Houndstooth and Bright Blue barrettes...

80mm Houndstooth printed pinwheel barrette.

This weekend I've worked on an order placed before I wend on vacation at the beginning of the month.  It was for a friend at work that ordered two barrettes for her granddaughter.  I have them ready to go, but I haven't been back to work since I've finished them.  Monday I hope she'll be at work so I can give them to her: in a proper bag, and a business card in the bag with the barrettes.

80mm Bright blue leaf print bow barrette.

I have a lot of prints I bought earlier this year that I've really wanted to make some bows and pinwheels with.  The houndstooth and this fun bright blue print are two of my favorites.  I've had the houndstooth for a while, I think I got it for free at art school to be honest.  I have so many plastic tubs around my house just filled with scrap fabric.  So many started projects that I just forget about.

I have this tote bag I started over a year ago.  I stopped the project because I needed to take in the sides a quarter inch and I was just so pissed off about it.  I don't know if anyone would buy it, but it doesn't hurt to finish and try to sell.  Hopefully I'll get up the gumption to finish that this week.  It's so close!

My work area is getting so cluttered and is driving me nuts!  I really need to build a book shelf for all my photo boxes and supplies.  I want to bring my sewing desk down to my work area and put it next to my computer desk so I have a nice corner to work in.  I really have way too much stuff.  I need to downsize really.  I have plastic bins with grade school paints that I'll probably never use again that I really need to donate to the recreation program in our town or to an after school program or something.  My cousin works for the recreation for the town now so maybe I'll ask her if they could use some of the art supplies I have.

I made another barrette too, but you've already seen the print before.  When I take more pictures tomorrow maybe I'll post again.  I take better pictures in natural light, I like the look of natural light better than studio anyway.  Until tomorrow... Goodnight!

North Carolina and returning to the job I hate...

My family's cottage for the week in Ocean Isle Beach, NC.

My Grandma on my Dad's side of the family died in January of this year.  Instead of everyone trying to go down for a funeral in January our family decided we would have a memorial service for her this June in Raleigh, NC.  And they also wanted all the family to come down to the beach the brothers used to summer at (Ocean Isle Beach) for the week after the memorial.  It was to be a celebration of Grandma and all she loved.  We used to get together every so often and have family reunions on that side.  Grandma and Grandaddy loved seeing everyone all together and enjoy the summer time.  Grandma loved to swim.  Up until 2 years before she died she would get in the water every summer.

One night while hanging out at my uncle's condo, there was a double rainbow!  Pretty cool =0)

It was a wonderful week, for the most part.  Kevin got sunburned one day, we swam in the ocean three times, ate seafood, sat outside in the ocean air every morning and evening, and best thing of all we got to see family every day!  Having said that, there were some pretty big stressers for me, but I made it through.  I learned a lot about my Dad's side of the family that week.  

Right to Left: Chrissy, Kevin, Mom and Dad at The Pharmacy Restaurant in Southport, NC.

Left to Right: Uncle Don, Aunt Ann, Uncle Jim, Cheryl, Dad, Mom, and all the kiddies!

The friday before Kevin and I flew home, we were going to go see my Mother and her husband Gregory while we were in the area.  So Kevin and I made the drive to Smithfield to check in to our hotel.  We didn't sleep very well at the cottage in Ocean Isle beach due to the air conditioning not working, Tropical storm Andrea, and just being uncomfortable I guess.  So we sort of slept better that night in Smithfield.  Although I found out that our elefant upstairs neighbors kept Kevin up all night.  They were pacing the floor with their heavy feet all night.  And the floor creaked in a certain spot too.  We were just cursed to not get sleep on our vacation.  

Creech Pharmacy in Selma, NC.  We met a real soda jerk!!  We got lemonades and orangeades!

This is the pharmacy where we got the drinks from in Selma, NC.  Such a cute town with a million antique stores!

This is my mother!  She showed Kevin and I this nice park in Raleigh, NC.  It's got this big lake at the center and this nice paved path going around it.  It was a really nice walk.  We got to see a turtle and a nute!

My mother's husband raises pigs, well he calls them hogs!  He showed us a few of the piglets, they were so adorable!

This is my mother's husband with one of his piglets.  I love this picture, it came out so good!

 The day we left my mother's husband's sow gave birth to 9 piglets!  Kevin and I were sad he couldn't come with us for the afternoon, but I'm glad he was there to help the mamma pig give birth.  Kevin and I had a great time, but we were so glad to be going home by the end of the week.   We missed our own bed, but most of all, we missed our kitties Rocks and Ashe.  Rocks didn't leave our side for the first few days we were home.

This is the same piglet.  I love his tail!  So glad we got to see the piglets while we were there visiting.

It's been okay going back to work, but today I've looked at my schedule from work and compared it to my appointment book and it is not going well.  I threw my book on the floor earlier because I was so angry.  I am almost positive that I put in for my Remicade appointment and for Kevin's best friend's 30th birthday party... Well if I did, I wasn't approved to have the days off.  I am working both days in the times I specified I couldn't work.  So angry STILL!!!  Now I have to see if I can switch with another supervisor for both days or just for one at least.  I might just have to take a point and come in late on the Remicade appointment day.  I can't wait to quit my job someday in the distant future.  I hate the schedule that retail has... Which means you don't really have a set schedule at all, you work something different every week.  I hate it so much!  If I work my butt off and promote myself more this year maybe I'll start making enough money to not have to work at Kohl's once Kevin and I get married.  That would be awesome.  But I have a lot more promoting to do in order to do that.  I really need to get out of this uninspired slump.  Until next time everyone, have a great weekend!

Pandora stations...

So I recently have discovered that Pandora is really awesome for someone like me.  I am the type of music lover that likes a certain genre but doesn't know a lot of artist names or songs.  I feel like knowing one artist, like I often only do, then making a station I can add varieties as I learn artists in that type of genre.  It's really great for learning about new artists.  Or I should say, new to me.  I know I'm probably sounding like a dinosaur, but I thought I would share my discovery with you all.

I made a Thomas Newman station because I love the soundtracks he's done.  For example my favorites that he has composed are: Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events, White Oleander, and American Beauty.  I added Dario Marianelli as a variety because I love the soundtrack to Pride & Prejudice.  I also added Nick Cave and Warren Ellis as a variety because they have come up a lot on this station and I've loved every song that has come up.  They composed for The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.  I currently have their album "White Lunar" on my Christmas list for 2013.  I love that Pandora shows what album the song is from so that you can buy it or write it on some sort of list like I did for a later date.  I also found the artist Helen Jane Long.  Every song that has come up by her has been so great.

Classical music is funny with me.  It's very soothing and is great background music for me when I'm working.  But it takes a bit for me to say to myself, stop for a minute and give this song a thumbs up on Pandora.  These artists listed above made me do that.  Classical music is nostalgic for me in a way too.  I always remembered my Grandmother listening to classical music whenever she drove.  She always had the radio tuned to the classical station.  Recently when I was setting the radio stations in my car, I had a hard time finding such a station.  I wonder if there is still one on an AM station.  I seem to remember my Grandma being tuned to AM... hmmm... I'll have to look into that sometime.

I hope that my discovery has inspired some of you to find new artists to listen to.  I don't know about you all, but my fiance and his friends are musicians.  They are one way I find out about new music that is out, but this is another nice way to find music on my own.  While my fiance's friends fill me in on bands they think I'll like, I like a lot of different genres of music.  Different moods and different tasks require different music.  I'm sure most people are the same, I just imagine most people having a closer knitted music type they like to listen to in general.  If that makes any sense...

Childhood photo of myself with my Grandmother's violin that I played for a year.  I now have that violin and need to get it restored so I can display it.  I'd like to learn to play again.  My grandmother was so good at it.

Bows, Pinwheels, and barrettes in general...

Minty green 50mm bow barrette.

I've been pretty productive lately if I do say so myself.  I've been pretty diligent in getting orders finished.  On Saturday I was able to give the last half of an order to my friend.  She was very pleased with her four bow barrettes and I'm so glad she liked them.  We went to the fabric store together to pick out the fabric she wanted for her barrettes.  She was so nice to pay for the fabric so that I could use it to make more for other buyers.  While the minty green and lavender are trending colors and are practical for matching a lot of her current outfits, the summery print one I hope will coordinate well with her outfits as well.  She told me she is thinking the green and yellow bow barrette will do well for the fall she thinks.  I hope she gets a lot of use out of them in the coming year.

Lavender 50mm bow barrette.

Fun summery print 50mm bow barrette.

Green and yellow print 50mm bow barrette.

My cousin asked me a little earlier than my friend to make her a good amount of barrettes.  The one she was specific about was the one below.  She asked if I could find a fabric with purple and gold in it because she wanted a fun one to support her school colors.  Eastern NC State I think is her school.  She liked this one.  It's nice having Facebook so I can get feedback on whether clients like the product or not.

50mm gold and purple leafy print pinwheel barrette.

Yellow polka dot 50mm pinwheel barrette.

The next two barrettes were fabrics that my cousin really liked.  I love the prints and I especially love the leather button on the barrette below.

Leather button 50mm pinwheel barrette.

I'm not sure if my cousin will be into this last one, but I'll bring it to show her anyway.  She said she wanted some plain colors, which is smart.  So I have a few more to make for my cousin, and by showing these on my Facebook page I got an order for two barrettes!  So I was pretty psyched for that.

Black jersey 50mm pinwheel barrette.

Lots more to make!!!  Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Memorial Day weekend...

Today is Memorial Day, and to start it off I would like to say hope everyone has a very happy Memorial Day.  Hope everyone has great weather for all of those marching in parades and for all the fun BBQs that will be going on throughout the day.  And of course a big thanks to all our troops and veterans that are serving and have served, we all appreciate what you do and have done for us and your country.

Now to explain one of the busiest weekends I think Kevin and I have had in a few weeks.  Friday night was an awful night at work.  Super busy and the messiest customers.  I actually stood infront of a folded t-shirt table and said... REALLY!!!  It's not even Christmas time!  It looked like a busy weekend before Christmas.  People just ripped shirts from the pile and stuffed it on the shelf after they took it out.  I think it took me 45 minutes to fold both sides.  I had a customer change a diaper in the handicapped fitting room and leave the diaper placed in a hook to hang clothes...  It at least wasn't a poopy diaper, but it was warm and was still really gross that someone did that.

Anyway... I had Saturday off, which was nice.  Probably the least of our busy days.  Kevin and I made a strawberry rhubarb compote and put it on waffles for breakfast.  Then we headed down to Old Lyme to check out an estate sale hoping we could find some good stuff for our house, or for the wedding, or both!  There were a ton of trunks that the home owner had.  There was a cool square one that we really liked, but the family would only do so good as 75 for it instead of 85... She said she wished she could do better because we were adorable, ha!  She told us to come back Sunday or Monday to see if it was still there and maybe she'd do better.

Then we went to Lowes and Bob's to check out some stuff.  We're thinking of doing storm doors for the front and back doors so the kitties can look out and we can get more light into the house.  But of course, our door frame isn't standard sizing for the in-stock doors.  So frustrating!  It was a pretty good sale too, oh well I guess.  Kevin and I are going on vacation to NC next week and he needed some shoes seeing as he threw away two pair just last week.  So we got those at Bob's and went back home.  That night was an awards ceremony/party in downtown New London for our music scene in South Eastern Connecticut.  It's called the Whalies.  The weather was so awful that night, we decided to meet up with our friends that were up for awards after at a local bar.  It was so cold, damp, and rainy off and on that day.  Although I felt really bad we weren't there to support our friends, I'm glad we were warm and dry.  It was nice to catch up with them and celebrate after the awards.  Our friend James Maple won the critics' choice for Best Alternative Folk Preformance!  And our other friends from Pocket Vinyl won two peoples' choice awards!  Best Indie Pop and Best Music Video!  Great job you three, so happy for you all!

JR had someone take this for him.  Good shot =0)

The next day had been booked up for months!  We had planned with some of our friends to go to a Pop-up Farmers' Market at our local orchard, Holmbergs!  They went in cahoots with the Coventry Farmers' Market and did just one day of a farmers' market her in our part of the state.  But first we went to breakfast at Smakosh Restaurant.  My friend Amanda wanted pancakes and they usually have some pretty great pancake specials there.  It's a wonderful restaurant!

They had these really cool buttons for free, I took two.  One for my camera bag and one for my yellow coat I was wearing that day.  They're pretty fun, right?

There were a lot of people at the farmers' market, so pleased that it did so well!  They had a great duo playing music there too!  His name is Ramblin' Dan Stevens, he had a kick drum and a high hat for his two feet and he had a handmade guitar and a regular guitar he played too.  I really liked it.  Kevin and I got some groceries we needed and some fun stuff to eat as well from the local vendors.  It was really great, Kevin and I really love to shop locally whenever possible.  We feel it's very important to support our local businesses.  

From the farmers' market we hung out at home for about an hour and then headed over to an Engagement party for my friend from work.  That was nice, but holy crap was it cold!!!!  I eventually got sunburned on my face by the end of the day because we were outside most of Sunday, but it was so cold!  I think I changed three times that day adding warmer layers and different coats.  After being at the engagement party we headed home again and met up with our friends to go to a summer kick off party in Warren, RI.  I think all of us were pretty tired of being outside and spent a good portion of the evening inside our friend's apartment. 

AND THEN... We all headed back to Kevin and my house to watch two episodes of the new season of Arrested Development.  We were all pretty excited for the new season.  I do have to say I wasn't as awesome as I hoped, but I'm hoping as a whole season it will be amazing.  I'm not going to give it my full assessment yet because in the true fashion of the show, when you see it as a whole things make much more sense and are so witty and hilarious.  I don't like how they're portraying Michael and George Sr. though.  I hope it works out in the end.  I'm still excited to watch.

And today is filled with enjoying our back yard, meaning doing a little yard work, and cleaning the house.  Oh and then I have to be to work for 3pm to close.  Just another Monday really, but for everyone else it's a wonderful holiday to spend with family and friends.  Have a good one everyone!

Today I remembered a loverly thing called "open studio".  The Mystic Art Association has an open studio for the public every Monday from 1pm-4pm.  I think I should take advantage of this.  Especially because I have a real problem doing my artwork at home.  I get distracted by all the things that need to be done around the house, and the places I work tend to be very messy.  And because of that I avoid working...

I know I keep repeating that I'm not getting things done.  It's a regular occurrence, I know...  I feel like I need to try removing myself from my environment as well as the list idea.  This slump is killing me.  I'm my worst enemy.  I have actually been having some decent ideas for artwork and I just can't seem to get myself to put that first mark down.  I just don't feel like doing artwork right now...

My cousin is an artist as well.  An illustrator actually.  I wish I could be as outgoing as she is.  She is the artist I can't be.  She is a go getter, and willing to put herself out there to get ahead.  She now has two jobs, in her field, and just got a great apartment!  Happy for her, don't get me wrong, but I'm not going to lie... Super jealous...  I'm just not that way.

I am the artist that sneaks her business card on bulletin boards in restaurants or in local businesses.  Or keeps business cards in her wallet for the off occasion someone comments on my barrette that I happened to make.  I just can't "sell" myself.  I was always taught it was bad to talk good about yourself.  That it was being self centered and was taboo.  If I was ever excited about getting any attention when I was younger, it was immediately noticed and brought to light as being bad and to fix it.  Sometimes things ingrained into you as a young age are hard to change.  No matter how backwards they are.

Another thing that has been on my mind is my skin.  I have eczema as it is, but I am a face toucher and a face picker.  Stress makes it worse because I stand infront of the mirror, stew on things that are bothering me and pick at my skin at the same time.  It's really awful.  I've been trying so hard to break this awful habit, but it's so hard.  Kevin has been so good lately to yell at me when I'm in the bathroom picking.  It really does help me.  I know he knows, but if he doesn't say anything I'm still apt to still pick.  The human mind is really strange to me.  I know it's terrible for my skin to do this, but I still do pick.  I have it in my head that if I don't get out whatever is in my pores, that it'll be worse.  So backwards!  Ugh!  I hope this wedding comes fast because it's really doing a number on me.  To all you brides out there planning, I feel for ya.  I hate this.  If I could, I would've eloped.  Our families are wanting a celebration so badly.  And I really want to give it to them, but I just want it to be over already so that things can go back to normal and don't have this big thing looming over me.  Kevin helps some, but I wish he would be more involved...  His view is that we have more than a year to plan for this thing.  Which is completely true, but if we're making things... That takes a lot of time, and I don't want to procrastinate wedding stuff like I do everything else in my life.

I'm excited for spring because it's time for bike rides, hiking, birds, flowers, and strawberries!!!  Our strawberry patch is growing a little more every year.  The flowers are out this week in full force.  Pretty exciting.  I swear, fresh strawberries from a home garden are the BEST!!!  They're so sweet and delicious.  At the top of the patch we have rhubarb, such an awesome combination!  Kevin and I are going to make a compote or preserve (we'll see how long we cook it this time =0)) of the strawberries from last year we froze and the rhubarb from this year.  

Well it's getting pretty late, and all I've done is create a great Pandora station, thank people for donations to Team Walken, add friends on Facebook, and just farted around on the internet.  I have my projects infront of me... I'm the worst!  No motivation...

Getting Organized!

So today I have to close at work, again...  So this morning I slept in a bit to make sure I am ready for tonight, even though the store closes at 10 tonight instead of 11 last.  Happy for that... At 11 last night my eyes were extremely tired and were telling me that they were done being open for the day.  Hopefully I'll be okay tonight with more sleep in me.

I went to Joann's to get more thread for the barrette I've been trying to make.  See my post from yesterday.  I got my thread to match the fabric for the bow, and I also wanted to get some organizers for thread and bobbins.  I needed more bobbins because it's such a pain winding them and taking the thread off when you need a new color.

I love organization boxes.  I just need to make shelves to put all this stuff on.  Maybe a project for after the Crohn's and Colitis walk, and after the Arts and Wellness Fair too.  (Just and fyi, the date that they have for the artfair on the website is last year.  It's July 27th this year.)

So off I go to get organized and make my barrette!  But first, LUNCH!!  Have a great day everyone, it's beautiful out there... At least here in CT, 72 and sunny!