My Christmas tree decoration is another tradition I love. Everything in my tree means something for me, they are not random ornaments bought at random times. There are a few vintage ornaments my grandma had, there are handmade ornaments friends have made for me, handmade ornaments from around the globe that I acquired from Christmas ornament swaps, each with its own story, christmas themed softies that I’ve been collecting since my teenage years. There are also various objects that were not supposed to be ornaments but I’ve made them into one, like this Hello Kitty cookie I got from a vending machine from my trip to Japan.

Of course our cats love the tree. Not all of them. Some ignore it. Some occasionally play with the ornaments and a couple of them go berzerk ove r it and it always ends up in a christmas tree tragedy laying on the floor.

Another tradition I love is baking Traditional Greek Christmas cookies, like melomakarona and kourambiedes. You really can’t have Christmas celebrations without them. Nope.

I also love to add christmas decorations around the house, like this big fabric bow above the pantry shelf:

and random decorations that compliment my standard dustables above the fireplace:

And my newest tradition is to try and photograph all my animals wearing this Santa Claus hat for pets, including the bunny:

Hope you had good times, whatever your traditions are, and wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2012!

Here you can preview the photo pages of the 2012 Cat-lendar and if you haven’t got one for yourself yet, or if you need a great gift for the crazy cat lover person in your life, then you should consider buying this one. I make a small profit of it and all profits will help us support our 15 rescued cats in 2012. Thanks!

If the preview is not working for you here check out this link over at Blurb

2012 Cat-lendar | Make Your Own Book

Weather is delightfully getting cooler, although it is still very warm compared to northern climates. But after 2 months of ridiculous amounts of sweat, multiple-per-day outdoor showers and feeling zombified in the middle of the day, one can finally work and play comfortably.

Work and play. August was all work and no play though. This summer was like that. But let’s move on.

This August I also wrote down the Karmology Clinic brand philosophy. It helps to keep things focused. One of my goals is to creatively merge the designer and seamstress status. This came after lots of thinking. Do I sell only my own designs? Am I open to custom requests? And if yes to what extend? If a customer has a design in her mind and wants me to create it, how do I proceed? I decided I am interested in creating custom designs for customers, as long as I have  a certain amount of creative freedom and control over the result and I dig the design. And of course I don’t to copy any existing pattern or design. It’s a different thing to say “I want a summer knee length dress with short sleeves and narrow waist in earth colors” and a whole different thing to say “I want this Burda/Vogue/etc pattern in that red fabric”.

I also find it quite interesting to add upcycling to the above process. Meaning using previously loved clothes owned by the customer to make something new. I was happy this summer to be involved in such a request. It involved a lovely long skirt that the customer wanted to turn into a dress. We decided on a modern version of the German traditional dirndl dress. I drafted the pattern and made a muslin which I sent to the customer first for evaluating. After that I cut into the precious skirt. And the result was this:

(on the right you can see the photo of the original  skirt)

(front and back)

Another custom request I got this summer was from an old internet friend of mine. She fell in love with the colors and designer fabric of my Aubergine Purple Dress and wanted a summer dress that would compliment her figure and include this specific fabric. We decided on a simple line with princess seams that follows the contours of the body with a wide neckline and the desired fabric used as a front and back middle panel. I chose a nice linen to compliment the floral fabric and got to work in drafting and making a muslin for her. I had to be very careful before cutting on to the fabric because there was a limited amount of it available. The end result was very satisfying for both my customer and me.

It’s a very flattering dress, especially for curvy girls (I made a similar one for myself too ; ) )

I had been informed of the digital version a month ago, and last week the printed version arrived on my doorstep (well, not exactly, more like my PO Box). It’s always a butterfly-thing feeling to see your work printed.

It also happens that I’m in the very front page, under the theme Garden Party.

On another note, don’t you just love age inappropriate nail polish

And last week (my time lapse with documenting reality is notorious by now) a copy of Haute Handbags arrived in my P.O. Box. And it’s worth noting that it was a day I was feeling a bit miserable and not creative.  I tore up the nylon sleeve immediately and admired for a couple of seconds the beautiful bag of the front cover, made from selvage edges.

But that wasn’t enough,  I found the table of contents and hopped on to page 106.

and there was my Linen bag.

It’s the first time my work is being printed and published in any medium, so you’ll have to excuse me doing the hip-pity hop dance. Then I’ll return to my issue of Haute Handbags and admire and be inspired by all the featured artists.

And a few words about my bag. One day I cut up a plastic bag (as others have done before me) and transfered the pattern into my favorite material. Linen in natural colors. I wanted to add all my favorite crafting obsessions, so lace and vintage buttons were included in the decoration of the bag. And I decided on frayed edges because it makes it look nostalgic and natural. I’m guessing that if you let 100 people create a similar bag with their favorite materials then you’ll come up with 100 different versions.

The main reason I forget to carry a reusable shopping bag when I go out shopping is that it’s not already in my handbag and I need to fetch it from god know where, I’m also a notorious mis-placer of things. But the problem is solved when the shopping bag can be folded and permanently stored in my everyday handbag. So I placed button and string strategically to assist easy storing.

The bag is available in two sizes in my little etsy shop. Small and Big.

Now excuse me as I’ll have to enjoy my latte while browsing beautiful handbags in my magazine…