March Madness!

...but not in the basketball sense...in my handmade life!

I've sold 9 items in the last week, 7 in 24 hrs, and 2 last night. I'm THRILLED that sales have picked up, and can only hope to keep the momentum going.



A coworker in another dept. in the Museum saw my shop on my Facebook profile and bought a couple items from me for his sister's 25th birthday. He's from Texas and mentioned that they both have a thing for sugar skulls. After selling him the two things he was interested in, I went home and checked out how much fabric I had left in the two sugar skull colorways I use and made more things for my shop. It felt like the minute I listed them, they sold! Such a great feeling! So I made more and listed them!


(click photos for more info!)

A few years ago, I started the tradition of making a birthday gift by hand for my Aunt Gailey. She's my knitting and sewing aunt, and we have a really great relationship. Her birthday was 03/08, and I knew what I wanted to make her.

My grandmother Esther (father's mother) passed away from Emphysema many many years ago. I was a wee child, the age of 7 when she died. Esther was a depression-era lady. She took buttons off of shirts that were too worn to wear so she could put them on other things. She canned, she sewed, she darned socks. She was a crafty lady, in all sense of the word.

When my grandfather Steve died in 2000, all of the grandparents' items were divided up over the 5 children and their grandchildren. I asked for this poster that used to be in Grandma Esther's little room that said "Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits." I absolutely love it because it's so odd but so great!

Well, I thought how perfect it would be to cross-stitch my own version of this poster for my Aunt Gailey's birthday this year. So I did! I hadn't embroidered anything in soooo long. It took me weeks, but this was the final product, framed:



Well, in the time it took to write this post, I sold my 300th item!!! Yayyy! I did a happy dance to Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" and now it's time to get back to work!

<3 Always,
--Taina

Leap Year!

Hello friends!

So as many of you know, I have Friday/Saturday off from my fulltime job. I'm also 8 behind my 20/month self-imposed quota of items to make for Etsy. I couldn't be more thankful for a Leap Day this month!

Today, Etsy will be on Martha! It's so exciting! I try to watch Martha whenever I can, which is usually once a week at most. I love all of the recipes of hers that I've tried. Especially the Irish Soda Bread, to die for!

So the plan is to make 8 things today and list as many as possible. Then I will be going to my friend Jenny's Leap Year party. I'm still trying to think of a good hostess gift for her and her roommate. My last party, she brought a "Hostess Platter", which was a nice plate covered in Twinkies, DingDongs and HoHo's. It was really cute. She joked that we are in competition because she spent "so much time" working on her gift to me. I was thinking of maybe making a jar of hand-dipped chocolate covered pretzels. We'll see!

Here is item 12/20:


(Click photo for more info.)

A tried & true fabric, hopefully it will sell once again! This time I lined it with blue fabric I picked up at Mood. I hope my new order of fabric from FabricStash arrives today! I can't wait to make things out of the new prints.

It's 9:24am and even though my throat is slightly sore, I'm ready to start my day! I think today is an oatmeal & an organic navel orange day.

<3 Always,
--Taina

Rainy day off...

It's been pouring nonstop since at least 8am. It's now 5:30pm EST. I had plans to go to Target for OJ, bread, yogurt, and a few other essentials that are much cheaper than my supermarket sells them. Afterwards, I was going to go down past Chinatown to purchase more zippers. I woke up to the sound of rain and wind beating down on my window and decided that I'd rather stay in bed for a few more hours.

I purchased zippers at wholesale prices online. From the same family-owned business I was planning on purchasing from all the way downtown, no worries!

SEVENTY-SEVEN zippers! Intense! I bought black, white, yellow, green, blue, red, and pink zippers in various sizes.



Jeff from ZipperStop contacted me to say the zippers would be in the mail this afternoon. What service! He also said I should check out the store and gave the hours. I've only purchased from them online. He says the store is actually a three floor building. I have a feeling I'd spend TONS in the actual shop.

I stayed in bed, caught up on the first episode of this season's "Lost" (I watched the Democratic Debate last night, which aired the same time as Lost), and photographed items 19 and 20 of January, and 1/20 of February.

I decided I should stay in and do handmade things. I mixed the ingredients for cornbread, placed it in the oven, set the timer and...voila! I completely forgot about it and burned it! eek. I will eat it anyway. It's not black, just a bit more brown than I'd like.

Tonight? I am making more peppermint bark and a makeup bag for my cousin's wife, who's 40th b-day is tomorrow. I was thinking of making one out of the same indigo fabric as the coin purse I just listed today. My parents will bring it to her when they go to her party without me. I am working the Family Festival at MoMA tomorrow, reading kids books of my choosing.



Oh, I got paid yesterday! So I have a few bucks to spend on Etsy. I was thinking about purchasing a fun handmade v-day card for my penpal. I've been searching for a little while now. I should check my mail and see if I received anything fun today.

<3 Always,
--Taina