I Like Making Purses

I took the pink purse out for a test drive a couple of days ago and it got really good responses from folks. A couple of ladies asked if I had a business card so they could get a handmade purse just for themselves. Needless to say, I am now in the process of making business cards for Tribe Of Stinson. So after a successful run I came home and made another, more difficult design of purse just so I could see what it was like. here’s how it turned out.

It is made out of a vintage table cloth with lace from thrift store curtains. The bling is from the Treasure Box in Springfield MO.

The millinery flowers are all made from torn up bed sheets. The ribbons of cotton were all ruffled and sewn by hand.

To complete the purse I sewed in a label made of more cotton sheet. I printed the label out on my ink jet printer by running a piece of sheet the same size as a piece of paper through the printer. It was adhered to freezer paper first with Elmer’s spray adhesive. If you do this make sure there are no wrinkles in the fabric that would catch or snag while it is printing. This purse took me about 6 hours to make, so it was much harder than the pink purse. I like the results and want to try more purses in many different shapes.

 

 

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Handmade Valentines Day Card

I finally got a package in the mail to my husband who is stationed in Korea, This card was fun and easy to make. I took a piece of drawing paper and folded it into quarters. Next I sewed on a ribbon of shredded ivory colored cotton sheet material. I like ripping up old sheets to use in projects because there is a great deal of yardage in a sheet. A snippet of antique white lace and a bit of pink ribbon were also sewed on to the card. About a week ago I scored an old Scrabble game at the thrift store and am happily using the letters in my crafts.  The key came from a local key shop, where the owner is so nice she just let me have a bunch of old messed up keys. I think of keys as beads, so they look great in my projects.

This key has special meaning though. Just peek inside the card!

I wrote that my husband is the key to my heart. To get the paper lace heart on, I used Elmer’s spray adhesive. I cut out another heart from a romance novel and glued it on with more spray adhesive. Since the paper was saturated with the glue and I didn’t want the card to stick together when I sent it, I laid down a couple of snips of lace. They adhered nicely and I thought some buttons hot glued on top would look nice. Oh yes I forgot that before adding any trims I scalloped the edge of the card just using regular scissors. The whole project took only ten minutes and it is filled with more love than any storebought card I might have spent $5.00 on. I like mine better too. I hope you are inspired to create something wonderful for the people that you love for this coming Valentines day.

 

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New Purse From Thrift Store Fabric

My favorite part about doing the whole junking thing, is taking other peoples discards and making wonderful and lovely new pretties from them. This little bag took only two hours to make last night. I will keep it for a day or two to admire it and then it will be put  up for sale so another woman can have frilly pink things in her life to make her happier.

I made it from one old pink napkin, a small part of an old lace curtain and some fabric that Dee, the owner of Bear Ridge Antiques gave me. I also used a little bit of lace from one of the local flea markets..

The center of the flower is an old earring that I found at The Treasure Box in Springfield, MO. I had fun making the purse. I started it about 11:30 PM and finished at 1:30 AM.  I think if you have insomnia, it is better to do something that you enjoy, rather than fret that you’r not sleeping.

 

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The Mess Of Being An Antique Booth Owner

This small business is taking over my life. This is something that I really don’t mind too much, but I wish it were a little neater.

This is where we normally eat and have our own little Internet cafe. When there are 3 computers here and my craft stuff, it makes us want to run and set up TV trays come dinner time.

This is the formal dining area, so no luck there either.

We can’t even sit down in some places of the house.

This is my patio furniture being taken over by finished crafts ready to go in to my new Estsy store called Tribe Of Stinson, Funky Beauty. It will have lots of shabby and cute white, black, silver and gold home decor items.

How am I going to get the mower out so I can get it repaired in time for spring!

My husband’s car is blocked in too. If he were home and not still in Korea, this wouldn’t happen.  I’m going to have to find a better way of organizing all my junk.  I need to pile it higher maybe? I guess this is all a side affect of doing successful business.  But I want my house to be calm and peaceful.  So I will move all the crazy stuff that is in the house to my studio off the garage space and let that area be messy.  If anybody is reading this and you have the same problem, let me know what you did to solve your storage issues. Thanks!

 

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Changing Focus

Up until now this blog has been about Korea.  But now it has to move with me.  Here we are in The middle of the bible belt and loving it.  Life is no longer about battling the Army at Camp Humphrey’s. My husband is still stuck there, so we are not fully withdrawn, but I have to write about whats current.

 

I like it here, because my kids can live in a healthy place. They even can learn how to split wood with the wood delivery guy. (We have a fireplace).

I chose to come back to Missouri because I remembered how to do life in this place.  We lived here for 6 years before we moved to Korea. Now is the time to be comforted by that familiarity and use it as a springboard to achieving things that have only become possible recently.  For example; going back to college for my degree in business.  Due to the post 9/11 G.I. Bill, I can use part of my husbands’ benefits to get to learn and have a shot at a better job.  Being a home maker for the last 16 years left me under confident and scared of the future.  I am deeply grateful to my husband for this opportunity.

 

But back to the blog.  I want to change it to share about life here and a project I have been working on. I have become a junking- treasure hunting- bargain hungry- antique booth operator.  Specializing turning cast-offs into current home decor is what makes me happy.  My dad used to take me and my sister to the Spring Valley swap-meet at least 2 times a month. From the time I could barely walk until age 24 I enjoyed going (when I moved away).  So this stuff is in my blood.  My first job was selling portrait packages for Olan Mills and subsequent jobs landed me in retail.  But I never enjoyed just the sales end of the business.  I loved to merchandise displays and I did that for a few years at Macy’s and J.C. Penny’s before I became a stay at home mom.

                                                                                         This was my booth before anything was up.

But the dream that has sat on the back burner since I was a kid has been the desire to have my own storefront, brick and mortar shop.  A wonderful place to find just the thing that you never knew you needed until you saw it.  Antiques and collectables spilling from paint crackled chests.  Sparkly jewelry hanging from polished manzanita branches.  New age music playing gently in the background while wonderful smelling things perfumed the air.  Of course coffee would be a necessity to offer in the shop and maybe smoothies too.  Throw in some good books and comfy chairs…Now we’re talking.  Feather boas, cool and funky resale clothing.  How about WI-FI so customers could hang out with their computer and latte’? Gift cards with fairies on them and hand lotions with lavender.  Maybe a meeting room so gals could hold seminars or crafting classes, a safe haven from life.  We all gotta stick together and community could flourish in a place like this.

This is my booth after my first pieces of inventory were added.

In order to test myself to see if I am ready to jump into being a small business owner, I have rented an 8×12 foot space at the biggest antique mall in the area; Heartland Antiques. I spent ten hours refurbishing my space and putting my brand on it.  Tribe of Stinson is now a shop! A little one, but still a real place. It will take a lot of effort and time to make it successful but I am relishing the challenge.  Finally,  I have an excuse to visit as many thrift stores and yard sales as I can.  No longer will guilt accompany these pleasurable outings.  Now I can be serious about them because it is motivated by a drive to do good in my venture.

This is my booth now; funky and packed with all sorts of goodies.

I’m going to stick with school while I work my booth.  It is best to keep learning, after all there are no get rich quick schemes here.  But I am happy to have the chance to learn in the classroom as well as the antiques business.  I want to get the blog more active too and show you what I’m making for the booth.  So, that’s what Tribe of Stinson is going to be about for now.  Living in the mid-west and junking.  Thoughts about Korea will still spill out as living there has profoundly affected my view on everything from socks to art. But mostly I will just show you cool stuff I’m making and neat things that I love about this area of America.

 

Please join me while this dream gets up and running.  Everything is fresh again.

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Korea January 2012

I know that Cynthia is the one who does the BLOGing and most of the time I’m the editor/sanity check (or is it insanity). Well its been a couple of months since the Family went back to FLW. I am hoping to home there this summer. I know that there are still alot of Soldiers who are coming to South Korea. There is a still a whole lot broken here. So that being said I will try to help where I can and tell you the “TRUTH” of things here in South Korea, Not the PAO CP Humphreys is the greatest thing since sliced bread and all the pictures look like Main St USA at Disneyland. I do get the notices when comments are posted so if I can help take care of a Soldier, I will.

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