&B so we went there first, had a pint, then decided to move along because it was so loud and crowded that we could not hear the music. We walked up the way a popped into a great little that was not crowded or, loud at all, and the band KICKED ASS!!!! They were an Irish bluegrass band that did covers of, the White Stripes "hotle yorba", Johnny Cash, and Violent Femmes "waiting for the bus" (J--I thought of you when they did this one). They were awesome!!!


After one more day of site seeing, and shopping we headed back to Dublin. We stayed again at the first B&B, it was about 30 minutes from Dublin. In the morning we went into Dublin but only stayed for a few hours. We liked the smaller out lining cities much more so we decided to spend our last night in one of those instead of the city. We went to Skerries which is on the beach, a beach the reminded me a lot of the Oregon coast. We went for a nice walk, and had a wonderful seafood dinner. It was the perfect end to what I hope will be the first of many trips to Ireland.


Stay Tuned for the next Fun filled installment....Paris! Paris!

Off to Europe, and Three happy years!!!

So matt and I are off to Europe tomorrow!!!! I can't think of any better way to spend our third anniversary. Well If we could beam ourselves to Ireland instead of a 12 hour flight that would be great, but since I did not marry spock, I will have to settle for a champagne toast on the plane, in celebration of three wonderful years. Plus as a bonus I will be in Venice on my birthday!

Just a side note... We have been e-mailing back and fourth with several different B&B's in Ireland to make reservations for the trip, and I have to say the the Irish people are just so very polite, and happy. I can't wait!!!

Matt Davies MBA

Matt has officially graduated! It was a lovely ceremony (small school so it lasted less then 2 hours!!!) He has actually been done since end of march, but it was nice to have a ceremony to make it feel more complete. They mailed him is diploma in April, just getting it in the mail with no "graduation" or anything was really uneventful.

THANKS!!!! to all of you who made it out to the BBQ this weekend. It was a lot of fun to see everyone and celebrate!

8 days and counting...

I can't wait, Matt and I leave for our trip next tuesday!!! We leave on the 26th (our anniversary) and will arrive in Dublin the morning of the 27th. I still have sooooo much stuff to do, to get ready for the trip, but I will have everything done in time, I hope. We are both only bringing one carry-on bag, so there will not be that much to pack anyway.

I'm a bit nervous about the flight because the longest flight I have been on was PDX to LAX with a stop in Oakland, so all the way to Dublin will be a bit more then I'm used to. It is not a nonstop flight, we have a stop in alanta, so at least that will break it up a bit.

I will try to stop at an Internet cafe and keep you all updated, but If I don't look forward to a mess of pictures and stories when I get back!!!!

Skirt City... and I'm the Mayor!

So i'm super excited! I bought this book called Sew What! Skirts. It is a fabulous book that shows you how to make 16 different skirts, from your own pattern! I cant wait to put it to good use.

It has really great instructions, and the skirts are super cute! So may of the patterns out there are a bit middle aged for my taste, and all the patterns in the book are super hip.

Because you create the pattern from your own measurements it will fit a lot better then just using a pattern that says it will fit, but never does.

After I make a few skirts for myself I thinking about trying to sell custom made skirts for others. There is this web site called Esty where I think I will try and sell them. I was looking around on the site and somebody was selling a simple a-line skirt, and I thought I could do that. I love to sew, and I think people would love ordering a custom fit skirt. It might be while before I get that far but for now I will be hard at work making skirts for me!!

Exercise is stupid!

So for the last month I have been going to a personal trainer at the 24 Hour Fitness where I work out. I just had my last session with her yesterday. Over all it has been a great experience and I have learned many things some of which are:

1. It takes more ass muscles to go down stairs then up them. I know this because after doing 40 lunges (especially since I have not done them since freshman year of high school) my ass was sore, and going down stairs with a sore ass is a real bitch.

2. Lunges are evil.

3. I can sill jump rope for a full minute without stopping, even though the last I I jumped rope New Kids on the Block were still in.

4. Overweight, big breasted adults should not jump rope.

5. The exercises that seem the easiest are the ones that really kick your ass.

6. even after all of this I say I hate exercise but I really don't I just wish I had not gone so long being a lazy ass, because if I was not such a lazy ass 40 lunges would not be such a bitch.

Inked

So I have finally got my second in the line of might very well be many tattoos. I got it done about 4 weeks ago so it is all healed up and looks quite nice in my opinion! I got it done at infinity by traci! I came to her with the "T" and the idea to use vintage fabric patterns to create a floral pattern to be Incorporated with the "T" she brilliantly came up with what you see here! We chose to use a slate grey color for the outlines on the flowers, and the stitching to give it a softer feel, and to make it more like a fabric print. I love how it goes from my back over around my shoulder, but I might go back in and have her put a few more flowers around onto my upper arm, and that side of my shoulder.





I can't wait to get my next one!!!!

Ready Made

Every couple or months I get my new copy of Ready Made and I just get so excited! It is one of the best magazines I have ever read, and one of the few that I read from cover to cover the day I get it in the mail. It is full of crafty tips, for you and your home, everything from how to make a cute top out of a table cloth, to how to recover a dining room chair. They always have really great Ideas and every time I get the issue I want to go out and make all sorts of crafty things.

While reading my new issue I also stumbled upon this bad ass site Purl Soho They sell all kinds of great fabrics and yarns and it is great. It is so hard to find such great fabric, and I'm so excited that I found this site, and I think that I will have to make a bunch of great skirts to use all the great printed fabrics that I found. Theses are some of my favorites Heather Ross, Etsuko Furuya and so may more. I can't wait to order some, and make something great!

Back to School!

* I did not make these books

So I have decided to go back to school. Six years of higher education was just not enough so I'm going back to try and make it an nice even eight years! I plan to attend Oregon College of Arts and Craft (OCAC). While there I will be getting my BFA in Book arts, where I will learn to hand make "art" books. I am very excited because I will be able to take my sometimes unhealthy love of paper, and printing and turn it in to something wonderful. Because of my previous six years of education I should only have to take 3-4 semesters to get my degree which will be great! I will be starting in the fall.

I will be taking:
• survey beg. book arts
• book and box arts
• intro to fibers
• natural science/math (sadly I was shy a math and science credit boooo)
• and maybe one more (15 and 12 credits cost the same amount)

I will keep you all posted on my progress and post photos on the projects that I will be working on.

All my friends are doing it!

So I have decided to join the blog revolution. I figure I can use it as a place to keep all my adoring fans updated, because as you all know my life is just that exciting! Plus everybody else is doing it! This is all I really have to say right now, like I said I live a very exciting life, so stay tuned for more in the on going saga that is... actual t!