Simply XSBaggage

Summer Sherbert Dots

Hello bloggy friends! I've been busy at the sewing machine creating some delicious little pouches. I hope you'll hop over and take a look at them in my shop. Perfect for summer!

Cyber Monday Sale

According to Wikipedia: Cyber Monday is a marketing propaganda term that refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday being the busiest day of the year for retail electronic commerce in the United States.

So, like any good online retailer, I'm taking advantage of this 'marketing propaganda' and extending a sale to all of my lovely customers and blog readers.

My Wristlet Key Fobs are a great gift idea for co-workers, Moms, Teachers, and friends. And now for a limited time I'm offering them to you three for $15.!! That's a savings of $4.50!

I have over 30 styles in the shop right now, so hop on over here for the best selection! Your order will come wrapped and ready for gift-giving. (Please specify if you'd like them wrapped separately.)

I want to thank all of my customers who came out to the Sequim Open Aire Market at the Sequim Boys & Girls Club on Friday and Saturday. You all rock and I appreciate all of you!

What's going on in the shop?

Well, I had my last outdoor show a couple of weeks ago. And, I don't have another event on my calendar for a couple of weeks. So I've been spending my time sewing and getting ready for the fall/holiday shows that I'll be participating in, and which, by the way, will be here before I know it! Sometimes I feel like I'm always playing catch-up to get ready for the next 'thing'. Which not only includes 'making' but also being sure that I have enough supplies to get me through the next season. Keeping track of, and ordering in my supplies is a constant juggle. I've already started ordering some of the things I'll need to keep my production going through the Christmas season. Like this ginormous roll of interfacing:

That's 125 yards of interfacing. I feel sorry for the UPS man. He had to haul this and 2 giant boxes of pre-cut interfacing up my (approximately 20) front steps to deliver it to my front door. I felt like I should have at least offered him a protein bar or something.

Anyhoo, as usual, lots of sewing going on here.

And I unloaded all of the inventory from my van that I've been hauling around all summer, and brought it up to the studio so I could really figure out what 'holes' I needed to fill in my inventory. 

I like having it all hung up in my studio again. It's a feeling of accomplishment to see it all together. I made all of this!

I listed this new Bella Bag in the shop today:

I'm hoping to get more new items listed in the next few days.

A Rainbow of Damask

One of my Emma Handbags is featured in a Treasury over on Etsy. The theme of the Treasury is 'A Rainbow of Damask'. And I LOVE it! Look:

Damask will always be one of my favorite prints, in any color, and any scale.

This was curated by shop owner jenasopht. Her shop is filled with cool duct tape purses! Here's the link, you should take a look!

Featured: Black, White and Red All Over

Julie, of P and J Crafts, curated a beautiful Treasury featuring members of the Carried Away Bag Makers Team, over on Etsy. Check it out:

My Wristlet in Midnight Kisses is featured in the upper left-hand corner. Don't these items all look great together?!

Tomorrow look for a brand new weekly post here that I'm calling 'Nifty Thrifty Thursday'. Don't laugh, I know it sounds corny, but hopefully you'll find some useful, fun information. 

Promote A Sister Sunday

I recently joined an Etsy Team called 'Carried Away Bag Team'. It's a great resource for promoting the work of it's members (like me!), offering each other advice and sharing marketing and bag making ideas. On Sundays we're encouraged to promote another bag maker from the team, so today I'm happy to feature a fellow handbag creator from Georgia. 

This resourceful designer sometimes recycles sweaters and turns them into the most gorgeous bags! 

How great are those?! I am constantly astounded at the amount of talent these ladies on the Team have! Here's a link to Karen's shop. You really need to go have a look, because you won't believe some of the beautiful handbags she's made with sweaters! Might make you re-think sending those old sweaters to the Goodwill!

First Monday of the New Year!

It's the first Monday of the new year, and I'm working on checking things off of my to-do list. I started at 4:30 this morning, excited about getting started on that list. I've got a custom order to work on and a bunch of orders to package and mail out. Then I'll be sitting down to order supplies and fill out Craft Show applications for the upcoming season. 

And the list goes on and on....

It's still dark here, and I can hear the wind blowing the rain against my studio window. I'm so glad to be inside where it's warm!

Over on Etsy, Holly's Treasures made a lovely Treasury with turquoise and brown items and included one of my Slim Pouches. That was sweet! Here it is:

Love that little owl!

Man, has it been hard to be without my trusty old friend this weekend!! I feel all discombobulated without it. Like I'm working in slow motion. I have the old Pfaff all set up with everything I need within arm's reach. The Viking, not so much. I keep having to get up out of my chair for every little thing. oy! I sure hope the repair man calls today with the good news that it's ready to be picked up. Here's wishing and hoping....

My Love of Brown

I'm not sure when it started. I think it was not long after I started making handbags three years ago. I started sewing with combinations of brown fabrics and the more I used brown in my products the more I loved it! It's a rich, versatile color that can go with almost any other color.

I find myself having to be careful when I'm choosing new fabrics because if I were just sewing for myself it would be all brown, all the time. But, I'm not just sewing for myself. sigh. At the fabric market in Seattle last week where I order my new fabrics, I tried really hard to 'think outside the [brown] box'. I ordered fabrics in greens, turquoise, pinks, navy blue, blacks and grays, and well, a couple of blue/brown prints that I couldn't resist. 

You must admit though, brown is a great fall color! And always sells well too, I'm not the only one that *hearts* brown! And so, I'm able to justify making more handbags in my new favorite color. Let me show you what I've been working on:

New handbags and wristlets. By the way, my website is still down, so I've listed these in my Etsy shop.

I call that wristlet up there, 'Coffee at Tiffany's' because the velvet ribbon that I used on it reminds of the famous jeweler's color.

This one has gold sparkles in some of the flowers!

I made some new handbags too! And have more in the works:

I'm using some vintage buttons with the velvet ribbon on these. They should be in the shop later today or early tomorrow, depending on how my afternoon goes. So there you have it - lots of brown to keep the boss happy! 

Speaking of my afternoon: I'm so excited! I'm going to be going to the hospital to see my daughter-in-law's ultrasound, and we're going to find out if Isaac is getting a little brother or a little sister!! I can hardly wait!! I'll report back here with the exciting news!

Caged

Just had to show you this interesting Treasury that was put together by Etsy member studioabergine, featuring bird cage items.

There's my BirdCage Key Fob in the middle. Yay! I love that Pillow on the bottom row.

Okay, back to sewing. I have a big craft fair next weekend, The Sequim Lavender Festival, and then Arts In Action the following weekend. So I need to be sure that I have plenty of inventory for both. This will be my first year to be in Sequim for the Lavender Festival, but it promises to be big crowds. It's my third year at Arts In Action, and I know I always do really well there. I just hope I can get enough done between now and then. 

Off to sew.....

Cherries on Sweet Figments

Such a busy weekend that I'm a little late sharing this sweet blog that featured one of my handbags on Friday:

Thank you Sweet Figments! Connie is the writer and she does a wonderful job of featuring handmade sellers. She is also an artist/crafter and her online shop is super fun!

I am loving these little cuties:

But those are just one example of the super cute items in her shop. Go check it out! (And, pssst! She's offering free shipping right now!) Yay!