Quick Fabric Update

Mint Poppies

Red and Blue Floral

Robin's Egg Blue (Top Fabric. Bottom is for reference.)

Just a few more fabrics in!

Handmade Wardrobe- Simple Chambray Top

After making a chambray button down for myself, I decided I wanted more chambray in my wardrobe. This shirt was super simple. No darts, no placket, no cuffs.

I basically made myself glorified scrubs.. and I'm okay with that. Big ol' pockets so I stop leaving my cell phone all over the place. (I need to lose weight so that it will fit in my jeans again..) A high and wide neckline and 3/4 length sleeves.

This is my new favorite shirt pattern. I hope to try it with some sheer fabric soon.

Tomorrow we are off for a beach side vacation with friends. This is the kind of thing I always wanted to do but never have. Poor friends, my expectations are so high. All I want is a constant mega bonfire, grilled food for every meal, beer with every grilled meal, deep conversation with hard questions, games that I win every time and lots and lots of sunscreen. Is that too much to ask?

Hope you all have fantastic things planned for the weekend! Otherwise, I plan on making you super jealous. (No, but really, I'll invite you if you promise to let me win catch phrase.)

Our Tiny Living Room

I am the type of person who refuses to leave their furniture alone. I have rearranged each room 2-3 times and we've only been here 10 months. I haven't found the perfect placement for everything yet, and until I do, you can bet I'll be moving things again.

Our last name is Cannon, hence this little guy.

Freshly picked from our backyard.

This tiny bookshelf is perfect for shoes.

My grandfather carved this pup with a chainsaw as our wedding present.

This is my favorite spot in the house.

This is our living room's 3rd stage. It's been like this for a few months, but I have finally been able to organize the little things. The side tables keep trading spots and finding new items, but when I finally placed the last change on Saturday, I really felt like things fit. For now.

Successes of the Week

I know I've mentioned that I am busy. I really really am.

I have orders in from customers as well as a wholesale order of nearly 50 items to complete ASAP. Sometimes I let that kind of workload get the best of me. When I'm vulnerable late at night, and too exhausted to move, the anxiety of failure overcomes me. I am too tired to go sew, but too awake to fall asleep. And so I lay there kicking myself for forgetting this and stressing out about completing that.

It is a lot of pressure owning your own business. There is so much joy that comes with success and so much sorrow that comes with failure. I make every single piece. I invest my time and my life into my work. That's a large burden for a piece of cloth to hold. 

So, knowing that this fear is a crippling weakness of mine, I am setting out to put the stress behind me.

I can't take it all so seriously anymore and that starts with allowing myself "free time." 

I work from home, therefore I end up working all but maybe 3 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. When I'm not working, I think about work. Okay okay. I'm in a bad place! And I know it.

My goal for the weeks ahead are to take off for the whole weekend and not to put in more than 8 hours a day.

I took off (most) of this past weekend. I made cheesecake. I went for a walk with a friend and I painstakingly taped instagram photos in a grid above our bed. 

These are my mini successes. These are the things that make me Kasey, not kay.em.kay. It is important for me to remember that we are different entities and that my worth is not wrapped up in the amount of dresses I was able to sew that day. I am the same even after getting a bad review. I am the same even after being praised. Work and life are separated. I can be a hard worker without being work incarnate. 

I am feeling lifted today. 

Handmade Wardrobe- Formal Maxi

My friend, Brenda, just wrote on her blog about making a necklace and being complimented. There's this weird dilemma when you make things and people start to know you as the girl who makes things. 

It's fantastic when people ask if you have made something and you have. They then praise you telling you how incredibly talented you are and how impressed they are with your skills. Then your head becomes so large that you literally float away. (It's scary because I'm afraid of heights.)

Then there are the days when you just throw something cute on and people see it and they say, "Did you make that???" And you say "No. I bought it at blah blah's" and they say "Oh." And then it's awkward and they change the subject.

So, this has been going on for me for over 2 years. And I seriously don't read into it as much as I used to. And I know that the people who have done this to me had no idea that I analyze their words and thought "they didn't say it was cute when I didn't make it, so are they just saying it's cute when I DID because they they don't know what else to say? What if they really don't like it?!?!?!?"

Now, to avoid all of that, I just make my dress for family events. This past weekend, John's cousin got married and I wore a sample that was never intended to become a real dress. I was playing around with lengths last year and made this. Because I never intended to wear it, I had to rush to hem it the night before the wedding. And it didn't quite fit anymore and the grain on the bodice runs the opposite of the skirt, and there's a seam on the back because I ran out of fabric making that long skirt and when I used the pocket, my hand busted it open. So, I wouldn't say "success" at the time.

But looking at the photos, I'm kind of in love with the length. It's rather flattering on me, I think.

 So, sample dress, you were a success and I'm happy I had a last minute rush and you were the only unworn handmade dress around.