My house cleaning leaves something to be desired...

This past weekend, I decided that I needed to do a bit of house cleaning - mostly in my workshop - but the rest of the house could use it, too. I knew that my cleaning left something to be desired when, upon seeing me vacuum the living room, my 4 yr old daughter said "Mommy, are we having a visitor?" Hm.

The workshop/studio was beginning to feel a big claustrophobic. I was drowning in a mountain of fleece, and no longer able to efficiently work. Why haven't I been posting regularly? Well, I had to clear a space in front of my keyboard just to be able to type! For the past 6 weeks, my husband was out of town... I kind of "let it go" as it were. He returned on Thursday, so now I have no excuse - it is time for an overhaul!

I go back and forth on whether I should share pictures of the total chaos of my studio.... I have to consider that maybe you are a customer, and maybe you don't want to know the craziness into which your product was born. Or maybe you do want to know... It's not like I have food or anything in here... although you might find a half empty (or half full?) water glass lying around. I have this terrible habit of not throwing away trash when it would be so simple to do so. For example, I use USPS Priority shipping envelopes (that come free from the PO), and they have this little strip of paper that you pull off to seal them. Instead of taking an extra second and throwing that into the trash where it belongs, I tend to leave it right on my desk, usually until enough build up that they begin sliding to the floor. THEN I think - hey maybe I should throw these into the trash? Why do I do this?

Of course, like many artists who prefer to work in total chaos, I know where just about everything is at any given moment. Or, at least, I know the general vicinity. Just yesterday, I sunk my hand into a pile of fabric and pulled out a circle punch (yes, for paper) sight unseen and just about spot on. I knew exactly where it was! Last night, my husband asked "where's the tape?" Oh, right here honey (as I stuck my hand under a pile of stabilizer scraps and felt around like someone looking for their eyeglasses)...

I seem to have the same problem with my purse. Everything but the kitchen sink? Who needs the sink when you've got hand sanitizer?

A picture is worth a thousand sales!

I've noticed that recently my photos are starting to seem quite blah (for lack of a better word). I love the products, but they just aren't coming through. Photos, photos, photos are what make a product sell, so I decided it was time for a photography makeover.

I have Photoshop, so I have no excuse! I have begun with just a select few, but I plan to rework some others (some day). Maybe some day I'll write a little tutorial about how I used Photoshop to "knockout" my photos and add a new background, giving them more visual interest and "pop." For now, I'll just show you my finished photos:

Sweet

Okay, so I know I'm supposed to blog about more than just my new creations... but I'm finding that I just can't get enough of the design process lately! Can you blame me? It really is much more fun to make new things than to remake the old things....

Robot design finished!

I had to come up with some creative ways to use my sewing machine, but I finally achieved the look I was going for with this little guy! Hope you love him as much as i do.

New Robot I Spy Bag!

This prototype belongs to my son, but I'm giving you a sneek peek at my latest and greatest. Watch for this guy to take my shop by storm next week!

Real Simple news!

It's official! and I quote: "the I Spy Bags will be featured in the aug/sept
issue of Real Simple's special family issue."

Holy cow.