hoopdeedoo: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

in reference to flexibility and deep thoughts about water

The last few days have required a LOT of flexibility! No sewing for me! We had a hot water heater flooding incident, so I have been completely focused on cleanup and dryout.

This got me thinking: it's amazing how dependent we are upon fresh water, and how we completely take that for granted. I had to shut off the water to the house for a while to stop the flooding, and even for that short time it was a very different way to live. Can you imagine not having drinking water? My former youth pastor, Ken Surritte, heads an organization called Water Is Life. They provide these ingenious water filter straws to kids around the world. The straw hangs around a child's neck, and is good for a year. The child can use the straw to drink from any water source, even raw sewage, and it filters it into clean water. How cool is that? I was freshly reminded of how blessed I am to have cheap, abundant, clean water, and how important it is to help provide that for others. Check out their site to see how you can help.

As for sewing, I'm holding out for next week, when my kids will be at Camp Nana...planning lots of projects!!

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

flexibility is key

My most important job is Stay At Home Mom. Or, as we like to call it around here, Chief Operational Officer and Executive Vice President of Household Logistics and Management.

Sooo....I was going to blog/sew/tweet/work more this week, but the munchkins in my care required more care and attention than usual. It's summer, we're working out a schedule, and working on a budget, and lots of other things. So I decided to pull back a little this week and just relax and enjoy my kids.

That's the best part of being your own boss.

Next week will probably be entirely different. You never know around here!

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Saturday, June 19, 2010

and the winner is...

...Austin! @auschen07, to be exact, as his Twitter entry was the winning one. Thanks to everyone who entered! And thanks to my hubby, who did the drawing. This was the first giveaway, but certainly not the last. I am just getting started and having lots of fun doing it!

Next week I'll be blogging about my creative process and my creative scheduling to make it happen. I'm a stay-at-home-mom first and foremost, like many other craft business owners out there, and I have some thoughts to share with the blogosphere on how it works for me. So keep reading! Because you, my friends, will be able to say you knew me when I just got started!!

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Friday, June 11, 2010

give it away, give it away, give it away now

Welcome to my very first GIVEAWAY!!! I need help spreading the word about HoopDeeDoo, so I'm giving away a custom camera strap cover!

The lucky winner can choose from a cover currently in the etsy shop, or I will custom design one just for you. Or if camera strap covers aren't your thing, then we can work out something else. It's not a fun prize if you can't get what you want!

You can get a gazillion (well, close at least) chances to win! Here's how:

1. Go to my etsy shop and find something you like, then come back HERE and tell me about it!

2. Become a Facebook fan: HoopDeeDoo, then come back HERE and leave a comment!

3. Follow me on Twitter: @hoopdeedooshop , then come back HERE and leave a comment!

4. Follow this blog via the method of your choosing (RSS/Blogger/bookmark/whatever), then...you guessed it, leave a comment HERE!

5. Get a friend to do any of the above. Leave a comment HERE with your friend's name/username/pseudonym/whatever. (honor system here) You earn another chance for EACH FRIEND.

So you see, each person can earn many chances to win! Remember, the more friends you bring in, the more chances you will have. Be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do, so I can easily see how many chances you have earned!

Comments are officially closed at 11 pm CST Friday night, June 18, and the winner will be announced Saturday! That gives you a full week to bring in your friends!

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Thursday, June 10, 2010

kidcraft

My 5 year old made this creation for the etsy shop...not sure how to explain to her that there really isn't a big market for frog monacles. Btw that's a cupcake wrapper on the end.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Sunday, June 6, 2010

danger! danger! run away! run away!

The other day I was at the church with some friends sewing these looooooong stretchy white panels to fit over PVC frames. They'll go in the background of the band set and have various colored lights shining on them. Very nifty. But I digress. Anyways, about 3 feet into the first panel, all of a sudden, SKQURNK!! machine thunks to a halt. Serious, massive thread jam. Doing my best to stay calm, I tried to remove the jam, but then realized that internal parts were actually bent. So I had to finish up using someone else's machine and then dash mine off to the repair shop.

It was a pretty easy repair, but it took a couple of days to get it done. Meanwhile, back at home, packages begin to arrive in the mail to taunt me. Amy Butler fabric squares bought on Ebay. Michael Miller Groovy Guitars fabric. "Dad-ish" fabric for Father's Day stuff for the shop. Various emails and order requests from friends. Umm...thank goodness I wasn't in the middle of any custom orders!! I satisfied myself with knitting and preparing for hosting a baby shower Saturday night (although I could not actually sew the gift, so they will have to get it later!)

Then the call finally came and with a giddy heart I drove the 45 minutes into downtown Austin to the shop. Paid for and picked up my machine and the nice repairman even showed me how to do a couple of things. And then I made the mistake of talking to the saleslady about sergers.

Heaven help me. I thought I wanted a serger badly before this. Now I can barely stand it.

The 5-thread stitch! Sewing knits! What it could do for my patchwork addition! OH. MY. EVERLOVIN. GOSH. 6 months no interest. Free lessons. I got as far as taking the credit application, before I came to my senses (pictured my husband's face if I brought it home, especially since the day before I had just gone on a "we need to stop spending money" bender).

I just about ran out of the store.

But I actually had a dream about it last night. Is that sad?

Someone buy it for me, please.