A fun Halloween how-to from Etsy

I stumbled upon this and thought it would be fun to share!

Here are the links for downloadable templates of the graveyard & dead guy.

Gravestone Shadow Puppet

Dead Guy Shadow Puppet 1

Dead Guy Shadow Puppet 2

LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE WITH THESE LINKS!

Cough, sniffle, cough...

I am home sick from my 9-5. This is good and bad in so many ways.

I am actually sick enough to not work, whether it's at my 9-5 or at my sewing machine. Trust me I tried last night, even though I wanted to sew it became tedious and painful after a few minutes.

But my brain is moving! I received a general, mass letter from the Big Crafty peeps about the show. To summarize, it said if you were for sure not accepted you would know by now, if you still don't know then they are waiting for all the applications to come in before making the final decision. So I'm either on the "maybe" list or my rejection got lost in the e-mail. I choose to believe I'm on the "maybe" list. Woot!

So my brain is going over the show, if I get in.

How is my table gonna be set up...
Do I have enough stuff...
What stuff should I make...
Do I have enough things to help make my table look awesome...
Can I afford my current list of needed supplies...
Can I do this...

So even if I can't slave over the machine, I am still plotting my possible show and how I want it to go down.

And BTW, according to my general, mass letter from the Big Crafty... I should know if I got in or not by this coming Tuesday, October 27th. Gulp.

My new machine & the Big Crafty

So my last post was about the Big Crafty. I haven't heard a thing about it yet. I'm bummed and I hope that it's not a last minute announcement, because I need a decent amount of time to process it. It's exciting and scary, so there needs to be that personal time of reflection about what is happening.

So I wait.

I did get a new sewing machine. This is very, very awesome! I got the Singer Advance 7422 and it is wild! I have only worked on standard, mechanical machines. This one is electronic and has tons of buttons.
It does weird things I'm not use to... like when you take your foot off the pedal (while you're in mid-sew) the needle raises automatically. This is a slight pain when you want to turn a corner. And when I'm backstitching it does an extra stitch forward before going back... so I'm slowly getting use to that. But overall, it's head and shoulders above my old one, which was so cheap and wimpy that it didn't even have a model number (which became troublesome when I was trying to troubleshoot it's issues).

So at the sewing table, I'm just working things out, sewing as much as I can to learn the new machine and creating as much as I can in preparation for a possible Big Crafty invite.

OMG!

So... I did something today on a whim.

Something that if I hadn't done it on whim, I might have chickened out and not have done it at all.

What was this crazy thing I did?

I applied for the December Big Crafty in Asheville.
GASP! OMG!

And since I've never done a show... I'm scared!
Of course, they may not pick me to do the show. Which means I can build my self up and try to do it again next year.
But still... I may get in. And that would mean that I was growing as a crafter. And that is always exciting!
OMG! GASP!

I will keep you updated!

Please, oh! please love me!

So I've been busy lately; creating.

I've come up with three new designs. One of which I finished last night, but I am still unsure of it. More on that later.

But I've been creating in hopes of building an inventory I can be proud of. I'd like to branch out into the world of craft shows. And honestly, I'm nervous. And I'm sure that it's mainly insecurity.
Am I good enough?
Will they love?
Please, oh! please love me.
It's nonsense and I know it. People can either take it or leave it. I've seen crafts that I would never, ever purchase. But someone, somewhere thinks it's awesome and will buy five of 'em. So I shouldn't be nervous, but I am.

So I've been creating. And I'm brainstorming things like only having certain items at my shows and only certain items online. I'm hoping this is incentive to look at both & purchase from both. Plus I'm brainstorming & hoping for a nice holiday season.
But mainly, while brainstorming, I'm creating.

This includes an item I finished yesterday. It's suppose to be a "derby bag." Like a little satchel or bowling bag. Anyhow... I built the pattern and overall the pieces went together perfectly. But I'm unsure about it and the structure of it. I wish I had a mentor or something, but really I just mentor myself. Nonethelss, it's an interesting design and maybe I just need to work on it... make more... see what happens.

In conclusion, I am hoping to be in a show soon. I'm not sure what the definition of soon is, but soon would be nice. I'm gonna keep an eye out for upcoming stuff... usually that's all it takes to get me motivated.
Until next time...