Excited to make paper!

So I've been doing crafts for awhile now that I've been trying to sell on Etsy with little success. I don't really care that much- I still enjoy making clocks etc. out of recycled stuff. Now, I'm not a raging environmentalist (although I am a proud owner of both "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The World Without Us", courtesy of my brother Karl) but I LOVE recycled products. I'm going to start making completely, 100% recycled notebooks.
I found a recipe on the internet yesterday that looks easy enough without having to spend a lot make the necessary tools. I already have a wooden frame and some window mesh screen, and tons of scrap paper. We don't get the newspaper at my house anymore, so I was initially wondering where to get paper from. The little lightbulb of creativity went off somewhere near my left ear (burning me in the process), but I remembered that I save all of my scrap paper from scrapbooking and I have a lot of scraps. Pays to be a pack rat sometimes.
The front and back of the books are going to be made out of record covers or old books, and the it'll all be hand sewn together courtesy of moi.

Annoying Sewing Machine

So pissed today. I went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of men's shirts because they're only $1 on 50% off day. I'd planned on ripping them up and sewing them into tank tops and vests- even went and got some fun zippers. Turns out, my sewing machine is on the fritz. I have no idea what's wrong with it. Everything looks fine to me, but it fucking won't work. I'm so frustrated at this point. I've never had a problem with it before and I don't think you can even bring it in to fix it. It's not like there's a help line that gets forwarded to India for assistance in fixing your sewing machine like there is for your computer. That would be kind of amusing though. I was talking to my Dad (who's been an upholster for years) and he said the cost of repairing a machine is not worth it compared to the cost of a new one. I'm really reluctant to buy one. Yes, they're relatively cheap, but I've only had mine for two years, and have gone months without using it, so it has no wear or tear. Plus, it still looks pristine. It was easy to leave my old sewing machine behind when I moved because it looked old (which is was) and would've been worth maybe $10. Maybe JoAnn's can help me.
My plan was then to hand sew the vest I was working on. I used to hand sew all the time when I was younger, mainly because I was scared of the sewing machine and had no clue how to use it. Apparently it's been 50 years since I last hand-stitched anything because I was bored with it within minutes and no longer wanted to sew. You get used to finishing seams super fast with a machine that doing it by hand looks messy and takes forever. No thanks.

New magnet designs

I've been experimenting with different wedding themed magnets/save-the-dates/invitations in the last couple of days. I'm not getting married anytime soon, but I know how much brides like little unique things to send to their friends and for wedding favors. I'm so hip and now, I even included a set for two grooms.

My banner for Etsy

Possible logo?

My first inkling of plant life!

I have a couple of clay pots in my room that I planted with a variety of flowers a few weeks ago. There's an assortment- astors, sunflowers, wildflowers. I don't really remember. Basically the cheap ones at Target. Anyways, I got some little pots from Goodwill and some soil and threw the seeds in with the whole mix. I'm not a gardener by any means. Just because I did every single elementary science fair project on the benefits of growing lima beans in the sun vs the dark does not make me an expert on plant life. In fact, I'm pretty horrible. I constantly forgot to water them, and they hardly get any sunlight. I rarely open the shades in my bedroom because it heats it up. The last time I put my flowers in the smoldering Arizona weather, they wilted and died. So I haven't been having much luck with the plants (well, more like pots of dirt), even though some of them should've sprouted by now. Success!! Today I was reorganizing my bookshelf and noticed two tiny tiny green sprouts in my glass jar. I guess some sunlight peeked in after all. I'm excited, because they're astors, which I love. Hopefully they'll continue to grow. I also haven't killed my ivy yet, and it's still trailing down the side of my wooden bookcase, which is absolutely thrilling for a person who wishes she lived in an old brick house surrounded by trees instead of beige house in a Phoenix subdivision.

My online Etsy site!

I finally set up my online shop at Etsy, a website for people to sell handcrafted items. I figured I might as well try to make some money off my creative endeavors.
Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7617654