"Purse Pocket"

As the winter sun is setting my bright yellow bag has a new custom made purse organizer!

I will post the "how to" tomorrow.

Yellow Bag Project #1

The problem with this yellow bag is the inside...there is no lining....its like a black hole...no real pockets or compartments.

Last fall Oprah featured a handbag organizer on one of her "favorite things" show. My Mom called me hot on the trail for this item that was only available at the Container Store...poor her, no Container Store in Santa Fe. I headed over there and snagged the LAST one...and then had to decide if I should be a good daughter and give it to my Mom or keep it for myself...Mom won.

The "handbag organizer" is just what this bag needs and it looked really easy to make... plus I get to make my own fabric choices!

...........so that is my Saturday afternoon project....finished product coming soon....

Yellow Bag

I have an idea for a project and it involves this new yellow bag...that I bought 1/2 price from JCrew. More later.

J'amie le verre de blue francais

One of my favorite collections!

I have been formulating a plan to move my quilt journal to either a new blog or a folder on this blog and revive the essence of froo*gal because that is where my heart really is and my ideas are starting to pop again...I feel like I needed the quilt journal to kick start my creativity.

I have such an urge to continue my love of fashion and design and feel that the universe is calling the froo*gal spirit in that direction. It may take a few days to move things in that direction so bear with me.

Belated Christmas Gift for the Girl That Has Everything

I must confess that Christmas came and went in the twinkling of Santa's eye. As I mentioned in my last post, I worked at Neiman Marcus for the holidays AND continuing my Ebay business. I was wrapping gifts for customers until 5pm Christmas Eve...needless to say not a whole lot of holiday cheer left my house this year so on the 16th of January I was busy making a gift for my college roommate and long lost friend who is part of the higher echelon of a most famous retailer...I won't name names but the background of my photo should give you a hint

....so what do you give the girl that has diamonds at her fingertips...for me I have always chosen to "craft" my dear friend a gift!

J. Crew had these cute little bug pins in their holiday catalog that caught my eye and I just knew that I could improve on the design and add my own touch. This little pile of fabric and beads had been on my work table since November and finally came together yesterday and will be winging its way to the "Big Ap" next week....I hope I will be forgiven my tardiness!

New Year New Juice Old Projects

I just finished reading a comment on my last blog entry from Jennspiration and it was just the jump start that I needed to write a new entry...sometimes I spend too much time thinking about what I will write and end up not writing at all.

Since September I have consistently read cjanerun (who btw just won the Weblog Awards for Best Major Blog) I have realized that I don't always have to have a purpose or a goal for every entry...I just need to DO IT after all cjane has a baby under a year old and has taken on the care of her sisters 4 children after her sister and her husband were badly burned in a plane crash.... if cjane can find the time to write witty and uplifting blogs nearly every day I can certainly find the time...how about if my goal is writing an entry everyday with a picture... it can even be 1 line or paragraph, I just need to be consistent...OK! I have verbalized my intent...or should I say "blogalized"!

I have been thinking a lot lately about "unfinished projects" and yesterday I dragged a dust covered box out from under the bed and when I opened it this(see picture above) was on the top.......this is a block for a quilt that I started 3 or 4 years ago, at a time when I had hours every day to devote to creative pursuits...sadly it doesn't look like that will happen any time soon with our economy failing and the bank account dwindling...so the challenge now, for me personally, is to try and find a few minutes each day to give myself some JUICE!

Creativity has always been my form of meditation and relaxation. I have come to realize that starting this blog last year, one of the busiest years of my life, was an attempt to hold a place for myself in my creative world and in many ways I was able to achieve that goal...however, the "not buying anything new" goal?...that is another story...one that I don't care to focus on now...I failed to make it to the end of 08 but I did make it until August....WOW!!!

Then....it all slowly came undone...but not in TOO bad of a way and to be perfectly honest I think I have always been a froo*gal, I just needed to stop using credit cards...like millions of other Americans...so onward and upward....believe it or not I actually ended the year working at Neiman Marcus so you can imagine the temptation there...30% discount (a couple of times even an EXTRA 30 off already marked down merch!!!!!)...try NOT SHOPPING in the Emporium of Style with that incentive...anyway...I digress.....

......so....about the daily creative activity that will actually WORK for me...you know the "middle of the night idea" I had...so this is it......

A QUILT A DAY...I am not talking a bed size quilt here, I am talking about a 16 patch...I am also not talking about stitching...I am actually trying to come up with a way I can make my quilts... easy to assemble, small, paper or fabric glued to paper, in a book, journal style, with NO LIMITS only that I have to document each day on this blog with a tiny quilt.

The goal is to CUT & PASTE 16 tiny squares into a journal every day.........let the journey begin.