Retro-inspired doll

Yet another post! Surprise, surprise!! Spring break is over and I'll be heading back to work next week. Ugh! So you know that posts will be sparse. I promised another Retro Mama creation and here she is:

My brother-in-law called her "B-52" ... I don't know why. Maybe because her hair-do sort of looks like a beehive? I think she's cute! I do have a few things I'm going to do differently on the next doll. First thing on the list is to give her a tan! Heh heh! She's joining the winking owl in his travels to the STS carnival (she'll end up in the Silent Auction booth; Winky will be in the country store booth).

And just so you know ... yes, I still have more Retro Mama patterns to try. Maybe I'll be able to fit them in during the work week. I have to try because I have a potentially huge craft show in the fall and these would be perfect! But we'll have to see!

Give a hoot!

I got some sewing in recently. Did I mention I'm on spring break? Furlough. Admin leave. Supplemental time off. Whatever you want to call it. Doesn't matter to me as long as I get this week off! Which has allowed me to get some crafty things in here and there. I mentioned the other day that I ordered a bunch of felt from Retro Mama. Well, I had ordered several of her patterns previously. And I whipped this guy up:

Cute!! I used some Flea Market Fancy for his back (we'll chat about Flea Market Fancy another day). I used some corduroy I purchased locally. It was a bit stiff. I don't know if I'd use this same one again. I have a lighter color, which is much softer. Will definitely have to give that one a try. For now, this guy will be donated to the St. Theresa School carnival coming up in April.

Stay tuned for yet another Retro Mama creation coming soon! They're so fun to make (and the patterns are perfect in every way). I may just have to get some of them in my Guava Girls shop ... as soon as I open it. Ugh!

Felt-O-Rama

I've been stash building lately. No, not a good thing, considering I have enough things stashed away. My recent purchase (not including fabrics!) was this luscious stack of wool-blend felt from Retro Mama:

It's the whole collection, plus a few extra sets for a couple of patterns that I purchased. The colors are so pretty to look at. I kind of don't want to cut into any of them. Can I consider this art? Heh heh! Now my true hoarder self is starting to show!!

Meet Pinky Pie!

Hello there! Yes, it has been a long time. I almost flipped when I realized I've only posted one post thus far. Yikes! And a quarter of the year is almost gone. Holy smokes. Is it just me or is time just flying by? Since I haven't been crafting at all {gulp}, the only thing I can share today is this little critter:

Isn't she a cutie? She was a Valentine's gift from the hubby (thanks, hun!). And her name? Pinky Pie! Named by my 2-year old niece! I was showing it to her one day when she was visiting and I told her, "Look at this pinky octopus," and she blurts out "PINKY PIE!" So Pinky Pie it is! Thanks Izzy! I think it suits her perfectly!! By the way, she is made by Cheek and Stitch ... go find one for yourself!

Happy Friday

It's Friday! And I have a vacation day. So that means a 3-day weekend for me! Yippee! Not sure how I'll be spending my weekend yet, but I sure do hope I can at least do something creative over these next 3 days. We'll see. I think on my to-do list is to organize my craft room. It's kind of a mess. I haven't really been doing much in it since the craft fair. Yikes, I know! So things have been piling up and I do not feel very creative when stepping into the room. Maybe that'll change this weekend.

And one of the main things that's piling up? Fabric! What else?

Here's my latest stash. I ordered this bunch from Fabric.com. I added the ever-popular  Amy Butler dots to my stash and at 25% off, I got a deal (plus free shipping, and we all know how costly it is to ship to Hawaii). Anyway, I now need to make room for this stack and the few other fabrics I ordered after Christmas. Wish me luck!!

Here's hoping you have a great weekend!

Belated Christmas Wishes and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Our Christmas was spent quietly at home (yes, the hubby and I skipped out of the Kauai holiday drama!). I got a pretty sweet gift from hubby, but I'll save that for another post. And I got this cute ornament for myself:

It's an original ornament by Danita. I love the color; I love the dots. So cute! She will sit on my craft table.

This is a short post,but I just wanted to send out belated Christmas wishes along with a Happy New Year. Here's hoping 2012 will be a great one!!

Craft Fair Packaging

My packaging for the craft fair was pretty simple. Just kraft paper bags. For the flat bags, I ended up punching the tops (after the hubby trimmed 'em of the zig zag edges ... thanks, hon!). They were quite cute and unique, at least at this craft fair. One person bought a ring and said they wanted the ring separate from the bag so that they could use it as the "gift wrap" for the ring. So cute. Next time, I'm thinking of offering gift wrapping ... using the kraft bags, red tissue and baker's twine!

More Craft Fair Photos

Here are a few more photos from the craft fair ...

 Annies filling the gaps on the table. Rings resting on rice.

 Crayon rolls for the little kiddies. Most of these sold! I guess they make great gifts.

Push pins. Or thumb tacks. Whatever you want to call them. Makes great stocking stuffers for an office mate. Or so that's what a few people mentioned.

Bunting on the table. It was extra long for the table so it had to droop a bit. But it was still cute. Hmm ... not sure about the tablecloth I used (borrowed from Sis #1's wedding). It may have been a bit busy with the bunting. Oh what the heck, it was still cute.

Craft Fair Craziness

It's been nearly two months since my last blog post. I've been taking a break. Or that's what I've been telling myself after the craft fair I did in November. Yeah, a craft fair. Which was small, but boy did I bust my butt prepping for that show. Don't get me wrong, I've done a craft fair or two with my mom and her sister. I've even done the annual carnival country store (think craft fair, bake sale, and plant sale all wrapped in one ... talk about intense) for 5 years with them. So a craft fair on Oahu, hidden at the UH campus shouldn't be that big of a deal right? Wrong! This was the first one I did by myself, with just my creations. And I didn't go the dolls and bears route, either. I focused on my {guava girls} line that I've been playing around with for years.

So I had prepped a ton of pouches, clutches, earrings, rings, and a small bunch of other things to have on the table. I did bring along some raggedy Annies ... to fill in the gaps. My table was buzzing with activity from the moment the fair started. Thankfully, my sister ended up showing up in the nick of time ... I was about to go delirious with the steady stream of customers. Yes, that's always a good thing ... but my table wasn't completely set up. Not a good thing. Here's some photos:

The fair was on a Friday. I ended up prepping into the wee hours of the morning. This was the general setup I was going for (thanks for the use of the bed, Jess!). Don't mind the lighting ... this was about 4:30 in the morning. Yeah, I didn't go to bed until 5am. And then up at 6:30am. I don't recommend that at all.

 This is the table at the fair. A bit messy, but this was taken at the end of the day when I had sold a ton of items and there were some major bare spots on the table. Someone actually asked me if the mirror was for sale. Weird.

I did mention that I brought along my Annies. They sat perched at one corner of the table with one of my fake Christmas trees. Cute. The Annies will soon have a photo session and will end up in the shop.

Some zipper pouches ... I made over 50 of these! Yeah. Unreal. All out of my coveted kawaii fabrics. These were popular. But not as popular as the earrings, rings and bobby pins:

These jewelry accessories were popular. Probably because they were reasonably priced and that's great for the students who visited between classes. Interestingly enough, the rice was a big hit ... people thought it was such a clever idea!

Needless to say, I did better than I expected. Thanks to all the customers that stopped by and purchased stuff. I really appreciated all the support and the kind words!! And yes, I would probably do it again. Had you asked me a day or even a week after the fair, I would have said "Heck no!" Actually I did say that, multiple times using a little harsher word. Heh heh. But now that some time has passed (and I have pretty much stayed out of my craft room), I've now changed my mind and have decided that I will do it again. And maybe more than one next year. We'll just have to see how much crafting I can get going ... oh ... and maybe the {guava girls} Etsy store will be open soon, too! Stay tuned!

Weekend Plans

Seems like I've been really unproductive these last couple of weekends. Sigh! But the weekend is here again (amazing how fast the week flies by) and I am hoping to get lots of sewing and crafting done. What was I up to last weekend? Doing all kinds of odds-and-ends!

Meet Raja. This little fella belongs to my niece, Izzy, who drags this tiger all over (if she's not carrying Simba). Raja is named after Princess Jasmine's tiger in Aladdin. Yeah, this is my niece who is not even 2 yet! Anyway, poor Raja's arm was torn and I had to do some surgery to prevent stuffing from falling out (or being pulled out by little fingers!).

Then the little miss paid us a visit to pick up Raja ... and eventually ended up outside playing in the dirt with her little gardening tools. And uncle Greg.

Spent some time stitching some crayon rolls for the craft fair.

And then spent some time cutting Keyka Lou's Box Wallet. I ended up with a stack of about 10 wallets ready for interfacing and stitching.

So now you know what I'll be working on this weekend! How about you?