Halloween 2013 prep has begun!!

Yes! I have begun preparations for Halloween 2013 decorations! Yay!!!

In Austin, there is a Goodwill outlet type place you can go to and get anything that would normally be at a Goodwill, only even cheaper! They have clothes, housewares, luggage, shoes, toys, books, furniture... the only catch is that it's not hung up or on shelves or neatly laid out, not really:

Yup! You are indeed seeing that right! Everything is just in big blue bins! They dump out the items in these bins and wheel them out to the floor in rows. It's a little interesting because they guard a new row of bins and don't let anyone near them until the whole row has been wheeled out and the employees I think have been able to get out of the way.

I'd heard and seen reviews of other people going and freaking out at the people that practically swarm on the bins once you're allowed and how crazy and scary it is.... I didn't think it was too bad. I wasn't too interested in getting first pick on what was being put out and so I kept my distance, going through the housewares and toy bins mostly, so it didn't bother me how other people were behaving. In fact, all in all, I had a pretty fantastic time. So much so in fact, and this is mostly due to being with my friend Adeana (the one who told me about this place and got me excited to go in the first place), we were there for almost 3 hours by the time we checked out and decided to head out of there!!

Now, you're wondering what I went for, right? Well, like I've shown in my "looking forward to Halloween post", I went mainly looking for cheap, ratty dolls I wouldn't feel bad about defiling and painting to look gross, gory, dead, etc! And boy howdy, I  made out like a freaking PACK RAT!!!

Full doll haul

In the above picture, I had piled most of the Barbie-type dolls in a case. Below, they're all laid out nice and neat (ish) to give you a better idea of exactly how many there are. I believe when I counted, there's about 35 full and partial dolls?

I love the fact I found just a head, and its hair was nearly entirely chopped off! I had to have this shot with one bigger baby holding it like "it's ok... shhh...." and the one next to him going "holy crap!!"

Anyone else recognize this case?? I may still have mine in a box or closet somewhere, but I definitely had one of these growing up to keep my Barbies in!! Adeana suggested I dirty it up, tear it a little and make some sort of zombie doll case somehow.... we'll see how I manage that one lol.

Here we have my big baby dolls!! I believe about 20 total of these pictured here and...

here:

Are they creepy enough?? ;) No? ok, how about this...

I seeeee youuuuuuuuuuu

I was so loved and played with, I have holes in my body!! :(

Glamour shots...

Mommy liked putting makeup on me...only, it wasn't really makeup, and I can't get it off now.. I feel like such a dirty whore..... :'( *sniff sniff*

You're going to do WHAT to us?!?! Noooooooooooooooooooo................

Not sure why, but I think it's weird that most of the dolls I've seen and got have blue eyes... Either way, their vacant stares are a little creepy sometimes and the ones with holes in their mouths for pacifiers...I am trying to figure out what I can do to utilize that and make it creepy...

One of usssss.........

I have no idea about this doll... This 'thing' was around its neck and I was able to just about wrap it inside like I was coddling it? Trying to think if I could use that or not...

This little girl is interesting. Not only is she frowning and looks sad, but she has one green and one blue eye! not sure if that's just age or if she came that way...the sad thing really weirds me out though, don't think I've ever seen that.

Yeahhh..... this is a hair clip hair extension... thing. I couldn't resist getting it, but now have to figure out how to use it!

Next, we have a lamp I was EXTREMELY excited to have found!!

Insert creepy old guy type slow laugh here ;)

The lamp shade is sufficiently dirty, grungy and worn. This will need little work to get creepy-fied!!

Not many non-doll items I got, but the lamp and these things are the only Halloween non-dolls stuff I got. That's 4 packages of webbing, unopened, a black roll of crepe paper, a posable spider, bag of plastic pumpkin votive holders or whatever, a plastic/styrofoamy skull that has a battery slot in the bottom and not sure what it does.. and then another mask, of course!

Past the Halloween stuff, I found 2 sewing machines that they priced at $10 a piece!! I took a gamble and chose only one but am so excited I got home, plugged it in (yes! the pedal/plug was with it!!) and IT WORKS!!! The light bulb is good and the pedal moves the needle!!! I can't wait to get this to Airon after we figure out how to thread the darn thing.... lol

Most of what Adeana got was clothes and a bit of Christmas decorations (we found an entire popcorn tin full of red plastic ball ornaments, 3 or 4 patterns on them!!) . She did however find something that well, excited her because she knew what it was or could be,.. I had to be told :p

Yup! She found an honest to goodness Hermes scarf!! It was in pretty good condition too! I maybe found one tiny little red kool-aid type of stain, but I think that may have been it!

See, the especially cool thing about Blue Hanger is that they only price certain things (like the sewing machine and furniture, anything that's over about 7 or so pounds) and the rest is priced BY THE POUND!!

That's right! Because of this, my entire haul was only $60!!!! $50 was about my limit for Halloween related supplies/props so I did perfect!

We were so pleased with ourselves and our finds and so excited, we decided to hit up a local place called Red's Porch for a couple of cold, delicious beers and some grub. I got a sort of egg, bacon and salsa burrito and Adeana got some chicken and waffles, the waffles were especially DELISH!!

That was definitely a good day to hang with a friend, to find some awesome deals and especially for a good bite and cold beer. I can't wait to get started on dirtying up and creepifying these dolls for ya'll to see. I think I may have even decided on doing a main theme for my house decorations as well as ideas to do for it!

Craft ya laters!!

First Official Double Zipper Tablet Case In Store!!

This last weekend, I got a chance to sit down and take my time working on my own double zipper case, the same design as what my friend Airon and I worked on last week, and am very pleased with the results!!

It's the same fabric as the last attempt I did but I couldn't bear the thought of making a case that might not work with a similar fabric I bought for myself with butterflies instead of flowers!!

I worked on it throughout the day but I must have only worked on it for an hour and a half or so. It's pretty basic once you get past the idea that there's 2 zippers instead of just the 1, and that you need an extra layer of batting and interior fabric...

It's pretty snug for my 7" Google Nexus tablet on the sides, but because of the extra fabric I used, it's got plenty of room top to bottom and is snug on the sides once it's in; the only really snug part is getting past the zipper, but that's ok.

It comfortably fits my tablet in the main section, and has more than enough room for my charger as well which means I'd have plenty of room to put a pair of earbuds in there also!!

You can't even tell there's a tablet AND a charger in there, can you?!

I will call Airon the guinea pig on this one though. She and I both noticed that it was a little difficult to get the zipper teeth on the front pocket's zipper lined up when sewing the layers together, and not have the fabric get stitched through with the zipper a little too open (you have to open that zipper to stitch over it and give it the new ends). I tried this though and it worked like a charm!:

It's maybe a little hard to tell, but I basically used a couple pins on both sides of the zipper to pin through the layers when the zipper was closed so that when I opened it and stitched over the open end on the left, it was still pretty much lined up to what it was when closed!

I must say though, I'm pretty proud of myself on this one as well as the last 2 clutches I have made and the last 2 pouches I've made. Why you ask? Well, it's all a matter of getting more and more used to my sewing machine, realizing little tips and tricks and just what works best for what I'm trying to do.

One of the things that I was getting a lot was knotted string within the first inch or so of stitching! I kept having to take the piece out, get the strings out of it and what was stuck in the bobbin area, and start again! I finally realized it was just the starting strings getting in my way.This was easily fixed by taping the strings down on the backside of the machine and then un-taping them after getting that initial inch or so sewn!!

The other thing was figuring out that the left side of my zipper sewing foot is the PERFECT gauge to get that perfect top-stitch taken care of!!

I may still have a ways to go on sewing skills and talent, but hey, considering where I was only a few months ago...I'm definitely proud of myself and my hard work. If you are trying to get better at sewing or even learning how, just remember that noone starts out perfect and good product comes out of practice, patience and hard work!!

This will be my first tablet case I'll put up in my online store at www.beadsbycelleste.com and I couldn't be happier to finally get one online since so far the only ones I've made as sellable quality are currently at Easely Amused.

Well, that's all for now. I will let you guys know what the next batch of clutches/cases look like as I hope you're as excited as I am to see them!!

Craft ya laters!!

New Fabric For August

I love August if for nothing else than my day job having 3 paychecks this month due to timing! As soon as this last week had started, I was planning on going to the store on Saturday to get more fabric. I am pretty pleased with what I got to work with, what about you?

This one might seem odd, but there's a totally valid explanation. No, it's not getting used for a tablet case or clutch or anything. It's most likely going to be used for a zippered pouch armband for a friend who is a fellow motorcycle rider like myself, but has a TX toll device that he'd prefer to wear in a pouch on his arm than store in his backpack or case on his bike. There will be more on this later...

I actually ended up getting a lot of this floral as when the cutting lady was undoing the fabric on the bolt, she saw that there was only 1 1/3 yd left on the bolt. They hate doing remnant packaging so they offer to give you an awesome discount on what's left if you'll just take it with your cut!

This blue floral I think would go nicely with this silver polka dot I got the other day.....

...or as a real simple pairing with black.

I personally really love this fabric and can't wait to see it made into a clutch and/or case!!

Just another variation idea to pair these together instead of just with black.

So what do you guys think? I really like these fabrics and can't wait to get to work on them. I only have to get some zippers ordered from a seller on Etsy (Zipit) that stocks YKK brand zippers at a fantastic price and I'm excited to get good brand zippers, en masse, that will match the fabric I'm using much better than the Coats & Clark ones I've had to get locally at Joanns. 

I believe I already have someone interested in the blue/silver fabric paired with the blue it's pictured with for a banded clutch, and maybe even a similar tablet case pairing!!

Keep an eye out for what's next!!

Craft ya laters!!

First Items Sold at Easely Amused Consignment!!

You guys!! I got an email from the shop lady at Easely Amused and it's official!! I have sold items and I am out there!! Watch out Austin, here I come!!!!

Possibility of pairing up cases?

I noticed something on lunch at work today...

I made this clutch first, as a prototype to the design I've made so many of now, and use it as my regular daily purse:

And as you know, I made this tablet case for my Nexus 7" tablet this last weekend, excess space on sides and all:

But when I went to lunch and wanted to take both, this is what I came up with!:

It's pretty amazing how snugly they fit together!! Now, I can't hold the tablet case by just the top mind you, but I can hold it to my side like you would just one or the other, and not have to worry about my clutch sliding out of my hands to hold on to the tablet case!

What do you guys think? What if the clutch was made with the same fabric as the tablet case for a matched set and sold as a pairing?? Would that be something that anyone would like?

Well, off to finish my day of work so I can go home and work on some more sewing!

Craft ya laters!!