Happy Thanksgiving to All !

Well Thanksgiving has come and is now gone. I had a great time celebrating the day with lots of fun, food and friends. I took my jewelry with me to sell. I am donating 30% of sales to a young man who is a missionary in Thailand. He is home for 2 months, fundraising for the people that he works with. I'm so happy to be doing something for him.  I was so happy to be selling my items again. 

I was also able to invest in a young woman, who is struggling to get back on her feet again. I'm praying that she will do well with the jewelry sales and I can train her how to start a small business of her own. She already has a lot of connections with people and she also has a great personality. I believe that she will do good with the mercandise. I feel so excited for her. 

I sold some items and had good food at both houses, that I visited on Thanksgiving.

I just put a picture of my bracelet rack up today, just to inspire.The fabric cuff braclets went fast, so I'll be making more of them, this week. 

Next week, I hope to take my items to the consignment spot to sell and I also have one other person, whom will sell for me. So it's off we go for the holiday sales.

Pray for me to be successful, this Chrstmas season. 

New Bracelets, I did them right this time!!

Fabric Scrap
Bracelets.

This cre8tion is from Style-dairies.com.




Wow, I tried to make the bracelets from fabric scrapes and this time they came out perfect. I'm so happy. I made them a while back and , they were just okay. But, this time, I took my time and they came out nice.
Here's how I did it:

First, I cut fabric strps and twisted them over itelf and sewed down the length of the fabric. I used the chain link for the decoration.

Then, I took the ball chain link and I wrapped embroidery floss around each ball, until I finished. Then made the button loop and added a button on the other end.

I was shocked at how long it took to make these two bracelets. I made them both within 1 1/2 hours and as I said before, I'm thrilled out they turned out. Remember check out style-dairies.com to see how they made these bracelets. I did my best to make them proud.Hope I did.

Finally finished the cuffs

Yeah, I now it's been almost a week since I introduced my latest fabricated cuffs. I've been so busy with all the other things going on in my life. I am still so excited about these things. I posted the pictures after I made them and added the button clousures. But, then I wanted to bedazzle them, so I had to find the right things to add to make them special. I finally found them and used them to adorn my cuffs.

This is how they came out:

I love these things and they feel so soft. They look so beuatiful. I love the stuff that I make. Sometimes, I really don't want to sell them to anybody. But, they are going to the consignment shop, ASAP. I have to get some of this stuff out of here and make some more. Plus Christmas is coming and I'm excited about making some money. So The time that is left, I'm going to be cataloging , pricing and packaging my items for sale. 

I have not had my items in a store for quite awhile.  But, this store is very popular and the owner asked me years ago to sale my stuff there and I was going in so many directions with my sales , that I couldn't mesh with him. But, now since, I'm retired, I have all the time in the world and I want to stick my feet in the water.  I also want to do the festivals again. There are so many fest events here in Chicago and I used to sell a lot  of things in the smumertime. So I want to overcome the resistance  and anything else inside me that wants to hold me back. I'm reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy  and  The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Boy oh Boy, do they talk about resistance. Resistance can keep us from our dreams. My items should have been selling in some stores at least 6 months ago, but, no I dragged and dragged. I kept finding things that I wanted to make on Pinterest. I already have great things to sell but, I kept putting my going  out, to present my items to some stores off. The knee thingy didn't help at all. It just slowed my down even further. But, I want to start doing my selling thing now and not after the surgeries. So, I'm excited. I want to now get things moving  now.

Well, now it's on to cataloging my items, tagging them and packaging them. Talk to you soon, hopefully with more goodies.

Cuffs, cuffs, cuffs, yeah three of them

I finally got to make some stuff again. I was just busting to make something with some of the yarn, that I got at the thrift store on the weekend. First I had to clean up  the scraps and odds and ends from the things I had made over the last month. Because, as we all know (those of us who craft), that in the midst of making stuff, we tend to throw stuff any and everywhere. Then after the smoke clears, we look up and get frustrated because our workspace is a wreck. That was me, I couldn't make anything else, until I had cleaned up my act, so to speak. So, first I made new storage containers out of boxes. I took a huge box that a winter coat came in attached a  pull string to one end and put my yarn in a smaller box inside of the huge coat box. The box was so large that I was able to also store the remnants pieces from my blue jean purses, my pre-cut pieces for my reversible purses, my silk brocade scraps, patterns and larger fabric scraps. I was so happy to have one place to store these things. I mean I just turn around and reach down and bam, all my stuff is within arms reach. Here's a picture of my beloved new storage box, one of five I might add:

 Well enough about that clean up act. I crocheted these three yarn cuffs yesterday. They came out so nice and I was so happy. So these pictures are of the finished cuffs. I added buttons for closures. The brown.gold colored one I made the buttons as a closure on the front of the cuff. This is phase one and two. Adding beads and other items will be the last phase.

These cuffs are so cute and soft. They fit so nice too. I just have to add the bead and other items and they will be too cute.This is how they look on the wrists. Beautful.

I didn't take a picture of my wearing the last cuff, I forgot. I thnik they look so nice. I know the younger girls will love them. I just have to decorate them. This is what I'm going to on the brown/gold colored on. The items are just laying on them now. I'll be sewing them on tomorrow. I have to find a few more items to put on the the pink/burgandy cuff.

 I just had to share the lastest things that I made. I'll show pictures of the finished cuffs later. I think I'll made a few more of these. I'm gonna even make a couple of them for myself to wear. These if do it right, this ribbon yarn would make nice fingerless gloves too. I took these photos with my camera, that I got at a free thrift event. I mean, I got this Sony Cybr-shot camera, 5 memory cards and the case for free. People were walking all around ths camera case and nobody acted like they wanted it or saw it. I knew it was for me.

Well, have a great creative day tomorrow. 

Wow, a great find at the thrift store

I found these great yards and ribbon type yarns at the thrift store today, some are as expensive as $7.00 a piece. I love them all. If I had waited until monday they would have been half price. Next time I'll go on a sale day and pick them up for a even greater savings. I was so excited that I crocheted a few rows on one type of the ribbon yarn, in two colors. Becca also made some nice friendship type bracelets out of the yarn. Some of the yarns were  very thin and others were a little thicker. I hope you can see how it came out.

It came out so pretty, so I'm thinking that I'll make some bracelets out of these. More on that later.

I have this purse that I love, which I purchased while I was in Istanbul, Turkey. I purchased a lot of  them, while I was there and gave them to friends. One friend asked me if I could repair the lining for her, but the lining was so cheap l made that I couldn't duplicate it. So, I de-constructed it instead.  Here's the de-constructed purse:

 I'm going to use the de-constructed purse as a pattern. I was able to write out a pattern, such as the length of the strap and how the trim was stitched in the middle of seam bias to make  the strap so beautiful. I'm looking at this project to make a lot of beautiful purses. I'm excited about doing this, I made the paper pattern pieces already, so all I have to do is begin the process. It will take less than 3/4's of a yard of fabric to complete this bag. So as soon as I finish cleaning my workspace and doing so laundry, let the games begin.
Even as I  say, let the games begin, I'm striving to find only 2-4 items that I love fabricating  and only make those items to sell. My mind is so full of items for craft items to make and sell during the holidays. I have only a couple of weeks to make a lot of stuff. The one item that I make, the memory wire bracelets are easy and fast to make and the young people love them. But, I really want to find a fabric-based craft to make, like a a nice purse, hence the Turkish purse thingy. I do have a lot on my plate with three blogs to keep up with regularly. If I don't get to sell a lot this holiday season, I'll do so at the spring and summer craft sales.
I'm trying to get the camera that I have to work properly or  will have to get another camera soon, because I need good camera shots of my goods.  That's a must for me. Well, see you wonderful folks later.