I find myself very easily distracted...like "oooh Shiny!" Easily distracted! LOL And the internet is one of my worst vices. If it's not Facebook, playing silly (starting to get really annoying) games, it's
Pinterest. Or a couple other assorted things I bounce around at.
I can waste an entire day this way and accomplish absolutely nothing. :-( Before my surgery I had started towards getting things accomplished. I have probably about 20 pieces of Monster High clothing cut and prepped ready to sew, I have several items of home decor (also doll sized started) as well as a list (about a mile long) of things folks have asked me to consider making. Unfortunately having my gallbladder removed (which BTW my 2 week-ish check up was Monday and the Doc says everything looks great!) really took the wind out of my sails and killed what little momentum I had going.
So this morning I decided that I will spend 7am to 9:30am each week day morning playing around online. This is while the hubby and kids are getting ready for work and school so it's not solid, but that's quite ok. Then once my hubby leaves for work, I need to get dressed (out of my pj's) and turn OFF the internet and crank some tunes! By 10am I plan to be settled into my desk either sewing, sculpting, shooting images or listing items in my shop!
A dear friend of mine on FB has been in the same kind of slump as me, so she decided to join me in our new 'Workplace'. We've decided that in the evenings we will post or message each other about our progress for the day. Kind of a way to keep each other accountable. I am very excited about this new plan and really hope to be more productive starting tomorrow.
Why not today, you might ask? Well I had every intention of starting today, I'd shut my computer off and was on the way to get dressed, when the phone rang. O_o...weird, it wasn't my cell and we don't have a house phone!!! Low and behold my beloved husband had left his personal cell at home. AND he left his work phone at home as well. And since he can't do his job without THAT one I ended up driving to his office to deliver them. Now since it's a 20 minute drive one way I decided not to waste the gas entirely and hit the Dollar Tree and Goodwill. And oh boy and I thrilled that I did!
I've been through DT loads of times looking for things either already in playscale size or that can be used as such and found a few things here and there. TODAY however was a veritable treasure trove! These 1st three pictures show every thing I bought and it only cost me $32!!! To the left here we have 4 t-shirts in brown, butter yellow, olive green and a blue-ish grey. I was honestly rather surprised at the quality on these and may go back this weekend to pick more up for my 7 & 11 yr old sons to wear! These however will become doll clothes. Also in this pic are 10 pair of sock that will become doll sweaters and such!
Next up, started in the Back to School section with the black wire mesh organizers. The 3 rectangles are pencil holders and are about 12 inches long. Now I did have to pick through them a bit to make sure they stood straight, but these will make fabulous bookshelves or coat cubbies or heck even hanging wall shelves! There are 3 matching cup style cubbies as well. The pair of smaller ones are the perfect height to be end tables and the larger one will get an upholstered cushion to become and ottoman. Simply adding a solid top instead would make a great round coffeetable! There is also a taller pencil cup that is the perfect height for a dining table base. (I have one of those I bought a while back too!) These wire mesh accessories also come in a 'brushed silver' finish I am betting they would take spray paint beautifully and could become any color. I am actually considering adding finished items made with these to my shop. But I am still thinking about that. The "Lamp Fresh" purple beauties are air fresheners shaped like, well, lamps! LOL I also have a set in green, and they come in red, orange, pink and blue. I will be pouring out the liquid air freshener and painting the interior in some neutral color. To the right of those are 2 purple class flameless candles. They also have some kind of scent disk in them. The candles will go into some candle holders in my
real living room, but the purple holders will become with waste baskets or vases. The black torpedo looking lights are actually clip on book lights, but they are great for adding spot lighting in dioramas/set ups. Last but not least in this image are the toothpick holders. I love the look of the jute wrapping, so the holders will become (again) waste baskets or vases. I was super excited to discover that the toothpicks are the fancy kind with the turned ends, so those will find uses who knows where! :-)
My last bit of supplies came from the holiday/toys/office aisles. The cute plaster tombstone says Stay Scary. The white plaster castle will get painted beige and then a layer of sand added over top. The bag of craft/popsicle sticks have many many uses! (for me to include hopefully becoming a futon style sofa frame) The red sofa table is in scale for 1/12th scale dollhouses, but I will be painting this one and giving it an upholstered cushion to become a small bench, like the kind you'd put at the foot of a bed. And lastly in this pic is the 3 packs of paper DIY crowns. I bought these for the smaller sequins in them as they are the perfect size to decorate doll clothes with and at a buck I couldn't beat that price. I am sure I will find uses for the other goodies in there but I mainly wanted the littler sequins! Needless to say I walked out of the DT with a huge smile on my face. OOH, I almost forgot...I gave out my business website to the woman in line behind me because she commented on my odd collection of purchases. She said her daughters LOVED playing with their Barbies and couldn't wait to check out my site. Who knows, maybe a new customer! *Note to self GET BUSINESS CARDS INTO PURSE!!!!*
After I left DT I headed over to our local Goodwill. This store is a bit of a toss up as to what you'll find (if you can find it!) I tried looking for jeans for my boys before school started, but they have NO organization for their clothes other than by style (pants, shirts, dresses, etc) or color. Now don't get me wrong the rainbow is really pretty, but I refuse to spend hours scouring through 3 racks of jeans hoping I
might find a pair of boy jeans, let alone in a size I needed!!! But today I had a mission and since color was my goal and size didn't really matter things were much easier. I've gotten a commission for some Monster High guy clothes, to include a green-ish, plaid-ish button down. Surprisingly I didn't have anything like this in my fabric stash! O_O So I hit up the kids clothing and started pulling out little boys plaid shirts in the right colorway. I found these 4 shirts for a total of $6!!! The far right one I actually a little girls shirt with a green and red plaid but I think it will be great for the upcoming Christmas season! My customer has given me a fair bit of creative leeway with this design as long as it goes with the wig she has chosen for her guy. Now I just need to find a good pattern that work. I really need to find the rest of my Barbie patterns, as shirts for dear old Babs, actually fit the MH guys pretty well with minimal adjustments. I am really excited to get working on these for her!
Lastly for today was the first piece in a special custom order for a friend. His poor Lagoona ran into a spot of trouble while at the beauty salon. She is having a bit of eye trouble, so he asked me to create some stylish eye patches for her to wear. Since I was just toying with the design to try and get it right this is what I came up with. He is really pleased with the prototype, so I will be creating a few edgier pieces for her as well. This one is velvet with white and gold feathers and topaz rhinestones! =D
Thanks for hanging around with me! Hopefully I will be back tomorrow or Thursday with an update on how my new 'work' schedule is going!
HUGS!
