Shop Grand-Re-opening and Freebie Prints!

Guess whose back!?

I am. Ta-da!

I never really went anywhere but I sure did take a huge break from the shop. I had a good excuse though. Pregnancy, new baby.. you know how it is. Everything to do with the shop and the blog took a back seat and I don't regret one bit of it either.

But the time has come to get back into the swing of things. Even though I still have a very -loves her Mama more then anyone- 2 month old, I felt like I needed to open the shop back up and start things back up with the blog.

I did create some prints while I was pregnant. Their by far my favorite and I was inspired by my little Peanut to create them {and they proudly hang in her Nursery as we speak}. They are completely finished and now listed in the shop.

I also tried my hand at some web graphics. Mainly Etsy Banner sets. I love creating graphics and have always wanted to create some for the shop but never got around to it. Now that I only have one arm available 99.8% of the time ;), it's easier for me to work on the Etsy Banner sets then it is to sketch out some designs {although my sketch books are in need of some major TLC!}. 

I think the biggest thing for me is working on promoting. I have a Twitter but that too has taken a back seat these past couple months. I know there are some good sources out there for promoting your business/blog but since I am a Mom first, I will just have to give it a go on my own and take it from there.

So with the 'Grand RE-opening' of the shop I decided to give away two free Autumn prints. I created these a couple years ago and have had them saved in my files for awhile now. One is digital and the other is ink-drawn and then digitally colored in.

Download the Autumn 8x10 print here

Download the Give Thanks Pumpkin 8x10 print here

You might have also noticed a new blog design {c/o myself}. I decided since I was starting everything else up, mine as well start with a new blog set up. 

New baby, new beginnings, new shop items, new blog... new everything :)

Are you board?

hehehe get it. I spelled it wrong.

ON purpose too. :0)

Anywho, I stopped at Target today on my lunch break. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular. Just one of those random, don't have anywhere to go, but don't want to stay in the office, type of lunch breaks {I tend to have a lot of those}.


Welp, I browsed through the home good isles and was not impressed with the sales. Heck I was shocked at the *lack* of sales they had. I would have thought they would be booming with sales since Christmas is over. Florida must not believe in sales. -Cheapskates.


I got all nosy in the office supplies section. I walked up and down the 3-4 isles of office supplies about 6 times each. I was begining to wonder if the people behind the security cameras would take notice and at any moment start following me {oh wait, maybe that's why that one guy seemed to be back tracking me.... hmmm....}

{kidding}.

I stopped at the cork board section of the isle and although the rest of the sales {if that's what you want to call them} throughout the store pretty much sucked, the sale on cork boards was actually pretty awesome and probly totally random all at the same time {seriously? sale on cork boards.. of all things}.

So I snagged one up for about 5 bucks and took it home.

I absolutely love Pinterest {if you couldn't tell by the amount of pins I have already} however I had this creative idea to have an inspiration board in 'real time'. Something I could always look at without having to rely on the computer to give me that daily dose of creativity.

I gathered up some old magazines I had lying around the house and also some cute photos my sister sent of my nephews and of course one of my absolute favorites of Jayden.

The one of him at the beach. He was a year old. It was his very first time at the beach and he LOVED it. His little arms all up in the air, keeping his balance between crashing waves and some soggy baby shorts. Needless to say the boy to this day loves the beach and is already asking me if we can go to it. Luckily we live pretty close to it.

The other 3 photos are also some of my favs. Old, but favs. I love lilies and the orange lily was blooming wildly at our old house, the sailboat was at sunset at our local park {beyond the buildings in the background is the ocean} and the one of the ocean and cloud coming in was when Hurricane Gustav was out in the Gulf. We headed to the pier to 'watch' it come in and it was so awesome.

I basically snagged some photos that were fun and colorful.

Color inspires me and makes me really happy and my heart really warm.

And yes... color is very, very refreshing!

You might have also noticed my 'sewing table' was transformed into something other then a sewing table. Well you noticed right. For the time being I moved my sewing machine over to the 'sewing section/corner' of my wall table and this desk is being used for some up coming projects.

And speaking of up coming projects, here is a sneak peak, totally not finished but wanted to give you a little teaser of what im working on {among others}.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

SO after seeing all the color in this post maybe you aren't so board anymore? HA! BOARD! ::snort::.

I am excited about my little 'real time pinterest board'. Im having so much fun staring at it, even though that might sound booooring, literally.

I am also on a mission to stay up as late as I can, at least until midnight. I am determined to stay up and watch the ball drop this year. Both Josh and I feel so freaking old. Every year we are in bed long before the ball drop. Like loooong before. Its kind of pitiful. So send me some coffee vibes to get us through till the clock turns 12 tomorrow night/Sunday morning. :0)

Have a great New Year everyone!!!!

Studio Tour :: Updated

I havent done a studio post in awhile. It has been awhile for me though since I havent really spent some time in here.

{I say in 'here', loving the new laptop Josh got me!}

Lets just say I was neglecting the ol' studio. It was accumulating more stuff on top of stuff that was just thrown in there. The closet looked like it threw up all over the floor. Random objects were just spewed everywhere and everything was out of place.

This is what we were dealing with around 3PM today....

See.

There it is. The closet throwup. It was a mess. A pure mess everyone. I was actually disgusted because I typically like my space and my studio to be somewhat organized. If it's a mess like this and just overall organizational disaster, then my creativity decreases. My motivation and creative juices pretty much become non-existent.

So now that the holidays are over something had to be done.

I put my game face on and walked in with my fists up ready to fight out the mess.

I won :0)

I did a little re-arranging also....

I put my mat in the far corner and moved all the jars of sewing supplies up on the shelf.

The fabric that used to be in this spot {on the shelf} I moved into the closet, it only made sense.

There used to be a ton more 'fabric' in the closet. It was mostly old curtains in different shades of darker greens... etc. I always kept it because I figured I *might* need it again for whatever project someday... but it's been a year since any of the stuff was even un-folded SO... off into the donate pile it went.

My paints used to be hanging from the 'accessory board' that is over by the sewing area of the bench, but I moved them to the other end of the bench along with my other paint/drawing supplies.

Canvases, drawing books, paints {located in the white jar}, color pencils and drawing pencils are all located in this corner now.

I also moved my sewing table. It used to be under the window but I decided to move against the long wall, that way it would be easier to see a little 'someone' running up and down the hallway, vs trying to turn around a gazillion times {when it was under the window}.

And the ironing board is now located under the window, where the sewing table used to be.

And there is my newest Studio tour. My creative juices are starting to flow now, I can feel it and im so excited to start working on more and new projects.

Speaking of new projects- The ol' shop is on 'vacation' right now for a little bit. Now that my space is organized and cleaned, I need to get back in and start working on some more items. I have also been working on a newer item {non-sewing related} as well for the shop, but this sort of item takes time and patience. Now that all my stuff is organized im ready to dive in and have fun!

Etsy Projects - Preview

So im back for a quick post to show you all what ive been working on! [hence my lack of posting this past week]. Oh and have I mentioned our roof was leaking? [excuse me while I bang my head against the wall....]. So this past week I have been working on some more items for my shop. Right now it's currently in 'vacation mode' so I can stock up on items and im hoping to 're-launch' by the end of the month/first week of August.

Two new Camera Lens pouches.

I have been going stupidly crazy on fabric lately. I'm obsessed with all the colors, patterns and prints [I spent way to much $$$ this weekend buying some new fabric online]!

Small electronic pouches with flap. These are perfect for your phone, MP3 player or any other small electronic device that's out there on the market. I made different sizes ranging from small to big enough for an iphone.

Fits perfectly.

{sorry camera phone pic} These are my favorite pouches because they are simple and easy access. They are my simple no-flap phone pouches. Your phone slides in and out very easily.

I am currently using one for myself right now. Now that I have a new phone and all, the last thing I want to do it scratch it, scuff it or 'ruin' it in any way. These little pouches are perfect for when you just need to throw your phone in your purse along with any other items while heading out the door but at the same time, keeping it safe from all those other things rattling around in there.

Another new camera lens pouch, this one is inspired for Autumn/Fall!

AND last but not least... some finished camera strap covers. The ones on the left are 3" wide with top-stitching on either side making it 2.5" in the middle portion. The ones on the right are 2.5" and have no top stitching.


I hope you enjoyed some of my preview of what I have been working on. More certainly to come!

{Tour} Craft Room

Hold onto your hats ladies and gents. Today im sharing an in-depth look into my 'studio'.... or craft room, as I sometimes call it. It's my 'go to' room for my painting/drawing, sewing projects, or anything else that might fall under the craft category. My studio is the 3rd bedroom in the house. Since we don't have a whole lot of overnight guests, it doesn't make sense to make an entire room a 'guest bedroom' when we would never use it. I get more use out of our 3rd bedroom by using it as a studio and it holds all of my stuff which is a major plus.

This is the view standing in the hallway, looking into the room.

Once you walk in you can see the bulk of it all. The large bench Josh and I made and just recently we added the shelves to the wall.

I love this long bench. It has so much room and is a perfect surface to work on.

On the far right is my sewing corner. This area holds all of my sewing stuff. The blue bin is a re-done vintage metal paper towel holder that I painted and now holds all of my small fabric scraps. The glass jars hold pins, needles, bobs of thread and my sewing machine feet.

The first shelf holds my fabrics.

Unfinished projects.

And to the left of that are the finished projects.

Down to the opposite side of my bench you get more of my 'Art' type stuff. Paper, scrapbook paper, notepads, drawing/sketch pads... etc.

I'm not a big scrapbooker but I looooove me some scrapbook paper. I just love all of the patterns and colors. I manage to find other uses for all of my paper other than just scrapbook projects.

My littler corner has my paper cutter, measuring board and my current water color project I am working on.

The very top shelf in those purple containers, are all of my beads and supplies for when I make my I.D lanyards [I have made some lanyards for my shop and where I currently work you have to wear a badge at all times so the lanyards are a hit :) ]. The second shelf in the 3-drawer container are scraps of paper, photo papers and blank cards [some are just white and some have designs on them].

To the right of my 3-drawer container are my packaging for when I ship my prints. Than we have my stack of construction paper. Or I should say Jayden's stack since he uses that paper more than I have :)

This is one of my areas for ribbon [you will see the other later on]. I made this ribbon board out of a piece of scrap wood we had in the garage. Sanded it down, painted it white [along with the screws] and as you can see I took some long screws [about 4"] and screwed them in just enough to where they were tightly in there. And now they easily hold my spools of ribbon.

I know my closet looks like a complete freak show but trust me. It seriously is organized. Even though it's packed to the gills with stuff, I know exactly where everything in there is. The very top shelf are throw pillows that came with our sofa's when we bought them. Their ugly but I have kept them because of the stuffing [all about the re-suing!]. The 3rd shelf has all of my candle holders, candles and glass jars. The 2nd shelf, as you can see, has larger yards of fabric and old curtains on the left, stuffing in the middle and on the right I have my Etsy box and below that is a box with files and old folders. On the very bottom we have [on the left] a box with binders containing old papers that aren't quite important enough to put in the safe box but important enough to not throw away [if that makes sense], paint cans on the floor and in the blue tub are some old decor items that are no longer my style and im going to re-do them and also some Fall/Autumn items.

The door holds some gift bags, extension cord and an Autumn wreath [which I think is ugly to be honest haha].

Hop over to the other side of the room again and you have my 'tool station'. This is my peg board that holds just about all of my 'tools'. And even my paints [as seen towards the bottom].

There you can see my 2nd ribbon station which holds some of my larger spools of ribbon.

My semi-last area of storage are my two large storage drawer containers that fit perfectly under the bench. The right on holds supplies like tape, glue gun, thumb tacks, crayons, chalk, hardware, craft projects to work on and on the bottom are all of my paint supplies [rollers, big brushes, drop cloth and craft paint]. The container on the left has more of my sewing supplies. Zippers, tape, interfacing, felt... etc and on the bottom drawer are some empty frames.

Next up is my sewing table. I would love a new table for sewing, but for right now I use an old desk. It's sturdy and works so why not right? The filing cabinet is mainly there for extra storage if needed and also is a great place to put my little lamp. My ironing board and a mirror fit perfectly behind that.

Some of my paintings and artwork.

Other paintings and artwork that I have created also hang on my clothes-pin board. Basically I took another old scrap piece of wood from the garage. Sanded, painted and attached small hooks to the top and hung it on the wall [with the hooks]. I than took clothes pins and used double sided tape and attached them to the board.

And there you have my complete studio-craft room tour. I know it was quite a walk through but I was happy to share my little space with you. My space where I go to for a little 'me' time or when I need to be inspired. And when we do have guests, their not left out in the dust. We just blow up the ol' air mattress, plop it in this room and presto. Instant guest room ;)

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. Vacation is over now. Back to the grind again [ugh].