As the ground emerged from the snow yesterday, I found myself peeking around for green. I know mom, it’s too early. I just can’t help myself. Nosing around outside brought to mind the thrill of treasure hunting.  Whether you’re clicking or stomping– this phrase by artists of the same name says it best “something’s hiding in here.”

1. The Victoria- Clutch, Wallet On the Go by Momotrees $35

2. Wood Ring- Zebra Wood by Somethingshidinghere $60

3. Wherever the Boy Went, the Rabbit Went Too- recycled wood collaged humble house by gigglepotamus $25

4. Morningsong- Cameo and Amazonite Necklace by wildplum $17

Kate, along with her husband, bring together farm, food and design at The Steel Fork. They also design and create sculptural metalworks using recycled farm machinery – Gatski Metal. Kate is also the mother of two busy little children.

I first spotted Tannei’s work on the front page of Etsy. I loved the bag and once I clicked on it and found out she was from PA, I knew I had to showcase her! Tannei is a native of Canada, but moved to a suburb of Philadelphia with her family about 3 years ago. I hope you will love her work as much as I do! Enjoy a day in her life:

6:30 am:  My husband Brian wakes me up so we can get our son, Andrew, off to middle school. I get ready while Brian is getting the coffee going and making breakfast for Andrew. I get into the kitchen just in time to pack Andrew’s lunch and rush him out the door so he doesn’t miss the school bus.

7:20 am:  I get the newspaper from the driveway and spend the next hour or so perusing through it. I look forward to doing puzzles like Jumble, Cryptoquote and Sudoku while enjoying my coffee.

8:30 am:  Time to get on the computer. I check and respond to email. I go to my favorite sites and blogs. This is how I keep up to date on things such as new fabric lines, crafting supplies, upcoming crafting books and gadgets that will make my crafting life easier. It is usually during this time that I find inspiration and ideas for my projects.

10:00 am:  The skies are clear today. We are going to take advantage of that and take pictures of some new bags outside. Brian is the photographer and he is setting up the tripod and camera while I get the bags propped and ready. When pictures are done, I upload them, crop them, and make sure the colors are as accurate as possible. Then I list the bags on my Etsy shop.

Noon:  Brian and I sit down for a quick lunch and then it’s downstairs to my workroom. I start by making a to-do list. I check to see if I need to replenish any supplies. Before I work on a couple of custom orders for bags, I look through my fabrics and decide on making a couple more bags in similar colors so I can sew them all at once using the same color thread. This will save me a bit of time. There is a TV next to my cutting table and it’s usually on when I am in my workroom. I think I have seen (or heard) every episode of the Law & Order and CSI franchises at least 3 times!

6:00 pm:  I start on making dinner (Italian sausage in tomato sauce with pasta tonight), and hover over Andrew while he is doing his homework and studying for a test. After dinner, Brian and Andrew are off to a Boy Scout meeting. I go back down to my workroom and start planning on a quilt design that I want to work on in the next few days.

9:00 pm:  We are in the family room watching some TV. Our current favorite show that we love to watch together is Glee. I also have my laptop on and am perusing at different fabric sites to shop for new fabrics.

10:00 pm:  Andrew goes to bed. I stay up and work on my knitting and catch up on some TV shows that I have on DVR. I am a night owl. This is the only time I get to knit so depending on waht I am working on, it might be 1am before I get to bed. Brian tries to stay up with me, but usually heads up before I do.

Michelle is a graduate of Albright College with a B.A. in Visual & Apparel Merchandising. After years in the fashion/ retail industry, she is now a WAHM. Michelle is a self-taught jewelry designer and owner of Michabella Creations.

Jesse Burckhardt Mayer, designer and owner of the Jesse B. Collection

Jesse started her own collection of handbags 6 years ago, and has worked tirelessly to ensure her business succeeds, even in this tough economy. Jesse’s bags have been featured in Elle and Lucky magazines!

Jesse designs two major collections a year: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. However, she is always available for custom orders, and often designs for brides and bridal parties.

Jesse is the proud mother of a 2 1/2 year old son, Jonah. Some days are spent working while Jonah naps, or late at night, which Jesse says is when she typically gets a lot of JBC work done. If trips to fabric suppliers or contractors are in order, then little Jonah stays with grandma. On days when Jesse has to concentrate on marketing, phone calls, or sewing, a mother’s helper comes in to play. Both have been a tremendous help to Jesse. She loves that she can provide for her son by having her own business and still spend time with him.

Jesse not only fills orders for her website, but also for Ebags, the largest retailer for handbags. Jesse loves the many hats she gets to wear. She never knows what the next day will bring, and she likes it that way!

I am a graduate of Albright College with a B.A. in Visual & Apparel Merchandising. After years in the fashion/ retail industry, I am now a WAHM. I am a self-taught jewelry designer and owner of Michabella Creations.

This is the first in a new series called “A Day in the Life of.” I’ve always been fascinated by these type of pieces in magazines. I love that little window into someone else’s life.

The object for me in this series is to give you a sneak peek into real women (and men!) who do it all – craft, create, & live! I hope that you can find inspiration for daily living and know that you are not alone in your struggles and triumphs.

While I’m bringing you this first post, one of the soon-to-be-announced guest contributors will be taking the series over shortly! If you’re interested in documenting one of your days, please email me and I’ll pass your info on!

Enjoy “A Day in the Life” of Erin from Ruju!

When Tara asked me to do an article for her entitled “A Day In The Life of A Crafter” I was thrilled. It’s been almost a month since she asked me…finding the perfect ‘crafting’ day is tough. Most of my crafting time is interrupted by fighting toddlers and misbehaving kittens. After nearly two weeks of documenting every minute of every day I think I finally found a good one that included a great mesh of all of the things I normally do. Hopefully you can all relate to the ridiculousness that is a regular day in the Quintana household.

Friday, July 3rd – 8:32am
‘mom! I pooped! Ahhh, what mother wouldn’t love waking up to the chorus of a 2 year old announcing that his pamper is in distress? Oddly enough, this is an everyday ritual. What wasn’t ‘everyday’ this morning was that when I rolled over to ignore my son for just 1 more minute of shut eye I was hit in the face with massive amounts of suffocating hair. Gotta love when the 5 year old climbs into bed with me. Guess it’s time to get up.

8:45am
After handling all the things that needed to be handled in the bathroom department I brought the kids downstairs to make some life juice (a.k.a. coffee). By 9am I had my first cup of joe in my system, the kids had eaten some pop tarts and drank some apple juice. Then I remembered…..we were meeting my memaw (grandma) who is a real estate agent at 10 to look at a house. Even tho we love our home it is just too small…you will learn why when we get the the sewing portion of my day.

9:00am
Complete panic sets in as I realize that I only have one hour to get all 4 family members ready to go and meet my memaw at the house. The kids and I take a shower, after which we woke up the husband so he could get ready to go. I called my memaw freaking out hoping that she wasn’t already on her way and going to have to sit and wait for us…. …no worries, she had already changed it to 11.

11am
We went to see the house which was a complete disaster, but it was right near a stream and a little playground so we stopped to play and fish a little. Sadly the current was too fast, and we had to find better grounds.

12pm
The four of us piled back into the truck and headed for The Hummel Trail in Hummelstown to see how the fishing was there and enjoy a nice nature walk. Then I realized it was lunch time, I only had a cup of coffee in me and the kids were running on a pop tart each….so we stopped at McDonalds. After stuffing our faces with disgusting food that would make us all feel like complete junk in about 20 minutes, we piled back in the truck and headed for the trail.

1pm
On the way to the trail I spotted a yard sale! Who doesn’t love a yard sale? It was actually kind of funny because my friend dustin was in town and had come for dinner the night before had commented on the fact that our pigs cage was too small. And WHAT do you think they had at this yard sale?!?! A bigger pig cage of course! $3.50 later we had a new and improved bigger home for our piggy!!!

1:20pm
We made it to the trail! Another disapointing fishing experience. Obviously since it was the same creek the current was moving at the same speed. (doh on our part) And, the water had risen since the last time we were there and blocked off the path to get to the cool part. Booo!!!! It was still a nice little walk, just kinda stank that we had to carry the fishing gear for nothing.

3pm
Home again home again! As soon as we made it back to our house Ruby (my 5 year old) wanted to get piggy in her new cage. I found some scrap pieces of wood in the garage and made her a new little hut for inside her new home…and we got her all situated. She seems to like it so far.

4pm
Lots of lazy afternoon nothingness for about an hour.

5pm
Julius (2 year old poop crusader) falls asleep on the couch. CRAFT TIME!!!! Ruby and I head upstairs to the attic where my sewing machines and the kids playroom live. It’s HOT HOT HOT in the summer. (we need a bigger house)
Clean and tidy isn’t it? pffft!

As soon as I get upstairs and plug everything in I realize that the last time I was sewing I went downstairs in frustration because my serger had jammed up. Great. Now I have to fix something before I can sew.

5:15pm
The serger is unjammed and I finished up the little zip pouch that had caused all of my frustration last time I sewed. Now, onto something new. What shall it be…. As usual I have no sketches or measurements of what I want to make…just an idea in my head and some siccors. It takes me a good 20 minutes digging through my piles of disheveled fabric to find somehting to my liking for my new project. Cut, sew, serge, sew, flip, cut. Viola! A masterpiece!

7:30pm
I’m starving. I go downstairs (Ruby left me a long time ago) to find that everyone ate without me. So, I cook myself some food….and take a little break on the sofa. The kids and I spend some time relaxing on the front porch and just hanging out.

8:30pm
It’s 30 minutes past the kids bedtime, guess we should get them in bed. I put them in bed and tuck them in twice…head downstairs and start typing my day. The rest of my evening will be spent watching a movie with my husband and drinking some much needed beer.

This week’s giveaway is sponsored by Janell, from J Almodovar – Lancaster.

Janell creates handbags and wristlets from both new & vintage fabric, as well as found materials such as bulk coffee sacks. quality is a huge deal for me…She says, “I love to mix designer with vintage using lots of texture and color. I want my bags to last a long time, so quality is a huge deal for me.”

Janell explains how she started:

I made my first handbag in high school out of patches from old jeans (yikes!). At that time it was just for fun, but about 2 years ago, after getting a few wholesale accounts with boutiques and setting up my etsy shop, I was able to quit my day job and make handbags full time.

Enter this week’s giveaway to win the bag pictured directly above. It is 15″ wide at top, 17″ wide at bottom, 10.5″ high and 2″ deep. The shoulder straps measure 23″ long. It has, “2 inside pockets, one penslip and a key clip to cut down on digging time when you are in a rush. The liner is constructed of a sturdy unbleached natural cotton for extra durability and the top of the bag closes with a magnetic snap.”

To enter:

• you must be a resident of the US.
• visit J Almodovar on Etsy or Janell’s gallery and pick out your favorite bag. Leave a comment here letting us know which you like!
• to receive one extra entry, use the “Share/Save” button below (or on your own) to share this giveaway with your friends. Leave a second comment here when you do.

This giveaway ends Saturday, May 16 at 11:59pm EDT. The winner will be selected at random and notified by email.

Good luck!

This week’s giveaway is sponsored by Traci from Blue Toad, a shop full of original art & journals, and Tremundo, a shop full of fabulous bags & purses. Instead of trying to choose an item from just one of her shops, Traci wanted to know if it was alright to giveaway a whole set of goodies from both Blue Toad & Tremundo. What do you think? [Read more →]

The lovely Barb at BStauff Designs is offering this amazing, vintage-inspired, clutch for this week’s giveaway. Please read about Barb & her shop and then find out how to win at the end!

Barb, from Easton, has been around the block as far as crafts go! She can remember creating Christmas ornaments from old greeting cards. She’s worked on ceramics, cross-stitch, knitting, & crochet. But 17 years ago, her husband got her a sewing machine as a gift – regardless of the fact that she didn’t know how to sew!

Barb says, “I began making my girls Halloween costumes and special occasion dresses. Over the years, I then branched out to make my own clothes, vintage reproductions, and home decor items. Two years ago, when my youngest went to school full time, I began making handbags and fell in love with that. It was much more fun than worrying about fitting issues, and I opened my business, B Stauff Designs, in the fall of 2007.”

The common thread in Barb’s pieces is a vintage simplicity. She says, “My inspiration comes from many places. Books, magazines, nature and especially vintage fashion and fabrics. When I design a new piece, I sketch out my ideas for the basic shape and style, and then I picture one of the fabrics I have and color the design to match.”

Barb is working on expanding her business & hoping to start selling her aprons and handbags in brick & mortar boutiques. In fact, much of her beautiful work is currently being shown in a shop! But please stop by B Stauff Designs and take a look around!

And now for our giveaway!

To enter:

• You must be a resident of the US.
• Leave a comment on this post letting me know where you’d like to carry this fabulous bag!
• For a second entry, share this post using the “Share/Save” button below. HiP’s favorite sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Stumble Upon!

This giveaway will end Friday, March 13 at noon. Good luck!

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Traci from Tremundo wrote me this afternoon so that I could pass on some great deals to you. She’s got a big move planned and we all know what that means, inventory clearance! All handbags & reconstructed clothing are buy one, get one half off!

Traci loves to use found fabrics and “upcycle” them into interesting handbags. She was recently featured on the HGTV show, “That’s Clever!” – I’ve loved that show since it was “Crafters Coast to Coast.” Check out Tremundo to see her whole line!

My other tip for this weekend is to visit the Goggleworks, in Reading, on Sunday from 11am-4pm. It’s Second Sunday and that means there’ll be lots of artisans working in their studios, demonstrations & workshops, live music, and more! For more information on the Goggleworks, check out my first guest blog post at PAadventure.com.

Please leave a comment here with your sales or suggestions for places to go this weekend!

I’d like to introduce you to a hip handbag designer from Lebanon – Erin from Ruju. She makes bags from both new & up-cycled fabrics and she has an infectious spirit!

Erin began sewing & designing purses when she was pregnant with her first child. But she’s been crafting her whole life. She says, “instead of playing with barbie dolls and tea sets, I was creating on my Fisher Price loom!” With an uncle who upholstered, a grandfather who paints watercolors, and a mom who jumps from craft to craft (among others in her family!), she was born to create.

Erin finds inspiration from the fabric she works with. “Most of the time I look at the fabric, and decide what type of bag would look best from that fabric.  I think most people do the opposite, draw up a bag then find the appropriate fabric.  I love going to the fabric shop and filling up my cart with gorgeous material.”

Upcycled Quilt Tote

I always like to ask crafters which item in their shop they would purchase or that they get the most use out of. Erin told me that she loves that she never has to go to the store for a new bag! She just snags one out of her inventory and she’s out the door.

Blue Spike Football Bag

Erin also creates other useful accessories such as business card holders, check book covers, diaper organizers, and car caddies. Recently, she’s also added knit accessories! I’m especially fond of these crocheted arm warmers.

Slouchy Arm Warmers

When asked what her goals are, Erin replied, “My goals are to have fun! I love making things.  The fact that people think they are cool, and buy them and use them makes me so giddy! [...] I’m still at the point where every time one of my creations sells I do a little happy dance, just because that sale means someone is going to be using something I made.”

Please check out Erin’s shop at ruju.etsy.com and her blog at rujuruju.blogspot.com.