Yum, Ice Cream!

Ice cream anyone? This is a prototype of a mini ice cream cone lollipop ornament that I have been working on. I used way too much glue on it and it shows. Please pretend you don't see it, okay? LOL The first of anything is never perfect anyway, right? I'm still deciding whether to omit the stick and just make it into a regular old ice ream cone instead of a lollipop. What do you think?

Strawberry, pistachio, and blueberry flavored. Delish!


Kari of Crafty Ginger is hosting a wonderful giveaway on her blog to mark her 200th post. How fabulous is that! Be sure to stop by and say hi and enter her giveaway. If you're a knitting fan, you will love the beautiful yarns that she uses in her projects. She does have a very well-rounded blog with something for everyone of all interests to drool over.

I wish you all a fabulous weekend. Those in the Gulf Coast region, please stay safe.

Aloha!

Mini Cupcake On A Stick

I have another busy day planned...lots and lots of fabric to cut today. I will leave you with another prototype.

Strawberries 'n Creme Mini Cupcake Pop


This little sweet thing measures a mere 2-inches.


Hope you are having a terrific day.

Aloha!

If it ain't one thing, it's another....

Y'know, why is it that every time I have big plans to spend the weekend focused on something only to have it change abruptly and take a turn in a totally opposite direction. I'm talking about my plans to spend the weekend cutting and sewing. So many other things took precedence. I must have racked up 2-3 hours of cutting and sewing which is, er, uhm, a little bit short of an entire weekend.

Again, nothing new to show you except more piles of fabric so I'm diggin' deep into the prototype pile once again.

This facial tissue holder is the perfect size to tuck into your handbag. I love the idea of a curved opening and an overlapped edge. Something a little different than the standard tissue holder. I think I will need to explore this further as it has quite a bit of promise.


I hope you all have a fabulous day. I'm going to spend mine, you guessed it, in my sewing room.

Aloha!

WIP Friday

I am flying the coop this morning to make my way to the fabric store. I have been putting it off for far too long. I'll tell you why.

I have a love/hate relationship with my fabric store (more like a warehouse). There are rows and rows of rolled fabric bolts stacked one on top of the other, 6 to 8 deep. Being a shorty, just barely 5 feet tall, the bolts of fabric are taller than me. I find it almost impossible to carry most of them because of their weight. If I want a bolt in the middle of the pile, or heaven forbid, the bottom, it most likely won't be going home with me. Looking for help usually proves futile because the employees are always so busy. In as much as I love their selection of fabric, suffice to say, I don't make my way there very often. I always leave sweaty, tired, and frustrated.

I've been cutting piles of fabric, doing little to no sewing, and have nothing completed to show you. I'll leave you with a sneak peek of some work in progress. I know, boring.


As usual, I'll be spending my weekend in the craft room, wielding a scissor and rotary cutter like a mad woman. My family knows to steer clear or they'll end up as part of my project. j/k

Wish you all a beautiful weekend.

Aloha!

The downside of living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is...

...shipping costs! Yes my friends, the cost of shipping things to the islands is outrageous. This is the reason that I try to purchase locally whenever I can. Many businesses ship products into the islands in large shipping containers which substantially reduces their shipping costs per item.

If you feel that there is a rant about to happen, you are right. Please scoot on down to the end of my post to keep from hearing about it.

My story...I have been scouring the island over a period of 6 months for Ultra Firm interfacing and have come up with zero, nada, zilch, time and time again! I was able to find a product similar in weight at one of our fabric stores for almost quadruple the price that I usually pay which I thought was totally ridiculous. Even if I did purchase what they had on hand, it would still leave me a good 190 yards short of what I needed. The Wallyworld near my home has been out of it since the beginning of the year and the only info that the clerk could offer me was that they were having trouble with their orders. I was told that when they did manage to get a 20-yard bolt in stock, it would fly off of the shelf as if it were never there to begin with. I ask myself, if it is in such high demand, why don't they order a large number of bolts at a time. I'm sure they would have no trouble unloading the stuff, especially since it disappears as soon as it hits the shelf. The shelves at Wallyworld that were once full of Pellon and interfacing is now bare and has been that way for months. Pfft! I digress...

My lament about shipping costs...I finally gave in and ordered Ultra Firm directly from the company that supplies Wallyworld and other businesses because I knew that there was no way that I was going to get my hands on enough in time for my fairs. Again, I asked myself, if I can get this delivered to me in less than a week, why is Wallyworld having so much trouble.

I know you're probably thinking, big stinkin' deal, and she wasted a whole post about it too. Well, unfortunately, it is a huge deal to me. Being without this stuff puts a total halt to the production of my handbags.

I limited my order to 200 yards due to the high cost of shipping. Out of the total cost of $500.00, the shipping was $170.00. Crazy, huh? Yes, that is the penalty for living in paradise. Okay, I'm done ranting now. Sorry....

My precious cargo....


If you've made it this far, thanks! You deserve a gold medal for endurance.

Since I have nothing new to show you, I am going to share a prototype of a wrist pincushion that I made a while back. I love the pretty coral colored fabric that I used on the petals. This is my interpretation of a daffodil.


A close-up.


AnneMarie, sorry that I missed your cupcake question. If you would like to use cardboard, I think it will work out great. Anything that is rigid will hold up well. You can also use very firm interfacing.

CM2, I used the yo-yo maker to create the red hearts. The completed red hearts(two, back to back)measures almost 2-inches. The center yo-yo is about 1/2-inch smaller. Feel free to experiment with the size of the yo-yo's. You can make them as large or as small as you like.

To everyone, thank you all for the handbag love from yesterday's post. I'm happy to hear that many of you love the handbag as much as I do.

I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all of you for stopping by and commenting. I really appreciate your feedback. Sorry that I've been so slow at returning comments. I'm currently weeks behind...sigh@!

Hope you all have a fabulous and creative day!

Aloha!

Shirring + Posie=New Handbag

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent mine, as expected, buried in fabric. Cut, cut, snip, snip. You get the picture.

I did sneak in a little time to design a couple of handbags. After completing a prototype of each, I sent one back to the drawing board. I wasn't happy with the overall shape of the bag. That's how it goes sometimes.

Here is the bag that passed the test. Although very simple in design, it has the feel of shabby chic and romance with the shirred upper band and the pretty little yo-yo posie.


I happen to really love the green and pink fabric combination.


I hope you have a fantastic day.

Aloha!

Candy Apple

A friend let me borrow her yo-yo makers to see how well I liked them. My opinion is that they are very interesting gadgets but probably something that I won't be purchasing for myself. I especially wanted to give the heart maker a try to see if it was any easier than doing it the old fashioned way. Well, I guess to a certain extent, it did speed up the process a bit. I made a couple red ones with the yo-yo maker and the white one the old fashioned way. Of course, being left with several "spare" hearts, I decided to turn them into this...

Sweet and Juicy Red Candy Apple.


Please know that what you have been seeing this week are just prototypes. That means that they are my first trials on an idea. The end product may not look exactly the same.

I want to give a high five to Lorraine of Paper Vernissage for her very witty comment yesterday regarding the swirly icing flower. Quoting Lorraine, "Half of a yo-yo - would that be a yo! Sorry, couldn't resist. It does remind me of those icing flowers. So very pretty!"

I chuckled after reading her comment. I think she does have a point. In honor of Lorraine, I shall call it a "Yo" from now on. Thanks, Lorraine!

Also, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been commenting lately. I have seen quite a few new names in my comments. I look forward to meeting you all and reading your blogs. I know that I have been very bad about returning comments lately, but hopefully I will be able to visit with all of you before the weekend is up.

As you have probably guessed, I'm still running around like a chicken without a head. I'll be very busy with numerous household matters from today and throughout much of the weekend. In case I cannot post tomorrow, please have a fabulous weekend!

Aloha!

Swirly Icing Flower

Hello! I'm still here in case you are wondering. I have been really busy and working diligently at coordinating and cutting fabric for various projects. I'm overwhelmed and feel as if I'm going nowhere fast. Unfortunately, I'll be in this state of frenzy from now until the end of November. You'd think that I'd be used to this by now as this craziness repeats itself every year.

All I can say is that I hope you like prototypes! I'll be leaving you with yet another. This reminds me of those little icing flowers that you see on birthday cakes. Each of the petals are made from one-half of a yo-yo. I love the swirls and motion the petals get from the gathers of the yo-yo.


I hope you have a wonderful day. Gotta run. Take care.

Aloha!

Cupcake Prototype

My weekend was filled with everything other than crafting and sewing. Not good. Because of that, I am trying to play catch-up. I will leave you with two cupcake prototypes that I've been working on over the last several months.

Strawberry Birthday Cupcake with Raspberry Posie Topping


Strawberry Cupcake with Blueberry Posie Topping


There are still a few bugs to work out on these cupcakes, but I'm glad that I finally have the method of construction nailed down. Sometimes that's the most difficult part.

I hope you all have a fabulous day.

Aloha!

Tiger Pops

A friend of mine loved both of my lollipops so much that she wanted me to design something easy and whimsical for her to teach the children in her daycare. Although she loved the posies, she felt that they would be too girly for the boys and wanted something more gender neutral. Well, to me, crafting with kids is synonymous with pompoms. I reached for my collection of pompoms and came up with what I call, Tiger Pops.


Lemon Pudding, Cookies & Cream, Orange Marmalade



I like the cute jingle bell sound that they make. I think the kids will love them a lot. I think I love them too.

Have a safe and productive weekend.

Aloha!

As I Suspected...

Thank you so much for your feedback. I am now convinced that design placement in reference to what makes an item pleasing to the eye is directly linked to being left or right brained.
The results of the survey has lead me to the following...

1. If you are right brained, you prefer the posie on the right.

2. If you are left brained, you prefer the posie one the left.

My conclusion: I need to be more sensitive to placement and always keep in mind that what is pleasing to my eye may not be pleasing to the masses. After all, the majority of people are left brained.

That's a lot to consider and ponder in relationship to my future design endeavors. I've always wondered about this very thing, and you have confirmed for me that what I have suspected was correct. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your opinions.

As of today, I am officially in panic mode. I just received my second craft fair application. These are for two of the largest shows in the islands. The first one is for a three-day fair and the second one is for a one-day fair. It is hitting home that I am grossly unprepared and am lagging horrendously behind. I have decided to remedy that by posting a little less to my blog until I can get a handle on things. I will still be around, but I think you will be seeing more "work in progress" photos rather than completed items for a while.

I will leave you with photos of a stemmed glass coaster. It isn't perfect yet or just the way I want it, but I thought I'd show it to you anyway. This is the kind of stuff that litters my craft room. Lots and lots of prototype pieces sitting around waiting to be perfected or redesigned.


This coaster is easy to slip on and off of the base of a glass yet it still holds tight enough without falling off on it's own. I do like the patchwork look and the fact that you can use three or more prints on each one.

I just noticed that we are now at the 140 day mark until Christmas. Time is really flying by. It's time to start on your handmade gifts if you haven't already done so. Christmas has a way of sneaking up on us, especially when we are unprepared.

I hope you have a very productive and inspiring day.

Aloha!

It's A Split Decision!

I would like to thank you all for your opinion about the placement of the yo-yo posie. I do understand about the left/right shoulder thing too but I was hoping to go with which design was more pleasing to the eye. After going over your comments, I have concluded that it is 50/50 either way. If I'm going to be the tie breaker, I guess I will have to go with the posie on the right.

I am left handed and a true right brainer and sometimes I feel as if it makes a difference as to what is pleasing to my eye as opposed to someone who is right handed and left brained. It would be interesting to know how many of you are left handed/right brained or right handed/left brained. If you have a moment, I would love to know if you are left or right handed and if the posie on the left or the right is more pleasing to your eye. I'm kinda wondering if my crackpot theory has any validity.

Over the years, my yo-yo lollipops have been very popular with my customers. I'm happy to see that it has also been very well liked by many of you. I would like to introduce you to my Flower Power Daisy Pops which have been even more popular than the yo-yo's. I usually make these in the bright, fluorescent colors reminiscent of the flower power days of the 60's.

Electric Strawberry and Psychedelic Lime. Here they are without the glare of their plastic bags.



And here they are wrapped in their plastic bags and ready to be hung on the Christmas tree. I was having quite a bit of trouble getting a good shot because of the glare of the plastic bags. Oh well, At least this will give you a vague idea of what they look like in person.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. Toodles.

Aloha!

Busy weekend spent in the craft room...

I spent the entire weekend in the craft room selecting fabric combinations for my patchwork handbags, cutting handbag pattern pieces, and playing around with my latest handbag design. It feels as if I've accomplished next to nothing. Looking around, there are still mountains of unfinished projects littering the room. The only change is that some of the piles are much higher than they were last week. Sigh. Things usually get worse before they get better, right? Humor me, won't you. *grin*

Thank you for your lovely comments about my latest handbag and for your feedback about my recent computer woes. I appreciate that you take time to stop by each day to see what I've been up to. I really do enjoy reading your comments. I'm way behind in my replies, but I'm slowly catching up. If you haven't heard from me yet, I promise you that I'll be stopping by soon. After all, I can't let myself miss the opportunity to see all of your lovely blogs and projects.


I wanted to see what this handbag would look like if I placed the yo-yo posie on the left side instead of on the right. Since I was experimenting, I also changed out the fabric to a more sophisticated print. A handbag with a large yo-yo posie on it usually warrants cutesy fru fru fabric (like my first handbag pictured below) so I wanted to see what a more sophisticated print would do to the design. I think the new fabric combination works well. I'm going to try it next on a more modern retro print(oxymoron) to see what it will do to the design. What do you think? Posie on the left? Posie on the right? I'd appreciate your opinion on this one because I simply can't decide.


Here is a close-up of the yo-yo posie.


The original handbag for comparison.

It looks like it's going to be another wonderful day in paradise. Beautiful blue skies with a few fluffy cotton candy-like clouds rolling by. The only thing missing is the cool weather. What I would give for cooler weather!

Have a fun and creative day.

Aloha!

Frustrating Day

I have been trying to get into my blog since late this morning without any luck. I kept getting error messages. I have been digging for information for hours on Blogger, Sitemeter, and Google without much success. At 10:30p.m. I finally hit on some information regarding my stat counter, Sitemeter. Evidently, Sitemeter is bringing down every site whose browser is Internet Explorer versions 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0. Well folks, as soon as I removed the code from my site, I could finally post. To say that I am frustrated is putting it mildly. I was relieved, though, that the problem wasn't isolated to only my blog. Has anyone had difficulty getting into my blog or other blogs today? I'd be interested in knowing what you've experienced.


I never seem to have enough time to actually execute all of the ideas that pop into my head. Making something from an idea can sometimes be a lengthy process. I lucked out this time. Designing this bag didn't take too long and it looks exactly how I pictured it to be.


A close-up of the yo-yo posie.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Have fun. Stay safe.

Aloha!