New machine!!!

O.M.G. That is about what sums up how amazing my new sewing machine is!!! I am now the very proud new owner of a brand new Bernina Aurora 430, and will soon be the owner of the embroidery module to go with it (well technically I already am the owner since it has been paid for, but it had to be ordered and should be here within 2 weeks or thereabouts). The machine itself is absolutely incredible. So much so in fact that in it's own manual, it's not called a sewing machine but a sewing computer. I haven't even plugged it in yet because it is such an advanced machine, I've read the manual twice and still don't feel ready to give it a go yet. Quite fortunately, the awesome Bernina store I bought it from offers free mastery classes specific to the machine, and I know for sure I will need to take at least one class! Likely even two, one for the machine itself, the other for the embroidery part of things! I am so excited at the possibilities for amazing projects with this machine, and can't wait for the embroidery module to come in! Hello awesome Christmas gifts! I keep having moments of 'holy cow!', thinking of all the amazing things I can do with this machine! Hopefully the learning curve won't be too difficult, though just from reading the manual I am realizing how very little I actually know about machine sewing... I'm realizing all these years I've either been fudging it or underusing the capabilities of even my basic Singer, what with not knowing really what stiches or presser feet or needles are best for which types of fabric or thread or applications... And really I've never had anything to tell me otherwise! The stuff I've learned just reading the manual has been amazing! The manual for my Singer, though a relatively new machine, probably had most of the instructions and diagrams copied from manuals from the 50's... And definitely didn't explain much beyond how to physically use the machine... Anyways, I have definitely got my work cut out for me in figuring out my new "sewing computer", but I am very much up for the task!

As for my shed, I unfortunately haven't been able to work out there yet. It's still unheated, and it has been quite chilly these days. The challenge with heating it is this- Though all the outlets in the shed work, the main hookup for the shed is only powered right now by a single outdoor extension cord, capable of carrying 14-15 amps. Most electric space heaters pull at least 12 amps, so if I were to use an electric heater, I wouldn't be able to have anything else on (lights or machines) while the heater is on. While this could work temporarily, it's not ideal... I'd have to go out well enough ahead of time to get the shed warmed up, and if it got chilly while I was still working out there, I'd have to stop using anything electric to warm it back up. Doable, but clearly a hassle. My other option is propane, but it's a pricier option (my MIL has an electric space heater that I'd be able to have for free). Though a friend has a 100 gallon portable tank that we could have, I'd have to buy some sort of heater for it, and of course the propane itself. Not sure when that could happen. The third and final option is to get real power to the shed, and though it's doable, it's not going to be easy... I'd have to dig a ditch from the house to the shed, so that we could bury some direct bury line from the house to the shed. I'd have to go about 25 feet to get there, including across the driveway (gravel, but a PITA to dig through). I'd still have to be careful with my amperage usage, but it wouldn't be as bad as just the extension cord. So all in all, nothing is the 'easy' solution, but there are solutions out there... Just which one happens by first significant snowfall is up in the air... ;)

WOOHOO!!!

I am now officially moved in to my craft shed!!! That was FAST! We were able to put the wall cabinets in, and now all my craft stuff that had otherwise been relegated to hiding in Wyatt's closet or under our bed is now fully accessible, organ

ized, and I have a place to do stuff with it! YAY!!! Not to mention all the space it freed up in the house! Here are pictures! (Now all I need is a chair!) ;D

Lots of storage, most of which is still empty even though I'm all unpacked! (which means lots of space for NEW craft supplies! Yay Christmas!)

The sewing table, with hidden storage behind the door with the trays on it

All my fabrics and yarn! An impressive collection of Brown Sheep yarns... Wow!

More surface space, and my pretty colored pencils on display ;)

A big blank wall for a pinning board (for pinning quilt blocks together, etc), and space for my cutting mats, straight edges, and an ironing board

My dress dummy Ethel finally has a cozy place to live!

craptastic cabinets galore!

Well, it seems there is a slight change of plans with my shed. We started taking apart the desk cabinets, and upon removing the countertop, discovered that the cabinets are the CRAPTASTICEST CABINETS EVER MADE. Seriously, they were cutting some SERIOUS corners when they made these "cabinets"... and I use that term VERY lightly. So essentially, they are crap and not going to work in my shed, and to make them work would be more pain than they are worth. So instead, we're still going to rip them out of the house and build closets in their place, but in my shed for now we will put my sewing cabinet and our folding table out there, and we've already got two tall cabinets out there now (they're narrow but nice, one is all drawers and the other is drawers with a cabinet on the top half) so I'll be able to move into that storage, and the rest will live in storage boxes we already have. Come spring, I'll build a workbench in there, and by then I'll have a sense of where everything works best in there, and what additional storage and surface space I'll need. Frankly I thought that was going to be the plan from the beginning, but Red had said he'd help me get the cabinets in there sooner rather than later, so we went with that plan. Until of course we discovered just how craptastic the cabinets actually are... Seriously, they're embarrassing... The good news is that the wall cabinets above the desk are actual real cabinets, so we'll still be able to put those out there, but we're going to wait on that. In the meantime, when we do rip out the cabinets, we'll have to retexture the wall behind them cause the drawer hardware ends are GLUED to the wall (WTF?) rather than the non-existant back of the cabinet... and there are no sides on them, and the shelves of the hallway cabinet are attached to the walls not the cabinet, so I'm sure in demo we'll do some more damage over there... Really? Geez... ;)

But all in all it's even better, cause I'll be moved in to my shed TODAY! It still lacks flooring though, but it's no big deal, we Kilz'ed the floor so it's not grody anymore, and we've got some leftover carpet from Wyatt's room that I can put out there for the winter to keep my tootsies warm! :D

Bad Blogger!

Whoops! Been a while! Last I wrote the shed was sheeted and partially puttied/caulked. Now it is completely caulked, puttied, primed, and painted, and is ready for the cabinets! The paint is a cheery warm sunny yellow, not too bright, almost creamy buttery, and it looks great! I don't have pictures at the moment but I will soon I'm sure. I just finished working on clearing out our big desk cabinet dealie (which was WAY full of all sorts of stuff) so that the next day Red doesn't have work, we will remove the cabinets and install them in my shed! We have to do some blocking up of a few of them to bring them all to counter height (36"), but it will give me space beneath them for some wooden drawers like the ones Red just built for his workbench in his shop. They'll be nice! We'll have a bit of a construction zone in the house after we remove the cabinets, cause it will likely be a little while before we have the extra cash and time to build the pantry and linen closets that will go in their places. We'll have a nice little stash of Pampers boxes added to our decor! But the end result of both the shed and the closets in the house will make a HUGE impact on our home and my general sanity!!! I can't wait!!!

I also can't wait for Christmas (though I still haven't started on making any presents so I kind of can wait...) because this year I'm getting a new sewing machine! Possibly even two!!! My old Singer is still quite functional, but it only has utilitarian stitches and doesn't have the stamina for heavy fabrics. I know I need one that can handle heavy duty fabrics (denim, cotton duck (think Carharrts), even leather), and I'd really like to have a good selection of decorative stitches as well as all the utilitarian stitches. But it's so hard to chose a machine! I have fallen in deep like with a number of combination embroidery/sewing machines that are computerized and can do SO much cool beautiful stuff... But they're expensive... And I'm not sure of the quality or reliability of the less expensive models... It's hard when you can't see them in person... I'd also like a serger, and those are surprisingly cheap for what they do (look at the seams on your jeans- those are serged seams). I'll still keep my Singer, but a new machine or two would breathe life back in my craftiness! :D

Anyways, I'm hoping to get the cabinets in the shed in the next two weeks or so (hopefully before Thanksgiving!) so I'll be sure to update as we go! :D

madeinthemountains.net is mine!

Well, I am the proud new owner of madeinthemountains.net... Sadly, not .com, as someone owns that already, even though there is nothing at madeinthemountains.com... Apparently if you own a domain name, you are in a publicly searchable database (unless you pay extra for privacy protection), so I was actually able to find the owner's email address and send her a hopefully not too spamylooking email asking if she would be willing to transfer the domain name to me, or if she plans on renewing it when it expires next June... I'm hoping I'll get it someday... but for now, I own www.madeinthemountains.net, though it's not up and running yet so don't go sneaking around trying to take a preemptive peek! I only purchased the domain, I haven't paid for hosting yet, so on the mockup site there are still annoying ads, but soon... Once the store is ready to go then I'll bite the bullet and get it up and running for reals. Until then, I'm sitting on my hands!

The shed, and the CPSIA... Ugh...

The shed is sheeted (actually has been for a couple weeks!) and ALMOST ready for paint... I've got most of the seams between sheets filled with either wood putty (for the smaller tighter ones) or caulk (for the gapeyer ones) and am waiting on that to dry. Still need one more tube of caulk to fill in the bigger seams, then smoothing them with more wood putty, then let it all dry, then sand the putty if needed, THEN I can paint (well, primer first, then paint.). Still haven't dealt with the door yet, but I suppose I can't really paint until that is all finished (as there's a peice of sheeting that still has to go up, but can't until the new door is in place). But I can at least primer everything else! LOL... It seems like alot to get there but it really isn't, except for the door thing. I could just use the existing door and forget about the other door with the window, but we'll see... another window would be nice!

I'm getting really excited to make lip balms, soaps, and maybe even lotions! I've gotten several awesome books with recipes for these things, and Kayla and Lynda have offered me a HUGE slab of beeswax to use! I'm hoping to sell them on my website, and also at the new salon that a friend Robin just opened up here at the lake! She's offered to sell local crafts there, and I talked with her about my ideas and we both think they'd be a great fit. Right now I'm trying to research FDA and Consumer Product Safety regulations on items like that. They're largely regulated by the FDA rather than the CPSIA, and at least from what literature I've read thusfar, the regulations seem incredibly lax- so long as your label states ingredients and makes no claims to do something it won't, you're pretty much in the clear (of course it does regulate other things like use of actual drugs in products but I don't have to worry about that). It seems like I'm missing some key points here, like I feel like there should be sanitation/cleanliness standards in the making of the products, but other than a broad statement saying the product shouldn't be spoiled or show other signs of spoilage from the manufacturing process, I really can't find much else to that effect... Though I am glad that the FDA's website explains much of this stuff in laymans terms.

The CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) is so redunk... While the basis for it is great, it has the potential to put alot of small businesses and home crafters out of business. It states that any manufacturer (and it defines a manufacturer as any person or business who makes products for sale or even donation, so under the CPSIA I am a "manufacturer") who manufactures products intended for use by children under the age of 12 to have their products tested for lead, pthalates, and "other harmful chemicals" by independent lab testing facilities, at the expense of the manufacturer. And not just one of each type of product you make, but one of each type, from each BATCH of that product you make. There are exceptions, and thank goodness sofar all my baby stuff falls under the exception category (anything made of yarns or fabrics, so long as they do not include any metalic threads, or things like buttons, snaps, clasps, zippers, etc), but man... The law apparently is in effect now, but won't be enforced until February 2010, but manufacturers are expected to be or to become compliant now... While I am ALL for safety and regulation of childrens products, this goes a wee bit overboard. It is also unclear whether you are exempt if your products are made from ingredients or parts bought from compliant manufacturers... If that were the case, it would be great, but unfortunately I'm not sure it is the case... The Batch thing is pretty redunk too... and I'm not sure how they classify a 'batch', if it's the number of the same product you can make in one sitting, or the number made from the same batch of ingredients (so say you made shirts with snaps on them from one bolt of fabric and one box of snaps- is it how many shirts you can make in one sitting, or how many you can make from that bolt and box?) For a home crafter like me, this law would be devistating. Testing of products could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, per test. This law is clearly designed for big time manufacturers where quality and safety can get lost amidst the mass, but unfortunately the wording of the law is very broad, and in being broad, encompasses 'manufacturers' like me. Don't get me wrong, I would NEVER make or sell a product that was harmful to it's target user. And regardless of this law, I would take whatever steps to ensure that all ingredients or parts were sourced from compliant manufacturers and were of the highest quality and safety. But really? Must I send one of everything to a lab to be tested? Even if I made a hat and put a cute little butterfly button on it or something like that... And I could even state that the hat is not intended for an infant (so they wouldn't be sucking on the button)... An 11 year old knows better than to suck on the button on her hat... I don't know... It just seems redunk to me... It will be very interesting (and sad) to see what happens to sites like Etsy.com once this law is actually in effect and being enforced. Will the CPSC bother with small time crafters like me? I'd hope they'd focus their enforcing efforts on big manufacturers, which are typically the ones needing the most enforcing... but who knows... we could all be vulnerable...

*Edit* -Here is a great article about the CPSIA, with several good links within the article as well. It also has more of the exempt materials listed on page 2 of the article. http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/lawsaffectingwib/a/CPSIA-aboutact.htm

One (BIG) step closer!

The shed is now insulated!!! WOOT! And the VERY best part of it is I didn't have to do it! (And neither did Red!) Just as I was getting geared up to do it myself, he said he called a kid who has worked for him before and hired him to do it for me! WOOHOO!!! He is also the one who insulated Red's shop for him last fall (or was it this spring? Whenever it was it was cold... Which is pretty much any time of year except July here... LOL and :( ). I've never worked with fiberglass insulation, but I've had more than my fair share of working with fiberglass (namely sanding it, nothankyouverymuch), and it is very high on my list of things I hate... Red's too... Or at least my list of things I do my very best not to come in contact with... ;)

The next step from here will be sheeting it, with which I will definately need Red's help. I've never been very confident in my ability to make long cuts with a circular saw. I'd be ok if I broke out the tablesaw, but I'd rather have his help anyways, after all he is the carpenter! Not sure when we'll get to that, the weather has been pretty rainy the past two days and so he's been home from work (they're painting a house, can't paint in the rain!), but we also can't be out cutting plywood in the rain either... So we shall see! Either way, I am SUPER excited!!!!! :D