One Thousand Followers on Pinterest

An extraordinary thing happened the other day.  I reached one thousand followers on Pinterest!  For some, this is but a paltry number.  For me, it is awesomely exciting and nigh on unbelievable.  I am very grateful to all of my followers, on this blog, via Bloglovin', Google Plus, Facebook and Pinterest.  I love "talking" to you, and I love all of your ideas, too.  Thanks for being there, and thanks for taking a small amount of your time to interact with me!

Your Opinion Needed!

Hi blog readers!  I am thinking about changing the design of my humble blog.  I am very conflicted about this. I admit to liking things to remain static and I'm not all about change... sometimes its even hard to rearrange a room!  So, I'm sincerely asking your opinion of my blog background, header and graphic elements.  Do you think Seams Sustainable needs some housecleaning?  Is it too busy?  Do you prefer blogs with white backgrounds and cleaner lines?  Do you like what you already see here?  I know I'm breaking several of the "laws" of blogging already, so bail me out.  I sincerely want and value your opinion.  Thanks!

A Day Off

A day off has such potential doesn't it?  So little time and so much to do!  I have one today because I have to go to work this weekend :-(.  I'd like to be able to tell you I've been all kinds of productive, but I'm afraid that's not really true...

I had breakfast out as a special little treat to myself, then browsed an antique shop.  I had serious sticker shock there, so I went to Target to accomplish some weekly errands.  Then I did the week's laundry and worked on another of the laundry room curtains.

Love the burlap and the lace.  Like many of my projects, this one gets a little done on it whenever I get the chance... two valences to go.  I'm undecided on whether I should make cafe curtains to go on the bottoms of the windows, or remain au naturale.  

I'm trying to do some blog work, too, as you can see.  I actually learned how to get rid of the little borders around all the pictures on the blog here (Thank you!). That had been puzzling me.  And I created a new signature without the annoying white background.  I'm sprucing up the place for spring.  You see, I'm hoping to post much more frequently... and more pithily!  The slightly crazed ramblings of the frustrated and time crunched sewist!

Upload Issue Resolved - PICTURES!

Well, this certainly drove me batty for a few days!  I wanted to show you some pictures from my new camera, and I just could not get them to upload... problem resolved.  I'm really impressed with the difference between this new camera and your average pointy and shoot, which is what I had been using.  General shots around the sewing room seem clearer.

But the closeups blow me away!  Some random beads in a container,

and you can see the grain of the fabric of the curtains in my sewing room,

and suddenly the detail of the netting used on my wedding dress is easy to discern!

I do love my new camera, and I can't wait to take pictures of my next project to share with you!  As always, thanks for stopping by!

I Must Apologize

...again for my lengthy absence from this blog.  I recently became (once again) a member of the drone class and got a job!  I am very happy about this, but it is kicking my butt! I never expected to be this tired after working a regular day.  Back in the day I was a do it all mom.  I worked fulltime, raised kids, kept house and was very active in several kid and community activities. 

I admit, I'm a bit older now, and my undesired hiatus from employment kind of got me a little spoiled.  After all, I could sew as often as I wanted, and then bore you all with the details!

Anyway, I'm looking for your advice and tips... how do you "do it all"? How do you remain gainfully employed and still have time to sew and blog?  I really do want to know!

100 Posts (and a giveaway)!!!

Just last week I celebrated one year of blogging fun!  Today I'm posting my 100th post!  Due to some technical difficulties relating to my camera memory card not wishing to speak to my computer today, that 100th post will not be what I had planned to talk about.

First, the fun part.  In addition to sewing, I dabble in a bunch of other crafts, including jewelry making.  I especially like to use upcycled materials in my creations. To celebrate 100 posts, I'm giving away a pair of handmade (by me) earrings, just like the ones I made for the wedding.  They are reclaimed faux pearls with reclaimed faceted glass beads, on sterling silver ear wires.  Just the thing for a dressy occasion.

To enter, leave me a comment telling me what sorts of posts you'd like to see more of on this blog.  This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere.  Please also be sure that your e mail address is there someplace so I can contact you for the shipping particulars. 

Now the not so fun part.  Lately it seems that I'm not getting many comments on the blog.  Is it because of the preoccupation with the wedding preparations?  Sorry for that.  It'll all be over after August.  Is it because I'm too shy to post too many pictures of myself in my creations?  Is it because I'm an old lady and I'm out of touch with what real people wear?  Please let me know so that I can serve you better, cause I'm really getting a little down about it.  I sincerely want your opinions.  Thanks!

The deadline to enter the giveaway is midnight EDT on July 21st.  Good luck, and thanks again for your suggestions!

Happy Blogiversary

Happy Blogiversary, to me....happy blogiversary, to me!  It's been a whole year since Seams Sustainable went live here on Blogger.  In some ways it seems like a year, and in others time has flown by.

I have an actual 52 followers, and they're not all people I know in "real life"!  My goal had been for 100, but I can wait... the blog has grown slowly and organically, and I'm grateful for every single follower and every single comment.

The most popular post in this crazy year was the one in which I posted my skin balm recipe!  I know, incredible!  That one post had thousands of pageviews, and was a Pinterest hit.

The most commented (not counting my replies) post was on my Upcycle T Shirt project, which was also one of two of my projects to be featured on the Green Crafts Showcase on Crafting a Green World.

I was interviewed by Denise at the Blue Gardenia for her Sew How series, and I got two blog awards!  Also, I joined the Guest Blogging team over at SewMantra.  All in all a pretty exciting and fun year.  Can't wait to see what the next one brings!  Thanks to all of you who stop by, comment, visit and share.  You have no idea how much it means to me!

Happy Happy Holiday

Wow!  It seems like a long time since I sat down to blog!  I gave myself a four day weekend, and it was great!  I hope you all had fun as well.  On Friday I got to take some pictures, which is one of my little side hobbies.  I can't wait to get a better camera so I can play around in this arena even more.  Here are some of the lovely flowers blooming near us in the Northeast right now.

I also got a lovely surprise from one of the boys on Friday.  He's been taking a shop course in school, and he made me this awesome box.

It has a little drawer.

And the top opens up.

With his permission, I was thinking of decoupaging some old sewing patterns (Down girls - ones with missing pieces that are too numerous to try to make) and some sewing graphics to the ouside of the box to decorate it.  Then I was going to use it to store notions and feet. What do you think?

Many other projects in the pipeline this week as well.  First off, I'm cleaning the sewing room.  I've kind of been letting things accumulate from the last several projects and that is never good.  Do you clean after each project, or do you wait several to give it a good once over?

While cleaning the sewing room, I'm also giving my machine a tune up using the free class available right now on Craftsy!

Team SewMantra

I'm very excited to announce that in addition to blogging here, I am joining the team of Guest Bloggers at SewMantra!  Sew Mantra is a site dedicated to reuse, renewal and reinvention - all in a very original way!  The site founder is gathering a team of very ecclectic crafters and artists to contribute to a collective blog about this exciting process.  Since many of my inspirations are vintage, I just hope I can live up to all that originality!  Please visit me over there, check out the site and all it has to offer, and look at the cool stuff the other GBs are up to.  Thanks for all of your support!