nice people finish first

It's been ages since I've blogged. I took a little break for personal reasons--things in life seemed to be shaking, cracking and falling apart. But after a rough two weeks and a few good crying sessions (the kind where your diaphram hurts the next day), I feel like poking my head back out of my cave. And what do I find? My dear friend Cheryl nominated me for a nice award! She's such a sweetie..a REAL nice person herself--honest, loyal and romantic. She once made me trudge back through the huge Target parking lot with her because she was UNDER-charged for something (I believe we were both pregnant at the time). She's that good. If anyone could bring me out of my funk, it's her. Thanks, hon!

Now I need to give myself a good, stiff slap across the face and get moving! I'm very excited to be a part of this year's Handmade Parade in Sacramento. It will be filled to the brim with cuteness, must-haves and crafty demos. I can't wait to make new stuffies to go with my wee mice (which are now gone..but they'll be multiplying). I was super-ecstatic-happy to have made the etsy home page over the weekend. Thank you to those kind souls that informed me of such, since weekends are usually spent far away from the computer. The oodles of convos in my inbox should have given me a clue!

Thank you for reading. And I hope you have a great day, wherever you are.

20 minute makeover

I like spray painting. A lot. Almost too much, actually. These cheap little nesting tables--so cheap that any little nicks would scrape off the "wood" finish--needed something fun and colorful. My $6 solution? Robin's egg blue. The amusing part was as I was painting them and instructing my girls on the hazards of breathing paint fumes, they went and made paper fans and fanned the tables to "blow away all the yucky smell". Painfully cute.

Hope you're having a good week. Thanks to everyone who's commented (okay, all four of you!).

this is summer...

Nothing like reading a good book in a pile of clean laundry! That's the pace we're at this summer. And I'm loving it. What the picture doesn't show is my older daughter who's fully dressed, brushed and ready to go at 7:30 in the morning. It's a struggle to find the balance between relaxing down-time and having enough activities to look forward to (somehow, fabric shopping with Mommy doesn't count).
I did manage to finish up a shirt for myself, made from this pattern. It's the first shirt I've made that I will actually wear out of the house. I hate seam binding the armholes, mostly because I try to do it with the narrower binding vs. the wide binding the pattern calls for (which would look kind of wonky, I think). I knew I did a good job when my husband said, "Wow, that looks pretty cute." I'll just ignore the shock in his voice. This pattern is next, I think. Yeah, I know, everyone in Blogville is making their own shirts, but why the heck not? I saw some cute smocks (cute fabrcis and big 'ol buttons on the straps) at Target yesterday and thought, "Hey--that looks homemade!" Now who's copying who??

Have a great day, wherever you are.

me vs. myspace

I spent most of a valuable kids-glued-to-the-t.v. morning trying to set up a tasteful myspace page. Is there such a thing? If you want your background tiled in winking blinking pink hearts and want Justin Timberlake blaring on repeat, then it's a cinch. But asking for something demure and subtle is like asking for a chocolate croissant at a donut shop. No offense to myspace-- it has become so huge that you have to give it props. My crafting group communicates primarly on its message boards so I had to dive in. It makes me feel so OLD when tweens are out there programming html and I can't even get my header uploaded (it's still reading "Your Header Here"--which translates as "I don't know what I'm doing and have to wait for my husband to get home and fix it for me"). Making things nice, pretty and appealing is my obsession so to not get it the way I want is maddening. And the nerve of my kids to actually want to talk to me while I'm swearing at this silver box? That's when I know it's time to unplug. I'm off to make mudpies and look for tomato worms. In my pajamas.

more more more

Umm, yeah, I had a LOT of stuff to list in my etsy shop. More than I anticipated--it's like a bottomless pit of things I just HAD to make a dozen of. Call it compulsive, on-a-roll, whatever... It's just strange that I don't know when to stop. And now I've moved on to more linen bibs and smocks. New things to show soon. They've been simmering in my imagination for a while. Sometimes you just have to make it so you can get 'em outta there.

In the meantime, I'm trying to finish Barbara Kingsolver's new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which is due back at the library *ahem* tomorrow. I'm too stubborn to admit defeat and not finish it. There's about 50,000 holds on this book so if I don't finish, it's bye bye for another six months. Many others have blogged about how it's changed their way of living, eating and thinking. Let's just say I'm lovin' my tomato patch right now.

mondo etsy update

I had a blast on Sat. selling my wares along side some very talented members of the Sac Craft Mafia but I was left with a motherload of goods. I'm not sure why I find it necessary to make SO much stuff for each show..I suppose I like to have choices and assume everyone else does, too. So, if you're inclined, please visit my etsy shop to see them. I lowered my prices a smidgen to encourage some adoptions, too. Once again, I'm finding it hard to take decent pictures, especially when there's a lot of white. These came out with a blue cast to them but I can deal. It's cute stuff. Trust me.

And yowzah! thanks to my buddy Cheryl for showing my stuff in her blog not once, but twice in one week! Her shop has the cutest vintage pattern for felt kid's purses...gotta make me (uh, I mean, my daughters) some of those. She just started her blog a week ago and she's already posting the pants off me. Go girl!

such sweetness...

Thanks to my great friend Cheryl who cheered me out of a hot funk this week with a package of goodies. I love it all--but my favorites are these two little fabric patches of vintage artwork. Maybe it's the Holly Hobbie history in me, but I just HAD to make something with them immediately. Like my life depended on it. I made two little tiny tall totes with some black denim I picked up the other day. When it comes to purses, I'm a no-fuss kind of sewer. Totes, mostly. No fancy closures or handles. Keep it simple and practical. That way you can love 'em and leave 'em guilt free. You can find these in my etsy shop which has been collecting dust this summer. I'm hoping to get my butt in gear and list a bunch of goodies this week, so keep checking! And if you're in the Sacramento area this Saturday, please stop by the Coffee Garden for the SCM Second Saturday Stop, Shop and Stroll and say hello.