group portrait

group portrait
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

the latest batch of owl pillows just before they head south . I'll miss them

ready to ship

ready to ship
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

I just finished my first reorder from the new account. Everything that could go wrong did and I thought I'd never get it done. I know how long it will take to make things. I figure that out when I price my items, but that is in an ideal world. I don't live in an ideal world. I will add another 20% on to my time estimate next time. I have three custom orders to finish tomorrow and then I am going to spend the rest of the week in my garden.We had warm weather for almost a week then 3 days of rain and now everything is just jumping out of the ground.I love spring! The etsy shop has been sadly neglected. I am so discouraged by the copy cats, the resellers and the manufactures selling their so called "handmade" items, it's just not fun anymore.

Cinco de Mayo

Hearts and Roses Jacket
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

I think Cinco de Mayo is destined to become of of those holiday that in the US everyone celebrates. Just as we are all a little bit Irish on St Patricks Day, we will all be a little bit Mexican on Cinco de Mayo. Tequila and tamales instead of whiskey and corned beef. I grew up in Southern California where Mexico's history was taught hand in hand with California's. I was in love with anything to do with the Missions and then later on the Aztecs. When I went to Middle School one of my best friends a had a painting of the Virgin de Guadalupe in her bedroom, it was the first time I had even seen her and I was smitten. She was so beautiful in her red dress with her turquoise veil of stars surrounded by flowers and golden rays. Everything about her was just so much more colorful and symbolic than the Virgin Mary in my church.
I celebrate Cinco de Mayo every year because there is a little bit of Mexico in me. Don't we all need more color and symbolism in our lives?

Wish you were here

Wish you were here
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

The craft blog had an entry on pillows that told stories through needlework. My first true craft was embroidery which I learned from my Grandmother when I was 8. I embroidered pillowcases ,towels and mostly useless things like dresser scarves and arm chair covers, using Vogueart or aunt Martha transfers or pre printed linens from Woolworth's. I graduated to picture kits from Erica Wilson. In high school I made a tidy sum embroidering jeans and cotton shirts. I didn't sew much once I married and moved onto the boat concentrating on "marlinespike seamanship, - a kind of macrame on steroids. I made this pillow for my husband Don when we were courting. The center is a replica of post card I sent to him, complete with LOVE stamp.(I've blurred the address out to protect the Innocent) It has a map of Maui where we went on our first trip together, a feather because I collected feathers and on our first meeting , he bravely plucked some feathers from the bottom of macaw's cage , which was clearly marked 'Beware Bird Bites". There are windsurfers, a field of golden flowers with a butterfly , maile vines , shamrock, a heart with a lock and key and an aol symbol(we met on an aol message board.) It's not finished , but then neither are we:)

I have been sewing.....honest!

yo yo tote
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

I been sewing up a storm but my camera still hasn't arrived and I haven't been able to borrow a camera. My broken camera is still working , but I have not been able to get the settings right and the pictures are awful. My camera was shipped last week and I have a feeling it was on one of those trucks that got stuck in the big snowstorm that shut down the turnpike in PA. I thought for sure it would come yesterday but now I guess I'll have to wait until Tuesday since Monday is a holiday :(
I saw a bag shaped like this in a Japanese magazine and fell in love with it. When I had my boat I made lots of canvas buckets , so I started with that pattern and added the drawstring top . It looked too bare. I was going to add an applique but my * consultant * (aka daughter Naomi,) nixed the idea. Then I thought,, maybe some buttons? Believe it or not, I didn't have enough buttons to make a statement, so I decided on yo yos with buttons . I'm pretty happy with the way it came out and will post a better picture when the new camera arrives!

Fabric fetish

I have been going mad for fabrics lately. I keep swearing I won't buy anything new and just *use what I have* but now is the time when new collections are coming out and I don't want to miss a thing! I have a particular weakness for Japanese fabric, both traditional and modern, with shipping they can easily cost double the price of domestic cottons. I am also enamored of reproductions of 30's 5o's and 70's fabrics. Then there is oilcloth Now that I have a $50 Teflon foot, sewing it is so much easier. I have a stack of bags ,bibs, chalkboards and mats all cut and ready to sew. I just have to sit down and do it!I have been too preoccupied with other things.

My camera has been broken for a while and I was trying to make do with my son's when his broke. Luckily it was still under warranty. I have been spending a great deal of time trying to figure out a way to justify buying a high quality digital when I have so many other expenses. The fact is I am lost without my camera , it's not good for my blog, my business, my far away family or my mental health. So i ordered a new camera for my son and I'll borrow it and hopefully by the time summer rolls around I'll have stashed away enough to buy that canon eos

Todays haul

Today's haul
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

Today was the first estate sale I've been to this year. I went for the button collection . We had to wait over an hour ( in 23 degree weather) to get inside. They only let a few people in at once. I was number 65 and I thought for sure the buttons would be gone, but I got 2 huge jars and a bunch of other sewing things. I love old tools and supplies , Today's finds included a 6"embroidery hoop exactly like the one I learned on. It is really nice wood, so much smother than today's models with a thin strip of felt to help snug the fabric. No tightening hardware so it was easy to learn with and not get tangled. Another find was a sweet little pincushion to hang on the wall. I think that's a great idea and I'm going to hang mine is side my closet for safety pins and to put the pins I take out of my husband's new shirts. I think I'll make a few to gift to girlfriends.
The best find were the two giant jars of buttons from Victorian times up to now . While sorting through them I love to imagine the garments they were on and think about the people that wore them. These were the buttons of stylish people. The men wore white shirts and the women pretty dresses. There were few utilitarian buttons. No uniform buttons.There were lots of pearl shirt buttons and smooth colorful Bakelite, Glass , cut steels and rhinestones. Big fancy coat buttons,small figural plastics and big chunky Lucite. Unfortunately they had all been stored together and I had to throw out many of the celluloid, composition , fabric and 2 part buttons. If you have old buttons it is worth the trouble to separate them by material and keep like kinds together because some will disintegrate or rust when stored with others. This person had saved her extra fabric buttons, beautiful velvets, silks and crocheted buttons It was a shame to have to toss them. All but the most recent were rotting away , but you could see they were once beautiful. It took me all afternoon to sort them., my dwindling selection of red green, pink and pink replenished . My stock of black ,white, brown and grey now overflowing.

Alice's set

Alice's set
Originally uploaded by Saltygal.

This order serves as a perfect example of the dangers of attention deficit crafting. I had an order for 2 sleeves from one of my favorite customers . She is a real peach and has sent business my way many times. I wanted to really make this set perfect. I made the outer sleeve and it fit like a glove. I started on the small sleeve. The small sleeve required extra padding so I used 2 layers of padding and was going to quilt it. I didn't want the quilting to detract from the fabric, so I hand quilted around each of the skulls.I wish it showed in the photo ( still using the broken canon) It came out really nice and I had a button that was a perfect match for the eyes on one of the skulls. I was ready to take the shot when I noticed I had made the sleeve with the skulls facing upside down. I had marked the fabric which side up in the interfacing but i used a fade away marker . I was distracted and left it on the table for a hour and when I came back, the marking had faded and I completely forgot that the fabric had an up and down. Well no problem I thought, I had plenty of the skull fabric. When I went to get more of the aqua ling I only had a small piece left. I dashed off to the fabric store, no more, I went to the next store none. So I came home and tore through my scrap bags and found another piece just the length I needed. I worked very carefully and got the bag out of it but what a waste of time and energy! I'll never use a fading marker for that again!

Button up your overcoat

Winter is finally here. Today the highest temp in my yard was 10. It was nice and sunny but with the wind it was brutal. Good time to stay inside and sew. I would love post a WIP but my camera is broken and I am waiting to see if I want to fix it or trash it. I bought this camera, a Nikon after my first digital; a Canon broke on a day just like today. My son was playing Hockey at the Larz Anderson Rink in Brookline. It's an outdoor rink on the top of a hill that gives a lovely view of Boston. I didn't want to leave the camera in my car so I kept it with me wrapped in a scarf and took loads of picture of the game and the view but the cold was too much and the screen froze. So take care of your digitals on a cold day.
I have a nice pile of things cut and ready to sew, headbands, oilcloth bags, and some jewelry pouches for Valentines Day . I am giving the Etsy Showcase ads another chance next week. I signed back on before I realized that they would be placing the ads on alternative sites instead of Boing Boing.
Time to sew. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some pics of the finished projects.

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.