Weekend Projects

Mornin'!
All weekend I was plugging away at my sewing machine and craft corner. As I mentioned in a few posts, I was asked to be apart of the Local Collection store opening next month which is opening in Fanueil Hall in Boston. I am driving myself mad considering I still work a full time day job and am a full time mom and wife! What am I thinking taking on another "gig" like this, but I am soooo excited! I am certainly hoping to make the best out of this and know if I didn't follow through with this new retail store that I'd kick myself in the butt no matter what. So I am taking it on and have come to the realization I am going to be beyond busy, in which I had to advise the hubby I am fully committed :)

Beyond that, I played with a few tutorials from Christine at "From an Igloo." She has had so many cute things on her blog that I just had to try. They seemed simple enough to give a whirl at.

One was this "Scrappy Clutch." Last weekend I took my daughter (age 4) and niece (age 6) to the fabric store and let them pick out their own fabric and I would make them a little purse. The tutorial is for a "clutch," but I turned it into a little girls purse for them, just made a longer strap instead of the smaller one sided strap you'll find in the tutorial. The fabric combo's they were picking out were hilarious, I had to put my foot down a few times, but this is what my Cammi came up with which turned out cute and very "Cam."
My niece, Grace's, is going to be interesting when finished. Just think cupcakes and leopord print! I took the excess from those and compiled one for my 2 yr old niece Amber as well so she doesnt feel left out. So hers will be an interesting combo too :)

Overall this tutorial was great and made for a cute simple weekend project for myself.

Also, another one of her tutorials is the "One Hour Sundress" It did take me a bit longer than an hour, but I had many interuptions :) After I had Camryn try on her new sundress she loved it and I only needed to adjust the straps. I guess I made them too long. And I also only had 1/4" inch elastic available so made due on that too. I added a flower for an extra touch :)

Thanks Christine for sharing those and all the others you share!

~ On another note I started Camryn's Easter Dress too, I also found a great corresponding fabric to the Lindy Leaf I picked from the THIS POST HERE. Its a Yellow swiss dot material that matches perfectly!

Have a great Monday!

Kristyn

Some updates and Sentiment today...

I wasn't expecting this, but I am completely having a very sentimental day. These days just creep up on me sometimes, but for some reason I assuming its stemming from the news of Layla Grace yesterday. Every song I've been hearing this morning has been bringing tears to my eyes, which I am also laughing about, because its just one of those days. Some of the songs that have choked me up are Smile by Uncle Cracker (no idea why!), Grown Men Don't Cry by, When the stars go blue, Live like you were dying all by Tim McGraw, Guess Im having a thing for that guy today :) (I have a soft spot for guys in cowboy hats that can play the guitar!, yes Zack knows haha) Our wedding song was It's your Love by T.M. as well.

Last night I invited everyone over for dinner (my parents, my sister's family, and my aunt, whom lost her husband a few weeks ago to cancer, who brought her grandkids over too). It was chaotic, as it usually is with six kids running around crazy while we're trying to prepare and eat dinner, but I just felt completely lucky and blessed for the family I have yesterday. We are very close and always there for eachother, just how family should be. So... Zack got a call a work from me yesterday saying when you stop home for lunch, take out more chicken, everyone's coming over :) (he didn't mind in the least) So what does he do, he sends out an email to everyone giving everyone 3 options for dinner in a menu format (how much do I love him :)):

1. Chicken cooked in a Lemon and Pinot Grigio sauce, garnished with
parsley and Rice

2. Chicken Madeira with baby portobella mushrooms and farfalle pasta

3. BBQ Chicken on the grill with Sweet Baby Rays, steamed corn on the
cob,and rice

All 3 meals to be served with a side Caesar salad

We ended up BBQing because its been a fantastic week weather wise in the Northeast!

Here are a few pictures my mom sent to me this morning of her dropping Camryn off at school, isn't she a doll!

And I guess this is what her and Jacoby are up to today after they dropped her off at school.

Now Some updates:

I got the fabric in the mail two days ago so I plan to start her dress finally this weekend and I will try to document the process for a possible tutorial :) My mom asked me last night, "when are you going to find the time to make it." The thought crossed my mind, but its high up on my laundry list.

I was in contact again with the Local Collection, which I first mentioned HERE. The application is complete, and now Im waiting to see if I will be able to sell my merchandise there or what! The store is suppose to open in Fanuel Hall (Boston) in April. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that this going to be an open door in my "venture."

Speaking of my "venture," (which I began ranting about here) I am completely enthralling my energy towards it right now. I told Zack the other night, "you know when you were younger and had no idea what you wanted to do with your life, well I finally realized what I want to do." I still have a lot of work, but extreme motivation to make it happen.

Happy Hump Day,

Kristyn

A Boost of Confidence

So my ideas were flowing this past weekend and after having a rough week last week with guilt being away from my kids all day long all week long I started reading this book my mom passed along to me. (we have the same creative mind and passion to move foward with our ideas).

The book really gave me a boost and perspective of things I need to look into and start doing to help my success:

1. Somehow patton a name asap (we'll see how soon that comes along, as $$$ is involved)



2. I have already started a pretty lenghty business plan, so that was good (my college degree came in hand with that one since I'd did plenty of them throughout my college days).



3. I need my products to have a niche, something more unique about them on why they are different from the rest of the market. The niche was created for the shop idea, just not my products yet, and I'd certainly hate to just be a plain old copy cat! So I have been brainstorming that one and have a few ideas that will need some practice first.



4. Don't be bashful or ashamed of what you are doing. I am a very modest person and hates to brag about what I love (besides my awesome kids!), so practiced that already by trying to be more confident when my friends and family asked about my venture this passed weekend.

So I gained all this insight just from a reading the beginning of this book while driving home from my 9 to 5 while carpooling with my brother inlaw.

So then I didn't have much time to work on any products this weekend between showers, kids, cleaning, kids, cooking, kids, husband lol, kids, rest, kids, ahhh and its Monday again! But I was able to keep up with online correspondence and was asked to by a few people to create tutus for gifts, which got my creative juices flowing.

1. a tutu for a "scary" ballerina - will be my first real black tutu

2. a special tutu for a birthday girl who's family is very into their Irish heritage, which I actually began last night while trying to appease my husband by watching a movie with him at the same time.

3. a purple tutu dress for a possible etsy sale I am looking forward to

4. There was one request I seen too for a tutu design needed for a marathon runner, which I thought would be super exciting to make and it to be seen by all the runners and spectators, so I made a bid and am hoping for the best :)

Some more confidence came from my husband telling me he'd take the kids out one night this week leaving me with the free time to actually get some good work done. That is a long cry from him before being upset with the money I have spent so far to get things going, so that helped!

And again all I want is to do things I love, one see my kids grow up first hand and be apart of it and make things I love for great people in my life and others.

I see this by opening a cute boutique with my friend Laura whom should be having kids soon and will be in the same predicament. Have the ability to work and create on our own time/working time within the shop, have my little "cobeman" (Jacoby) running around where he pleases in there under my supervision :) while I can come and go to bring my "monster" (Camryn) to school, dancing, soccer etc whenever she needs to or be home when they're sick like Camryn is today who is at home being nursed by Grandma and not me :(.

In end today, I've convinced myself and Laura to register for our first craft fair! We'll see which one we pick and where it goes from there :)