The Santa towel

I thought I'd be smooth and make some new hooded towels. I was going to make them to sell, but in all honesty I'd never be able to convince people that it's worth the price I'd have to charge. I suppose that if I practiced a little more things might be different since I just kinda made this up as I went. That seems to be a theme with me these days. Anyway, here's what I came up with. Admittedly it would need a few modifications if I were to actually sell them someday, but all in all I'm pretty happy with it.
 

It has cute little finger pockets to help her wrap the towel around her. :) The modification needed can be seen here, I'd need to put the hood on so that the bias tape was behind it and not in front of it like it is here. I'd probably need to serge that hood with red instead of white too. :-p

She likes it anyway, so we're good. ~Kellie~

Tonight's Clothes Shopping Adventure

I went shopping for a few clothing items and I just need to vent. I am sure that some of you will understand and have no doubt had at least one similar experience. For starters, I want to know why pants are so long. I think I've mentioned this before. I also want to know why I can't find a size 6 in "petite" which is a nice way of saying short. It seems that the short pants start at size 8. Just because you are small in the waist doesn't mean that you have legs like a stork, it can mean that you are just small in general. That leads me to another annoying thing, why do they put petite pants on the top rack? There should be a rule against that. I have found a brand of jeans that I like, they are relatively cheap, they come in different legs meaning boot cut, straight cut, etc., and they have a slight stretchiness about them without being like leggins or whatever. This helps when you are a mom with hips and a butt and have to bend or squat alot because as we all know, kids are short.
I also went shopping for bras. Now that I'm no longer nursing a baby, I don't need to wear nursing bras. I threw out all of my old bras when I started wearing nursing bras again because they were shot and it was a good excuse to toss them. I want to know why bras don't come in packs like underwear. Wouldn't that make sense? You'd get 5 pairs of underwear in one package and 5 bras in another. I think it's a conspiracy to make you stand in the bra isle looking like an idiot for as long as possible. I guess it give you the most mix and match ability? To that I say "Whatever", I'm in it for function, not to be pretty, sorry honey. I have a gripe about bras and society. I have a small middle, and small boobs. I am 100% ok with saying that. I do not need, nor do I want an underwire push up bra that makes me look like I've jacked my boobs up to my chin. I am secure in the fact that I do not wear a "D" cup, and honestly push up bras make me feel like I'm perching my boobs on a ledge and I have to pray that they don't fall out of the cup. I always feel like I should talk to my boobs like I'm talking a jumper off a building, "Don't jump, it's not worth it". I admit that I do like the slightest but of padding, but only as "nipple insurance" because while perky nipples might be hot in a wet t-shirt contest, it's not really something I want to sport in the grocery store.
In conclusion, I will say that I tried on 4 pairs of jeans and 4 bras and much to my surprise, they all fit great. I only purchased 3 of each because I didn't want to spend all of our money and give my husband a heart attack. I'll go back later and bra shop some more since 3 isn't gonna be enough. The selection of what I wanted was small and I got tired of looking through them praying for the correct size. I did see one brand that offered small, medium, and large, which I thought was genius. That being said, I only found one small. Ugh. I also got 2 pairs of "skinny jeans" which are loose enough to not look painted on, but tight enough not to be saggy and to easily fit into my tall boots. All in all it was a fabulous shopping trip which almost never happens, and I seriously thought about stopping to buy a lottery ticket on my way home, but I was tired and it was cold out, and I'm not sure that I'd have driven by any place that sold them on my way home. Too bad, tonight must have been my lucky night. ~Kellie~

Learning Tolerance

This post isn't about the level or amount of learning that I can do, it's about actually learning to be tolerant. I'm not very tolerant. I'm also not very patient and I sometimes lack a filter. There are probably a few other things that you could throw onto the list of things that I'm lacking in but for now we'll just move on.

As I said before, I'm not very tolerant but I'm learning to be with regard to certain things. Will I ever be tolerant of a kid with a smart mouth? Probably not. Will I ever be tolerant of people who break the rules again and again, or who don't put forth any effort into anything they do besides being lazy, or who just don't give a flip? I hope not, but there are other things that I'm learning to accept without getting bent out of shape over. I have a habit of thinking or assuming that because I'm reasonably good at something, others should want to learn how as well. This whole concept of being tolerant hit be the other day as I was shopping for crafting goodies with my bestie. I've mentioned before that I learn random things from her not only about crafting and such, but about being a good human. She doesn't try to teach me and I'm not a pet project (I don't think), but we are very similar in totally different ways. If you told us both to construct something you can be sure of a few things, 1. It would have to be pretty or have to do with fabric or she's not gonna be interested, 2. Our end results would probably be waay different from each other, and 3. If in the event that they looked similar, you can bet that we got there from totally different directions. So she was plotting a wreath for her holiday decorating and maybe she was nearly camping out on the floor in front of the accessories in order to get the perfect things for said wreath, but it was ok because she wasn't blocking the isle or anything. I do not have an eye for such things. I try, but it just kinda looks like a jumbled mess when I try. I'm not kidding, I'm crafty at certain things but you can bet that if I make a wreath or flower arrangement and it looks good, I just got lucky and couldn't recreate it again to save my life. I just watched in awe as her wreath came together and then it hit me. She wasn't berating me because I couldn't craft such a thing, and she wasn't instructing me on how to do it or telling me that I should watch u-tube videos until I was a master, she just did her thing. I quickly referenced earlier in the week when I went over and installed her washer and dryer because she didn't know how and her hubby was at work and they were both recovering from the crud. It was easy for me, but she had little idea how to do it and even less desire, and that's ok. If we all were good at the same things, no one would have a job because we'd just do it ourselves. I don't try to instruct her on construction-y things anymore because I have come to realize that she just isn't interested as a general rule, just like I'm not usually interested in knowing how to put together the perfect outfit or make a wreath. This is why we're a good team. It's ok to not know how and to not want to know how if you don't really need to know how. Today, I'm more tolerant of that. ~Kellie~

That sinking feeling

I'm pretty crafty, I admit that. Sometimes my projects are awesome and sometimes they flop. It's always weird when I have one that I think is sub par and other people look at it and say "I think it's great, what's wrong with it?" and I point out the flaws and they say "I wouldn't have known that unless you told me". I guess that's a good thing, but what if I send something out on my Etsy store and someone does notice a flaw and I look like an idiot? I try not to send out anything that I'm not happy with, but I'm probably harder on myself than I should be and I expect perfection and sometimes I have to say that it is probably fine and just let it go. I also get intimidated by other people's work. Sometimes I see things and I know that I can do better, maybe even with my eyes closed, but then I see other things and I think that I could never pull it off as well as they have. All of these things come into play because I'm trying to regroup with my Etsy store/ small business. I've made the same things over and over and I'm burned out. I've also made some random things that just don't float my boat enough to make over and over. The result is a somewhat patchy line of work that really isn't cohesive and certainly doesn't look great in a craft fair display. It makes me feel like a gypsy peddling goods on the side of the road, and I don't like it. I need to pick a few, as in like two or three, items that I sell. I'm willing to do different variations of those items, but I really feel that I need to pick a theme and stick with it. I've been researching items that I would consider making, and I get that sick feeling like mine would never be good enough. I'm not sure why, I have skills and I've made those things before, but I just don't know. I hate locking down to a set of things. I like the freedom of piddling, and making what I feel like making and not having to adhere to any rules, but if I do that I wind up in my current situation and that's just not good for business.
I'm having to admit that there are two very different markets when it comes to selling crafts. Make no mistake, the online market is much different than the craft fair market. Maybe I just think that because I am forced to look at other people's work when I'm at craft fairs. I don't really look at other finished items on purpose because I don't want to copy someone else. There in lies another problem that I'm pondering, and here it is. If lots of sewing/embroidery people are making a particular item, is it good or bad to make that item? In general I try to steer clear of trends, but I'm wondering if that's the right thing to do. If you go with the flow are you just another person flooding the market with a certain item, or if you stay away from it are you the loser who isn't keeping up with the trends? Maybe just because there are twenty people selling it in Atlanta, that doesn't mean that I can't/shouldn't be the go to person in Franklin, right? I dunno, I guess I'm just gonna sit here and drink my adult beverage and think about it. ~Kellie~