Rae of Green Apple's Purse

Hooray! I just finished off the custom messenger bag-style purse I was making for Rae and I want to KEEP it ... But since tomorrow I will part with the adorable bag, I decided to do a little photo shoot first. Actually the photo shoot starts out when the bag was just a few little squares of fabric. Also in the photos you'll see my new toy: the "Sidewinder". This awesome rechargable-battery-operated machine winds bobbins without having to un-thread your sewing machine. WOW-Winding the bobbins is so fun now! So if you sew, you need to have one. They are at Joann's for something like $22 if you use the 40% off coupon they send you. And they are Limited Edition Breast Cancer Supporting Sidewinders, so you can support a good cause too. Ok, enough commercial. Here are the pictures:

PS . I know I never said how Sunday went at the Berlin Farmers Market. I was too tired to even take a proper picture of my purchases, sadly, but I promise I will post about it soon. It's been a busy few days. But I did get Twister for 50 cents :)

Big Day "Off"

Sunday is the day I try to get things done. I need to get myself over to the bank today to open an account for Rachel's Thread. I got edged out of my old bank (Commerce) after the first year, since they started charging a fee when my balance was under $1,000 (!) . . . I guess they don't really care too much about the very small businessgirl, so I'm heading over to Cape Bank for some free small business checking. Then I'm stopping in The Flying Carp in Ocean City to drop off some new sock scarves. And THEN I'm driving up (over?) to Berlin to check out the new sock store at the Berlin Farmers Indoor Market. And then, finally I'll be stopping on the way home from Berlin in any fabric stores along my route. When I get home I'll be sewing some purses :) So today should be quite a productive day. So far, Matt and I shared a brownie for breakfast. And yes, I was up before 7 am on a weekend. Matt's going fishing on the boat today, so he's already up and out of the house. I'll hang around in my pjs for a while and do some paperwork. In the early morning, my hair looks alot like Paula Small's from Home Movies, which is by the way, one of my all-time most favorite shows. just a few clips: Melissa helps Coach McGuirk write a 'newspaper article' Jason's Ailments

Fall scarf excitement

Today Matt took 30+ scarves to work to have a little scarf show at his desk. He had a ton of interest and sold 4 scarves within the first hour! He said: "People are flocking around my desk!!!" (That's 3 exclamation points, which means alot from Matt). Well by lunchtime he got busted for selling something that wasn't for a fundraiser, so he had to hide the scarves away... But he managed to sell 11 scarves, and has a couple others set aside on reserve!! Go Matt :)
Here are the fall colored sock scarves that are hot off the sewing machine:

Hole in my sock

So one of my FAVorite pairs of socks has a hole in the toe... perfect for the next sock scarf I make for myself :)
This is actually exactly how Sock Scarves got started. 2 winters ago, I had already been making scarves, but not patched scarves, and I was lying in bed staring at a bunch of mismatched socks, and socks with holes in the toes, trying to figure out to do with them. I definitely didn't want to throw them away. I was actually planning on sewing up the little toe-holes, but then realized I'd have this extra thread/sewing bump at the tip of my foot, and I didn't really like that idea, plus hand-sewing is not really an interest of mine. And then I decided... how about a SOCK scarf... And that's basically how it began. I still wear the scarf that's made out of all my old socks all the time. So anyway, in case I get on Oprah some day, and can't spit the words out cause I'm way too nervous, at least all 6 or so of you who read this blog will know how it all began. . .

back to work

Hi everyone. Hope you had a nice weekend. I got to see a bunch of relatives on Sunday who were visiting our new house for the first time. A few people definitely seemed to feel that seeing the Rachel's Thread workshop was the highlight of our house. I even sold 4 scarves !! I also got to finish up an 'Heirloom Scarf' for my cousin, which is filled with pieces of each of her son's favorite things. Star Wars, sports t-shirts and jerseys, and even a pair of snowman toe socks that one of her sons used to wear.

Today I've been working on some paperwork. Selling things=paperwork, but it's always a good feeling. Now I'm trying to get in the mood for fall colored scarves, since I'll be making a few sock scarves in browns, oranges, and nice fall looks. ALSO, if you haven't noticed, I listed another t-shirt scarf in my etsy store. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) most of the scarves Amy and I had pictures and descriptions to list on etsy are now SOLD! I'll probably add a few more this week. I have just about the perfect amount of time to do that each morning. My morning includes the following: Alarm goes off at 5:30, I press snooze about 6 times, finally get up with Matt at 6:53. Then I go on the internet, make our lunches, go on the internet, iron our clothes, go on the internet. Then Matt leaves for work, and I might go on one more time after saying goodbye. I usually leave myself about 10 mins to shower, figure out what to wear, get dressed, find my keys and phone, and make sure our cat is inside. So anyway, I think I can manage to get a new scarf up in my store at least a few times a week.

best Dad ever

They did a special article about my dad on Standup2cancer.org
The quote from Rodney Guishard at the end of this article was one of the most memorable moments of my dad's funeral.
Here is the link to the article: Beyond the Bench

I miss my dad every day. I don't quite have the correct words or medium to express it at this point, but once I do, I might do a better post about it.

Photo from Father's Day 2007

Rods and Rods of Scarves

Finished hanging the scarves in my scarf room last night. This is Sooooooooo exciting for me. I kept going in the room and turning the light on to look at them, and then leaving, and then going back in to look at them some more.... It literally looks like a store (but shhh, I'm really not running a store from my place of residence). So anyway, I'll be listing a handful on etsy so if you happen to spot one in the picture that you love, let me know, and I'll reserve it for you :) If you click on the image you can see the larger (and even grainier, sorry...) version.

Green Apple Rae and Go Eagles!

Hiya, how is everyone today? Last night I had the pleasure of having Rae (of the Green Apple Rae series) over to pick out fabric for a patched purse. All the fabrics she chose look great, and I can't WAIT to start piecing them together. I'll surely post pictures once it's done. She also picked out a scarf from the Pink Squirrel series, to give to her grandmom for her 80th Birthday. Maybe we'll get to see a picture of that lovely lady in her scarf too, hint hint.

So on Monday I was leaving work wearing this new hat someone at work gave me. The hat has, i don't know... a mosquito or something on front, maybe he's rowing or something? I really don't know. But it's definitely a flying bug of some kind. Well, I was walking out of work to my car, and some girl yells from her car "GO EAGLES!!!!" Haaaha. So here is a picture of me, in my new "Eagles" hat.

Blah blah blog

Hi. I spent a long time last night trying to figure out how to 'feed' this blog onto my myspace page www.myspace.com/rachelsthread . I think I finally have the application working ok, so we'll see. If you're reading this on myspace then, hooray, success. And if you're on the myspace page and would like to see the complete blog check out rachelsthread.blogspot.com .

So I see that people can sign up to be 'followers' of this blog. I never thought the term 'follower' had a very good connotation . . . but we promise no one will judge you if you do decide to 'follow' in this instance.

Ok. I guess that's it for now about that. Fall purses will hopefully be in the works tonight, So keep your eyes on my etsy store :)

Recycle!

I found this ad in our Atlantic County, NJ Recycling Newsletter. If anyone has an old or extra bike, this is such a great idea! They also have a website p4p.org where you can see the countries that are being helped out, and also find a collection site in your local area. And, they're taking used sewing machines! Check it out, and spread the word :)

shirt

Forgot to mention, Matt and Johnny installed 2 rods in my scarf room last week! I can now hang scarves and fabric samples along the back wall, and the place looks like a little store :) I love it. It's inspired me to get organized, so everything is put away except a huge pile of small pieces of fabric. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully get to work on a few purses for orders, and then get the remainder of the fabric put away, Yay!

So, I'm getting ready to play some Rock Band now. I'd love to play while wearing this shirt:
.
But does anyone see a link to buy it? I'm confused, or maybe it's just been a long day, but either way... I really want it...

Oh boy !

I have a new blog... so if you want to hear about what I've been up to, new scarf news, and other big announcements such as what I had for breakfast, this is where you want to be.

So, in scarf-related news ~ a new line of patched purses is almost in the works, and they'll be made from recycled upholstery samples! I have TONS of these samples, thanks to a friend in the furniture industry, in loads of perfect FALL colors. This should be really exciting. Anyway, I'm looking forward to making one for myself :)

And, in other news ~ I'm eating grilled veggies, mac+cheese, and steamed beets for lunch. [The beets have turned everything in my tupperware pink]

That's it.