{*~Turn That Frown~*}

Is it weird to say thank god it's Monday?

This weekend was so terrible and so awesome all at once. Mr. McPorkchop was only home for a short 2 days instead of 3 and a half. Him being home and just being him was the amazing part of the weekend. We've tentatively come up with a plan for after he graduates and where we'd like to live. It was partly just a nice time to have a goal to work towards instead of being so glum about our current situation!

The not so amazing parts? Wes's dog Molly passed away and I felt terrible that I couldn't be there for my mom, it was her last sort of living link to him. She was ancient, 17 years old for a doberman, she's had an amazingggg life, but it was still sad and even sadder to talk to my mom. It's times like these that I hate living so far away from her! Then a *huge* order that I finished (65 pads) ended up with a miscommunication and we mutually agreed to cancel the sale, thats putting it very very very nicely. I started working on my small batch of custom orders for the shop, only to cut some fabric wrong and have to reorder it and hopefully it'll arrive today and I'm crossing my fingers that overnight shipping really means overnight. We went to go see Up!, our local theatre just got a new 3D thingy and the projector broke, so after sitting there for an extra half hour, they refunded everyone, totally not a big deal, but I wanted to poke the eyes out of the other patrons, there was only like 5 people working, clearly, it wasn't their fault, and people, wow, they just thought they were entitled to free EVERYTHING. I was shocked and I genuinely felt so so so bad for the staff! I then went to a local fabric store for fabrics for a swap, only to realize the fabrics had been sold out. ARGH! I totally promised something and then couldn't deliver, that is *not* me and I'm very upset about it.

So what did I do?

Sewed. Started watching comedies. Had some beer. Cuddled. Bought some new fat quarters. Learned how to free motion quilt.

I've never free motion quilted before and my machine came with the foot, a special feature, blah blah blah. I was just too wimpy to try it, but you know what? When things are bad, thats a perfect time to try something new right! *grins* It was pretty fun! I don't know if I'll do a lot of stippling, I think its called? I found it more fun to "draw", if that makes sense!

We watched Reno 911 and season one of Seinfeld this weekend. I've never really watched either and I really really loved the dumb humor and dry humor of them both. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from over thinking and "thoughtful" movies to just laugh and be silly. We also saw Night at the Museum 2. Ohhh dear, what an unfortunate movie! lol! But we had fun holding hands, being snarky and drinking fountain sodas bigger than our heads.

Today I'm going to package up orders, work on orders, request my mail man comes tomorrow to pick up the orders, finish wrapping up some swap packages, go to the bank, you know, typical Monday stuff. I'm hoping a bit of work and running around will kick me out of my funk! Maybe I'll even get a coffee!

OH! And guess what? I won a gift certificate from pink chalk fabrics! Sweet! I'm not sure what I'll get yet, as having 2 months off from work pretty much slaughtered my clams (we call money clams, I'm not sure when or why, but we do) and I need to get to work!

On that note, have a fantastic Monday and tomorrow I'll post the winners of the giveaway!!!!

{~*Lucky*~}

I've just finished updating the shop! It took wayyyy longer than I expected because half way through importing my photos I bumped something and lost them ALL!!! Plus, this is my largest update that I think I've EVER done!!! Sweet!!!! There are some limited edition pads, liners, cotton backed pads, fleece backed pads...I tried to do a little of everything! YAY!

I've had amazing mail days the past few weeks, like amazing. Like swaps so fantastic that I haven't photographed them because I ripped into them so fast. Yup. That good. Yesterday I got these gorgeous Liberty of London from Kristen who just got back from London. I about died. They smelled AMAZZZZZING! I kept thinking "Liberty smells perfect, warm, cozy"...it turned out she'd packed them with some stuff from Lush! LOL! How great is that?! Hahaha! Even Liz yesterday commented on how nice they smelled! hahaha! These are going to be a quilt! I haven't decided on a pattern, I have found a few prints online that I'd love to have once my budget allows for it! Any pattern ideas would be great! Joelene sent me one that looks really great!

I was up wayyyy too late last night working on orders...I ended up doing an ENTIRE order wrong. Charming right? Sheesh. The order was going to be backed in cotton, I backed them in fleece. FAIL! That teaches me for staying up too late working! Next time sleep and get up early!

Tomorrow I'm going to the post office and farmers market. I have orders, swaps, etc to mail out. And yay for farmers markets!!! I'm dying to see what kind of local yumyums I can get! Mr. McPorkchop is on his way home from work right now and has stopped by Trader Joe's! YAY!!!!!

Don't forget that there is still time to enter my giveaway! Thank you so so so much to everyone whos emailed me, mentioned my blog, etc! I'm in awe of the positive response I've received! I love love love knowing that there are lots of people out there who are open to the idea of cloth! It keeps me going! Your kind comments have seriously made my week! I'm giving you all the hugest hugs EVER. EVVVVERRRR!!!!

Have a fantastic weekend! xoxoxo

{*Info About Update*}

(sneak peak of some liner fabrics)

Hey Gang!

I'm currently working on a whole ton of great things for the shop, a few wet bags, a ton of liners, plus of course pads. Combined with a whole slew of custom orders. Unfortunately I'm going to have to push back the update and make it either Tuesday or Thursday evening. I'm pretty sure Mr.McPorkchop & I both have a stomach bug. Ew. xten.

I am so so so so sorry! I'm holding 5-6 customers pads right now for combined shipping, if you'd rather I pop them in the mail for you tomorrow so you don't have to wait, please please please please don't hesitate to email me. If you don't mind waiting, I'll post again with a more concrete time of the next update.

Also, I've gotten several emails and etsy convos about a pad maker who has started selling "look-a-like" pads on etsy. I'm so thankful that you all are keeping an eye out for me. Yes, the pattern is a tracing and yes, it upsets me very much. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it yet. But thank you so much for all your kind words and support.

I have gotten a lot of great new fabrics this weekend, plus I washed and preshrunk several yards of bamboo and cotton fleece, so once my stomach calms down, this little house is going to turn into a factory of pad goodness! If I hold off until Thursday to update, chances are the update is going to be pretty big, which I know would make quite a few of you very happy ;) OH! And I was able to get more Mendocino Mermaid fabric in blues! YESSS!!!!

I'm pretty excited about a new book I got, well, it was a gift with a coupon, but I got Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. Wow. Absolutely gorgeous book. Very funny story, I had some great fabric, several yards, on Saturday night I pulled out my old sewing machine and brought it into my bedroom with the intent of sitting on my bed and sewing sleep pants from a pattern in the book. It was a great sewing night, my bed provided lots of cutting space, I was listening to some guns and roses, I had my favorite pine candle burning, Mr. McPorkchop was doing the dishes, primo crafting conditions! Well, low and behold, I made them and they were terribly tight, not fitting at all. I was pretty bummed out, especially because I made a size large and knew I was making them with a lot of ease. This morning I'm cleaning up some books and stuff so I could sew in my nook, came across the patterns and the pattern I'd cut out, low and behold, I cut all four pieces...out of JUST the front leg pattern, not the front and BACK leg patterns. Nice right?! DOH!

To finish it off, I royally screwed up my knitting! BOO! I need to take out a row, but I'm kinda scared too!

OH! And I've been having really good fabric kharma lately. My friend Joelene mailed me some Robert Kaufman sprinkle fabric! And I found some swell fabric for Megan that she'd been looking for! I love when fabric makes me and other people happy.

Also, it was nice to read everyones comments regarding allergies, it's good to know I'm not the only one!!!

Argh. Ick. I think we are going to run to the store for some saltines >:(

{*Ms.McPorkchopCrankyPantsGrumpsteinthe4th*}

I, Ms.McPorkchop, am in the funk to end all funks. No amount of retail therapy will help. No amount of chocolate will save me. I am CRANKY. Instead of whining about it, I'm going to try to be positive and show you my sewing machine!

Look at all that JUNK! I was sewing myself a pair of panties this morning when my machine jammed, prompting me to actually look at the machine and holllllly smokes, what a MESS!!!

Yup! That's my amazing vacuum cleaner! Trust me when I say that my machine needed this. Surprisingly (sarcasm) it's running a lot smoother now!!!!

I've done everything in my power to make myself less grumpy, attempted picking out quilt fabric (fail! can't choose!), had an amazingly delish lunch, took new fabric photos, watched comedy online, listened to my favorite guns and roses pandora radio station and had a major dance party, worked on two big custom orders and got one shipped, ordered fabric for an order that I screwed up, worked in my sketch book...

I even went for a bike ride! I only made it around the block because my front tire is flat-ish. BOO!

I think know why I'm in a grump mood but I just can't seem to shake it!!!

What are your favorite ways to de-grump?!

(P.S. All emails will now start to be replied to at night! Now that I have an extra few hours of sunlight, I'm sewing and working longer into the evenings, rather than replying first thing in the morning!)

{*Stash Interview*}

Good Afternoon & Happy Thursday!!!

First, I'd like to give a very big thank you to sewmamasew for mentioning my little doll quilt. I've actually changed two squares on it since then and have cut the sashing! Now I'm extra motivated to finish it!

During the month of February they've been interviewing various crafty ladies about their fabric stashes and it's been so much fun to read along. I recently (earlier in the week) switched up my sewing area so I thought I'd play along, even though it's March ;)

What do you usually sew?

I sew reusable cloth menstrual pads! The idea is hard to wrap your head around at first, but it's great for you and the enviroment, plus I love to buy rad fabrics!

When you shop for fabric, what size cuts do you usually buy?

I'm strictly a fat quarter kinda girl! I can't buy large cuts of fabric because I simply don't use all that much! I also share a very tiny two room home with my fiance, Mr.McPorkchop, and as it is, my business takes over our space big time! It bums me out when fabric shops aren't fat quarter friendly, but the ones who are know that I shop from them 2-3 times every few weeks! I do buy a lot of Japanese prints in half yards because I've started making pouches from them, plus once you can't find a print, it's gone forever!!!!

Do you buy on impulse or do you go out looking for something you need?

I only buy fabric for my shop, I've only bought fabric three times for myself, twice was something I needed, fabric for my birdie sling and fabric for my frenchie bag, the third time was my biggest fabric investment and most prized piece of fabric ever. When I shop for my business, I buy new collections, I buy stuff that I genuinely like, not stuff that "I think will sell", because I don't want to sew with it if I don't love it! Every little fabric I buy for my shop I buy because I adore something about it, the color, the print, the designer...something!

Are you a pre-washer? If you are, do you wash your fabric before you need it, or only when you’re ready to use it?

Yup! Since my fabrics go on an intimate part of the body, I prewash all my fabrics twice using ecover delicate wash, just to remove any excess sizing, make sure it's 100% shrunk. I wash it asap because I can't wait to get my greedy little hands sewing with it!

Do you iron it?

Oh yes! My iron is one of my most prized possessions actually, and I know how weird that sounds! My mom & stepfather gave it to me as a Christmas gift the day before he passed away. When I opened it he said "well, I had to get you this one, it shuts off automatically", haha because clearly, I get wrapped up in a project and you know...forget about things. Like hot irons. :)

How do you sort it?

Color Chronologically!!!!

Do you have any special folding techniques?

Nope! Just nice and neatly!

How do you store your fabric?

This shelf! Plus I have three rubbermaid clear small bins that hold my home decor weight fabrics and half yards of fabrics. I keep my bolts of bamboo and cotton fleece next to my sewing desk. Anti-pill fleece is in a giant soft squishy pile at the edge of my desk as well in a big basket!

What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash?

I think it's just a matter of buying what suits your personality!

When do you say enough is enough?

When it won't fit on my shelf!!! I'm on a no-half-yards-of-fabric-diet right now!!!!

What are some of your favorite stash-busting projects?

Well, I really really am into quilts right now so I've been saving my scraps and cutting them into pieces! I also like adding fabric tags to things, typing on fabric, gluing fabric to things...

Do you have a current favorite print in your stash? Let’s see it!

Oh man. Ok. This is my favorite, most expensive, most most most FAVORITE (Can I say that again?) print ever! It's a yard of Liberty of London, Tana Lawn. I bought it from a fabric shop in the UK and I just die when I look at it. I'm not sure I'll ever sew with it, I've dreamed of making a skirt with it, but it's only a yard of fabric. It lives in my hutch with my yarn and I only take it out on special occassions, crazy right?! I know!

What’s your definition of the perfect stash?

I'm led to believe that the perfect stash simply must belong to Martha Stewart. I'm pretty sure I've seen bits and pieces of it in her magazine, but come on, she's gotta be rolling in some phenom fabrics!!!!!

I'll share these new fat quarters with you that I just got today!

I love them!

Ok! That's all for today! I'm answering questions about custom orders, packaging orders and working on some stuff today! I might sneak some pads into the shop later tonight!

Have a fantastic Thursday everyone!!!! I'm going to maybe try to make some pineapple shrimp with jasmine rice tonight! eeep!!!

xoxox

{*Crazy right???*}

The past two days have been *crazy*!!!!

Things are finally starting to break up sinus wise, thankfully, because I seriously was ready to scream! Lots and lots of steaming my face with eucalyptus oil!

So I woke up yesterday and was intent on being super productive and totally was! I got 6, yup, 6 custom orders of over 4 pads in EACH order done and shipped, they came out so so so nice! I got to back two of the orders in organic cotton instead of antipill fleece and I just adore how thin they are! I had an amazing sewing day. Mr.McPorkchop and I went to the beach and watched the storm blow in and played with my camera a bit. It was just shaping up to be an amazing day...but before that, I stayed up super late the night before working on this little pouch!

Am I the only one who is addicted to charming little pouches?!  It took me so so so so long to come up with a good pattern, one with gussets, no visible seams, something simple, but really really nice. I never took sewing classes, so everything I design is self taught, I found some great tutorials, but nothing really struck me, so I spent an entire night sewing, resewing, building, unbuilding, just to come up with a simple pouch! LOL! Thank goodness for .99 cent muslin right?!

I used vintage bed linens, organic cotton, japanese neighborhood fabric for the tag, organic cotton ricrac on the zipper, two vintage laces and the softest velvet EVER! Boy am I pleased with the results and I have a few others cut and ready to be sewn! I also found the best interfacing and I'm really happy with it!

I've added this new little pouch to my shop! I'm going to be adding some new pads and sets of wipes this week too so check back or rss the shop!

SO! Back to my day..the bad news? My amazing day was cut short by, get ready for this, an allergic reaction to *something* so bad that I got to spend my evening in urgent care! Charming right? I had what looked like a really really bad sunburn from my neck down. Not fun. My skin literally felt like it was on fire, I was sweating! Ewwww!!! Today it just looks like red little bumps, which is a lot better. I'm taking steroids for three days, yuck! They say to take them with food or milk, I'm having them with pudding ;) Because you know, pudding is both ;)

Okok, I'm going back to sewing!!! I hope everyone is having a great week so far! I also have 60+ etsy convos that I'm trying with Mr.McPorkchops help to reply too, if you need something urgently, it might be best to email me directly, modernacorn@gmail.com

xoxox

{*Weekends*}

I can't believe it's Sunday!!! It feels like I've wasted an entire week, which of course, I did!!! I hate being sick because then you have to play catch up and everything feels all rushed and disordered.

Thankfully lots of little things have gotten done, for example, modernacorn now has a new shop!! That's so exciting! And you can now click on modernacorn.com!!!!!! How exciting is that?! I'm going to slowly ween away from etsy but I'm going to be constantly updating the new shop, so RSS/bookmark that one! The cart system has been known to oversell, but hopefully it'll go a little better this time! If you could click around and let me know that all the links work, that would be great!

Yesterday was a surprising day! Full of unexpected things! I needed to get out of the house. Badly. I wanted something very cold to drink, lots of tissues and cough drops and I wanted to just sit in the car and be content looking at things through the window. Mr. McPorkchop took me to two thrift stores, sadly, I've completely neglected the thrift store scene here in Eureka! Our friend, Garmin, showed us some and we went exploring. I got a set of vintage pillow cases that look like either bad stone lithos or really great crayon drawings. I took some poor photos of them, but they are hilarious, big ducks, squirrels, bright colors, they are great! I also got two sets of vintage sheets, score!!! One size doesn't fit my bed, so I'm going to upcycle them into pads and bags this week, they are so very pretty! The set that I'm keeping has been printed with a pattern that looks like cross stitches! I love it!

We drove to my favoritest little town, Ferndale California! I got out of the car and walked around. After a week in bed it felt so so so nice to stretch my legs! While walking around of course...

I discovered a darling quilt shop. Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop!!! Gosh was it *charming*!!!! Tons and tons and tons of Westminster and Free Spirit, lots of Kaffe!!!! I got some gorgeous new fabrics! Lots of beautiful discontinued prints!

While we were in there, Mr. McPorkchop carried my bolts of fabrics around they took photos of him, hilarious!!! I of course, still sick, nose red and raw, was looking less than charming, but I did get asked to donate to the Fortuna High Schools sober grad event! My birdie sling gets lots of attention, which is so very nice. I also was embarrassed to admit that I didn't have a business card on me!!! Small business owners should always carry these! Sheesh!!!

On our way home we caught sight of the most amazing thing ever!!! We somehow caught Great Blue Heron "rush hour", they were all leaving the marsh-y area and heading into the heronry! Seeing twilight and then these large birds flying into these huge trees was amazing!!! They are absolutely gorgeous birds!

This morning I had tons of new fabrics to wash so Mr. McPorkchop & I went to Arcata and had some breakfast with my BFF Aric while our laundry was being done. I wish I had gotten a photo of it but Mr.McPorkchop & I were both wearing jeans tucked into wellies, it was so great!!! I also saw that a little boutique was carrying Heather Ross Munki Munki p.j.s, but they were closed! BOO! But you can bet that I was drooling through the window!

Aric kindly brought me over 3 tablespoons of soy sauce a little while ago, lol. I need some for a recipe, but I'm allergic so I didn't want to buy an entire bottle. Yes, I know I know.

I'm so insanely inspired to get sewing with these new fabrics, so you can expect new pads and bags to be listed to the shop very soon, I'm also plugging right along on custom work too, yeah for being productive!!!

Have a great Sunday!!!

xoxo

{*Love It!*}

What a DAY!!!!!!!!

Firstly, thank you so much everyone for all your get well soon wishes! You all are so so so nice to me!!!

I woke up feeling ok-ish, so I got to work right away, I got done a super super fun custom order, three pads, I got to chose the fabrics, she said she liked jewel colors, big flowers and birds! AWESOME! I'm super jazzed with how cute these came out! I also ironed and got ready the fabrics for tomorrows custom orders! Score for getting stuff done!

I feel like I haven't left the house in years, even though it's really only been a few days and I needed some spray starch and a free motion foot for my machine, so we visited my favorite local fabric store, Scottie Dog Quilts, here in Eureka! Ok, I adore this shop to pieces, it's owned by a mother daughter team who are just the sweetest most knowledgeable ladies ever!!! I went in thinking "Ok, Amanda..steady...steady...don't sneeze on anyone...spray starch and leave..."! I ended up being "HOLY CRAP NEW AWESOME FABRICS!!!! *Sniffle. Sneeze. Sniffle*". I was so so so excited, they had some of the best new stuff ever, I think you can tell by my stack that I'm feelin early spring, greens and pinks! Hopefully these fabrics will turn into pads mighty fast! Also, Liz offered to teach me english paper piecing! How insanely cool is that? Once I'm not sneezing on every one I'm totally going to take her up on it!

So you all know by now that clearly, when I'm sick, I still want to build stuff and I generally can't even begin to sit still that long. I was up late a few nights ago as I mentioned before, sneezing, as always and I got so inspired by Oh, Franssons doll quilt from sewmamasew! I decided then and there that a doll quilt can totally be made while I was sick! Even better, I could make it in bed.

Quilters out there, don't worry, I can hear your laughter.

I started by grabbing my scrap bag of fabrics, I save all my pad scraps so I can make stuff from them. I cut 20 3 inch squares, by hand, in bed. See the ones that are wonky? Yup. In bed. No rotary cutter, clearly. Oops!

I then started to sew by hand the top row of fabrics. Also, clearly. Hahaha. Not so good. So I put it aside until this morning because I'm honestly not good at hand sewing. AT ALL! I stitched all my rows together with the machine and..viola! I made a mistake! See that bottom square where its 4 linens in a block? Yeah. Mistake. I need to take that apart. I'm going to do the sashing in dark grey corduroy, piece together my own binding from scraps and then back it in plaid shirting or wool. I got a free motion foot today and if it fits, I'm going to try and quilt it that way, but the idea of stitch in the ditch by hand sounds kinda nice too.

Tonight Mr.McPorkchop & I are going to go through a years worth of paypal and etsy receipts for my taxes. Goody! I got some new medicine at Long's so hopefully I'll feel a little better because this weekend we are moving around my sewing space in preparation for my top secret new project! And because my fabric collection, I don't know why, is out growing its space.

Go figure ;)

Really though, I'm sure I'll be asleep on the couch in five minutes, I'm B.E.A.T. Fabric shopping takes a lot out of you ;)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!! xoxoxox!!!