Bowl full O fun!

 

Last Month at a family reunion I went to the local farmers market. There I found a couple of women spinning wool yarn at their display. I spotted this gorgeous purple wool, and brought it home. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make with it, it was just to gorgeous to leave there! After a couple weeks I decided to make a bowl with pulltabs, and expand my catalog of items I make with tabs. Perfect thing for the wool! So here is my first can tab bowl! I like how the verigation comes through in each row like I switched yarns. I think I might make a few more bowls, maybe slightly larger.

The second item I am chatting up is this fun pull tab purse. It's a custom order and each row is a different shade of green. I actually have over 16 different greens in my horde! Some shades are pretty similar, but side by side are different.  I tried making a button loop closure for under the flap, and I think it turned out pretty well ( small pic). I had my daughter model the bag for me, and you can see my messy studio in the background!

Anyway I am now making a blue bag in multiple shades, and after that I have a project to represent my hometown for a juried in art show this fall. I haven't done an "art" show before so this should be interesting to try!  More pics and progress when I complete them.

Tab mania

I have been working on some interesting orders in the last few weeks.  The first is a large, large bag, about twice as long/deep as my usual bags, and it has a divider in the middle and 1 large pocket in each side. I used about 620 can tabs. My daughter at 5 ft 2 is my model.

The other project which is for the same customer is a tank top made of 744 can tabs. She wanted it unlined to wear over any other top. Luckily my daughter the model is the same size a ladies small. The top is a first for me, as far as can tab creations go. And humble as I sometimes am... I think it turned out really well!

The next item is a necklace I made for the creative challenge thread on artfire, the theme is/was wind. I used thicker wire to crochet the sodalite and blue lace agate into a bar, and then made a cute, whimsical red kite

to float into the sky. I may donate it to the kite festival this month.

So my next order is another black purse, I love the orders, but could wish they wanted some colour! after that I'm doing a green purse with all different shades of green, a nice change!

BUSY week, orders illness, dentists oh my!

Wow has it been busy around here! Lets begin with the bad news shall we?:

1)Adaira is STILL sick, missed all last week of school, and is still home today, Tues. Sadly we found juice boxes downstairs as the culprit this time. How does one convince someone else not to self-destruct? And she isn't a teen yet, OMG what will the future look like if this is 12!!
2)The rain hasn't stopped and today it is also snowing, changing between the 2 off and on all day. The weather is nice for all the farmers, but it is a bit wearing on the mood around here.
3)Took Kaylen to the dentist this morning, and her teeth are excellent, ecept one must have cracked at some point and was rotten, her molars have deep, deep crinkles, naturally and needed caps. So I was thinking maybe it'll be a week or more. Nope thay had a cancelation in an hour, so we had lunch and were reading a magazine when they called us in a little over 1/2 an hour later. she got the caps on and had the tooth pulled. But then we couldn't get ahold of our ride home!! Luckily/sadly my teacher friend Jackie had the day off due to a bomb threat.

4) as we waited for Jackie, my phone rang. My son Geran is throwing up at school. So my afternoon has 2 sick kids and 1 with a sore mouth. I have a small pharmacy of meds here.

5)This is the second week I have missed my makers meetings!!

Ok and now the GOOD news:

1)I start babysitting tomorrow for $! friend Jaime has had me booked to sit for when she found a job, and she starts tomorrow. I only get the kids in the morning, and a bit of late afternoon as they go to pre school and kindergarten in the afternoons.

2)Tax season is over!! I get my husband back, and am no longer a "tax widow", ahh a 2 parent home.

3)The lady I re-made the bracelet for a few weeks ago wants a matching necklace. And is happy to wait until I go to the city next week where I can find the right bead mix I used.

4 and 5) I did my first home show at my husbands friends place this weekend, and did rather well, I had a lot of stuff on the sale rack, but people still bought a fair amount of new stuff, including some of the flower sets I made with Elaines beautiful beads. One lady bought a lot and custom ordered a can tab purse, a necklace , and a can tab tank top. The top I have never made, the possibility came up in conversation. 

                                                                                                                                                           6) Another friend ordered a purse from me. No rush as she has to save up for it.

7) I think I can be ready for the bellydance performance in June after all.

8)I finished a new style purse in a gorgeous coloured verigated aqua green cotton.

So I have a lot of orders to fill, and a job.This calls for chocolate!! 

Easter 2010

Easter has come and gone for another year, PHEW!! My family and their extensions always get together good friday and rent the hall in Eastend to colour eggs together while the men play poker. 40 dozen eggs folks... and I think 16 or so kids.



wouldn't be fun without greenish blue digits after either!

Before the eggstravavganza we had supper with my folks and my brothers family. we got all 7 of the grandkids on the couch for an adorable photo moment.


Ok so aside from Easter the first United Church had a weekly rummage sale. I haven't gone for awhile. but the past one my pal jaime went to and called saying there was a bunch of yarn I might like. She picked me up and I got all this for $6. Sweet!

Speaking of whom I also just finished her purse order for her mom, zipper and all!


I also did a custom pair of earrings for a lady who is in my knitting and crochet group and recently our Tuesday makers meeting.



So that's what I have been busy at the last week!

For the love of poptabs

So I made a purse a few months ago crocheting poptabs together (takes 110) . Well lately everytime I leave the house I am getting comments on it, (yay) So I am passing out tons of business cards! I have orders for 2 of them on the go and 2 other people collecting tabs and deciding on colour. Who knew this would be the most popular item of all the wonderful things I have crocheted! I'd have thought wire crochet would be more interesting than a purse, what do I know. Once done the orders, I will be making a bunch of mini purses and or wallets for craft shows. I can take orders on them from there. A full purse takes me almost a week to complete, so making some in colours that might not sell isn't the best plan, in my oh so humble opinion anyway :) I can always just display my purse and show pics of the completed ones, for purse orders.

This week I made a cat collar with poptabs too, I wonder if it will also be popular? I can hope they will be, but will hold off on making more until I know thay are popular. Maybe putting the jewelry aside for a bit will help the creative juices flow better? I guess I will have to wait and see. Licorice was a gracious model here.

The purse

Several weeks (months?) ago I saw a purse made from pop can tabs, naturally I needed to try it. So first I gathered up all the pop tabs I could find and got my ever patient and amused husband to collect them from his office too. This took a good while, as we aren't huge pop drinkers. Finally I thought I should have enough to start. Being me I used purple cotton DMC thread, and also being me I crocheted them all together, designing it as I made it. After about week of work I got it done.



But it needed a liner with all those holes. Luckily my parents got me a sewing machine for Christmas, so it's maiden use was to make the liner. I had some mystery fabric in lavendar and decided to use it. I think it turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself! Now I don't think I'll be selling any on my etsy shop, partially because they are a lot of work. and partially because I don't want to copy anyone and start up another round of bashing in the forums. Can't wait to go somewhere and use ( show off) it!