Math...ugh

I've spent the better part of today with my nose buried in some financial reports trying to figure out exactly how to read them and how to voucher money...yucky. This is why I generally stick to answering the phone...because it doesn't involve math! I am terribly afraid that my math is going to end up like this...(I hope it doesn't!)

One productive hour

Yesterday was a dog day here in the radiantgirl house, first we took our cocker spaniel for a ride in the car with her new seatbelt harness, which she didn't love but it wasn't too bad either. We stopped at a garage sale and scored her a "new" crate for $5. I made a deal with my husband that if he cleaned up the crate, I would give the dog a bath! So in one hour with a little help from my husband, I not only gave Sierra a bath, but we gave my parents two dogs bath, Maggie and Sugar. Here's a picture of our less than perfect, but clean dogs.

Finally, finished some projects...

Ok, really just one project, but I'm nearly done with a second AND I think I might have solved some of my sewing machine problems! yay! I finished the dolls I was embroidering, they turned out great and I'm super excited to use them in my etsy logo.

I'm working on embroidering a pair of pillowcases, they are adorable and I might just have to keep them for myself :-) I'm nearly finished the first one, and then I'll get started on the second one. Embroidery is a great travel project for me, I can work on it in the car, it doesn't take up too much space to carry around with me, I'm loving it!

I took the throat plate off my sewing machine last night and cleaned the feed dogs and everything else under the throat plate, which has mostly helped my issues with stitch length, I'm still have some trouble with upper thread breakage, I'm going to try some different needles today, I also changed the presser foot to a universal foot, since my zigzag foot has a little chip that may be causing the breakage. I am also considering replacing the throat plate because of a chip, which could also be causing the breakage. So, my sewing is not moving along the way I'd like it to be, but we have made some progress. I'm working on a couple of tote bags made from pillow cases and I finally got a pair of handles put together. The bag itself is still causing some problems, so we'll work on that again tonight and see what we can get done. I've got a ton of laundry to do from my thrift store purchases, so I'm going to try to get most of that done tonight too. I'm excited to get some stuff listed on etsy, so I need to keep working on getting everything done.

should be sleeping...

but I can't seem to get comfy and fall asleep. So instead, I'm trying to be productive...looking for a job, putting together my etsy store, playing on facebook, and of course finding new projects to add to my ever growing list of want-t0-make-someday projects! Be looking for my etsy store in the next few days, there will also be a fan page on facebook and I'd love it if you checked them both out!

Current project

I've spent most of the morning working on things for my etsy store...and making purchases :-) I can never resist Etsy! But I'm also working on some embroidery. In general I hate any hand sewing work and will always choose the sewing machine over hand work, however, embroidery is different somehow, I can see the result and it looks super cool. I'm working on some little dolls that I think are going to be my shop logo. I can't wait to finish them and take some photographs. But for now here's a quick photo of the work in progress.

blog claim!

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*yells loudly* aaaaaahhhhhrrrrggggg!

The job market sucks. I cannot afford my crafting habits without a job and I'm on the verge of losing a third job in a year. First, the camp I had been with for 5 year eliminated my position, then the church I was with closed and now the specialty store I've been working at is looking like it's going to close too. I'm very frustrated to be in this position yet again. I simply cannot afford not to work. I do still have one part time job, but it doesn't pay enough on it's own. I am contemplating opening at etsy store, but I know that it will be awhile before I actually make any money doing that. I've got a decent stash of fabric to work through, but it's hard to resist when you find cute stuff :-) Krista and I went to the thrift store yesterday and we found a bunch of cute stuff. Krista is working on making a bag out of men's ties, so we were looking for semi-matching ones of the same size. I picked one tie, which I'm going to make myself a bracelet out of and possibly a collar for my dog - no, not because I want us to match, but because I didn't want to buy two ties! We were being thrifty! My family think I'm crazy for only getting one tie, so my husband offered me some of his so that Sierra and I didn't have to match. I didn't take pictures of any of our fabulous thrift finds, but here's one of my dog instead :-)

PS she's looking cuter now that she's had a haircut.

I'm claming my blog at technorati

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A Sad Sewing Machine Story...and some new craft pursuits

My (ok, mom's) sewing machine is not playing nicely...I think it needs a trip to the sewing machine hospital, boo :-( I'm very sad. I've got a huge list of projects that I'm working on and I'm just not sure what to do with my time if I'm not sewing! This is a great machine - nearly as old as I am, but well made and very sturdy, just needs some tuning up. (PS this is not actually my machine...I found this pic thanks to Google images)

I've found a couple of knitting projects that I want to try...this adorable knitted frog. I also am working on a purse for my cousin...I blogged about this purse project nearly a year ago *blushes* and I haven't finished either of them yet, so I'll be working on O's bag too.

Inspired by this post from Craft Nectar, I've been thinking about trying to tackle embroidery next...This morning I was at Ben Franklin, a funky craft/school/office supplies, nick-nacks, etc kinda store admiring the embroidery patterns...but I couldn't pick one and the hubs was getting impaitent waiting for me. I was thinking embroidery is a project I could work on in the car, one that could be put down and picked up any time, that I could do while still carrying on a conversation (which is not alway true of knitting). But now I think I need one of these...courtesy of Craftzine.

Fabulous Crafty watches giveway...

Sorry, not here. But check out Make It and Love It. For a giveaway from Kendee Watches!

Quick and Easy...

With all the running around I've been doing this summer, I've gotten tired of trying to lug my purse full of junk, my calendar, phone and materials for whatever meeting/project/activity I'm headed too. And since changing jobs, I've downsized the number of keys I carry to ONE! So I whipped myself up this little key fob wallet using some scraps I had laying around. I used my drivers license as a template for the size and made it like the other pouches I've been making, adding a ribbon loop to attach my keys too. This little gem keeps me in one bag instead of a bag and my purse AND I haven't lost it or my car keys because they are always together - PERFECT!