Archive for May, 2008

Un-Creating

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Usually I am blogging about creating.

Today I’m blogging about un-creating.

Over the long weekend Josh and I started clearing out our basement.

We have a crew coming to re-do some plumbing and dig a trench around the basement wall and install a pump - the solution to our yearly flooding issues. We’ve been taking everything out of the basement. We’ve rented a HUGE dumpster and we’re using this as an opportunity to get rid of things that can’t be recycled.



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One corner of the basement was walled off to make a room,

we are almost finished tearing down those walls.



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Who knew “Manville” was located in our basement! Ha!



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Here you get an idea of how much dust we’ve stirred up.


I recently finished making my Hedgehog Sewing Sets.



Cute and Smart. Art.


Cute and Smart. Art.

They are in the shop now.

As soon as we get this basement finished - I’ll be back to creating again! : )

Jenn : )

What’s New

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Earlier this week Josh and I went over to Evolution, where my business cards are being printed. We did a press check on the color for the back of the cards. I had to give the okay on the color, and I got to take one of the sheets home with me. The card stock is an oatmeal color that has tiny threads in it. This will be the back of the cards, soon we’ll do a check on the fronts.



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Yay - I can’t wait to see them finished!

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If you saw my last post, I’ve been having some problems with uploading photos to my blog. For the last couple days I haven’t been able to upload them at all. Josh and I have gotten around this by using a program called Ecto. Ecto works with Flickr to not only make photo uploading easier, it also decreases the amount of time it takes to publish the entire blog post. Another problem I was having was that, on occasion I would upload my photos, type up all my text and get everything spaced and arranged the way I wanted it - only to discover that I wanted to include one more photo. If I then added any additional photos - all of the spacing in the blog post I was working on would be undone. Everything that I had typed would be mashed together in one big paragraph and I’d have to redo all the spacing. (Blog posting takes enough time as it is without that kind of hassle!) Ecto lets you create your entire blog post independently of Blogger. I can click and drag photos and play with the layout to my heart’s content and then publish. Adding photos doesn’t effect your text. Whew! I think this is going to work out much, much better!

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Since I couldn’t do any blog posting myself, I got to catch up on a bit of blog reading.

I was over at Mrs. Kwitty’s blog and saw that she’s been doing some spring cleaning, which inspired me to do some, too.

Mrs. Kwitty has been reorganizing her rick-rack collection (which is quite impressive, I must say!) and by coincidence, my own rick-rack has outgrown the glass jar I’ve been keeping it in.

Weeks (or maybe months?) ago I thrifted a long wooden box that was filled with projector slide boxes. Yesterday I decided that it would be perfect for keeping my rick-rack in. I lined the bottom with pretty paper and here it is:

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Much better!

(Josh is using the slide boxes to keep Legos in.)

Thanks for the organization motivation, Mrs. Kwitty! : )

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Pooh what have you gotten yourself into?

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Oh, this baby blanket is very warm and snuggly soft!

This lovely set is for friends of ours who have their first baby on the way.

When I saw this blanket, matching booties and bib in Ginny’s Etsy shop,

I had to scoop them up!

They are so pretty and well made! Right now Ginny has some very cute bibs in her shop.

I’m especially fond of this one !

Cheers!

Jenn : )

Hello!

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

Hi everybody!

Just a quick note to let you know that I have been trying to do a new post here -
but Blogger is experiencing a “glitch” that won’t allow me to upload photos.

(Very frustrating!)

Josh and I have figured out a way to get around this,
and I should be posting again in the next day or so.

If you are also on Blogger and are experiencing the same issue -
email me and I’ll tell you how we’re going to get around it.

Talk to you soon!


Jenn : )

Serendipity

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

Serendipity: an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

Yesterday Josh accidentally spilled white-out on his wallet at work.
When he wiped it off - this image remained on the leather.
(He added the eye with a sharpie marker…it’s an old wallet.)

I like it.

: )

Wishing you lots of serendipity this weekend.

Jenn & Josh : )

Does this 120 spool thread holder……..

Thursday, May 15th, 2008
….make me look Phat?

: D


I’ve been doing some spring cleaning in my studio. 
I’ve outgrown my 60 spool thread holder and *gulp*, 
decided to upgrade to the 120 spool holder.
(Gosh, that thing’s huge!)
I’ve also decided to get serious about my embroidery floss situation.
Egg cartons are economical and great and all… but for color matching 
and efficient organization - not so much. So, I’ve ordered a DMC floss
color reference guide and I am slowly sorting out my floss and tearing down
 my egg carton towers.


Ahhhhh.  
Looking at these neatly carded threads fills me with happiness.
Happiness because they are so organized, will save me time, 
and will free up a whole dresser drawer! Yay!
Have you done any spring cleaning in your work space?

If so - tell me about it!  

And have a great day!





Jenn   : )

A Colorful Weekend

Monday, May 12th, 2008
Friday night Josh and I went for a walk around the neighborhood.  
We’ll be putting up a new fence around our yard later this year
and we’ve been checking out other fences in the neighborhood to 
get an idea of what we want.

These are some photos I took of flowers in our back yard,
and some that we saw on our walk.  : )



One little flower can be another creature’s entire world.
These were so bright and full of color!
We have a big bush of this Euphorbia Characias next to our house.
The flowers remind us of Shrek’s ears - so we’ve nicknamed it “Shrek”!



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Saturday night we had tickets to see Margaret Cho’s comedy show 
Beautiful at the Paramount theater in downtown Seattle.




The show was very, very funny!  
We’ve seen Margaret before when she’s come through town.
Josh and I agreed that this was the best show we’ve seen so far - 
she had a ton of energy and she rocked the house!!!

Her opening act was Liam Sullivan, 
who some of you might know from “Shoes” fame. 
He was hilarious in person!  

If you need a good laugh, and don’t mind a whole lotta “color” in your comedy - 
go see Margaret and Liam when they stop by your town. ; )


Have a great day!





Jenn : D



The Cow Says…..

Thursday, May 8th, 2008
“MOO!”

My Moo stickers have arrived - Yay!


How do they look, little bird?




My stickers are all examples of embroidery that I’ve done.


Won’t they look cute on my little goody bags that I include with my orders?
(I get my little cello bags from Uline.)



Moo stickers are very easy to create and order.

They cost $10.00 + shipping for 90 custom stickers.
That is about $0.11 + shipping per sticker - not bad for a cute bit of promotion.

Next time I make a set, I’m going to add text to the image
.

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** Now I need a little help from one of you! **

I’d like to test out the buying/selling process over at my new shop at iCraft.

I’ve listed this business card wallet in my iCraft shop.


I usually sell my wallets for $8 +, but for this test
I’ve reduced the price by 50% and I’m offering
free shipping.

I will mail out the wallet, just like I do all of my items
(including free candy and a new Moo sticker!)/span>.

Don’t need a wallet for yourself?
Give it to your daughter or niece - heck, it’s only $4!


Signing up for an iCraft buyer’s account is easy.
You’ll need to enter your address & phone, an email and password.
Standard stuff.

Here is the direct link to my shop there: * Jenn at iCraft *

Thanks in advance to whoever chooses to help me out - I appreciate it! : )

**Update: Lovely LeeAnn is officially my first iCraft customer!

Thank you so much LeeAnn : )


Have a great day, everyone!

(For those of you who are just joining iCraft: I emailed them yesterday, asking about a searchable directory for sellers. They responded quickly with a very nice email letting me know that they are working on that now! You can also check their Community section for current news about the site.)

Jenn : )

Stamp Happy!

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Yesterday I spent all morning getting Mother’s Day packages together.
One thing about living far from family - you have to think ahead for birthdays and holidays so that packages are in the mail in time to arrive
before the event. I’ve been neglecting my letter writing these days. I used to write letters alot, but lately I don’t seem to have as much time. Email and blogging are the faster ways to communicate, but many members of our families don’t have email, or don’t check their accounts very often. So - letter writing it is!

But of course, whose mom wouldn’t love a pretty hand written card or letter on Mother’s Day anyway? So, I jotted down the latest news and wrapped up lots of little gifts (ALL handmade by fellow Etsyians! Yay!), then boxed everything up and walked it over to the post office.


The timing actually worked out well. Before I left the house I received word that my custom address stamps were finished and ready to be picked up. They were done alot sooner than I expected!


And here they are:


And here is one of my first attempts at using them.
I’m very pleased. : )


For those of you in the Seattle/Ballard area, I got my stamps made at:

Acme Rubber Stamp & Engraving

(Isn’t that the best name?)

The shop is located in the old section of Ballard. I had a wonderful shopping experience there. Josh and I just walked in with the images that I wanted: printed from our home printer at actual size. Chris took our print, told us how much it would cost and gave us a time estimate. We were done in less than 10 minutes.

The really cool thing, that I wasn’t expecting,
was that when I picked up my two stamps, I also got this metal engraved plate:


This is the plate that Chris uses to create the mold to make the stamps with. I paid to have this plate made and I thought that was a required fee inorder to have the stamps made. I didn’t realize that I got to keep the plate. Which is really cool - because this means that in the future, if my stamps begin to wear out or are lost or something, I can take that plate back to the shop and have the exact same stamps made!

I paid $29 for the metal plate.
The two stamps are approximately 3.5″ x 1″ & 4″ x 1.75″.
I paid $29 for the stamps and $1 for a wooden handle.

I consider this a reasonable cost for the time I will be saving by not having to hand write my address on every envelope, and having more professional looking packages.

If you’ve ever considered getting a personalized stamp made - I say go for it.
It’s very easy. And now you know that you can also ask about getting the metal plate, too!

That’s Jenn’s tip of the week! ; )


Have a great day!

Jenn : )

Mediterranean Periwinkle

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Poe?

What are you doing in that box?

And what was in that box before you?


A whole lotta tissue paper!

Kraft and Mediterranean Periwinkle - my Jenn Maruska Design colors : )

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Tired of paying $2.50 for 8 sheets of tissue?

Ready to go big?

I got 480 sheets of Premium Satin Wrap in Mediterranean Periwinkle.
and 960 sheets of Premium Satin Wrap in Kraft.

(That’s about $0.31 + tax per sheet of the drug store tissue
vs. about $0.06 + shipping per sheet of the online tissue.)

I purchased my tissue from Papermart and I’m very pleased with it.

It has an even thickness and good weight,
(it’s not splotchy or sheer - like the cheap stuff).

I ordered it on Wednesday the 30th and it got here today - pretty quick!


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One of the two label companies we contacted has been very communicative.
They’re sending us samples of the different types of labels they make.

The business card artwork has been finalized and they are now in production.

Rubber stamps are in the works.
Those are probably going to be another week and a half.

And I got an email the other day that my Moo stickers are on their way!

Now it’s back to the studio……

What’s new with you?

Jenn : )