Speed of light!

This may be the fastest posting I've ever achieved...

NEW COIN PURSES ARE UP!

click here!





And more...
They can also be purchased locally at Parts & Labour on South Congress!

Tom, the true star

Check it out!

Crafthope.com

Craft Hope raised $7,000 to send to Doctors Without Borders in TWO DAYS. That's amazing.

If you have a second, browse the Etsy shop and do some shopping!

Coming soon to Bolsa Bonita:

Itty bitty coin purses!

Like blobs of cute fabric to put your stuff in.

2010 Gettin' busy

Okay, that should really read "continuing to be busy!".

The holidays were a storm of activity, sales, fun, stress, seeing good friends, spending a (wee) bit of time with the family and losing my mind. I think I'm recalibrated back to normal at last.

I hate that my first post of the year is about something so tragic, but I wanted to share an opportunity for any of you crafty people out there to help the people of Haiti. My friend sent me a link to this blog: ApartmentTherapy.com because they have the most amazing ideas for interior decorating. I clicked on the link and the first page was on donating handmade goods for charity. Hey, this is my kind of thing. Here's the Craft Hope site if you want more information.



Basically, it's an Etsy shop where people have donated their items to sell. The best part is that 100% of each sale goes to Doctors Without Borders to aide Haiti.

I went back to ApartmentTherapy.com to grab the link and the page for Craft Hope is no where to be found! Weird! I'm glad I stumbled on it while it was obvious, otherwise I may never have seen it.

Hope you're all off to a great start for 2010.

It's about time!

Finally.
I have posted the Vintage Inspired bags that I've had made for so long. I'm working on more since the ones I have seem to be a little more summery in their colors (not all, but some).

I've also been working on larger versions, with back pockets and more vintage buttons and buckles. It's making me so single-minded, it's hard to do anything else! I'm loving them so much. Each one I cut out comes with a comment to myself: This one is for me! So greedy! Of course, right now, none of them are for me!

Rain drops keep falling on my head

The theme for yesterday was, "It could be worse". At least, that's what I kept telling myself. The event coordinators couldn't be responsible for the weather, so I can't blame them for the rainy day.

I set up the skeleton of my display on Saturday (wasting 40 min trying to find the person to let me into the area... we were told "DO NOT come early for your set up!"- hmf! I guess they meant, don't come on time cuz no one will be there anyway!). I left, feeling pretty good about my set up, but anxious about the weather report that said 40% chance of rain Sunday.

Sunday morning I checked the report again and it now said 50%. great.

I was the first one there, as usual, and got my booth set up and looking great. I was hanging my very last bags when the sweet woman in charge of our area announced that all vendors would be moving inside. I had a moment where I stood still, wanting to stomp my feet and scream bloody murder, but also knowing that it was probably what would save me for the day (the weather was gloomy, foggy, and there was a fine mist that would eventually seep into all my bags).

I had to cut down all my grid and try to haul it in a vacant apartment with the bags still attached! Yoga power got me through. I had to limbo myself through the doorways with my 7 foot grid, heavy with purses. I had hoped to start a show without being drenched in sweat, but with the humidity and the speed of my booth relocating efforts, I was sopping. Plus, I was doing this all in high heeled boots. Wedge boots, so that helped!

The original plan was to have all the vendors in this courtyard:

That would have been so cute!
But we all ended up scattered in the vacant apartments rimming the courtyard. I lucked out getting into a large unit with 2 other vendors who turned out to be wonderful to spend the day with. Here's my final display- not too shabby for shoving into an area in record speed!

Despite the awful weather (it rained from 11am- 6pm and on through the night), people still came out to the event. It was like a maze within the huge apartment complex, so I was shocked anyone found us.

... it could have been worse.

I was the last person out of the area at the end of the night, but I'm used to that. My display is so involved and so huge and so heavy!! Everyone else just rolls out their hanging display or collapses a table or two and they're done. Can I get some pity, people?? ha! My man showed up to haul out the heavy stuff, so that really saved me. I was losing steam quickly.

Last night I was so exhausted I kind of wandered around the house not really knowing what to do. I slept 10 hours and woke up feeling much, much better.

For the show, I finished up some more of my large silk bags. These will be posted within the next two weeks... PROMISE! Here are two of them:


The first one is made with a circle of material my mom gave me probably 20 years ago.

I have memories of this fabric from my childhood, but I need to ask my mom specifics. I swear it's from when we lived in Iowa, when I was very young- maybe 4? Anyway, the design smacks of the 60s, and the colors are right up my ally! Bold!

The turquoise one is delicious.

The ribbon on it is to die for. It's a huge, vintage, silk red ribbon that I want to snuggle up to. Look at it!

Textiles make me woozy with delight.
Guess I better get to work on putting these up for sale!

Oblivious for 7 years

Weekend:
Full of family on Saturday (Mom's birthday celebration in Comfort, Tx) and then house fixin' up on Sunday. I'm wiped out!

My aunt and uncle from San Antonio were there, full of their usual wry and unusual humor. My aunt had a tangle with cancer this year, which Chemo seemed to take care of. She has a very realistic wig! After cake, my uncle came over to chat with my sister-in-law. I overheard the following conversation:

Uncle Jack: "Sara, are you wearing a wig?"

Sara (laughing incredulously): "no..."

Jack: "It looks like one!"

Sara: "No, this is my real hair"

Jack: " It looks just like Moppy's" (side note: my aunt is called Moppy)

Sara: "I wish I had a wig!"

He walked away and I leaned over to Sara and said, "I can't WAIT to report back to Mike that Jack asked you if your hair is a wig!". My sister in law can have a wicked sense of humor, so she took this odd exchange in stride and knew it was good for inappropriate-relative story telling!

My aunt Moppy (whose real name is Sydney Margaret- a name mangled by by her nieces and nephews until it became "Moppy"), and uncle Jack gave my mom a pretty, antique pitcher. She told a long story of it's history and then told my Mom to look inside- she had put a small, school portrait of my Dad when he was 14! After much discussion of the pitcher and picture, the gift was passed around for all to see. Jack took it and asked, "Who gave you this?". Moppy, sitting next to him, turns and says, in her thick Tennessee drawl, "Wheeeeee did!". Jack must have been in his own zone for the previous 15 minutes. I think that happens easily when a lot of family gather!

My uncle Alan, who I rarely see, was there with his wife Xuan (can't remember the spelling, but it's pronounced Swan). Xuan was cheerful, alert to every nuance of any conversation going on in a 10 foot radius of her, and brought a sense of real joy to the occasion. I think she's just one of those types- the personality who brightens a room no matter who is around her.

Alan had bought a purse from me about a year 1/2 ago at a festival I did in San Antonio. I remember it having a really nice print of Buddha on it. Xuan told me, yesterday, what happened to the purse. She and her family helped raise money here in the States to send back to one of the poorest temples in their community in Vietnam. She told me she packed the gift in the purse and that they had a large celebration and ceremony accepting the gift. Then she mentioned that the purse will remain in the temple for very long time. I was really touched by the story and (of course), couldn't help feel a little twinge of Indiana Jones coming out... my purse, stored away in an Ancient Vietnamese temple, found by archaeologists 1,000 years from now!

So that was Saturday.

On Sunday a nice man named Guillermo, who happens to be the maintenance guy at my boyfriend's apartment complex, came over to assess the many, many things breaking down around my house. He was no-nonsense. He was awesome. In a matter of about 2 1/2 hours, he installed 2 new shower heads, tinkered with a fussy toilet, unclogged a drain, installed a new kitchen faucet (twice- the first one was defective and I had to run it back to Home Depot), and fixed my dishwasher.

I'm beside myself with excitement that my dishwasher seems to be working again! It's a miracle!!! I've lived in my house about 10 years now. The dishwasher worked for the first 3. One day is just stopped. I Googled some manual on how to fix it (that was back when I was super a fixer-upper) and took part of the machine apart. I have zero recollection of what I did, but I know I stopped when things started to look electrical. No thank you, I don't want to die by being fried by my dishwasher. So I screwed everything back up, shut it and decided that one day I would have it fixed. That was 7 years ago. Since then I've been hand washing my dishes. This wasn't so bad for several years since I ate out a lot, ate junk food that didn't require any preparation, and basically never ever cooked. Not a lot of dishes were used. But since The Big Sugar Kick, I've started preparing a lot more food and using tons of dishes. I despise hand washing dishes.

To make it worse, my kitchen sink stopped working, but the sprayer still worked. So I've been washing dishes with my kitchen sink sprayer! Argh!! Terrible!

Guillermo replaced the faucet and now I have a functioning sink, but now I have the luxury of a dishwasher too! He said, "The water wasn't connected, that's why it wasn't working". uh. Huh? I know I was not savvy enough to disconnect the water so I asked him, "Is it possible it shook loose? Disconnected on it's own?" I don't think he fully understood because he just said, "It was disconnected!". ha. But then he said, "Oh, and make sure you always have this switch turned on" flipping the third switch in the row of switches by my sink.

Ohhhhh.... that's what that switch is for! I feel like a total dufus! I have a sneaking suspicion that 7 years ago I accidentally switched that switch off and had no idea it was cutting the power off to the dishwasher. It was never broken, it was just turned off.

SEVEN YEARS.
Of hand washing dishes.
A switch was turned off.

I had to laugh.

The Dude

About 2 months ago, I found this little black hat at Hobby Lobby and thought it would look hysterical on Henry. Since then, I've been too busy to notice the moments when he's so relaxed he might allow for the hat to be place on his sweet little head. Today was the day.

It was dark in the kitchen (he's on my yoga rug- draped over the end of the bar), so I didn't get the best shot, but it was still fun!

It didn't look right (first photo) parked on his head like that, so I re-positioned it to fit over one ear. He was so calm the whole time. I think I'm going to have to do this again when he's in a more well lit spot. Halloween is near, I better think of a good outfit for Henry (head only, I don't dare try to put him in clothing!).

I've been sewing like a crazy person getting some bags made in order to apply for a fine art show. Personally, I have a very strict definition of art, and what I do does not fall into that category. But, I still think there's a chance to be accepted with some of my applique work and silk bags. I just made a pattern for a large, zipper tote that is making me drool. I know it's horrible of me to show stuff on my blog that I then take months to post on my website, but here it is anyway...

Sewing with silk, and doing applique work are two things that make me forget the world around me. It's wonderful. I get so involved staring at the gorgeous silks, pairing great colors together, making patterns, making designs out of snippets of vintage kimono silk, and constructing the bags that I forget that there are loads of laundry to do, bills to pay, wrinkles that need anti-wrinkle cream and toenails that need to be painted. I'm in a stress-free zone while I work on the silk bags. They're magic!

Since I now have 3 styles of silk bags, and only one showing on my site, my project for next week is to re-organize that page on my site and show all bags that are available. I guess I have to put them up for sale in order to sell them, right? I need a business manager!

My inner goth

I have many strange interests (low riders, break dancing, caves), but one that is odd, even to me, is my strong desire to own things like fake tombstones and a fog machine.

I was at JoAnn Fabrics a couple weeks ago, and before heading over to the fabric, I was drawn like a magnet to the huge Halloween isle. What caught my eye was a stack of framed portraits. They looked like old photographs of people, but when you walked by them, the images would change into some ghastly creatures. I wanted one. BAD. But they were $30 and I couldn't justify having one for that much (or at all, really, I mean where would I hang such a thing?). The one that I couldn't tear myself away from was truly terrifying. It was a man dressed in a suit, but when he changed, he turned into this really scary skeleton-slash-vampire looking monster. To make it even more tantalizing, with the push of a button, his eyes glowed red and a raspy voice started repeating "Help me... Heeeeeeelp meeeee". So creepy!!!!

I looked for them online and didn't know how to do a search for that specific portrait, but i did find this (which is a similar idea):

Pretty darn creepy, right?
And why do I like this so much? It's WEIRD to like this sort of thing, but I love it.

Another thing that held my interest at the fabric store, for a perversely long time, was a grave stone with creepy hands coming up the front as if they were coming out of the grave! It was big, too. Even better. I wondered what my neighbors would think if I just kept that in my yard year round?

With a little more excitement than I should admit, I went back to JoAnn's 2 days ago for zippers, knowing full well that it was about time for all the Halloween stuff to be on sale. 50% off!! Yes! You know I made a beeline for the changing portraits! Someone got my man. The only one left was a woman. She was pretty good, but not nearly as scary as the guy. My tombstone was gone too. Darn!

I checked out the masks and had one in my hand for a long time, thinking it might need to be added to my collection. It was a full-head mask, with a long beard and long hair. The face was of a rotting old man with bad teeth and a cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. I decided that I didn't need it, even if it was 1/2 price.

So why is it that I am so drawn to scary things? You wouldn't really know this about me unless you got to know me, because my house and my wardrobe do not reflect this love of the macabre. That's what my boyfriend likes to call it. I think he finds it a funny quirk but also very weird.

I announced that we will be celebrating Halloween this year by watching a scary movie. I'll have to decorate a little too. I knew he wouldn't be up for a lot of the flicks that I love (Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Changeling- George C. Scott, not Angelina Jolie, etc), , but that he might be able to handle a classic ghost story, so I chose The Others. I thought it was very well done and has a high creep factor without anyone being slashed or decapitated. I showed him the preview online and he looked a little wary. I don't think he's fond of horror movies, but I do know he'll do this for me!

It's going to be very tough this year, with no candy, carmel apples or Rice Krispy treats. I'm going to have to think of some sugar-free treats that will let me feel like I'm celebrating the holiday and not punishing myself for being a stupid sugar addict. Not very goth-like of me to sip chai tea with stevia and munch on fruit. If only I had my tombstone...