On Big News!

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I feel like I can finally announce that I'll be opening my Etsy shop, Ginger Goddess Designs, this Friday, October 25th!! I'm super excited (and nervous, and anxious) to start this new chapter for my crafting. I've wanted to do an Etsy shop now for years, but never felt like what I was making was marketable enough to sell. Sure, I have friends that ask me to make and do stuff all the time, but I've not been the best about time management so it would take me forever to get anything done and I would end up disappointed in myself. No more. I've got a couple of embroidered items to sell, a screen printed shirt or two, and some items that I'm making specifically for Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls as merchandise. I'm sticking with things that I like to make and I know someone like me would be interested in (younger, female, slightly nerdy and very crafty).

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The idea of having an Etsy shop has been a dream of mine and I'm looking forward to showing everyone the things I've been working on. If you have any ideas or suggestions of things that you'd like to see in my shop, feel free to contact me! I read all of my comments and emails and will consider suggestions that are within my realm of ability.

On my Prayer quilt from my grandma

I went to visit my grandma yesterday after running around for most of the morning. I'd just dropped Mike off at Luna practice (hes learning to skate so he can ref for us!) and was feeling a bit down because I wasn't able to stay and skate (the original plan was that I'd run home with the kids and work on some homework. I realize on my way to drop him off that I wouldn't have time to get home and do anything worthwhile before having to go back and get him). The kids were also driving me insane and my grandma had been asking me to come by because she had something for me.

Not sure why this picture turned but I couldn't figure out how to rotate it back. Blogger fail.

What she had waiting for me was this beautiful prayer quilt that she and my mom had made for me. I'm assuming it was a belated birthday present although she didn't say it was. She's made a bunch of these quilts with the ladies from the church, but this one was just for me, made all by herself with some help from my mom.

Little knots.

The meaning behind the prayer quilt is that its made with love, and covered with a bunch of little pieces of string. Each person takes a piece of string, says a prayer for the person receiving the quilt, and ties a knot. Effectively tying their prayers to the quilt and covering the person receiving it. While I am agnostic at best, it really means a lot to me that she and my mom sat and thought good things for me as they tied the knots. They also left three strings untied, one for each of the boys and one for Mike.

Owls! and one of the knots that were left untied.

I always treasure the things that my grandma makes for me. Shes always been my crafty inspiration (and also my go-to when I'm stuck on a project!) and I know how much time and effort she put into this (the woman is 82 years old for gods sake). I also love the fact that she found really cute owl fabric (I adore little retro owls) and that its obnoxiously bright colors.

My grandma= The coolest lady ever

Thanks grandma and mom!!

Tutorial: How to shorten a zipper

Last week while working on replacing a zipper on a skirt for a girl that I work with, I made a startling realization....

The zipper that I had bought for said skirt was too long. Like, 2 inches too long.

Now this may not be a startling realization to some, but for me, it was horrifying. My brain went into overdrive thinking about where I left the receipt and what store did I buy it from?

Some slightly more intelligent part of my brain recalled my grandma mentioning that she had shortened a zipper that she'd bought a few weeks ago. This being about 10pm that night, I decided it would be in poor taste to call my poor, sweet grandma asking about zippers so to Google I ran.

I found a couple of super easy tutorials on youtube and was able to piece together a suitable method:

First: Measure youre opening to see how long the zipper needs to be (remember, do not cut it at the end of your opening or it will be too short. I made mine about an inch below to give some wiggle room).
Please pardon my suck-y pictures...

Yeah, WAY too long (thats what she said.... sorry couldnt help myself)

Second: Take a straight needle and matching color thread and make a simple whip stitch (going in from one side of the zipper, over the zipper, and down the other side)

Up and over

Third: continue doing this over and over and over until you have a little mass of stitches. This is the new "stopper" for the zipper pull. I also put a dab of hot glue over the stitches for good measure.



My lovely new "stopper" (before the hot glue)



Slightly better picture. You can see the stitches.

Finally: Snip off the excess beneath the new "stopper" and sew into your garment!



All done!

Thats it! After working myself into a frenzy, it took me about 15 minutes from start to finish to fix. 

 

Sometimes the easiest methods are the best.

 

Love

GG

Tutorial: Decoupage a Lamp shade (and put old books to use!)

Have an old lamp that needs to be spiced up? Have some old books that have gotten to the point of being unreadable (if you're anything like me, you have several :/ )?

Than today is your lucky day! I had been gifted a lamp that, at first glance, was frankly hideous. It was a very shiny gold plate, oddly shaped and falling apart, but I saw the promise of a really neat, different reading lamp for my still-to-be-made reading corner in our bedroom.

Frankly, I am too darn cheap and picky to just go buy a new lamp shade. I almost never find one that I like and works with our "decor" (or lack thereof). So I decided with this little lamp shade to bust out my Mod Podge and go crazy.

I had visualized it early on as being covered by pages from a book, but seriously couldn't bring myself to tear apart a book that I had or to waste paper by printing out aged-looking text.

My saving grace came in the form of a much loved, much read book that I was re-re-re-re-re-re (get the point?) reading. The covers had fallen off. I was starting to lose pages. The spine was bent and broken and it looked like it'd been through a hurricane. When my wonderful fiance saw me desperately trying to read it, he stated that it may be time to replace it. After deflecting my "what are you NUTS?" look, he said that it wouldn't be worth giving to goodwill, they'd probably just trash it anyway.

Than a light bulb went off in the dark recesses of my brain!

I would use my much loved book as decoupage for my awesome new (to me) lamp!! And heres how I did it!



Please excuse all of the crap on my little table

Start with an old lampshade. As you can see, this one was on its last legs (well, not literally as lamp shades don't have legs, but you get the idea). I wiped it down with a damp-ish rag and took the metal center part out as it was falling out anyway (hot glue to the rescue! I re-attached it later) 



Honestly, it broke my heart to do this to a book. For the greater crafty good...

Next, take an old book and tear out some random pages. This book has a bit of bloodshed so I

made sure to glance over what I was sticking on there beforehand.

Now for the tools. I used glossy Mod Podge and a cheap paintbrush from Home Depot.

Liberally apply your Mod Podge and slap on a couple of pages. I worked section by section because Mod Podge tends to dry very quickly. I wanted mine to look a little random so I turned the pages in different directions. This is all personal preference. You are more than welcome to line them up very nice and neat if you'd like.

After I'd stuck all my pages on the way I wanted, I trimmed the excess of the top and bottom and gave them one more coat with the Mod Podge. Than I hot-glued on some fabric on the

top and bottom edges just to make it look a little more uniform and neat.

The green fabric was actually an old pair of corduroy pants that didn't fit me anymore. Hows that for upcycling!

And here is the finished product! The lamp my honey fixed and then spray painted an off-white/almost tan color that matches perfectly with our bedroom.

I love the little scrolled looking thingy on the top...

The fabric on the top of the lampshade came out a little wonky, but I really didnt feel like taking the whole thing apart (again) to fix it. Besides it gives it character.

I hope you all enjoy Canada day for those up north and the Fourth of July for those in America. Everyone else, come back monday for Manic Mondays Music and have a great weekend!



~~Love~~

~~GG~~

Yarn Wrapped Spring Wreath

I finally got around to hanging up my Spring wreath (you know, now that its almost summer)! Its such a lovely pop of color against our dark purple door.





Spring has sprung!



I used  pastel yellow with a varigated green/blue/tan yarn to wrap the wreath. The little wooden flowers I got from the dollar section from Target!

I am really happy with how it turned out, and have gotten some compliments on it already :D such an awesome feeling!!

Working on some new things, trying to keep my head on straight!

Have a wonderful week everyone!!

<3 GG



One A Day: 1/25/11 Little Felt Owl

Because of my new-found love of all things Owl (and especially retro-looking owls), I decided last night to make myself a little felt-y owl to use as an accessory.

Heres the little guy!

I used some left over felt for the body, eyes and beak, and an old pair of pants that I didnt wear to make the wings. Isnt he CUTE?!

Hes about 2 inches wide, perfect size for a hair clip!

I have a feeling i'll be making more of these little guys in different colors....

I am really happy with how he turned out, and it only took me about 20 min to cut and stitch him together (I was pausing every now and again to do some homework too).

How are you doing with your "One a Day"?

~~Love~~

~~GG~~

P.S.- If you see anything (origional) that I've made, and are interested in a tutorial or purchasing an already made product, send me an email, comment on my most recent post, or post a message to my Facebook!

Tutorial: A Helmet for Logan

My best friend of 22 years (or my "bestest of all best friends" as we call each other) has a beautiful little boy who turned 1 last week. I knew that I wanted to make him a little something special (to go along with the mountains of toys I knew he was going to get!).

His father is from Iceland, and we joke about him being a Viking, so I decided that I was going to make little Logan a Viking helmet, right down to the horns!

I decided to make it out of felt, because its not only very soft, but holds its shape well and is pretty easy to sew. I started with a sheet of steel gray, a sheet of white, and a sheet of a mottled brown that looked a little like wood.

I rounded the edges of the gray, making the straight edge approx. 10 inches wide (which makes a total of 20" for the hat. I measured this on my 2 yr olds head, so its a bit big, but he'll grow into it).

Crochet Cowl

I hope you had a wonderful and safe new year! I know we did :D

We decided to spend New Years at Mikes parents house because we had the kids and didnt really want to go out. I decided to make use of my sitting around and do some crocheting. What I ended up with was this lovely cowl based on a pattern from Lion Brand called Vintage Cascade Cowl. I used Vannas choice yarn (not because its a lionbrand patter, but because it was on sale at Joanns :D) in Eggplant, purple print, charcoal grey and silver grey.

 The pattern actually calls for 5 different colors of yarn, but its a total of 16 rows, so 4 ended up working better for my sense of aesthetics because it divides evenly (yeah, im OCD like that).

One a day challange

You may remember from my "New year, New blog, New me!" post that I had challanged myself to make one thing a day starting January 1st. This includes my crochet, embroidery (which im still learning), knitting, sewing, etc. Im also including making it to a milestone on a larger project (of course, I set my own milestones. Everyone knows what they consider an accomplishment).

I know I personally have a lot of projects that are only about halfway done (thanks to my ADD crafting!) and plenty of things in mind that I WANT to do, so this was the perfect motivation to get things done and challange myself as well.


And then I got to thinking.... if Im working on a challange, why wouldnt my readers want to as well?!

So heres my challange to you!

Make one thing, every day.

Thats it. It doesnt have to be anything specific, or anything huge. Just create. If you do paper, graphic design, crochet, knit, quilt, photography, embroidery, needlepoint, ANYTHING, just make one thing. Super simple and everyone can participate!

You dont have to start jan 1st with me, but if you do decide to take this challange, please email me or comment on my most recent post so that I can make a list of people who are participating (and I'll include a link to your blog/site as well).

I'll be updating once a week so you can see what I've been up to, and also so I'm held accountable for sticking to the challange, and I encourage you to do so as well (again, email me or comment, or send me a link to your online updates).

Im also going to add a button on my sidebar so that you can show that you're participating and link back here.

I am SUPER excited about this, and I hope that I have some people wanting to maximize their creativity with me!!

Go get Creative!!

~~Love~~
~~GG~~

Cold hands, Warm Heart Swap!

I did my first swap this last month, and it was such an awesome experience!

It was called "Cold hands, Warm Hearts", and it was dedicated to... you guessed it... Gloves!

This swap was set up by Sandy over at Sandy a la mode and Ilene from Much Love, illy
(go check out the link party at Much Love to see what everyone else got!)

The limit was $25, and it had to be mailed out by Dec 1st.

My swap partner was Lacretia from Readyheart and let me tell  you, I LOVED my box!!

I got it in the mail on wednesday. I just happened to be home because of my horrible stomach bug

Heres what was in that lovely little box:

My busy weekend.... Christmas-y goodness!

This was a pretty busy weekend for us, and Im sorry I havent posted in a while, 

but I've been trying hard not to die.

Well, not really, but I have been really sick with a nasty stomach bug.

Its been really unpleasant, and my wonderful Honey keeps saying I look like "death warmed over". 

But today, since I'm finally feeling a little better, I decided to show you the things I managed to do this weekend, before the horrible bug struck. 

We (with the help of Mikes parents) hung some christmas lights. 

We only did the one little strand because, since we have a 2 story house, it would be way too much of a pain to put lights around the roof. 

Our small Christmas display this year

Much to Mikes dismay, I found the little, purple candy canes at Target for $3!

When I realize I'm doing something wrong...

Well, not like I'm doing something illegal, like when I'm doing something incorrectly. 

I have a lot of "slapping the forehead" moments.

Take yesterday for example. 

I was mild mannered-ly working on my project for "cold hands, warm heart"

I pulled out a new skein of yarn,

but instead of pulling the end on the outside of the skein like I normally do,

 I pull the one sticking out of the center on the end.

 and now, it works fabulously, and I dont have to fiddle with the yarn flipping around while Im working 

(just FYI in case Lacretia is reading this, this is NOT the yarn that I'm using for your gift,

 this is just an example :D)

I've also learned how to "follow" blogs via google. 

I know, for seasoned bloggers, this is probably a pretty "duh" sort of thing,

but apparently I was doing it wrong, and didnt realize it till my Honey mentioned 

that I was not following his blog. 

"yes I am" I retorted. 

"no, youre not" he said. 

So I checked, and low and behold, I wasnt. 

Again, another slap-the-forehead, duh moment. 

It may sound silly, but I actually kind of like it when stuff like that happens. 

Its not only nice because I've learned something new (yay!)

but it also makes me feel a little more human and fallible. 

What has given you a "duh" moment lately?

Still Learning,

GG

This Thursday...

Its Turkey Day!!

Time to eat ourselves stupid, and give thanks for all of the wonderful friends and family we have.

Via

I know for us, Thanksgiving is a very busy holiday. 

We have 3 families to visit (and eat with), so we have to plan our day out well in advance.

Via

This year, its early lunch with my dad, early dinner with my mom, and late dinner/dessert with Mikes parents.

So with all of the Thanksgiving-y goodness going on, I
 thought I'd set the mood with some lovely handmade turkeys!

Via
This one reflects my love of yarn

Via

And last but not least, a little craft the boys and I did based on a post over at Easie Peasie

Zach's is on the left, Edward's on the right


This is just regular, washable paint on poster board.

 I cut them out and put yarn through them so we can use them as decorations.

We made 3 of each, so that way we have one for each grandma, and one for me :D

And of course the boys insisted I do one as well. They love to see mommy get messy.

I hope you all have a wonderful, fun and love filled Thanksgiving

I am thankful for YOU!!

GG

Spinning a Yarn

I love yarn. 

Via

Seriously, its a sick obsession, and I should probably get some help.

but i wont :D

Via

Halloween!!

As I've said before, I LOVE Halloween!

So, of course, when it came to costumes, we went all out this year.

House decorations, not so much, but we ended up not being home anyway, so it wasnt that big of a deal.

We ended up taking the kids over to Mikes parents house again (they always have a TON of kids, and a lot of the houses participate, which I think is way more fun)

Here are some pics of the costume-y fun!!

Ed-Luigi and Zach the Koopa Troopa.

Happy Halloween!! 80s and pumpkins!

I LOVE Halloween! I've spent most of the week this week doing things to get ready for it (which is why i've fallen behind in my blogging.... sorry!)

(also this week, we've had a field trip, a concert, and parent teacher conferrance!
we were busy bees this week)

We've had costumes to finish, pumpkins to carve, and plans to ready for the big night. So far we have 3 houses to visit (family and friends) before we meet up at my fiances parents to actually start the candy-fest!

This year at work, they decided to do a 70s and 80s themed party, telling everyone to wear their best 70s and 80s costume, or just a regular halloween costume.

I was channeling Cyndi this morning

I didnt wear my regular costume because my sewing machine decided to crap out on me
before I was able to finish it :(

DIY: Refurbished table

Well, I was planning on posting this yesterday, but blogger was being lame and wouldnt let me upload the pics, so here goes!

I've had a little side table floating around the house for a few years now (well,at least one year was spent in storage). My mom brought it home from my step-dads fathers house. 

It was wobbly, the top layer of wood was coming apart, and it was just generally ugly.

 I'd been meaning to do something with it, but I've just never had the time. Finally, this past weekend we found some time! The boys were with their paternal grandmother, so we took advantage of some "no helper" time to do some big projects.

Tutorial: Wearing your baby, a DIY Baby Sling

I finally made my sling! I've had the fabric sitting around since I found out I was pregnant with my youngest, and now that hes 2, I figured it was time to make it (while he was still small enough to use it! lol)

For me personally, it not only lets me be more hands free, but it helps my back, posture and my oh-so-tired arms when I have to carry around my little Zach (AKA the Pit).

Now granted, my little guy is now a big 2 yr old, but there are those occasions when we're walking around a lot and dont have the stroller, these things are an absolute life saver.

Do you ever wonder if you're TOO crafty?

As I look around our new home, I have nothing but potential design ideas running through my head. But occasionally I sit and wonder.... am I trying to do too much?

I can't help it!

Everywhere I look I think..."I could paint X on that" or "I could add Y to that and make it AWESOME!", But when does it get to be too much?

For me, it's when I find several half-finished little projects laying around.

I try to finish one before I start the next, but if an idea is just too tempting, i cant help but want to jump right on it while the creative juices are flowing!

I guess you could call it the "Ooh, Shiny!" syndrome. Or maybe I have ADD or something. I find something that's new and exciting, and the things that I'm working on suddenly lose interest.

Tutorial: DIY Light Box

Yesterday, my darling fiancé and I took on a little DIY project. He paints miniatures (his "little men" as I call them) for a game called Warhammer (check out his blog!: http://mikedthreeb.blogspot.com/ ), but he needed a light box to be able to photograph them (find out about light boxes here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_box and here http://www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/ ). So he whipped together a quick frame (just some 1/2 inch dowel rods, nailed together to make 3 sides. Bottom measurement is approx. 18", height was 13"), and I attached some light, white muslin to the sides, and one full piece for the bottom, back and top (just quickly straight stitched on my singer, nothing super complicated, honestly).