Jen Bowles Design

Art Supplies

On Saturday I ventured out to Binder's Art in Charlotte.  I've been wanting to check it out for a while now, it's the only "real" art supply store (i.e. not Michael's, AC Moore or Hobby Lobby) in the area that I know of.  I have a running list of items I'm thinking about ordering from Dick Blick so I thought I'd see if I could check them out in person first. 
Binder's was nice, but not very big.  On my list I had Caran D'Ache, Copic pens, and 140lb cold press watercolor paper.  Yes, I was reading through my mom's collection of  Teesha's zines  when I was visiting in June.  However,  you can see what I came home with. 
They didn't have the Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons (or whatever they are, I don't even know for sure but I heard/read about people loving them so I must try them out).  They did however have the Lyra crayons--which I've also heard good things about--so I choose my favorite 3 from the picked over display.  Pink, green and blue.  Naturally.  I got myself a single extra fine Sharpie because I can't seem to find a black fine line pen that works well for more than about 5 minutes.  Binder's did have Copic pens.  A set of 10 for $66.  My favorite part was when I asked the dude behind the register if I could see the pens.  He took them out of the glass case for me to admire.  "May I write with one?", I asked.  Shakes his head no.  Well then, why don't I just hand you my credit card and I'll just see if I like them at home.  Not.  He softened after about a minute and I chose one pen, took it out, wrote 2 words, and carefully and quickly put it back in it's plastic case.  Phew.  I must say though, I did like it.  I believe you can buy them individually online.  Good thing. 
The last item in my mini stash is a set of cardstock Love, Elsie stickers from Hobby Lobby.  On sale for $1.50.  I love (hee hee) the colors and I'm sure I'll be able to use them in my next Ebby centric mini book.
Oh, and if you're not seeing the new polka dotted banner on the blog, be sure to refresh the page.  It took me quite a while to design, transfer and install it.  Because we're into multiple steps around here.
And multiple children as well.

Glimpse

Things were created in the studio this weekend.
Yipee!
On Saturday I finally opened the large box from Amazon that contained my early Mother's Day present, a new sewing machine .  Yep, I opened it, took all the pieces out of the box, and sat down with the so-called 'Quick Start guide'.  Then I moved on to the actual Owner's Manual.  At this point my head was spinning.  I decided to look up a local Singer dealer to see about repairs--for my current machine.  On their website it said they offer a 'Brother Master Class' to get to know your machine, for free if you buy the machine from them and call for a price if you didn't.  I called.  $200.  Hmmmm.

I returned to my Singer whose threading is apparently a mystery to me.  I took out the bobbin case, dusted it, adjusted the tension (again), and re-threaded the top thread with a different color.  When I sewed test stitches (for the 5th time after several different adjustments) I saw that it was the top thread causing the problem, not the bobbin thread.  I re-threaded again and...straight, perfect stitches! 
I've been wanting to create something but everything I was interested in doing required a sewing machine.  I was sooo happy when I finally got it to work!  And I've been sewing (paper, of course) ever since.
Which means I probably need to change to a new, sharp needle before my next sewing session.