Fall Semester Blues...Time for Recovery

Boy did I underestimate the amount of time that would go into this school semester! Work has been draining and I am looking forward to the holiday time off at the end of the year. My daughter has turned into a “Diva” overnight and insist on wearing heels while she writes all over the walls in the house. My son is on some pre-teen roller-coaster and has been driving me and some of his teachers crazy. Everything keeps going up but my pay so “stretching a dollar” has taken on a whole new meaning. The last fair we did was so grossly misrepresented that it took everything in me not to strangle the coordinator and I have not been able to spend as much time as I have wanted in my yard and working on my house. And with all that going on, I haven’t had the creative flow that I need to really put my all into my shop and with my blog. Even when I have had the time, I just want to veg out! Yes, I am very aware that I am going through a down-spot, but I feel that forcing myself to do the things I enjoy will eventually pull me out of this sinking hole.

I know that I am not the only one going through this, but the start to my “recovery” has been to write this. I hope that everyone else is finding some kind of joy out of the mess that the world is in right now. Trust me that if everyone will continue to do those things and go those places that they enjoy, they will find that things are not as bad as they seem and as I read a couple of days ago…”If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back” (It’s in a very encouraging e-mail floating around. I will send it to you if you request it!)

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on and I will be getting back to business shortly. I have some pictures to take and some items to list. Don’t worry they will be here first!

Blessings to All!

I'm So Excited...My First Etsy Treasury

I opened my e-mail today to find that Cait from Barefoot Weaver added my Large Tags to her Teal Treasury... Check it out. She chose some wonderful items and her shop is also amazing!!

Very Productive Weekend.

It was a great three-day weekend! I wanted to change up a little and take care of some sewing. My mom laughs at me because when I purchase fabric, 45" or 60" wide, I always buy at least four yards. (yep, I said 4 yards!). I've been so busy trying to make sure I have enough to sell for Mocha Child, that I haven't sewn for quite some time now.

I decided to take out my sewing machine to work on some snack bags to sell in upcoming fairs and also to have some for cases for stationery sets. Now, my daughter is a very girly tom-boy. She loves her dresses, shoes, having her hair twisted....the whole nine. Like her mother, she loves purses! While making my messenger bag (I'll show you that one later), I pulled out some material to make her one as well for her snacks and keys and anything else she can fit in it. Take a look below. I liked the way it came out so much, I decided to make another one. It is a cotton/poly print and lined with cotton muslin. The strap is made from muslin and it is closed using a coordinating zipper. The cover flap is made with the same fabric as the bag and is also lined with cotton linen. I will make more of these and post them to my mom's Etsy site at www.jenidesign.etsy.com. There they will be on sale for $15.00 each. I will take a picture of her with the bag over her shoulder so you can see what it looks like worn. It is too cute!

Don't worry, I will never stray too far from my stationery. Here are a few items that I completed over the weekend as well.

Well, that was part of my weekend. I will post items to my Etsy shop tonight.
Blessings

A Little Etsy Treasury of My Own

As you may or may not know, getting into the treasury on Etsy is pretty much impossible unless you are sitting there waiting for the numbers to drop, you can't get in. So I decided, like so many of you, to do a Treasury of some of my favorites on Etsy. So here they go...

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade mochachild.etsy.com

As Promised...More Pics

Well I was able to take the pictures of some of the items I completed Sunday. Below are a few. The glare from the sun added too much light to some pictures and added shadows to others.

I will have to re-take the Happy Holiday cards. The pictures I took just did not do them justice.




"Be the Change you want to see in the WORLD" - Mahatma Ghandi
This quote is widely known and loved and with good reason. My son often remind me of it when he catches me in mid-gossip!



My first tri-fold. Not a big deal, I just stuck to a routine of designs because it was easier, but boring!

Cute little Santa Bear tags are 1 1/2 x 2" and just adorable. Hand stamped and tied with sparkling organza ribbon. Snowflake or Snowballs are the background for these tags.

Like so many, I am a fan of Fall. Those are the colors that just speak to me. It's always easy to come up with designs that represent the earth tones. They work well with Holiday card giving from Thanksgiving through Kwanzaa! Not so sure about New Years, but then I like to be different.

Hopefully I can re-take some of those pictures Tuesday and load them up. Some of the others that did come out really well will be listed in my Etsy shop on Tuesday.

Let me know what you think!

No Online Feedback

Well, August is over and I didn't hear from my online "judges". That's ok...I've been getting a lot of feedback from friends and family as well as from customers and passerbys at the fairs we have done. I hope to get more of that good old online participation, but I guess everything in it's own time, right? Hey, I'm patient! I will have another promotion coming soon. Maybe I will be able to give something away this time!

Have a Great Week!

Weather, Work and New Week

Let me start by saying that it has been "HOT" in Southern Cali the last week! I was just saying how it felt like we were in Fall because it was so cool at night and not that hot during the day. Well, (as always) you never know a good thing 'til it's gone. We have had weather in the upper 90s' to 100s'. The house felt like a sweatbox and to make matters worse, the fires have been out of control and the air sucks! I wanted to get the kids out of the house yesterday because they were driving me! I wanted to change my name and not tell them what it was! We ended up not going anywhere, except Target and then back home. They are always calmer after a trip to Target!

I have to say that the weekend was not a loss though. Along with keeping the kids in the house and busy until it was later in the day, I was able to get more done yesterday than I had all week! I made a few holiday cards, which I'll show you soon, but I stopped focusing on "Holiday" and just started working and made cards, card sets, tag sets, etc. I just really had a productive day and still had time to run around with the kids (they burned some energy, and I needed a nap after!) and go out in the garden later in the evening. The one thing I didn't do was take pics. If the light is right, I will have pics online by the end of the day.

Now on to a new week. There's always so much for me to do this time of the year with the holidays coming, craft fairs to participate in, kids back in school, fundraisers and parent meetings, custom orders, etc. I'm not complaining, I really do enjoy it all! I am just saying that I have this as my last week to get calendars (all over the house) organized and have a game plan to make things easier. Don't laugh, it hasn't worked for longer than a couple of weeks in the past, but it will work this year...it has to!!! ~ ; )

I have so many things I want to talk about, but they are still in the planning so I have to keep it hush hush until I know more! Stick around, I'll tell soon. I never could keep a secret!

The one thing I can say is that I am trying to put together some of my favorite shops to feature. I'm looking forward to it, hope you are too. Now you get to see the weird and funky kind of stuff I like!

Blessings