A Day (and a half) In The Making

Phew! As I type this up I'm struggling since my fingers are so sore and probably slightly swollen. I made myself a new purse the other day and it had a little bit of hand sewing to finish it off and my fingers dislike me now for it. I started working on the pattern the other night after supper, and started the purse right from when I got up in the morning, with only breaks for food. I wasn't stopping until it was done.

Totally worth it.

BAM! Check it.

My old record purse was falling apart and I wanted something new. Record purses don't fare well in the winter anyway (the records crack much easier) and I used this one far past the point of it looking good or being responsible. One of the straps was worn away to just threads and it was going to let go any day.

I kept seeing people around with these really good looking bags, with two huge side pockets and a zipped pocket in the middle. After searching 'purses' on pinterest and scrolling for ages, I finally found a reference picture to go by.

Not the most helpful of pictures without zoom..

From there I sketched out the pattern (which took a while, I kept getting stuck on one piece until my fella miraculously solved the mystery!) and made a pattern to size.

One of the pieces.

From there it was pretty basic putting together-ness..

And after ages I finally got my finished product!!

From the side. My zipper pull will always be a key. 

I love the detail on the strap. It's simple but came out looking great. 

The outer pockets are lined with snap closures.

Top down. 3 huge pockets!! This purse holds everything, it's fantastic.

Since we were taking pictures of the purse anyway, I wanted to get one of my shirt.. I seriously love this pattern, it's so comfy and fits like a dream!

But because I'm a nut case, one thing led to another and we ended up taking blurry pictures of me being a moron.

If you actually sat through this ridiculously long post, thank you! 

Ice Sculptures & New Purse Pattern

We went down to see the ice sculptures in down town Ottawa today. They were pretty impressive and I tried to only take a few pictures of the best things to share with you :P.

Colored wolf sculptures inspired by thermal imagery. By far my favourite thing I saw that day.

OCTOPUS!

Also, Craft 6 or 50 down! I made myself a new purse. And I love love love the pattern so much that I'm going to make a few more for my store. (The base pattern that is, they'll all be decorated differently). I first was going to use another fabric for the ruffles but I couldn't be bothered cutting and hemming and all that, and I already had a huge strip of fabric already cut and hemmed that I saved for like, a year to use as ruffles on something, so I went with that instead. It was my first time making them and I think they turned out pretty good. I didn't have enough fabric to cover the whole front though so that's why only half is done, hahah. I like how it looks though!

Its also fully lined and has 3 pockets, one for girly stuff (hand lotion, spare eyeliner, etc), one thats currently holding business cards, and one that was meant for my camera but it seems I've put an ipod and a little notebook in there to keep the clutter down on the inside of my purse.

Lastly, I've been holding onto this little thing for months. Its some kind of bike part that the Mr didn't need that figured I'd want to keep. He was right. Its cool looking, has a good weight, and is quite shiny. Only problem is trying to decide what to do with it. Any ideas? Ideas I've had include: a locket, filling the centre with epoxy, macramé..

It's all chrome-y and shiny, and 3" wide. What to use it for...