Cool Thoughts

Because it has been SO hot here, I am actually dreaming of winter *gasp*! That's what lets me know that the summer has been truly satisfying: when I begin to long for the change of the season. I was thinking about school, and sharpened pencils, and the smell of new notebook paper, and pumpkins.... I have been making these little zippered pouches lately. They are small and cute, and perfect for holding pencils or knitting needles, or whatever other small things you might want to stash. Here is one that I made in a lovely arctic hue. It's available in both of my shops: Etsy and Artfire.

Have a beautiful day, my friends!

Olivia's Garden Bag

WOW, it has been unbelievably hot this past week, and more soaring temperatures are predicted. We don't have air conditioning in our house, so we have implemented a routine of opening all of the doors and windows in the morning and using fans to try to cool the dwelling down. Then, when the outside is starting to warm, we shut the house up and hope for the best. Our best sleep comes early in the morning, but being creatures of habit, Brian and I wake up around the same time in the morning and get started on our day. Bronwyn has been sleeping in, which is lovely. I am finding time to work in the morning while Bronwyn sleeps and it is such a nice experience! I have a large picture window in my studio, and with the window open, I can hear all of the bird conversations and arguments. Anyhow, I guess my point is that I'm actually managing to get some work done. Here, I'm showing you pictures of a bag that I recently finished for my friend Olivia. I custom made it from fabrics of her choosing. The outside is from Amy Butler, and it is lined with a quilting fabric from Michael Miller. Olivia liked the lining because it has "O's" all over it, so she felt it would be Olivia's Bag, and noone else's!

Scoutie Girl Feature

Good Morning! A little while ago, I was approached by my good friend and colleague, Judit Wild, about doing an interview for her project called "Then and Now." This is a fun spotlight on artists and their evolutionary process. Of course I jumped at the chance, and the interview can be found today on Scoutie Girl right HERE! It was really fun for me to think back to my beginning, which was only two and a half years ago. It seems like time has flown by!

And here are some pictures of my garden and what I've been doing with it! To the left is a special sunflower called, "Infrared" and below are pie cherries! YUM!

Another Giveaway

Despite my best efforts to take a break, there's just a lot going on that I have to share with you! I'm participating in a giveaway on someone else's blog. And it's a big one! We're giving away this new bag that I just finished! If you're interested in playing, you'll have to do a little work. Head on over to Erin's Blog: Pour Some Sugar On Me to find further details. If you don't want to deal with the tweeting and the following (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, this giveway might not be the one for you), that's okay! You can admire my handiwork here and I will try and offer another bag giveaway sometime in the future here in the safety of my own blog. But this is a really great bag, so it's worth a little effort!

Brian and I had a lovely dinner last night together. We ate at a restaraunt called the Iron Rabbit, which serves really delicious fancy food in a casual setting. It was fun to be "out on the town" on our own (thank-You Melissa and James for watching our girl)! Thanks to our friends here for the Birthday wishes!

Wrap Me Up

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Husband! Yesterday was his actual birthday, but we're celebrating tonight because we have childcare. I plan to wear a simple linen sheath dress, which is perfect considering the blazing temperatures outside!

A simple linen dress is elegant, but needs a little *POW* to make it fabulous, don't you agree? I've been working on some new designs this summer that I will be selling this fall in my shops. Namely neck chokers. I just love these! I've got several different styles that I'm playing with, and I decided to make one for myself to try it out (this is how I know what to tweak). I really like the way it came out, and plan to wear it with my dress tonight. I paired Joel Dewberry's arctic buds with a celedon geometric pattern from the same line. YUMMY!

Giveaway Winner

Hooray Nathalie, you were the winner of my headband/wallet giveaway! You will need to choose two fabrics from my stash for the headband, and two for the wallet. I will send you an e-mail to work out the details.

Thank-You so much, everyone, for giving me your hearts. Even though I didn't win the contest, I feel like a winner!

Now for a little apology: I have been very absent from my posting lately. I'm sorry. It's summer, and I just don't feel that I can always take the time to keep in touch that I would like to. So I'm officially "On Vacation" for now. But that doesn't mean that I'm abandoning you! Don't worry! I will return on a regular basis in September. Until then, I will post on occasion, and will skulk (My Mom's word) around reading your posts when you least expect it. Bronwyn is doing well (she lost another tooth!), and we're all warm from the sunshine and well fed from the garden.

Happy Summer Everyone!

New Outfit

FINALLY, I got my head wrapped around this incredibly simple pattern for a summer outfit for Bronwyn. I love the way it came out, and once I figured out what the pattern was trying to tell me, it was a snap. Patterns should be easy to read, in my opinion, but I think my brain is just wired up differently than some. Apparently, it is easier for me to invent the wheel, than to follow directions. These shorts had two pattern pieces (how easy!), and I tried to follow the directions. I really did. But finally I just said, "Screw this!" and looked at the two pieces and put them together into shorts. When I actually followed the directions, the shorts came out looking like something out of a cartoon!

The fabric that I used for these shorts came from my friend, Flavia, who lives in Brazil. We did a fabric swap a loooong time ago (see one of my first blog posts about it) and I finally found a project that I thought was worthy of cutting it up for. The thread count on this stripe is really high and the hand is very soft. I put Kaffe Fasset's Aboriginal Dots on the cuffs (my addition) because I thought it would be fun.

Reaching

So I started running again. I LOVE to run, and ran through my sixth month of pregnancy but I think the extra weight of baby Bronwyn was terrible on my knees. My right knee in particular gave me lots of problems and I just could never find my rhythm with the trail again.

But I've been feeling out of shape and needing a physical and mental release. So I made a plan:

1) NO running on pavement.

2) Start small and don't run every single day.

3) Strengthen the muscles that support my knees by lifting weights.

And finally, BUY NEW SHOES!

Although running on a track or a treadmill feels a little boring, I am finding that it is really not a big deal. When I run, I go inside of myself. I think a lot, and I listen to music. Pretty soon, my locale doesn't matter, and I'm thoroughly immersed in the moment of my body. Yesterday, I thought: "This is the most important spiritual exercise I've ever done!" I can feel my lungs and diaphram expanding and as a consequence I'm taking deeper breaths during the rest of the day. Hooray for exercise. Hooray for pushing myself. And Hooray for taking some time just for me. It feels really really good.

A HOT one in the Garden

Good Morning, July!

I've got SO much to do, and really don't have time for new projects but I got this new fabric in the mail that I just MUST sew into a bag. It's from Anna Maria Horner (so of COURSE I love it) from her drawing room line. And I've got four bags that I'm finishing, and I want to make an outfit for Bronwyn but I made the mistake of trying to use a commercial pattern. Why oh WHY doesn't my brain want to cooperate with these silly patterns? Anyhow, this is a quick post just so you can feel my pulse. Maybe I should skip the coffee today....