Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The voting is OVER!

This post is going to be real quick.  Mr Bug, Little Bug, and I are in Jupiter!  No April Fools here... we REALLY are in Jupiter.  

Jupiter, FL, that is.  

I gave Mr Bug tickets to see the St. Louis Cardinals play their last Spring Training Game here.  We'll be at the ball park tomorrow.  Little Bug's first game!

But, I wanted to check in and let you know the conclusion on the bag voting.
It wasn't really much of a tight race.
#4 won by a long shot!

So, here is what the bag will look like for my little friend in India!

So, this week as I make this bag, will you pray for the Better Life Bag customer and her Compassion Child in India?  Pray that the love of Jesus will be carried from my hands - to the bag - to the customer's hands - and land in the sweet little hand and heart of Lavanya in India! 

Monday, March 29, 2010

A VERY Special Bag

Last week, someone ordered a custom bag through my Etsy shop...
and she left this note with her order:

"I am going to India this summer to visit a child that I sponsor through Compassion International.  This bag will be for her-  she's 8 years old, so maybe you could pick out some fun pink/purple fabrics for it. I trust you, all of your bags are super cute!  Thanks!"

I immediately felt a whole rush of emotions at the chance to make this bag!  For those of you who don't know about Compassion International, it is a Christian child advocacy ministry that helps over 1 million children in 25 countries.  Basically, you can sponsor a child through their ministry and send $35 every month to help that child with food, education, clothing, etc...  

I couldn't believe two things:
1. This customer gets to go meet her compassion child!
2. She wants me to make a bag to give to her!!!
I am so thrilled that one of my bags is going to make the life of a little child in India better!  What I would give to see the look of this little girl when she receives the bag.

Here's where YOU come in.

I've picked out some fabric combo options, but I thought it would be fun to have all my Facebook Fans, Blog Readers, and RSS subscribers vote on their favorite combo for this 8 year old girl.
(All together there are 235 of you, so I hope to see LOTS of comments!)

Here is the bag we are making for her.  The color combo pictures below attempt to show you what fabric would be in each section of the bag.
Just leave a comment with your choice!  Voting will end Wednesday, March 31st.

Choice #1

Choice #2

Choice #3

Choice #4

Choice #5


Thanks for voting and having a small part in making a life in India better!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Baby Tag Blanket

So, I have a confession to make.
I often let Little Bug play with this...


I know, I'm a bad mom, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I decided it wasn't a good idea when I started to notice that he was eating the paint off the bag.  Not good.

 He also really likes this toy...

Mostly the tag and the ribbon on the tail. 

So I decided to combine the two features into one glorious toy!


I've seen these for sale in Etsy shops before.  They crinkle and have tags to play with!  How genius!

It was so easy to make.  If you are a new sewer or are wanting a first project to try, here's a tutorial on how to make this.  There are only straight lines to sew and it would make an adorable baby gift!

1. Cut a front and back piece 8" x 8"

2. Find something crunchy (like the wipes bag I used to let Little Bug play with) and cut it 8" x 8", too.

3. Cut up a bunch of ribbon in various lengths.
I laid mine out how I wanted it to look at the end.

4. If you don't have ribbon, you could use fabric scraps instead.

Just be sure to pink the edges with pinking scissors to prevent the fabric from fraying.

5. Since I didn't want my ribbons to fray, I decided to fold them in half and make a loop (so the unfinished edges would be inside the blanket).  But, I also didn't want Little Bug's fingers to get stuck or twisted through the loop, so I closed up one side with a straight stitch.
Just take your ribbon, fold it in half, and stitch down one side.
Do this for all the ribbons you want to be loops.

6. You should have a pile of ribbons and/or fabric strips at the end
 (You can see the red loop closed on one side really good in this picture.)

7. Take your bottom piece and lay it face up.

8. THIS STEP IS THE HARDEST - READ CAREFULLY: 
Take your loops and ribbons and lay them with the part you want showing at the end pointed toward the middle of the fabric.  (notice how my ribbons are all going inward in the picture below.)  In other words, line up the raw edge of the fabric with the raw edges of the ribbons.
Also be sure to leave at least 2 inches between one of the ribbons for turning the blanket inside out. (I left space between the green and brown ribbon on the left).

9. Lay your top piece of fabric face down on top of the ribbons.

10. Lay your crunchy piece on top of everything and pin.

Here's an attempt to show you my layers...

11. Sew through all layers with straight stitches around the edges.  Remove the pins before you sew over them.

12. Remember to leave a 2 inch opening for turning it inside out.  (Backstitch at the beginning and the end for strength)

13. Trim your corners and any ribbon that may be sticking out.

14. Turn the entire thing inside out through your small opening and press the edges with your fingers.  Your tags should be sticking out the right way now :)
Then sew around the edge again!

15. I didn't loop all of my ribbon, so need to heat seal some of them with fire.
To do this, trim the fraying edges and quickly pass fire on the edge to heat seal.
Then you don't need to worry about fraying!
You're done!

A cute, fun, inexpensive gift for your little one, or someone you know!
(of course, I had to put a Better Life Bag tag in Little Bug's!)

I couldn't finish getting him dressed before he noticed it and wanted it...

Let's just say we have a much safer crinkle toy now that someone LOVES.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Franklin Goose - Awesome Promotion You DON'T Want to Miss!

Just stumbled upon this adorable goose on the internet today...


Franklin is his name - as you can see.

You can find him here, at Franklin Goose.com.

Not only does this look like a great baby item store, they have committed themselves to providing and selling only the safest, most organic and natural products available.  They hand pick each product on their site.

You really need to go check them out.

But the cool thing is... right now, they are holding a promotion.  Review any of the items in their store and they will give you a $5 credit for each review.  Review 10 items, get $50.  Pretty awesome, right?  They have to approve each review, so make sure that you've actually used it before you write a review for it. 
Offer expires March 31st.

(By the way, this obviously isn't "Tree Hugging Tuesday" even though I'm posting about eco friendly finds.  The schedule was great to get me in the groove of blogging, but now it's limiting me!  I feel restricted by the schedule!  So, you can see that my "Here's what you can expect..." side bar has changed to topics.  I will blog about topics that interest us all on any day I feel like! - so thanks for reading and subscribing!)

Work for the Day is done :)

I love my work.

But, I also love when my work is done for the day and I can read, scrapbook, and play with my boys!
Here's what I've accomplished in the past two days...

This Nicole bag was for a customer whose name happens to be "Nicole"!  She found me on Etsy and decided this would be the perfect diaper bag for her little man due in two weeks.  I totally agree.  I use this bag a lot as a diaper bag.  Hmmm... maybe I should add that to the listing description over here .
.

Another customer ordered the same bag to use as a teacher tote!  Also a great idea... I've had two other teachers do the same thing!  Hmmmm.... maybe I should also add that idea to the listing description!

Don't you just love the zebra print?


I also had my husband take a picture of me holding one of the bags so everyone could get an idea of how large and wonderful it really is.  I'm trying to do this with all of my bags so I can update my shop pictures.


As I was working on the first of the two Nicoles, I had a revelation for how I could improve on the ties.

Remember the old ones?

Bleh.  Not a fan of the fact that you can sometimes see the stitching on them.  Look closely at the left bag.  See the stitching on the tie?

Meet the new tie - no stitching - no fraying!  Ingenious :)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Sewing Bible

Picked this up at the library today...

You can buy it here:

I've heard great reviews about this book and am thinking of investing in it for myself.  

Thanks to the library for letting me preview it for free!

Off to find a comfy spot to read :)

Just Hangin' Around

Or should I say "hangerin'" around!


I've been busy this week.  Between packing for our big move, and making all of these orders:


... there hasn't been a whole lot of time for anything else!

I had four orders come in yesterday alone!  It's very exciting...


Did I tell you that we started giving Little Bug Organic Brown Rice Cereal this month?


Let's just say that a theme for my life lately is Messy!!!



ps... what do you think about the new Blog Header?  Like it?!
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