Out for a bit

From October 31st through November 10th, we will not be accepting any orders of any kind. I will be gone during that time for a Strings Workshop (Maybe some of you know that I study and teach violin?) and Erin will also be leaving he same day as me, but for a 6 week trip out to PA to help a family of 13 children. So no one will be answering e-mails, sending out catalogs, or taking orders during the 31st - 10th time frame. Trust you'll understand!

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man must seek Him to find her."

Using fabric scraps

I love Frugal Friday's! =) Crystal always has such wonderful money-saving tips, and ideas. For the past couple of weeks, I haven't made a post about this, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to share a "frugal idea" every weeks, but I'll do my best! =)

As a seamstress in our home (not to mention my three other sisters who sew!) we are always making something, whether it be for an order or for ourselves. With making lots of dresses, jumpers, blouses, skirts, vest (etc, etc) over the years, we have developed a very large trash bag that is stuffed and brimming full of left over scraps from items that we've made. It takes up quite a bit of space in our sewing room, and so every now and then we are tempted to just pitch the whole thing (why have it, if we don't use it right?), but we never can get up the courage to do it.

But this summer, I decided that I was going to go through the scrap bag to see if I could come up with a few fabrics to make a small quilt. Since I never have made a quilt before, I wanted to start out small. Going through the bag, I realized I could make many quilts and other small items (potholders, and so forth) with all this fabric, and then tuck them away for my own home someday.

So not only am I being wise with the left over scraps, I can make useful items that can saved hundreds of dollars in the future, Lord willing! Sometime I'll take pictures of things that I've made with our scraps that we thought were only good for the trash. =)

Introducing...

Here is one of the websites I've been working on! I've offered tatted bookmarks off of our resource page, but decided to make a "branch site" where people can choose more styles and pick out their own thread choices.

Since it is fairly new, if you see and glitches, spelling error's, etc, please let me know so I can fix them right away! =)

Blouses for $1

Well, I made a mistake of adding one of my favorite blouses to my ebay listing. Sort of. I knew what I was doing, and now I really regret putting it up. Oh well, such is life. They aren't made by us, but if you are interested in some lovely feminine blouses, take a look: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZstringsftk

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I've been using my time wisely by working on a couple new websites lately and can hardly wait to share more about them, but they aren't quite ready yet, so stay tuned! =)

Dress forms?

I have been considering buying a dress form just because with all the sewing we do, I'm sure it would come in handy! But there are so many different ones out there, I'm not sure what the differences are and whichs ones seem to work better. I'd be glad for some pointers in this, if anyone has had experience with dress forms!

Tip of the day

Whatever you do, no matter how soon you must get something done:

Don't ever sew for 5-6 hours straight

I did that this weekend, and am now suffering from sore wrists and hands. As a musician, violin teacher, and seamstress, I don't need to get tendonitis!

Blow-out sale

We are wanting to "blow out" a few things from the sewing room (whether it be ready-mades, or just fabric we've had for awhile) and so we are offering a sale for the next several weeks:

Receive 10% off any order you place with us!

Liberated Women

I always am blessed by what Crystal (from Biblical Womanhood) has to write about in her blog! Today she posted on "Liberated Women" and below is a snippet from what she posted:

I talk to so many families who say, "We can't live on one income." Thanks to the feminist movement, very few families think they can. Instead, mom and dad have to work 40-60 hours per week to pay the bills, pay the mortgage, pay the dry cleaner, pay the nanny, pay the house cleaner, pay the fast food restaurants, pay the babysitter, pay the boxed-food/frozen food dinner makers, and on and on. No wonder we can't live on one income anymore!

But, inspite of the damage caused by the feminist movement, there's hope. We don't have to follow this path of bondage. We don't have to buy into the lies. We can make one of the most truly liberating choices ever - we can choose home.

Read the full article here: http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/2006/10/liberated-women.html