The Law in Plain English for Crafts book

If you are a crafter, artist, pattern designer, photographer, or in any cottage industry type of employment whom sells one's own work for profit, you need this book The Law for Crafts.  That is if you don't have it already.  Although, if you are a lawyer or have access to one, you probably can do without the book.  However, lets just assume you are like me and the only law knowledge you possess is from the many John Grisham books you've read, which unfortunately isn't going to cut it.

The author, Leonard D. DuBoff, is a practicing attorney and wrote this book to help aid the independent craftsperson in regards to sound business practices.  The book includes information about contracts, licensing, consignment, copyrights, how to keep your taxes low, and perhaps best of all, the book also includes legal forms that the reader can copy and use.

The author engages the reader with what would otherwise be extremely dry reading.  DuBoff explains the historical background of certain laws and provides examples of how the law is applied to situations that the reader can relate to.   For example, in Chapter 3 Contracts, he discusses what are implied contracts and what's not implied by using an example of a fictional weaver and the situations she may find herself in when discussing her works for sale.

The chapters aren't too long, because Duboff gets right to the point of the subject matter.  And if you don't have time to read, you can just flip to the chapter that relates to your particular area of interest, such as Trademarks, and go from there.  Definitely a valuable book to have on hand...along with John Grisham's The King of Torts.  I consider myself an expert in Tort law since reading that book ;)

I should mention that DeBoff authored 2 other similar books: The Law for Photographers and The Law for Galleries.

Jamie

My sweet Mika

Over Christmas break, we had to say goodbye to our dog Mika.  Mika was a part of our family for almost 15 years.  I knew it would be hard, but still I was not prepared for the huge void she left.  I still catch myself consciously stepping over her in the morning when I wake up.  She always slept right beside my bed.  It's a sad feeling to realize I don't have to look out for her anymore. 

In 1996 My husband and I adopted her from the humane society.  We were so excited to have spent only $30 for a really cute dog.  Three days after we took her home she became very sick and lethargic.  Like good new parents, we immediately took her to the vet.  I was at work when I received the call that she had Parvo, a life threatening illness.  As I hung up the phone I began to SOB!  I cancelled all of my clients for the rest of the day and drove to my husbands work to tell him the bad news.  With tears and snot running down my face I told my husband the bad news and how we needed to move forward with intravenous treatment for her.  "How much is the treatment," he asked?  "It doesn't matter how much!"  

"We're her parents," I exclaimed!  He pretty much knew right then that it would take longer for me to forgive him than it would take to pay off the credit card had he said no to treatment.  So $500 and four days later, Mika survived Parvo and was worth every penny.

I always said that she knew we saved her life, because of just how great a dog she turned out to be.  She wasn't a chewer, only had one accident in the house (unlike other dogs of ours... ahem), and she was always on watch for suspicious characters.  I don't think there will ever be another dog like her.  I bet she could have learned to sew had I taught her =)

Well I can't leave you all sad here, so I'll share a recent pic of Shoog the Boog.

She's grown... a lot!  Sometimes we don't know how big she is until we take her for a walk and people stop us to say, "Your dog is huge!"  I politely tell them she is sensitive about her weight and that she prefers the term "big boned" thank you very much.

Dogs!  They are the best =)

Jamie

A quick giveaway

Hey!  Shawnee over at Flirty Apron Swap is having a Jamie Christina sewing pattern giveaway.  The giveaway includes The Pretty Ditty Apron pattern, The Palooza Apron pattern, and The Cupcake Apron pattern.  The giveaway closes tomorrow, so click on over.  Here's the link. Good luck =)

Jamie 

Clara and Glory Peg Dolls

This Christmas I made a couple of peg dolls for my sister and aunt.  As you can see they are peacefully housed in doodled bakery boxes (idea from Emily Martin of The Black Apple).  I purchased the blank boxes at Michaels and whimsically doodled on them.

This is Mademoiselle Clara.  She is awkwardly shy, but full of strange curiosities.

I experimented with Clara's hair by using a fine point felt pen to stipple her hair.  I'm not sure if stipple is the correct term.  I've always enjoyed the texture look when artists draw the hair similar to Clara's hair, but better of course :-)  I tried to research the technique online, but I have no idea what the correct terminology is.  If you know what I'm trying to describe and can point me in the right direction, please leave a comment or email me.  

She lies on a bed of moss in her box house.  I told you she had strange curiosities.  And that's not the half of it!  She insists on wearing shoes made of a woman's obituary.  The woman's name in the obituary is (gulp)....CLARA!  Duh duh DUNNN! The mystery continues...

I gave her to my sister.

And here we have Glory.  Ahhhhh.  A sweet angel indeed.

I used paper clay to make the wings.  I would like to make another angel and maybe try a different technique for the wings in the hope of making them with even more edge texture.  Her shoes are made of text from the bible verse Luke 2:13,14.  She lies on a bed of clouds (cotton balls) in her doodle box.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the inside of her box.  She was a gift to my aunt, who is an angel to me.

Cheers,

Jamie 

Balboa Island

Happy 2011!
A new year already?!  I haven't even found the time to make any New Year's resolutions yet. However, I do want to reorganize this blog.  I'd like to try some new layouts and add a tutorial page with all of my tutorials nicely organized into categories.  So just a heads up that things may look a little weird around here for a wee bit or at least until I figure out what the heck I'm doing.

*** 

During the Christmas break my family and I went to Balboa Island.  It was a beautiful day to say the least.

Yep that guy is trunkin it while paddle boarding in December.

An artist painting.

A house ready for Santa.

A ferry ride to the other side of the Island.  Ferry rides make me nervous due to a horrible experience I had on a water taxi in Lofland once.  Long story short it almost tipped over into the water.  It doesn't sound that scary, but at the time it was dark and stormy on the river.  Not cool!

Hooray we made it to the other side!

What is it about Ferris wheels that make them so interesting?

Newport Pier at sunset.

Then we had to go back onto the ferry.  OH NO!

Thankfully we made it back to land and continued to tour the brightly lit homes for Christmas.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Cheers,

Jamie

Cake Pops

This holiday season I was introduced to cake pops - a highly addictive and easy to make treat.  My husband came home from work one day praising a new sweet he had tasted at work.  A wife of one of his co-workers had made the cake pops and my husband was relentless to get the recipe.  I'm glad he did... sort of...I've put on a few pounds because of these.

Clearly I took the liberty to use a lot of chocolate, which is why my cake pop is sporting a crew cut.  They're supposed to be completely round. Some people decorate them to look like Rudolf the red nose reindeer (here).

Here's a peek at the inside of the cake pops...

The above cake pop is made with funfetti cake.

This one is made with red velvet cake.  Me like-y a lot!

Here's how I made mine:

Ingredients

• Cake mix or make your own cake from scratch.  So far, I have made cake pops with pumpkin cake, red velvet cake mix and funfetti cake mix.
• Cream cheese frosting or make your own from scratch (mix powdered sugar with cream cheese until it taste like frosting).
• Dipping Chocolate
• Paper Sucker Sticks
• Wax Paper

Directions

1. Bake the cake by following the box directions or your own if making from scratch.
2. When the cake has cooled, crumble the cake into small crumbs in a bowl with your hands.  The cake mixture should be fine.
3. Using a rubber spatula, mix in cream cheese frosting a 1/2 cup at a time.  Mix in enough cream cheese frosting until the cake mixture is moist enough to roll 1" balls.  You probably wont need to use all of the cream cheese frosting.  
4. Roll 1" balls out of the mixture and place them on a wax paper lined pan (jelly roll pan or cookie sheet). 
5. Stick the sticks into the center of the balls.  Freeze for about 15 minutes.
6. Prepare the melting chocolate by following the instructions on the bag.  I melt mine in the microwave by heating and stirring in 30 second intervals until the chocolate has melted.
7. Dip the pops and cover them with chocolate.  Let the excess drip off (I usually skip this part).
8. Place the pops back onto the wax paper with the stick facing up.  Let it cool.

That's it!

After Googling cake pops it turns out there are a couple of cake pop cook books and a Martha Stewart appearance.  I have not had the opportunity to flip through the cook books, but I imagine there's a whole new cake pop world out there waiting for me to explore.

Cheers,

Jamie

Bird and birdcage ornament tutorial

For Christmas this year I decided to make Christmas ornaments for my kids' teachers and friends of mine.  The ornaments turned out to be quick and easy to make!  In fact I made extras for unexpected guests that visit me over the holidays.  This way no one leaves empty handed.

I don't have a tree yet to hang them on; however, they do sit nicely on my shelf.

I also like them without the Christmas bling.  This one could be a year around decoration.  

Here's how I made the ornaments... 

Materials

• Bird template (link)
• Festive paper for making the bird.  For the fabric birds, I glued plaid fabric to card stock (another option).
• Spray adhesive glue (I used craft bond).
• Floral wire that looks natural.  I purchased mine at Michaels for under $4.00.
• Embroidery floss or string that matches the floral wire.
• Thread for hanging the bird.  I used nylon thread (not pictured) because it is clear.
• Safety pin or something sharp for poking a hole into the paper.
• Embellishments such as: glitter, berries, bells or flowers.

Lets begin!

1.  Glue the non-printed side of the festive paper together.  To do so, fold the festive paper in half so that the printed side is visible on both the front and back of the paper.  Unfold the paper and spray the wrong side (non printed side) of the festive paper with the spray adhesive glue and glue the wrong sides together.  You should now have the print on both the front and back of the festive paper.  

Fabric bird option - For fabric birds, cut 2 pieces of fabric the size of the card stock paper.  Spray the adhesive glue to one side of the card stock and glue the fabric to the paper.  Once the glue is dry, turn  the paper over and glue the fabric to the reverse side of the paper.

2.  Print out the bird template on plain paper to use as a tracing template or print the template directly on the festive paper.  If you are using it as a tracing template, trace the bird and wings image onto the festive paper or fabric.  

3.  Cut out the bird and wings from the festive paper or fabric/paper.  Cut the slits as indicated on the template.

4.  With a safety pin, poke a hole into the tips of each wing.

5.  Slide the wing's slit into the bird's slit.

6.  Fold the wings upward (along slit line) to create some dimension.  Set the bird aside until step 11.

7. To make the base, coil the floral wire until it is about 3" to 3 1/2" in diameter.  Cut off the excess wire.  A 3" circle is included with the bird template to help reference the size.  Using the embroidery floss or string, tie the end of the floral wire to the wire next to it (shown in the photo below).  It's OK if the base is uneven or "wonky" as I like to put it.  However, if there is extreme wonkiness to the base you may want to tie down some of the wires that are causing the problem to the wires that are more stable.

8.  From the floral wire, cut 2 wires that are 11" in length.

9.  Wrap one end of a wire around the outside wire of the base.  You only have to wrap the wire once to secure it.  Next, arch the wire to the opposite side and wrap the opposite end to the base.

10.  Repeat step 9 with the second wire.  With the embroidery floss or string, tie the wires together at the top of the cage.

11.  Thread the thread through the holes on each side of the wings.  Tie the ends of the thread to the top of the cage.

12.  Measure the circumference of the cage.  Cut a wire that is approximately 1 3/4" longer than the measured circumference.  Make a circle with the wire and overlap the ends by 1".  Twist the ends together. 

13.  Place the wire over the cage and slide it down to the middle of the cage.  The wire should be snug.  Optional - You can secure the wire in place by tying the circular wire to the cage where the circular wire and cage wires intersect.  

14.  Coil a piece of wire and leave one end straight for wrapping around the top of the cage.

15.  Wrap the straight end of the coiled wire around the top of the cage.

16. Embellish the cage to your hearts desire!  You can spray the cage with adhesive glue and sprinkle glitter on it, or you can wrap Christmas berries around the wires.  A few more options are bells, dried flowers, or you can leave it  a la naturale.

Enjoy!

Jamie