Fog Lifted, New Listing, and Letters Cut

The fog ended up lifting yesterday in the early afternoon, so I ran down to the patio and took some pictures of the Black Roses pair of pants. I edited the photos and listed the pair up on the store.



I think today will be totally devoted to present making. I know I keep saying that, but I really need to put the shop on hold for a little while to get these gifts made. I do have to day that some good came out of the circular cutter debacle a month or so ago. I bought several sizes of circular cutters to try to make a circle template work. I was rather upset to find that I needed the special cutter made by the template manufacturer. What was I going to do with four different size cutters? Well the smallest, 15 mm cutter, is working perfectly for this current project and cutting out letters. I hope to get it mostly completed and take pictures for you all to see what I made. I also have to do day two of week two of my jogging program. I have found that talking about it here is kind of like a confessional. If I don't end up doing it when I say I will here, I feel bad. Oh the inspirational value of guilt. I hope that today stays foggy, so I can indulge in pots of tea while I work, but that seems to not be the case. Well since the fog is lifting, I guess I should go and get some work done myself.

Sore, But Ready for Work

If you have been keeping track of me on my Twitter account you know about my current muscle soreness. I am going to tough it out though and get down to the gym after I get this blog entry finished. Yoga and dance last night seemed harder than usual, and I would like to think this is because my current state of being out of shape and starting an exercise program. I am determined to work through this though and get stronger and more able to dance without getting tired. The iPod has been beaten by my husband. It now works, and I cannot wait to use it today when I go for my jog.

In the shop today, I am going to get to work on that pair of pants I cut out yesterday. The Black Roses fabric is simply fabulous. I cannot wait to see what the finished pair will look like. I also have some retakes of the "I Dream of Asia" Jakarta Pants that need to be edited and uploaded. I also need to take some quick rough pictures of all the new fabrics I have gotten into the shop. Once I get those things done today, I am going to prep and hopefully cut out the new brown brocade fabric I have. Here is a picture of it, although it really does not show the colors too well:



It is a darker chocolate colored fabric with a thatch pattern of golden fibers. I would not have really picked it out myself, but it caught Dan's eye. He pulled the bolt out for me to look at, and I decided it was a winner of a brocade. I hope to get those done and uploaded for fall and winter purchasing in the next few days. This evening, I think I will start working on a birthday gift for one of my nieces. I want to stay ahead of the curve this year on gifts. I will post pictures when it is finished, and her birthday is over. Well I guess I should quit procrastinating and get down to the gym. Remember you can follow me on Twitter for smaller updates if you are so inclined. I also updated the Flickr feed today as well. You can check in there for pictures of new fabrics I get into the shop and make special tailoring requests then before I cut them into pants. Ok, enough procrastination... off I go.

IPod and Me

I did not get that much done yesterday. I wanted to be nice and add the cd's I gave Dan for his birthday to the music library so he can add them to his new iPod. OK that was my big mistake. I got logged on to my computer that I don't use as often to get onto iTunes. It needed to be updated, ok go for it. Then I imported the cds, and all seems to be going well. I plug in my iPod to the computer and all sorts of bad broke loose. So I spent a lot of my day working to restore my iPod, that is still having a temper tantrum currently and does not work. Hopefully I can get it restored sometime soon. It is just frustrating that I always seem to break technology just by touching it. I did brave the jog and hope to keep up with my three day a week plan that I found.

On a brighter side, the lime peacock pants are finished, and I am going to go and photograph them today. I am also going to retake the pictures of the "I Dream of Asia" pants. When I am finished with editing photos and listing the new pair, I hope to get to cutting out the black roses fabric. I prepped it last night, so it is laying across the table and half way into the television area of the apartment. I am sure Dan will appreciate not having to tip toe around it when he gets home tonight versus last night. Well here's to hoping I can get this technology back up and running as well as getting things done in the shop.

Weekend in Review

This weekend was really good overall. Dan stayed home from work on Friday because he was still not feeling well, which resulted in little work being done for Fabulous Pants. I was okay with this though seeing as I have really been plugging away on things for it on the computer and on the machines. I am just worried that I am going to get stopped by the "rainy season" for listings because I will not be able to take pictures. I hope to get a ton of things done today due to my renewed vigor from taking a break from it all for three days. On Friday I took it easy and did things mostly on the computer. On Saturday, Dan and I went out and did "free shopping." It is fun to do, and I highly recommend it to others. We tend to save up our gift cards and never spend them, so we go on free shopping sprees when we finally get around to using them all. I go to get some items I needed at Crabtree and Evelyn and also learned that they no longer sell my perfume. It was kind of disappointing. We went and got Dan an iPod for him to finally be able to have some music with him. He was happy to have a new tech toy. I also spent a gift card at Macy's to get some perfume and got a ton of free stuff because it was give away time from the counter I bought from. I also got some things, although not for free but on sale, for me. I got a pair of tan wool pants and a new wardrobe item I have never had, a purple hat. I love adding that to my new look that I am trying to figure out. We also got wine glasses and martini glasses from Crate and Barrel. It was great to get so many things for free essentially. We ended our night with an almost free dinner at Ruth's Cris. It was a fun day.

On Sunday I went to a drop spindle class. I am not that great at spinning yarn yet, but I intend to work on it and become good with this. Once I can spin on a spindle, Dan is going to get marching orders to build me a wheel so I can learn on that. Hey I figure he can make me a harp, then a wheel is not too far behind. :) After that, I relaxed on the couch and watch some tv off the dvr while I surfed around the web and Dan worked on his work. I did two minor things for Fabulous Pants; I uploaded my products onto Google base, and I also got Twitter set up. You can follow my small updates on my Twitter Feed and see what I am tweeting about. I then spent the rest of the evening working on a project that is mostly for myself, but also for someone else. I cannot talk much about it now, but look for my recap of items I am working on but can't talk about now after the holiday season. It will be picture filled and action packed.

On the slate for today: jogging.... Yeah you heard that right. I am going to try to get back into shape again. I tried earlier this year and did not do so hot at sticking with it. I am more determined again since I did not fit into any of my dress pants for this weekend's dinner. We will see how it goes this time. I have that same jogging program I am going to try, but I think I will try it on the ellipitical since that is more controlled by my pace rather than having to turn the speed up and down on the treadmill all the time. Perhaps when I get further in the program and there are less intervals I will be able to switch back to the treadmill. I am going to finally finish those lime peacock pants so they can be photographed and listed tomorrow. I am also going to get the black roses pair cut out and hopefully started a bit. We will see though. I do need to clean up around the work area from last night's project as well. Well I am off for a jog...

Fabulous Fridays

Ok, I will admit it, I am falling behind in my plans this week, miserably! I blame it on me rediscovering my love for my lap harp that I still do not know how to play. My husband made it for me, and it is beautiful, yet I stink at reading and learning to play. I am a learner who needs an instructor most of the time. I can and usually will practice on my own, but I need the reassurance of an instructor when learning most things. So I usually just tune it and pluck around. No matter what you do with the harp, it almost always sounds pleasant.



I had trouble with the bottom hems of the lime peacock pants, so they are still being worked on. I hope to finally finish them off today. Then I need to work on wrapping presents for my husband's birthday that is tomorrow. Today is also laundry day, so that needs to get done along with some minor house cleaning. All of this may be impacted in a way though if Dan decides to stay home from work and work from here today. While I love the idea of him taking a more low key day today since all the extremely late nights and long work hours, but it makes wrapping presents and using the sewing machines kind of a challenge. It is really hard for him to concentrate with the machines running. If there is any time left in the day before prebirthday sushi dinner, I will cut out the black roses pair of pants. I have made the decision to do the black ones first and then the brown. Tomorrow is a total Dan decides birthday day. He wanted to go and do "free shopping" for his birthday, so we are going to finally spend all those gift cards we got for birthdays and holiday presents last year. These days are always fun because you walk away with a bunch of stuff that you did not pay for. The end of the day is going to be spending his gift card for a wonderful steak dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I have never been to one, but he tells me they are really good steaks. On Sunday I will be gaining a new skill that I have wanted to learn for a long time. I am taking a drop spindle spinning class. I have always wanted to be able to go from shearing to a finished sweater or scarf or socks or something. I have learned how to knit, now I will learn to spin. Hopefully I can then find a class in cleaning and carding. I will let you know how all the weekend plans go on Monday. Till then I hope you all have a Fabulous Friday.

On the Plate for Today

Today I am going to work on the Lime Peacock Jakarta Pants. I got them cut out yesterday after doing quite a bit of computer work. I got a bunch of pictures uploaded to my flickr photostream. Feel free to friend my photo stream to keep up with all the pictures I am taking of new products. I also post new fabrics there, and that is one of the few times I can be contacted about custom lengths on pants that are longer than the standard 36-38 inch outseam. I hope to get the lime pants totally finished today, so I can photograph them tomorrow. I also want to retake my photos of the "I Dream of Asia" pants. In my haste to open the original ebay store, I took pictures with out ironing out the pants completely. Amateur hour I know. So I am going back and retaking the photos of the pants that I originally made when I am taking other pictures of pants with the same color falls. I also am replacing some of the tags in th pants. When I first made these pants, I made all the tags with my own handwriting. I now hand stamp them with the Fabulous Pants font stamp instead, so there are still some old labels floating around that need to be changed out. If I have time before I have to head into the city to Japan Town for a going away party, I will cut out either a brown pair or a black pair of pants. I am leaning toward the black sari pants, but the brown fabric is also stellar. Pictures of the brown fabric is forthcoming, but I will leave you today with a picture of the black sari fabric that is most likely next in production.

Photo Sessions and New Products Begun

I went and tried my hand at new camera settings yesterday. I could not do it on Wednesday as I said I was going to because someone was down on the patio reading. It wasn't that I did not want to do photography sessions in front of others; I have done them before. This person was just using the umbrellas on the table to shade himself while reading, and well I could not bring myself to go down there and ask him to lower it. He looked too content reading in the wonderful weather. So I went down yesterday and played with some new settings on the camera. I liked that the pictures came out more clear more often, but the fabrics are still not coming through as well as I hoped they would. I guess I will just have to tell my perfectionist self to let it go. I took pictures of the Fading Cobalt Jakarta Pants again as well as some more of the Blue Daisy ones. The pictures essentially turned out the same most of the time, but there were fewer blurry and over exposed ones with this new setting. I am happy about that. Here are some of the Fading Cobalt retakes:





I think they look nicer than the older pictures and have replaced the old ones in their listing
. I also got the extra long purple hairfalls finished. They look great, and I almost wished they were mine instead of the purple pair I have. I originally wanted a super long set but cut them shorter when I was trying to finish them in time to wear at a Belegarth event. Needless to say, I did not get them finished in time so cutting them short was for naught. I still love them though, even if they are shorter than I wanted. I am happy though to finally have a long pair out there to go to someone. I will be photographing them today and listing them. I hope to hit the Halloween costume buying frenzy. I will post those pictures soon.

I have also started working on my new product. It involves blackwork embroidery and my favorite thing in the world.... organizational containers! I don't know why, but things to store other things in are a weakness for me. I hope to spread that to others. More details on this project are forthcoming.

On the plate for today in the shop: well laundry for the household. Friday is laundry day around here, and I want to get it all done instead of the long drag across the weekend that usually happens. I am also going to photograph those falls as previously mentioned and list them today. I want to get this new product made and photographed to be listed and profiled here on Monday. If there is time I wanted to get some labels stamped and ironed as well as ironing out and cutting a new pair of pants to be made. One other thing that needs to be done is a run to the fabric and craft stores for some family holiday gift supplies. That all needs to start sooner than later, and I need to try to get in gear for that rather than putting it off. I am on my own tonight due to Dan being at Whiskey Fest in San Francisco tonight, so I hope to put that time to good use. Here's to hoping some cheesy movie on the television doesn't sidetrack me!

Things to Accomplish

I have decided to try to get tons done today and really buckle down and do it. The past few days have not been the best for picture taking because the fog is in and thick. By the time it has been lifting, the sun is not in the best place in the sky for me to take pictures. I have decided to take whatever pictures I can get in when the fog lifts. I am also not complaining about the fog being here. It is actually one of my favorite things about living in this area. I have always loved the look of fog around water since I was a kid. We would go fishing every year up in Wisconsin at Clam Lake, and my favorite days there always started out with the lake so fogged in you could not see it. Going out in the boat on those early mornings was an experience that has stuck with me. I loved the sense of the veil of the two worlds being lifted in some sense of it all.

Other than the picture taking, I need to finally finish off these purple hairfalls once and for all. I am really close to getting them done, so I am making them a priority today. I have to get some labels made up as well. I am going to try to get many of them edged today and will stamp them tonight in front of the television.

In amongst all of this, I need to run some things to the post office and make a trip to the store for some of our household needs as well as some items for the store. If I get all this done, I am going to move on to starting up a new product. More details on that soon.

Cloudy Day = No New Pictures

So I am putting the finishing touches on the blue daisy Jakarta Pants, and I was really excited to get them listed today. There is only one problem, the weather is finally changing here in the Bay area, and the constant sun is not there now. The first rain of the season is moving in tomorrow, so the early clouds are already here. That then means no product pictures today out on the patio. If the clouds lift long enough for some good pictures, I will run down there to take them, but that looks rather unlikely. The pants really do need to be photographed in full sun for the fabric to look anywhere close to the actual color. So, this puts my plan to list every other day in jeopardy. I have decided to put the lime pair on hold a bit and get the extra long purple, black, and sliver hairfalls finished up. Those can be photographed on a plain white background since I do not have to model them. It is also a Thursday, so that means time to go over to 826 Valencia for tutoring sessions. I also think I will try to hit the two thrift stores on my way there to look for some other items I need for holiday gift creation. I think I am going to pop on a movie and get some braiding done. Hopefully some day I will be faster at this aspect of costuming craft.

Finally.... Purple Pants!

I am so excited and pleased to be able to offer these purple pants for sale. Purple is my personal favorite color, so it is always hard for me to part with any purple items, but I would like for these to go to a happy home. They were a joy to work with, and while I loved working with some new fabrics for the Jakarta line for my recent custom orders, I was happy to get back to saris. There is just something magical about the way the light plays on the fabric, and the colors it creates. Yet, what is great and wonderful about these fabrics is also what is horrible about photographing them. I am never quite happy with the results of my amateur photography skills, and the pants require just the perfect conditions for me to be able to get them on film. Even when I do get some pictures that turn out, I feel that they miss the luster of the fabrics in most cases. So, here is my humble submission of my photography, modeling, and editing skills on display for you.



For today in the shop, I am going to work on that blue pair of pants that got cut out a few days ago. I hope to get those completed today, so I can get to photographing and listing them tomorrow. If that gets done early enough, I am going to get some lime colored pants cut out. This fabric was really intriguing to me, and I think it will look great on someone with a darker complexion. Here is a quick picture of that fabric for you.



The hubby is working late, so I hope for today to be an extremely productive day. If for some stroke of the imagination I get those things done, I will then work on more fortune cookie promotions. I am in love with them, and the new tool I got to help me with making them. After all the disappointment and frustration with the cutting tool I bought that did not work, I treated myself to a great circle cutter from Olfa. It is taking some time for me to learn how to use it, but it makes things so much easier. I can churn out circles much faster. I need to get as much in for the shop as I can now because Holiday crafting season will be here before you know it, and I will have to turn my attention to the family gifts. I am already doing the research for the gifts this year, but I need to start construction soon. I am determined to not be crazy this December. Well I think it is time to get down to some ironing and pinning...

Supplies Run

I worked on the purple pants yesterday. I got the fabric all ironed out, and folded for cutting, and then cut to only find out I could not sew them up. In all the recent supply runs I have filled in all the gaps for colors of thread, or so I thought. I went into the thread pile to find that I had only three feet of purple thread in the color of the pants I wanted to work on. *SIGH* So, I moved on and worked on ironing out, folding, and cutting another pair of pants in a beautiful light blue. This fabric also has the binding on one side, but the delicate shade of blue was also too good to pass up the day I bought the fabric. It has great little daisy type flower details all along the design patterns. I also like that the gold embroidery on it is a more subtle shade of gold and less bright in spots. It looks almost antiqued. So, on the plate for today is a quick run to the fabric store for more thread. I am also going to hit some thrift shops to look for certain supplies I need for making some of my holiday gifts for family this year. I am trying for once to start my gift making now, so I am not a crazy person come December. I find making stuff for the eldest niece is getting tougher and tougher as she starts to get older, and the thought of her being too old for toys made by her Aunt just gets to me. I need to go and visit them sometime this year while they are all still little and not too cool for me. Well there are many places to get to and my feet and BART only travel so fast. I will leave you with a quick picture of the blue daisy fabric for the other pair of pants I am cutting out.

Inspiring Weekend

This weekend I decided to recharge the creative batteries. I went with my husband and a friend to the De Young museum to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was full of beautiful glass works, and it was nice to see someone else who seems to love vibrant colours. He also has a very whimsical view it seems, and his love for natural forms was also something I connected with. Below is a picture of his glass ceiling. It was a great piece and seemed to be a gigantic "I Spy" picture made of glass. If you go to the above link, you can see pictures of the entire exhibit. I highly recommend it to anyone who can see it when it comes to your city. Pictures just do not do this exhibit justice. It is something that must be experienced in person.



After that, I went with my husband to see Lewis Black in Berkeley. It was a great night. The show was really funny and rounded out my day nicely. On Sunday, it was back to finishing work on some pairs of special order pants. They are finally finished after much wrestling and wrangling, but I think they came out beautifully.

Yesterday was filled with house cleaning. I have let it slide for too long, and it really needed to be done. I tackled it all yesterday. Who knew such a small apartment could take so long to clean. It is great though, and I love having a sparkling clean house. Now, I can mess it all up with pants making! I have some great fabrics I bought a week or so ago and some older ones that I can finally get to. Today I am going to work on the purple moon flower fabric that I have. While the sari binding is only on one side, I could not give it up. I thought it was too pretty of a pattern and colour to pass up. Here is a quick picture I took of it. Hopefully I can get these made today and photographed tomorrow. It is all weather dependent on that. I want to get them up for sale by Thursday though. On that note.... off to iron this great fabric out to get it ready to cut!

To Do Today

Toady I am hoping to get a lot done, only, in a quiet fashion. My husband is working from home today to try and get things done. His office space is shared and therefore very loud, so he is using the house today to try to get more done. This means that machine work will be limited today. I have that special order pairs of pants that should be finally done today. They have taken a while, but I am learning a lot about working with cotton knit fabrics. I am beginning to think that I like it.... I know, crazy but true. I was so petrified of working with it when I took on the project, but through diligent study and trying out different solutions, I think I am well on my way to working effectively with this type of fabric. Who knows where this will lead in the future! I am also slowly getting my hairfalls done. I did some research looking at other sellers of hairfalls as well yesterday and felt better about my lengthy making process. I did not understand how some people got their falls done so fast and why they looked so different. Upon further looks, I found that these sellers string yarn onto hair ties and do not much else where as I braid almost all the yarn I place on the ties except for the few "highlight" yarns and metallics that I use to make them look more dread like. Hopefully the hard work on these will pay off for me. Time will tell. Well I am going to head into the work space and try to get some great work done.... quietly.

Productive Weekend, Trying to Carry That into the Week

I got more done this weekend than I thought. I was trying to keep off the machines, since the hubby needed quiet while he worked on his programming for work. I ended up working on a personal project but also on many things for the shop. On Saturday, I went to the knitting group I have become a part of. It is put on by Knit-One-One, a local knitting school that I will one day take some spinning classes from. I have learned to knit from a very talented friend, and am working on my first project. It is, of course, a scarf for my Grandmother for Christmas. I am hoping I will get it done in time along with all the other gifts I have to make. I then spent some quality lazy time with the husband. He even took me fabric shopping! He is a great man! I found some great fabrics and am really excited to start cranking out some new pairs of pants with them. They are truly gorgeous.

On Sunday, I did my normal domestic duties such as shopping at the Farmer's Market and picking up the other groceries at the store. I finished the laundry that is always supposed to get done on Friday, but always seems to not get done because of my working on pants items! :) I worked on some promotional items for the store that are going to be given out by a fellow Etsy shop Simply Sarah's Paper Perfections at a craft show in Florida. I hope it gets some new people into Fabulous Pants. I also worked more on braiding the purple falls I am working on for the store. They are super long! I really am liking this pair, and I hope that they find a good home soon when I get them onto the store. Hopefully they will be up in the next few weeks. They do take a long time since I braid almost all of the yarns that are attached on the bands. Pictures to come soon.... I promise this time!

Well it is time to get back to work on these promos. I also am down right determined to get the pants that I am working on for a special order done. They are made out of a different kind of fabric I have never used before for these pants, so they are taking a really long time. I really want them done though.... the person they are for has waited very patiently, and they need their pants. I just want them to be perfect. Hopefully this pair will make me gain some confidence though, and hopefully I will branch out further with the pants line because of this. If I do, they will be named after her! Off to work, and I hope you all have a creative day.