Playing with photos, happy mail and up late once again!

Signed up for a Picnik account yesterday and I’m loving this 1960′s effect they have.  I’m also having fun adding text to images.  Prepare to see funner pictures from now on!  There’s me (finally) hiding behind a morning tea.  I was worried it would take longer to post but it’s really fairly quick and easy to use.  It’s almost making me want to go back and repost all my pics . . . . almost.

I also received my happy mail from Christina.  She’s got this really cool website Craftee (lovin’ the name!).   She sent me some fun stuff, including a really beautiful journal with matching pens. It made me want to doodle and pushed me over the edge into the ‘yes please!’ camp for Elsie and Rachel‘s Tell Your Story class.

Thanks to Indie 2.0 I learned how to make my very own little widgets. I’m so excited. Now I just have to get them up and out there, which will be thanks to my techie hubby. I made a few, any opinions?

I’m going to have a table at this show on May 1st and I’ve been going crazy sewing like a maniac to get a huge pile of things to take and sell.  Since it’s my first show I’ll be getting a feel for what sells and what doesn’t.  There’s less than a month left now and I’m starting to feel the crunch.  Fingers crossed all goes well!  And on that note, 1am is probably a good time to go to bed.

More Steggies and how I work.

So I decided, in the spirit of dinosaurs to make Nate a Steggie from One Yard Wonders.  So I set to it tonight.  I learned I’m not too good at following a pattern, and when I didn’t know what the instructions meant about making a dart I probably should have Googled it after all.  So our poor little Steggie needs some tweaking tomorrow but he’s still going to be a cutie.

There’s been a lot of talk on my online course about how people work, and manage their time.  With 2 little ones at home, and a job it’s been challenging for me to maintain a blog and start an Etsy store.  Now I’ve also added a craft show in May so the pressure’s on.  When I started my blog to help me be creative I hadn’t returned to work yet so it was a bit easier with the extra free time.  However, it did set a sort of standard for crafting and now I try really hard to keep up the pace with posting and creating.   That said, here’s my new system.  I escape downstairs, either while the kids are sleeping, hubby watches them or after they go to bed and I load something to watch up on my desktop computer, put on my headphones (which allow me to hear over the noise of the sewing machine) and get to work!  Yesterday my husband watched the kids a whole bunch, hence my productiveness, and the headphones help block out the sound of the kids which would either distract me or annoy me.  Ignore the mess, and the glare from the OttLight but here’s what it looked like when I left just now.  (That’s deflated Steggie lying next to the book)

Friday’s productivity.

This was my pile of crafts and related to dos that I brought up to the kitchen table figuring I could get more done upstairs while home with the kids.

Considering we spent the morning at a drop in play, stopped at Staples, came home for Nate’s nap, and I took the kids to indoor play for about 1 1/2 this evening I had a pretty productive  creative day!  They didn’t have baths like I planned but a load of laundry got done, the dishwasher was unloaded and reloaded and dinner was made . . . wait! I even swept and mopped the floors!

I finished this Style School project from way back when.  I found the clip board while poking around in a drawer and it was perfect for what I wanted.

I got a start on the bean bags I’ve been wanting to make for the kids.  Had the letters cut out for a while, so I was able to stick them to my Steam-a-Seam and line them up on the fabric.  Didn’t actually get to the iron yet, which is in the basement.  See I get things done upstairs!

I’m still unsure about what to use as a filling.  I suppose taking things too literally, I assumed I would just go to Bulk Barn and get beans.  Then I did some reading online and now I’m unsure.  Rice was suggested on one site, even going far enough to say you can wash rice and just air dry it and all will be fine.  Not too sure about that one.  So I’ll research more before the actual filling of the bags.

Didn’t actually mail my Happy Mail envelopes yet but they’re mostly ready to go.  I did send off the little card/note that is to go first.  Put them in a mailbox and everything!  Went to Fabricland and got some interfacing and minky stuff for more baby blankies.  I bought sticker paper at Staples and printed the fun free designs Elsie gave us at the end of Style School.  I jazzed up the binder I used for that class and updated it since I’m going to use it for Indie 2.0.  I tracked down a tote bag I’ve been looking for.  I didn’t get to embroidering my thrift store cardigan, carving more stamps or embroidering the cover for Nate’s counting book but I’d say I had a pretty darn good day!

OH! and this is my second post today!