Bag lady...

Hello!

The sun is finally peaking through the clouds after a rainy night and morning, and I am so thankful it is because tonight is the big "Räbelichtliumzug" in our village. This is an annual event whereby the kids carve turnips, aka Räben, put a candle inside them and carry them on a stick through the village with their school class. It is kind of like carving a jack-o-lantern except it is taboo to cut entirely through the fleshy bits of the turnip. And I have to say, these turnips must have growth hormones or something because the one we carved this year is about the size of a small soccer ball! Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to parading around the village in the rain, so am VERY happy to see the sun shining this afternoon! Below is an image from Google for other Räbelichtli since I haven't taken a picture yet of Miss A with her monster...

BUT, this post is not really about Räbelichtli!! I wanted to share a few of my recent bags that I was busy making on the weekend. I think I made 7-8 bags this weekend, along with a few key chains using some of my new key chain fobs that I got on our recent trip to the US. I do miss all the "stuff" from the US that is just so unbelievably expensive in Switzerland...

I found this cute box pouch on Pinterest (used this tutorial)

I love this gathered clutch also found on Pinterest (from this tutorial)

The flower print bag shown above is one I designed on the weekend and in spite of the work involved, I just LOVE IT!!  It uses the same concept of gathering the bottom but then I added a top piece to sew a little outside zipper pocket into (for keys, phone, etc) and it has 4 small pockets inside for credit cards, etc. It is also a bit larger than the other clutches to allow for a few more essentials that all women need to carry with them (and yes, we NEED our lotions and potions, dear men in our lives!). I'm thinking the next one I make like this will have a thin strap that one can hang on/across the shoulder. One of these days, I will get my act together and put together a tutorial for it...

Hope you are all having a good week so far! I'll be back soon with more sneak peaks at some of the things I'm making for our market!

J xx

Christmas is coming!!!!!!

Wow, time has sure flown by and I've been pretty pathetic about posting anything... Guess that's what happens when you go on vacation for a couple weeks, have a hobbling hubby who has two partially torn ligaments in his ankle and have two adorable (yet demanding) kiddos; oh and a house that needs cleaning every once in awhile!

So, this will be a short post to let you know I am back in action and BUSY preparing lots of goodies for our Arts & Crafts Christmas Market that we plan to have at my house at the end of November. My lovely neighbor and I did this a couple of years ago after determining that the somewhat larger Christmas markets were not as much fun (more foot traffic, but less purchases for the time invested). We are so excited to have five vendors this year, including ourselves, all selling handmade products from jewelry to paintings to handbags to scarves...and lots of other bits and bobs, too! I've been cranking away this week making cards and tags and will try to post some in the coming days. I seriously wish I could clone myself for the next 4 weeks!

Hope you are well and gearing up for the holiday season!
J xx