Oh, the Pressure! New Flickr Group

Today, I got an invite to join a new group on Flickr called "Design a Day" from gemmafactrix. Her challenge: "make something new every day for a month. You can continue on for longer, of course, but the idea is to create a new design, however simple, every day for a month. Often I get so caught up in selling my work - taking photos, packaging, shipping, updating my website - that I forget to just enjoy creating. Hopefully this group will help me - and you - do that. :)"

I accepted almost without thinking.

Am I crazy? Do I not have a full time job away from crafting? Do I not already have to push myself most days to complete and post a photo for my "Crafting 365" challenge? What was I thinking?

Well, Day one wasn't too hard because I came home from work with the idea that I needed to make myself a new case for my Smartphone. I made a cute felted one 6 months ago or so (it was actually a failed IPOD holder for my shop, I think) and I've received lots of nice comments on it, but I was tired of the stylus falling out of my Smartphone (guess it isn't all that smart after all) and getting lost. The other case was open where the stylus went in. Here's the old one:


The photo at the very top of this post, the Teal Blue one, is my finsihed Design a Day --Day 1. And I'm very pleased with it. The braided wool wraps around under the button and then around the case to hold it closed. I used a trick my mother taught me of putting a match stick between the button and the case while I sewed the button on so there would be room for the wrapping. This worked great except for the fact that as I was designing on "the fly", I had to sew the button on when the case was already assembled...not an easy task. That's what I get for being creative, aka poor planning.

Here are a few other photos of the case and a couple of the little heart ornaments I also finished tonight for my Etsy shop and posted as my Day 94 of Crafting 365. I started these months ago but couldn't seem to complete them until now. They are, of course, made from recycled sweaters scraps (what else!).
I'm going to try to keep my creations/posts for the Design a Day and the Crafting 365 separate, but we'll see how long that lasts.




I also recieved a wonderful box of goodies from Knitting warehouse...the ingredients for my Moderne Baby Blanket. I love the colors even more "in person" than when I selected them via the website.