Cleaning up

I've been cleaning out closets this week. Yeah, lots of fun. It didn't take long to figure out that we have way too much of too things - fabric and old cycling clothes.

I've been listing fabric in my shop all morning and I still have quite a bit to go. Most of it is newish fabric, but I'll have some vintage listings up at some point. Those are going to be a bear to ship... they are heavy home decor fabrics.

Later today, I'm going to start listing the cycling clothes on ebay. I think it is uber gross to wear used cycling shorts, but people buy them and all I can say is "ewwww".

Taylor's First Triathlon

I'm the proudest mama ever! Taylor completed a triathlon on Sunday and had the time of her life.

Her age group swam 25 feet,

rode 1/4 mile,

and ran 100 yards.

Fortunately, they were allowed to wear a life jacket in the swim and have training wheels for the bike. She was the second girl to finish in her group, but I am most proud of the way she handled the race. She crashed her bike when her training wheel slipped off the wet pavement and scraped her knees, but she got right back up and kept going with a big ol' smile. She also did the race with her bestest buddy and the her first words across the finish line were "H, that was SO MUCH FUN!" I don't think the smile left her face one time (well, maybe just a second when she crashed), but she was in it for the fun. All the kids got a big metal when they crossed the finish line which was way cool. And, the proceeds from the race went to a really great cause: Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. If you haven't heard of it, check it out.

Is that something crafty????

Oh, yeah it is! That's right, I made something today! And, it happens to be my favorite of all the seat bags I've ever made. My internet pal Kiley asked me if I could come up with something to go with her husband's bike (a beautiful brown/rootbeer color)... and tadaaa! 

Some of you already know that there's a coffee roaster called Kona Cloud in my husband's shop that keeps me stocked with coffee bean sacks. They can be a real bugger to work with, though, because they are super duper lint-y and ravel-y. But, I really wanted to make a seat bag with one, so I figured out how to work around all that. First, before I cut out my pattern, I traced it onto the sack and sewed just inside of that line with my machine.  After I cut out the pattern, I fused a piece of muslin to the backsides. You know, it worked really well and gave the bag some really nice structure. I still didn't want to try that with the smaller pieces where the zipper is, so I just used black canvas (should go great, since he has black bar tape). 

So nice to do something crafty and right-brain challenging today!