2012

Goodness where has the time gone?  2011 was a year filled with lots of changes, not all good but not all bad.  The new year promises hope and more changes that will be very positive. 

Therapeutic Threads has been quite busy this year getting a studio set up, designing new "cool" looking products - including the new weighted hoodies and weighted lap pets.  Remember as each of your children, clients, and you are individual, so are each of my products.  No two are exactly the same and your ideas are very welcome.  Let Therapeutic Threads design something to fit your needs.

Here's hoping you have a wonderful 2012. 

Another school year

So another school year is upon us and I was going through reviewing what I accomplished last school year - let me tell you it had a lot to do with packing and sorting (multiple times). 

As I was reviewing this, I realized that I left you hanging with the carpool crochet series.  I actually accomplished quite a few projects sitting in the carpool lane (which thankfully I don't have to do this year).  For example I started this project.. and it turned into this lovely box that I have on my work shelf holding various items (or I will again when I get my studio unpacked again).   I also made several sets of the doilys/washcloths I showed here.  They really turned out pretty in several colors.


My last project of the carpool lane was this lovely green, which turned into a great 60's inspired swimsuit sheath. 

Now that the new school year has started and I'm not sitting in carpool lanes anymore (I walk up to his classroom and "hang" with some other parents again), I will need to change my project time.  Wonder what will manifest this year?

Welcome to a new school year.

MIA but new stuff :)

Wow, I have been MIA for quite awhile.  The move and settling has really taken over every aspect of our life. 

It's a bit big for my model but he loved it too.

sweatshirt and weights

However, I have been doing custom orders all along for my Therapeutic Threads store.  Most recently I was asked to make a "cool-looking" weighted hoodie for a pre-teenage boy.  I loved this idea.  So many of the weighted vests looked exactly like a weighted vest or a typical denim or fleece vest with weights sewn in.  I make 2 types of those but they don't really cut into the fashion industry with much "cool" style.  So I tackled this like I do most of my custom orders....get to know the kiddo.  I needed his measurements to ensure proper fit but also needed to know what he likes.  Then I started working on this.
Originally I made several sweatshirts and put a liner in them for the weights - those worked just fine but they didn't have the teenage look I was going for.  My husband saw my frustration and asked why I was "trying to reinvent the wheel - just adapt a premade hoodie."  He had a great point.  While I made some lovely sweatshirt hoodie vests, I could have just found a hoodie the kiddo would like and start there.  So I did that.  Found a cool looking sweatshirt and created a weighted liner inside.  The inside liner vest is adjustable on the sides and the front to adapt to the needs of the child.  It has 8 pockets around the waist and 2 higher up on the back/shoulders.  Perfect for adding the weight needed.  2 or 3 weights of 4 oz fit great in each pocket providing an opportunity for changing as the child needs change.  The sweatshirt zips up in front and no one has any idea it is a weighted vest.  Remove the weights and it washes just as any other hoodie washes.  Have a sweatshirt your child absolutely loves?  Send it to me and I'll add the weighted interior or allow me to find and create a sweatshirt to work for your child. 

inside the vest - 10 pockets for weights

This weighted hoodie is off for its new home today but contact me for one of your own (and watch for some coming to my store later this summer).

Happy Valentine's Day

Now that we are finally moved and together and done dealing with most of the boxes (notice I said most of the boxes) we are taking some time to do more family things.  We have a great San Antonio trip planned for next week that will include Sea World and the Alamo.  We are also trying to get in more date nights.  The move and chaos has put a strain on our marriage so it's been really nice getting to have some date nights (we've lucked out with a great babysitter in our apartment complex too).  So for Valentine's Day I thought I'd share a few of the great places in the area that would be great for your future Austin date night too.  As we venture out, I'll share some more Austin area places.  

Saturday night we went to the restaurant La Traviata.  Such a sweet quaint place with great food.  We've walked by it several times in the past few months and I'm so glad we went.  It's downtown Austin so check it out.  After a fabulous dinner we decided to head to a lounge before going out dancing.  We headed over to the swanky (not sure that's a cool word anymore but it felt swanky to me) W restaurant/bar/lounge which was really cool.  Then off to another club for dancing and meeting up with some co-workers of my husband.  Apparently this particular night was "wig night" for the "bar crawl" crowd so we ended up at Dogwood's bar with a lot of wig bearing people.  Made me wish I had one too.  It's an outdoor/indoor bar which seemed unfathomable to me after living in the Pacific Northwest for so long - guess it's perfect for the 100 degree evenings in the summer. It certainly was fun people watching while doing a little dancing before heading back to the car and home to the babysitter.  Such a lovely evening.   So treat your loved one to a great Valentine's Day and let them know how much you love and appreciate them.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Custom work - weighted snakes

I've had a number of custom items in the works.  The latest is an order for multiple snake weighted lap pads.  These are made in various weights as well as adjustable weighted snakes.  This particular order is for 5 pound snakes to be used in a school district.  Here is one of my favorite ones.

Working on Wednesday - more carpool crochet

Got any ideas as to what this will be?

She needs a name

I recently finished a custom order for a 6 year old girl who loves pink.  Her mom picked out the fabric from my choices and made a few other requests - definitely a custom order.  The order evolved into this adorable weighted lap pad.  The body is weighted with flaxseed to allow for hot/cold therapy as well as light weighting.  It is covered in a removable fleece cover in a pink with hot pink floral print (yes, pink and more pink).  This cute guy has "sensory" ears - that is they crinkle.  Top this off with pink ribbon fidgets and this is my favorite lap pet so far.  Any ideas what to call it?  My son thinks it should be a "cat"erpillar lap pet.  What do you think?


******Update******  This cute guy has been named "Chum Chum" by her new owner.  So cute!

Workin on Wednesday - carpool lane crochet

As we have moved to a new community, new school, new state, we are discovering a lot of things we miss about our old community.  I could begin to list them all but won't at this point.  The one major thing we are missing right now is our son's school.  There are so many reasons why we are missing his school (academics being part of it) but one major change for me is the afternoon pick up.  At his old school, parents were encouraged to park, come into the school, mingle with other parents, discuss difficulties and successes, talk about up coming community events, pick up fliers for community activities, meet and greet your child and their friends, and sometimes get a chance to talk briefly with the teacher.  At this school, parents are told (at least we were & it appears it's schoolwide) that they are to stay in their cars and drive through and pick up the kids - like a conveyor belt or drive-through restaurant.  Very different and quite isolating to a new family.  I also must arrive about 10-15 minutes early or I have to sit in my car out on a busy highway waiting for all the cars to pull forward so it can be my turn in the parking lot drive-up lane - yikes!  So as we've been adjusting to it, I've been fidgeting in the car waiting for my turn in line to pull up and summon my kid.  I didn't do that for more than one day.  Boring.  So now I bring along my crochet bag.  I didn't have a lot of yarn out of boxes since we are still in move-in mode but I did have a couple skeins so I went to work making something to brighten my day.  I expect as the school year goes on, I'll be sharing several "carpool lane crochet" items.  These are fun sunny doilies or washcloths.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet as my son does not want to use them in his shower. :)  Happy Wednesday!

Lights! Camera! Action!

I was trying to catch up on my blog reading as well as catch up with friends from the Seattle area recently.  I discovered a product I am so jealous about (not to mention how she has it stored).  I'll hold that thought and give you the backstory. 

I struggle with getting good photos - I think that is one of the hardest things about having an online store.  The lighting, the background, the camera, the size of the object, etc all factor in to making a great product look even better online.  Yes, I have Photoshop and know how to use it well.  I even have a husband who spends all day every day making things look good on the computer (he's an art director and artist for a game company) who is willing to assist me.  However, to coordinate all these items and get the product listed in a timely manner just doesn't happen.  Most retail professionals have full studios for photographing items - not realistic for me as we are living in a much smaller place now than we were a few months ago - there is barely room for me to sew, let alone have a photography studio.    Many people make their own by following the multitude of tutorials out there with directions.  Others hire photographers (or barter with them) to take the photos.  There are also great resources for taking photographs such as Marlo at small object photography.   Great for small items - I'm struggling with both small items and big items.   I'm envious because a friend found the coolest light studio that is also compact.  It's from BestLight Studio and folds up nicely.  You can read on her blog all about how Heidi at Haute Goat uses it and stores it.   For now, I'm using my plethora of boxes as my studio until I can afford to get this awesome light tent.  Snap!

Workin on Wednesday -pink millipede

So the New Year has renewed my desire for accomplishing something other than dealing with boxes and I'm ready to get back at it with Workin on Wednesday.  This week I am trying to trudge through my custom order list that piled on with the move.  Today I'm finishing up the custom order for a little girl who loves pink and purple and was caught between my millipede lap pad and my bunny lap pad.  They chose a pink millipede with pink and purple fidget legs.  It's 1 1/2 pounds for light weight for her lap or around her neck.   I will be working on better pictures this afternoon but here he is: 

Have you missed me?

Hi all, I have felt so out of the loop lately with the whole move and transitions happening in our life.  I finally have a few hours alone while the boys are off to see Tron so I decided to use the time to reconnect with my old life rather than continue tackling the mega-box-thon I've been dealing with since September.  We are here in our new apartment thousands of miles away from friends and family buried in boxes -

Son's bedroom when the mover's left

as you can see from the pictures.  It has been difficult assembling a 4 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom apartment but my first goal was getting my son's room together so he could occupy his time there while I tackled the rest of the apartment.   Unfortunately it's slow going.  My original plan was to have all the boxes in the area they were designated for (yes they were color coded with regions in the house - orange for master bedroom, blue for son's bedroom, pink for my studio, green for long term storage, etc) however on moving day we quickly discovered that all the boxes would not fit into the space so that plan was abandoned.  Blue and orange still made it up the2 flights of stairs to the bedrooms - for the most part but all the studio and kitchen items did not make it up the stairs to inhabit the living/dining/kitchen area as that was filled with furniture and boxes quickly.  So I have been slowly and gradually tackling each box in the area determining if we have room to have it in the house or if it needs to go to the garage or eventually to an off-site storage facility (that is if I can find a reasonable one out here - they are pricey compared to WA and CO).  With the holiday rapidly approaching I felt it most important to put up our Christmas decorations or I would completely feel void of the holiday spirit this year and that would not be good for the entire family.  Now that the tree is up I'm really itching to get started on the multiple orders I have pending.

This was early in the day after the first of 3 loads arrived.

Unfortunately the fabric, sewing supplies, etc are scattered all over.  Some boxes made it to the dining room but others are downstairs and I am not able to carry the heavy stuff upstairs - yes I'm having lots of pain in the back and neck with the change (so many stairs are not helping).  So my goal before Christmas is to find my sewing machine and begin the custom orders so I can get them mailed.  Naturally all that has to wait for Christmas shopping to be completed.  I hope family understands receiving gifts late this year - it's been that kind of year.  As for holiday letters and cards, I'm thinking those will go out in the New Year - I hope.  For now, I'm just glad to have a few hours of quiet solitude (and perhaps sewing machine searching) before the crazy boys return and life returns to chaos.  I wish for you all a wonderful holiday season with lots of quiet wonderfuls in the midst of chaotic life.

See you in the New Year! 

Exhausted!

So I have resigned myself to this move and now want it to be over with.  I am exhausted, tired, beat, whipped, overwhelmed, and over it.  This last week my husband and I got tons done - we got a storage POD parked in our front lawn to make it possible to see where we have and haven't packed, sold some of the furniture we don't have room for there, sold hubby's truck, we got all the library, art studio, and storage room packed up and even managed to throw our little guy an early birthday party with his friends (he'll turn 8 right after we arrive in our new apartment and new state).  We had several days of wonderful weather so we also got the roof cleaned off, gutters cleaned and some yard work done.  I guess the rest will be up to me so let's hope the weather holds.  I'm just ready to be done with this.  Another huge reason I'm ready to get settled again is that I have been getting tons of emails about custom work that I am having to postpone until I arrive in the South.  I just hope they will all wait a month or so.  I would love to crank out some custom work right now - the creativity would aid my mind but it's won't happen since my sewing machine and all my fabric is packed, sealed tight and awaiting transportation.  Won't be much longer - the end of this month and we're headed to warm land - (boo hiss & zzzzzzzs ).

Wordless Wednesday - Fall is wonderful!

Fall Harvest festival at Camp Corey - gorgeous!

pumpkin carving party

Trick or treating with son's best friends (aka Luke & Anakin)

Halloween quickly approaches

Wow, I can't believe we are nearing Halloween.  Just a short time after that we'll (I'll) be all packed up and moving to a new place, a new state, a new chaos.  As we approach Halloween I am saddened though.  Every year I pride myself on taking the costume desires of my son and creating them for him.  This year he opted for a store purchased costume rather than me making one. I'm sad.  While it is a cool costume (and befits him greatly) I am sad that I didn't have the time to create this for him.  Each year has been so special with him drawing out his design, discussions about how we can make it, shopping for the fabric, designing it and sewing it.  This year all that fun has slipped away.  Yes we had fun searching all the Halloween shops for something that fit his idea but it just wasn't the same.  As you can see from the pictures surrounding, each year has been a challenge.  This year not so.  Unfortunately my challenge right now is packing, planning an early birthday celebration (here with his friends as his birthday will be shortly after we move), finishing our remodel, and packing.  Not the creative bliss I was hoping for as Halloween approaches but there's always next year.  Happy Costume making!

Excitement builds

I'm excited about today.  Why?  Because today is the day I get to set up my display for the Vasa Park Fall Craft show.  It's not that I look forward to lugging heavy boxes to my car, out of my car and then set up the grid walls, tables, etc.  I'm looking forward to getting all that big stuff out of my house.  As we are packing up to move to
Texas, I am finding that I have little room to sort, sift and pack with grid walls, tables, and tons of boxes of product sitting around the area.  I am excited about taking them to a new place and setting them up and selling tons.  Let's put it this way... I am a motivated seller.  I'm excited that for the next few days I will have a bit more space to tackle the areas that need to be packed up quickly.  One such area is my sewing room.  I already packed the fabric but after visiting Texas this past weekend and seeing how small the apartment is, I am needing to repack the fabric to be in "project" boxes.  That way I get out a box, work on a "project" and then return it to the box.  I think this is going to be the only way I can do it for now....especially since there isn't even an area for me to sew in (guess I'll be using the dining room table that won't be in the dining room because the computer will be in that small area).  So I'm off today to move out some boxes, see the other great vendors, set up my area, and enjoy the gorgeous place where the show is set.  Come on by and see me.  The show runs tomorrow (Thursday October 14) and Friday from 10 AM- 7 PM and Saturday October 16 from 10 AM-5 PM at Vasa Park and Resort in Bellevue, Washington.  

Vasa Park Fall Craft show

Next week I will be showing at the Vasa Park Fall Craft show.  This is a great group of vendors (about 95) with wonderful gifts, home decor, food, and personal products.   Therapeutic Threads will be there with my therapeutic eye, back and neck pillows.  These are perfect for Holiday presents.  The eye pillows are filled with lavender (from my garden) and flax seed and feel wonderful warm or cold.  I have 2 sizes of back pillows: small (which is perfect for cramps, muscle aches or cold on small injuries) and large (which is great wrapped around your back or over the legs - perfect warmed up at the end of the bed).  My neck pillows conform perfectly around the neck and rest comfortably there.  These are great warmed up and worn while reading or straight out of the freezer to cool down on a hot summer day.  My family uses our therapeutic pillows daily.  They come with a removable cover that can be washed.

Original Cyn Studios will also be there with aprons, children's smocks, purses, and cup covers.  Come get these great gifts now and you are finished with your holiday shopping.

The Vasa Park Fall Craft show runs October 14 & 15th  from 10 AM - 7 PM and October 16th from 10AM-5PM.   Come check it out.

I'm still here....barely.

This past year has been extremely difficult for my family for a number of reasons.  We've had illnesses, injuries, and financial woes - much like many others have.  We have managed to stay on top of these difficulties and tried to work through them the best we could.  However, with the financial blow the injuries & surgeries have taken on our life this year, we had to search for an alternative that would get us back on our feet (or so we hope).  This means that my husband has taken a job out of state and we will be moving to Texas.  It has taken me several months to deal with the blow of this as it has been very difficult to think of leaving the love, stability, and comfort I have found here in the Seattle area.  My friends have been the strength that has held me together over the past year and continue to support me through this move.  I am ever so grateful! 

For the next few months I will be in the process of sorting and packing (as well as finishing our remodel) as I prepare our family for the move.  My husband is already in Texas and so it will be up to me but I won't be doing it alone, many friends have offered to help with this task  and I intend to take them up on this offer.  More laughs, more memories to treasure during the future days of missing them.

As far as my stores, they will stay open until we move.  I have one show coming up (I will have to bow out of another I was accepted into) which I will share information for shortly.  So life goes on. 

I'll share more about my future as the months come by and I intend to take some much needed time to revamp my websites and this blog.  Thanks for bearing with me this year - it's nice to be back. 

Back soon

Hello friends,

I have been MIA for so long & wanted to quickly let you know I'm still here.  We were on vacation for a few weeks where I was cleaning out each room of my Aunt's house so that it can get ready for sale and then we went for a few days to Lake Chelan to just relax.  Several days after returning home I awoke to another chapter in our crappy 2010 year.  I thought I was having back pain, then it turned to constant vomiting and my husband thought I had food poisoning.  It progressed quickly to a need to visit our wonderful ER.   The following maybe TMI so at this point you can drop down to the next paragraph if you want :)  They thought I had kidney stones and said it could take 2 days to 2 weeks for them to pass -UGH. So then they did blood tests, xrays, CT scans......well to make a long story short it turned out to be a large cyst torquing my ovary and cutting the circulation off.  Yes extremely painful.  I gave birth to my son naturally with minimal drug intervention and this was a hugely worse pain - I was extremely drugged in order to lie still for the scans.  I ended up in emergency surgery where they originally started doing a laparoscopy to remove the cyst but then had to do a mini c-section in addition to remove the cyst and ovary together.

So I have been trying to recover from this fun event - the lap incisions are doing okay, the c-section (as all you moms out there with c-section scars know) is making it slow going.  I am finally able to sit up for longer periods but haven't been able to sew, craft, type, or do anything too much around the house or garden.  (& the yard shows it - tall tall grass).  So I'm hoping in the next few weeks to get back into the groove of summer fun and back into business.  For now I want to thank my wonderful friends who have been great about entertaining my bored, missing-out-on-summer kiddo for me.  I really appreciate it!  You're the best!

See you in a few!

FAMtabulous Summer

Summer inspired things from Fabulous Artistic Moms!

Summertime

Etsyrain style summer