MadBags :: handmade bags & more!

Winter Trunk Show

I'm having a trunk show this Saturday, from 5-8 p.m.  If you are in the area and would like to come, send me an email and I'll give you directions! 

There will be a door prize! 

Come see me at the Market Street Festival this Saturday

I hope you will be able to come out Saturday and enjoy all the activities planned at Market Street.  You can find out all about it here! This coupon will be good for Market Street only so print it out and bring it with you, and only good for madbags items. 

For all of you that will not be able to attend, plan on visting my online shop May 5 for a SUPER TUESDAY SALE! I'll post the details after Saturday.  I may even have another giveaway...

Some things you may not know about me...

1.  I like lists.  I make lists all the time.  My husband is the opposite when it comes to list-making and doesn't understand my obsession.  I make lists for what I'm going to do for the day, what I need to buy at the store, fabric lists, price lists, whatever it is, I'm gonna make a list for it.  Does it help me?  Sometimes.  I am a visual person so I need to have those reminders to help me accomplish my goals.  Most of the time though,  I don't get finished with everything I needed to accomplish and then I'm just ill about it.  Do I keep making lists, yes!  It's what I do.

2.  I like organization.  I like a clean house.  I like everything in its place.  Don't just come over unannounced though because the house will probably be a wreck.  My workroom stayed nice and pretty for about a week, maybe two.  Now, for the most part, it looks like this-

            

My fabric scrap bins stay full, well over-full really, and anytime I have a show coming up (Market Street Festival... May 3... you know you want to come see me) my studio is in complete shambles.  I don't have a lot of storage area for completed items so my dining room usually holds the overflow.  I actually cleared off the dining table last night and we had breakfast this morning.  Yummy pancakes. 

3.  I really love food.  The thought of pancakes reminded me of this fact.  I love all kinds of food.  As for sweets, I'm not so much into chocolate but I love sugar.  Hard candy is the BEST.  This is all I'm gonna say because if I don't stop, I'll have to go fix me something.

4. I'm cheap.  I mean really cheap.  It's really hard for me to make big purchases.  For the first two years of MadBags,  I used my very first sewing machine that I got when I was 9 or 10.  It's a Kenmore.  Great machine by the way.  Anyway, I also had another machine that a friend had loaned me when her mother passed away and she had no interest in sewing.  Some of you know that both of those machines died, well temporarily (I've had them fixed just recently).  I had wanted an embroidery/sewing machine for years but just couldn't stomach the price.  When both my machines quit on me, (you can read about it here) in the same week no less,  I had to bite the bullet and get a new one.  It was time.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Bernina.  I was, however, sick for a long time afterwards thinking about how much it cost.  And it's not just big stuff that makes me queasy.  I will search long and hard for the best price/quality on everything before buying. 

5. I am a Diet Dr. Pepper addict and I hate water.

6. I am non-confrontational.  I loathe public speaking.  My husband is a minister and is totally comfortable speaking to large crowds, whatever.  I am extremely content to blend in with the crowd.  Of course I'm claustrophobic so I'll probably be blending in with the edge of the crowd.  Makes my escape much easier...hee hee.  In college, I had to take Speech.  Let me just say that I was in the bathroom everyday before that class.  I really like what I do because I can work alone in my studio and make contact via the internet which is much easier for me.  Shows are a little stressful for me but it's good for business so I just grin & bear it.  If you saw the newspaper article I was in, you'll see that I had to be interviewed.  The author of the article originally contacted me through email and asked if she could interview me.  I wrote back, can we do it over email???  She said, I'd like to call and speak to you.  I said ok... I was nervous from then on.  I even asked Paul if he thought it would be ok if I asked my best friend to talk to her as me and answer the questions for me.  He was like, uh, no Sara, you have to be the one the do it.  Get over yourself and do it.  Ok he didn't say that last part but I'm sure that's what he was thinking.   So I did it.  I sweated all the way through it with my death grip on the receiver.

7.  I have been working on some new things.  Surprise, I've made a list of them...

• I have the Ginger Blossom line from Michael Miller listed in my shop
• I am now making cute boutique aprons.  I wear mine everyday in the studio.

   

• I just got in a ton of these sippy cups that you can personalize.  They are so cute!  I wish my kids were still small enough to use them.  No wait, that means diapers.. ok so maybe I don't.

• I also ordered baby bloomers and baby boxers to personalize. 

• All these things (with the exception of fabric) and more will be available at my Market Street booth! 

 

Last Week Part 1

I have soooo much to share with all of you that it's gonna take more than one post to get it all in-  Let me just give you an overview of what there is to come...

1- 4 days before sale, both sewing machines break

2- 1 embroidery/sewing machine purchased

3- cooper's closet, the sale begins

4- walmart is evacuated

5- shootout in columbus, suspect at large... all in the area where i am.

6- extreme exhaustion

7- BEAUTIFUL weather!

see how i can't possibly get it all in at one sitting???

Let us begin with my trusty machines... If you are like me, even if you cram and cram and try to be prepared that is always something else that you want to add to your sale.  Or you get new ideas all at once and want to have them with you etc. etc.  On Monday I just about had a break down.  I still (in my head) had so much to make and therefore was sewing all day/night to get everything finished.  Forget about meesly needles breaking.  I have learned that that can be easily fixed.  When the lifeblood of your business becomes possessed, not so easily fixed. 

So I'm sewing and first, for starters, my machine would just randomly stop sewing.  I'd have the peddle all the way down and then it would just stop.  I would have to wait like 10 seconds, blow on it, then it would go again and then stop again.  At other times, I would take my foot OFF the peddle and it would keep going and going and going.  It would even speed up sometimes.  I know if someone would have walked in on me during either of these times they would put me away.  I would talk to the machine as if it would help or something.  Sometimes I would baby talk to it, other times I was screaming at it.  You get the point.  Funny how neither worked.  I finally resorted to using my back up which is the same machine I learned how to sew on, 20+ years ago.  I use it from time to time to make sure it keeps on ticking so I knew it SHOULD have worked.  Anyhoo, it would not pull up the bobbin thread.  Figured out the timing was off or something.  I tried everything, cleaned it really well, changed tension etc. but nothing.. nada.. zilch.  So what did I do?  I called my dad.  At this point I was a little frazzled so he came right over and tried and tried to fix both but to no avail.  When Paul got home from work he looked at them too.  He took my old one apart, fixed the timing (looked on the internet), and got it the thread the bobbin but there was still something wrong because all it did was knot all the thread up when it sewed.  I told him to give it up, since it wasn't getting any better.  I just figured I would go get a new one the next day.  I've been wanting a new one for years now so I guess it was a sign.  I drove to Tupelo the next day and got this-

Bernina Aurora 430.  I got the embroidery parts as well, even though they aren't pictured here.  My next goal is to get a laptop to use with it so I don't have to haul it into my bedroom where our home computer is when I want to monogram something.  I upgraded the software so I can digitize designs.  My friend Matt Warren (he is a graphics designer and you can contact him here), designed my new logo so I'm excited to get to monogram it onto some things.

After getting over the initial -sick to my stomach- feeling after purchasing this little item, I have now started to really get excited about what it can do.  Of course my husband is still a little sickly but he fully supported my decision to get it and he has promised to help keep me focused on getting it paid off quickly! 

Tuesday I read and read about it and tried a few things out with it, but mainly played around and didn't get anything done.  Wednesday however, I got down to business with it and I really like it! Thursday was the day we could set up our tables for Cooper's and I got to use my new fixtures!  Thank you again Dad!!!   Here it is- 

My friend Jean was across from me and she makes THE cutest hairbows ever-

My other friend Rebecca has a store downtown called A Few of my Favorite Things and she also had a table at the sale.  She has some great things too.  She gets a lot of her items from Etsy sellers like me and she makes custom signs and tiles also.  I love the tutus!

Yet another friend whom I met at Cooper's Closet is Kristen who is listed under my favorite peeps... She has her own site and can do so many things- Be sure and check out her site SincerelyKristen. I didn't get a good picture of her table but if you go to her site, you can see alot more of what she can do.

Let's see... where do I go from here?  O yeah, on Thursday night, on my way home, I stopped at walmart to pick up a clear frame for my table for a sign I forgot I wanted to put out.  I got all the way to the framing aisle when over the intercom I hear a shaky voice calling out "Attention all customers: please evacuate the building. now." As soon as I heard it I thought, did I hear that right?  And then the same person came on again with a little more voice than before, "Attention all customers and associates: Evacuate the building now.  Leave your items and go.  Associates, Code Blue, Code Blue." After that everyone left as if an ant pile had just been stepped on.  The only thing I could think of was a bomb threat maybe?  I wasn't going to stick around and find out!  I got in my nice close parking space and got out of there.  I figured if a bomb went off, I sure wasn't safe in the parking lot!  As did alot of other people, I went to Kmart down the street and get what I needed.  Not what I wanted, but it would do. 

I'll have to fill you in on the shooting and more tomorrow.  My brain is a little fried still and the day today is too beautiful not to enjoy it.