Hmmmm....Pondering a Purchase...

So, I slipped up. Not in the fabric department, but in the crafting arena. My sis asked me to make gift certificates for some friends to choose their own soaps later from my shop. TOTALLY happy to do it. TOTALLY thought I had some cardstock. KNEW I had some cardstock. SEARCHED THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' HOUSE for cardstock. None to be found.

So, I went and got cardstock. Realistically, I needed only a couple sheets. In actuality, bought a book of 50. Why? Geez, I dunno. "Just in case I run out"? or perhaps "What if I need more cardstock, someday? Then I will have it!" Ummmm....flawed logic there Sally. Now instead of spending $1.50 you've spent $3.99. For cardstock you don't need. To be fair, though, I came to my senses before I bought the BIG BOOK OF CARDSTOCK for $9.99 (Half Off!!! HURRY, Sale Ends This Weekend!!!)

*ahem*

So, I'm thinking about my fabric stash. And the little foamboard sheets you can buy to store fabric on. No, I don't NEED it. And yes, it WOULD be a craft purchase. Except is organizational tools going against the spirit of The Fast? I'd have to say it would be if it dealt with plastic totes. I have more of those than any normal person should. But what if it made things easy to see, neater, and permanently ORGANIZED? I'm thinking foamboard with nylon-coated paperclips.

What if I use Christmas money? What if someone gives me money to buy myself what I want....could I *want* craft supplies? Could I *want* things to organize craft supplies? Hmmmmmm......

Anyhoo....the Gift Certificates turned out nice...

The STASH

Orange container has only cut squares in it of varying sizes. The bottom has the beginnings of a scrappy D9P that The Hubby may have donated the shirts I was going to sneak from his closet.

Copping to the YARDS and YARDS that I've accumulated. Some may gasp at the sheer volume. Some may say I don't have near enough. Still others say the one who dies with the most fabric, wins. I dunno. What if the one who creates the most quilts wins...what then? The Hubby vacuumed the carpet so it looks *fairly* decent. I'm in the midst of a project though, so the studio definately looks "lived in".

Closeup of the "Fabric Closet". No one goes in there. No one, but me. So....shhhhh! Great place to hide small gifts and such. OMG it looks pretty junky in there right now. I've got to find a better way to store things. Each piece is probably a yard section....how many yards IS this? Sadly, I don't know. The batiks alone are probably 20 yards...
And this one, with totes under my frame. I'm sure there's some feng-shui rule about putting things under your frame, but I just couldn't help it. Cardboard boxes that I "saved for something" on the right. Those have gotta go...I don't even SHIP in those boxes!! Notice the tote on the left has all the makings of AB "Love" quilt. I feel so foolish...I HAD TO HAVE this set more than 6 months ago, and have yet to even prewash the fabric. Tsk, tsk.

The tote on top of the AB tote is scraps...full to the gills! I'm gonna make something outta those darn scraps someday. You'll see. Heh.

Totes on the far left are yarn ONLY and resting on top of that are several quilting books. To the very far left is a roll of batting, and if you can peek in the corner there's a tall cardboard box. More batting. Why? Well, because I was afraid I would run out. We'll note here that the "open" roll is more than half full.

Decorator fabric on rolls leaning against the wall for curtains that I was going to make two winters ago, after our heating bill went sky-high one February. **Sigh** Now we're talking about painting that room a color that DEFINITELY won't match that fabric. Double Sigh.

And the fabric "streamers" are for binding for my one and only current project.

Christmas Tree Massacre

It happened in slo-mo. I was sitting in the kitchen, with a fantastic view of the front room. I saw the tree jiggle-jiggle. Then a little more. The little bell ornaments on the tree started to jingle-jingle. I thought...hmmm....how strange...is the air vent blowing on the tree? Seems like a lot of movement for the that....

Jigglejiggle. Jinglejingle. JiggajiggajiggashimmyshimmyshimmyGAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Oops. There went the tree. And there's a streak of orange fur running through the house to escape the menacing tree. I watched it all, and never did I get the urge to actually TAKE ACTION. More like I watched in interest, an innocent bystander.

Ironically, it was the most beautiful tree ever assembled. For several years, there's been kids that have picked the bottom of the tree clean so by New Year's Day, we've had a tree that was naked on the bottom and ornament laden on the top. Kid takes an ornament off, we say OH HOW PREEEEETTY! and then promptly hang it up high for "everyone to see how pretty!" This year the kids are older, and know once you hang the ornament, there it stays. Save for a few jingly bells. Karma has a way of coming back though, doesn't it?

We've got a cornucopia of ornaments on our tree. The quirkier, the better. We've got rainbow bass and Santa playing golf and Victorian chairs and handmade globes. We've got character ornaments like Yukon Cornelius and Rudolph and all the guys from Toy Story....the first one. Ceramic. Dun-Dun-Dun.....

Leif was enamoured with Rex, who had already had a chip taken out of his tail. And when we were putting ornaments on the tree this year, I felt a bit of panic with how MUCH Leif loved Rex. To the point that I actually said don't take Rex off the tree. He might break.

He might break.

Don't touch MY REX, I thought in my mind. I've had Rex longer than I've had Leif. Or Madi. Rex has almost been around longer than Jerry. Don't play with REX. He might break.

**SNIFF**

So, what can we learn from this? I had a moment of silence for Rex, but then there was a dozen other guys that sustained damage. And I just had to laugh. And change my thinking. Rex went way-high up on the tree, to discourage anyone from taking him off, and I've gotta assume that helped with his demise. I was stingy and covetous of Rex...and why? I dunno. He was MINE but now he was NOBODY'S. So, I did the mature thing, and sent him to his final resting place. But not before I could snap a few photos. These are all done in good humor, so please laugh with me.
I think Rex gets his tail broken off in Toy Story 3, right?

Monarch butterfly. Another ornament with the "Don't Touch THAT!" rule. A former reindeer, turned into amputee dog with a Christmas blanket. :D


















Found Rex's head, with a mangled bead poinsettia. Quadriplegic rapper Santa busts a move. He used to be a golfer.


The hubby laughed that Santa swung right outta his shoes. Circa 1998.
Found the antlers to our "dog"...























When did we buy THIS little guy? I've never had a thing for birds, so it's a mystery. He maybe the only ornament I did a little happy dance to chuck in the trash. He makes me think that I'll start wearing theme sweatshirts or something.

There were many, many others that met perhaps a timely ornament death. But these are the ones that struck me the most funny.

Since this blog is about craft supplies and the people who love (to hoard) them....what if we apply the tree situation to the craft situation? Kinda "insert topic here" style...

Do I covet craft supplies?
Do I get antsy when people "mess with them"?
Do I acquire them and not do anything with them?

Well....kinda. I was more "on the hunt" so to speak instead of using. The thrill was in adding to my stash, or in the case of trying new crafts, of getting all the supplies needed to be a good little quilter, knitter, basketweaver, etc. It's kinda cool to be AWARE of this. And, it's also really cool to know that although the volume (in this case, of fabric) was borderline out of control, that I didn't buy a bunch of random things that could be considered garbage, but quality beautiful fabrics waiting to be transformed. The shift from acquiring to creating is exciting.

Sale Shopping. Ugh.

My nemesis....sale shopping.

I've looked at online shops since I started the fast. Just kinda took a gander at sales that well-meaning friends point me to. Usually my little heart would go pitter-pat at the sight of a sale, but so far so good. My resolve is still intact. Even Amy Butler fabric, which I generally adore, just got a "MEH" response from me. Perhaps the new line (PREORDER NOW!!!) is a little too 70's for me. Perhaps it's because it's so similar to the LAST line ("Love") that I still have neatly folded with the tags still on. Perhaps it's because since the LAST time I bought AB fabric, it's come to my attention that she is a bit of a bully when it comes to using her fabric and her "defending" her name-logo-design-whatever. I hate it when folks try to enforce end-use. I bought it, I can do with it what I want.

Anyhoo. So, so far so good on the fabric front. BUT...I almost made a faux-pas mere weeks into this thing. My chemical supplier for soap is having a super-slashing sale because they're moving facilities. A REALLY good deal. I can totally understand, who would want to move tons and TONS of hazardous material to a new site? Not me. And so, I felt a pang of....what? Well, the opportunity for a good deal, the fact that they NEEDED ME to help them out of a jam, and a feeling of belonging because they "invited" me to be a part of something. Heh. That's pretty warped isn't it? Maybe it's just consumerism.

Ultimately, I took a mental inventory of if I *needed* it, or just *wanted* it, and decided it was the latter. I may have to revisit this topic later in the year because I may *need* more supplies for soap. Fragrances, no. There's no way I can justify getting more fragrances. Because I've already done a lot of that, and I have a virtual scent emporium in the Soap Closet as it is.

I really need to take "before" pictures. But that would mean I'd have to vacuum all the fuzz from the sewing area carpet.

In other news: The cat knocked over the tree last night, and it is permanently broken.

For Want of a Pen...

Bought a calligraphy pen nearly a year ago. Why? Because I was going to make paper, and then use a calligraphy pen to write all fancy-schmantzy on it. I've made paper, it's true. But it wasn't exactly fancy-schmantzy paper. In fact, it turned out looking more like a wet paper bag. The antithesis of schmantzy. No where near FANCY. But, I had the pen...ready and waiting for my awesome beautiful paper when I finally got back around to making it.

Fast forward to now. The Hubby is done with students until the new year, and several stopped by his desk with little treats and gifts before they shut down their brains for the holidays. After hammering out the logistics, we decided to mail thank-yous on Christmas cards. Everyone likes getting mail that's not bills, right? And a THANK YOU? It's good to be loved and appreciated, isn't it? And look....we have this GREAT PEN to scribe the cards!

The ink is still brilliant and flowing, and the cards turned out lovely. I'm not sure if The Hubby has thanked students formally EACH year, but he did THIS year....down to the student that presented a simple candy cane and card, thanking him for caring so much about their success, and (surprise!) thanking *me* for helping with tie-dye. Awwww! It's the little things, isn't it?

Also, since I had fresh dye left over I spent yesterday dyeing fabric yardage. I bought a bolt of 50 yards perhaps 6 months ago, with the intent to dye some "for something, someday". Yesterday was the day. They turned out great. I'm happy. Only did about 10 yards, but that's 10 more yards that are "in circulation," ready to use.

Today: figured out how to add in-line pictures. This will be a lot more interesting with pictures.

Tie-Dye Marathon = DONE!

It was a long two days. So fun though!

Since it's been a year since dyeing anything (save for some yarn here and there) I was really excited to do it, but I may have outgrown tie dye in general. Like, for me. Every year there's a few shirts to take home and wash because a student is sick or a student "is sick" when it's time to rinse. I'm ok with that, things happen. Sometimes I even dye shirts for teachers that jump on the tie dye train, only to get cold feet when the time comes. While I was rinsing a handful of them at 6am, coffee cup perched on the edge of the sink, I didn't get that *WOW* feeling when I rinsed off the extra dye. More like a feeling of technical critique of the result. Bummer. They're all lovely, sound designs. Even pretty. But yeah....don't have the itch to do more, more, more. Wonder if that's what happens when you set out to do with "less". Everything is just satisfying, but not overly indulgent. Hmmm....food for thought.

Day One. I Missed It.

Somehow, I thought the first day was not today. Not that I fudged and cheated, justifying some OTHER day as the first day....I just forgot! We were hugely busy with the tie-dye thing today (went really well, btw.) and I was kinda shocked to find today was THE first day of no craft purchases. Did a LOT of crafting today though. Tie dye out the wazoo. And I've got bright red hands to prove it...the gloves. We get the gloves for a REASON.

More tomorrow. The second day is always easier, and today was fairly nice. Squirrel-ly middle school kids and all.

A Day of Pondering....

So, every year I volunteer my time (aaaahhh...what a sucker!) and help the hubby teach a science lab at school. Acids and Bases, covalent and ionic bonds, lab procedures. Heck, who am I kidding? We do ARTS AND CRAFTS!!! Then we make it legit by throwing some science in there.

I spent the entire day. Really...the ENTIRE day mixing dye. We're up to about 130 students I think, so it really took all day. They're going to be great. Then I thought...geez, when was the last time I mixed dye to dye up some fabric? It must have been last year at this time, for the same lab. How did I go a YEAR without dyeing? I don't know. So, I made sure to do a thorough job, both for good results and just because it had been so long.

Never noticed before, but the odor of dye powder kind of reminds me of raw bacon. Weird, but true.

Ah, and my hands are all splotchy and green and blue and black because I forgot to put gloves on. Some things never change.

Feeling pretty good about "shopping my stash" and using what I have. I should probably take "before" pictures so I can remember how plentiful the craft supplies are. Especially the fabric. Ohhh, the fabric!

Going Live 12-1-10

Wish me luck. :D: