One Year Anniversary for StoryIsEverlasting

Good morning everyone,

This morning I was just browsing through my Etsy shop and realized that it opened on Sept 26 of last year. Wow almost a whole year has passed. I cannot believe how fast time has went. So with that being said, on Sept 26 I will be posting a special discount code that can be used in my shop from Sept 26-Oct 3. One week of discounts! If you have not visited my Etsy shop, the link is www.etsy.com/shop/storyiseverlasting

I hope everyone is doing well.

A morning inspirational quote:

Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment – this day – is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day–each moment of this day–a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity. - Dan Custer

Where have I been?

Well after reviewing my previous posts, I see that I have a bit of updating to do. The new job with the county is going well and when I thought I would have more time to do crafts on Fridays, that has not been the case these past few months. This last quarter, I decided to take on a full 12 units on top of working full-time......so my weeks were Monday-Thursday work from 7am-6pm and then class from 6:30pm-9:30pm. Just thinking about it, the word exhaustion comes to mind. But as of June 14th, I am free from school until the end of September. Well I am taking an online Spanish class, but it's not too tough.

However I did not stray away from all crafts. A family friend had a baby shower to attend so I created a project similar to this:

And here are a few other things I created:

Padded cover for MacBook Pro

Flower Clips for hair

Bow Headband

Custom decorated TOMS - Disney style

As you can see, I tried to stay as busy as possible with my projects. The flowers were created with extra material from various projects. The headband was created from a printed fabric that I found in a clearance section. As for the custom decorated TOMS, I woke up this morning with the idea to make them Disney themed. If you would like to purchase any of these, please visit my site at: StoryIsEverlasting.

merry christmas to alll

I have come to realize that I definitely need to keep up with my posts more often. Since the last post, I have been pretty busy....for one the new county job is starting to take over my life. Working 9.5 hours is something that I am NOT used to at all. But the great thing is that I have Fridays off, which should be deemed as my "Craft Days". So just recently I've created a few new things. I've made a couple more scarfs, some earrings, and also some more hair pieces. And about a month ago, I received an order for some baby blocks with bells inside for a baby girl, which are absolutely fun to make. To go even further back, I also received an order from one of my Aunt's for the entire baby collection for a girl, and that too came out absolutely wonderful.

In my previous post, I had mentioned that I wanted to buy some of the blackboard vinyls, and sad to say, I still haven't done so yet. Darn! But I do indeed plan on buying them the beginning of next year. I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and keep a lookout for new items in my Etsy Shop.

when there's an ending there's another beginning....

So recently, maybe about a month ago, I applied for a county job with the referral from a friend. I was invited to do the computerized assessment and was called in for not 1, not 2, but for 3 different interviews for 3 different programs. Long story short, one of the interviews liked me and offered me a position as an eligibility technician. For those who don't know, an ET interviews applicants to see if they qualify for public social services. This new position is extremely exciting to me because my major is social work and I will be working alongside social workers. So how I see it....I'm going to get paid to work and gain more knowledge.

I already put in my two weeks to my boss and I'm sad to be leaving this place since I've been here for 4 years. It's crunch time to find someone to take my position and I hope they will live up to my boss' expectations. The earliest I would begin is December 1st. And I am happy to say that my hours will change to a 10/40 schedule, 4 days Mon-Thur 10 hour shifts. Which means I will have Fridays off. Which means more projects I can complete....yay. I have a couple of things in mind I want to do, but first off I need to get organized.

I have decided to purchase a few of these. Chalkboard vinyl panels. At first I was thinking a white board but my walls are already white and since the color scheme of my room is black and maroon, chalkboard seemed to be the more logical choice. The panels have a sticky back and I'm debating on placing them directly on my walls or putting them in a frame and hanging it on my walls.

This product can be found on JanDeeCrafts Etsy Page.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope to be posting more in the future. As some of you may agree being a full-time student and working full-time doesn't really allow much time for fun crafting. Be sure to stop by my Etsy page too....StoryIsEverlasting. Thank you.

xoxo

the latest projects completed...

After completing my "baby shower collection" gifts, I grew a fond of sewing. It was definitely not something that I had anticipated, but I became intrigued by taking simple items and creating beautiful finished products. I posted a few pictures of the "baby shower collection" on Facebook and have been asked to complete a collection for a baby girl. I feel so bad since it is taking me awhile to complete because I am so busy with school. But it is my goal to begin sewing tomorrow. My first baby collection was for a boy and I'm very excited to do this next collection for a girl.

In addition to the "baby shower collection", I was asked by Erica's mom to make a door draft stopper. She already had one but it was getting old. Erica and I made a trip to LA on October 8th to go look for some fabric. Unfortunately because it was a Saturday, not many fabric vendors were open, but nonetheless we were able to find what we needed. We found a beautiful maroon with palm trees for the door draft stopper and I found the printed fabric I wanted to use for the baby collection. On top of that, I offered to make a baby parrot tutu for my baby cousin Taylor. Taylor's older siblings were going to be pirates for Halloween, and Erica suggested having Taylor be the parrot. So my thinking cap came on and I decided it would be cute if Taylor used a tutu with just a red top. So on my trip to LA I also bought red, yellow, blue, and green tulle and ribbon. Below are pictures of the completed projects.

Here are a few pics of the tutu. I have no idea why they are all sideways. Sorry but I guess you'll just have to tilt your head to get the right view. 

Here are pics of the door draft stopper for Erica's mom. I must say she loved it greatly too. :)

And here is a single picture of Susan's door draft stopper.

I am so excited on how wonderful everything is turning out. For Halloween, Erica and I were Mr. Fredrickson and Russell from the movie Up and I made a bow-tie for Erica. The first one I made was way too small and I didn't want to throw it away.....so this is what I did....





I secured the bow in my hair with bobby pins. And the creation of a new idea....with my extra scraps of fabric I will use them for bows. :)

Thank you for reading my post and make sure to check in every once in awhile. I have also been graphic designing birthday cards and invitations. That will be a new post in the future.
I have also created my own Etsy shop where my items are on sale. Please feel free to browse by clicking on the link...Story Is Everlasting

xoxo

homemade baby shower gifts...

This past Saturday I attended a friend's baby shower. She being very creative herself (her blog is {Love:Sparkle:Pretty}, I figured it would be fitting to be creative on her baby shower gifts. For about a full day, I searched and searched online for ideas one what I could make for her and her little man Levi. A few projects I was interested in were burp towels, bibs, and soft block toys with bells inside. I took a trip to the fabric store and was overwhelmed with excitement to find so many cute little boy patterns.

Then it came time to sew everything together. The only setback was....I didn't know how to sew. So with a little crash course from my mommy, I decided to start with the burp towels first since it was just straight line sewing. And here is how they came out. One side is a cute pattern print and the other side is a complimenting color in terry cloth.

Next I worked on the soft block toys. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the blocks completely finished, but here is a picture of one without it being stuffed, and a few scraps of fabric laying around.

Lastly, I put my sewing skills to the test and tried sewing bibs. The first one didn't turn out so well, it was too small, but perfection takes practice. Here are two pics on how they came out:

And instead of purchasing a card, I decided to make the card for her. Here is how it came out with the envelope:

 I "stole" this picture from Kayla's facebook. But thought it would be cute to include the 3 of them.

In addition to the burp cloths, soft block toys, and bibs, my mother made a blanket for the new baby Levi. Again I didn't take a picture of the blanket alone, but it came out wonderful. Instead of putting Levi's gifts in a gift bag Erica and I decided to put it into a basket. A quick trip to the thrift store and we found the perfect basket to fit everything. And here is a layout of everything: (here you can see the blocks and the blanket)

And as much as I hoped, the mommy-to-be enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you Kayla for letting Erica and I be apart of your wonderful baby shower.

progress....

I believe it was a couple of weeks ago I posted about a life-fulfilling experience. Well here is an update on my progress. If you have not read already, I am putting together a fundraiser where proceeds will benefit the Pasadena Ronald McDonald House. Since my family has been bowling for years we figured it would be a fun event to have is be a bowling fundraiser. I contacted multiple bowling centers for pricing and to see if they would be able to accommodate my requests. Luckily, Brunswick Classic Lanes quoted me a reasonable price that includes the bowling, shoes, pizza, and soda. (Next week I will discuss the final details with the event coordinator and put it into the books.)

So the flyers have been created and so has the Facebook page Bowling for Ronald McDonald House. If you click on that page, and look under events there are details about the bowling fundraiser. Next, my family tried to decide how we could also increase revenue for the RMH. We came up with the idea where volunteers will wear custom screen-printed shirts during the event (so people can locate them for assistance) and will also take any orders to purchase the shirts. Also we will be holding a raffle so people can purchase tickets for a variety of prizes.

When dealing with the raffle, it was evident that we needed assistance from our friends and the community to donate anything they can. So far we have received donations of gift certificates to restaurants, hair salons, and 2 skateboards are being donated. I drafted a donation letter last week and mailed them about to about 30 businesses and also emailed a few companies. Hopefully within the next week I will receive a response. I know that I have about 2 months until the fundraiser, but the Capricorn inside of me can't stand to do things in the last minute.

So flyers are done, and donation letters are sent out. Then I began to think about the future. I am hoping to have an annual bowling fundraiser, but wanted to come up with some sort of organization where we can donate to the Make-A-Wish foundation. The Ronald McDonald House and the Make-A-Wish foundation are two things that are dear to my family. Although we were not able to grant my sister's wish due to her passing, my family is grateful for being considered. After deliberating the thought of creating an organization, my family has agreed to come up with "Kanani's Dreamz" (here is the link: Kanani's Dreamz). Our mission is to assist families with ill-children. Although Kanani was not able to fulfill her dreams, we hope to assist other children to fulfill theirs.

Yes all this is very stressful. Especially since I will be starting school again next week. But when I close my eyes to breathe, I remind myself that I'm making progress...