Crafty New Year's Resolutions

I've been thinking about resolutions for personal life this next coming year and I think it's only appropriate to make a list of resolutions for my crafty life as well. Like any good crafty person I have a huge stash. I am taking ridiculously huge. It ranges from paper crafting and fabrics to glass and tile. I've got a little bit of everything in a 11' x 11' bed room with a great  5'x5' walk in closet. I have 3 industrial machines, 2 smaller home sewers, and 2 new machines, an embroidery and a coverstitch that I still haven't broken into. Several things are wrong with that statement...who has sewing machines waiting to be use!? Me. Darn it.

My Industrial Yamata Serger

So first of all  I want to keep my room clean and organized. I had a great friend come in a while back and she helped me get it into shape but I kinda floofed it all up again after sewing for the craft show. Ooops. I'll have her come back out and help me soon.

Next, I am going to work on stash busting. There are so many touted projects for stash busting out there that I kind of ignore because it's really such a personal thing, your stash. We don't have the same things in our stashes so not all projects are really stash busters for people. In case you are a non-crafter, like my sister, a stash busting project is one where every material you use for the completed project comes from things you already have on hand. It feels really good to complete a whole project this way and for some reason it feels like you made it for free. I don't really know why. I guess I just forget how much money really is invested in my stash.

All my beautiful machines deserve to be cleaned out more regularly. I know better. I will take the time to return to them the love that they give me constantly by being reliable, solid workhorses that get me one step closer to my goals of being self employed. I will oil them and make them all happy and shiny <3

I am going to also take more time to figure out those machines I was given, the coverstitch and the embroidery machine. In general I need to take more time to figure out some of the neat tools I've acquired over the years.

On a windy pier in Los Angeles ...

First Picture of Completed Shirt

Other sewing goals...I have a jacket for Ryan that has taken me way too many cold seasons to finish. He's been waiting so patiently for the nice brown and tan plaid jacket lined in warm tan flannel that I started last winter. I did work on it for a week this year but I want it to be perfect and my mind just hasn't been settled enough to put clear working time in on it.

When we first started dating Ryan wore a long sleeve button up shirt as an outer layer in the cold. He always wore the sleeves rolled up even when it was way too cold. I rolled his sleeves down only to see that the sleeves were almost four inches too short! I measured him up and I made him a corduroy jacket, as seen above, with a pattern I modified to fit his long, narrow torso and his long arms.  His face lit up when he tried on a shirt that fit him perfect. I had more time to sew back then but I am determined to finish this new jacket for him now.

Sweets Swap Stationery Set

One last goal for my crafty life will be to try and document my creations better. I need to hook up my printer to help back up my work with hard copies and so that I can create more fun things like this stationery set that I made oh so many years ago for a craft swap. I want to try my hand at making a zine and I think a printer would be handy to have on my side.

Good night for now :) I'll also try and keep up a more regular posting schedule for myself so you all can keep an eye on my progress with all these goals.

First Craft Fair

Book Wreaths and Me

 I had my very first craft fair sale a few weekends ago and boy did I ever learn a lot of great things for next year.

I brought everything that I used to have on my Etsy, paper crafts, sewing projects. I met a lot of really nice vendors who were so happy to give me tips and advice. One lady took this picture of me next to some of my book wreathes. I actually sold one! I was pretty excited about that sale because everyone seemed to like them but I think most people didn't know what to 'do' with them. The lady who bought one said that she walked all around the fair and couldn't get it out of her head. Score me!

 One of the items that sold the best on my table were my sets of hand made note cards. I make little sets of cards without envelopes and people bought them as stocking stuffers. Doodles into dollars!

My Crazy Space

My table was a crazy mess unfortunately. I did my best to group like items and make it interesting but since I had a variety of items it kind of looked messy. I didn't prepare my table plan ahead of time which is definitely a must for next year. I want to make a banner with my name on it and really have a sharp set up next time. This time I just grabbed some fabric out of my heaps from the closet and pinned it to the table.

I ended up making back the fee for my space but not much actual profit. I guess my real profit was a lesson learned :)