Inspire

 

Are you inspired? Sometimes I’m driving down the road and I see a beautiful place and I imagine myself taking photographs in that place. It may be the sun-setting (or rising) that inspires me…a feeling that rises in my gut. I can FEEL this emotion come over me and I have to draw something before I forget that feeling. I have all these photographs going through my head as though they are memories but they are NOT memories because they haven’t happened yet! It’s like I am dreaming! I have to be so careful because I’m driving….LOL. I have to pull over and draw, or write these “feelings.” I try to carry a pad of paper, a sketch book, and my camera. If I have only one of these in the car at any given moment I’m usually good, but this isn’t always the case. Trying to get this feeling out of my body and my head as soon as I can is generally the best thing I can do for myself or the emotion is LOST and I will forget this powerful, inspirational moment.

On this day I stopped and took this photograph. I KNEW I was going to take my children pics this day! It was SO pretty here. It was the perfect photo area. I NEEDED to bring my kids here! The leaves were in color, the sun was pretty…I was INSPIRED. It was GO TIME!!!

I drove home to pick up the kids, the dog jumped in the car like he was saying ME TOO! Shelby had on her Super hero cape and we were off.

My beautiful Girls

In that moment I nailed a shot of my girls. I am not a pro-photographer by any means, but in that moment I got it. I took that moment of inspiration of fresh fall air and the beautiful setting and went with it! My kids will not be young forever but taking that feeling and running with it was just what I needed. Even if it means PULLING THE CAR OVER!

Do you ever feel like this? What causes you to feel inspired? Everyone needs inspiration! I have to have inspiration for my sewing and designing business too!

My children are always my biggest inspiration, to be the best, to create my best….but when it comes to inspiring surroundings sometimes an inspirational moment just HAPPENS. Sometimes it is not even a place…it could be my children laughing and playing, or a supermodel on television. She would have to be wearing something that makes me want to sew something fabulous of course. I could be shopping in the mall and see something fantastic and feel inspired!

Yesterday I HAD to purchase this very cute little babydoll top because it inspired me SEW much. I couldn’t take a picture of it. I want to make more of them. I would never copy something to the “T” but I want to create something similar it is so pretty. In fact I had sketched something similar in my sketchbook the other day which is why I snatched it off the clothing rack. I thought this was quite funny. It called to me!

I started an “INSPIRE” book….Check it out…

In addition to my regular sketch book….

I always find myself tearing pictures out of magazines and silly ads that come in the mail. I have a hard time throwing out magazines if they have just a few things in them I want to remember. I currently have an “Inspire wall” (it’s really a bulletin board) I am always changing up in my sewing room. *** This is my wall…

I like to surround myself with items that inspire me to keep me feeling in the mood to sew and get me thinking about what is next. Especially when I hit that frustrating moment— it is really nice to have a place to turn to for inspiration.

So my Inspire book. It’s just a sketch book with some random magazine cut outs of things that made me say OOOOh. Fashion items that might have a detail or two that I loved.

There are actually a few things in there that I look at now and say, why on earth did I put that in there? (not the hat, I REALLY love this style!) But I take a second glance and think– oh, I think I must have just liked the fabric choice on that design, or the hemline on that one, or the seam detail on this one. Whatever the reason, it inspired me that day  and I stuck it in the book.

And a Monet print, just because it’s Monet….so why not! I love impressionists! Monet is inspirational too!

 

Do you have an Inspire wall? Or an Inspire book? Where do you turn for inspiration? Lets hear it!

I challenge you to make an Inspire book if you don’t have one!

MWAH!

-Heidi

 

This is BIG!

I’ve got something in my pocket, it belongs across my face. I keep it very close at hand, in a most convienient place. 

I’m sure you couldn’t guess it if you guessed a long, long while. 

So I’ll take it out and put it on, it’s a Great Big Brownie Smile! 🙂

 — quoted from Girls Scouts songs, unknown original author. 

The point being— I have a BIG smile… I have some BIG news and I just can’t share yet! I’m bursting at the seams! This will be great for my business, and an awesome learning experience. I’m excited about new adventures… 

I’ve been around this summer— I’ve sewn some B-E-A-utiful dresses…that I will share with you all this week. But for know I just had to keep you on the edge of your seats. 

Any guesses? 

I’m not sure when I can spill the beans… But you can sure guess!  

  My very confused rose bush blossoming in October? I surely think so…   But also a sign of good things to come. 😉
 

Finally feels like Spring!

Finally a day where I can take the kids outside to play! It’s been so cold I feel like spring is NEVER coming….and then NICE day. We were soooooo busy between hubby’s shop and my sewing that it seems like I never have time to take the kiddo’s outside. I am thankful these past few months for the little ones’ preschool where they get to go outside and play so often.

After spending the morning at Dad’s shop yesterday I figured the kid’s needed a little bit of fresh air. Time to break out the Power Wheels for the first time since Santa brought them on Christmas…..:)

Our day in PHOTOS — mostly anyway…:)

Good idea Mom– You’re the best 😉

Sebastian was pretty good about helping himself when he got stuck….

ON NO!

Even after a few car accidents…. I was still able to stop and snap a few good pics…….:)

What a great day making memories. 🙂

Did you go outside today and enjoy the fresh air?

 

**In light of SPRING actually feeling like it’s arriving— I am continuing my sale in my ETSY shop for one more week! Use the code NEED4SPRING for 20% off sales! Check out my shop banner for more details!

Don’t forget to follow my on Facebook!

 

 

 

 

Pinterest crazy

I had a moment of weakness—or shall I say a few hours of PINTEREST inspiration!

Honestly I haven’t really been on Pinterest in months. With all my new listings in my Etsy shop this last week, I knew it was time to update my boards. WOWSA I felt like a Pinterest newbie all over again. You know– that time when you stayed up wicked late to pin everything you could possible think of and woke up the next morning with a Pinterest hangover? Well, not QUITE like that, but close.  I just felt so inspired all over again, one of the amazing things I love about that site! I browsed through my old boards, searched around for some NEW stuff, and then of course — I got HUNGRY…yes hungry. Doesn’t Pinterest make you hungry? There is always someone pinning yummy treats!

I found a few good boards of recycled blue jean crafts and was in HEAVEN– yup I’m SINGING!!! I went pinning like CRAAAAAAAZY! So I’m sorry if you are one of my followers and you opened up Pinterest this morning covered with all my blue jean pins but I couldn’t help it! I feel like sewing with blue jeans today. Thanks Pinterest for the inspiration. 🙂

Tic Tac Toe with recycled blue jeans? HOW CUTE!!! I will definitely be making some of these!

If you’d like to see my Recycled Blue Jeans Board you can find it HERE — It is loaded with TONS of goodies!

 

As Always — Don’t forget to visit me on ETSY,  SPRING SALE GOING ON!!! And LIKE my page on Facebook to keep up with all the goodies!!!! Remember to support your local crafters!

 

A Day for Bargains

“MOM, YARD SALE!!!!” Well my kid’s started it this morning. It wasn’t me I swear.

I had a few errands to run. I had to pick up a t-shirt from another mom, and bring my Boy Scout to the dump first thing this morning (8AM to be exact) and I am NOT a morning person. I usually don’t make plans before 10am….too much work to wrangle up these kiddos, but this morning we HAD to. Every weekend the local scout troops and packs take turns sorting the returnable bottles and cans at the dump and in return they get a portion of the money.

So we decided to pudge around a little bit while the big kid was working with his Scout buddies. I went and picked up my shirt and we saw a few yard sale signs on the way there. *SIGH, I was bored and I couldn’t say NO!

So what kind of crafty finds can we find today???

I found this cute little sewing box, complete with a bunch of patterns and goodies for $5!

All the goodies inside!!! How perfect are these patterns? I love making kid’s clothing and these simple patterns suit my style—I can easily dress them up with ruffles. 🙂 I know I don’t NORMALLY use patterns, I usually draft my own but it’s always good to have something basic to start with. especially if I am trying a new design.

Found some great fabrics, cotton prints and some corduroy!!

Cute little tray??? I love the tiles. I keep saying one day I’m gonna do some mosaicing….I even bought the tile grout.

The woman had $5 price tag on the tray and the fabrics were$3-4 each but this was a yard sale and most people are not firm on their prices. She told me to make her offers on the fabric so I offered $10 for the tray and the fabric….. she was fine with that. Woo-hoo!! I can’t wait to use that corduroy for something in the fall!

 I know this shirt is wayyyyyy too big for me. But it’s a gorgeous color, and it’s NEW! I think I paid a quarter for it and it still has the extra button attached. I am already envisioning this refashion!

Any crafty finds for you today? Did you stop at any yard sales? It is a great day on the Cape for it!

Summer & Steampunk

Holy MOLEY!!! I just received this wicked pair of earrings!

CHEEEEEESE!

I know it’s hard to see….but I wanted you all to see how excited I am! I put them right in, minutes after opening the package!

I found this listing on Etsy a few weeks ago. The earrings were inexpensive and made from recycled CD drive motors! How cool is that? Very much “steampunk-ish, ” very funky and I love them.

Close up! Neato huh?

I showed someone the listing photo the other day and they were like, HUH? They didn’t get it and didn’t think they were cool. I was kinda bummed because I was so excited to order them! Then I thought—-who am I kidding? Do I EVER care what one other person thinks?? NOPE! I do what I want…..It’s the ONLY way of life if you ask me. 🙂

The crafter has one more pair of these earrings. So even though I think they are one of a kind, apparently there is ONE more pair! You can find the Etsy listing HERE. They are shipped from overseas but the crafer is fairly inexpensive and reasonably priced. Pretty fast shipping for over the big ocean too—I ordered these on the 8th (which I think was a weekend), they shipped on the 10th and I received them yesterday the 7th! So really only a week….not bad at all. Some people here in the states cannot ship that fast.

Anyhoo, if you would like to see what else this “Etsyian” has to offer you can check out the shop, CREATIVE FUNNY. There are many more uniquely recycled crafts in this shop!

Speaking of fellow Etsyians…….Did you realize that it’s almost summer??? It hasn’t FELT like summer around here lately….but I’m hoping it will get here faster…..I know this changes the subject a little but I HAVE to share! The official start of summer is June 21st, AKA, the summer solstice. In celebration of the first day of summer I am offering 21% off ALL items in my Etsy Shop, These Old Blues!! Use the coupon code: Summer21 at checkout for the discount. This coupon expires JUNE 21st so take a peek now! I have a few patriotic dresses in my shop that if you hurry I should be able to get them to you before July 4th!!

NOTE: This Etsy artist did not ask me to promote their shop nor their product at all. No money was received in exchange for this promotion. I used MY own photos of the item I purchased of my own free will. These opinions are all my own and I felt the INCREDIBLE URGE to share them with YOU my followers. 🙂

What do you think?? Are the earrings cool, awesome, and or fabulous? Or just NOT your cup of tea??? I would love to know!

Toodles!

Don’t forget to follow my page on FACEBOOK!

Ketchup ;)

Or, catch-up, whatever you’d like to call it. I think Ketchup sounds cute.

So it’s been awhile since my last confession…..lol, ok, ok lets’ get serious; I’m pretty sure that I’ve told you before that I am NOT Catholic but hopefully my fans get my humor.

Anyhoo, as my followers know, I am not as consistent with my blogging as I’d like to be. I just had my ONE YEAR BLOG ANNIVERSARY!! I have only made 31 posts??? Seriously???….well this makes 32—–but that’s still not a lot for 365 days of blogging! I just don’t know how other mommies do it. I know it can be done, I just don’t do it unless I feel inspired. Maybe one day I will feel ready to blog everyday, but until then this is me, and this is what you get. After all my blog is whatever I want it to be right? Ok, glad that’s settled. 🙂 Maybe I’ll pick up the pace and maybe I won’t, at least I ‘m enjoying this.

However—-I wanted to let everyone know what I’ve been up to lately, so here I am playing Ketchup. First of all, I’m still alive and my kiddos are all great! Oh and summer is almost here, can you believe it??

In the beginning, the idea for the creation of this blog was first that I wanted to start my own business. I know I’ve said this before but my creative style confuses people most of the time. Sometimes I’m sewing, sometimes I’m knitting, sometimes I’m making dream catchers and other times I’m melting plastic beads in my oven. So my reasoning for starting a blog was to show and explain to people what I can do. I am easily bored and I cannot stay on one project for too long (hence the reason for stacks of unfinished projects—-only my own of course, I never miss a deadline for my customers).

So far, my little blog is helping people understand me and I have started to build a small clientele. I am always that person who jumps in and says “I can do that!!!” Even though, maybe I haven’t done that before. My clients and friends are spreading the word and people are starting to understand me, and I love it! I have a few random projects I have done in the last few months that I have really enjoyed. Clients are being referred to me because if anyone can do it, Heidi can do it—-or she will know someone who can right? Yes I just spoke of myself in the third person, shhhh, don’t tell just let it go…..I will tell people if I can’t do something or if I am unsure. It’s up to my customers to trust me or not. Currently, I’m feeling a lot of trust here!

For example, I have made two baby quilts, a sweater and booties for a stuffed monkey, renewed the straps on a lovely Vera Bradley bag (TUTORIAL coming soon!!!), a crown/ tiara for a special birthday lady, and also plenty of little upcycles here and there. Recently I have been asked to replace Velcro strips on cloth diapers with snaps. This person was a new client and I admitted to her that I’ve never done this before, but I did a little research, and I feel confident about it so I  accepted the job. I am loving that I am building a trust with my new clients. For all of this I am thankful that I am finally being understood!

Want to see pictures of my latest adventures in randomness?

Ok you twisted my arm, I will share! So here is some of my last few projects in pictures…. (for some reason this blog is not cooperating with me today and I couldn’t seem to  arrange some of the photos 3 on a line, but whatever it is what it is right? 😉

This baby quilt was SO SOFT! Made with flannel squares and a fleece backing.

This picture does not do this quilt justice! It is gorgeous in person!

These are the elephant appliques for the quilt before I put them in place. I couldn’t find that perfect elephant fabric, so I made my own!

Lettering applique—-not too shabby if I don’t say so myself even though I hadn’t done applique in years!

This tiara/ crown was made for a special birthday lady for a surprise 70th birthday party. I made  mainly from recycled cardboard, newspaper, and Mod Podged fabric, YES FABRIC! The roses are handmade from fabric as well and the inside is lined with duct tape for ultimate flexibility.

 

Don’t throw that cute Vera Bradley purse with the worn out handles away! RENEW the handles! TUTORIAL COMING SOON!!!!

Mr. Monkey….:) That’s all I can say!

So that’s just a few of my recent projects. I also have been busy with some upcycles. Back in March I participated in a Designer’s Day on a closed Facebook group called Upcycles Galore. Maybe I can show you all some of the items I created for that day?? Some of them were customs, and some I have not sold—-I keep forgetting to list them on Etsy or they probably would have been gone by now.  There is another Designer’s Day coming up on June 1st that I am excited to be  participating in again! If you would like to see the sales or purchase items you MUST be a member of the group. So click the link above and request to join the group.

My blogging goals for this week:

1) Tutorial for the Vera Bradley bag Renew

2) Post another Ketchup so you can all see what I created for the last Upcycles Galore Designer Day

I’m glad we could Ketchup! Looking forward to my next post. 🙂

 

As Always — Don’t forget to visit me on ETSY, and LIKE my page on Facebook to keep up with all the goodies!!!!

Easter Basket Giveaway!

There is this AWESOME Easter Basket giveaway going on right now from Kelly Cronin Photography. Head on over to her FaceBook page now to find out more details on how to enter! BUT YOU MUST HURRY!!! THIS ENDS IN JUST 2 DAYS!!!

So WHY am I telling you about a giveaway on another page????

Well that’s because These Old Blues  (that’s ME!) designed and created the incredible basket for the giveaway. The basket is made from recycled blue jeans!

Upcycled Blue Jean basket!

Detail of ties up close! ***and my label of course. 🙂

Do you notice the bottom edge of the basket? Check again, does it look familiar??? Check the hem on your jeans now….Did I make you look down at your jeans? Great, mission accomplished! Go ahead and let me know that I MADE YOU LOOK!

This is the inside/ bottom, of the basket.

I’m going to WARN you that the basket is rather LARGE, so I believe you may have to be a local Cape Codder in order to pick up your winnings. Once again, Please check out Kelly’s Page for more details and the link to enter. Please hurry!!! The giveaway ends on March 20th!!!

One person at random will win a gift basket full of goodies! What is in the basket?

Kelly Cronin Photography :: $100 Gift Certificate Oasis Salon & Spa :: Gift Certificate Beach Way Sweets Shop :: Gift Certificate & Chocolate Bark Cape K9 & Chatham Dog Club :: 2 Free Dog Training Sessions, 2 Free Dog Daycare Sessions & product Pink Zebra Sprinkles & Stripes with Tiffany Jester :: Glimmer Candle Kit & 2 Jars of Sprinkles Cape Cod Mommies :: Wooden Toy by Toy Maker Lester Ruth Hooked Couture :: Gift Certificate Sweet Bean :: Kitchen Aid Mixer & Gift Certificate CapeCakes by Kristen :: $25 Gift Certificate & 1/2 Dozen Cake Pops These Old Blues :: Blue Jeans Basket Lia Sophia with Jilanne Silvester :: Jewelry Forever Knot :: Barrette Salon Fabulous :: Gift Certificate & Product Goodies of Chatham :: 2 Pairs of Snuggle Socks, Chatham Life is Good Mug, Life is Good Magnet & Stickers Summer Sitters :: One Evening (4hrs) Babysitting (up to 3 kids) Please contact each business with questions/restrictions or more info on the products/gift certificates they are offering. Sign up here for a chance to win! Plus, if you get 3 friends to sign up, you’ll have a chance to win a secret prize!!

Picture from Kelly Cronin Photography’s FB page includes logos of local businesses included in the giveaway.

Again, hurry this ends soon!!!

Tutorial for my basket <<<<<HERE>>>>>>>>>

 

As Always — Don’t forget to visit me on ETSY, and LIKE my page on Facebook to keep up with all the goodies!!!!

I’m BAAAAAACCKKK!!!!!

I’m back and I’m flapping free! Ok, so maybe I’ve watched Fern Gully one two many times in the last few weeks, but the TV is ALWAYS on around here lately. With my hubby out of work on disability due to an arm injury (had surgery on a torn biceps tendon) I can’t seem to get that TV to turn off, it magicaly keeps turning itself back on.

Anyhoo, back to my plan of attack here, me being back! Can you believe it has been 3 months since my lastpost? I bet you are wondering what the heck happened to me….Some of you probably think I fell off the face of the earth. Well I didn’t, in fact I have been incredibly busy, (per usual?) Honestly my biggest issue for the lack of blog posts had nothing to do with being busy, I see so many bloggers who are INSANELY busy and still find time to blog so I have no excuses there. My issue has been lack of computer!

A few months ago, I had a Calgon take me away moment, I really needed a break and I should have walked away, but I didn’t. My kids were going completly nutty, I was deperately trying to finish up something on my computer. The big kids were fighting, probably over something stupid like what shade of blue the sky was that day, and the little kids were screaming and playing some amazing super hero-like game bouncing off the furniture into the walls and windows—–its amazing I survived this fiasco. Unfortunately my computer didn’t. I lost control of my extremities for 13 seconds, yup that’s all it took for me to slam my laptop close, yup, yup, yup, I slammed it shut, cursed at it like it was a bad bad girl, smacked it one more time, (or twice it was kind of a blur at this point) but I smacked it again I think just to make sure it was shut nice and tight.

I had enough.

After calming the kids down, and myself I crawled back to my poor computer and attempted to see if it still functioned. I opened it up and the lights came on, I could hear the fan running. Yay it was going to work! Thennnnn nada. Blank screen. I tried starting, restarting, shutting down, on and off, open and closed. Nada. then I just sat and cried for an hour. How could I be so stupid?! How could I lose control like that?! UGH. I never do crap like this. Just proves that I’m only human.

So then I finally called my computer genius brother and he flew over when he had the chance to see if he could mess with it. He got into it a little deeper than I could and concluded that I smacked the Windows right out of it. He said he could see the hard drive and everything about the computer but it wouldn’t let him tell it what to do. So he took my computer home to see if he could reconfigure it. Yeah, not my luck. I screwed up big time. Turns out it needed a whole new hard drive, not just new Windows. 😦 I cried some more. Our budget around here is so tight these days, I just couldn’t spend the money on the hard drive.

We finally got the hard drive from my hubbys old computer (another FRY disaster, NOT my fault—-hubby brought it to work and left it running on his toolbox with no cooling fan—-it just gave up and started smoking). Just so happened that his computer had the same size hard drive for mine. Perfect. But it was a pain to fix and my brother works a ton. So it took a while. Then it didn’t want to run right so it took a bit longer. BUT I NOW HAVE A COMPUTER AGAIN!!!! It has a few small glitches and it will never be the same, but it runs now, so I don’t care.

I just can’t believe how empty life felt without my computer. Amazing how far technology has come that I struggled without a computer. Pretty sad. I never ever ever want to be without a computer again. I love you computer, I promise to never ever hurt you agin. <<<<<hearts and flowers and junk>>>>>> 🙂

So life goes on and I can blog again. My we have some catching up to do. I’m not sure I will get to all the fun crafty stuff I did this summer, but I may bring back a few of the cool things I did with my kids and family. On top of all this, my biggest accomplishment in the last week has been cleaning my craft room and working on building a business. Since I have my computer back I’ve been working on getting my Etsy store up and running. And I have also opened up a new Facebook page to link the two together. My shop is officially OPEN for business!

I will give you just a small explanation, or sneek peak at a few of my favorite items. I am recycling old blue jeans into purses, skirt and fabulous other items. I have soooooo many ideas I can’t wait to fully express myself. I began listing items in my shop thyat I have made in the last few years for a few craft shows, and the few blue jean items I have currently. I am going in a new direction with the blue jeans and less on the knitting and crocheting; there will be much more NEW items added in the next few weeks.In the mean time I am hoping to move some of the items I have in stock currently while working on new projects. So I ask that you be patient as I am listing new items and getting the shop fully functional. I will be posting a new blog soon with more details regarding my awesome little shop!

Please visit my shop These Old Blues on Etsy.

I made the scarf and the skirt. The scarf is for sale, but the skirt is MINE, I am taking custom orders for the skirt!

One of my FAVORITE blankies!

My purse! I’m making more to list in my shop!

Also please visit and LIKE my page on Facebook to stay updated! I can update my facebook page faster than I can blog about it….:)