Merry Christmas, xbohica grandkids

All sporting their new xbohica creations (left to right): Caille, Connor, Cameron, Christopher.

Petroglyphic terrific

My handsome grandsons, (left to right) Connor, Cameron, Christopher, wearing the shirts I made from fabric I brought back from Hawaii.

(Dad's got a matching one, too.)

Concentration

Caille, my 9-year old granddaughter, helped me lay out her dad's Hawaiian shirt. She's concentrating very hard on pinning right now.

Big brother, little brother, baby brother

You had your doubts, didn't you?

I know you did.

When I blogged about this heavenly fabric warehouse in Hilo, Hawaii that I went to **way** back in April of 2008, I even took a picture of this fabric.

Mom and I worked together all weekend to get these done.

They'll be under the tree for my three grandsons: Chris, Connor and Cameron. Daddy Steve's matching shirt will have to get made over the next day or two.

But for now, it's nice to take a break for a few minutes and admire our handiwork.

I'll post a photo of the men wearing them.

Because there is nothing more appropriate for a man to wear on Christmas day than a Hawaiian shirt.

(By the way, the pattern on the fabric is petroglyphs -- like the ancient etchings on the lava rocks in Hawaii. The buttons are made from coconut shells.)

Just for @zoocat

My friend, Brad (who I met as zoocat on Twitter), asked me to make an apron in a smaller size. Tiny and cute!

The etsy shop

I'm finally diving into the etsy shop. If you're not familiar with http://www.etsy.com/, it's where people can buy and sell hand made items. Just perfect for a crafty geek like me.

All the items left from the Baylor craft fair will be listed today! Visit me there: http://www.xbohica.etsy.com/

What people want.

What people want: coffee sleeves. No kidding. The BEST stocking stuffers at $6 ea or 3 for $15. Going like HOTCAKES (cliches are cliches for a reason, folks).

Reversible.

Machine wash and dry.

I will take it more seriously next year

I think we are going to sell out of (gorgeous cute fabulous) xbohica stuff before the end of the craft fair tomorrow. I've been sewing for this since August. Wow. I will take it more seriously next year.

We ran to Joann after closing today to buy stuff for baby snuggles. I finished 2 baby snuggles on the Baby Lock Ellure while Devon made 9 more coffee sleeves on the old Elna.

Tomorrow should be a huge day.

Please, miss, may I have a shot of tequila with that limeade?

Ok, so these ARE brown

Who says you have to "brown bag" it?

Finished these lunch bags at about 1:30 this morning.

Super-size my tote bag

These whoppers will carry just about anything.

More baby snuggling

Give a baby a snuggle

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Wish I had a serger. A three-point zig-zag just doesn't finish this fluffy fabric as nicely as I'd like.

But this *is* a fluffy, soft, sweet little wrap.

Wonder twin powers: ACTIVATE! These business cards/price tags are fabulous!

(Click photos to enlarge.)
I've been doing some recon for weeks on creative ideas for business cards for my xbohica business.

I have also been racking my brain for a couple of months to come up with a solution for tagging the Christmas craft fair merchandise... and tagging it all with care instructions.

Voila! Devon and I putzed around this morning (when I get in a room with my mom or Bri or Devon and sewing machine(s)/craft items, it's like "Wonder Twin Powers: ACTIVATE!" I swear) and ta-da.

I love love love these tags, which double (triple?) as business card, care instructions and price tag (we'll write the price on) and are *so* cute.

We used cardstock weight glitter patterned scrapbooking paper to cut out the base tags with decorative scalloped scissors. Then I printed contact info on a regular paper (cut out to be about the size of a business card). Then I sewed the "business card" onto the tag with a big, fat zigzag stitch in purple thread.

Note: I was too afraid to sew paper on my tricked-out Baby Lock Ellure, so I sewed these on an old 40 year-old Elna that used to be my mom's.

Basket full o' sleeves

Wow. Devon was so industrious! This basket is full of coffee sleeves. I had only about 15 in there yesterday. She had to leave this afternoon because she's got to be at work at 2:00am (curse you, retail!). So I have some more to sew up, but she's already cut them out and paired them, so they are ready to go. Assembly-line sewing at it's best.

Sewing machines are really the power tools of the crafty, you know?

Devon is here and she brought her BabyLock with her. We did fabric shopping all day long and started power sewing tonight. We have a lot of work to do before the craft fair next week.

Her BabyLock tension went psycho and we could not figure out how to fix it. So I pulled the old (40 years old) Elna out of the closet.

Sewing machines are really the power tools of the crafty, you know?

I'm supposed to be ironing some coffee sleeves right now. Don't tell her I'm posting this to my blog instead, ok?
(Note on 12/1/09: I know. I still have a bare concrete floor in my dining room. I hope Santa and his elves are working on that.)

Six aprons before Boston

The sixth is an exact duplicate of the one with pears and apples that has lime green trim.

Apron pockets: What do you put in them?

I'm still working on an assembly-line of six aprons that I started last weekend. As I was working on the pockets, I got rather introspective. I wonder what these pockets will be holding in the future?

Flour-dusted hands?

The corner of a towel, shoved in for hand wiping?

A watch or bracelet, removed to keep it out of the dough?

An elastic band, kept handy to put the hair back when cooking?

A wire tool for pot throwing?

A paintbrush?

What do you put in your apron pockets?

Outta this world: Ready for crafting or cooking

(click to enlarge)

Cap for a kiddo

Barefoot modeling gig

I asked my granddaughter, Caille (aka C2), to model one of the little girls' aprons I made for the craft fair. She's standing on my front porch in front of the jasmine.

I didn't realize she was barefoot until I had uploaded the photo!

(Click to enlarge photo.)

Signs of progress

Taking the carpet and padding out was much easier than I expected.

Taking the tack-strip up off the concrete floor is a pain in the ass.

Back to it.

Lunch and juicy-fruit-stripe laptop sleeves

After working a lot of long hours this last few days for the paying job ;-) I came home expecting to crash into a nap today. But I just couldn't let myself fall asleep. I haven't sewn for a few days and the yearning was overwhelming.

So, I just finished up a few more laptop sleeves and a lunch tote. These were all in process from last weekend.

I carefully matched up all the stripes across front, back and flap pieces of the laptop sleeves, trying to achieve a juicy-fruit-stripe impact.

The next project has nothing to do with sewing. I'm going to put away all the sewing things, move all the furniture out of the room and rip up the carpeting from the floor.

Wish me luck!

LOL laptop sleeves, FTW!

Devon spotted this upholstery fabric when we were shopping in Austin a couple of weeks ago. She convinced me it would be perfect for laptop sleeves. I'm glad she talked me into it. I like the end result.

By the way, what piece of furniture would one upholster with this fabric? A home office chair?

This project marked my first time using craft foam. No kidding, craft foam. Think vacation bible school craft foam. It's sandwiched between the lining and bag, with another layer of fleece in there, too.

Kitchen couture