small magazine - the long story

                                            

                                             

I'm just going to go ahead and retract that vow I made about trying not to post ridiculously long blog entries. It's just really not in my nature to make long stories short. And to me, everything is a long story. 

Speaking of stories, here's one for ya'!

This is a story of how those precious photos above came about.

 Until recently, I had never checked out the online Small Magazine. I had only heard Nick mention working for them here and there. Well, Nick and Valerie asked me to make a couple of costumes for the boys for a Small Mag photo shoot. I saw it as an opportunity to finally use my sewing abilities for something other than making Christmas gifts...my boys and I would get a little moment to shine in a small local project. 

 I whipped out Elliot's Little Indian costume in a mere 3 hours with downright CONFIDENCE I tell ya'! So of course, I took a well deserved week long break from costume making, rewarding myself generously for being so efficient. During my break, I began to realize that Small Magazine was more than just... well, a small magazine. Valerie mentioned that Amy Karol at Angry Chicken, blogs about each new issue of Small. Angry Chicken, for those of you that are complete strangers to any sort of online crafting community, is only one of THEEE most well known crafty blogs. I even own her book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing.

Apparently Small is everywhere!
I checked ol' Small Magazine out for myself and felt shivers creeping up my spine. WHAT? It was beautiful. AND bountiful. AND informative. AND BIG! And it had some absolutely beautiful photos.  
 I then, of course, became nervous and extended my sewing sabbatical. Isn't that the perfectly logical thing to do? After all, it only took a couple of hours to make an Indian costume. Well, Oli's costume was another story. I changed it several times. First I was going to make a Pilgrim costume, but Oli would never keep that huge hat on. Then I talked myself out of a Cowboy, Scarecrow, Killer Tomato (definitely in the works for future Halloweens), and best of all, a member of Devo. I just couldn't figure out how to make a decent energy dome for the life of me! None of my ideas seemed Small Magazine worthy.
Alas! While I was brainstorming, Oli walked up looking perfectly pinocchio-ish. Thank you Oli! You're a life saver! Once I settled on pinocchio, the project went swimmingly...

Until Elliot got ahold of my sewing scissors and had to go to the emergency room for 3 stitches! 

Remember mommas! Your toddler's short little arms are longer than you think!

I'm working on some tutorials so that you can make your own.  They're pretty easy and very fun to make! 

blog launch

I used to not be able to think of enough reasons to start a blog. Now, I can't think of enough reasons not to. In fact, it even got written on my to-do list which is reserved for my especially pressing responsibilities. The "why-not?"s outweighed the "why?"s.

• I habitually write in a journal anyway, and it gets snatched out of my grasp every few seconds by one of my little monkey babies.
• I best collect my thoughts and ideas through writing (versus trying to hear myself think over monkey squeals) and I've decided that I need more accountability to encourage me to follow through.
• I now have an Etsy shop called FlyMail that I will be sharing with Priya and Valerie, that I need to shamelessly promote, of course.
• I've come to realize that my lovely friend Valerie, who claims she's not the type to pressure people into doing things that they don't want to do, would feel a lot better if she no longer had to pressure me into doing something I don't want to do. And I think she might know...
• ... that I've secretly wanted to start a blog, but was feeling a little shy about it. I actually used to type journal entries into "notepad" just to erase them when I was done. That seems a little crazy doesn't it? No more confessions today.
• AND last but not least, I needed a place to post a sorta'-tutorial for the costumes that I made for the Fall '08 issue of Small Magazine., which I will do in a separate blog entry to keep it simple.
  

So, you see? I belong here! Hopefully this will be interesting for all of us. I vow to try and:

• post pictures of kittens.
• not advertise FlyMail at the expense of your attention. (click there to be promptly directed away from my blog)
• not type all blog entries in webdings as tempting as it may be.
• share some delicious vegan recipes.
• share tutorials for things I made or that others made.
• share music and videos that I love.
• not post ridiculously long blogs such as this one.

The End?