Well this is a bummer...

So I am finally able to post . I decide to clean up my blog and when I change the template and attempt to paste in all my links I find that the disk I copied to is corrupted . So new links a new page ( for now I like simple but it's a little stark . Then my camera breaks .Great

I'm in!

I have no idea how it happened but I can now access my blog again. First through flickr now the right way ! Hurrah! So to catch up ... I've been busy still mainly sewing. The warm winter has made it possible for me to continue working in my basement without having to stoke up the wood burning stove to keep cool. A small portable radiator found at the recycle center is very efficient and much cheaper to run than burning wood in our old stove. Our basement is insulated very well. My Hawaiian plants - banana,taro and sweet potato spend the winter there and it is only a lack of sunlight that gives the any stress.
My Etsy shop plods along . V2 is not what it was cracked up to be , and while it has some cool features, finding anything is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The search engine is primitive beyond belief. The influx of new vendors has lead to widespread abuse by resellers, importers and people who think they can list anything they like as long as they call it vintage. They are under staffed and over worked. There are people who have found a way to exploit the system, but without considerable effort on my part to bring business directly to my store, I am not gaining new business. In fact my views have dropped considerably. I took advantage of their first joint advertising campaign in December. It was to be on BoingBoing the blog that has brought me more business than any other source. I asked for 3 days in early December. I ended up with the 19,20 and 21st of December and in 3 days sold 4 items all to non paying buyers . I've never had a non paying buyer before. The new shopping cart system also has it's problems but I think they are one thing that can and will be fixed . I'm not so sure about the other problems.
So marketing was taking up so much of my time that I didn't have enough left to create new things and fell back on making the same old same old to keep the shop filled. Of course there are things I will always make and sell, but my idea notebook has grown dusty.
So this year I will focus on making new things. The best thing about etsy is that it's cheap to sell there. I can clean out my scrap bag once a month and make a batch of headbands and put them there and throw in all my prototypes but this year my main focus will be making new things, perfecting techniques and taking things from notebook to finished product on my own time.

Upcycle bb entry

Upcycle bb entry
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

Wow! I think I finally figured out a way to get back into my blog through flicker ! I have had trouble ever since google came on scene. Anyway if this makes it you'll be seeing more posts from me.

busy busy

This is awful. No posts in forever. All apologies. Damn, I have been busy. A good busy, a satisfying busy. I have been making lots and lots of the laptop sleeves. I need a new map. I have been tracking all my sales and placing a little pin on the map for each one. My "target market " has shifted considerably since the boingboing post . I have sold in the UK , Japan and Germany. I only have a North America Map and so I have a flotilla of pins in the Atlantic and a raft in the Pacific. I have been selling lots more sleeves to men, and it has been a pleasure. They are not afraid to ask for special things and several have bought bags not only for themselves but as gifts as well. The only down side is that I have little time for new ideas, and I have a bunch of new ideas. I can't seem to stop myself from buying new fabrics and trims so if and when it slow I'll be prepared. Well I promised myself an early to bed this evening and I'm already an hour into the new day so I 'd best say good night . Here's a picture of the newest laptop fabric, I am so in love with it. I have never has such a difficult time sewing anything, this may be the first and last thing I make with it . I call it amp because it reminds me of my dad's Fender amplifier. I wish I had a laptop, this would be the fabric I would choose for myself.

catching my breath

The summer is passing me by. I waited so patiently for summer, to have the luxury of time to myself, time to catch up on all those projects that require fresh air and warm temps. Somehow it hasn't worked out that way. Good things and bad have kept me from any routine and the bulk of my time has been spent just keeping up. I am free right now because I have just returned from the airport to pick up my son from his holiday in Hawaii. I am not going to go downstairs and sew the dozens of projects that are calling me. Tonight I will take off and just allow myself the luxury of catching up on my favorite blogs and posting this , as meager as it is. I guess I need to write about crafting. I have been doing lots of sewing but almost all for things I've made before , nothing particularly creative or new. I am not complaining . My small bags were featured on funky finds which brought me some new customers. Also waaaaaay back in June, I sold one of my laptop sleeves to Alice who bought it as a surprise gift for someone. I had to hold it several weeks so it would arrive on the right day and somehow it was returned to me. I sent it off again. This time it found it's way and I later received a lovely note from Alice telling me the recipient loved it, even if it was late. A few days later my Etsy mailbox was filled with requests for more.
It turned out the sleeve was for Cory Doctorow who showed it off and linked to my shop Views have slowed but I am still receiving more visitors from that one post that all my other marketing efforts combined . It just goes to show you that a satisfied customer is your best advertisement.

lei pikaki

The rain and heat have given me a bumper crop of pikaki blooms. Two days worth was enough to make a single strand. I wish I could post the scent ,so fragrant and beguiling that dozens of songs have been written about it. Pikaki is the traditional lei for lovers and weddings.

yo ho, yo ho ,a pirates life for me.

Just got back from the movies... Can you guess which one? Now you know as Saltygal I"m going to take in any good sea farin tale but the main reason I went to see this wasn't Johnny Depp it was my brother Ron. He has been working on it ( and the sequel) for over a year. I wanted to see his name roll by at the end. He's not an actor,he's a craftsman, one of hundreds that work so hard to set the scene, create what isn't real and make us believe for a moment that it is. He did an awesome job, and once I got over the initial shock of seeing what he had created up on the screen, I fell into the story and found myself at sea once again.Arrggg Thanks Ron.

All tied up

It's been a frustrating week. The first part of the week was focused with getting my son cleared for takeoff after his surgery. He has to keep the sling on another 3 weeks and can start physical therapy when he returns. One good thing ,if you can call it that was that I had to take him to the airport extra early to get him an aisle seat because he wouldn't be able to crawl over people to get in and out. As we are heading to the airport we find out that the new tunnel to the airport has been closed because the night before a giant piece of concrete fell off and killed someone. Needless to say instead of arriving 90 minutes early ( we left at 5:30 AM for a 7:30 flight) we got there 45 minutes early. If we had left at the usual time we would have missed the flight. So that was lucky Huh ?
The next day I spent sewing a custom order( very s l o w l y so as not to tax my machine.) Yesterday I cleaned up my sewing space and prepared to sew one of my cargo bags with a tutorial for this months whiplash!
I get it all figured out and lay out the first shot. My camera starts acting up. It will only take pictures in blazing sunlight and only if it feels like it . I arrange and rearrange the lights, the shot, try a tripod, and take 20 different shots of the materials neatly laid out and not one comes into focus, not one! So I'm not doing this months competition which really makes me sad because it has the best prizes! Now I not only need a new sewing machine, but a new camera as well.
This morning decided I needed some shopping therapy and I headed out to my favorite thrift shops and hit the jackpot! Someone who was very dapper back in the 70's cleaned out his closet and I scored some beautiful ties. If I hadn't have set myself a spending limit I would have come home with 30. There were so many beautiful ones. Silk, polyester and even corduroy. I also found an old damn troll doll dated 1977 which I need like I need a hole in my head but she was just 99 cents and perfect and she went well with all the 70's ties. I came home and took them all outside and managed to get shots of most of them but there were a few that no mater how many times I moved things or adjusted them they just wouldn't come out so you won't be able to see them all,but I've posted most of them on flicker. I love ties. My husband is an electronic engineer so he doesn't wear them to work. When my son made the High School Hockey team I was overjoyed since they wear ties on all game days. He enjoys it too and definitely has the best ties on the team. Now,with his injury it's doubtful he'll play this year. Even so I did find him one beautiful tie in the school colors today. I started collecting ties just because they were affordable and the fabrics are so beautiful. I started making small bags, wallets and ipod cases from them and selling them online. A while back I received a letter from a tie collector asking me not to cut up "perfectly good ties" I understand his argument. I still cut some up, but I try to look for ones that are snagged or stained. Some I hold for a while and then let go to good homes. It will take me a while to figure what will become of the rest . For now it makes me happy just to look at them.

Stress reducer

It might have worked, had my neighbors not gone away for the weekend and left their dog locked in the house to bark and howl for 45 minutes out of every hour. Their insensitivity towards their neighbors is only exceeded by their cruelty towards their dog. Since this is supposed to be my craft blog not my bitch and moan one, I will tell you that this reminds me of one of my first craft projects, a plaque I made for a local animal shelter I volunteered at as a teenager. It was made from a cross cut of fir and I burned into it this quote..... The more I see of dogs, the less I think of men.

A slow death

Arrggg my sewing machine is dying a slow death. I have had it for 30 years. 20 of them were in Hawaii where heat,humidity and salt air are constant. I didn't use it much when I was there, mainly for alterations,repairs and Halloween costumes. When you own a clothing store and your best friend is a seamstress extrodinare why sew? I don't think it would have lasted this long if my current husband wasn't such a wiz at repairs. Since I've started sewing with ernest he has repaired the needle tension mechanism, the feedogs, the flywheel and the electric cord. I knew it wouldn't last much longer and with some assistance from my vintage singer featherweight I've managed to put out a couple of large orders. But the end is near, very near. Tonight I looked at some new machines and faced not only sticker shock but techno shock as well. Even though my husband is an electronic engineer capable of building some seriously complicated shit, I don't want an electronic machine. In the past few months a host of electronic equipment in my household has died. These were not cheap goods. Some were top of the line and I researched each and everyone before I laid out the bucks for them . I don't want to spend a thousand dollars and have to take a week of classes for a machine that is going to break down in a few years. I don't want to, but that is what I may end up doing. I finally made something with some of the Japanese fabrics I bought several months ago. I'm keeping one of these for myself.

unfinished business

I finished a few projects that have been cluttering up my desk. One the prototype design for the vintage fabric I found at the dump. I'm glad I didn't cut into the fabric. The bag is very cute but not for me.. The other is another bag made from men's pants. This one is simpler than most but the colors are really beautiful. Now I have a large order to fill and must buckle down and sew sew sew. My son is recovering from his surgery and my husband took this week off so I've been up late sewing every night. Here are two pics for now.

Junque Revival

A while back I met the incredibly creative and talented Jes when I made one of my recycled cargo bags for her. She was in the process of building her own online shop
JunqueRevival. The shop is now open and is filled with fabulous one of a kind wearable works of art. I fell in love with them the moment I saw them. I literally flipped a coin because Ihad to have one and was torn between two of them. This is the beauty that won. Jes is having a drawing to promote her shop and a chance to win one of her pendants. If you sign up for her newsletter maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones!

sleeping on it

The change of seasons and school years has left my household in a bit of turmoil for the past 2 months. My daughter returned to Hawaii yesterday after a 6 week visit. Tomorrow my son will have othroscopic surgery to repair his shoulder which he has dislocated 5 times in 3 years. Ouch! My husband is also taking a weeks vacation starting tomorrow. In 2 weeks my son will go to Hawaii for his summer visit with his father. I will have loads of time to sew and garden and do all the things I never seem to find the time to do whilst being chief cook and bottle washer around here. In the mean time I am trying to work on two large orders and I have a new buyer in the UK asking me to make all kinds of things wholesale. I'm not really sure I am ready for exporting. A while back I had posted some vintage fabrics I found at our local dumps recycling center. I wanted to make myself a bag with one of the fabrics. I had a design in mind and last night I began a practice version with another fabric. The design seemed simple, an egg shaped sling with strap and bag all cut in a single piece. While I don't think I'd ever reverse it, I feel it needs to be sewn as reversible for neatness in the strap area. The only thing I've ever made that was reversible was a fairly straight forward rectangle. I struggled with how in the heck to do it until almost 2 am before giving up. I was still working on it in my dreams when suddenly there I was, turning it inside out after having completed it. Sometimes I think we just need to sleep on things. My daughter gave me this wonderful book last Christmas after I had checked it out and renewed it to it's limits at our local library.
Aha
Now whenever I get stuck, I pick it up and take a little refresher course in getting my creative mind out of it's rut. Tomorrow while my son is in surgery I'll take it along and give it a review.

Independence Day

Back in April I wrote about my daughter and her birthday. Today I celebrated the birth of my youngest child, my son who turned 16 today. Boys may not celebrate "Sweet 16" but it's an important milestone on the road to independence. Being eligible to learn to drive and getting a license is a very big deal. We live on the edge of town, miles away from friends,sports, activities, school. Everywhere he goes requires a ride. Even when his friends come over, I usually end up driving one way because if I didn't, their parents wouldn't let them. It's not that we live in a small town out in the boon docks, it's just that where we live and the terrible gridlock that stifles the roadways makes getting here a headache. My daughter was so intimidated by the roadways and aggressive drivers here she did not get her license until she moved back to Hawaii. My son is different. He has been waiting and preparing for this a long time. Soon, he can drive himself. He will be Mr man about town. Meanwhile, I'm suffering a little bit of an identity crisis. For the past ten years my principal occupation has been that of chauffeur. Now with my daughter in Hawaii and my son ready to drive, he will not be the only one gaining independence. I will have much more time on my hands. I'm not sure what I'll do with all of it. More time to craft and garden and cook and read. Now, some days it seems that all I do is drive. I am in the car more hours than not. I long for days where I never have to leave the house. It just seems as if the coming and going ruins everything, interrupts the flow. I don't start anything I can't finish in a short period of time.

Long ago when I lived on my boat my (now ex) husband and I spent a summer anchored at Point Conception, CA. We sailed down to Gaviota pier a couple of times to pick up visitors and once, just to get an ice cream cone. We sailed to Santa Barbara for fresh foods and ice and to fill the water tanks twice. Most of the time we lay at anchor. I went to the beach there exactly once. I could take the dinghy out to the kelp beds and fish a while. I could swim. My husband would surf 6-8 hours a day. I did not feel the need to go anywhere. I could just be. I know I'm not ready for that kind of solitude just yet, but I will be having a little bit more of my own time soon. Maybe I won't be an attention deficit crafter anymore after that.

Found fabrics

Here are some pics of the fabrics I found yesterday at the dump, all washed and sorted by color. Some of them really are quite spectacular in their strangeness. How did we live with such prints and colors ?





These two are my favorites ,a good sized piece of an avacado floral that is destined for a handbag and a skinny piece of voile in shades of pink and brown that will make a lovely scarf.

Take it or leave it

Inspiration comes from the strangest places. I am lucky to live in a town with an amazing recycling center. Virtually everything can be recycled there and residents can take some things back too. You can get free compost, once every couple of months you can shop in the "paint store" there is a library section and another one for household, office and sporting goods called"take it or leave it". I always find something. When I was doing lots of pique assist I'd go there looking for dishes. Today I saw 3 wine cartons stuffed with fabric scraps, Most of the fabric was in very small pieces. It was rolled and stuffed into the small compartments for the wine bottles. . I sorted through and manage to find some interesting fabric from the 60's I brought it all home sorted it out by color and washed it. About a third of it was from clothing that had been deconstructed, the rest of it was upholstery fabric. There were a few remnents that still had the prices on them. 22 cents for a quater yard of tan polka dots on black. Some of the colors are absolutely hideous, but others evoke memories of my younger years. Many are not the kind of vintage fabrics I think we're likely to ever see reproduced again. A few I would give anything to have more of. I think the person that left them was cleaning out either an upholstery shop or was a home decorator. It was fun to try and guess what each piece once was and what kind of people would want piece of furniture covered with cream twill printed with evenly spaced quarter sized duck decoys? I'll take some pictures and post tomorrow but I'm already filled with ideas.

South End Open Market

Today I took a carload of accessories to Boston's South End Open Market to sell at the Etsy Booth. Traffic was pretty good, I received many compliments, sold 20 items to 14 customers , but overall,(sales-wise)it was a disappointing day. The best part was meeting other ETSY sellers,some incredibly talented people. I shared a booth with
sweetestpeawho makes the cutest stuffies around , all hand sewn and completely original and mlee a printer that specializes in wood block prints, very reasonably priced that have a very earthy organic feel but are also very modern. Next tent over were allyouneedislove,a very talented painter, she also sells prints of her originalartwork and repurposed clothing which she embellishes with hand sewn appliques. Sharing a tent with Allyouneedislove was eirene a handbag designer with an eye for fabrics and exceptional skill. She had the cutest handbags there (and there were quite a few sellers with handbags including me.) Across from us were Mogo, who screen prints on small accessories and baby clothes and heatherjeany with beautiful handmade cards. It was both intimidating and inspiring to be around so many creative and talented people.
I also had a little bit of a dream come true working with my daughter, Naomi, who is home for a few more weeks. Naomi came to work with me when she was a baby, and was only 5 when my store closed. My business partner and I used to dream of the day when Naomi would take over for us. Naomi is an amazing trend spotter and trend setter, and I have no doubt that she would succeed as a buyer, but she has never shown an interest in retail. When the opportunity came along for me to sell at the market I was hesitant because I didn't want to interfere with her vacation, but she encouraged me to do it, was full of bright ideas and was a terrific sales person. So a bit of melancholy there, seeing that had my store survived she would have been a success. I have 2 more years until my last little bird leaves the nest and then I'll think about opening a new store. I hadn't planned on doing any shows until fall but I think I'll look around for one or two more while Jon is away for the summer.

mia

Holy cow I just realized it's been almost a month since my last post. Lots has happened to keep me form posting and crafting. My daughter is home for a month and I've been spending time with her. I celebrated ( not really ) another birthday. I've been busy in the garden and at my other garden. Baby muskrats have emerged from their den under our dock and the swallows will be fledging soon. I have been busy and next weekend I'll be selling some of my wares at the 'South End Open Market " thanks to ETSY for setting that up.

Mother's day

My mother was an amazing woman. She was a stewardess for PamAm Airways in the forties. She met and married my father a pilot, in the fifties. My father said he married her because she was smarter than he was and was not impressed with his good looks. She was a gifted artist but did not work outside the home until all her children had gone their own ways. She was politically active, had a deep love of nature and was a feminist. She had come from a wealthy background and had expensive tastes,but did not live beyond her means. When she craved something she could not afford, she taught herself the skills necessary to craft it herself. She did not have many close women friends because she refused to stay in the kitchen or be subservient to my father. (which was one reason my father loved her so much ) Since my father was away most of the time she ran the household. She was way ahead of her time. I don't have her talent, her intelligence, or even her good looks but everyday I strive to be a little more like her.

rainy day blessing

I should be sewing but seeing how I left my mayday post sitting on the dashboard for two weeks, I'm feeling guilty about not updating. It has been raining steady for almost two days and we have one more to go. That will keep me out of the garden for a while. My "other" garden has been planted but I haven't seen it yet. I laid it all out and I hear it's beautiful. Hopefully I'll get a dry day and can snap some pics. I have to send the bill, my least favorite part of the job. The rain is a blessing. I feel as if mother earth has endorsed my efforts and has taken over for me. I'll go see it when the rain stops and take lots of pics.
I have been busy with handbags, finishing one for Sweetpeas and another to sell on a new site, Modwerk. I really enjoy making them , especially when the person I'm making it for chooses some of the elements, because it's more personal that way. The internet has it's advantages but it can be very impersonal. My Etsy shop and flicker stream have brought so many interesting women to my door. It reminds me of when I had my shop, I knew just about every woman between the ages of 13 and 65 on my side of the island, but we also had regulars- visitors that came on a regular basis and celebrities and first timers. So many people from so many places, it was wonderful to meet the all and know that they were taking a little bit of us back home with them. My daughter Naomi will be coming home for 5 weeks in 10 days. I hope to press her into service and let her take care of all the web business for me. I know the time will fly and when she leaves my son will go with her off for his summer with his Dad and I will have lots of time to sew and plant and hopefully get myself into a better blog routine.