Color Coordinate your Closet Space

Woman's Day July 1969
from the article 100 ways to stretch your storage space

Ok, let's be honest. I want this closet. With all its boxes and clever storage tricks. I want all my closets to look like this. Maybe go a little crazy and pick different color themes for different closets. How i dream to be so stylish and organized!

So what are we learning here? If you have a closet with a bit of room inside, you can do like they did back then, build a frame-and-shelf unit and nail it to the door. A strip of lattice is attached to shelf edges to keep things from sliding off.

And how clever, they clipped painted metal bookends to the door to keep rolls of gift wrap organized! One thing i ask myself when, in my mind, i'm already getting my toolbox out, i wonder where i would ever find those triangle book ends!

Oh, here you go, The Kitchen. Tell me you love it.

Hey wasn't putting empty baby food jars under shelfs a big hit like, last year in the crafting blogs? They were already doing the exact same thing, screwing the lids to the shelf, in 1969!
For the record, i'm not hating, if i had a shelf and a collection of babyfood jars, i would want to make that set up too.

I also like the blue baskets holding the utensils on the left very much, they are set on dowels drilled into pine strips. What? Don't ask me, i'm just reading to you what it says in the magazine.. Continue. Dowel ends are finished with wooden knobs.

I must say, their use of color is sublime. You can love it or hate it, but back then they knew what to do with color.
Put it everywhere!

You and Me against the world

I don't want this blog to become a depressing place to visit. I hope this new month will bring some more good news than bad. But i do want to give a quick update on what happened last week before i move on to more fun things (crafts and vintage adventures!)
About my sprained hip due to getting hit by a car, i am getting better. It has been a week ago today and i haven't been outside yet. Yes, i am a bit of a homebody, but this is crazy even for me. I am finally starting to "walk" again, even though it's still with a walking cane. I can definitely see and feel progress in recovery!
I am still feeling blessed that i came out of it like i did. Thank you for all your support!

And thank you for all the love and support in regards to our worries with the CIS. The worries are still there, but we are working on getting this straight. I still cannot truly believe they don't believe us. But no time for all that, i'm getting more paperwork together and we've already received some affidavit letters from friends testifying our love is true. And more letters are on their way. I cannot think of what a worse case scenario would entail. I just cannot let my thoughts go there. This must be solved. It must.

Just before the accident i found this adorable 1970 Fran Mar print. Isn't it fitting with what we're going through right now? I loved it before, and i love it even more now. It hangs on the wall next to my desk, and every time i look at it, i think, we can do this!

This is not my week: CIS doesn't believe us

I'm still recovering from the accident. I now can move around the apartment a bit with my cane, but no way i can get outside yet. Can sit up for like 15 minutes before my hip protests. Even though i am still hurting, at least i see there is progress. I will get better. Thank you all so much for the well wishes. My hubby read them all to me and they really gave me some needed support.

So what's happening now? Well if you have been following my blog for a while now you will know that me and my husband we're in a 7+ year long distance relationship before we got to the point of getting married and filing for my visa to be able to finally be together here in NY. It was a long road to travel, but being here now makes it worth it. The last i told you all about was that i had to apply for a renewal of my greencard since we hadn't been married for over 2 years before i moved here. Again that process asked a lot of us, sending in proof that we are actually a loving married couple living together. We sent in everything we had, utility bills, our apartment lease, photographs, affidavits of people that know us, joint health insurance, joint tax returns, everything. It's a humbling experience, but if that is what it takes, we'll do it. We know we're legit so what could happen right?

Well, wrong. Yesterday i got a letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The evidence submitted with your form is insufficient. ... The evidence you submitted with your petition does not establish that you and your spouse have entered into a legitimate marital relationship. ... may result in the termination of your conditional resident status and your possible removal from the United States.

This is not my week. I can still not believe it. It's one of those things. We try to do everything the right way. We work hard to make a living, we try not to bother anyone, we do everything the system asks of us, and they just tell us they don't believe us.

Again they have sent the list of documents they think would prove a loving marital relationship. We've been through that list and everything we had we have sent.
Sorry that we weren't lucky enough to have already conceived a baby together.
Sorry we are not rich enough to own a house and have a mortgage. Or own a car, vacation home or time share.
Sorry we don't have any debts and thus loan papers to show.

So what's next? After the sadness, frustration and anger its now on to more action. I have already printed out all the blogposts i have written throughout the years about our process, about our love. The interview my husband did for the Heart Handmade blog as part of the Other Half series. We will send them even more photographs of the two of us together. I will send them a copy of my book where there is a special note to thank my loving husband, we will ask everybody that know us for a affidavit letter testifying that they know us and know our love is real. How many people didn't tell us over the years that because of seeing us together they believe in true love again? Apparently the CIS doesn't feel that.
I will step over any pride i may have left and ask for help.
The US government doesn't believe us? We will have to make them believe. They have never met us, didn't come by on an unannounced visit, didn't do an interview, just went through our paperwork and decided they think we are not legitimate.

I woke up this morning thinking for a split second this whole week was a bad dream. Until i felt the burning pain in my hip and saw the blue letter laying on my desk.
We need to be strong now and get this done. We are for real. We are.
Now only to convince the system of that.

I was hit by a car

If you follow me on twitter, you might found out already. The title of this post is not cryptic nor meant to be funny. I was really hit by a car while crossing the street yesterday.

There was nothing i could do except yelling No No No NO until i was on the hood of the car and fell to the ground when the car came to a stop. Everything went real quick and i was very scared. Out of nowhere there were all these people around me i saw some making phonecalls (later i found out 911 got a LOT of calls for me, thank you unknown people for doing that!) There was this nice nurse that happened to see me and she kneeled down beside me and started talking to me, helped me call my husband and she stayed with me until more help arrived. I remember seeing the lady that drove the car, but she didnt speak to me. I don't know what happened to her. I don't know if she stayed until the cops came, i don't know what she told them what happened. I do know i heard sirens real quick, i was told it was a firetruck but i could see it. Then there were all these firefighters surrounding me, taking over. Putting me onto one of those hard boards, strapping my neck and taping my head to the board. They asked me a lot of questions. I don't even remember what exactly. I was so embarrassed being on the road like that. I do remember i kept saying it wasn't that bad, that i just wanted to get out of the street. But since i was pretty far away from the crossing they had to strap me like that. Than i felt someone cutting my pants open and i freaked. No i didn't care about the pants, but i was already so embarrassed. I didn't want to be there on the ground in the rain exposed like that. So i started yelling at the firefighters. Really. Freaking out. (i apologized later) My left hip was hurting like hell but i could still move my right leg, so i crossed my right leg tightly over the left so that man that was cutting couldn't proceed. Yes i understand, they need to do that. They need to check if i was bleeding. But i wasn't. I told them. I said have some compassion. If it was your mother or sister laying here, you wouldn't want her to be exposed like that. Please do it somewhere inside or when the ambulance gets here. Please. So the only thing they could do was strap my legs as they were, crossed. At that point the ambulance got there and those two men were really kind to me. But i was so scared being lift up and put in the ambulance. You know, you really have no say in what happens when you get in an accident. People just take over your life at that point. They took my heart rate which was crazy high. Someone else entered the ambulance at that point. With my head strapped to the board i couldn't see nothing that wasn't right above my face. I was told it was a cop for my statement. As good as i could i told him what happened. I really needed to calm down. I was so scared and felt very alone. Especially realizing all my family is living on the other side of the globe. Plus my parents happen to be on vacation in Portugal somewhere. I was relieved when we started driving, at the emergency room it wasn't long before my husband arrived. Oh how great it feels to see your Love at a time like that.
I wasn't so scared anymore.

So i went through the motions of checkups and got xrays taken and was told nothing was broken. It was an experience i wish i hadn't experienced, but i know i am very blessed to come out of it just heavily bruised up and with a sprained hip. The hospital gave me a cane, but i can't say it help a lot with walking. It hurts! So i'm on painkillers and need to lay down for a couple of days to let it heal.
It took me like almost 15 minutes to get from the bed to the computer, so i doubt i will be online a lot until i feel better.

I met a lot of caring people yesterday and i came across some very annoying people. Nevertheless i am so thankfull to be here. To be healing. It could have been way worse.

How to make a fake fur stole wrap

Let me start by saying this, i think you could wear an elegant short faux fur cape every day.
But since we're nearing Halloween this tutorial might come especially in handy.
You have this wonderful costume but you don't want to completely cover it with a jacket?
Whip up a stylish stole! Quick and easy!

What you need:
Faux fur (39" or 98cm by 12" or 30cm)
Lining fabric (39" or 98cm by 12" or 30cm)
Piece of Velcro (1.5" or 4cm)
Pretty brooch (optional)

You don't need any special patterns, you can measure, draw and cut the needed pieces directly on the (wrong side) of the fabric.

Now call upon your inner Tim Gunn and make it work!

Since i adore everything that is soft, i went for pink fleece for the lining. Ofcourse you can use pretty smooth and shiny lining fabric!

- Do a "test wrap": Place the two pieces of fabric on top of each other(wrong sides facing) and locate where you want the cape to close, where you need to put the pieces of Velcro. On your right side it will be somewhere on top corner of the (right side) of the faux fur. On your left side it will be somewhere on the top corner of the (right side) of the lining fabric. Mark these locations with a pin.
Note: Keep a 0.5" or 1cm seam allowance in mind! Don't place the Velcro too close to the edge of the fabric.


- Sew the Velcro pieces where you just placed the marks. (i used some pink Velcro, since it matches my stole, but the color doesn't really matter)
- Pin both pieces of fabric (faux fur and lining) on top of each other, right sizes facing. Make sure the pieces of Velcro are on the same long edge on opposite sides.
- Sew all the way around, leaving an opening of approx 6" or 15cm to turn inside out later.
- Cut of the corners.

- Turn the cape inside out through the seam opening and sew the opening shut.
- Wrap the cape around you and pin the brooch on the faux fur where the two corners come together. The brooch won't be what keeps the cape wrapped, the Velcro will do this. The brooch is purely for decoration.

Voila! Enjoy your stole wrap!

Oh, i got to mention this in case you don't realize this already, it's for non-commercial use only. You may not sell items made from this tutorial.

Features on Etsy

image taken from craftcult

Hard work is starting to pay off.
It was a nice surprise seeing my views jump up recently. Immediately i knew my shop, or something in it had to be featured somewhere for this to happen so suddenly.
Thanks to sites as craftcult its easy to track down.
Not only were my vintage puppies lithographs in an Etsy vintage giftguide, now also the mounted deer head got its share of attention. In the Storque of all places!
Ok, not actually in one of the Storque articles that is send out in the Etsy newsletters, but in the related items list right under a Storque spotlight article! Top row!

You know, a while ago one of my handmade items made it to the frontpage. That was a rush. If you frequent the Etsy forums you will quickly notice making it to the front page is a big goal for a lot of sellers. I think it can work for your views and sales very well. But don't forget the front page lists rotate a lot, so your item will be there for a relative short while only. If that's at an off peak time you won't necessarily notice a lot of action in your shop.

The feature in the giftguide was special. Since my husband made the "Ismoyo on Etsy" song not too long before that feature. So we were extra excited. And a good thing about the giftguide is that your item stays there for a while. I don't know how long, i heard stories that when it sells, it disappears. But also that Etsy admins can decide to take things out again. It got me lots of views, some hearts and a couple of sales that might or might not came because of the giftguide.

So far the Storque has been the best exposure for me. Lots of views, not only on the item that made it into the storque, but also my other items were viewed more. Plus many new shop hearts. And as a business owner, the most important one, extra sales! The Storque article went live this past weekend, then Monday we had Columbus day so Tuesday i went to the postoffice with my arms full of packages. Lovely!
Just as with a feature in the gift guides, the Storque stays up there too. So shoppers can still find you through there. The deer head has sold, but the listing is still there!

I can only dream how wonderful the day would be when one of my items makes it actually into the Storque article or any other Etsy email.

Time for Westclox

Really looks like we have a very stylish Westclox alarm clock. Appears to be from the Big Ben Ladies series.

Westclox almost always stamped the date of manufacturing on the clock. To find the actual date of manufacturing, you have to go inside. Many times the date is stamped on the inner side of the plate of the movement.

Hm. Does not sound like something i should go and do. I know myself. I will start out confident. Get a screwdriver and open that beauty up. Looking inside i get puzzled. Trying to figure out what exactly that plate of movement should be? Laughing at myself. Why did i think it would be obvious and in your face? Of course you should look under something. So you have to move things around on the inside. Ohoh. There you go. That wasn't hard. But then, i would have the date. Joy. But all of a sudden the clock won't close as well as it did before.
I know myself. I have to leave that one alone.

So if you want to go on the hunt, you can pick the clock up in my shop as is. With a small stain on the lower inside and with some scratches on top. But with a lot of style, class and attitude.