My Friend Amy Told Me.......

that she was tired of seeing shampoo bottles everytime she came over to look at my sad and neglected blog.

I wonder what she will think when she sees herself next time she comes over?

Hi Amy!!!!!!!!!

You and Lola (or is it Lula?) look so cute together! What a match made in heaven! What do monkeys eat for Thanksgiving?

Evidence

What you are seeing is the last bit of evidence that Jordi spent the summer here. (I have already turned his room back into my purse shipping center) At least we know that his hair (all of it) was clean during his stay...

Legoland California vs Legoland Oakwood

Thank you! thank you! thank you! Mary for taking Eric with you to Legoland! He had a great time and felt very welcome!

His first trip to California was a huge success.

Where else can you see a giant lego head of Albert Einstein?

He missed the inauguration in January, but was lucky enough to catch the Lego inauguration last week.
The only downside to 2 inspiring days at Legoland for a 10 year old? My living room floor now looks like this!

The View

I had to get out of my sewing room for a minute because the sweaters are tantalizing me and the smell of wet wool is a little overwhelming. I've been felting and cutting and dreaming about fall purses ever since I got back from Buffalo with a fresh batch of beautiful wool sweaters. I can't wait to get started....

The Cottage

We are going to the cottage for a few days.

Where it is always sunny. (We were told this even when it was obviously overcast and raining)

You might get a few words from Grandpa about the kiln.

The seagulls are there for the chasing.

And legend has it that the sunsets are the best on the planet.

Swedish Meatball Distraction

See that nice new desk from Ikea? It only took 2 trips into Atlanta to get it purchased and home and all set up complete with a little pack of jelly beans to snack on. The first trip was fun and complete with cinnamon rolls for breakfast and much oogling of the packs of swedish meatballs which we ultimately decided not to buy.

See that stool holding up the back part of the desk? That is because it was nowhere noted that we needed to buy 5 legs for the desk, or at least we didn't see it anywhere and didn't for a minute think of buying an odd number of legs.

It is pretty clear we spent too much time thinking about the meatballs and not enogh time paying attention to the bin numbers and we may have spent a little too much time singing "Dancing Queen" and "Fernando" while shopping. Time to schedule another trip back to Ikea soon.

A New Addiction

I can't stop making hats.




Especially after seeing how great they look on Margaret.

I've Been Gone Awhile, but I Have a Good Excuse

First there was this great group of girls from the Fiber and Fun Camp at Felted Heart studios, who stole my heart and learned so much during a week of camp.

There has been the making of these dresses for my dear friend Melanie's wedding.

Teaching sweet Emma to sew.

We threw in some camping for fun and because we needed our yearly dosing of bug spray.

And more crafty campers at Beehive Co-op.

I've been a little busy, but I'm back!
How is everyone's summer going?

Ut Oh

The kids are literally climbing the walls inside the house and summer vacation hasn't even started yet. I better find those camp flyers and sign up sheets for things to do before it is too late!

Eric's Wonderous Craft Emporium

A picture of last week, before the rain.

A picture of yesterday, before the rain.

Eric's Wonderous Craft Emporium had a much better day than the Karen Meyers booth did at the Craftstravaganzaa. (Almost a sell out!) But he did plug my website several times to customers yesterday (3rd through 5th graders) so you never know, things may be getting better for me soon!

Busy Week

I've got a busy week preparing for a Spring Festival this weekend. My stash of vintage fabric is getting picked through and I need to restock the rick rack. Here's a little sneak peak at some more Serape bags.

The weather is beautiful, I'll have to hang up some big blankets to block the view from my sewing room so I can get everything done!

Fun With Vintage Swatches

A couple of months ago I bought a set of vintage bark cloth fabric swatches from the Etsy shop "Love this stuff" and I finally got the time to dig in and make some purses with them. I didn't waste a bit and I'm pretty happy with the results! These are getting primped and ready for the Athens Indie Craftstravaganza next weekend in Athens.

See ya later, I just got another pack of swatches in the mail, there is some more sewing to do!

Easter Sports

Luckily we had nice weather on Easter so everyone could play their favorite sport. (Mine was raiding the Easter baskets.)

I Went to New York for the Day

and I just took one picture of a giant button and needle. Is this a new sculpture in NYC? or did I just miss it the last time I was wandering the garmet district looking for fabric? Does anybody know?

A Little Blog Break

When Eric feels tired he just crawls up on the boom and has a little break.

That is how I feel right now, I'm going to have a little break. It's time to catch up on some work obligations and such, so instead of feeling guilty about neglecting my blog, I'll just have an official break for a couple of weeks.

How's that?

Scotch Tape Sewing

Before Eric learned how to use the sewing machine, scotch tape was the name of the game. If you want to make some pjs for your monkey, just grap some scraps and some tape.

We like to name animals for what they are around here. That is why our kitty is named "Kitty" and Eric's monkey is named "Monkey". Just keeping it simple.

Happy Valentines Day?

We've all been inundated with hearts in pink and red and cupids and roses and after awhile it can be a little well, tiresome. Yesterday while listening to the radio I heard two commercials in a row. The first one telling me to forget about cooking on Valentines Day and to go out to eat with my loved one. To let someone else do the work and pamper you and your honey. The next ad was for a grocery store telling me there was nothing more special than staying in on Valentines Day and cooking for your honey so you could have that special alone time in the most intimate setting, your home. (Obviously written by someone without kids!) It's hard not to be cynical with everyone throwing their angle at you about how you should feel and what you should buy on February 14.

Despite it all, I'm still feeling good on this Valentines Day in 2009. Still fresh from the turn of the new year and some small successes that keep me plodding forward I thought I would spell it all out for you here in Red and White.

R eally apprecaitive for what I have
E ager to meet new challenges
D etermined to get better and better at what I do

A rdent about my craft
N ever bored
D iligent about details

W illing to adapt
H appy to be self employed
I nterested to see what is next
T hrifty and loving it!
E xcited about the possibilities

Whether you stay in, go out, celebrate with your honey or your kids or your Mom and Dad, have a Happy Valentines Day in black and white or pink and red or technicolor. As usual, it is just what you make of it.

Felting Hagrid's Sweater

I had an extra half an hour today between obligations in Atlanta so of course I seized the opportunity to pop into the thrift store. I found a couple of great sweaters, and then there is this one. The GIANT snowflake sweater.
The funniest thing is, the tag says Medium.

Medium!!!

This sweater is enormous. I can just see Hagrid of Harry Potter fame sitting in his cabin feeding his baby dragon on Christmas eve wearing his favorite snowflake sweater. Of course he would call it his "snowflake jumper" being from England and all.
I'm going to try to felt this tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous though, because red dye is the worst (just ask Jordi about his "Inca Cola" T-shirt and 2 years worth of pink socks) and I fear this will be a red and pink snowflake sweater after the first wash. I can already envision 3 purses that I want to make from it so I really don't want to ruin it. Although maybe it will be pretty in pink and red.
I'll keep you posted.

I've Been Tagged

Well, I've been ignoring my blog duties again.

A couple of weeks ago Wendy from Bags and Buds tagged me to name 7 random things about myself. Of course I would like them to be random and interesting, but I'm not sure if I will succeed. Here goes, 7 random things about me.

1. I'm not very neat, but I'm a binge cleaner. Every now and then I get totally fed up with the mess and clean. I never know when this will happen though.
2. My favorite food growing up was Chicken Fricassee. I always requested it for my birthday dinner because my brothers LEAST favorite food was Chicken Fricassee.
3. I'm a morning person. Could it be the coffee?
4. I wanted to change my name to "Candy" growing up. My parents wouldn't let me.
5. I love toasted almonds on anything.
6. I have read "Gone With the Wind" 3 times.
7. Even though I have an Art degree, my favorite class in college was Astronomy. But please, don't ask me to remember anything about it!

Well, there you go, pretty random stuff!

A Happy Sewing Birthday

One of the more fun things I have gotten to do since becoming part of Beehive Co-op is to be the designer in charge of some Crafty Birthday Parties. This is where we open up the back room to some creative kids and let them create the project of their choice for a couple of hours while celebrating their birthday.
Saturday was Keely's turn, and check out the pictures for some serious creative energy going on. 11 and 12 year olds are the PERFECT age to begin sewing because they have enough motor skills to be able to pick up on the machine right away, they know EXACTLY what they want to do and they bounce back from mistakes very quickly and without a lot of fuss. Each girl designed her own project using thrift store item such as sweaters, jeans and jean skirts and then decorated it with felted sweater wool and a handle. I love what they came up with! It was a great party, and the cake was fabulous!

We Have A Winner!

The Random number picker picked a winner this morning: Angie of SillyQuilly.

Angie, your purse will be on the way to Texas Monday morning!

Thanks to everyone who entered, I really appreciated all the comments and all the purses got a little love. The Argyle Purse was especially loved though, which reminded me of a really bad joke.

What are a pirate's favorite kind of socks?

Aaaaaaarghyle socks!

Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday with some tales from a crafty birthday party I am hosting this weekend at Beehive, which has a green theme. We'll be recycling jeans and sweaters and T-shirts into purses. Right up my alley.

Blog Anniversary Give Away

Well, I've been blogging for one year now. Wow.
Who knew I had that kind of attention span?
What do all good bloggers do when they reach the one year blogging anniversary?

Have a give away of course!

I've decided to give away this Rose Handle Purse, since this is the design that kind of got me started on the journey into accessories in the first place.



This is what you need to do: take a little visit over to my etsy shop and take a look around, then come back here and leave me a comment about which item is your favorite. (I know, there always is a catch, but it is just a little catch.) PLEASE! Leave me your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner. I will ship this purse for free to anywhere in the world!!!!!!!
And if while you are over there and you see something that you like, I'll give you free shipping. Just put a note in the message to seller that you found me through Bloggy Give Aways and I'll refund your shipping money through Paypal.
I'll draw the winner on Saturday a.m. using a random number generator (Or Eric will pull it out of a hat depending on how many entrants I have).

Good luck! and thanks to Mom and the other 5 people who have read my blog over the past year. I'm looking forward to 2009!

Eric's Big Plans

Eric takes a moment out of his weekend to tell us what he would build in his spare time.

More Inaugural Fashions

This week in my sewing class at Beehive the girls and I felt like celebrating the inauguration of our new president. How better to do that than to create our own inaugural fashions for our favorite model, Barbie.

I chose to go practical and designed a red skirt and stole from what else but recycled sweater pieces. I thought it looked great, but the girls weren't too impressed. (The 10 -13 year old crowd is a REALLY tough crowd in case you didn't already know.)

Elizabeth designed a strapless mermaid gown from ecru linen with a navy and cream tulle gathered skirt. Great combination of elements!

Maya chose red silk charmeuse, also strapless with a gold belt. Notice the hand hemming on the dress, very nice. They each had a purse that somehow didn't make it from sewing class to the photography session, the purses were put together with scotch tape, ahem, I think they have been watching too much Project Runway. Which should be starting again soon, I hope.
We have a great time in sewing class, especially during a week when we feel like celebrating!