Hello, Mail: Pottery from TarynGraceDesigns (Wednesday, May 15)

This is the package I mentioned on Thursday! I got two gorgeous pottery pieces by TarynGraceDesigns – and my cat got a fun box to nap in for, I’m not kidding, six hours straight. He’s a dedicated sleeper and box climber. On a scale of one to obsessed, how weird is it that I can’t go thirty minutes without mentioning my cat somewhere? Don’t answer that. This time I’ve got pictures, though! I also have the gorgeous mug above, and a beautiful, beautiful small blue vase.

Not much talk today – I’m really tired, and it’s Tuesday – but I think the pictures speak for themselves about the loveliness of Taryn’s work and the sturdy carefulness of her packaging. Also, it was a pleasure doing business with her. Like, she’s awesome. Excellent people skills all around! There are some Etsy people who just stick with you as being super, super friendly and easygoing and accessible and she’s one of them for me.

Or: Whatever, I’m Just Gonna Hack Up a Sweater First

How to Jump Into Sewing Headfirst: A Brief Guide by Lix Hewett

1. Grab a sweater you didn’t buy and will (probably) never want to wear.
2. Pretty much cut it in half. Cut off the sleeves. Cut off the hem while you’re at it. Have fun with those scissors.
3. Grab something that draws on fabric (preferably not permanently) and draw a square on the back half of the sweater.
4. Cut the square out.
5. Fold the square into a triangle and place it over the front half of the sweater. Draw a triangle, cut out triangle. On the remaining fabric, draw a triangle, cut out triangle.
6. Assemble. Realize second triangle is too small and the lines don’t line up. Disassemble.
   6.1. Cut up a sleeve. Cut a triangle out of the sleeve.
   6.2. Assemble again, just for size.
7. Sew stuff up! Get someone who knows how to sew to make sure you’re not messing stuff up. Also to set up the sewing machine if necessary.
8. When the someone who knows how to sew leaves, mess with the scraps and make something ridiculous, like an elf hat for your cat. Put the hat on the cat. Watch him be adorable. Take pictures.
9. Toss the rest of the scraps. Unless you like, like the fabric or something. Then you can skip this step. Or not. Depends on how much you love the fabric, how many ideas you have as to what to do with the scraps, and your feelings on clutter.
10. You now have one less ugly sweater, a pillow cover, and an annoyed cat! Pat yourself on the back. Pat your cat on the head. Take your hand back before your cat has a chance to sink his teeth in. A job well done.

Hello, Mail: Thursday, May 9

I did, in fact, get a little (big) package (and I mean big as in my cat’s moved into the box – it’s a large one due to careful packaging, not content, so it’s all full of pillows for him to snuggle in) in the mail today – but it’s been dark all day and I couldn’t do my usual quick routine of photographing what I got on my desk straight away.

Instead, I’m continuing the backwards journey through this year’s mail. Last Thursday, I got two beautiful pairs of earrings from Megan of NorthShoreTreasury. I’ll be working with her on a new venture soon – so excited! – and she was kind enough to do a bit of anticipated trading. I fell in love with her amethyst earrings as soon as I saw them, and then I was browsing her shop a second time and noticed the jasper ones – which, of course, I instantly decided I had to have.

The earrings came in two gorgeous boxes with a gorgeous note, all with an old-timey look that just befit her work perfectly.

Hello, Mail: Friday, May 10

No mail this morning, so backwards we go! This is what I received on Friday. I was so excited to see a parcel from Caroline of julylamoon and PrometheanDesign. Both shops sell jewelry in different styles – julylamoon focuses on vintage, romantic handmade jewelry, while PrometheanDesign is all about metalwork. What they have in common is that they both carry absolutely, incredibly gorgeous pieces. I was looking forward to getting these in the mail and they didn’t disappoint. I’m just over the moon with these, even four days later.

Hello, Mail: Monday, May 13

As I may have mentioned a time or two, I do a lot of trading on Etsy, and I’ve gotten some gorgeous things as a result. For a while now I’ve been trying to come up with a way to showcase them here on my blog that was fairly organized but also easy for me to keep up with, and I think I finally settled on something: a regular “Hello, Mail” feature.

I’ve got into the habit of photographing everything I get in the mail as soon, so this is an natural stretch. I’ll be featuring past packages in the future, but for this first post, I thought I’d go real-time. This is what I got in the mail today:

This Clothing Line Thing Is Happening. Oh, Boy

Over the course of the past week I got all the fabric I ordered from Spoonflower and all the sewing supplies I need to get started on my – oh my god – clothing line, and of course I’m blogging about it at 1:30 AM. Hang on, I’m going to go fish my cat in from the patio before I’m too sleepy to get out of bed.

…okay, where was I? Clothing line? Clothing line! Oh my god, this is terrifying. I am taking baby steps. In case you don’t know, this is actually my first go at learning to sew. I’ve been bugging my mom about it since I was twelve, but she always said she couldn’t sew that well, only off patterns. Well, I got patterns now, and I got fabric, and I’m actually making things happen this time! Badgering people to get what you want: techniques I learned from my baby sister.

Ah ha!

My first project isn’t actually anything with the Spoonflower fabric – it’s actually a pair of underwear from a junior size t-shirt my sister found at the bottom of her closet. I’m following a tutorial from Indigorchid, and so far it’s going fairly well. I drafted the pattern, cut up the pieces, got my mom’s sewing machine, and got my mom to sew up some lines. Then I needed elastic, which I didn’t have, so back down to the floor the machine went.

It’s still there. I got the elastic on Friday. My bad? It’s been a very tired weekend. I’ll get started tomorrow. New week, new energy! I’m going to go retrieve my cat from the living room before he breaks something.

Okay, got the cat into my room. He’s in for the night. Sorry, Oxford. And that above is the elastic, which I took a photo of because I have an obsessive need to photograph everything. You may have gathered that by now.

But much more exciting than plain elastic is my fabric – my beautiful, custom photography-printed fabric from Spoonflower. My orders arrived on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, even though I made two of them on the same evening, because the mail is special like that. Look:

Look, A Thing! With My Name On It!

Things I currently find quite shocking:

1. It’s only 11:30 PM.
2. I actually won a giveaway!

Regarding the time, it probably means my May goal is working. Also that it’s Tuesday, and that I went back to sleep this morning and had nightmares. Those can mess with one’s head. But I’m choosing to believe it’s a sign of good sleep patterns to come. I did do things today, offline, even if I did them in the afternoon and not in the morning like I intended, and went to the post office to mail those things – three envelopes full of blank note cards; I tweaked my collages a bit, so some new sets will be going up on the Etsy shop soon! – and had a hot dinner while watching videos from this year’s Nastia Liukin Cup on youtube. All great signs.

As for shocking thing number two, I’ve actually had some time to stop being surprised, but y’all – I participate in a lot of giveaways. A lot. And this is literally the first one I’ve won! I’m still feeling a bit “huh, that can happen” about it.

The giveaway I won was a gift certificate for GreenleafPickCompany on Etsy, a shop that carries various handstamped guitar picks and pick-related charms. Sharin was a sweetheart – we e-mailed back and forth as I decided what I wanted, and we finally settled on these two beauties:

Very Serious Question

If I take a picture of my cat during a product shoot because he has to stick his nose in everything, am I allowed to put a watermark on his butt?

I only ask because I’m sorely tempted.

(In other words, hello, and good night! There’s no better bedtime story than one involving a cat.)