A Little Bit of Finality

The move six months in the making is finally complete! The husband and dog have joined me here in the Chicago area, leaving behind our (strangely snowy) life in Richmond.

With all of our belongings in place (and help with heavy lifting), I feel like we can now focus on settling into our home here. I'm not entirely sure we're going to stay in the current residence for too much longer, but moving the boxes into the garage would be a step in the right direction.

My main priority is to set up my sewing area, so I can renew my focus on the etsy shop. The townhouse we're in now doesn't have a space that lends itself as easily to a crafting area as our former condo, so I'm trying to work out the logistics. I could use the second bedroom, but it'll be upstairs and I think I'll be less likely to want to spend time in it. I could use the dining area downstairs, but then we won't have a dining area (we eat on the sofa for the most part anyway) and I worry that it will constantly feel cluttered. If we move at the end of our lease, we'll only have to live with the solution for 5 months in any case.

Eh, we'll see.

Not much craftiness to report. I crocheted a scarflet last night, which was enjoyable. Pictures to come.

I came across this fabric that I find inspiring. I'd like to translate it into a Mel P-ish quilt-like purse.

 

 Until next time, party people! Mel P out!

You Don't Know Me

I received feeback for the custom kitteh purse. She says,

"Amazing quality and craftsmanship. Couldn't be any happier!"

Here's my latest song obsession. You Don't Know Me by Ben Folds, featuring Regina Spektor. I find the video mildly disturbing, so you may want to close your eyes or skip ahead.




I just placed an order with Fabric.com that I'm super excited about. It was hard not to get carried away. Handbags with love birds, owls and woodland creatures are coming soon! Here's a preview...

Btw, if you've thought about ordering from Joann online, I'd think twice about it. I ordered some stuff just before the holidays for Christmas presents and was disappointed.

For starters, they sent partial items. For example, they ran out of some fabrics and sent 1 yard instead of the 2 yards I ordered. When you're talking about fabric, this can render the item useless. Such was the case for my projects. Secondly, you can't return or exchange in store. Granted, I should have read the return policy before I ordered, but seriously?

So now I have a bunch of fabric that I can't use and have to make a trip to the post office to return. (Does anyone else hear the world's smallist violin?) I ended up with enough fabric to complete 1 of the 5 projects that I ordered for.

I emailed Joann and got a canned response about how they're forwarding my concerns on to the proper authorities. I doubt that anything will come of it, but sometimes you need to vent. Multiple times, it seems. At the end of the day, I'll still shop at Joann because I've never had a problem in store. However, I won't be ordering online again and that's disappointing.

Here's a pic of a bracelet I forgot to post. This one's a gift, so it's not available for sale. I found these handpainted glass beads at the International Gem and Jewelry Show, which is what sparked the new jewelry making obsession. I wish I had picked up more of them now because I absolutely love them.

Slap Fight

I got in a slap fight with one of my cats over orange chicken. I like to think that I won, but you never really know with a cat.

The custom purse I was working on is complete and shipped. The requestor wanted a purse with silhouettes of her cats in their typical poses. I really like how this one turned out.

I just introduced jewelry to the Etsy store! This was the perfect opportunity to break out the micro studio I got for my birthday. It's actually much bigger than I expected. As you can see below, it takes up the entire dining room table.

Overall, I'm very happy with the pictures of the jewelry...

I tried retaking pictures of purses with less success. The camera wants to wash out some of the bright colors. I'll have to keep practicing with different settings.

And now, back to watching Dexter!

A Tale of Two Sofas

I've been decorating the living room in my head!

In the coming weeks, we'll be finalizing our move to the Chicago area. We're trying to sell or give away as much as possible to make the last move easier, which puts us in the market for... a new sofa! Initially, I thought I wanted a sectional. One sofa doesn't give both of us enough room to lay down and, let's face it, we're sofa layers. As I was shopping, I had a hard time finding a sectional that I liked and in the right color (my heart is set on gray). Then I found this beauty!

I love the shape and it's an awesome deal. No, it's not a sectional, but I love it! The solution is that we'll have to get two of them, of course. The color shown is Oyster, but it also comes in this amazing gray textured fabric. It reminds me of boucle.

I'm very excited! Just need to figure out how we're paying for it.

One project I'll definitely be undertaking for the living room is this fantastic wreath made of torn book pages.

Love, love, love it! Thanks to Living With Lindsay for the idea and tutorial. She made this for about $2 with items from Dollar Tree. It has a wonderful vintage vibe and would be awesome if you used a book that has sentimental value. If you could bring yourself to do it, that is.

Shop-side, I won a bid on Etsy's Alchemy, so I've been working on a custom purse. I'll post some pics when that's done. Should be cute!

Threadbangers!

How am I just now discovering this site?! Threadbangers is chocked full of fantastic fashion and decor DIY projects, with a focus on reusing and recycling. They have tons of video tutorials.

Below is an instructional video on how to fuse plastic bags to make a laptop bag. What a fantastic idea! I'm not an avid recycler by any means, but I do hate being wasteful and this is like getting free fabric! I can't wait to try it out and see what I can make.

A Foray into Beading

I'm on a bracelet and earring making kick. I picked up a bunch more beads on the way home from work this evening and hope to have some posted on the shop soon. This will be the perfect opportunity to test out the micro studio my super awesome friends gave me for my birthday! But here is a peek.

Yup. My high-tech jewelry making surface is a paper plate. Don't judge.

Ever wonder what it would be like if Slytherin had an a capella group who sung a medley of songs from The Who? Then you should have been watching The Sing-Off!

Hello, Interwebs

Greetings from (near) Chicago! The last few months have been filled with moving, starting a new job, our first anniversary and my birthday. I've been trying to settle in as much as I can in a temporary house with my husband living in another state. I feel like I'm coming out of the funk though. It's time to put my stamp on the house, put together my crafting area and do things that make me feel like Mel P. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Eating chocolate
• Getting a pedicure
• Making snarky comments

I just read through my old posts and realized how many projects I've started, but haven't finished. I have so many ideas, but there's so much stuff to watch. :-)

I just made a spreadsheet that, when purse dimensions are entered, calculates the size of the pieces of fabric that need to be cut. You'd think I'd have the math memorized by now, but not so much. This will greatly simpify things!

The etsy store is continuing to truck along slowly. I recently commissioned a new banner, avatar, business cards, etc. from Little Loveables. She did a fantastic job! Exactly what I was looking for. I also sold a purse to someone in Australia, which was super exciting.

By the way, you can now become a fan of Pomely Grove on facebook! All the cool kids are doing it. (Note: there's only like 6 cool kids at this time. You can get in on the ground floor.)

In other exciting news, the Pacman purse received a very nice review at GadgetHER.

Time for a snack...
Mel P