Gym bag gift

I know I've posted our gym bag before, but something has changed! Since we're becoming very eco friendly around here... we've decided to help you reduce your carbon footprint and will now make our gym bags to custom fit reusable water bottles at no extra charge! Just tell us the diameter of your bottle at its largest point in the "special instructions" box at checkout... now you can be chic and earth friendly at the gym!

So designer knows best, right? Wrong! My creative ego got a little humble pie this week when I received an order for a lunch bag made of 2 different fabrics, that I had not suggested be put together on my site. I hurriedly emailed the customer thinking surely there was a mistake! She kindly reassured me that this was no mistake, and that her 11yr old daughter is in to all things "unmatching". Ok, so it is, and I began to make her bag. Take one look at the finished product and I'm sure you'll agree, how cute! What a great idea she had.... now my only concern is that it isn't "unmatching" enough!

With Tropical Storm Fay looming last Thursday, my daughter comes home with a note that everyone in the class is to bring in a small gift for her teacher on Monday in celebration of her belated birthday.Then comes the wind and rain, school is cancelled for Friday, soon the power goes, and on Sunday morning at 10:30a I realize I don't have a gift to send with my daughter on Monday. It's pretty safe to assume that most places were closed over the weekend, since roads were flooded, street lights didn't work - so now I'm stuck... what to do, what to do?Well, we made a purse! Why not, I mean, I'm a fabric addict, so I had tons of that, and we now had electricity. So, with no pattern in hand, only our creative minds to guide us, my 9yr old daughter and I embarked on a 6 hour project (which, should have taken about 45 minutes), but hey, kudos to her, she did most of the work... if there was a Project Runway for handmade accessories, she'd win hands down!Anyway, here's what we came up with. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, as the colors look a little more neon than they actually are. We ran out of thread 3 times, so the inside seams are white, the straps are hot pink, and the seam around the top is RED! Crazy, I know, but you actually can't tell the difference. I'm thinking of adding this style to my "Anything totes" section.