Friday, January 29, 2010

Minor dilemma

Well another week has gone by and I have to admit, I have not quite gotten as much done as I'd hoped.  Partly because I've been a little more busy with one of my other jobs - working on a contract basis with the United Way (like I said, I wear many hats) - and partly because I spent a couple of days engrossed in my Jodi Piccoult book.  But, the deadlines are looming, I'm leaving for Jersey in a couple of weeks and I've got to get some stuff done before then!

I was finishing off the last bit of hemming for a set of pajamas for my sister when I went to snip a thread, grabbed the nearest pair of scissors around (happened to be a big pair), and ended up snipping not only the thread, but also a  a hole in the hem of the pants!! ugh....


It's not a big hole, only about 1/4" wide...but still.  I can either put an extra band around the bottom to cover up the hole, or I could leave the hole as is and iron on a piece of fusible backing that will help the threads from fraying over time....

So what's it gonna be? Will Perfectionist Jennie fix it the proper way?  Or will Lazy Jennie fudge it over with a ghetto fix?.......Time to weigh in.

In the meantime, I'm going to work on something else that doesn't cause me to groan every time I look at it.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Business Development and Some Fun

So I spent last week working on a new item to sell.  A friend who is a financial advisor approached me about making a gift packaged bib and booties set that he could give as a gift to clients who just had babies.  After a few trials I finalized the details on my pattern for the baby booties so I can sell them now!






I've been playing around in Photoshop, trying to learn techniques to make my pics look better.  The technique above is called "vignetting" where you darken the edges of the picture to really make the subject pop out.  I'm always looking to improve my photography skills and maybe one day I can add "photographer" to my ever growing list of job occupations.  In the mean time, I just enjoy taking pictures of anyone who allows me to...such as these friends of ours that came for a visit over the weekend:



They made the 3.5+ hour trip from Austin to Houston with 4 little kids just to come visit us.  We had a great time catching up and hanging out.  Took the kids to the duck pond only to be attacked by ducks...I literally had to kick some of the ducks away for fear that they would jump on the kids.  It was a little bit scary...I think some enjoyed it more than others...





We also visited a few playgrounds in the area and got to watch the sunset at the pond behind our house.  A very fun weekend!

   


Thursday, January 14, 2010

Trying to Get Motivated

Been feeling a bit unmotivated lately - maybe it's the string of cold weather or maybe I'm just crashing from a busy December and just need to relax for awhile.  I think it's funny how sometimes you go on vacation to get a break from the real world, but then need time afterwards to recover from vacation.  For me, it's because I never quite get enough sleep when I'm away from home.  But I've had a few orders come in so deadlines are always good motivators.

Anyway, I have managed to complete a few projects lately.  I have to admit, when I first saw this fabric in the store, I was left wondering who would ever use it....but I had a client looking for a fantasy themed blanket and this was a perfect fit.  I think cutting the fabric along the line of the design really added a lot to the blanket.





I also sold my first bib and burp cloths set!







And on a completely unrelated side note, I booked my tickets to go back home to NJ mid-February....and you'll never guess how much the tickets were!  $165 R/T from Houston to Newark - SCORE!  If you know me, you know there a few things that really bring me great joy: food, sewing, babies, and saving money.  So, if anyone wants to come visit...check out kayak.com!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Sewing on the Go

Been on the road alot lately as evidenced through my nearly empty fridge.  Right now, I'm sewing from my room at the Holiday Inn Express in Victoria...TX that is (I wish it was the other Victoria, but I don't supposed I'd be able to bring all my sewing equipment there).  I basically pack up my entire sewing room and set up shop in the hotel room.  The cleaning ladies probably hate me because no matter how hard I try to clean up, there's always loose threads and lint pieces stuck to the carpet.

Seems like I've had a lot of non-gender orders lately.  It really surprises me that so many people want their baby to be a surprise. It makes things much more challenging for the gift-giver (and gift-maker).  I have to find gender neutral fabric, which to me means, no flowers of any kind and no pink.  Also, without a gender, there is no name, so I can't personalize the item. So, in conclusion, people should find out the gender of their babies (and name them) before they are born so I can make even cuter blankets :-)


This is a set I made  for twins.  Found the turtle fabric on one of my trips to Victoria.  I think I might have to go back and buy some more while I'm here!


Here's a close up of my new tags/business cards:
Another cute non-gender blanket:

Saturday, January 2, 2010

2009 to 2010

Happy New Year from Long Beach, CA!

A quick recap of our holidays: spent Christmas hanging out with the family in Plano, TX, where Santa definitely loaded us up. We had a great time hanging out, playing Wii, eating wonderful food, and watching the dogs play (what do you get when you mix a 1 yr old bull dog and a 6 yr old mutt of about the same size? - endless hours of entertainment).  Here's a picture of our tree - we ran out of room and started hanging gift bags on the tree...

Believe it or not, we even had a white Christmas in TX!
 
Then we headed off to Long Beach, CA, where we rung in the New Year (well actually I was so lame I slept through it...)  We've been hanging out on my father-in-law's boat in the Long Beach marina. We were right in the mix of things as some daredevil set a new world record for longest rally car jump by jumping it across the harbor and onto a barge here in Long Beach at the stroke of midnight EST (which was really 9 pm here). Here are a few pics of the view on this side of the country...

Our home on the water - the Ka Nalu.  With 5 people living on the boat, there are no secrets....

View of the marina:

Beautiful CA:

Thought I'd take this reflective moment and write a non-sewing entry.  After all, I am on vacation.

2009 has definitely been an interesting year for me.  It started off really well with a new job and a dream trip to Paris and Barcelona.  Unfortunately soon after, my lupus decided to rear its ugly head again and make life challenging.  It was tough this time as I was forced to make some life changing decisions and quit my part- time job just to focus on my health.  With a chronic illness, I suppose jslik designs was born out of my need to have a flexible work environment and desire to do something I enjoy (not that I didn't enjoy helping the community while working at the United Way).  I know that God has really blessed me in that my husband has a stable and good job, allowing me to have the option to do whatever I want.  2.5 years ago, while we were deciding whether to move to Houston or San Francisco, I really think that God's guidance led us to Houston where the cost of living is lower and life is slower-paced.   I would have never anticipated all the health obstacles I have faced since then and I know that if we had moved to San Francisco, things would have been tighter.  Sometimes it can be tough to have to deal with chronic issues at such a young age, but I do see alot of good that has come from it.  My relationship with my husband and family has strengthened through the trials and I've learned (or am in the process of learning) to let go of things that are not as important as I thought.  On top of all that, I've now got my own little business, which I am fiercely proud of.

So, although I may have hit a few low points during this past year, I'm definitely ending it on a good note and am looking forward to the next year.  Who knows what will happen?  I know one thing for sure, I'm going to learn how to drive stick - I've been married almost 4 years and can only drive 1 of the 2 cars we own...(I'm ashamed to admit).  I've done many practice runs on side streets, but the one time I took it out on the "highway", I traumatized myself (and subsequently my husband through my reaction) by downshifting from 5th into 2nd at 50 mph....oops.   I guess you could call it a New Years resolution, but once you label it that, I'm likely to fail as I do at most my "resolutions".  Anyway, this next year, I'm gonna work on being healthier, eating well, exercising, and growing jslik designs.


Happy New Year from jslik designs! (pictured L-R, CFO and CEO)