Tree Frog

Really, what I wanted to do was be a photographer. I have an eye for portraiture and composition. At least, I thought I did. I tried to take that photography and put it into handmade cards, but no one was buying those. At an urging, I turned it into a small business that I own called Refridgerator Art. Then, I decided, why not do portraits, too? I had a few successes, but nothing like weddings. Weddings are daunting. Weddings cost too much money and they need to be perfect. Even though weddings bring in the big bucks, I don't want someone to cry because I ruined their photos. What do weddings have to do with sewing?

Not wedding dresses. Sorry.

It's just another thing I realized I could do. It was something I wanted to start doing because I'm a big fan of the DIY generation. I saw people sewing on HGTV and since that kicks ass, I thought I would too. Now that I've had success these past couple of years, I sort of like it more than photography. It's really nitty-gritty. You're using your hands and your mind, there's measurements and everything needs to be perfect. There's the sound of the machine. There's mixing and matching of colors. There's shopping through thrift stores for the perfect "recycled" piece of clothing; there's shopping at antique stores for bundles of random scraps. It's a scavenger hunt to find the perfect materials to rethink and reuse. And once it's finished, you hold this thing in your hands, and you know what, I made it.

Meet Tree Frog. He's an old Puma t-shirt. You will know this because there's a little puma jumping in one of the the leaves. You will also realize the brand of the t-shirt is Puma because the red tag that stuck out at the bottom of the shirt is now a part of the strap. A touch of character. Something that will make someone go, "did that used to be a shirt?" Then they'll say: "Holy crap! That's cool!"

Holy crap is right.

Since the photography never really made it...I mean, I may do two photo sessions this summer, but it wouldn't make me enough to buy a new Mac laptop or D-something-or-other digital camera that I would like to have. Anyway, since the photography never really kicked off, I decided to kick it and work on bags, too. Who says I can't do it all? What's that saying? "Jack of all trades, master of none."