160 handmade coin purses

"When exactly do we get you back?" Mik asked at 11 pm one night, as I zoned out to central asian music while fusing hundreds of pieces of interfacing to rectangles of 6"x4" fabric. In case anyone in Singapore was wondering why I'd disappeared for the past couple of weeks... I was at home, making these (from scratch) for my cousin Jo's wedding in Dallas last weekend. Each one in muslin, canvas and/or vintage print, with handsewn buttons (again, "vintage," though I didn't have the foresight to grab my mom's button box last time I was home, so by the end I was snipping buttons off Mik's old sportcoats, ssssh).

The upside is, I'm now pretty quick at making these. Kind of by necessity. I spent a lot of time on the engineering (had only a few casualties) so that I had the most efficient design and process. AND I actually planned my supplies so I only had to make one trip to the textile center. That was about a month before the wedding, when I mailed Jo photos of the prototypes and asked what she thought. She LOVED them, she said; I patted myself on the back; aaaaand then I lost steam. I went on some trips, spent a lot of time reading*, and the sewing machine sat. And sat. And sat. 

Fast-forward to a week before the wedding, and I had... the 20 prototypes I had made in late October. Luckily, Jo emailed to pare down the guest list (originally 200-ish) and to apologize in case I had made too many ("No problem!!" was, of course, my response).

So by the last week, I gave myself a quota of finishing 50 a day (to give myself an 'extra' day to pack and spend time with the kids before I left), which turned out to be cake. In theory, the idea was to get the process down so I can churn these out in various designs, sizes, etc. and revive my Etsy shop. But I've been back since Monday night, and the sewing machine has sat. And sat. And sat. 

Note that this blog is going up AFTER the wedding -  didn't want to make anyone nervous by posting it beforehand. Not that anyone involved with the wedding would've been surprised to know that I volunteered... and then procrastinated... just a little bit. They're all family, after all, and have known me for quite some time. 

Pics below of the process (kind of) and the finished products, made with love, all packaged up and ready to hand out!

* The new Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot; Susan Casey's The Devil's Teeth, about Great White sharks; The Paris Wife, about Hemingway's first wife; and Snuff, a fun Terry Pratchett - all four highly recommended... I actually read a few more (and just parts of a couple more) that I wouldn't recommend. When I read, I tend to go on a tear. No bestseller list or "Amazon recommends..." is safe from me. Especially when armed with my awesome new Kindle Fire. More on that later.

Rapid escalation: box earrings

At this point, I don't really have an excuse because I'm not jetlagged anymore (or, at least, I shouldn't be). But about a week ago, I got it into my head that I'd like to remember how to make an origami cube. So I went online, and found instructions to make the one on the right. It turned out OK, but it was far more convoluted than the cube I remembered making as a kid, so I looked around some more.

I found the one I remembered (easy peasy, lemon squeezy, as Bella's friend Thibo says), and made a largeish one, about 1.5" a side...

And then in a complete fit of maniacal miniaturization (if it's not in the Merck Manual, it ought to be, I have all the symptoms), proceeded to make them smaller, smaller, smaller, until this bunch, which are now about the size of dice.

And then what else can you do but dunk them in mod podge and polyurethane, grab the pliers, hang them on some posts and make them into earrings?

Yes, ta-daaaah indeed. Yes, one of these days I'll take some good pictures and put them up in my etsy shop. Yes, I know I will never make money this way.

ps. The other random kind of freaky story about these crazy earrings is that the morning AFTER I made the first bunch of boxes, I ran into a woman here in Singapore who I went to middle school with. That in itself would make you say, huh, someone you knew from 7th grade orchestra in Northern Virginia, now belonging to the same club in Singapore, OK, small world. But yeah, it wouldn't be so weird, except that one of the things I remember about my friend Amy is that for the 8th grade Economics Fair, she and my friend Carrie made and sold little origami box earrings just like these. So let's say she was subconsciously on my mind, and then the next day when I went to lunch, there she was, 20+ years and half a world away from the last time I ever saw her. Beat THAT with a stick.

Origami obsession

I'm way behind on actual Teeny Traveler entries; since my last post we've come back to Singapore, spent a weekend in Bali, and if I don't hurry I'm going to lap myself twice over - we're headed to Sweden/Finland (and me for a weekend fun getaway to Spain) in, oh, approximately 104 hours. As usual I have tons of work to do and probably some packing to think about, but in the past few days I've somehow got myself an insane origami box obsession. I'm still trying to sort out how to put these up in my etsy shop, since selling these would involve mailing them, and getting these to someone without getting crushed is going to be a challenge. I'm almost there, though - the solution involves a few coats of Mod Podge and Polyurethane (to give the boxes more stability/strength), an inner styrofoam form and a bit of bubble wrap. The square boxes are absolutely adorable - 1" square, and the octagonal boxes are just gorgeous. I found myself a supplier just around the corner for a great selection of papers - I've found that I have to go there sans kids or husband, because I just can't bear to hear, "Let's go, let's go, let's go, Mama/Honey it's time to go!" while I'm standing there stroking and drooling over all those rolls of washi/chiyogami/yuzen. Yummmmmmmmmm.

 

Unusual sighting

What's rarer than Halley's Comet, less common than a White Tiger, and spotted as frequently as a River Dolphin? (If the answer isn't patently obvious to you, see this post and see if you can spot the difference). Incidentally, I skipped a morning at the Wave House for this.

Self-imposed embargoes are made to be broken

I was theoretically supposed to shut down "the workshop" on Monday to concentrate on organizing, tidying, and packing. I postponed that to Tuesday to finish up the seahorse zipper bags that I wanted to get up into my Etsy shop, and then yesterday I ran across this mohair tank sweater that has been sitting in my office since I picked it up at a thrift shop last winter. I've had the coral-and-seafoam or watermelon-and-turquoise color combo on the brain lately, so I ended up UNpacking a few bins to track down beads and balls and felt and such to try with it.

One of the nice things about having a three-year old is that they're all about "I'll do it myself!" so setting Bella up with some paper and a bit of glitter glue usually buys me a bit of time to do whatever. So I got to futz around quite a bit with cutting up the sweater and making fun stuff with it. The lariat and the necklace (Mr. Bunny there was part of the porcelain spree the other day) came together pretty quickly and are already up on Etsy.

Then it just seemed silly to stop there, so rings and hair baubles and things seemed to be the logical next step. Added plus: no need for a sewing machine for these, so they'll be perfect to keep me occupied over the 5 weeks in Singapore while we're waiting for our container to arrive. Though maybe looking for an apartment, finding a nanny, a school for Bella, a hospital and a doctor for me, buying minor items like beds and living room furniture may well be enough to keep me occupied for a while. Oh, and I'm supposed to be working 25-hour weeks, too. And my BabyCenter auto-emails say I'm now at 33 weeks (funny how you don't keep as close track with your second baby; with Bella I think I knew to the day). Hm. Aren't there more hours in the day closer to the equator?

Forgotten little people

As usual, it started with glitter. Bella and I were making little houses and trees to decorate with glitter this morning, and we recruited a few little people that were in a random bowl in the living room to live in our little town and forest.Then we decided that they needed party hats:

Then Bella remembered that once upon a time, there were more of these little people, and I eventually found them hiding in my office closet, where they were safely stashed since the festivities of last Christmas (I hid them around the house and Bella got to play a photo/powerpoint-aided hunt for them).

I painted these in a 5-night, two-buck-chuck aided spurt of obsessive painting last winter. From left to right, in the rear, we have: Farfar, Farmor (in national dress, reminiscent of Wolfie's asking her at someone's wedding: "Farmor, why are you dressed like a pirate?"), Annie from the Little Einsteins, "Boy", Hillary Clinton, Ninong Vincent in scrubs, Armando the last remaining professional waiter, and finally, Sarah Palin. Or maybe it was Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin.In front are the kids: Dartmouth kid, Baby Palin, another "Boy", Ladybug Girl, Dancing Girl (Bella's favorite), and Bumblebee Girl.

Then there's Pappa (in Beijing Devils rugby gear and his scrum cap), Michelle Obama, China Doll, Beijing Expat (in his tux on the way to the Aussie Ball, maybe), Lolo Al (with his fishing rod behind him), Stepford Wife, and finally, Barack Obama.

Yeah, I had fun with these.

Little things from Panjiayuan

One of my favorite things to do in Beijing is to spend a couple of hours wandering around the market at Panjiayuan. It's a huge market area with a bunch of wholesale-type vendors, as well as many many random people selling all manner of antique and faux-antique goods. I've had some really cool finds from here over the years, and the trick is definitely to go slow, take your time, and to keep a "look around" mindset, rather than a "must buy something" mindset. I normally gravitate towards the porcelains, but on this trip, nothing there jumped out and screamed "BUY ME!" Instead, I picked up these amazing pieces of embroidery (from the tiniest old lady - I'm 5'3" and she only came up to my armpit), and some tiny animal figurines for $2 apiece. FUN.

Teeny Weeny Tree

OK, that actually didn't take long. It's a first attempt, but I gotta say it's kind of promising. At least my papa will get a kick out of it.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

Clearly in dire need of a manicure. Also potentially of more stressful employment. Here's what happens when jetlagged girl finds some 28-gauge wire:Inspired by the wire trees that my dad makes (some of them for sale in my Etsy shop). Hm. Wonder if I could make a whole tree in teeny weeny... stay tuned.

empimorn on Etsy: Coming this Fall

I guess I'm always a little bit amazed when I manage to get anything done while I'm at home on our short trips to the U.S. - between "real" work (as in, at the office), taking care of Bella, running up to Connecticut to deal with our house, and seeing family and friends, it's rare that I get very far with any of the projects that I inevitably start. This time, though, after 3 weeks in Virginia, I came back to Beijing with a serious start to this fall's lineup of stuff for my Etsy store.

Amazingly, I made the first bag on the flight from Beijing to DC, and then somehow managed to find late night and early morning time to work on the first set of bags (felted wool, with embroidered coral squiggly detail):

And then, after that, even came up with a new design and made five more blanks to work with, in colors that I'm pretty excited about:
Then, because I was laying in bed wide awake with Bella for most of last night (she had passed out at 4 pm and so was ready to start her day at 2 am), I got started experimenting on a few more ideas that I'd been plotting, like these seahorses on linen in blues and oranges:
More squiggles, this time on gray flannel:

Thought I'd finally finish and line these quilted patchwork zip bags that I started, oh, half a year ago:And futzed around with what to do with some ridiculously overfelted green stuff (wall hanging? mobile? pot holders?):And then, once I had everything out and in various piles all over the office, around 2 pm, jetlag set in and I passed out.

I am SO totally doing this

I probably wouldn't try to sell it for $40 a pop on Etsy, but we must have an old keyboard or two I can do something with... hehhehehhhheh.

Well, of course I'm supposed to be doing something else

Presentation, huh? White paper? What white paper? I am a time management disaster. Bella "helped" me make these yesterday, and then of course I had to agonize over the photos and product descriptions all morning.

My "Desert Mirage" bag got a mention in tealstripes' crafty blog - too bad it's so hot, I can't even stand to look at felt right now!

Sometimes your little friends need glasses

The other day, bunny needed a new dress, and there was one day last week when everyone had paper princess crowns. Today, it was googly eyeglasses.

One way to get things done

I made the mistake of telling Bella that I was making her a new dancing dress as I was cutting out the fabric, so periodically over the next 5 days (not counting the weekend, when I was spousally compelled to enjoy the great outdoors), she would run into my office, screeching, "MAMA ARE YOU WORKING ON MY DRESS? ARE YOU MAKING MY DANCING DRESS? MAMA I'MAGONNA WAIT FOR YOU MAKING MY DANCING DRESS, OKAAAAAY?"

It's Official

After months of plotting, I've finally managed to get organized enough (but barely) to put a few things on Etsy. Who knew it would be so much work to take product photos and write up snazzy descriptions?

The Teeny Traveler, meanwhile, is packing her teeny weeny suitcase today to head back to the U.S., and then on to Aruba. Mama should probably think about packing, too, considering that the flight is in 11 hours...

http://empimorn.etsy.com
cool stuff for stylish girls

Clearly up to no good

In anticipation of Chinese New Year next week, and to make up for our now-annual, now-traditional, lack of a Christmas card this year.

Would you buy this from me?

Thought a smallish project would be fun (and would help me think through the implications of "The Long Tail" on online advertising.... or maybe not so much), so I launched into this around lunchtime yesterday. Now I'm obsessively plotting my future etsy store. Here's what the product description would say:

Handcrafted and sassy, this quilted all-cotton zip-top bag for all kinds of little things will help you keep your enormous but stylish purse or frumpy diaper bag in order. Use it for anything from buttons to cosmetics, or to corral those tiny accessories for your daughter's toy ponies that are constantly being eaten by pets or younger siblings-- the uses are endless! Made with yummy fun fabrics, this item is one-of-a-kind and is a steal at only $300 because IT TOOK ME ALL AFTERNOON TO GET THE ZIPPER ON AND IT MADE ME RUN OUT OF THREAD AND NOW I HAVE TO VENTURE OUT INTO -25 DEGREE BEIJING TO FIND SOME MORE. Free gift with purchase!!

Or not. It's just a prototype.

And then here's Bella, "helping out" a little before bedtime. Hard to see in the photo, but she's playing with "Mama needle" and "Bella needle" and the "Papa" who was, inexplicably, a pair of scissors. And yes, I did let her play with my needles, that is, until I realized that the worst that could happen was NOT that she would poke herself (planning, at that point, to make sympathetic sounds and throw in a "that'll teach ya" in the bargain), but that she would drop one on the floor which would later end up painfully shoved between MY toes. Yup, that'll learn ya.