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Magnetic Snap Handbag Tutorial

All my secrets, right here. Oh, alright. So this style of handbag is pretty basic. I didn't invent it. It's a common pattern type, but these are the steps I take to make this bag. I thought it would be the easiest bag for a good tutorial.

This is the Karen style bag. First off, please excuse my ugly ironing board. Every time water drips on it, it turns brown.

TIPS: Set your iron to high steam (except for the interfacing -- many of those need a dry iron to stick).
Don't worry if every bit of fabric isn't perfectly cut. It doesn't really matter.

This is the bag we're making. There are a lot of photos on here:


1. Assemble all of your pieces.
I'm not going to go into measurements. Here are the basic shapes. You'll see how they fit together as we go.
Outer pieces and outer straps
Pockets

Lining
Outer bottom contrast and bottom of straps

2. Iron heavy, fusible interfacing onto wrong sides of outer pieces and top of straps.


3. Pin right sides of straps together. I have the pink fabric for the top of the straps and the black for the bottom. Interfacing is ironed to top of strap. Here is one strap shown from the top, one from the other side.


4. Pin and sew top outer piece to bottom outer piece by placing right sides together:
Pinned
Sewing

Now, iron the seam flat from the inside and then topstitch from the outside. This gives it a nicer, more professional look:
Pressed, both sides shown
Topstitching
Outer pieces.

5. Prepare pockets:
Fold over upper edge and press. Then fold again and press. Top stitch top seam of pockets. The smaller one is going to be a pocket with a flap and the big one will be a divided pocket. The flap (top left) is sewn on three sides (it's two pieces, right sides together).
Folding tops and pressing
Topstitching pocket tops
Sewing around three sides of flap

6. Prepare straps:
Sew each strap on both sides. I find it better to sew on the side with the interfacing because it feeds more evenly. Sometimes if you sew on the other side, it will bunch up.
Then attach a safety pin (I put it on the interfaced side because there's less chance of it ripping through the end of the fabric when you've got it only halfway turned) and turn the strap inside out by scrunching up along the pin inside and then pushing the scrunched part to the bottom and turning it in. Do this just a little at a time or else you end up with a big wad at the bottom that won't turn.
Safety pin in
Halfway turned
One done, one not
One pressed, one just after turning.
As you can see, it's a bit ugly right after it's turned right-side out. But a bit of pressing makes it look much better.
Then, to make it look totally fab, topstitch:



7. Back to pockets:
After I stitch the pocket flap, I turn it right-side out, press and topstitch. Then I serge the open edge:


8. Let's take a short visit to hell and back.
What's the difference between these two pictures?:


The difference is the thread tree is down against the thread in the first one and properly extended in the second one. The fact that it was down is a very big deal. It means that the thread breaks when you use the serger.

Question: What is the worst thing that can happen to a person? You might say such things as famine, nuclear war, murder ...
But you're wrong. It's when your serger has to be rethreaded.
Pull back the front panel and you get this nasty mess:


I spent a good 45 minutes trying to get it rethreaded and chaining again. It just kept breaking. The key is that you have to thread in a certain order, so if thread number 3 breaks, you have to cut the threads to 1 and 2, rethread 3 and the rethread 1 and 2 again. I didn't do this for about 40 minutes and it just kept breaking again and again.

9. Back to pockets.
Now that the tops are sewn, fold under the bottoms and sides and press. Then pin them to the lining pieces and sew around the sides and bottom.
The pieces
Pinned to lining
Sewing ...
Now it's time for the dividers. I measure and mark three 1-inch intervals and sew lines. This makes the pen holders. Then I divide the rest of the pocket in half and sew a line to make phone, iPod holders.


10. It's time to sew the outer bag together. Place the outer pieces right sides together. It's very important that the seam where the pink and black come together matches on each side or else you'll have an uneven line where they meet on the sides of the bag. I start matching and pinning at this point and move outward.
Pin right sides together
Match the seams!
Sew sides and bottom. Ignore the little cut-out squares for now.

Now it's time to shape it. This is where the little cut-out corners come in. First, I press open the seams a little. Then what you have this:

Squish it together and flatten the corner down so that the bottom seam and side seams are parallel. Here, the seam on top is the bottom seam and the seam underneath is the side seam:

Now, sew parallel to the small edge of the cutout:

You end up with this. This is the bottom of the bag sticking up, wrong side out:


Now turn it right side out. It's coming along!:


11. It's time to attach the straps. The straps are already done. Now measure a bit from each side and pin the straps on. Keep in mind that you want right sides together. Since I want the pink side of my straps to face upward, I pin the pink side against the right side of the bag. You want your straps hanging toward the bottom of the bag. Now stitch close to the edge. You don't want this stitching to show when you finish the bag, so it needs to be within the seam allowance. I use 1/2" seam allowances. I stitch a bunch of times back and forth to make the straps more sturdy.
Sewing the handles on
End result -- black side faces up now, but won't in the end.

12. OK, here's my least favorite part: attaching the magnetic snaps. I find that even with a piece of interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric, the stress of pulling the snap apart again and again is too much. So, in addition to a scrap of interfacing behind the snap, I also cut out a scrap of fabric, fold it in half so it's a double layer and sew it to the seam allowance. I then put the prongs of the snap through all four layers: the lining fabric, the interfacing on the back of the lining fabric, and both layers of the sewn-on scrap:
This is from the wrong side of the lining. I have folded back the scrap so you can see the layers.

Then, from the front, I press in with the snap and make little indentations. I then use a marking pencil or pen to mark where the holes need to go. Make a little snip and insert the snap. Here, you might be able to see where I made marks a tad lower and then tried to erase them. I should have kept my snap in the lower location because if it's too high up, once you sew the lining to the outer bag and turn it, when you try to topstitch you may run into the snap. This is what happened to me with this bag and I had to remove all my topstitching and redo it closer to the edge. Keep this in mind when placing your snap.

Finished snap, from the wrong side. You push the prongs through, then put the little flat piece over them and bend the prongs. I use a little tool, shown at the top, because they are sort of hard to do with just your hands.

13. Now, sew the lining pieces together in the same way as the outer bag, but leave a hole to turn it through.

Here is the lining of the bag, wrong side out. It will stay this way. You can see the hole that I left. You can't forget this hole!!!


14. Sew the lining and outer bag together.
Here, it can get confusing the first time you do it: Place the outer bag, right side out INSIDE the lining, which is wrong side out. You want the straps to be facing downward and between the lining and outer bag at this time. Pin along the top. Anything sticking out of the top at this time will be stuck INSIDE the bag between the lining and outer bag, i.e. misplaced handles. The inside-out, right-side out, backwards, forwards logic can get confusing here at first.
Pinned
Sewing

And turn right side out through the hole:


15. Now you need to close that hole up. If you want to do this invisibly, you have to hand stitch it with a slip stitch. I hate hand stitching and usually do a more obvious machine stitch. In this case, I waited until I was completely done with the bag because I needed to change thread from pink to black. It's hard to see what this picture is. It's the hole in the lining stitched close to the edge from the right side.


16. The next step is to topstitch the top of the bag. This holds the lining in place and also gives a more professional appearance. Despite taking a gazillion pictures for this tutorial, I couldn't find any of this step. Basically, push the lining into the bag and smooth around the top, pushing the lining to the correct side and pinning around the top. Press to keep in place. Then topstitch around the upper edge, no more than about 2/8". At this point, your straps should be facing UP and away from the bag, otherwise you would topstitch them down against the bag.

17. Press, press, press! A pressing ham helps you get the outer bag 1 side at a time without squishing the bag.

Here's the finished product, inside and out!



Let me know if there's anything confusing in here that I could clarify!

A little potty humor

I think this is hilarious:

Antenna to Antennae

Yesterday, I was out by my car when I saw this strange red bug fly up, circle a bit and then land on my antenna. There it sat, and sat, and sat. It just stared at the antenna for a long time, like it was in love. We eventually left in Mark's car, so I don't know how long it stayed. Mark took this picture before we left.



Then, to get really weird, this morning I went outside and Mark said, "Look who's back." And it was the bug! In the same exact place, gazing into the eyes of my car antenna.

It's a weird bug that looks like a dragon fly with a grasshopper face, and it's red/orange.

I like my face in the picture. Or, actually, I don't.

Who's a happy little Kenmore? Koochie coo!

I got my sewing machine three and a half years ago, not ever having sewed. As we all know, I took quite a liking to it. But I'm sure I have mistreated it in my ignorance on more than a few occasions. As a matter of fact, it's just today that I figured out that the reason my thread won't stay around this little screw is that it's not supposed to go there in the first place! No wonder! As for my machine, I have had some trouble with it, and found out that, like a car, it needs maintenance work from time to time. And lord knows I make that thing work for its room and board.

Problem is, everywhere I called wanted around $85 and you had to leave your machine for up to two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Without my sewing machine? Could I live? No.

So then I found At-Home Services. This guy comes and picks it up and drops it back off later! Or, he works right at your house. No two-week wait! And he's reasonably priced -- better than those other guys.

So this man, the caller ID says Douglas, but I'm a jerk who never remembers names and I regret that I forgot his name, comes to get my machine, and I'm thinking that he'll bring it back later in the week, which sounded great. But he says that he can actually do the work right then and there, for $60! And as I told him all my little problems (sewing machine related, of course), he knew all the answers.
example:
Me: "Can you make the presser foot clamp down stronger? I'm having trouble with heavier fabrics."
Douglas: "Actually, your presser foot pressure is great. Your feed dogs are the problem. They have dropped slightly. I can fix that."

Me: "My bobbin stitches act up sometimes, and sometimes you can see where the machine became misthreaded and fix that. But often it just does it for no apparent reason and then goes back to normal."
Douglas: "You are using the wrong size of bobbins. They look close, but they don't fit in right and start flopping around."
Me: "My hero!"

See what I mean? At-Home Services is great!

Now I have a happily tuned machine with properly aligned feed dogs and proper bobbins! Douglas gave me new bobbins for just 25 cents each!

At-Home Services, here is your free commercial -- read by all three people who look at my blog!

Weird but adorable fabrics

Although I normally make my bags out of fairly "normal" fabrics, sometimes I am drawn to stranger things. Here are two of them:

Calaveras, from Cheap Threads:


Asian good-luck cats from The Pirate's Royal Bootie on eBay. This one I'm going to use to make a small gift for my hair stylist, who is part Japanese and has a cat statue like this in her salon. I saw this fabric and it reminded me of her:


Cherries and Senoritas from Cheap Threads:

It's the SEWING room

Once upon a time, Mark bought a house. In this house, he put all his thousands of record albums in boxes into one spare room. There the records sat for years and years, untouched. He hoped that one day this would be "the music room."

Then, along came a beautiful princess named Robyn. She moved in and neatly stacked the unused records against the wall and moved her computer in. That's right, Mark didn't even have a computer. Eventually, the beautiful princess took up sewing and moved a big table and other equipment into "the music room." Eventually, even Mark started referring to it as "the sewing room," with much disdain.

Between the computer and the sewing machine, this room quickly became the beautiful princess's favorite place. She stared at the boxes stacked along the wall with disgust. "How can I work like this?" she asked. "How can I organize my stuff?"

But Mark refused to budge on moving the records out, so this is the best princess could do, and she's very excited about how organized it all is, all things (dozens of despised boxes) considered!





By the way, Mark says my dress form has a really nice butt.

Bite me, Downtowners

I have a question for all those who think living Downtown or in the war zone is preferable to a cookie cutter village on the West Side. If you have time to read this between dodging bullets and homeless people, I was just wondering, do you have views like this from your bedroom balcony?




So my house looks like everyone else's on the block -- NEW -- and there's no drunk guys passed out on the lawn and no homies shootin' up the front. Sucks to be me!

Branching out

Cute new stuff! I have added yoga mat bags and diaper bags to my line of items for sale at Burst of Happiness.

This diaper bag was a custom order for a friend. It takes a lot of work. On the outside, it looks like a regular tote, but on the inside are lots of pockets and dividers -- elastic ones to hold diapers, sippy cups, etc.:


The yoga mat bags are a cute and convenient way to store and carry your mat. It can roll around the trunk of your car for 5 years while you don't use it, like mine, and still be clean! Clean for what? I don't know.
This one has a flower fabric with polka dot bottom, pocket and strap in coordinating fabric. It also has a drawstring top:


This hilarious fabric was bought by a coworker who asked me to make a bag. It's flannel, so it's not really proper bag material, but it's still super-cute, and it fits Sarah's style, which is also super-cute. It's covered with happy snacks. Hey, remember that song by The Who called "Happy Jack"? We could rewrite it for this bag - "Happy Snack." OK, that was stupid and neither here nor there:


I need to stock up for the upcoming Neighborhood Market, where I am selling this summer.
Here are a few totes and handbags, complete with crummy photography:

4.0 gpa, thank you, thank you.

School's over, thank God. I learned a lot, but it was a busy semester for me and very stressful between 3 classes, full-time job and my business.

For each design class, I had to design a garment. Here are the final results:

Flat Pattern class
Yellow and white striped seersucker shirt dress


Draping class
Peach brocade 50s inspired cocktail dress
(sorry, camera phone pic. The zipper promptly broke and I have not replaced it yet.)

Day 6, Hawaii: ready to come home

This is where our trip wraps up. We were catching a red eye at 10:45 p.m., so we had all day. But ever since the boat ride, I'd been feeling crappy. We decided to head up to the north side of the island, but we were both feeling incredibly wiped out.

We stopped and ate lunch at a little place with a nice view. I had fish that tasted and looked like chicken. I think I was tricked. Remember how I told you there were chickens everywhere?
Anyway, there were all these little birds begging for food, and some were remarkably cute!


The red one thought he was the you-know-what. I felt sorry for the little brown ones.

There was one little bird that would pick up food and put it in the other bird's mouth. The other bird looked able-bodied to me, so I'm not sure how it worked out this excellent deal. He must have had something on that other guy. The red one is feeding the brown one.

We shopped a little and had a lost-phone panic attack, but it turned out to be in the car. We then headed back to the hotel. The plane was PACKED. It was miserable. It went faster than the ride out there because we slept most of the time, but sleeping was so uncomfortable. Our seats were against the bathrooms and didn't recline.
It was dark on the plane, and at one point I opened my eyes to fix my pillow and was looking at the bathroom right behind me on the other side of the aisle. Some guy was peeing and had his butt showing -- the door apparently swung open and he didn't notice. Poor guy. I just closed my eyes really quickly and pretended not to have seen.

Day 5, Hawaii: Barforama

On Friday, we had the activity I was most looking forward to: Barfing in the sea. Just kidding. It was a 5-hour catamaran sunset dinner cruise along the Na Pali coast with snorkeling -- an area you can't access by car. Doesn't this sound lovely? Well, it's not. It's a small boat packed with people. It's a terribly long and bumpy ride. Any time I tried to go into the sheltered area, I'd instantly start feeling bad. They said to avoid this area if you're seasick.

Nearly halfway through, we stopped at an area to snorkel. It was near the cliffs and not too deep -- maybe 30 feet or so. The water was remarkably warm. I was dreading touching it at first because it looked so cold and the weather wasn't particularly warm at that moment. Unfortunately, they gave no real instruction on it. I couldn't even get my mask on and had to get the cappy to help me. Then I went in and didn't have my mouth around the thing tightly enough and got a bunch of salt water in my mouth. Ocean water tasted pretty bad. Not like gargling with salt water when your throat hurts. It has fish doo and pee and stuff, along with rotting corpses of sea life and mafia victims and dead surfers, etc.
Several times, I got a bit panicky, with the water in my mouth and the current and the idea of this vast ocean with creepy things below me. When I did get it going, it was pretty cool. There were fish around (I think they fed them). When I got back in the boat, I immediately felt sick. From that point on I was horribly seasick. We moved on to the most beautiful part of the island and I missed it all. Note the rainbow in the second photo!



I didn't barf, but it took all I had. I couldn't wait for that ride to end. We did see dolphins, but it's hard to care when you're that sick. I felt unsteady even the next day.
Here's me feeling extremely bad and looking even worse:

Thanks, Mark for taking this!

Before we went to the boat ride, we stopped at a gift shop and took these surfing pics. Of course, I would never really try to surf. This is as close as it gets. I'm not sure who I'm waving to. I guess Nemo?

Day 4, Hawaii: Roasted piggies

On day 4, we went to one of those time share pitches. We've done them before -- we're practically experts in team work on them. We had no intention to buy, of course, but we got a big discount on all of our activities for the week.

Then we went to see Spouting Horn. There's some stupid legend about how some giant lizard got stuck in the rocks and spits or something, but what it really is is a rocky place by the ocean where water shoots up. The guide book showed it going really high, but this is what we saw:


We also went to see the famous monkeypod tree. I like anything about monkeys, even when it's just the word and not a real monkey. Here is mark acting like a monkey in front of the tree:


That night was the luau. After "South Pacific," Mark had little hope for this being fun. I told him to lose all expectations and expect cheesiness and it will be fun.
It turned out to be really fun. It was at a hotel nearby and started on the beach area of the hotel with all you can drink mai-tais. We thought they'd be weak, so we got a shot of rum from the bartender (all booze was free!). But they weren't weak, and when we added the rum, we found we were both a little on the drunk side very quickly. I didn't drink anymore so that I could drive that night. Here's mark on the beach:

There were also sand crabs. They are very hard to see and very small. Can you spot the sand crab in this picture?


The the party moved into a huge tent. There was really good food! And native dancers! It was fun! Mark got up and danced, too. He's on the right in the black shirt.


When we got back to the hotel, Mark wasn't feeling too good. Too much food, too many mai-tais, too much dancing:

Day 3, Hawaii

Day three started out pretty uneventful. We decided to lounge around. Our room faced the beach, so all we had to do was walk outside the hotel and there we were.

The thing is, we don't really like the beach. It's pretty and all, and always looks appealing, but the truth is, the beach is messy. The water looked dirty when it rolled in and the sand sticks all over you. There's creepy things like sand crabs and jellyfish. Meanwhile, there was an amazing hotel pool area just a few yards away, so we found that much more pleasant. Clean water, no sand. Hot tub. Comfy chairs. Waiters with pina coladas.

That night, we had tickets to see a dinner theater production of "South Pacific." Mark found out the Hilton was putting it on and was dying to go. I can't begin to describe the horror. First, we had to stand in line for an hour with no air conditioning despite having tickets. Then we entered. It was a basic hotel ballroom with big tables of eight and a really awful buffet. I mean awful. By the time the play started, we'd been there 2.5 hours and were ready to go. The play kind of reminded me of "Waiting for Guffman." All these really bad actors on a really bad set in a really cheesy location taking themselves really seriously. The lead actor couldn't sing or act.

At intermission, we wanted to cut out. But we had promised a ride to another couple we had met in line who had taken a cab and were staying at the same hotel we were. They were more than happy to leave early, so we split and had a nice drink with them at our hotel.

Next day, Mark called the Hilton and complained about how awful everything was. They gave our money back and acknowledged it was an understudy playing the main role.

Hawaii, Day 2

We stayed in Lihue, which is basically in the middle of the beaten path. There mostly is just one road around the island, but the circle isn't complete. You can't access the NW part of the island by car. So from Lihue, in the SE section, you can drive to the north or to the west. For the first day, we chose west.

Our guidebook suggested that we drive a little past the Wiamaia Canyon. I know I spelled that wrong and I'm just too darn tired to look it up. It suggested we check out some other stuff, and then head back there. Long story short, we ended up feeling like we were in N.M. and turning around early. Look at this picture -- if I told you it was N.M., you'd probably believe me. Also, there was this scary creature vehicle on the road.


We caught a back road up to the canyon and met the main road about halfway up. This road was much prettier, but we were still unsure why we were there. Until a clearing in the trees opened up and we saw a gigantic, colorful canyon with long, cascading waterfalls.

We got excited, but there was one problem. We both needed to pee, and I really preferred a toilet to the woods. Every bathroom facility turned out to be a no-go and I had to go in the woods. I was traumatized by this because this one time, in band camp, or actually at Indian Princess camp with my dad, I accidentally peed all over my jeans when I tried to go in the wilderness. I guess some things you need to learn from your mom, not your dad.

By the time we hit the road back down to find a great view, a mist had come in and covered it all up. So here are some photos, but they are nothing like the view could have been.

Hawaii: Day 1

I just got back from my first visit to Hawaii. Was it good? Was it bad? Maybe a little of each. I will post a day by day rundown over the next week.

There's something weird about Kauai, and it's spelled C-H-I-C-K-E-N. It appears that early last decade, Hurricane Iniki freed some poultry and they went a little overboard on the breeding. Now there are chickens everywhere on this island. Wild chickens. I think most of us on the mainland think of chickens as belonging to people. Every single chicken has an owner, right? But on Kauai, "why did the chicken cross the road" takes on a whole new meaning. Sometimes they didn't, but lucky for you, I didn't photograph that. Instead, here is a wild chicken at my resort taking her chicks out to scratch for food. You have to look very closely to spot the babies.

Everywhere you go, there are roosters crowing: at the pool, at the beach, in the misty mountains, on medians ...

Anyway, we took an early flight and got there mid-afternoon. Right off the bat, I saw this dress in a shop at the hotel, and Mark got it for me. By the way, this is the view from our room!


We cleaned up and went to a free mai-tai and pupu (cue Beavis/Butthead laughs) event for the owners. This refers to time share owners, which we aren't. But we were given use of the property by some friends as a wedding gift that we just got around to using. We also got raffle tickets, and Mark was feeling very lucky. Alas, we didn't win.




Later, we went to dinner on campus and I had the best spaghetti of my life. Then I went to bed at 8 p.m. I normally go to bed at 2 a.m., and I guess it was pretty late ABQ time. It turned out to be a good thing to go to bed on my ABQ schedule because the island shuts down very early, so going to sleep and rising early makes the best use of your time.

Ouch. I was tagged.

OK, so Ashley left this for me, only I don't really know 7 people with blogs, except maybe the same people Ashley knows, so Chickenbone Jones, you're the only one I can tag.

Consider yourself tagged!

The rules

Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
Don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they
have been tagged and to read your blog


1. I can't decide which is more repulsive: mayo or Dr Pepper
2. I eat like a 5-year-old. If a kid doesn't like it, I don't.
3. I apologize to bugs when I kill them.
4. I hate to drive. I'm not scared or anything, I just hate it.
5. Getting gas and returning movies are two of my most hated chores.
6. I wear makeup and shave my legs every single day.
7. I love to bake but hate to cook.

Man versus needle

Poor husband. I love him dearly, but I'm about to make fun of him on a public forum. I apologize in advance. He's good at many things, like golf and understanding sports and writing and yard work ...
But he's not good at sewing. Or laundry, really, for that matter. Sometimes I get annoyed when I have to sew on buttons for him. I think, "How hard is it?!?!"
Well, I guess Mark's answer to that is "Hard."



Wish my photo wasn't so crappy. Rather than go up and down through the holes, he went around the edge. And left quite a wad of thread. I couldn't stop laughing.

Temporary success!

This may shock you, but I'm going to talk about my business, Burst of Happiness again.

I've really been working hard to promote my site, i.e. Google ads. Everyone at work has been so supportive -- I've sold a number of bags to co-workers, and I've had a lot of custom orders lately. Well, about 10 custom orders (from non-co-workers, too) in the past few weeks. I expect things to die down a bit, but I've been really excited about the interest. I've also been really exhausted because I work full time at my job and then I work full time, practically, on my business. I also am finishing up three design classes, but those end this week. I don't anticipate taking any more, but I'm so worn out right now. Perhaps in a few months it will sound appealing again.

I just want to thank everyone who has supported my business and bought items from me. It means a lot! Business has snowballed as one person sees the next person's bag. May everybody someday have a Burst Bag! The world will be a sunnier, happier place.

I've got a MySpace page for my business, too. Come join me. My private page is still limited to people I know in real life.

Where do I want this to go? Well, although I don't have huge hopes for this, ideally I'd like to be able to build up enough regular business that I can start a family and work from home for a while. That would be hard to do unless I have very steady orders and raise my prices a bit.

Eventually, I might also look into finding boutiques that may carry a few of my items.

Some cute things:

This one was a custom order, but I plan to make another because it's so darn cute! Thanks to Greg for buying this for his wife -- Greg and I went to school together from elementary on up!


This one I made for my mom for mother's day. I thought the fabric just cried out for bamboo handles, but she's too practical. Most practical people are nerdy, but that woman somehow manages to be practical and stylish. But if you don't mind me bragging, I'd have to say it's partly thanks to me, with this bag.


This one is for sale! Go buy it right now. It's got polka dots on the outside and matching flowers on the inside. You'll turn heads as you strut your stuff down the street.

Look for me next to the hippie selling hemp jewelry

I'm planning to do an "arts and craft show" this summer on two occasions. I don't like the term "arts and craft show" because it sounds like some horrible church bazaar with patchwork angels and kitty-cat toaster cozies with frilly edges. But this one is classy! This one is for vendors who make everything from artwork to handbags (me!) to jewelry. It's called The Neighborhood Market.

The market will be held in Downtown Albuquerque behind the Flying Star at Silver and Seventh every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. I plan to be there June 23rd and August 18.

I'll be sharing a booth with Beth, of Socks That Fit.
We're spacing our dates out in the hopes that our days will be fruitful and we will need time to replenish our stock. My best friend, Tamara, has graciously offered to help me out at the market. I am a bit nervous about getting everything set up.
I envision this really homey, cute tent, but I'm not sure how to go about that. I'd like multiple little tables to set things on so that it looks welcoming and cozy. Maybe cloths on the table so it doesn't look cheesy.
I'll be selling my Burst of Happiness handbags.

What? You say you'd like to view one of my adorable totes? OK! This is a teal and brown toned paisley handbag with striped bottom and lining. Naturally, it has pockets galore for your cell phone, iPod and pens. And a flap for stuff you need to hide, like tampons or a gun. A really, really small gun. Actually, maybe Mace or a pocket knife would fit better -- for your own protection, of course. I'm not advocating that you pack some heat and rob a convenience store. Although, you'd look super cute doing it with this bag! But, I digress. Please, view:

If you look long enough, I'll be there

I went to Google and typed "handmade handbags" to see how far you have to go before my Web site is listed. Well, I kept on going, and www.burstofhappiness.com hasn't shown up, but on page 28 -- that's right, only page 28! -- of Google's listings, there's a listing for my etsy.com store, which is where my Web site links for purchases anyway. I don't know how many people are going to look at all 1,420,000 results, but I'm sure my Web site's in there somewhere.