{*~Inspiring~*}

in

I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed lately. I'm trying to find an allergist locally, preparing for a craft show, trying to finish up a custom quilt, get caught up on bee blocks, work on swaps, work at the quilt shop, plus earn an income to pay my bills, get my medicine ($1,000 a month...barf) and stick a tiny bit in my savings. I need an extra ten hours in a day!

I know I can do it...or at least most of it. But it's really testing my patience right now!!!! I hate feeling behind and when I start to fall behind...the vicious cycle of catch up begins. I know I should start saying "no" more often, but I really want to please people! Super bad right?! I need to bow out of a few projects I think. Maybe do some seam ripping this weekend and add some fabrics back to my stash, I take these kinda weeks to weed out quilts and whatnot that I'm feeling "meh!" about...it's good to do some fabric gardening every now and again!

I keep finding myself SO inspired and LOVING IT but HATING lack of time! Crazy right?! I have my sewing space completely clean, my fabric collection is pretty much epic...I can't ask for more, when I sew I like the stuff I'm making, I've discovered a few palettes and techniques I've loved exploring...it's like everything is aligned...except time!

Here are a few things I'm *so* inspired by lately!

I hope your having a good week so far! <3!

{*~Moving On~*}

in

Wow. I can't believe how many kind comments & emails I got after my last post. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like the internet community of quilters is kinda surreal.

I've made some summertime rules/goals for myself and sticking to them has felt a lot better. I'm becoming really good at saying no. At turning off my phone. No emails or anything on the weekends. At being more "present" when spending time with Porkchop. Taking time for me & being more kind to myself. I'm going to of course keep blogging & flickring, but only when I want too, I'm not a blogger who makes money off of it so it makes sense to just do it when it's fun!

We've spent the weekends getting into all sorts of trouble....day trips, laying in the sun, bike rides, visits to the mountains (there was still snow!), going to the movies....our thing is going to the movies first thing on Friday morning...it's only $5 to get in and we sneak in diet cherry limeaids! So far we've seen Toy Story 3 (I cried nonstop), MacGruber (dreadful), A-Team (Bradley Cooper? Wowzers!!! ;)) We are trying something new & going to a midnight viewing on Thursday for Knight & Day.

HEY, did you guys know Klean Kanteens are made in Chico?! I had no idea! I stopped by their warehouse the other morning before work and picked up a bottle for myself, Porkchop & Porkchops dad. I also got a bike rack! I have a little project I've been working on with these bottles in mind that I'm excited to show you once I get caught up on swaps & orders. Plus I have a little shop update coming up soon!

Also: This bike...ohhh how I love it. I bought it on a whim in Eureka but never really rode it much...lately all I want to do is ride!!! It's kinda like a beach cruiser but with gears and front brakes. I'm not going to lie, part of me is wondering if I can paint it. I don't like the stickers and whatnot on it.

I've been insanely inspired by Castle Peeps! It's really a fun line to play with. If you know me, you'll be surprised by this: I bought ONE!!! and a HALF YARDS of my favorites from the line. I'm strictly a fat quarter girl and this line...wowzers. So much cute potential!!! I'm debating buying this cute pdf and making some boxers for Porkchop & I...can you imagine how many cute shorts can be made from Castle Peeps?!!!! Eeep!

I hope your summer is starting on a kind note...I'm all about the sunshine...and I have the tan to prove it ;)

{~*Circa50*~}

in

With everything safely in the mail, I'd love to share with you guys my Circa50 quilt for Birch Fabrics Quilt Market Booth!

I love love love this quilt! It was definitely a labor of love.

I received the whole line in February and slowly worked on it but nothing I was making really *caught* me, I felt like I wasn't doing the fabric justice. I'd been commissioned to make a quilt similar to this one and for some reason, I just couldn't get it to look right! Then I realized I was going about it the complete wrong way...that quilt is very winter-y, whereas Circa50 is very summer-y & Southern California.

So I kept at it, sketching, sewing, sketching, sewing. I looked a lot of websites, bought a few copies of Atomic Ranch, went to the library, etc. I made a *lot* of houses before I got it right. I'm really thankful for my friends Brenda Lou & Liz because at first, I was making the houses slowly and carefully measuring and sewing them together according to my sketches...they gave me the idea to foundation piece them instead. SO much better! You can see my first round of adobe illustrator sketches above, with Liz & my notes.

Once I figured out illustrator and how I wanted things to look, it was a lot of getting up, sitting down and sewing, tweaking something on the computer, reprinting it, resewing, back and forth. Foundation piecing is really precise and while I *love* that, it's not completely my style, I like a bit of organic feeling to my quilts, so in some spots I let the lines be a little bigger and a little "off". You can see the fabric I based the houses on here!

The quilting was insanely fun! I knew I wanted to really do something fresh and unique. So leading up to the homes are cobblestone walk ways, the palm trees have coconuts, there are little conversation bubbles with musical notes coming out of the birds mouths, some atomic starbursts, etc...it was just REALLY fun. By using white thread, the quilting is there, but not really "in your face", I think if I'd done a color thread it would have just been tacky, but with the white, it's faint and charming.

Because I normally quilt things to death, I had to really stop myself and walk away a few times. It's easy to get carried away & I kept telling myself simple was best! A huge thanks for Yahaira who provided me with much needed support via text message. I swear I was feeling VERY insecure at this point. I kept worrying & worrying! But once it was bound, I was glad I followed through with all my ideas.

I also made this 1950's style dress out of one of the prints for Cynthia's Blythe who will be attending Quilt Market. So cute! I've been making dresses for custom orders a lot the past few months and this one was SO fun! I loved finding the little belt buckle online & then making a little tote from the fabric, she's gotta have a tote to carry around all the fun stuff she finds at the booths! Please ignore Paprika's hair, she's very uncomfortable without her wig on ;)

I had purchased some handmade Blythe dress hangers from my friend Rebecca so the dress is shipped on a little hanger on a piece of cardstock with some vintage teeny tiny ric rac. The quilt & the Blythe goodies were then packed in organic cotton produce bags that are basted shut with bits of the scraps I had from the line! Super cute & reusable! I like shipping stuff in these bags because it stops stuff from getting dirty but it also is ecofriendly, plus it's fitting for a 100% organic fabric company!!! I make all my thank you cards from scraps as well :)

I hope you liked this little peek into the process of a commissioned quilt! If you are going to Quilt Market, check out Birch Fabrics! I'm really excited to see how their booth looks, they are number #3725!

They have some *fantastic* upcoming lines, Circa60 which I know is going to be fantastic, those campers! those polka dots! And the under the sea themed Marine is so great, those colors are phenom!

A huge thank you to Birch for this great opportunity and the chance to follow my ideas! You guys are the greatest! :)

Have a great Wednesday friends! My next post will be from Gridley, CA; we are leaving tomorrow morning! I can't wait to unpack! ;)

{*~My Take~*}

in

Rachel posted this fun little meme today & I thought I'd answer some questions this afternoon!

1. When do you feel happiest? I'm happiest when I'm spending time with Mr. McPorkchop. Car rides are especially my favorite. If I'm stressed or sad, he always suggests a car ride and I feel a lot better afterwards.

2. How do you take care of yourself? I sadly am not one to take very good care of myself. Today being a perfect example, I've been sewing allllll morning & afternoon and completely forgot to eat, even though I was with friends who were eating. As a result, I have a migraine from hell blooming. I have been painting my nails often...does that count? And I take my medicines every morning at the exact same time, I should get a bonus point for that!

3. Are you internally (by yourself) or externally (by others) motivated? I think I'm a little bit of both. Sometimes I have to turn off the computer & focus on what I'm working on because I find myself being overwhelmed by other peoples work, but other times I get so focused on what I'm working on that I burn myself out & love to look at other peoples work as inspiration and motivation! It goes both ways!

4. What do you do for fun? Lately I've been painting an hour a day! That's a big thing for me because I hate wasting any sort of time & I genuinely feel bad taking time for myself when there are a zillion things I need to do in a day, but I've started to realize I need a balance and painting calms me down and forces me to concentrate.

5. What intimidates you? Can I answer what *doesn't* intimidate me?! Haha. I'm very easily intimidated. Girls with perfect hair & bodies, I'm chubby & my hair is straight & a little boring! At the moment I'm intimidated by anyone who can stipple well, I've got a long way to go. Anyone who can sew a perfectly straight line too, no matter how hard I try, straight lines aren't my thing! Also anyone who can balance a zillion things at once. Oh! And 98% of the people I went to high school with, they all have fancy careers or are finishing up grad school, it intimidates me in the sense that I dropped out of college because I hated it & I don't have the sort of stability that a 9-5 offers, I think a lot of them think less of me & what I do. That's a very strange feeling, like I'm insecure and at the same time, defensive!

6. What is something you're proud of? I'm proud of how my sewing skills have grown! I'm proud of my design sense in quilting!  I'm proud that instead of wasting $$$ on my last semester of college for a degree that I didn't really want anymore, I walked away to pursue my dreams, it took a lot of balls! I'm proud that I've been a vegetarian since late December & it's inspired me to cook in a completely different way! I'm proud of the fact that I can mend my husbands clothes, cook him an incredible homemade meal & keep him warm with quilts, sometimes all in one day ;)! I'm proud of my cooking skills in general! I'm proud that I can sew, knit, crochet & make cheese from scratch! I'm proud of my fabric knowledge! I'm proud of my small windowsill herb garden! I'm proud of my best friends & I'm excited when they achieve things! I'm proud of how much I read!

7. Finish this sentence. I never _____________. am content! Ever! Each day I want to do more more MORE!!!!! I want to grow more as a person each day, both emotionally and physically. But not physically in the sense that I want to get chubbier...haha! ;)

8. Favorite vacation spot. Mmm so many options! Probably San Francisco, it's my favorite city! Although I'm pretty keen on

9. Today is a (rate from 1 - 10). 8.5! I got to sew with my friends, accomplish a lot of sewing, eat the first strawberries of the season, give a birthday gift to the cutest little 5 year old but I nicked myself with my rotary cutter & have a bit of a headache...so 8.5 it is! It'll go up to 9.5 once Mr. Porkchop is home for the night!

10. Finish this sentence. If you knew me really well you'd know _____________. that I sneeze verrrry quietly, I can't handle my alcohol at all & I hate having my photo taken with a fierce passion (see both in the photo below!)

Happy Thursday friends!!!! I hope your week has been going *great!*

xo

{*~complications~*}

in

If I could sum up the past few days, I'd use the following phrases:

"bloody nose","this is why we can't have nice things" and "does this taste like metal/fish/spoiled/off/gross to you?".

Mmmm yes. Excitement around this place! Broken electronics, total klutziness, strange side affects from medicines and a whole lot of cussing & laughing. Typical McPorkchop behavior!

I'm doing a little bit of sewing today...in between projects I made Mr. McPorkchop this doodle jump inspired mini quilt. It's all free motion quilted & applique. Wayyyy too much fun. It's a blast mostly because it's scribble-y! I'm sure if you aren't familiar with the opening screen, this mini just looks like a hot mess, but accurate to the game, haha.

I'll be updating etsy later on this week with slots for custom mini quilts (provided I have finished the 3 orders I already have!), some patchwork camera straps that are cuuute, four mini quilts, kindle pouches, some mug rugs & some patchwork zippered pouches! woohoo! I hope that if I type this out, I'll actually update it, someone should hold me accountable, haha. I have no self confidence with these sort of things, I talk myself out of selling stuff because I'm convinced everything has some tragic flaw which is my excuse if things aren't 100% factory perfectly made, for example, one of the custom mini quilts I'm finishing for the FOURTH time because I'm not satisfied with it. Yeah. I'm a bit hard on myself.

A few things I like today:

This bread which is free of all my allergens and still tastes great! However, it's extremely expensive ($7 a loaf!!!). But doesn't upset my stomach...so I'll buy it as a special treat every once in a while.

This set of paper, I got it as a gift! I'll be using it for this class!

This dress that I can't stop lusting after. It appeals to my New England roots & my inner smothered yuppie who's tired of wearing jeans, teeshirts, flannels & reefs.

This fabric which is begging to be beignet.

Speaking of patterns, I adore this but the largest bust size is too small for me!

I'm off to iron some fabric & work on a custom mini. I just finished season 3 of Buffy last night...watching her graduate high school & say goodbye to Angel was so bittersweet. How the heck did I get sucked in so completely?! Not to mention the first episode of season 4 is her at college...oh how I could relate to her first day college experience...minus the whole vampire slaying ;)

Have a great Tuesday!

xo

{*~Colorful~*}

in

I've been taking fresh colorful photos because the world outside my windows lately is bleak. Gray! Dim! Not in some large philosophical sense. But as in the weather conditions!!!

The weekend was spent oversleeping, reading (I've just finished up with the entire series of "Bones" books!), spending time cooking some fantastic meals, trying to stay warm, wearing rainboots to get the mail, sewing & hating the things I was making & daydreaming of sunshine & flipflops.

Today I almost went indoor tanning, the feeling of drab oppression from the constant rain was getting to me! But my wallet, skin & tattoos would be mad at me. So I drove away. But now I'm kinda wishing I'd gone!  Brrrr!!!

Also, a very huge thank you to everyone who commented on my quilt over at sewmamasew! Everyone has been so kind! Thank you thank you thank you!

Have a great Monday friends!

xo

{*~be back soon!~*}

in

Mr. McPorkchop & I have decided to go away for ten days (his spring break!)...heading to the valley so I can dry out my lungs. A few days in the drier climate will hopefully make me feel better. Unfortunately the specialist I wanted to see has a 4-5 month long wait list for an appointment...unacceptable!

I can only do about 15 minutes of gentle yoga before I'm winded, I can get in about an hour or so of good sewing time before my body hurts. I'm not used to this at all, I used to be able to piece together a quilt in a day or two, I'm normally a ball of energy. Turns out you really do need oxygen! ;)

I've been slowly working on a very fun custom order and working more and more on hand piecing & sewing. I finished up this weeks pinwheel blocks, made myself a camera strap early yesterday morning, working on a mothers day/birthday gift for my mom. I get angry at myself because I can't work as hard as I *need* too! It's one of those things thats beyond my control but drives me insane regardless! Me + Patience = Not HAPPENING! But I've been cooking slow meals, I'm currently obsessed with barley, we eat a lot of brown, wild & exotic rices so barley is a fun change, the texture is incredible, esp. w/garlic, shallots, eggs, salsa & spinach! I got some amazing oranges this morning so I've been sprinkling them with pineapple mint from my windowsill and devouring them.

Since I moved my sewing machine, I can watch hulu while I sew/draw! That's pretty fun! I got caught up last night on Psych, I love that Shawn Spencer! I like having noise in the background when I sew...it's either been pandora or Buffy these days so it's nice to switch it up a bit!

I'll be leaving either Thursday or Friday & won't be blogging while I'm gone unless I sit at starbucks, but I'll be continuing my 365 in a completely fun way...FILM! That's why I made a camera strap! I'm hoping to unplug my macbook, iphone, digital camera & relax....low tech wise! I'm bringing my little featherweight sewing machine, my manual Nikon EM, some magazines, a sketchbook I made and Paprika! I won't kid myself and go completely tech free, I need my kindle ;) I'm hoping for some fishing, long drives, evenings by the fire, quiet sewing on Bee & maybe starting my garden!

Until then, sewing, cleaning, taking it semi-easy & packing! I lost my house keys so I gotta find them too!!! >:(

xo

{*~Scenes~*}

in

I think I slept a grand total of 2 hours last night.

5 Things I'm thankful for this Tuesday afternoon:

  • Roku.
  • Smartwool leggings.
  • My fantastic husband who will get up out of bed to sit with me on the couch when I can't sleep.
  • My new teal & white dishtowels from Target. Spring-y, cute & cheap.
  • Hot coffee from the french press: current fav is illy dark roast.

xo

{~*Spinning*~}

in

It's early Sunday morning & we are packing up a bunch of our stuff to bring to Mr.McPorkchop's dads house to make more room around here. We've decided to start "moving". We will be gone all summer and will only live here August til December of next year. Anything we can do now to make moving easier & our life here better, we are doing. Yudu is going with him :( The emulsion doesn't set up & harden properly here because of the humidity, so in it's place I'll set up my serger & work on some modernacorn business finally!

I'm obsessed with complicated blocks. Complicated for me at least. The top block was made with this tutorial, and the two simple pinwheels are for Rachel's quiltalong! I'm hoping to visit some used bookstores this afternoon to scoop up some traditional block books, I'm curious about blocks that can be made modern...if I can find enough that are fantastic I'll be hosting a quiltalong...or at least tutorials on how to freshen up some traditional blocks. Or I'll become frustrated with things not lining up right & give up...haha ;)

I'm needing to take a sewing machine break, I've been having problems with the machine eating fabric & learned that Bernina sells a straight stitch plate! The plate it came with loves to chomp fabric, especially when I've been making Blythe clothes & chain piecing, sometimes even with a leader. The neat thing about the new plate is the machine will recognize it & not allow you to do anything BUT a straight stitch, so you don't run the risk of forgetting its on & jamming the machine. It'll ship tomorrow morning from Sacramento, so it'll be here in no time!

I'm still doing a ton of hand sewing, this weekends mail has brought me a bunch of charms to play with! Exciting! Be prepared for a shop update this week, I have some super pretty things that I hope you like!

I hope your having a great weekend! See you tomorrow!

xo

{~*Pinwheel Love*~}

in

The past few days have been hectic & a tad bit loony. I'll be spending the day running a tiny bit of errands & then hunkered down on the couch handsewing, researching mcm homes for a custom quilt, playing doctor & repairing poor Sunshine Bears missing armpit. Hopefully today will be a fantastic mail day!

What are you doing this Friday? It sure is stormy out, one thing that cracks me up about facebook is about 65% of my page is people from MA (I grew up & graduated HS in Peabody) and it's like I get a weather report when I log in...everyone is complaining about lost power...and here in Eureka, CA, it's stormy & rain-y as well!

xo

{~*Stormy*~}

in

It's been pouring and windy outside all morning, I'm wearing layers & surrounding myself with cheer-y colors and things.

Right now I'm a sucker for berry tones. I woke up this morning and decided I'd work with these hues all day, more hand sewing. Bits of blues, bright fuchsias, tiny pops of yellow and small hints of off white. Something like raspberries, blueberries, lemons, marionberries & whipped cream.

Last night I got little to no sleep, more coughing. Poor Mr.McPorkchop *never* complained, even though I was thrashing around, cuddling close because I was frozen then kicking him because I was hot, stealing all the blankets...you know, generally being an awesome person to sleep next too! He gets home early today so I'm making him lunch, baked eggs in creamy tomato basil sauce with roasted kale & whole wheat toast. Something filling and very warm. I might add some red quinoa as well for more protein.

Speaking of food & berries! I did some quick math & realized since my New Years Resolutions I've lost 14.8 lbs! That's great! And deserves a present in a berry color ;) So I treated myself to this Sleepy King Woodland Owl Wing. Savannah is *super* nice & friends with my bestest BFF buddy Jenny & lives in Chico! Sweet! I'm not sure how it will look on me, mostly because I wear glasses and I don't want my head to look busy. Yup. I just typed that. Haha.

I hope your having a great Tuesday! Stay cozy!

xo

P.S; I use wordpress & I'm using threaded comments, which is next, except I can't figure out how to give myself an icon! If anyone knows how, let me know! wordpress is kinda scary. I'm always afraid of tinkering around with it in fear of breaking something.

{*~Sunny~*}

in

I woke up this morning with a very warm face...the sun was out!!!!

I don't think I've seen sunshine in over a month. Like more than partly cloudy!

I had Mr. McPorkchop help me outside so I could take some quick snapshots of this in progress quilt.

For some reason I'm always scared to show in progress stuff. I'm afraid my photos don't do justice to things I create so I'll hold off until sometimes months after I've finished something to gather the courage to share it! Well, New Years Resolutions made me promise to share more & I'm so glad I did! After seeing the photo I realized there are a few mistakes, I inserted some of the blocks wrong...I'm not sure if I'll fix it or leave it. I'm thinking leave it ;)

I really really enjoyed working on this quilt. It was pieced both on my featherweight & Bernina, both at home & with friends. The fabric is Nicey Jane from Heather Bailey & the solid gray is my all time favorite because it's a green based gray, by Amy Butler, I'm not sure if the color is linen or slate. I bought it from Runs with Scissors in Auburn & am planning on buying some more! I love it *that* much. If anyone is interested in a similar kona color, let me know & I'll match it :) I bought the entire line of Nicey Jane in fat quarters at an after Christmas sale. At first I wasn't sure if I liked this line, but all together, it's GORGEOUS.

The pattern is Sparkling Cider by All Washed Up. Here is a blog post they've written about it. I love love love the look of this quilt, I've got a thing for stars, the one in their blog post made with Amy Butler fabrics hangs in a local shop & every.single.time I see it, I drool. It's so summery & vintagey & fresh & modern all at once. I think thats what I love about using a pattern to make a quilt, you can take a semi-traditional pattern, use modern fabrics and have a completely different feel! The neat thing is the pattern designers, Angie & Weezie live here in Humboldt & I've met both of them, they are just really neat ladies!

It was a challenge for me in the sense that I prefer my quilts to be very simple, very easy on the eye. I can't do "scrappy" quilts or "busy" quilts, it stresses me out for some reason. I need lots of negative space, solids & small patterns or big patterns in specific areas. So when this went up on the design wall at Scottie Dog Quilts, I needed a LOT of help with how to lay out the fabrics, the pattern says scrappy, I say "LAY IT ALL OUT FIRST!!!!" because I need control. Obviously. Haha. But the ladies helped me out as usual & I couldn't have done it without them! I was ready to throw in the towel & add some more solids!

Now that I look at this photo, I realize I love this fabric line because it looks like vintage bed linens. Which EVERYONE seems to find at thrift stores...except me. Haha. Along with pyrex which I also never find.

Last night I decided I need a little more privacy in my internet life & have made facebook friends & family only. I have my ten year high school reunion coming up & various family events & would rather keep business friends contacts separate, I've been watching Mr.McPorkchops friends add photos of him from elementary school & I'd rather not have everyone witness that should it happen to me;)!  If anyone is interested, I might create a business facebook page that people can fan & I can update with shop updates, blog updates, sales, etc.

I'm planning on sitting outside...soaking up some Vitamin Sunshine, reading kindle & coughing cough coughing!!! I swear I was coughing so much in my sleep last night that I thought Mr. McPorkchop was going to kill me...sadly he's starting to get sick now :( Poor Porkchop!

Have a great Sunday everyone!!!!

xo

{*~Turn That Frown~*}

in

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*~}

in

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

{*Learning*}

in

I seriously can't believe its Thursday. How did this happen? Like, 4 minutes ago it was only Tuesday!!!

Today was quilting! It was a blast as usual. I quilted my clutch. I'm not 100% in love with it, my Pfaffs tension is real wonky and I couldn't adjust it right >:( I really *really* need quilting Thursdays, they just are such a great release! Everyone is so nice, so positive, it's GREAT. I wish I could get to purl n' hurl Humboldt on Thursday nights...sheesh. I start to get all anxious and nervous in public situations, clearly, I need to get out of the house more.

Liz taught me how to english paper piece! omg. ADDICTING!!!! I've made about 6 little pieces so far. Liz was talking about being unable to jut *sit* and thats TOTALLY me. I need to be working on something at all times. Watching tv? Knitting or embroidering. Reading a book? Sketching and writing down things that inspire me. Journal writing? Daily. Literally every second of my day is spent doing *something* creative and work related. I was going to make more and sit on the couch building and handsewing but we had unexpected guests of Aric & Ashleigh! WOOT! I <3 them so much.

We ended up going to Michaels where they had yudu supplies! YES!!! We got a ton of stuff and I bought a porcelian marker. Why do you ask?

Because I bought a neti pot!!!!

I ended up going to the co-op and they had a coupon so I got a cute ceramic neti pot for around $15. Score! I'm planning on drawing all over my little white pot. I want to put silly sayings on it, like "blow me", because you know, blowing my nose! Haha. I won't go into the details about it, but if anyone has any suggestions, please share! I could literally sit there for an hour and stuff would still be draining. Ick.

I'm about thisclose to a full blown sinus infection but I've been rinsing my nose every few hours to release the pressure and it's been helping. I don't want to get sick right now. I have too much fun stuff going on!!!

I'm almost done with my current batch of custom orders and they should be shipping tomorrow and Saturday! Yay!!!! I'm most likely going to extend the 72 hours to a week, just because I don't want to rush, a custom order means I take special time, ya know?! I also ordered new colors of cotton for the backings of pads, I found an amazing site with low shipping costs and it was within my budget, that always makes me so so so happy!! I've been getting SO many requests for cotton backed pads and I'm hoping people really really like them.

Tomorrow I'm getting up early to finish orders and list some liners. I'm not sure what time I'll update, as I have to go to the bank and run several business related errands in the morning (need more envelopes!!)

Yesterday I took an hour to work on a painting. I haven't painted in months. I reallllllly needed to pick up the brush again. Mr. McPorkchop & I have been collecting lots of beach trinkets lately and I want to paint them. They just make me so happy. Especially the broken shells. The little edges just make me so very happy!

I did try a watercolor block that I've never used before and I have to be honest in saying that I most likely won't finish this painting because the paper was driving me BATTY!!!! It kept buckling and wrinkling, which is odd to me because I'm a very dry watercolor painter. Go figure. But I did buy new watercolors from Daniel Smith last year for a painting class I was taking and wow. Just wow. Amazing pigmentation. Amazing colors. They just glide so evenly. They completely blow my sennelier paints out of the water. Which I *never* thought I'd ever say, considering that palette is 3 years old now and still going strong. Either way, it was really really nice to sit, listen to music and paint.

I attempted to sit down and knit last night. I was rummaging through some stuff and found an almost finished project. So I wanted to finish it and sheesh, it was rough knitting. I found a lot of mistakes I'd made and I just wasn't feeling it. Also, I'm pretty much obsessed with all of Yahaira's current triangle scarves. I super love the look of them, I've already attempted to copy her Ishbel and failed, springtime bandit is beyond my skill level, but frostberries might be perfect! Woot!!!! I might give it a gander!

This weekend we are having a very hilarious, very rowdy house guest. He canceled last weekend, so I'm not sure if he will again for this weekend, but yay for houseguests!

I have a small list of things I'd like to get done this weekend:

  1. Finish custom orders
  2. Update the shop
  3. Make myself a pouch for my id and debit card. I'm torn on fabrics on this. VW buses? Japanese cactus fabric?
  4. Finish my moms bag and apron
  5. Work on Kelly's apron

A pretty modest list for me, but if we have a house guest, it'll be more like 1, 2 and 4. And maybe toss some knitting into it. I feel like everything hinges on if I can kill this sinus infection before it gets worse. One more meeting with neti before bed, plus some mushroom pills and vitamin C, I'm crossing my fingers that I wake up feeling better!!!!

What are you doing this weekend? Anything good?

{*New Stuff!*}

in

The shop is fully stocked with new cotton backed pads and pad bags!!!

Two of the pad bags ship priority for free! Woot!!! And if you purchase pads AND a bag, I'll refund your pad shipping! EXTRA WOOT!

I've gotten a lot of questions about the shop and I can't figure out how to reply to comments directly, it keeps saying email addresses are invalid...boo!!!

I know its lame to open the shop and have to click through each listing to see whats sold out or in stock. I *always* move the listings that have sold down to the bottom. I don't delete them until after they've been shipped and received. So when you visit the shop, the first listings are the in stock and ready to purchase items! Yay!!!

Speaking of GROWING pains, how about a LACK of growing thats causing me pain?! This is my dear Ishbel. It's growing and it's paused. I'm on the very first row of the lace, I have the correct amount of 173 sts going into it, but each time I get to "to 8 sts before centre stitch", I get messed up. You see, the last little bit, the sl1, k2tog, psso? Yes, well I only have TWO stitches before that 8 stitches when I clearly need THREE! I've frogged the same row 6 times!!! Thankfully this yarn is amazing and can handle it just fine, but I hate being lost on knitting.

Another pretty yarn photo to make the pain go away:

Tomorrow is quilting! WOOT! So excited!!! I'm not 100% sold on the color I chose for sashing, so I'm letting the quilt top just marinate for a bit. I'm going to bring my huge pile of scraps and work on cutting some coins, plus I'm going to see what my options are for accucutting and hopefully cut Momo Wonderland into a quilt! WOOTxten!

Also, some of you might know this, but you might not! I've struggled with my weight my whole entire life, I go from thin to heavy and back and forth. I gained 60+ lbs in 3 years of losing both my grandparents and my stepfather and basically eating my pain away. Eek. That's very hard to even type!!! Well, I joined Weight Watchers on the first of the year and I've almost lost 15 lbs!!! I'm really excited, but it sure is hard!!! I keep snapping photos of myself in my mirror, I *never* let my photo be taken, but today after working out, I'm noticing a difference in my face, so I'm being brave and admitting my food/self esteem issues!!!

It's so odd to look at photos of myself! So I'm working towards better self esteem and better health!!! It's hard to do for sure, my friend Danielle is a *huge* inspiration to me, she's an all around amazing person and has been so encouraging to me!!! She's doing an MS walk and her story and inspiration for doing it is awesome! Check it out here!

It's now April 1st and I'm working on more and more goals. I want to do Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred! Sheesh! I can only get like 8 minutes into it and I feel like my lungs are going to burst, so my goal this month is to get through the entire 20 minute work out. I need to be more active!!! Also, did anyone else go into wii fit today and notice its prank?!! How hilarious is that?!?!

Have you worked on any of your New Years Goals? Have they stuck? Or did some of them fall apart?

{*Phew*}

in

Phew!!! What a crazy weekend!!!

After the Wednesday pad giveaway, things got really really hectic around here. It turns out quite a few people are very very unhappy with the lack of custom order availability and I got to hear about it. I've never gotten so many mean and hurtful emails before. It was quite the shock. At one point my email topped out at around 190 emails. Most of them were FANTASTIC. Some left me in tears and I'm NOT ok with that.

So I ended up unplugging my computer and just focusing on working and finishing up orders. Wowzers, I got almost 100 pads done by Saturday morning, so tonight I've been able to list some custom slots! With these slots all you need to do is pick the top fabric! Easy peasy!!!! Just purchase the listing, I'll send you a link to a super secret website where you can pick your fabrics! Then I'll mail you pads! woot! This way all orders will be easy to manage and no more sewing 15 hour days! As orders get fulfilled and shipped, I'll be adding more to the shop! Sweet!

Don't forget that I'm *always* willing to combine shipping. I've set some of the shipping prices kinda high but I *always* refund over shipping costs or upgrade to priority. And since I'm updating the shop constantly, I'm also more than willing to hang on to your order so you can keep shopping for a few days! No problem! Just let me know!

After Saturday I was seriously BEAT. Mr.McPorkchop very kindly took me to a daffodil show on Sunday!!!! They are my ALL time favorite flower and it was so nice to walk around and just look at the flowers! So awesome! It was really neat to read all the names and see the different varieties! I pretty much want a giant batch of them. Did you know some varieties have pink trumpets? They are the sweetest things I've ever seen.

It was odd to not have anything super pressing to do, so I started to clean up the sewing nook. I get a ton of emails about what I do with my scraps and the truth is, I save every little last piece. I can't bear to throw any away! I'm not sure what I'm saving them for. But last night, it kinda came to me. Ok. That's a lie. This flickr group has inspired me to bits! I suddenly found myself sitting on the floor, cutting bits and pieces of scraps and laying them down.

Next thing I knew this happened:

And then this!

Whoa!!! Crazy!!! So so so so so much fun!!! They are going to be quilted and turned into a clutch! woot!!!!

I have several pads ready for tomorrow, it got too dark for me to photograph them. Also, want to see a mistake?

I made this super rad pad bag this afternoon. Was just putting the finishing touches on it when I realized I put the nylon too close to the zipper, so I trimmed it and...accidentally poked a hole in the nylon with my scissors! EEK!!! I ran to JoAnns and found a washable fray check so I'm going to try it. It totally breaks my heart because if you know Heather Ross, you know that the VW fabric is discontinued (so are the white flowers) and super hard to find, making it so so so expensive on etsy and eBay. I paid an arm and a leg for it, only to make a mistake on the lining...oh GRRRRR!!! Look at those cute little buttons?! So much fun to make. I might list it tomorrow and maybe offer free priority shipping? A small discount?! I don't know!!! Sheesh!!! I'm referring to this bag as the VENTI bag! lol. It's so big and nice!!!

I'm going watch antiques roadshow and work on some more pads for the shop! I'm still responding to emails, so bear with me!!!

Happy Monday!!! xoxoxo

{*Info About Update*}

in

(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 >:(

{Cozy & Carrots}

in

I want to start tonights blog post with a very huge, very sincere, thank you. Thank you all so so so much for helping my friend Christina. I got so many emails last night, facebook messages, twitter tweets, you guys made me cry. I love you guys to bits and pieces. Thank you all so so so much and as I hear more from Christina, I'll post it here. Seriously. Thank you so so so so much again. If I could give you all hugs, I would. xten.

This is going to be a ramble-y entry. Just giving you a heads up.

I've been having a super hard time sleeping. I think it's from the medicine I've been taking since I had my charming allergic reaction. But really, who knows! Daylight savings? Too much energy? Need to create until dawn?! Last night was a doozy, I wasn't asleep until around 5 am this morning. Nice right? Mr.McPorkchop has been teasing me saying that 12:30 am is the new 2:30 pm because I'm up building stuff!

What am I building? Not a quilt for the quilt a long because I'm lame and can't seem to pick fabrics.  I worked on a knitting bag for myself. It's no secret that I'm really social online, but not to much in real life. On ravelry I joined two local groups in attempts to meet new crafty local friends. I had plans to go to Purl 'n Hurl Humboldt last night, but they were cut out after I had to have a business meeting. Yup. A business meeting. Crazy right? It sounds so official!

ANYWAYS! I made myself a knitting bag. So I can take my knitting places without shoving it in my purse. And tangling it up. Because I've done that before. I'm really grumpy right now with yarn in general, you know how earlier in the week I mentioned a package going missing? Well I ordered yarn for Mr.McPorkchops Valentines gift, yarn for a swap for a pair of Maine Morning Mitts, yarn for a hat for Mr.McPorkchops dad and the package is missing, USPS shows the seller printed postage, but it never entered their system and the seller hasn't responded to any emails. I filed a paypal claim. I've *never* done that before and it made me very, very, very, grumpy. I hate being without yarn, without money and I can't work on a swap, Mr.McPorkchop is Valentines Day giftless and Mr.McPorkchops dad is hatless. BOO!!!

BUT! I decided to take a second chance with buying yarn online. Since Jan.1st I've lost a little over 12 lbs so I thought a treat was in order for myself and I ordered a skein of SweetGeorgia sock yarn from the twitter suggestion of Yahaira! See the scarf she's wearing oh so beautifully in that link? I'm knitting that! Holy smokes! I've never knit anything remotely lace-like before! So exciting! So scary! The pattern is called Ishbel and it's designed by Ysolda Teague. I'm knitting it in a hand painted green color way called lichen.

Pretty right? I think green is becoming my favorite color. Well I wanted a sturdy bag. Something fun. Something rad. I wanted something deep but not huge, something that could stand up on its own, something structured but soft and something quirky.

I cut my remaining pieces of three fabrics that go super cute together and are also limited print/out of print. Deep breath!!! I wish I'd brought the pink fabric down a little more. I'm also unsure how to keep it crinkle free, you can see some wrinkles in the photo from where I flipped it inside out and then right side too. But all in all, it came out neat! I'm jazzed about it!

I used two Heather Ross fabrics, one from lightning bugs and the other from west hill. The lining is from Erin Michaels Lush and its the prettiest wood grain print. I added a little typewritten tag on the inside that has a Harry Potter (big fan of the Potter) quote about knitting! Awesome! You can see the tag here.

I also used a metal zipper! How cool is that? It gives the bag a really sturdy feel. I got the idea from Heather Ross's book, Weekend Sewing. I ended up using 3 different types of interfacing on this bag. Fusible craft heavy weight fabric on the outer fabric to keep its shape. Soft fusible fleece on the lining to give it some body. And sewn in heavy weight pellon for the panels along the zipper so the zipper wouldn't fall in with the weight of its self.

The little pin I just had to do. I'm such a big fan of mockumenteries and the tv show The Office. I've been watching Best in Show and I decided I totally needed prize badge of some sort, plus the horse fabric is begging for it!!! And then the preppy pink and green combo? Totally inspired by Andy Bernard! Have you seen the things he wears? He looks like he's stepped out of a J.Crew catalog and just finished sailing for the day! I love it!!! I also love that Michael Scott turns EVERYTHING into a dramatic production or contest or holiday. So my knitting bag isn't just a knitting bag, it's a dream that I'm a champion knitting- horse back riding- bug catching- day dreaming extraordinaire! Hilarious!!!! I have plans for some Heather Ross jodhpur fabric and wall paper fabric as well. The more preppy the better. I'm bringing out my East Coast roots...kinda.

I made this bag while twittering with my friend Kristen about bikes and bike bags. Who knew I'd find something new to be completely obsessed with?! I finished the bag and several custom orders around 3 am. Awesome!!!

I woke up this morning afternoon, worked on more orders, took a shower and was grumpy. Actually, I laid in bed and cried my eyes out for a good 45 minutes. Crazy right? For the past 6 months I've been allergic to shampoo. So I've been switching. And switching. And trying new things. And spending wayyy too much money on shampoo.  And over time, the allergy has gotten worse. Enter this morning, me in the shower and my hair coming out in clumps. I've never ever had hair this long in my entire life, its only a little past my shoulders and I'm not emotionally attached to it, I just want to be able cut it and donate it hopefully this fall and be able to help someone. I'll spare you the details but lets just say that it was an extremely painful shower. Mr.McPorkchop brought me to Target, I had a list of things to avoid from my doctor and we found yes to carrots! Mr.McPorkchop very kindly bought me the hair mask! I put it on and it felt really cool and nice. I'm stuffed up, but Mr.McPorkchop said that it had a very light and clean smell. I left it on for 20 minutes, it says 15, but I was in the middle of prepping veggies to be baked. I rinsed it off and no burning, no pain, nothing. No new hives which was *amazing*. I let my hair air dry then I gently combed it. Success!!! My hair is super shiny and soft. I was able to part it differently and loosely braid it to hide the damage. Awesome!!! I'm totally going to head to Target tomorrow and buy the shampoo and conditioner. I even joined their carrot club and facebook group, lol! No animal testing! Ecofriendly! Affordable! Available in lots of places! That is so so so awesome to me! Clearly as the small owner of a small ecofriendly business, I love and want to support other ecofriendly businesses!

Can I vent for a moment? I hate having allergies. Most people think its something as simple as avoiding something, but it's totally not that easy. Allergies come and go. I get allergy tests once a year and each year, crazy differences. Lately they've been through the roof insane, so I'm hoping going to Redding this summer will help, a very dry climate might be amazing for my asthma. This post pretty much sums up allergies. I have had sinus infections ever since I was a kid. I get them once or twice every 2-3 months, these are the kind of sinus infections that knock you on your butt! I had tubes in my ears in elementary school to help with chronic ear infections. I tried allergy shots. I've taken (am taking) steroid regimens that have made me gain weight. Allergies, in short, are horribly lame and I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. So when I can find something that doesn't make me itch or sneeze, I sing it from the roof tops!

See! I told you this post would be ramble-y! I did get a few liners done today for the shop, I'm going to work on more through out the weekend and will update the shop either Sunday or Monday night. I got some new fabric in the mail today and it's going to make the *cutest* liners ever!

Have a great weekend everyone!!! Thank you so so so much again!!!

xo