Chelsey's Closet

What a Week

2011-03-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

So I thought I dodged the curse last week. I was only feeling slightly under the weather for two days, then felt great. Until I woke up on Monday. I felt horrible. So horrible in fact, that I didn't go to classes. Yay extra long Spring Break.
Unfortunately, that means I'm feeling really run down and exhausted. So nothing got done all week. Well, except some updating on my Ravelry account. You should check that out. If you don't have Ravelry, here's a pic of my kitchen rug I made and posted there. I just can't wait till I have the money for that down payment so I can get a house to put the rug in.

Curse You!

2011-03-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I've been cursed. Yes Cursed.
For some odd reason everytime there is a break in school, like Thanksgiving, Winter Break, and, of course, Spring Break, I get sick.
The bigger and better the plans I have for a holiday, the worse I seem to get sick. This Spring Break is no different. But since I didn't have any big plans it's nothing like Fall Break was back in October.
Ah, Fall Break. One of my favorite times of the year, made even better by having an extended weekend in which I can escape for a few days to the family cabin by Bear Lake. Of course I went this year, but started feeling a bit under the weather while up there. Thinking it was just your regular run of the mill cold that I seem to get every holiday, I went to bed early thinking I would feel a bit better the next day.
Fast forward three days, one of missed classes. I drag myself out of the bed and up the hill to my car after doping up on whatever painkillers I could find in the cupboard at the cabin. I made it through the canyon and home.
I went to work the next day, but not classes, and arrived home with a horrible pain in my ear. I wanted to get a needle and shove it in there to relieve some of the pressure I felt. The next morning, I woke up to find blood dripping out of said ear (I did not shove the needle in it, even though I had really really wanted to). This called for a trip to the doctor. I am not one for doctors, but desperate times include blood coming out of your ear, so I went.
Did you know it was possible to have two infections in one ear at the same time? Me neither, and having been a person who made it 25 years without having an ear infection period, this was pretty freaky stuff. Needless to say, Fall Break has left a lasting impression on me (and some minor permanent hearing loss, that's what your body does when it's never had an ear infection then gets two at once).
I still don't like being cursed, but will happily take this little cold over an ear gushing blood.
Let's just hope the curse stops when I finish school.

All you do is...

2011-03-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

Stop drinking soda.
Seriously.

We had a nutritionist come into one of my classes at uni the other day. She yakked and yakked about drinking fresh water, eating your veggies, and excercising.

But then, the big one came.
If you stop drinking soda, in one year you can lose up to 26 pounds.
Yep, 26 pounds.

She said that you don't have to start a new exercise program or change your diet completely. Just stop drinking soda. Each 20 oz soda has 17 teaspoons, that's nearly 6 tablespoons, and almost 1/3 cup, of sugar in it. You take in that much sugar a day, of course you're going to be packing around some extra poundage.

If it helps any, I drink water, water, water. I tell myself that all that water is helping detoxify my body, it clears out all the bad stuff that I've been drinking in the past, and helping my body function like it's supposed to. Soon you stop even craving or desiring what ever your previous drink of choice was.

If you don't think you can give up soda cold turkey, use what is known as the Step Down Principle. Say you drink a soda at lunch and a soda at dinner. To Step Down, just drink a soda at lunch. Another way to Step Down after that would be to drink soda only when you go out to eat, or only on weekends. Just keep Stepping Down until you don't have soda in your diet anymore.

It will be worth it! Up to 26 pounds worth it!

Been Awhile Eh?

2011-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

So, a lot of adventurous opportunities have been occurring lately in my life. And the other day I thought to myself "Hey, don't I have a blog somewhere? Maybe I should start that up again...."
Well, here I am.
First off, I 'm hoping to blog here a lot more often, what with all the knowledge I'm gaining in my new program at university and all the opportunites for adventures that have been springing up lately. Let's give it a try.
That and Lent is coming upon us, and I've decided to cut back on my tv consumption during Lent, so I'm going to need something to do to help fill up all that extra time I'll be having here soon.
Cheers!

Adventure Opportunites for you to anticpate Blog Posts on in the future (meaning between now and the start of the Fall Semester at school)
Baby Animal Days at the AWHC- I'm braving the crowds and volunteering to help
Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Paris- oh yeah, I'm that cool
Summer job? I've got my resume out to several fun and exciting places including a dude ranch and the AWHC as a children's program personage.

Summer Hats with Flowers

2010-06-02T16:37:00.000-07:00

So this weekend at the Market Chelsey's Closet introduced the by Tristan line. That kind of makes me giggle, actually.
So far we have three hats from Tristan that are being listed on the etsy shop, and will be at the Market every other weekend when I'm there.

Tristan crochets these hats with cute flowers. He's also done some work for me in making bags. He does a great job. I'd hire him again if I need him, because he produces such a high quality product.

He kind of makes me look bad, actually. But I still love him, and hope that his items do well online and at the market. Make sure you go to the Etsy store (link is on the right) and buy his stuff. If you can't buy it at least heart it. Because he deserves to do well!

Just a Quick Post on well, Clothes

2010-05-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of hand me downs, or ups in my case.
I happen to be a very petite, small person. In fact I could waltz into any 5th grade classroom, sit myself down, and no one would be the wiser. Although I don't think I would want to do that for anything other than entertainment purposes. It's taken me long enough to get to full time university and even longer than I expected to achieve that wonderful thing called a degree (which I still don't have ugh). So for most of my life, I've been the recipient of hand me downs. I love them. Later in life, around freshman year of high school I guess, those hand me downs became hand me ups.

Yes, my younger siblings and my sister's various friends would outgrow their clothes and think of me. Most recently my sister returned from Chelsey's with some clothes in tow and as she showed me some picks that she got for me that her train of thought was "These are tiny. I'll get them for you." In fact right now I'm wearing my sister's pants, Chelsey's shirt, and my brother's belt. I quite enjoy spending pretty much nothing on clothes.

Among my treasures of hand me ups:

Bruth's shoes: sweet black and red ones
My older brother's old dress pants, very comfy for lounging around the house and those "I don't care" days
Enough shirts from Chelsey's Closet (the real one not the business) to last me a couple of weeks
And three or four shirts from my sister that aren't meant to be maternity tops, but sure will be for me. Until that happens, they are pretty stylish for now.
It is quite easy for me to go weeks on end without wearing a piece of clothing that I actually bought in a store with real money.
It's a lovely lifestyle.

Here's a wonderful picture of me, wearing the dress pants from my older brother.

Giveaway?

2010-05-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Through my researching online, I've found quite a few people that say having a giveaway on your blog can help business. Hmmm.... I'd been thinking about having a giveaway for awhile but just can't decide on what to actually give away. So- go check out the Etsy store and let me know what YOU would like to win in a giveaway. Most popular item will win and be used in the giveaway later this month.
Remember: I depend a lot on my customers to know what to make and what not to make. Your opinion really counts!

Finals and the Market

2010-05-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

This week is Finals week at school for me. It's been lovely so far. I have only one real final on Wednesday, after which I start my summer job of nannying part time. I fully intend to spend as much of the rest of the time fishing, hanging at the lake, oh yeah, and getting dresses and such made.
I also have my first Farmer's Market booth this weekend. That's the real reason the Etsy shop is on vacation mode now. So I can sell stuff from the shop since that's basicaly all I have on hand since the rest of my 'free time' has been spent working on shows for the Children's Theatre and Theatre Arts Guild on campus.
I've also been notified that my bags on consignment at the Ogden Nature Center have been selling. Yay! This weekend is their annual Fly with the Flock Fun Run. I ran it last year and it was fun-ish. It was the first 5k I had run in years and wasn't all that I remembered them being like. It was a nice trail run though. Check out their website for more info.

Bag Idea leads to Photo Shoot

2010-04-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

As I was cruising the net the other day inspiration struck me. I got an awesome idea for a bag involving old t-shirts and pants. I'm yet to try it, but did rescue a shirt from the DI pile in the garage. I left it on the piano temporarily. My younger brother came in and pointed out that the shirt was his. I informed him of where it came from and that it wouldn't fit him anyway since it's a medium. Well, because he's a teenager and they're like that, he decided to prove me wrong with the following results.

Yes. I love him dearly.

Pink Springtime Dress

2010-04-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

So here it is the finished product. This is the Paris Original dress in Pink floral. It will be posted on the Etsy site this week, tomorrow or Thursday. Probably Thursday.

Also an update on the Recycled Grocery Bag Bags. I went to the ONC today and they took 8 bags on consignment. So keep fingers crossed, send good thoughts, karma, whatever my way so we can get some sales!

Love you all ;)

My Mum Loves Me..

2010-04-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

The other night my mum brought home a huge piece of chocolate cake. This is only one of the many wonderful things she does for me that let me know how much she loves me. Although, by the time I got around to the cake it looked like this:

In case you can't tell it has a huge bite out of it. She said she couldn't help herself.

And I'm pretty sure that my dad may have helped himself too.
I'm just sayin'....

It's Prom Season!

2010-04-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all it's prom season. Yes. It is. So here's a cute dress that I made, well awhile ago for a girl. She decided she didn't really want that kind of dress for her prom so it's sits with the other prom dresses in my collection, waiting to be found by someone who loves it and will wear it.

This one happens to be a 1940's reproduction pattern and is super cute if I do say so. I would wear it, if I had a prom to go to, but alas, I've gotten a bit old for prom. It would be kind of weird to show up there. If you're interested in this dress, or know someone who may be. Let me know! It needs a home! Now! Please! This poor dress is sad and lonely, help it out.

Growing Up

2010-03-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Part of having a small business is being able to produce goods. I really try to make products that really appeal to me and I think would do well in the market. Often the case for people like me is that you make a product you absolutely love and think "Oh everyone will buy these" then they don't sell. Then you make some random item, and suddenly you can't make enough of it. All you can think is "These? Really?"
That's happened to me recently.
But I feel I made a major step in the right direction today at the Hobby Lobby. One of my favorite yarns was on sale, and I never buy it because it's so dang expensive. So I immediately grabbed the color that I like personally. After a brief moment of thought I put "my" color back and picked out several skeins of colors I've never used and am not sure if I would use for personal projects. But, I know this will help me appeal to a wider client base in my business. I feel like I've made a very grown up decision and hope that it pays off in the future.
Unfortunately that means I'm a step closer to being a "Grown Up" Ugh.

Babies, Ogden Nature Center, New Windows, and a Dress

2010-03-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

So, I've had an eventful week. Then, when doing paperwork I realized that nobody was seeing my blog, and that I hadn't posted in awhile. Something makes me think that these may be connected. Hmmmm....

Well, last week was Spring Break. I was able to get in contact with the owners of childrensneeds.com who had gotten a little swamped with orders. They were looking for some sewers to help them catch up. I've been able to get some baby slings made for them, and they in turn have paid me. Which is always nice. You should check out their website: childrensneeds.comThey have lots of good stuff for new mothers.

My cousin Jenny, who we refer to as Cousin Jenny to keep straight which Jenny is being referred to (our family knows a whole lot of Jennys), works at the Ogden Nature Center in Ogden (duh) here's their websited too: http://www.ogdennaturecenter.org/ I've been able to enjoy several activities there in the past year including the 5k Fly with the Flock, and the Halloween carnival Creatures of the Night. Well, anyway, Cousin Jenny called to let me know that she saw my recycled grocery bags bag on my Etsy site and that I should make an appointment with their Gift Shop lady to get some of those bags in the shop before Earth Day on April 17. On the left is the picture of this bag. So I'm working hard to collect grocery bags from family and friends, and making up some of these bags in varying sizes before heading down there to my success (or doom).

This week we also got new windows in the house. Yay! They're ceritified "Green" and are supposed to insulate the house a bit better than our old school windows. Which for me means the Sewing Lair won't be as cold as it always is. It also means I had to take down my feather boas, and am yet to put them back up. Sigh. I'll get around to it eventually. Interestingly all of the windows in the house got replaced except for one. The one in my bedroom. Apparantly it's illegal to have a window that small in a bedroom and we had the option to get some construction people in here to cut a bigger hole and install a bigger windowell so the window would be legal. Great. Then the guy said, "But in houses this old there is a Grandfather clause that protects these windows." They just can't legally replace one with out enlarging it. So my room will still be cold. Oh well, I only sleep in there and I did get an electric blanket for my birthday.

Since we had window people here the past couple of days, I've gotten some work done. But not as much as I know I can get done. I have gotten pretty far on the pink Paris Original dress that was shown in an earlier post. It's super cute and I want one! But I purposely made it not my size so I can sell it and not just keep it in my closet. I hardly ever wear dresses and it would probably just sit in there next to the polka dot dress that I can't remember the last time I wore.

So that's me!

The Unfinished Projects Box

2010-03-11T11:17:00.000-08:00

I was brave the other day and opened the Unfinished Projects Box. Well, let's be honest I open it a lot to put finished sale items in it, but not to get out a UFP and finish it. But I was brave and decided to go for it. And I did it! I pulled out this quilt, for some odd reason dubbed the Sno Cone Quilt. It's taken me over a year to get this thing done. It also happened to be the largest item in the UFP Box. A long time ago I cut out the squares. Awhile later I sewed them together. Quite awhile after that I cut the batting and sewed the back. Then eventually I tied it. Finally, last night and this morning, I sewed the binding. And it's beautiful:) It's a full size quilt with double batting, so it's kind of thick and heavy. I'm so happy to finally have this quilt completed. Hopefully I'll sell it via Etsy or at the Market (if I get a booth).

I also tackled some of the scrap pile. I occassionally go through it and cut out blocks, triangles, strips, etc. for quilts and whatnot. So I have this pile of quilt pieces with the good intentions of making a bunch of quilts one day. Well, I got out some of the big blocks and made a quilt front Monday night. I thinks it's quite fun. A lot of these fabrics came from other projects that I made. Of course there's orange and purple blocks from the Sno Cone Quilt. In the center is a block of denim from my jeans. Harlequin diamonds from a jacket I made ages ago. Some lavalava fabric, some high school musical fabric. And, most memorable of all, some pink fabric left over from a dress I made for a guy named Adam. Yes a dress for a guy named Adam. Good times at the Opera.

Problem is, I'm still undecided the color for the back and if I should do binding or not. Should I tie it or quilt it? Maybe this is why the Sno Cone Quilt took so long.

Congrats PD and Gwen!

2010-03-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Two of my favorite people got married this weekend... to each other! I'm super happy for them and just thought I'd let the world know.
I made them some wonderful kitchen items for their wedding present and decided to add them to the blog in case anyone out there would like similiar items. Let me know what you think!

I do take custom orders! Just tell me how many and what colors!

New Stuff

2010-03-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

Alright folks. Here's a pictures of the latest batch of creations that will be up for sale soon on Etsy. Let me know what you think, or if you want something. If you catch me before I post it, I might cut you a deal :)

The First one is a Springtime Flower Scarf. Admittedly they are new per se, but they are a great spring accessory! (the second one is at the end of the post)

Next is the Dye Experiment Pillows. They're big, fluffy, and one of a kind. The fronts were made as part of a dye experiment that I did a couple weeks ago. It didn't turn out like I expected, but that's the fun of dyeing! They still look great:)

Now the next is the IKEA dress, so named because the fabric used for it was found at IKEA. It's a one of a kind dress that I patterned myself. You might be able to find similiar dresses, but not this exact one. It's super small maybe a size 0?

So these are some washcloths I knitted with my extra yarn. The pink one is the actual pattern I found in a book, the other two are me messing around with the pattern. One is a seed stitch, great for scrubbing, the other an inset of stockinette stitch. I will take color requests on these.

Finally comes the Skull Potholders. I've seen these around on Etsy, but none in these colors. These are hard core.

I've had people requesting them already, and this is the first time I've posted an actual picture of them! The skulls are on both sides of the potholders and they're nice and thick. They even have a hanging loop for those of you that like to hang your potholders on a hook instead of keeping them in a drawer.

Thanks all! Until next time...

Upcoming Projects

2010-02-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

Okay folks, here's a preview of some dresses I've got on the drawing board. If you like what you see, let me know, If you have any requests, let me know. If you have any suggestions or don't like what you see, PLEASE TELL ME! Most of my inspiration comes from those comments.

First up is a 1953 vintage reproduction dress. I originally made this dress as a bridesmaid dress in chocolate brown.

The pattern was easy to work with and the dress was a really great shape, and I thought that the brown wasn't really doing the dress justice. So I ventured out into the world and came back with this fabric for the dress:

The next is the Paris Original dress. It's been named this because it's the pattern used in a production of "How to Suceed In Business" for the Paris original dress that all the secretaries end up wearing to the party. It's such a cute dress, and has pockets!

I already had some fabric with another pattern in mind for it. But I felt this fabric would be perfect for this dress. A great new springtime dress if you ask me:

Keep an eye out for them in the upcoming weeks in the Etsy store! If you want one of them before they go to Etsy, let me know and we'll work out a deal.

Thanks for all your love and support. Let me know what I could be doing better!

Pants on the Ground!

2010-02-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

“Look at these pants! They go clear up to here!”

This was an exclamation that I heard over and over again at the Children’s Theatre the past week. They’re doing a 1940’s Radio Mystery. As the costume designer I had been asked to costume a period accurate piece. It was pretty good.

But it brought to light an issue that comes up over and over again in fittings for me.
“Where’s your waist?”

“Here.”

“Right… Where’s your belly button?”

“Here.”

“Okay… Where’s your hip?”

“Here.”

“Okay…”

Nowadays, people think that their hip is their waist. This is a universal belief as demonstrated to me over the weekend. The show at the Theatre was cast entirely in girls. When talking about where their pants and skirts were positioned on their body, they all thought it was too high. I asked them where their waist was and every single one of them showed me their hips.

Likewise, a young man approached me to alter some dress pants. When I told him that his pants fit him perfectly and rested right on his waist where they were supposed to, he got a confused look on his face. When asked where his waist was, he shifted his pants down to his hips. At which I replied “Pants on the ground, Pants on the ground, Lookin’ like a fool with your pants on the ground!”

So where is your waist really?

As I demonstrated to some of the kids at the theatre, and was later asked to do for the entire cast later, it’s simple:

You put your hands on your sides. You bend right, you bend left. Where you bend on your torso is your waist. Easy:) Generally this area is about 1 inch above your belly button (assuming you have one…) just below your ribcage. This is where costume designers and custom clothing makers, like myself, measure for the items they make. If you can feel your hipbone, then you are at your hip. If you are below your bellybutton, you are at your hip. There are two hip measurements that we take as clothing makers, but we won’t go into that here.

If you keep ordering items from people, and they don’t fit like you thought they would, it may be that you are measuring your hip instead of your waist.

To review, hands on sides, bend, waist!

If you want to learn more about how to take measurements, let me know!

Date Night

2010-02-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

So, we got one of those quote a day calendars on clearance right after new year. It's a "Date a Day" calendar. It is quite interesting. Some dates are quite lame. "Volunteer to teach a Sunday School class together." Really?!
One I found particularly hilarious. It was the one for my birthday; "Play one on one basketball." Not funny you say? Well, my boyfriend happened to be having eye surgery that same day. I wanted to do it so bad because he would have been SO entertaining to watch.
There are also some pretty decent ones. "Have a theme night. For example, eat French food and watch "An American in Paris" Don't forget the accent, Monsieur!" I've had success with this one. Except we did Chinese. I made my wontons, a favorite in my family. My boyfriend made springrolls (they need some refining). We were going to make fortune cookies and write our own fortunes but were unable to locate the recipe. Then we watched 'Forbidden Kingdom', a Jet Li-Jackie Chan joint adventure. It was a quite fun and highly recommended date.
If you'd like to keep up on the Date a Day calendar, I've been posting them on my Twitter account: twitter.com/jotaysom
With commentary of course;)

Bandito, the Most Guapo Villian Around

2010-02-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

I accomplished absolutely nothing this weekend business or school related.
Although I did get to see Pickleville Playhouse's production of the "Hanging of El Bandito". They sold out so many shows over the summer they decided to do a limited showing here in town over the weekend. I was disappointed because I didn't get to see it over the summer, many thanks to a job that has killer hours. By the time I had time to see it, they had sold out all the remaining performances. So my mum brilliantly got us tickets for this weekend like three months ago.
And boy was it worth it.
TJ Davis, the writer of the Bandito melodramas, has a knack for timing and humor. The cast has a repoir that is hard to find in other theatre companies. (Believe me, I've worked with several.) The onstage chemistry is what makes the shows move from great to brilliant.
This melodrama reprises several characters from the previous Bandito Melodrama, "Chuck Wagon's Wild West Showdown". Bandito was the villian in that one, and is in "Hanging". That's who Bandito is, "the most guapo villian around." Bandito's catchphrases, such as "I'm gonna punch you in the neck", great costumes, and tendency to return to the scene of the crime, is what makes this such a great character.
The original songs are nothing to be ignored either. All written by Davis, they add flavor to the show. The opening number sets up the feel for the show, and the rap number in the middle reminded me of another Pickleville western melodrama, where characters danced to a Brittney Spears song. It's unique, fun things like this that make Pickleville worth it.
Thankfully this is not the end of the Bandito melodramas. Pickleville has released their lineup for the summer and it includes "Bandito Rides Again" as the melodrama. I'll be sure to get my tickets early, and call in a sick day at work to make it out to Bear Lake to see it.

The Purse

2010-02-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

I made myself a dress out of this cute black with pink polka dot fabric ages ago, during my first season at the opera. With the leftover fabric I made a lovely clutch, not because I needed a clutch. Just because I could make a clutch. This is a lovely clutch, there's nothing wrong with it unless you don't like polka dots.
The thing is, I'd like to make more purses but just am not sure what people are looking for. I love getting requests and suggestions. So maybe you all can let me know what, if anything, I should do.

2010-02-12T12:39:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm going to try blogging again. Hopefully this time will go better.