I cannot believe a year has gone by since my last post.  That just goes to show you that I wasn't really prepared for what it would be like as a mom!  Yes, I know millions of women can balance babies and.... well, everything else.... just fine.  But once I became a mom, everything else sort of went on hold, including my creating.  I've done small projects here and there, mostly for my son.  Such as a blanket/playmat for him which used a bright pirate fabric on one side (visually stimulating) and a "road" pattern on the other so eventually he can use it for his Matchbox cars (when they are no longer a choking hazard).

But as far as my JOATMON creating, it was on hold.  Until I got three bib orders within the same amount of days!  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to crank them out, especially since my workshop is in complete disarray (boxes from baby gear and toys have taken over the attic and basement in a way I would have never imagined)!!  But I moved the necessary items down to the main part of the house, dug into the projects, and remembered how fun it is to sew again!  I loved it!! 

I'm so grateful to these customers who had the patience to wait a few extra days and who gave me the opportunity to get working again.  I still won't be back to my old crafting schedule, especially since I have a new full-time job that keeps me really busy (but I love it, so that's okay). But it's good to remind myself of how happy I am when I see a finished product!!

And here are they are:

The furniture was delivered on Saturday from Baby Furniture Warehouse and I have nothing but raves for them!!!  We painted the room two-tone: light blue and white; with the Nautica Kids - William patterned border in the middle.  I will admit that I was not a fan of the nursery theme in the beginning, but now I love it!

What a great start to the new year! I am proud to announce that in August I am going to be a mommy!  For the first time ever.  At age 38.  What the hell was I thinking???  But in all seriousness, my husband and I are thrilled, along with being very scared.

We found out on December 8^th, just a few weeks before celebrating our 2^nd anniversary.  It made for a very exciting Christmas (when we shared the news with our parents and my sister) and of course a very happy anniversary and new year (which coincide).  Recently we began telling our extended family and friends.  Everyone is more than happy for us, especially my grandmother who cannot believe that next Christmas she will have four great grandchildren (unless another cousin is planning to make an announcement extremely soon, then there will be more!)

So much goes through my head these days.  I am trying hard to eat better.  I had done so well with my healthy lifestyle for the first half of 2007, but then I drifted away during the summer.  I am hoping those good habits start to come back again but it’s been tough.  I’m very, very tired especially mid-afternoon, so my energy for the treadmill just isn’t there.  I’ve been lucky not to have any morning sickness, or just mild bouts of it here and there.  The hardest part has been not taking medicine for the horrible cold I’ve had lingering on since January.  But it’s all worth it.  When we saw the ultrasound on Monday (at 12 weeks) and the baby saluted to us (no lie – the arm went to the side then right to its head!), it all became much more real.  Even though I am not showing (no more than I did before getting pregnant!!) I am wearing a maternity top today just so I feel pregnant.  It’s been so much fun reading about what to expect and start planning.  We have a few names picked out, after several arguments of course, but now the latest fight is “to find out or not to find out” the sex of the baby. I’m all for having it a surprise, but my husband wants to know.  I have a feeling he is going to win that argument because I’m just not loving the gender-neutral bedding that is out there.  If anyone has a recommendation for a non-animal print, non-ABC type bedding, please send it my way.  Otherwise, I’ll break down and find out the sex just so it will have a really cute nursery!!

Oh, and unfortunately my crafting energy has been zapped a bit too.  But I did get a book on beginners knitting from a Secret Santa so the timing was perfect (she didn't even know about the "big news" when she gave it to me)!  So I think I'll start learning to knit the baby some cute little booties or something!

I'm a fabriholic.  What is a fabriholic?  Well, maybe it's easier for me to demonstrate.  Exhibit A:

(and from a different angle):

I love FABRIC.  I am obsessed with it.  Recently I decided to go through all the fabric in my "stash" and inventory it, which would make it easier for customers to custom design items.  Well, it was pretty overwhelming to see what I actually had.  And these pictures don't even include ALL of it.  WOW!  It's not wonder why my "hobby" business took a while to turn a profit.  I was spending all my money on fabric that I wasn't even using.  When I go to the fabric stores I just get lost in all of the prints.  My mind races with ideas of what I can use it for, then it ends up in my studio never to be seen again.  Until it's time to inventory it, and then I fall in love all over again.  I'm determined to find a use for every (or almost every) type of print that I have here.  It is either that, or start selling it on eBay as my husband wants me to!  No! No! No!  I just can't part with any of it in that way!!!  I.Must.Create! 

Well, Halloween has come and gone, but this year I didn’t get so crafty.  We didn’t have any Halloween parties to attend, so all I had to work on was my work costume – a bumble bee!  The corner of my office was transformed into a flower garden and we were all the “Busy Bees”.  It also helped that the president of the company occupies the office next to mine, so she was the “Queen Bee”.  Perfect!  And because we needed a lot of flowers for our garden, I whipped up some tissue paper ones to add some color.  I had a great time making these and I wanted to make more but I ran out of time (I was even making them while watching the football game one afternoon)! 

I think I may make some more to decorate my table at the next craft fair. I was going to use these, but we decided to keep our corner decorated for a little while longer.  It’s nice to look away from the dreariness outside and see some flowers to brighten things up.

And speaking of gardens:  I decided to add some new note cards to my inventory:  Hand stitched flowers.  I think some of these will include “Get Well” or “Sympathy” sentiments in them, although most will still be blank like the rest of my note card line.  This was my first try at it, without using any type of pattern or stencil, so even though I’m not 100% thrilled with the way it turned out, I’m still pretty happy.  I’m looking forward to making some more for my fair.

They did it! 

The Boston Red Sox won the American League Championship last night (well, technically this morning) and we are on to the World Series against the Colorado Rockies!  Now is a great time to show your team spirit by visiting www.JoatMonCreations.com and purchasing some fun Red Sox headbands, bags and bibs!! 

And while you are there, check out the merchandise featuring the undefeated (7-0) New England Patriots!!

Thanks to some friends on the website Sparkpeople, I am part of a challenge that has gotten me motivated to workout again.  I am back into a regular exercise routine and I’ve been keeping it up for almost two weeks now.  It feels really good to be back!  Even though I lost my momentum over the summer and the scale started creeping back up (probably gained back 5 of the 20 lbs that I lost), I am not giving up.  The scale isn’t going down yet, but I am doing some strength training again and also really pushing myself on the treadmill (one part of the challenge includes rewards for every 5 miles on the t/m.  I don’t recall ever doing 5 miles at once, so this is exciting for me).  My eating habits are slowly getting better, although I still have some slip ups once a day.  I’m aiming to reduce those to once every other day, then to once a week.  But for now, I am happy with healthy eating most of the day – it’s a definite improvement from the past couple of months. 

And even though the scale hasn’t moved or the inches aren’t coming off, I still feel really good.  I feel slimmer somehow.  La,la,la,la,la,la, feelin' groovy.

And on the sewing front, last night I took a break from inventorying my fabric and I made a “trick or treat” bag prototype. I’m still trying to decide if I want to line these, or just leave them as a straight single layer of fabric.  I don’t think the kids will really care either way, but I think that I will.  It’s cute…just a simple pumpkin print (also have one that is covered with ghosts); but it’s a lot nicer than the plastic bags that break after filling them with a few treats.  And I will always have a fondness for the giant plastic pumpkin head that my sister and I carried when we were younger.  I am willing to bet my mom still has those tucked away in their basement someplace, just waiting for those little grandchildren that hopefully will appear some day!

Trick or treat!

Last week a customer asked if I could make her grandson a baby bib with the Patriots fabric.  Oh my is it cute!  To see pictures of my new line of bibs, click here:  http://www.joatmoncreations.com/Bibs.html 

I will also be making some generic ones with footballs on a black background just in case my customers aren't New England fans.

Also, this weekend I started organizing my fabric so I can catalog it better on my site.  Wow, do I have a lot of fabric!  It's definitely an obsession and I really want to start using more of it.  I think my next product line is going to be pillow covers.  I have some great novelty prints that I think kids would love to have in their room, so this is a great way to cover up a boring pillow they already have.  Once I finish organizing everything I'll get started on a prototype for that.  And it's only fitting since pillows are the very first item I ever sewed (in 1998 I hand sewed -- no machine -- 20 of them for Christmas).

So for a while now I've wanted to change my logo to reflect the wide variety of items that I make.  Originally when I began Joatmon Creations I was selling handbags. I had always made a lot of different things, but at that time the handbags were my fascination of the moment.  Thus, the purse logo was perfect.  It even featured one of my favorite bags that I made -- a pink fabric with (what else) purses on it!

But now I've started getting into more and more things.  I am still sewing -- I am now fascinated with my headbands as I mentioned before.  However I also love to make notecards and candleariums.  Neither of which need a sewing machine, nor are they purse related.  So I was browsing through some clipart options and BOOM there they were -- a spool of thread and a glue gun!  But what really hit me was that the end of the thread seemed to be in the shape of a "J" and the glue gun really resembled a "T" (to me, at least).  This was perfect!  I started piecing things together and moving things around until I got something I liked.  Then I cut off pieces of the original art and changed the end of the thread (which ironically was the part that originally drew me to it) and it was getting better and better.  Then the hardest part came -- changing the colors to reflect the JOATMON color scheme.  But I did it!  And the results are perfect (to me!)  I now have a new logo that reflects more of what I do...which is just about everything

Let me know what you think.

I guess I can include graphic designer into my JOATMON repertoire now!