Crafter fo' Evah'

I have been doing a lot outside of work these days. Well, I'd like to think that I am doing a lot outside of work. The reality is that I can't keep my apartment clean to organize my craftiness, but I'd rather take pictures of the few things I've been doing. I love making things and I'll always get joy out of that.

I'm really proud of the fact that I've actually grown something from seedlings and they haven't died yet. My mom sent me one of those all-in-one kits for some tomato and basil plants as a birthday gift. They're fool proof because it tells you how to grow them on the packaging and includes everything you need. I definitely do not have a green thumb, but growing these plants makes me want to grow some more.






I really want to start planting some other veggies. Because I live in an apartment, I don't have the luxury of planting anything I want. Actually, I don't have enough space in my windows to grow what I want. I think I'm going to attempt to grow lettuce because that's what I want the most.

I have also been itching to sew something. More specifically, I've been wanting to sew a purse. I can definitely make up my own own designs for purses, but I'm trying to try out different purses to become more familiar with purse construction in general. I also want to try all the different ways that other people construct purses to see what I like. The construction of some purses are easier to do than others, but also the finished product looks more polished on some than others. This is going to be the beginning of my purse making for my business. Good plan, huh? Well, I followed an online pattern from here. Let me tell you that those instructions are not easy to follow. I feel like some important steps were left out and some things could have been simplified to make it more understandable. But here is my finished purse none the less.

*EDIT* I forgot to tell all of you that I made this bag with recycled materials. It's not 100% recycled because the lining fabric was something my mom bought me in November, but the outer fabric is made from an Ikea pillowcase that I've had for awhile and it was just too itchy to sleep on. :) The buttons were some old ones that my mom sent me, too. :)




So, I'm going to take my mother's advice and buy a newspaper. I know it sounds odd when I'm talking about sewing purses and making my own designs. She's right though, newspaper paper is the BEST you can get to draft your own patterns. It's not as stiff as computer paper and there's a lot of it in one newspaper (yes, even in Maine there's enough sections to work with) to be able to draft many patterns at once. AWESOME! Wish me luck. I'll be back in a few days with some ideas. I might attempt some drawings even though I cannot draw to save my soul. :)