2 Tone Whip Stitch Purse

i just loved how this bag came out. it started with making my partner's purse for her christmas present. things didn't work out quite right with that bag and i felt she deserved the best so i had to redo part of it. i was left with the flap. it was so pretty that i decided to make it work somehow in a purse. this is the end result. i decided to do a 2 tone bag as an experiment. i definately plan to do some more.

Java Brown Shoulder Bag

this week started off great when we got an etsy sale for my Java Brown Shoulder Bag. sweet...it was one of the first bags i'd made last summer and i really liked it. the women is giving it to her sister who had 'hearted' it on etsy. very nice and a great way to start the week. in fact, with walk in business so slow, our internet sales and networking activities are helping to keep us going.

Teapot Handle

part of the fun of doing leather work is getting 'special' requests. last saturday one of our best customers came in with a teapot that had had a wooden handle on it that had broken. she was wondering if i could put a leather handle on it. immediately i figured that the style that i use for my tote bags would work with just a simple modification. i said "sure" and finished it yesterday. it came out exactly like i'd imagined which doesn't always happen. we liked how it looked against the color of the teapot which was earthenware. she also bought one of my tote bags...the dark mahogany one, which was pretty cool.

Russet Whip Stitch Purse

i finished this bag today and really like how the color came out. let's see if other people like it as well...

Eyeglass Case

last saturday our little shop had our best business day in over a year. (better than any day in 2008 if you can believe it...it's true). what was great on saturday was that we didn't have a ton of people, but the weather warmed up after our cold snap and, as one customer said, "i just felt like shopping." and, again, our handmade items continue to be a hit. i sold my cranberry tote bag and Debra sold more of her washcloths. it was fun all around. on monday of this week we had another etsy order...this time for an eyeglass case which i had to make to get the color she wanted. the color - burgundy- was actually one i had made up, so it was interesting trying to duplicate it, which i think i did successfully. it is a base of range tan with cranberry added over it. i'm including my old photo here just for fun. i liked the color so much that i'm working on a new purse with the design i used for Debra's christmas gift. so far so good as far as the color goes. it's just a riot working with all the colors available now!!

man, has this ever been a busy time for us. we got our shop's inventory done and that felt great. we've been spending a lot of time recently openning new internet shops which has been fun. as a consequence i haven't had anytime to do any leather work. but i was looking at some of my items today and took a picture of a basket of small and medium cell phone cases. there's even a couple of eye glass cases there too. i thought it looked kind of pretty. by the way, the temperature has stayed below 0 degrees for the 3rd straight day in a row. it hasn't been this cold this long since 1996. we are nice and warm in our shop though.

First Sale of the New Year

it's always exciting when we sell something on line...especially in these tough economic times. so it was fun today get a sale from our Etsy site. the sale was one of my favorite bags-a dark purple pouch bag with a braided shoulder strap. (Braiding takes a while, but always gives a bag a nice look, i think). so, hopefully, this is the start of a good year for us!!