{*Hi! Hello! Goodnight!*}

This was such a fantastic week. Yet it was also an AWFUL week. Remember those cramps I mentioned? Yeah. They resulted in a trip to Urgent Care. I'm not going to get into the details here because I don't want to be doom and gloom but SHEESH. NOT FUN. Think pain that vicodin doesn't even touch. Yup. Charming.

It was one of those weeks where I had so much to do, some amazing custom orders, some emails about exciting new projects, flickr has been BURSTING with hex goodness, quilting is all I can think about and I can't get out of bed. I slept for 18 hours in one stretch. That isn't me. At all. I've been making little notes next to my bed in between sleeping of projects that I'm dying to do. Also? I wish I could hand sew pads. Haha. I love making pads so much but the commute to the front room where I sew was too much. It was THAT bad.

To top it off? Sinus infection. Haha. Totally my luck. But today I'm going to most likely sleep neti sleep neti sleep neti so tomorrow hopefully it'll be gone or at least be managable.

My custom orders that I'm working on that are slow to leave me will include a little something extra and I'm hoping tomorrow to start replying to emails! But here are some FAQs that I've gotten this week!

Where did you buy those bolts of fabric?!

They aren't mine :) My local fabric shop, Scottie Dog Quilts, is sweet enough to let me take photos of their gorgeous bolts. If you see a fabric you like, give them a ring at 707-444-9662! They are extremely helpful and awesome!

What kind of sewing machines do you use?

I have a Brother Innovis that I make pads with, I can't remember the model off the top of my head, a basis Pfaff that sews a perfect 1/4 inch seam so it's what I'm using to quilt with, a Babylock Serger and a Pfaff that's being repaired that I don't even want to talk about, lol. I'm dreaming of owning a featherweight though.

Who taught you to sew?

My mom kinda. She helped me make a bag once! But mostly I've taught myself. And generally I do the longest, most time consuming way imaginable simply because I don't know a lot of tips or short cuts, but I'm learning!

Where do you buy your fabrics?

I try to buy locally as much as physically possible. I *love* being able to support local quilt shops. Plain and simple. When I can't buy locally, I shop online. I'm on a budget so I generally price shop to death and watch out for insane shipping fees!!! Google is totally your friend! I've found some amazing fabrics simply by googling.

What kind of camera do you use? How do you get such nice colors in your photos?

Oh sheesh. Thanks. I actually get this a lot which is super flattering because I'm friends with some amazing photographers and consider myself lucky to even get a few nice shots out of 100! I use a Nikon D50. The lens is a Nikkor 1.1:4. I don't know photoshop, so I use Adobe Lightroom. If a photo is too dark I lighten it. And I can crop/straighten photos!!! But thats all I know how to do. Everything you see from my flickr is straight off the camera. I do get annoyed because it seems like flickr flattens my photos but thats ok!

Where do you get the cute tape that you put on packages?

Etsy! eBay! A local shop! It's just Japanese kawaii tape! It's not too expensive, when I buy it locally it's about $3 a roll. I google usually "deco tape" "japanese kawaii tape" "cello tape". It's really fun to look through all the ones that come up!

Ok. I'm about 4 seconds away from rinsing my nose and going back to sleep.

OH! It's been brought to my attention numerous times that I need to suck it up and buy new pants because everyone is tired of seeing me hike up my pants and I guess they don't like my butt crack. Tough crowd! lol! I've tried Target, but does anyone know of a good place to buy some cheaper jeans? I'm on a budget and losing weight so I don't want to blow a ton of money on a pair, but also, we don't have a lot of stores here. I think I'm a size 14-16. My size 16 jeans from American Eagle and Old Navy are falling off, even with a belt! WOOT! But it feels DUMB to buy a pair of jeans before summer, so I might just hold off...

Have a great sunday!