Broken Promises

I feel like I neglect this blog more than almost everything else I say that I will do. I usually use the excuse that school/work/other social activities keep me too busy and occupied to write, but I think it's more a combination of me being too lazy, and me sort of forgetting about it. Also, I often struggle to think of something interesting and worthwhile to write about.
Here we are though, mid-way through the month of May. I no longer have school to use as an excuse, and I'm not working ALL that much, so... maybe? Some posts? More than one ever few months?

We'll see.... I don't want to make any promises, but I think I *might* be able to handle it!

Update

Life has been keeping me busy lately, and combined with a computer that is crapping out more and more quickly each day, updating my blog hasn't been a top priority.

BUT...

My new computer is in transit from California to here in Minnesota -- once it arrives, I believe that my blog, Etsy, and general internet presence will go up. Online tracking (which I simultaneously love and hate) says it will arrive at my house on Tuesday!

Finally, a sewing machine!

I've wanted a sewing machine for quite some time now, and I FINALLY managed to get my hands on one. I found it at the local Salvation Army for $30. I set myself up a little sewing area in my living room (my bedroom/craft room/office is already full, so it was the only spot left in the house --- in between the TV and the bookshelf). So far it has been working quite well for me, minus the fact that I'm a little... 'rusty' in the sewing department. However, I've been making tons of zipper pouches for myself and friends, and I'm finally getting myself back into the swing of things. I've spent quite a bit of money on some awesome fabrics, mostly stuff imported from
Japan, and lots of colorful zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. Once I start going, I will hopefully be making a lot, so be sure to start looking for zipper pouches in my shop! I also have a pile of clothes that have been waiting for me to get a sewing machine so they could be fixed but... well, fixing pants is just not nearly as fun as sewing zipper pouches!

I posted a picture of one of my pouches on my Flickr, feel free to judge my awesome skills! I'm making Dave a padded case for his Nintendo DS for Valentine's Day, so I will post pictures of that as soon as I get it done. I'm also going to start trying to come up with a pattern for some of those mini business card wallets that everyone seems to have, and of course I will be making some buttons with some of my scrap pieces of fabric.

I also have ambitious thoughts of making myself and awesome skirt, and a messenger-style sort of purse, but I think I need to stick with the slightly more simple stuff for now...

It's only just begun...

It's only the start of the third week of the semester, and I am already starting to feel overwhelmed... My original plan was to graduate in December with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Spanish. Well, plans changed, I was short 3 credits to have 'enough' to graduate, so I came back for spring semester. Since I needed to come back anyway, my adviser for Spanish told me that I might as well just take the Spanish major - I was only 3 classes (12 credits) short.



So here I am, 12 credits deep in Spanish, and one 3 credit anthro elective to keep some English in my final semester here. I'm a bit overwhelmed -- I haven't taken much Spanish over the past year and a half, and suddenly being in 300 and 400 level classes... well, lets just say that I feel a little bit behind. 10-15 page reading assignments take me two hours because I have to look up TONS of words. Ugh. I imagine it will get better as the semester goes on and I get back in 'Spanish mode', but right now it's just kicking my butt...

But on the bright side, this is my last semester. When this semester is over, I will enter the 'real world', and not have to worry about doing homework anymore (or until I start grad school... but we won't think about that right now).

The best thing for the winter chill...

a sale in an online shop!

With the temperatures here and all over the US being so darn cold, who wants to leave the house to go shopping when you can do it online?

Right now I'm having a "Dead of Winter" sale in my shop -- all pendants are buy 2, get 1 free; and all order of $25 or more will receive free shipping!

You know you want to look ----> Tangerine Sunshine <--- click here!

A new love...

As part of my "expanding" into new hobbies, I decided to take a step back into my childhood and start playing with Perler beads again. You know, those colorful little tube-like beads that you put on the pegboard and melt with the iron?

Yep. Those.

Well, thanks to a fun little ebay shopping excursion, I have about 20,000 perler beads in a variety of colors to play with:



I picked up some peboards and ironing paper at Hobby Lobby, and I've been searching for fun patterns and ideas online for a few days. So far some of my favorites have been various video-game sprites, especially pacman and old-school mario. I don't have any finished products yet, as I'm still waiting to get my iron back from someone that I loaned it to, but as soon as I do you can bet that I will blog about it! I plan on making magnets, coasters, boxes, keychains, necklaces, earrings... Pretty much everything.

If you know of any good patterns or have some crazy ideas, feel free to share!

Quick Update

Well, I am back from Mexico! It was warm, beautiful, and fabulous :) Pictures will be posted soon, but right now they are on my dad's camera, so I'm waiting for him to get them posted! But until then...

I listed some new items in my Tangerine Sunshine and Bohemian Kitty shops. I'm also working on lots of new stuff that I hope I will get finished and listed over the next few days. School starts up for me again on Monday, so I will have a little less time to dedicate to Etsy, but I'm certainly going to try! I would also like to fix up my blog a bit -- new banner, background, layout, update all my links, all that sort of stuff. Look for that in the coming week or so :)