My Ankle-Length Nightgown got featured!!!

I just got a convo from Miss Hettie that she featured my Nightgown in her Monday Treasury:

It would be great if you would leave a comment to this treasury and visit her shop!

I’m really proud to have made it to an Etsy treasury for the first time!!!

Sacha.

Birthday Presents

Of course a birthday has a disadvantage: it makes older.

Luckily this gets compensated by great positive things: presents!

I was really blessed with great gifts this year. And just how I like ‘em best: handmade. Bought handmade or handmade handmade.

And I’m sooo happy! These are such thoughtful gifts!

I just wanted to share them with you.

Don’t you just love those gifts? Husband gave me the statuette and handmade wallet (& purse), parents gave me the drawing and a friend gave me prints from her paintings (she just started her last year of the Royal Academy of Art from The Hague).

And on top of this, I got a wonderful music-mix from my friend, a lovely notebook and pen from my co-worker and a years bookazine subscription from my parents.

Was I spoiled or what?

Think those were the best (since almost all handmade) gifts ever! Just the way I like them!

But it got me all curious on the (birthday) gifts every one else in the craft- and art-world are giving away (and receiving!). Anyone willing to share?

Sacha.

Monday Moodboard (& Etsy Treasury) – Birthday Girl

More items and more information on these items, you can find here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c5fdb64d2856d91c26e40aa/birthday-girl?index=0

Craft Studio – Like NEW!

Last weekend I got confronted with the mess in my studio (http://sachakay.hartvanfrankrijk.com/?p=179). And decided to do something about it right away. It turned out to be a massive project: I worked on it every day of this week. What can I say? I’m thorough?

Sunday I started with dragging an old oak cabinet that was still standing in the barn into my studio (Thanks Dad!).

Then I went from a messy studio to an indoors landfill.

Of course I had help from Prince Lucius I, who was sending over his Zen from his new spot in front of the window.

There was a lot of stuff I said goodbye to:

And the result?

Thanks to my Dad for the cone-holder!!!

I’m so happy with my clean studio!

And look what I found:

Beautiful inspirational stuff!

And who knows how the rest of my house (and life!) will evolve? A friend of mine made me listen to Peggy Doolittle’s ‘De-junking Your Life’, I’m only at disc 2 from the 6…

She’s got really valuable and interesting things in her workshop. I really like the Laws of Stuff:

Stuff breeds;

Useless Stuff crowds out Good Stuff;

Dust loves Stuff;

Stuff loves to stay where it lands;

Over time, Stuff becomes invisible (to You, not to Others!!!);

Stuff will expand to fit the space available;

Stuff has a powerful effect on your mind;

Stuff doesn’t make you happy;

Over time, Stuff will make you unhappy.

 

I just might attack my clothing-Stuff the first week of September.

What will be your De-Junking project?

Sacha.

Monday Moodboard (& Treasury) – Lavender Blue

My Monday Moodboard:

     

More items and more information on these items, you can find here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=136238

Craft Studio – Truth & Dare!

Inspired by a blogpost from Joni Nickrent at The Hive (http://creatingthehive.com/blog-post/1882/come-share-your-inspired-spaces-creative), I thought it was time for some reflecting on my own studio (or “atelier’” in French).

This is my space:

With some objects I just really like (just to pick a few):

Well.

I’m admitting.

This is what my studio used to look like. While I was creating the studio itself.

It took me a day to overthink, but I dare telling the truth.

It’s a mess now. (somehow this sounds like an understatement) 

A cluttered mess. I still know exactly where to find my things, but I just have to admit: It Doesn’t Really Look Organized.

And I’m an Organizer, a Systemizer. Yet my system and organisation don’t look all that systematical and organized to others…

I’ve made some pictures to show what I’m talking about:

  

Yes. It’s a mess. But I could live with that. It’s my mess. I have to deal with it. I have to work in it.

Then I got to overthink the inspirational part. And that’s where my clutter goes wrong. It doesn’t really inspire. I’ve got lots of nice inspirational stuff in my studio. But they are mostly covered with pieces of fabric, paper, wool and other things.

So. I’ve got a new mission. A new project. Work on my studio. Show the world I’m very proud to have this beautiful room to work in. I still recall the days I didn’t have this room. That really meant no sewing. Drama!

I’m going to honour my studio. I’ll declutter it and make it look need. And thén I’m gonna work on the inspiration it can give me!

Oh. And don’t go and Google ‘craft studio’ when you’re having a messy studio like I have. It made me feel really bad looking at those organised and beautiful craft studios!!! I’m re-Googling it when my own studio is back to order. Just to see if I can find inspiration from them.

To be continued…

Sacha.

Featured Post – The Hive

<<Yeah! I’ve got a featured post!>>

While I was bothering you with my blog on how I got to be a member of a social network (aka productivity leak) for yarn addicts, I didn’t want to bother you (felt guilty) with another community I became a member on.

The Hive: CreatingTheHive.com – Your Crafts Community

I didn’t really know what to expect from this. And got a bit sceptical when I saw ‘blog’ as a tab.

“Oh great! Yet another website I have to go and write blogs on to have people to get to know me”, was one of the thoughts that crossed my mind.

But…

This network site for Bizzy Bees has a very need feature: it imports a blog through RSS.

YES!

Although I am a busy person, I’m rather lazy than tired, so to speak.

So I added the link to my RSS-feed ‘et voilà’, all my blog posts were on The Hive! With one click of my mouse. Including all the pictures. Sigh. Don’t you just love how technology can make your life so much easier?

But that wasn’t all of the story.

To my surprise I found three Sacha Kay followers and four comments on a blog post, less than a day after my membership. And even some ‘likes’ to other blogposts.

Despite my Etsy membership and effort to find fellow crafters (through FaceSpace and Twitter) who like to leave short messages in all sorts of ways, my blog wasn’t overflowing with comments or any other signs that people actually read my blogs. And here it is: after one day on The Hive, prove that people actually read what I write.

It turned out they made my blog on the recycled clasp bag a “Featured Post”, including need little bee with a heart!

Crafting in The Hive

This website made my world a bit of a happier place today. I hope it can do your crafting world some good too!!!

Sacha.

Cats

I make lots of things. Yet my Etsy store is mostly always empty. One could doubt my productivity as a result from that.

But I have to correct here.

Of course I’m not as productive as I would like to be. I should spent less time online and more time in my ‘atelier’, yet I don’t. I love to blame the lack of hours in one day, though!

A lot of the things I make don’t ever make it to the Etsy store. They often don’t even make it to my blog (I’m trying to be a better person on that matter now, though).

There are two stores who sell my items. And there are customers who place direct (custom) orders. And of then there’s me, of course. Every once in  a while I like to make something for myself.

Recently I’ve made a bunch of cats. I already sold most of them, but there’s a trio that’s still available for adoption. I didn’t put them on Etsy, because I thought that the shipping costs would be too high on these lovely creatures.

I loved making them, they make the world a happier place.

Sacha.

Ravelry

I’ve been busy.

Not sewing. Not knitting. Not cleaning the house. Not administrative chores. Not regular work.

All things I should have been busy on. But nope.

I’ve been creating a members page on a network site.

I heard you there!!! Commenting like that was just what I needed, another productivity leak…

But this is a nice one. A systemize one. An organize one.

It makes me organize all my knitting projects ánd yarn stack.

And meanwhile I can show my projects off and keep track on how my project progresses.

It’s great!

I’m pretty sure it’ll stimulate me to grab my needles at least some bit on a day. Just to show everyone that there’s progress.

Since there are only knitters and other yarn-addicts (crocheters, spinners, etc.), I feel like I have to prove myself.

Of course I can’t prove that I actually created this account, since the website is ‘members only’. So you just have to trust me on it.
Oh well. I can imagine that is too hard to some of you, so I’ll post a screenshot here.

Are you a knitter? Or other Yarn-Addict? Become a member and look me up. Or just look me up if you already are a member.

Thank you, iMadeItSo, to lead me to this website!

Sacha.

Etsy Treasury

It’s been a long time I haven’t been on Etsy. I just found that they changed something on the treasuries. I could just make one? Without any problem, watching clocks, counting, being too late, frustrated, going east or not?

Anyways: I made a Treasury.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=136203

Not too original, but hey: I was so overwhelmed to be able to make a treasury, that I wasn’t really prepared!

Sacha.