She’s blended fashion with charity work and saving the planet - one garment at a time.

20% of every sale is donated to a charity of the buyers choice, 40% goes to the consignor, and 40% goes to my friend.

She’s does a fantastic job organizing and presenting the clothing to the customer, so they can inspect every detail, and find the right size for themselves. I’m really floored by the innovation. I suspect that it will take some time to build momentum and get the name out there, but once she gets rolling I imagine it will be quite successful.

Kudos to Niclana of Barking Maddison. You get an A+ in customer satisfaction.

This time the problem was a bit more complicated. I bought a dyed leather purse. Everything was great till I got caught in a rain storm, and noticed my hand was red afterward. I love this purse mind you. It is the perfect size for all my necessities, and I get compliments on it all the time. I contacted the seller to find out if there was anything I could do to fix it.

Her response: “Send it back to me. I will fix it.” The seller’s confidence in her product, and determination to make me (the customer) happy was incredible. You don’t find that kind of customer care in big retail shops, and it goes a long way. I would shop with her again knowing that she takes good care of her customer base.

And if you don’t know about Oliver and S, check them out, they make some super sweet patterns- but they are pricier than the run of the mill stuff- scroll thru the blog and see some finished patterns. I have the bubble dress on my sewing table to get to- its been there for a few months, sadly being passed up for some quick projects. I will get to it soon- even if I have to sew with the new baby in her sling!

See the Lazy Days skirts on Flickr.

It was lucky I saw my family at Thanksgiving last night. My mom lent me the size 5 DPN (double pointed needles) I needed to get started, and my sister was able to clarify the pattern for me. New techniques for me with this pattern, are the cable knit and knitting in a round. So far I have the knitting in the round down. I got through the preliminary part of the pattern and had to take it out, as I missed adding a stitch and messed up un-kitting the row. Un-knitting makes me cringe and laugh. Unwinding hours of work is a strange feeling, but I look at it as good practice.

Two great sites my sister shared with me are:

Knitting Help.com - has great videos of stitches being done. If you don’t know how to do something you can pretty much learn how there.
Knitty - has pages of free patterns you can use. I like the black and white optical illusion blanket.

I’ll post a pic of the arm-warmers when I’ve finished.

I have a very clear idea of what I want to use for my business card. An image of cherry blossoms embossed on the right hand side of the card, with my name and contact info in the middle. Simple, but elegant. The difficult part is with such a unique design I’m sure to pay a premium for production. I’ve been researching embossers and different options for printing a card like this.

Because I want a custom design my options are limited. Do I want to purchase a custom made embosser, and press every single one of my cards on my own? Or do I want to pay someone else to do the whole thing? Because there’s so much to consider I’m starting to think of these things early, so I can have a clear handle on them when the time officially comes to start handing out cards that say Lic. Ac.

What draws me to Japanese craft books and the want to give the projects a try is the cool, funky styling of the clothes and accessories. I often find that conventional US patterns are, well not very stylish. I do end up finding cute patterns here and there (with a lot of effort) or make a pattern tracing and combining clothing items I like, but I wanted to tackle something kind of hip and different. I have to admit I’ve spent hours look at them online, and on flickr, another great place to check out the books and projects. I love flipping thru it and checking out the ideas, including a project that uses and old men’s shirt for the material. I think collecting the books and doing project could become addictive. I haven’t set out on any of the projects yet, but think the first one will be some loose pajama-like pants for my little one. It seems like a good one to start with and I love her to be comfortable and cute, and able to move easily. I do agree the pictures are very straight-forward and easy to understand. The book also comes with a trace pattern sheet, I just haven’t figured out the sizing and measurements with the pattern sheet for the clothes. I will post again with how the project/s turn out. I am hoping if anything, I will become a better sewing problem solver through the language barrier. Have you tried any Japanese crafting books? I would love to hear about your experience or advice.

A few sites to find Japanese craft books:
Traplett at Etsy
A little goodness at Etsy
Simply Contemporary at Etsy
Modern Craft
More on Japanese craft books:
Label-Free
Crafting Japanese
More at flickr

So I am trying to find a home for this stuff, either by way of turning it into something else or finding the person who has been looking all there life for that antique lace tablecloth. So I am taking to web to see what ideas are out there for some of this stuff or who is hoping to find it.
How about tea cup lights? What about the table clothes? A new life for tea towels and doiles? Can two chairs find happiness as a bench?

Other creative ideas to recycle your stuff…
Reuse, recycle, recraft
Make-Stuff!
Recycling Crafts
Trash Crafts

Sites to get rid of your stuff…
FreeCycle matches you with other folks who want your stuff- for free only
Craigslist where you can list your stuff for sale at no cost
Useful Garbage
And there is always Ebay…

Lacing cards, these are great, some fun simple shapes made from colorful cardboard with holes punched around the edge with a string to “sew” through the holes. See here for how to make them at Feeling Stitchy, CraftPad and HubPages.

An I Spy Game is another great one. It’s one of those games where the child can shake the bag/bottle to find items hiding inside. It can be a lot of fun for them to try to search for something inside and them look for an associated item in the outside environment as you drive, that will stretch the game out a bit.
How to make your own I Spy Game.

Have a budding artist? Drawing and coloring on paper and coloring books can provide lots of old fashion fun, too. A couple of good ways to keep it organized is by making a simple tote with crayon compartments on the outside and the paper and coloring books to go inside the tote. Here are instructions for a crayon tote. Another smaller option is a roll-up crayon pouch. This is good for the car, throw it in your purse or keep at arms reach for sudden creativity. Here are great step by step directions to make your own crayon pouch from Nested.

Become a back seat jewelry designer. OK, that is only if you like wearing pasta jewels. A fun thing to entertain your kids is making some necklaces and bracelets from pasta shapes and yarn. This one couldn’t be easier. All you need is a bag of pasta and some yarn or shoe laces. Fill a zip lock bag with a mix of pasta shapes and sizes with holes suitable to be strung. Voila, they’ll be stringing pasta beads and making you wear it at the next rest area before you know it!

*You can read about the toys that I did buy at my other blog HealthyTot.
Or, head to Etsy to check out their selection of I Spy toys and Crayon Holders.