Needed a break from the one woman sweat shop!

Recently I have been feeling a little frustrated at cranking out stuff without it being super fun. As my last post told you I made 144 (or so....) napkins in one day. What that proves is that I can make a ton of napkins. It does not make me feel like I can sew anything interesting or give me any satisfaction of making something creative. It used to, but I have sort of moved on. However the napkins sell well so ....... well that gets into a whole other topic.

Back to my need for a little creative outlet and freedom to do something more interesting. I signed up for the Guided Painting Studio class over at Callanwolde Art Center, it is taught by Dawn Kinney Martin and it was so fun today! Basically you just bring whatever project you have in mind and work on it with as much or as little help from the instructor and the other students as you want.

I had almost forgotten I had signed up so last night I was at Utrecht buying supplies at 8pm. But I managed to get my act together and get to the class prepared.

Here is the pic that I am using as my "inspiration"

This is from a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland in November of 2006.

I have a plan to use this as the background and then do black and white sort of ghostly images over it. Yes I know sounds a little crazy but if I can make it come out like the images in my head it will be fantastic.

So today I started on the outline of the buildings and such. I started in pencil, but Dawn suggested I try sketching it out in paint. And she was right, so much easier and better. Drawing is not my strong point.

So the bright blue lines are the outline. I decided that I wanted my scene to be a little swirling and fanciful. But I do not want to tip over the edge into cartoon-y, so I have to be careful.

I used to paint all the time and I had forgotten how much I LOVE PAINTING!!! It is so fun and relaxing and well I could go on and on. But I am very excited and feeling creatively refreshed. Which I desperately needed.

This is how far I got today.

It needs a ton of work, and most likely will not get touched again until class next week. But now I have something to look forward to and think about while I trudge through finishing up some sewing projects that I am less excited about.

Hope you are doing something today that makes you feel creative and fun! If you are not, you should!

Peace Out - C

It is always something.....

So yesterday started out a little like this...

I had my big cup of coffee and that handle is on my plexiglass napkin template (Hubby got it cut for me over at the Emory machine shop). I was ready to work the one-woman handmade sweatshop. And I did for most of the day. I had a few coffee breaks and lunch but other than that I was working. So much so that my serger kept getting hot forcing me to take a break now and again. I managed to make 36 sets of napkins, that is 144 individual napkins before my serger started to get tired.

Now they just need to be trimmed (threads at the corners), folded and tagged.

Which is pretty good since it had done over 100 snack bags a couple of weeks ago. And it has been doing well over all. Now it is skipping stitches. So I think that all that work has managed to make the timing belt loose. Well I am hoping that is all that it is.

I did everything I know how to do to try and adjust the machine and keep it going. I re-threaded, I adjusted to presser foot tension, I turned it off and let it cool down. Beyond that I think it needs to go to the shop.

I have had older machines that I was better able to fix. But new machines are hard to get into and are just not user fixing friendly. So I will take it over the the sweet but OLD people who still fix sewing machines. I hope they are teaching someone younger how to do it b/c what will we do when they are gone?

Today is tote bag and and fortunately I do them without the serger. I also need to do headbands but will have to figure out a way to do them without the serger. I am trying to get some new merchandise over to Homegrown before the 8/31 deadline. They are working on stocking up so that they will be all prepared for the Decatur Book Festival. I am sadly going to miss the festival this year! A big bummer. But I will be doing family stuff and that will be fun too.

Off to the one woman sweat shop!

Peace out!
C 

Yep I cut my hair.

Please keep in mind these are pictures I took of myself with the camera on the timer. Friday morning was the day of the Haircut! This is the before picture.....

 

Yes I made that lovely hair flower myself as a gift to myself for my birthday. Here is another shot of the flower and my long hair.

It is nice right? Well I was inspired by a project in Sewing Bits and Pieces by Sandi Henderson. All individual petals that I sewed together and the center is a fabric covered button that I put together as well. On the back is a small barrette to hold this lovely creation in place. 

Ok I know what you are really here for is the haircut. I was SO tired on my long hair and just felt like I needed a change. Those of you who know me personally know I am pretty much the queen of re-inventing myself. One reason I do not have any tattoos, too permanent! And too hard to re-invent yourself around. Maybe one day I will settle on who I am in the world, but probably not. Maybe it is just time to settle on the fact that some things about me will always be unsettled. For now I pretty much have to be settled on this hairstyle, not really anywhere to go from here. 

This is me and my new haircut in my yoga clothes with no make-up on getting ready to get a little work done before I head to hot yoga this morning. I do think it looks more modern and fun than the long hair. And it is SO much easier to deal with for my new workout regimen.

So I challenge you to be bold today! Do something you have never done before or have been holding back on for some reason. It actually feels pretty good to make a change and move on to something new. 

Peace Out - C

What I did on my Summer vacation

Ok I am not going to bore you with an actual essay on what I did on my summer vacation, but it was fun! And I am glad I took a break! Enough said? Well let's move on to what lies ahead. I have been invited to be a part of The Atlanta History Center's Fall Folk Life Festival. And I have a give away chance for you to get in FREE! The first person to email me (c@chrissyweeks.com) and tell me you want to come to the fest I will get you in free!!

 Pretty cool right? Well this next flyer is even cooler - It has my name printed on it!!!! I know it so rocks!!

Ok I know it is hanging off the page, but I so wanted you to see my name in print ;)

But I have got to get my rear in gear if I am going to have enough stuff to do this! So - Peace Out - See you soon - Hugs - Chrissy