Tag: business

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Sampler blanket / Makerspace

This week I have been working on the sampler blanket / makerspace. While cleaning up the yarn mess to create the makerspace, I came across these blocks I started from my Sampler blanket. I haven’t really forgotten them. There has just been a huge amount of other stuff that I have had to work on. I am blocking them today and I have to admit that they are beautiful!

Sampler blanket / Makerspace

I thought that they would be ok, but they were so wonky that I  needed to block them. I block on my ironing board and use my steam iron. I am sure to never touch the iron to the acrylic yarn. This sampler blanket is reminding me of doilies. I love the taupe carpet color behind these squares. It makes the sampler blanket look so clean and lacy.

Sampler blanket / MakerspaceBefore blocking….

After blocking they are a much more uniform size and the edges are straighter. This will make joining a much simpler job.

Sampler blanket / Makerspace

We are creating a makerspace. What is a makerspace you ask?  well, it is a space where you can make stuff. We have a spare room right now that was our den but as hubs needed a bigger workspace and I needed a brighter workspace, we are creating a makerspace. We both love creating but not the same things. This space will be an area where we can be together but working on different things. He is into electronics, engineering, gizmos, gadgets and 3-d printers. I am into sewing, yarn, painting and artsy craftsy stuff. So we are moving furniture around, sending some off with grown kids as they move on in their lives and getting rid of others. We no longer need a huge room for 8-10 people to watch movies or play video games. We do need a place where we can all gather and make cool stuff.  Our kids are rather techie/creative types, one a programmer, one a mechanical engineer, one a digital design artist (studying), and one into sewing,  So we really do need a space where they can all create!

It will contain:

  • a largish table for group work  or cutting
  • 4 chairs for the table
  • 3 -4 sewing work spaces
  • Storage for yarn, fabric and other soft stuff
  • Tool storage on wheels
  • 4 roller secretarial type chairs
  • Mats for the roller chairs
  • a cell phone docking station for all the phones
  • wifi access
  • several outlets
  • a 3-d printer
  •  a fire alarm/smoke alarm/co2 detector
  • lots of counter space
  • a couch or some comfy chairs for people to hang out in
  • good lighting
  • all with a industrial type- 50s era style (this is subject to change)

I think we can put together a reputable space without spending too much money.  We will use what we have until we are sure that working together in one room is actually going to work out! Here are some links to different maker spaces that I found.

http://spaces.makerspace.com/

https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7095.pdf

http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces/

 

We have also set some ground rules, of what can be done in the makerspace. One of the prime rules in our makerspace is no woodworking or spray painting. These both have the potential to damage the machinery in the room.

I will be updating soon with photos of the Sampler blanket / Makerspace.  I hope to include some photos of the creation of the makerspace as we ordered some chairs for the space. I am so excited to see how they look. We almost never buy new things. Our budget and family has prefered the upcycled, recycled, used furniture look. We haven’t bought new furniture in quite a while.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

I am finished with this Granny Square blanket. I am so excited. It has been a fun, quick blanket. This blanket started like this, just a mix up of various granny squares of all different sizes. It is also a scrap blanket as it used up various little balls of yarn that I had in my yarn bowl. I had many different squares left over from different crochet blankets and I added to them to get a more uniform size for the granny square blanket. The crocheting went fairly quickly as these squares are larger than I normally crochet.Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

I love the bright yellow that is added to each square.

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

I used white to join each square and to give the squares a little definition.

Now here is the final unveiling!

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

Look at all the beautiful red, white and yellow. The squares are so cheerful. This granny square blanket was such fun to crochet.

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

I started the border and then ripped it all out and restarted the border. I love the new border

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

The border is a lightly ruffled picot edging! I am so excited to get to show it to you. You can find this blanket on etsy here.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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New Aprons!

Here are some new items for the shop. I finished these last week.

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Do you remember these fabrics from Instagram and facebook? Here are the finished products.

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They are fully lined with a white cotton fabric. The neck straps are adustable with D-rings. Most of these aprons have the extra long ties like a chef’s apron so you can tie it in the front. They came out beautifully. I love them. I have three more that I need to cut out and sew but I couldn’t wait to show you these. These will be available for purchase in ChocolateDogStudio.etsy shop on Friday of this week!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Oklahoma City Museum of Art!

We spent the weekend away from our children. It has been about 10 years since we planned to spend time away from them with a purpose. The intensive child rearing years can be overwhelming. We got stuck in just planning to get them to adult age and had not planned beyond that horizon. The end of child rearing and the speedy approach of the empty nest is now only about 3-4 years away. So, it was more than time to spend time talking, dreaming, planning and thinking what we would do in the future. We visited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and saw the Ansel Adams art exhibit and also the Dale Chihuly Glass exhibit. 2014-04-05 12.31.46 2014-04-05 12.34.05

We weren’t allowed to take photos in the Ansel Adams exhibit, so I don’t have anything to show you of the beauty he captured in his photographs.

I have been wanting to see the Chihuly Glass exhibit for years and years. It was incredible and the photos I took do not do his work justice. The blown glass is enormous and he created with bright colors. Imagine the bright colors of my crochet blankets only glowing. Each piece of glass appeared to glow from the inside.

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This is a boat with giant  glass marbles. The colors were intense and bright. The same range as the colors in the photo below. This is a ceiling installation in a hallway. The colors in this photo are more true to life.

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We also saw a wonderful exhibit of recycled items called http://www.okcmoa.com/see/exhibitions/come-on-down-by-lisa-hoke/

I will tell you more about her art soon!

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Overwhelmed?

I have been feeling overwhelmed lately. There just seems to be too much on my plate and not enough time. I remembered this email that my husband had forwarded to me and decided to take a look. It is from Michael Hyatt. He has experience and common sense. This year I decided that I needed to streamline my business and then I plunged into the 100 items in 100 days Challenge. I have been blogging and stressing about things to do ever since.

Here is Michael’s article: http://michaelhyatt.com/086-what-to-do-when-you-feel-overwhelmed-podcast.html

1. Decide that you need to make a change!

I do need to change some things. My schedule needs to be flexible and work with the ebb and flow of this retail business and my family life. I tend to get into ruts and many times say “No” when it should be “yes”. I have some natural built in things that keep me honest about energy and time usage. I need to say “Yes” to change!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/130328074/say-yes-printable-poster-digital-art

2. Eliminate

What can I cut out of my business or home life? What can I do to change up what I am doing? I am working on some new spins on old items in my shop and some new things altogether. Can I organize things within our family that will allow me to be better organized overall?

3. Automate

I need to automate some parts of my business so that I don’t have to make decisions about little time consuming details. I need to blog and create weeks or months in advance and then decide when I am going to release different  articles.

4. Delegate

I need to plan meals, cleaning and other activities that take me out of the house and away from studio productivity. My family helps all the time so delegating more to them is not possible.

5. Three high payoff activities

These three things save me the most time or pay me the most money for my time ; creating new items, writing crochet patterns, blogs and tutorials, planning everything from grocery lists and menus, to vacation days and business ideas.

6. Productivity Sinkholes

I know that these eat my productivity; leaving the house and studio disorganized, spending too much time on the internet or watching tv, not following through on a task, starting more than I can finish in one sitting when sewing, being afraid of success or failure.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/60981651/time-wasting-experiment-0029-52-minutes

 

7. Schedule important tasks

I need to plan when to sit down and sew for extended periods of time. Schedule it in on my calendar. I have already scheduled basic household maintenance things like changing the heat pump filters. It is helping me to remember to do the small things that save money.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/160798758/weekly-planner-to-do-list-weekly

8. Hire a virtual assistant….

I’m not really ready for a paid virtual assistant but I can work on using all the tools available on the computer and phone to help me keep track of expenses and mileage.

I hope all this thinking helps out. I have the beginnings of a plan and now I need to implement it one step at a time.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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To Do List 3/30- 4/5/2014

The post about being overwhelmed has encouraged me to write my to do list each week. Last year I kept a running list on my computer. I had several lists that kept  work in the front of my mind. I stopped using them after several  comments from my family about how busy it was and overwhelming. Productivity dropped through the floor. So  I will start the perpetual lists back up immediately. Here is my To Do list for this week.

Home and family

Scrapbook page for Home school yearbook.

Baby photo of Sr. for yearbook

Meal with son and daughter in law

Plan meals for week

Mail sr photos out to family

Get Commencement invites out

Organizing

Create shopping list

Clean bedroom

Clean out front flower bed and plant irises in back yard

Work on organizing files (pick one drawer to work on)

Chocolate Dog Studio

Finish pattern for baby blanket

Create  last 10  items for the 100 day challenge!

Complete Calendar planning for shop and home for rest of year.

Plan vacation times and fabric shopping trip

Self

Exercise four times this week

Plan quiet times for re-energizing

Date night with Hubs.

 

I hope I can get all of these things done!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

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The second challenge

I have been thinking of a second challenge. This one has to do with crocheting  and granny squares. I have seen so many beautiful squares and I want to make them all. Did you know that the average granny square blanket uses at least 100 squares? So if I make 100 different squares I should have enough for a blanket. If I make a couple of each design I would easily have a nice sized crochet blanket. I am not going to give myself a time limit on this challenge but I am going to make 100 different granny squares and then make them into a blanket. Here is my first square. It looks a little wonky and needs to be steam blocked.  This pattern is found in the book The crochet Motif by written by Edie Eckman.

2014-02-24 14.41.15So this is number 1 out of 100 Granny Squares!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Cleaning

I’m starting to make headway on the cleaning job. I can really see some differences and I have been able to finally let some things go. Some of the things I am letting go are some rubber stamps, stamp pads, and a bunch of scrap book paper. The scrapbook paper is going to a teacher friend of mine for her classroom.

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I have these really neat scrapbook storage drawers that are perfect for projects in process. Can you see the one labeled buttons.  2014-02-22 16.54.16

 

I am in the process of putting the buttons into other containers. I am using these drawers as project holders. So I have one labelled cup cozies, coffee press cozies, and bibs. I can pull the drawer out take it to the sewing machine and work on the project, when I am done I can simply close the box and put it away! It should work like a charm for most of the smaller projects I do.

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I did a size and shape sort of the embroidery hoops . I have gone through four of the fabric tubs and managed to empty two. The fabric under  peg board is a variety of linens that I pulled from all over the sewing room. I just need to put them away and it will look much better.  I sorted out the larger fabric scraps from the smaller ones and have started some color sorting of the medium scraps. The ones too small to fold and too large for scrap piecing.

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So it is starting to look better. It just takes time to make order out of chaos, and it was definitely chaos! This studio has had two moves and umpteen moves within the house. The moves really took their toll on any organization I ever had, which wasn’t much.So I am getting excited. I have so many ideas of new things to sew that it is all I can do to force myself to finish it up!

I am showing the parts that look the best, but I am still working on it.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Friday!

I have several ideas rolling around in my head to sew today. A couple of receiving blankets, pot holders, another coffee press cozy and then some things to finish up. I have a quilt to layout and baste. I have some other wrist warmers I can crochet, grey, yellow and brown and maybe navy. I want to make some place mats for the shop and more potholders.  There is decidedly too much to do and not enough time to get things done. I am feeling overwhelmed. It seems no matter how much I use up what I have there are still tons of supplies to use. Here are a few photos to prove the point. Yes, it is really a mess but I have been cleaning and these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.

 

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of supplies in my studio.There are several laundry baskets of yarn, 6-7 large plastic tubs of fabric. I have received 5-6 large plastic tubs and drawer units of fabric from my MIL’s long term stash of items. It is overwhelming me. The little things that I keep making only seems to be making more scraps that take up more and more room! I need to clean the studio this weekend and make order out of creative chaos! So, that is my plan for the weekend and hopefully I will also get some items cut out and ready to go! The good news is that I do have enough of what is needed to make another weekender bag, maybe two!

talk to you later,

Karen

NOTE: So that you know I am human and weird things happen to us. We now have a water leak that requires repairs. So, I will be cleaning up the mess today and probably tomorrow after the repairs are done.

NOTE: I am cleaning the studio and why oh why must it look worse before it looks better….? 2014-02-21 13.10.26But it is improving…slowly but surely. The house is repaired and running properly.

The cleaning is coming along slowly but it is getting done. I am trying to integrate my MIL’s fabric with my fabric so I am not buying things I don’t need. I would rather just sew it all up and get it out of my hair. Cleaning craft supplies drives me crazy.

 

 

 

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Pot holder Tutorial/pattern

I had some questions about these pot holders that I made for my daughter.

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I am not big on piecing tons of tiny squares so I found this tutorial on Sew Mamma Sew that sent me here: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2009/10/elizabeths-fabric-focus-quick-piece-tiny-squares/

Basically you line the squares up on iron on interfacing (sticky side up) and iron them down. Then follow her tutorial for stitching them together.

At the time I thought that I would make some place mats (yes, we do have that many squares). I put them aside (for months) until I was making pot holders this weekend. When I decided to see if they would work better for pot holders. Then I simply cut them into 9″ squares placed them on top of one piece of batting and quilted the front of each pot holder. I cut the backings to fit and placed them over another piece of batting and quilted each back of the pot holder. I added small pieces of ribbon for the hanger loops to each corner and basted them in place. I like basting better than pining. It isn’t as hard on my sewing machine to sew over.

If you need to see the tutorial I used it is here: http://www.mygirlthursday.com/2011/05/diy-scrap-busting-pot-holders.html

They worked out quite well! I’m sorry I don’t have any photos but I was on a sewing kick and I needed to get a bunch done! So this isn’t really my tutorial but a combination of several techniques!

 

talk to you later,

Karen