I finally started on a Harry Potter robe

That's right, the movie comes out in like 2 weeks, and I just now started on the only Harry Potter robe I plan on making until the Halloween season.
My hands have been hurting a lot lately, and even though I've tried alternating between using them and letting them rest, the pain is constant. I guess I can stop being a little stubborn (HA!) and start using my sleeping braces again and start a religious Ibuprofen regimen, but we'll see. I'm not a natural remedy kind of person, but I do not like having to take pills. I'm more of a "grin and bear it" and "walk it off" kind of person. For my boys however, hugs and kisses (and bandaids) still seem to make everything better.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I'll go ahead and mention it now. I suffer from Anxiety and Depression. I had a breakdown right before Halloween last year, and have been on medication since. I have an anti-depressant and a mood stabilizer. Last Sunday I decided I was done relying on those pills, and I didn't like the constant fatigue and lack of interest in my hobbies. Well, that went okay for a few days, and then I had a rough few days. Last night I decided to go back to my mood stabilizer. Fingers crossed that this helps me feel better and doesn't hinder my creativity.
I could honestly sit down and complete a Harry Potter robe in a day, but the motivation and the desire and just hard to muster, and my hands and back cause me to take frequent breaks. I'm not even 30 years old yet, and I already feel like an old lady (no offense to the older ladies out there). I plan to continue sewing, even into my old age whether my body likes it or not. I plan to eventually open my own doll clothes store front (complete with matching girl and doll clothes, girl and doll dressing rooms, and bolts of fabrics and an outfit catalog for special orders. That's not for probably another 20 years, but hey, a girl can dream right?
I'm still scrapbooking and paper crafting. On Friday night I attended the first Friday Night Crop in the new Scrap, Stamp, Ink. The only supplies I took were my basics: my tools, my inks, and my solid cardstock packs. I had no project in mind, I just wanted to play. I did the same thing recently at another local scrapbook store, Stickled Pink. I wasn't as successful that night I was this past Friday night. One of the designers had directions for a pocket album, and the directions were a bit of a pain in the neck, but between 4 of us, we got through it. I do not have a picture of mine, but I used the same paper stack as the designer that brought the directions, and this is what she came up with: Deb's Paper Journey

Well, it's off to give the kids a bath and put them to bed. It may be Summer vacation for them, but we're keeping hem on the same sleep schedule (as far as bedtime goes) since Jim still works his early day shift and I'm still babysitting the cuteness known as Madison during the week.

New fabrics are inspiring

Yesterday while we were out and about, we went by one of our local Wal-Marts. I picked the one I did since it still has a fabric section. I wasn't sure if I wanted more fabric or not (have you seen my fabric stash?), but I knew that looking at the fabric department would inspire me. Well, inspiration hit and I ended up a with several fabrics.

Corduroy, corduroy, twill, cotton, suiting, Tutti Frutti, polyester silky, and a pink waffle texture.

The most inspirational fabrics are the 3rd from the left and the 2nd from the right. As I was zig zag stitching that cut edges so I could prewash the fabrics I pulled out my sketchbook and jotted down a few sketches of outfits I was inspired to use some of the fabrics for. My ability to draw isn't very good, but it works well enough for me to take the outfit from on the paper to on a doll.

I really need to get to work on my Harry Potter robes, but it has been so hard to get motivated.

First sale in months

So, even though I haven't been sewing a lot lately, I decided to update my Etsy shop with the rest of my inventory. Well, about an hour after I listed the Godfather costume from The Nutcracker, it sold! It was my first sale in months! Well, my first creation I've sold in months. The last thing I sold was at the Charleston Scrapbooking Craft Fair, and before that there were a few things I sold on consignment at the same store.
Sadly, Charleston Scrapbooking closed it's doors at the end of May. The owner has opened a new and smaller business closer to her house (which means it's closer to mine too), so I still have a place I can scrapbook. Wednesday night was my first visit to the new store, and man, I'm loving the 5 minute commute. Once the weather isn't so flippin' hot, I could probably walk there. I'm not sure about the walking though since I live off Main St. and the shop is right off the Bypass. We'll see.
This week I've spent cleaning up my craft area and organizing my doll stuff that I brought down and unpacked on Saturday. I have to say it's kind of nice to know when I'm looking for a blanket I can look in the Bedroom Stuff box and find it. I also am working on setting up two displays. I still have my vintage kitchen set up on my baker's rack in the hallway, but it's been piled up with so much random doll stuff that I need to clear it up. I did finish my other display which is a dining room scene. It sits on the end table in my living room, right next to the front door. I will leave my dolls out of the displays, an they will continue to be stored upstairs on the totally awesome bunkbed set my dad made for me.

Actually playing with my doll stuff, sort of

A year ago the two neighbor girls moved out of state to stay with their dad for a year. Since they were the ones who used my doll stuff, and I needed the space, I packed up all of my doll stuff and put it away a few months ago. Well today, we have them over to play, and I dragged out all (except 3) boxes of doll stuff for them to play with and told them they could take over my kitchen, dining room, and half of the hallway.
Here are the boxes on my dining room table before we unpacked them:

And here is a picture of them playing. It was two of my boys and 4 girls.

And after about 2 hours, they were done, and cleaned it all up all by themselves without me reminding them:

They had fun. It was nice to see my doll stuff being enjoyed since I barely touch it anymore. I still buy stuff I find in doll scale, but since I haven't been sewing as much and I don't have the display space anymore, it hardly gets touched.
I love that when I tell the girls where I get some of the stuff I can see their faces light up like "Oh wow, I didn't think about that!". I think their moms are going to come after me when the girls start begging to go to World Market to get doll kitchen stuff. :)

I've been crafting in my new craft area, sorta

Since I last posted, I've been trying to be creative in my newly revamped craft space. Well, so far my new arrangement functions much better than any other arrangement, but I'm still not being as crafty as I'd like to be.
I've worked on a couple of scrapbook pages at the last crop I attended. A couple of weeks ago I helped a neighbor with her display board for a science project, and thanks to my awesome Cricut skills, I'm pretty sure she got an A.
For sewing, I participated in AG Playthings Spring Sewing Swap. My recipient wanted something for 1864 Addy; something she would wear as a teenager (her character is 9 or 10). So, since Addy is dark skinned, and it's a Spring swap, I immediately thought of yellow. I made a piped dress, petticoat, and a hoop skirt.
Check out my awesome sewing skills and poor photography skills at the same time.

With flash

Without flash

Close up of piping and buttons (and the closest color match to what the dress actually looks like)

Petticoat

Side view of the hoopskirt (and my dolls poor posture)

Front view of the hoopskirt.

Last night I forced myself to be crafty and pulled out my "In progress" box. I had a fleece backed doll quilt I had almost finished, so I finished it, and it looks cute if not straight stripes and wavy quilting are your thing. I do not have a picture of it at the moment, but it's super cute I promise. Green stripes, blue stripes, and black stripes, oh  my!