The Nifty Foodie's Life

I tend to get slightly obsessed when I start a new hobby. I’ve purchased yards of cute fabric and tons of fat quarters already. I’ve only sewn two things: the clutch and another bag (post coming soon on that). It’s pretty crazy.

Sewing is so practical though. It’s a hobby I can justify for, easily. I can hem our pants, which saves money, sew pillows  for the couch in fabrics that are yummy, PJ pants that are long enough for my legs, etc. It’s just easy to justify spending time on, because the things you can make are very useful for everyday life!

I find myself drooling over free online patterns and things in Etsy shops, and making lists of what I want to make next. I tend to find most of my inspiration via Google, but lately, I’ve started to look into this site.

CraftGawker is for ANY craft project. Basically, if you take nice pictures, unlike me, you submit your picture to CraftGawker and if they like your picture, they put it on their site. Then, craft junkies like me click the picture and are sent to the source of the picture: whether it be a tutorial (hopefully) or Etsy link (blah..I don’t wanna buy your craft, I wanna make it! I know, so selfish and cheap!). It’s very neato-mosquito if you ask me.

At the bottom of the site, there are categories, so you can go specifically to knitting projects, bags, jewelry, etc. I love it.

Here’s some sewing things that I’ve taken a liking to lately. These are from CraftGawker and multiple sewing blogs.

Project

Project

Project

Project

I mean, seriously, how awesome are all of these ideas? There are tons more, but these are my favorites.

I also have an ultimate sewing goal in mind, which I’ve been waiting YEARS to finally do, after seeing a friend buy one for (gulp) $300 from someone who made it for her. Big savings if I can DIY, but I’ll keep you hanging and let you know about that project in another post.

Let’s just preface this with the fact that I have had great experiences at most craft stores. I’m not a bitter store-hating person, as it might seem on my Twitter. I am a very happy Michael’s/Hobby Lobby/JoAnn’s customer.

I decided to take advantage of a HUGE warehouse sale at Hancock’s. 50% off notions, 40% off buttons, cheap ass fabric, etc. So, I went after work on Thursday with my $30 fun money budget in mind. All I wanted were a few things anyway, and I wanted to scope out another fabric store. Pretty exciting things going on in my life right now, eh?

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I walked in excited as a kid on his birthday, and walked out pissed off and frustrated. Granted this was after a workday and my patience is very thin after work, but really, I was ready to kick someone in that store.

First, I started in the notions, which are sewing accessories, if you didn’t know, like me. Grabbed some pins, snaps and a yardstick. It said the whole wall was notions and it was 50% off. I’m a new sewer, so I don’t know what’s a notion and what’s not. I just simply believe the sign.

Then, I grab a few buttons for some projects coming up, and they have NO sign on the buttons aisle (can you believe there is a WHOLE aisle of nothing but buttons?), but the website says 40% off in store. I have the email on my iPhone ready, just in case issues arise.

Here comes the fun: fabric. I wanted to buy some FELT for a project that I have (it’s a secret until it’s done), but my dumb brain gravitates towards FLEECE and grabs up a few bolts. I tell the lady I want 1/4 yd. of each color of FELT. She says it’s FLEECE. I finally make the connection…d’oh! I needed FELT, and it wasn’t on sale. Embarrassed..

In the back of my mind, I’m hoping to make a quilt soon. They just so happened to have quilter’s cotton for $2/yd. Great…so I find the little section of quilter’s cotton. It looks like plain old fabric. Nothing fancy, so I grab a beige one and have her cut 3 yds. of it. No big deal.

I proceed to the check-out counter when an older lady in front of me with this cushy attitude tells the cashier she wants to order some ugly ass bird buttons. They looked like crows (where are you going to use CROW buttons??). The cashier explained the policy, gave her an order form to fill out and told her to do that while she checks me out. I knew this wasn’t gonna be pretty, because I am a price watcher. If the price is wrong, I will speak up, and I know price adjustments tend to take longer.

Lucky for crow buttons lady, we had quite a few of those. The snaps rang up full price, the buttons rang up correctly and then the quilter’s cotton: rang up $15. WTF??? I told the lady that it was quilter’s cotton and she said uhm, no it’s not. I insisted that it was in the spot with the rest (looked as cheap as the rest), and she told me ANY sewer would KNOW that quilter’s cotton is NOT this! Embarrassed and pretty pissed that she made that comment…I’m a newbie.

At this point, the old lady is pissed off at my price corrections, bangs her hands on the counter and sighs LOUDLY. It took every ounce of me not to tell her something about her ugly ass crow buttons. It’s not my fault that the fabric was in the wrong spot. I know I should have made sure the regular price matched the rest, in hindsight. It just looked as cheap as the rest of the colors! However, I was TOTALLY NOT paying $15 for crappy cotton. I’m new at this sewing thing, but I know $5 a yard is ridiculous for that stuff. So, she put it in the remnants stack for the lady with the fabrics to deal with. I hated to do that, but honestly, that is not my fault, and I’m sure it will sit in the remnants pile for a long time, eventually being cheaper than $6. Oh well…

At this time, I present the cashier with a 10% off purchase coupon that I got from being a “fan” of Hancock’s on Facebook. She looks at the print-out and asked me where I got it. I politely explained, and the cashier found it kind of cool. I’m sure not many Facebook-ers shop there, just looking at the demographic of the shoppers that were there at the time. (Lots of people who looked like crow buttons lady…)

After I check-out, the cashier informs me of a premier club that I should join. I love discount clubs, so I ask for the form. Another HUGE sigh from crow buttons lady. Just to spite this crow buttons lady, I filled out the form right then and there. I should have taken my sweet time too. I know, I’m a bitch.

So, after spending half of my fun money for the week, I have some neat-o sewing stuff to add to the collection. I can’t wait to finish cleaning house so I can get to my machine!

I’m so excited to see how many people wanted to craft it forward!

Congrats to Danielle, Marci, Brittany, Beth and Jody! The powers of random.org selected y’all as the lucky 5 who will get something handmade from me (and an Etsy-er).

I’ll be emailing all of you shortly to get your addresses, so I can start crafting and sending things out! Thanks again That Wife for this fun idea.

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So, in Christmas 2008 (yes, 2008 you read that correctly), my grandma gifted me with a sewing machine. I’ve always been really curious about sewing and making all sorts of cool items! So, it sat in the box for a few months. I was really afraid.

Last summer, I got the guts to take it out and put it on the sewing table. It was beautiful…it powered on and I was done. Sometimes, I’d check on the machine to make sure it still worked. I did this until 2 weeks ago.

I was so scared of this machine that one of my good friends, Moonlight and Magnolias (aka Mrs. Crabcake of Weddingbee) sewed me this cute Buttercup Purse because I tweeted about how I wish I  knew how to make that purse. You are all sorts of awesome if you are reading this, by the way. LOVE that purse!

So, the hubs called his mother. He had some pants that needed to be hemmed because they were too long, and this domestic diva wannabe wanted to learn too! So, she showed me the ropes on doing a blind hem stitch. Ugh, that was a frustrating lesson.

After getting two pairs of pants done really well, I felt empowered. I felt like I could do it all..so, I got to my first project on my own: a clutch.

 Crafty Loves Smarty (aka Mrs. Yorkie on Weddingbee) showed me this project way back when. Back in the days of staring at my machine, flipping the switch on/off, and leaving it alone. Those intimidating days.

I was walking down the aisles of the Target that I wish I could boycott, and saw that they had placemats on clearance for 50% off, so I bought one. I finally sat down last night and told myself enough already, let’s do this!

So I got to work. My needle jammed a few times, I made HUGE knots of thread when I forgot to thread my needle correctly, and I might have said some choice words that I should have covered dear little Millie’s ears for. However, after two hours of struggles and hearing more “Stand Up and Get Crunk“ replays than you could imagine (Saints’ Superbowl parade background noise) I had a clutch!

So far, this purse has no embellishments or snaps. I’m hoping to add a couple of cute ribbon flowers and a snap to it. It’s a little rough looking, but I’m pretty happy with myself for this being a first project! If I can finish it tomorrow, I am totally bringing this with me on our mini vacation to Houston that we are taking this long (read: Mardi Gras) weekend!

Back in December, I entered a contest with Team CAC (Christian Artist Crafters) on Etsy for a huge giveaway basket of items. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that I won one of the baskets! I was SUPER stoked!!

After looking at the haul of things I received, I thought it would be fun to kind of pay this generosity forward to my readers, but I had no idea how I was going to go about this.

About a week ago, That Wife blogged about Craft it Forward. She generously offered her readers a chance to receive a handmade gift from her, and I found out this weekend, that I was one of the lucky 5! YAY!

So, I’m going to Craft It Forward too! I’m totally stealing That Wife’s idea and making it a random drawing to readers.

A bonus? Not only will you get a handmade gift from me, but you will also get a gift from the basket that I won from Team CAC! I think it would be kind of fun-hoggish (yeah, probably made up that word) to keep all the wonderful handmade things I received to myself!

Here’s the deets:

• I’m randomly picking 5 commenters on this post to get a Craft It Forward package from me.
• If you enter, you should Craft It Forward to 5 other people as well. It’s a chain thing, yo. I’m not going to twist your arm to do it, but I think it would be neat to keep this thing going.
• Winners will get their stuff before taxes are due. That’s my personal deadline.
• I do a lot of crafts. You could get anything from a scarf, to an apron, to heck, maybe even some decorated cookies! Yup, I’m random like that. I might even ask the winners a little about themselves to get a better idea of what might be awesome to send them!
• I am by NO means a professional! That’s another reason why I’m including something from the Team CAC basket I won, just in case you hate my skills.

To enter, just simply leave a comment. Simple as that. This little nifty contest ends after I wake up from the king cake (carb/sugar) induced coma on Wednesday, February 17th!  You have PLENTY of time to enter!