Thursday, September 1, 2011

vacation. projects. wine. sweet, delicious wine.

Oh hey, there! I'm still alive. Vacation was lovely until Hurricane Irene decided to rain on our parade. Mr MJ is back up in Alaska, this time for a 2ish month stint. So I'll have lots of time alone to sew & bead & Facebook. Also, my next 60 dinners may or may not consist of Cheez-Its & ice cream. Don't judge.

Since my future parents-in-law invited us on their beach vacation, I thought it would be appropriate to give them a little token of our appreciation. And by our, I totally mean mine. It was my idea, my effort, my creation. But, they are his parents & we are getting hitched, so I suppose I need to practice the whole "what's yours is mine & what's mine is yours" thing. So, anyways... Plan A was a pair of earrings for my future mother-in-law. But the way they were looking in my head, they would only be suited for a little girl who's super excited about her first pair of dangling earrings. Thus, Plan B was formed: ocean colored beads with sea shells straight from the sea shore.

mj sells sea shells

A couple weeks ago, I made my first tshirt scarf. I sliced up a blue A&F shirt, sewed up the long strips, hand sewed & beaded an amaaazing pink flower, & voila - not too shabby for my first try, eh?

scarfalicious!

Sorry, dudes, but this piece is taken. My sister claimed it. Just like she's claimed a few pairs of earrings. She also requested a mini scarf for my niece. So, I used all of the same fabrics so their scarves would match. But I put hearts on the mini scarf so they won't be twinsies.

precious.

Today was my first attempt at photo editing since using a gigantasaur old Apple ii beast way back in the day to transform a pixely picture of a bus into a pixely picture of a couch. It's really not my bag of snakes, so I'll stick to cropping & making Picnik do all the work for me. How do photographers do it? I quickly realized that if I had to Photoshop pictures for a living, I'd probably go through copious amounts of cheap wine. Or find a new job. But the wine is enticing.

Monday, August 22, 2011

manic monday...

I decided not to open my Etsy store just yet since Mr MJ & I are leaving tomorrow to up with his parents at the beach for a few days. Open store + nobody watching the shop = probably not good business practice. So sit tight & I will have things up & running there soon.

Here, my lovies, is what I was working on last TGI Fabric Friday afternoon:

It's a soft, stretchy bracelet that I made by weaving a few strands of t-shirt yarn together. Sewing up the ends & hiding them neatly was traumatic to say the least. & then I discovered the easy way to finish my bracelet. Am I the only one who learns everything the hard way? Also, I am IN LOVE with this bracelet. & am working on a necklace version of it. I'm not sure how it's going to translate from the vision of awesomeness I have in my head to the real life cotton braid I've got going on, but we shall see!

Mr MJ & I went to the ghetto mall yesterday yesterday so that he could purchase jeans while I scoured the over-priced accessories racks for ideas. My favorite find was an infinity scarf & I wanted it baaad but I wasn't about to pay $20 for something that I could make for $0 out of my favorite sweater [it met an untimely death by acquiring a rather obvious & unfixable hole]. So, my next project is a stripey, cocoa colored, up-cycled infinity scarf. & now that Mr MJ is back from Alaska with our nice camera, I'll be stealing it so I can put up nice, non-cell phone pictures of the sweater scarf & other projects.

Oh, hey. I'm on Facebook. I highly suggest liking Mahalia Jane here. Eventually, there will be deals only for my Facebook Fans!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

the beginning...

Mahalia Jane has been a long time coming. I've always been a touch crafty but it all really started when I began decorating cakes in 2009 while I lived in Austin, Texas. When I moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I taught myself how to make beaded jewelry after buying a cheap kit from WalMart & falling in love with the art. That was followed by purchasing a beginner's Singer sewing machine & teaching myself [always the hard way!] how to sew. Fast forward another year and I'm living near Huntsville, Alabama and finally getting around to being serious about putting myself out there & selling my pieces.

Mahalia Jane is a collection of unique accessories. Hand beaded necklaces & earrings. Scarves made out of recycled shirts. Hand sewn fabric flowers. Bags of all sizes. Blankets. Sparkly things. Basically, whatever strikes my fancy on any given day. If you've got a favorite shirt that needs a new life, a gift to find, or any special request, please contact me & I'll see what I can do!

Stay tuned for Facebook & Etsy links!