Emberglow

Mini Ruche Bag in Emberglow (Pantone 17-1547)

Does this color look familiar? A little inspiration goes a long way. :)

No More Saggy Bottoms

Not me! The Briefcase.

The leather Briefcase bottoms are now reinforced with really sturdy leather; no more saggy bottoms! ;)

Now it's perfect for carrying laptops, books and files. No problem.  Hopefully you'll carry just one laptop at a time.

Oh, and I hope you noticed this is the new Briefcase in Java! Yummm...

Inspiration: Urban Outfitters

Images from Urban Outfitters

I like to be really efficient with finding inspiration for new designs and colors, so while I'm shopping/walking/driving/sleeping/cooking/eating/working out/showering, I take mental or physical notes of textures, colors, shapes and ideas that inspire me.

Remember the bubble skirt? That shape stuck with me forever, but I never liked it as a skirt. Though I still liked the shape of the bubble, so I made a mental note of it.

One day in my junior year of college, I was eating pot stickers and the pleats of the pot sticker intrigued me. I originally sketched a silhouette for a bag after the yummy dumpling. But, something was missing. It wasn't complete. The bottom was boring and flat.  At this point, my brain parses through nodes of memory where all the texture/shape mental notes are stored and out came that bubble skirt I remember loving.

That's how the Ruched Bag was born --which then reduced in size to the perfect-for-storing-everything-but-not-your-entire-life Baby Ruche Bag. 

Interesting to look back in hindsight on how things are created and what inspires them to be.

While internet shopping, I made some notes on colors and textures that spoke to me. I decided to share this inspiration with you so that in a few months or years, you'll see some of these colors and textures in my shop, and you'll be like, "Hey! I know how she came up with that! I saw it on  her blog!"

Feel special now?

Nautical Time

Spring is coming and I'm ready to whip out the bathing suit and beach bags. Doh! I don't have any beach bags in the shop. Or will I...

In the meantime, enjoy some Spring/Summer Travelers coming up within the next few weeks!

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Studio Upgrade

Added more storage and a second sewing machine. Definitely increasing productivity!

The IKEA Alex is the perfect storage solution for cut leather waiting to be sewn into a pretty bag. Lu-huv it! Only problem: it was too short to hold the desk table, so I used a phone book to make up the difference in height.  I think I'll figure out another solution for that...

Busy week ahead. Back to work!

p.s. If you're curious, that red carpet belongs to the other side of the living room, pictured here.

Happy Valentines Day!

Now Available: Mini in Black

Ready to ship, too! :)

And gray!

Mini Ruche in Gray - Ready to Ship

Coming Very Soon: Mini in Black

Since the last Mini Ruche in Port Royale sold last night, the Mini selection is looking pretty slim (now just one bag).

I'm almost done making a small batch of Minis in black leather -- one is a custom order, two will be available ready to ship.

Get ready!

Sunny with a high chance of frostbite

From the picture, it looks like a balmy 75F in Texas. But truth be told, it's a deadly -2F with windchill in Pittsburgh, and my fingers nearly froze off taking this picture!

But I wanted to show you how pretty it is when it's sunny, and why I miss Texas sometimes.

Speaking of Texas, I'll be returning to Austin, TX in May for Renegade Craft Fair!

Will you visit me?

Mini Ruche Model

Finally. Modeled pictures of the Mini Ruche so you can have a proportional reference. Yay!  I don't know why I am so lazy to model my bags. I have to set up the tripod, get my remote, make sure it's somewhat in focus (this picture is actually kind of blurry) and stand on top of my sewing table to get a good picture before the sun goes down.  I should hire a model, but I can never have enough inventory to get an entire photo shoot together (because everything is made to order). Plus, The Boy makes a great guy model and he's free. I should get him to take my pictures for me, but he works during the day and he doesn't like to do business stuff on the weekends unless it deals with flying somewhere to do a vendor event.

Sigh. So much work. I'm tired now.

Did I mention this is a new color? Well, not brand new, but the Mini now comes in another color - Coffee Bean Brown! One of my favorite leathers because its so distressed and awesome.

Likes?

Love,
Jenny

p.s. For those of you who have been bothering me (you know who you are) about seeing the engagement ring, you can see a very blurry picture of it above. <3 :)

Snowy Morning

As I begrudgingly got out of bed this morning, sore from last night's Pilates Mat class, I noticed that it was snowing heavily outside. I let out a big sigh knowing that spring isn't quite as close as I thought, and took Hubert out for his morning walk to the park.  Then I realized it was actually really pretty and I should enjoy the weather while it's snowing.  Or maybe I'm just finding the positive in whatever the weather may be. :)

Since it was so pretty, I took pictures.

Oh! I got a new phone last weekend. I ditched my iPhone and got the Samsung Epic 4G.  It's an early Valentines gift from The Boy - he added me to his Sprint plan.  So cute!  It's kind of exciting that The Boy and I are slowly merging our lives together. It started with an apartment, then a bank account, and now phone plans.  Awwww.

If you're wondering how I feel about the phone, I love it.  It's larger than most of the phones out there now, but its not heavy.  The size doesn't matter to me because I carry a purse, though I often do stash this phone in my backpocket with no problem. The full qwerty keyboard is great and makes replying to emails really easy and efficient - which makes work more efficient for me when I'm not at my computer.  I'm also liking the Android OS... only took me a few hours to get used to it and I'm already experiencing how much better it is compared to iOS.

I won't give an extensive review, but I will leave you with a recommendation to a really neat camera app: Vignette. It gives you a heck of a lot of features and filters to create some stellar photos (exhibit A: see above). ;)

Whatcha doin this weekend?

I'm not sure if Pugs are made for clothing. At least Hubert may not be. He has so much neck fat that a medium just squeezes all his neck fat up like a lion's mane. And a large just falls off his shoulders. Poor kid. I guess I could tailor his clothes, but then again he's a dog and probably shouldn't be wearing clothes.

Except! For Superbowl. He has to wear a Steelers jersey because...well...The Boy and I are wearing them.

That's what we're doing this weekend. What about you?


By the way, all he wanted to do after the first five minutes of posing in his new jersey was get off the table and run around. Since he's on a special diet for his kidney stones, I couldn't give him any treats, so I took him out to the dog park and the 6-8" of snow melted and turned the park into a swamp, then froze over again into a 3-4" thick sheet of ice. It was pretty much a skating rink. So I ran around with Hubert and watched him slip and slide all over the place.

Har har. :)

Happy Lunar New Year!

Lanterns 8x8 Fine Art Photo by Shannonpix

Swallows Silk Scarf by MargotBianca

Hares 8x10 Fine Art Print by eastwitching

Mooncakes by A. L. Designs

Jumping Bunny Felted Soap by SoFino

I remember celebrating Tet (Lunar New Year) during my childhood. My parents would bring my brother and me to a party and there would be a dragon dance. And every year, that dragon would come near me and open its big furry jaws to the beat of the loud drums and I would cry and hug my dad so I couldn't see it. Every. Single. Time. Ugh, why did they torture me like that?

I hated those parties because of that dragon. But I would be happy because at the end of the ceremony, all the kids would get bright red envelopes embellished with gold foil. Inside would be cash! 

I sure do miss that cash...

As I got older, I would participate in the fan dance with other girls my age. I wish I could do that again. Or at least wear an áo dài again. :) 

Wishing you prosperity and luck,

Jenny

p.s. You can see more of these pretty Lunar New Year finds in my Etsy treasury.

Sunshine Bubbly

I made another batch of Carrot Orange Mango juice and I couldn't help but photograph the pitcher after juicing. I love the gradient of bright orange to yellow and all those little bubbles.

The Boy thinks it's gross but I think it looks really cool.

Refreshing, isn't it?

First Signs of Spring?

Hi Friends!

Yesterday was supposed to be a big winter storm with 0.25-1" of ice. Well, turns out it missed Pittsburgh because the weather has never been more beautiful since our move here.

I love the weather now. Snow is melting, the sun it out, the sky is bright blue with very little clouds.  It's still a little cold, but I can now take off my gloves and snap some pictures with my phone.

Took Hubert on his morning walk around the complex and snapped some pictures of the backyard view from my apartment. It's gorgeous, huh?

Love,
Jenny

Must Be February

I'm not sure if I am just really drawn to this color, or that subconsciously I'm getting all purple materials because it's the February birth stone and I see lots of purple things...

Maybe both.

But I finally have lots of purple in the shop!