Tag Archives: cozy

It’s tea time!

Posted on August 31, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

Last year while working at a craft event I picked myself up one of these tea thingies. Mostly it was supposed to be a way to get me to use up all the loose tea I have lying around. Usually I just toss a boring orange pekoe tea bag in the bottom and add hot water.

With the cooler weather on the way I decided to finally stitch up a little cozie for it. Then I can take it down to my creative area late at night and have cup after cup of tea!

I used some scraps I had lying around. Also, I snuck in these great wooden buttons I had from a previous Etsy purchase. The fantastic apples came from a bundle I ordered recently from Sara at The Split Stitch. I keep missing her other stash packs in her shop, curse me for being behind in my Google reader! I’m a sucker for scraps.

The inside is also scraps of fabric all quilted together, guess I should take a picture of that part too . . . when it’s not warming tea.

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Posted in scraps, sewing

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On second thought . . .

Posted on July 26, 2011 by SewTara| 24 Comments

I was driving alone in the car the other day, a rarity, and I realized maybe I’ve been to hard on myself. I’ve felt pretty unproductive since school let out. I had high expectations that I would be able to catch up on things, and get the To Dos to done and set some things into motion that are still only just ideas. July is almost over and I don’t feel that I’ve caught up, or gotten ahead.

Then driving I started to think how it was a year ago, almost exactly, when my shop went viral for a pillow I made mostly as a joke. I spent August recovering from that.

Then on labour day weekend things got insane again for my Caffienating cup cozy. I spent the fall and winter recovering from that.

And I realized all the things I’ve accomplished in the past year.

– I balanced being a mom, teacher and crafty blogger/shop owner
– I survived hundreds of sales in my shop & been on the front page of Etsy
– I’ve learned how to screen print (from building a screen to washing out ink with my self made ‘pressure washer’)
– my mad self taught sewing skills have grown a bunch
– I’ve started taking much better photos, thank you natural light
– I edit photos in the blink of an eye, thank you Picnik (take that winter in Canada with few hours a day of sunlight!)
– I’ve introduced myself to Photoshop and we’re getting to know each other
– I own a 1″ button machine and know how to use it
– I’ve made new friends at my local postal office, fabric stores, online and in person

So I think really, I’m not doing too bad after all.

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Posted in cozy, sewing

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My busy last few days.

Posted on July 18, 2011 by SewTara| 4 Comments

Whew, prescription what a crazy time. I spent most of last week staying up waaaay too late making things and getting organized for my table on Friday and Saturday. Friday morning was all busy with getting ready, cialis taking the kids to the sitter (which we were out of practice on) picking up my friend and getting up before the show. It was a hot hot day and we were thankful for being in the air conditioned library for the day.

I went home Friday night and like a mad crafty woman stayed up until 1:30am making some more things. Most notably this cutie.

Saturday was absolutely perfect. There was a lot of scary talk on Friday about how hot and humid it was going to be but it turned out to be beautiful. I decided to be brave and move out of tent sharing with Joanna and set up beside her. While my table was in the sun at times, view I was under the shade of the tree branches all day.

Between talking to other vendors, who were such great people, and chatting away with people who came to my table I was sewing coin purses on frames for both days. My poor fingers! In the 10 hours I spend sitting at my table for 2 days I got 4 finished. I also sold 2!

The 2 days were filled with such awesomeness – great weather, sales, my friend, compliments, pictures for SNAP, media attention from the local TV station, live music from local bands, some great food and mostly just awesome people stopping by to support local artists. I had a great time. Thanks to the organizers Broken Arts for all the fun.

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Posted in cozy, neat spaces, vintage

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Photographer’s block

Posted on May 24, 2011 by SewTara| 11 Comments

If you’re looking for the giveaway scroll down or it’s over here.

Mostly I make cozies. It wasn’t really what I set out to do when I opened an Etsy shop, but I sort of just fell into it and I’m glad I did. I like it, I get to be goofy and I’ve learned a ton of new things. One thing I haven’t really learned is how to take dozens and dozens of photos of what is essentially the same item and still make it interesting. Which is sort of stinky since I recently created a whole new batch of designs for the shop.

Part of me thinks, “Ok, it’s just a cozy, they get it. Do the plain background thing and be done with it”.

But then if I do have something in the background, like say cookies, I know people see it and look and want cookies so they might want my cozy . . . . Oh I know I’ll hold it in my hand! No one’s ever seen a disposable cup doing that before! *groan*

Today was nice and sunny (after the freak thunderstorm) so I tried to sneak some flowers in. But yeah I don’t know, it’s still a cozy.

What’s a disposable cup doing in my house in the first place let alone on my piano? Who knows, it’s a new place to set up a photoshoot. How about in front of my lappy, you know because it’s a computer joke, get it? Get it?!

Anyone else feel this is a challenge when you’re making similar items and need to photograph for listings?

Maybe I should just start getting really outlandish and putting them on my sleeping cats, or hanging from the ceiling or in the bath . . . .*sigh*

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Posted in cozy, embroidery, sewing

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Happy Giveaway Day! CLOSED

Posted on May 23, 2011 by SewTara| 277 Comments

In the spirit of Giveaway Day, organized by SewMamaSew, I’m going to give away gave away, one of my new cozy designs!
This one fits in with the whole theme of the day and is all about supporting handmade goodies.

Also, since I’ve organized another scrap swap recently I’ll throw some fun little scraps into the package too.

Simply leave a comment below! Bonus smiles from me if you say something nice.
Giveaway is open to everyone everywhere mail gets delivered until May 25th!

**WOW I have never had this many comments on one post! Does that make me seem lame? Oh well. I usually write out names on paper and choose one when I have a giveaway, don’t think that’s going to work this time.
It’s been so great reading all these comments, thanks for all your kind words. I love all the people noticing it’s a Timmy’s cup!

Some questions have popped up in the comments, here are some answers,
– That is not my sewing machine, sadly, it’s LAs and she took the photo
– You can use your cozy on tea. Coffee is evil (well in my opinion) but my cozies don’t explode when interacting with it or anything
– I’d love to include cookies with your cozy but not sure that’d work in the mail. They are yummy little gems with hidden chick pea goodness from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. I baked them for the photo shoot and they are sadly, long gone.
– Happy birthday if it was recently/is your birthday *please note that doesn’t mean you automagically win* sorry

I’ve been bouncing around all the other blogs and there’s some great prizes out there, and wonderful blogs. So happy I joined up this year, not sure how I missed it last year. Also really glad today was a holiday for me, it gave me time to click and comment!
Please feel free to add me on Twitter, follow me on Pinterest or come back again. I’d love to keep seeing everyone.

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Posted in cozy, embroidery, sewing

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Finding uses for all the pretty Japanese ribbon I’ve got.

Posted on March 11, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

I whipped up some more  tea and sweetner cozies over the past little bit.  I’ve still got a few sitting here waiting for finishing touches and a photo shoot.  Also still need to list these.

Add pretty ribbon to my growing list of new addictions.

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Posted in embroidery, fun finds, scraps, sewing

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Crafty British imports part 2

Posted on December 22, 2010 by SewTara| 19 Comments

Behold the other fun little book I ordered from waaaaaaay over there!

Now for the ridiculous part (aside from ordering it overseas and then having my Mother In Law carry it all the way here) is that I can’t knit. But I totally plan to learn now. I mean how cute are these?!

Good thing I work in a profession that is mostly women. I’m sure I can bribe someone at work to teach me the ropes!

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Posted in crafty books, fun finds, gifts, knitting

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Random stuff to share.

Posted on September 5, 2010 by SewTara| 1 Comment

I haven’t really bothered to take any new pictures these last few days since I have no card reader to copy them over anyhow.  Which means tomorrow I have a truck load of things to snap photos of!  I’ve made a few really cute things and I need to add some items to my shop.  On top of that I still have a line up of cup cozy orders!

In the meantime I figured I’d share some things I’ve had kicking around but just haven’t posted yet.  The first is this awesome fabric I picked up at a Mary Maxim tent sale on clearance.  It’s really 50’s-ish looking and so fun.  I think I may tackle turning it into a quilt, with some reds, oranges and browns.  I think it could be really nice.

I also whipped together another pouch.  Sometimes I have what appears to be ‘beginner’s luck’ but I don’t realize it until I make the second item.  The first crayon cozy I made I used rick rack without incident.  Haven’t been able to pull rick rack off properly since!

Then I made the lovely Snow White pencil case and it all turned out beautifully.  But when I made this one something wonky happened at the zipper ends and instead of nice squared corners I have rounded ones.  It’s not that big of a deal but since I know it’s not what I intended it bugs me.

We had a street party today.  Everyone was invited and asked to bring a ‘ethnic dish’.  Some people brought family recipes from way back, some people (like me) brought things they’re good at making but either way it was all fantastic!!  There was waaaay too much food and a ton of desserts.  The kids all banded together to run about like maniacs from lawn to lawn.  While it was a tad cool, the weather was lovely, I just ran home to keep making teas.  I came in when the kids seemed pooped and got everyone off to bed before some TV and stitching.  Now I’ve switched to bed and lappy and it sounds like the party has switched to ‘now that we’ve all drank too much lets sing along to whatever song is on’.  It’s kind of funny, even with the window closed I can sort of here them, but they sound so enthusiastic and like they’re enjoying themselves it’s making me smile.

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Posted in sewing

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My tea.

Posted on September 2, 2010 by SewTara| 1 Comment

Last night while completing 4 cup cozies I took a moment to make myself one since the idea has been in my head for a little bit now.

It felt good to create a to do and then get it to done!

Now that I’ve basked in the glory of that, off to finish some more orders.

The photo is courtesy of my iphone and therefore not the greatest.

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Posted in sewing

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Apple cozy complete.

Posted on August 4, 2010 by SewTara| 2 Comments

Despite being embarrassed and a tad annoyed by the outcome of this project I’m going to share.

I needed a lot of help along the way for this project.  Mostly because it was my first time following a pattern when crocheting.  Before this I had only made squares.  *SOME* people laughed at me and asked if I was making a plum cozy initially but I found my groove with the right hook and a much looser grip.

All said and done I started over about 3 times, I went up a hook size, I pulled rows out numerous times, I counted along the way and was somehow waaaay off on many, many rows.  Finally when I was done I was so proud and ran to the fridge only to discover it doesn’t fit the apples I usually eat at all.

Guess I’m starting a new one!

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Posted in crochet

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