{*Hexes Take 2!*}

My fabric has been sitting on it's shelves mocking me. My unfinished quilts are sitting in their bags begging to be sewn. I won't sew and waste my time if it's not going to come out right or I'm going to want to throw something out a window, I know my personal limits. No half assing takes place here. My quarter inch foot shipped which is so so so exciting, my work machine will be back hopefully Thursday....so that leaves me to do only one thing...

Plan another quilt!!!!

I've picked 68 of my favorite fabrics and I'm making hex circles out of them. I got some super pretty Kona cotton and I'm planning on putting the circles on 8.5 inch blocks! Yay!!!! I'm working color chronologically because it makes me so so so happy to create my own personal little rainbow. Dorky right? ;) I even bought a tiny pair of hand sewing scissors because I almost poked Mr.McPorkchop half a dozen times last night with my big shears. This quilt is going to be heavy on midwest modern, the colors in both collections are great jumping off points to add in other collections. When I make pads, I'm almost always left with a bit of fabric thats too small for a pad, too big for a scrap, so I'm making hexes! I'm going to use the rest of the scraps to make a pieced binding. And most likely a coin strip on the back.

I'm so glad everyone gave me their honest opinions on my mixed tape quilt. I bought some really nice and light colored linen and I'm going to cut out the blocks and completely resash it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cut them out nicely?

I'm still unsure how to reply back to comments, I tried through wordpress yesterday and I think it's just me posting a comment back to you, so erm...I read them! And I love them! But I don't know how to reply yet to comments. Is it socially acceptable to email people back?

Also, in a side note, hand sewing is amazing when you watch tv. I've burning through Chuck! Who knew! I love this guy, he's a cross between Jim from the Office and Shawn from Psych!, I freaking LOVE that!!!!

Today I'm trying a new sinus medicine. The doctors here are hesitant to give antibiotics because of something people get in Humboldt called "The Crud". No matter how many times I tell them, "it's not the crud fellas! It's my sinuses! Please!", they just won't give in. I understand to a certain extent but if this isn't gone by Friday, I'm calling my regular doctor in the Valley.

Ok! Back to my new friend Chuck and some hexes! I want to get pinks, yellows and oranges done today!

xoxo

{*ReCap*}

(my friend Angie taught me 1/4 inch hexes. Yup. That little flower is the size of a quarter!)

wowzers!!! So I'm home from some insanely crazy days of sewing!!!

It's been a *blast*!!!! An overwhelmingly amazing good time. I don't even know where to begin!!!

Let's start with the thing I finished!

This is my mixed tape quilt! Elizabeth's pattern was awesome. Her pdf is totally worth buying off etsy. I mean, this is an insanely detailed pattern. It's wonderful!

I used Moda's Hello Betty, Urban Chiks 1974 and Sweet. The sashing is also Moda.

I'd be lying if I said I liked this quilt. In fact, I'm pretty darn sure I hate it. I love it because the sewing was a blast and technically came out really really nice. I hate it because of the sashing. The color is just dreadful and the wider borders totally killed it. They take away from the whole thing. Only because of the color, any other color and the wider borders would have made it cuter. I debated seam ripping and starting over but decided against it. It just gives me a reason to sew another one right? ;) In the future, I'd rather do a dark gray or red border on it!

I also sewed an entire jelly roll and tomorrow night I'm going to sew it into a coin quilt! woot!

And then...

There is this...

Yup. Queen sized quilt!!! Mine will be slightly smaller than the patterns 92x92 because I'm doing only one border, I'm just waiting for the fabric to arrive (Kona Cotton Charcoal if your curious). Liz & Brenda Lou named this pattern "Duck Duck Goose!" I love it!!!

I'm sorry the photos are so terrible, the building the retreat was in was AMAZING space wise, we had that giant long hall way to arrange huge quilts in but sadly, no natural light.

Here's a snap shot at home:

The background fabric is a realllyyy nice natural colored linen. The solids are from Moda (I think?). The patterned pieces are Jay McCarroll. I freaking adore him, so I used his grays and pinks! And then there is a rogue Heather Ross pink gnome print. Because of course, rabbits, deer, crazy mushrooms need gnomes right?

Only one tiny bit has been sewn together. I was relying on a strip of painters tape for my 1/4 inch seam and that was lame. Crystal, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to, had a great 1/4 inch foot with a little guard on it. I came home, searched on ebay and walked away with one for a little over $20 with free shipping. Until it arrives and I get used to it, I won't work on this quilt. I learned that being off makes a huge difference, by the time I was finished with some geese, I was off by 3/8ths! eekk!!! Sew again!

I'm not even going to lie, this weekend was slightly rough. This sinus infection just won't quit. And being in large crowds of people makes me extremely nervous and self conscious. When you have a sinus infection and you are feeling weird, it makes for strangeness. A lot of the time I was so so so spacey!!! I kept making silly mistakes!

But the good thing is I got to meet so many fantastic new people and have fun with my friends. Liz is so incredibly patient with me. Imagine when I almost lit my fabric on fire. Imagine when I mis-sewed everything. Imagine me losing pattern piece after pattern piece. Imagine me trying to cut fabric left handed when I'm right handed. Hahaha. Me + Sinus Infection + Sewing til midnight and getting up at 7:30 = trainwreck!!! It was great though. On Saturday I got to even see Larissa! Yay!!! And I got to hang out with Angie! Angie is one of those people who is just too much fun. So when we all were combined with Crystal and Laura, it was hilarious. You might know Angie, she designed Sparkling Cider with her mom, Weezie! It's on my summer list of quilts, in fact, I nagged her SO much that hopefully she's going to teach it as a class at Scottie Dog Quilts. She brought in a quilt that she made and I honestly wanted to steal it something fierce! The quilting on it was to.die.for. *ALL* The ladies I was with this weekend were extremely talented.

I decided that I'm going to list my Pfaff Performance 2058 on Craigslist. It's a simply gorgeous and amazing machine, but I really really like my Brother and I think once it's tuned up, it's going to be even better, so I'm out/off work until midweek when my machine comes back to me. The Pfaff just is so confusing to use, it's all computerized and fancy pants, which is great, but its just...too much. I barely can figure it out, let alone sew a pad. I should have thought twice before I bought it. My Brother machine almost feels likes an extension of my arm, its second nature and just makes sense. The Pfaff I spend too much time fiddling with it!!!! The touch screen is super neat but trying to find stitches is a pain. Also, this is going to sound silly, but I hate that it doesn't have a tie on/tie off feature/auto backstitch, little things like that make sewing pads a heck of a lot easier!

I'm going to leave you with this photo of my friend Paula! Isn't she cute? She's the nicest gal ever. This is part of one her finished quilts! Pretty awesome huh? Behind her is Liz & Brenda Lou's retreat quilt! Hopefully mine will come out looking like that, lol!

Also, thanks everyone for commenting on quilting! I'm going to learn long arm machine quilting from Angie hopefully this summer and she does machine rentals! How great is that???

Right now I'm going to curl up on the couch with a book and some tea and SLEEP!!!!

xoxo

{*Unfinished Business*}

I hate unfinished business. Sewing projects that remain in my house, unfinished, stress me out.

Today marks day one of my quilting retreat and from 1 until after we eat dinner, we can work on *anything*. That's about 6 hours of uninterupted sewing time. This is a big deal. Normally I don't get large chunks of time like that.

During those 6 hours I'm going to try and finish things. My mixed tape quilt for one. I love love love the quilt, HATE HATE HATE the sashing. The quilt has big enough borders that the color I chose just looks...off. But it's bugging me that I have a quilt top almost finished except that last bit, so I'm going to do that.

I also have a jelly roll of Neptune that I'd like to start into a beach/lake coin quilt. I need to think of a good size to make each strip. I think I also have enough linen to make that into a great quilt top!

Today is the day to just get stuff DONE. I have 14 more Heather Ross prints for my dream quilt that need to be made into geese. I'm not going to assemble that quilt until I have every single block done and a layout figured out. It just isn't a quilt made for rushing.

I guess I'm just anxious to finish projects so I feel like I'm accomplishing something. I start to get really annoyed if I'm working super hard but have nothing to show for it, lol. I'm totally all about instant gratification. Which clearly doesn't always happen.

And then theres the hexes. Wowzers. I think I'm making them faster than I have plans for! So the largest hexes are made from Moda's Sweet & Swell. Two charm packs of each collection. They are so bright and cheery together, so those will be made into a throw quilt. I know that much. I can't decide if I'll sash/border it with linen or muslin.

Then I have a charm pack of Hello Betty. If you haven't gotten a charm pack of this, you totally should. It's 60 charms. YEAH!!! 60!!! So I'm cutting each charm into 4 pieces so I'll have a total of 240 hexes. So so so cute. I might buy a second charm pack in mid-May depending on how fast these go. I'd love to make some zigzags out of them.

Also, I'm going to take an informal poll :)

Do you quilt your own quilts? Here in Humboldt County there are some amazingly affordable and talented quilters, one lady has been giving out coupons for $45 to quilt any size quilt. Wait. WHAT! That's insane!!! I wouldn't mind saving up my pennies to have someone quilt it for me, but at the same time, I'd feel kinda guilty. And I can't put my finger on why!

I'm so torn on quilting my own quilts. Both of my machines have semi shallow throats and the idea of stuffing a queen sized quilt in there and still quilting it nicely kinda terrifies me. I can't remember how deep the machine I'm getting back today is, so hopefully that might be an option. But I look at some quilts in blogland and flickr and wow...some people can do beautiful quilting jobs, I'm so curious if they do them on home machines or handiquilters or what!!!

I debated last night the pros and cons of just hand quilting my quilts. I'm totally in love with hand sewing, so hand quilting might be an option.

So yes! There you have it! Let me know if you machine quilt your work, send them off to be quilted or hand quilt!

But please, no bashing one form or the other, I know this can get heated and thats ok, but be nice!

Wish me luck on accomplishing a ton this weekend!!!

{*Oh Boy!*}

Today = Torture.

I have a pile. Wait no. A mountain of clean, laundry smelling, soft, freshly washed and shrunk fabrics next to me and I can't do a thing. My work machine has been giving me fits lately, it ate two far far away pads, it was very slow sewing yesterday and today..no tension. I cleaned it, changed the needle, rethreaded, adjusted and...nothing.

The truth is. It's a year old. I sew 8+ hrs a day on it. It needs a tune up. But today is EARTH DAY and I wanted to update the shop with some super cute pads plus I got fabric for orders and it's an overcast cloudy day! Perfect sewing conditions!

I just wanted to sew darn it!

Mr.McPorkchop is going to pick me up and we will take work machine to the sewing machine hospital. That's its name, no joke. The lady who works there is so phenom.

The weird plus side?

You know the machine that's brand new and has been being repaired since December? Well Mr.McPorkchops dad picked it up for me yesterday because they finally got the part in, it's suddenly fixed! And he's bringing it here this weekend. So I can make pads on that while the Brother is being tuned up. My older Pfaff is a great work horse but only will straight stitch or zig zag, nothing super cute and come on, we need cute pads.

Now I'm left with a random free day. Normally I'd be jazzed but I just feel sort of let down. I could start my Neptune Coin quilt. Or serger cores all day. Or english paper piece.

But really? I'd rather be making pads >:(

{*Slow Down!*}

Slow down is my mantra these days. SLOW DOWN!!! Things are moving too fast!!!! I'm too excited!!!!

Firstly, thanks to everyone for your jeans suggestions. I went to a thrift store and holy smokes, $10-20 for a used pair of jeans? Wait? What? I could buy a new pair on sale for that much. Sheesh. I did end up buying two sets of vintage sheets for $2 and made several skirts today. Cheater skirts. The kind that you serge in 3 seconds and add some elastic too. Cute and comfy so it works for me! I've lost another .9lbs this week! Yay!!!!!

Secondly, HOLY ALLERGY SEASON. I swear, I want my sinuses just removed. Good bye. Gone. See you later. I can't remember the last time I actually TASTED food. The neti helps in the mornings and before bed but midday? forgetaboutit! I'm down for the count. The pressure is so so so so bad. And my poor ears keep snap crackle popping! Lame. I know they are infected and the dr here refuses to give me antibiotics, which I understand to a certain extent but its like "HEY! I NEED TO FUNCTION DURING THE DAY!!!"

Thirdly, AWESOME NEW FABRIC!!! That is washed! And ready to be sewn with! My goal of tomorrow is to finish working on another order and update the shop. Even with 3-4 new pads. I got some shot cotton to back pads with. If you've never seen shot cotton, just you wait! It's beautiful. It's woven with two different colors so it looks shimmery and just stunning! As I mentioned before, my custom orders are going out wayyy later than planned and will include a little something extra ;) I had to wash quite a bit of mermaid fabric for some very special ladies pads :):)

I'm so incredibly thankful these days for my amazing support system of friends. And the fact that all five custom orders I'm working on right now, everyone is so so so nice. Flickr has been killing me lately, so many gorgeous projects people are working on and everyone leaves me such kind comments. Then twitter today, I almost cried, everyone was so so so nice about my new bag. It feels so good to have people like the things I create. I genuinely love every comment I get! It totally reinforces my life decisions. I second guess myself CONSTANTLY. More than I care to admit.

This afternoon I took a pad break and sat outside in the sunshine and hand stitched the polka dotted binding to the bag. Then the handles. It just feels so nice to be able to hand sew. I love to knit and embroider as well, don't get me wrong, but there is just something so calming about hand sewing. Except when I stuck a needle through my finger, but nevermind that ;) I sat in the warm sun and listened to my ipod (new neko case and sugarland if your curious) and just stitched away. If I could hand sew pads, I'd be so excited. I just REALLY have fallen in love with hand sewing. It's so weird, I feel like I've learned so much this past year being out of college than I ever learned while in college. More practical knowledge. I guess I'm placing more value on usable skills than stuff learned from textbooks. I'm becoming really content knowing that I can physically make things, clothing, quilts, things to keep me warm and comfortable.  Maybe it's result of the recession and everyone wanting to return to a simpler life!

This weekend is my quilting retreat! I'm so excited! I'm going to bring some pads to work on because people are genuinely curious about them and it'll give me a chance to get caught up and maybe even get some stuff together for the shop!  I'm really excited because I'm making a queen sized quilt. I'm so nervous but thankfully, everyone is really ok with holding my hand, lol. I've picked fabrics! It's going to be a BLAST.

I'm alternating allergy/sinus stuff and one of the medicines totally dries me out. Ready for this? I drank an entire gallon of water today. Yup. Plus a large diet coke. Plus a venti iced coffee. I hate having a dry mouth. Siiiickkk :)

I'm going to leave you with some allergy humor ;) Have a fantasic night everyone!

{*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!

{*Where I Quilt*}

It's absolutely no secret that Eureka and I...we don't get along. The rain. The mold. The never seeing the sun for months on end. We just aren't friends.

After I decided to take a break from school, I threw myself into my business. And it was going really really really well. But slowly, I started to feel trapped inside all day. But I don't have a ton of extra money and I'm trying to pay off my debt, so just random trips out of town are out of the question. So is shopping for fun. Going out to dinners. Etc. So basically, it's me, indoors, sewing 24/7. Which you'd think that would be *perfect*, but its not. It can become really really stifling. Going outside is kinda limited because...you know...RAIN!!!!

Enter my favorite quilt shop, scottie dog quilts!

Literally almost every day of the week, there is *something* awesome going on there. So I've started with once a week, sewing Thursday mornings with Liz! Liz is like, the 30's reproduction fabric QUEEN. She loves it and knows all about it and is super super passionate about it. She also is a wiz with math, I'm awful with math and frequently come to her with "Ok, so if I have x amount of fabric, what do I need to make this this this and this." And she just figures it out. Then I've started sewing Monday nights and Tuesday mornings with Brenda Lou, so so so much fun. Brenda Lou..oh wow...talk about a plethora of quilting knowledge!

I never ever expected to fall in love with 30's prints but yesterday...oh boy...they took my breath away!

They got I think 23?ish new bolts of 30s prints and they are STUNNING. Gorgeous!!! Amazing!!! As I was sitting there quilting, Brenda Lou, who is Liz's mom (they own the shop together! How rad is that?!), was unwrapping all these new bolts. I was drooling. xten. They got the 30s prints, plus Arcadia. If you remember, last year I got the entire line several months early from them! Such an awesome line of fabric! If you visit their website, you can call them and order over the phone from them! They also carry english paper piecing supplies!!! Yesterday I got DIAMONDS!!! Yup! How rad is that?!

I'm pretty sure in the next few days I'm going to buy some reproduction prints and make pads from them! How pretty would those be? Little bundles of spring-y goodness right?!?!

Today I'm taking it very very very easy. I think I slept maybe 2 hours last night. I'm pretty sure my uterus is angry with me and is planning a revolt!!!! (joking!) I'm spending the day between laying on the floor with my heating pad, slowly cleaning up and organizing fabrics for orders, drinking the iciest coldest water I can find, DROOLING over Ryan's new AMAZING COLLECTION!, planning what project to bring to Pieceful Weekend, planning out fabrics for the quilting retreat (Jay McCarroll in grays! woot!), etc! I found a sewing pattern last night that I bought a few months that I'm now dying to make, but of course, torn on fabrics! Also, did I mention that I'm part of a 12 month long quilting bee? It's going to be AMAZINGGG! I'm doing it in part with some very very very talented ladies and I'm so honored!

Also!!!! If you have any munki munki, gnomes in yellow or any other Heather Ross scraps, I'd love to trade with you!!! I was sorting through some fabrics last night and found several more prints that I'd neglected to cut, so this quilt is growing! Unfortunately I'm on a budget, so spending $25+ and up for a fat quarter is out of the question for me for buying fabric right now for a personal project, but my longest corner is 10 inches on my triangles, so if you have any scraps to trade, let me know :):)

See? Even a cloth pad maker gets the grumpy period blues of "omg I have all this awesome stuff I want to work on and show you and I'm dying of excitement over here but seriously these cramps are kicking my BUTT. Oh and could you please pass the hamburger and chocolate shake? kthanksbai".

{*Tuesday*}

Oh boy! It's Tuesday already and I'm pretty sure this week is just going to FLY BY!!!! I have so much to share and I'm feeling...crampy.

Things have been so exciting lately. And pretty scary. I needed to face some facts this past weekend and promptly starting making positive changes in my life. Stuff that I've needed to address that has been weighing on my shoulders and my mom, my amazing mom, helped me with. Big time. Xten. Did I mention how amazing she is? I made her a birdie sling and apron this weekend!!!! I'm looking forward to doing some craft shows with her this summer!!!! Yay!!!

I made pretty much the dumbest mistake EVER. I left my wallet at my moms. Yup. No license = no driving. No debit card = no money. No id = no taking money or depositing money into the bank. Sheesh. Even my business debit card was in there! She mailed it to me this morning, hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow because I'm doing a fabric trade with Kate and need to get to Arcata! And tomorrow night I'm visiting Aric!

This morning I got up at the crack of dawn today to work on some orders because last night I realized I did an entire custom order WRONG. AND!!! I ruined two farfar away pads. Oh sheesh.

I ended up going to quilting today. Oh boy. Where do I begin? Brenda Lou is helping me design my dream quilt. She has *so* much patience and she knows her stuff. I'm fortunate in that she's letting me run a tab until I get my debit card back, lol! It was great because today they got all new bolts of fabrics. I took some photos and I'll share them with you tomorrow. When I say its amazing, I mean, amazing. I also got a package of...DIAMONDS for ENGLISH PAPER PIECING. YUP! DIAMONDS! Sadly I can't work on my quilt until I get my debit card+license back and I can drive to Fortuna to get my Pfaffs tension looked at. I can't use my "business" machine for quilting, it sort of chomps the fabric and I'm not too confident with my chain piecing skills. My Pfaff is my very first sewing machine, sews a crisp and perfect 1/4 inch seam, very basic, very portable so hopefully it can be adjusted!

I have so so so much to share, quilts, drawings, quilting bees, etc, but unfortunately I have some god awful cramps and am starting to feel rather gross, so I need to cut this short. Sometimes (read that as 99% of the time) I get *so* wrapped up in a project that I forget to eat. I've had a yogurt, iced coffee and several waters all day. FAIL. Now I'm eating an omelet and its kinda...blah.

I'm going to take a very hot shower and head to bed early. Be prepared for tons of photos tomorrow!!!

Have a great night!!! xoxox

P.S. Please tell me someone else thinks I should make this and name him Reginald!!! Bonus points if you get that :):)

{*Wonderful*}

The past few days have been simply fantastic!!!!

Clearly, I got a hair cut!!! I freaking love love love it. How much did I love it this morning when I rolled out of bed, put some phomollient in my hair and ran out the door in less than 4 minutes?! It was great.

I'm not going to lie, I *needed* this hair cut. I try to keep my blog happy and fun but the truth is, my self confidence is in the dumps. I'm losing weight but I also gain weight, it feels like its a giant battle. I have so many things going on and sometimes I work and work and work and don't really take the time to take care of myself. My goal was once I lost another ten lbs I was going to treat myself to a haircut, but you know what? Cutting my hair took 10 lbs off, lol, and it made me feel GOOD about myself again. I was dressed very casual today, jeans and a sweatshirt and I could just feel CUTE. That's an awesome feeling. I needed to just realize that I'm pretty rad, no matter what the scale tells me. I'm still working to get there. But its happening.

I got my cut here in Eureka, at Juniper! I seriously can't say enough positive things about my experience there. Hello head and scalp massage. Hello yummy smelling products. Hello EXTREMELY friendly staff!!!! It was great. I got to meet the sweet ladies, look at a gorgeous 30s-40s quilt, chat about sewing and it was just AWESOME. The owner of the salon cut my hair and holy smokes, she knew her stuff, I mean, I woke up this morning with bed head and it STILL was SUPER CUTE. How is that even possible? I don't know!!!! <3 her and <3 my hair. I wore it down all day. Thats like, a record. Normally my hair is up in a pony tail, but its so light now...its fantastic!

Quilting today was fantastic as always. I freaking love those ladies. They are *so* supportive of each other and its a really really great time. They cheer you on and bitch with you when something goes wrong, its perfect! I made my mom a birdie sling for her birthday! Next weekend I'm going to Pieceful Weekend, you can read a little bit about it on BrendaLou's Blog. I'm so excited, my goal of the weekend, since I'm going to be in the car.so.so.so.long is to make more hexs!!

I bought a charm pack of Moda's Sweet and a pack of 2 inch hexs!

I'm going to try to make hexes out of each charm on the drive, then buy a second pack of Swell because I think both lines go so cute together, and make a hand sewn/quilted throw out of them! Sweet! Progress on my color/fussy cut project continues....

Here they are!!! Aren't they cute?!?!? I sat on Aric's couch last night and worked on them while he explained tumblr to me (still don't get it) and we looked at flickr. I looked at an old friends photostream and I miss her so so so much :( Sad Story. Then we went out to Japanese food! Holy Soy Intake!!! I ate a piece of sushi! I actually liked it, he popped out the raw cucumber for me, it was something spicy with fish eggs. I ate the most incredible brown rice of my LIFE. And Aric knew the waitress and she brought me more and it was just FANTASTIC!!!! It was nutty and had the most amazing texture. I <3 brown rice. Then we shared mochi icecream balls? Or something? Red bean = amazing. Green tea = bath and body words. Aric thought it tasted like nag champa.

Tomorrow I'm going to get up super early and finish two pads and get all my orders in the mail. I've requested a carrier pick up THREE days in a row now and they haven't come! It's so weird because my mail man is totally always on his A Game and is just amazing. Now I have to void the labels and reprint in the am. Then we are picking up Aric and heading to Redding!

I'll be internet less until Monday!!!! I most likely won't be replying to any more emails from now until Monday, just so I can get stuff packed, ready to go and whatnot  :) Have a simply fantastic weekend, passover and easter!!!! xoxoxo

{*Custom Slots*}

I made that little pouch for myself this past weekend!!! I was feeling bright and spring-y! I use it for a wallet!

I just updated the shop with some custom slots, as I've been up since 7 am sewing and got more done that I originally planned! woot!!!!

{*Oh SHEESH*}

I'm seriously baffled as to where this day has gone! I've serged over 100 cores *woot*, gathered and organized all my fabrics for custom orders, replied to 50 emails, made a present for my friend Christin, made a hair appointment (!!!!!), tried to pick fabrics for some swaps, talked to my mom, planned this weekend to go home (!!!!!!!!!), went to the grocery store, almost got into THREE car accidents, drank two iced coffees of heaven and totally danced around the house. twice. It's just been busy and a blast around here today!!!

My moms birthday is coming!!! WOOT!!! On Thursday at quilting I'm going to work on her gifts. Top Secret Stuff.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut! I'm terrifed. Xten. This is my hair right now! And this is what I'd like! I'm going to an ecofriendly hair salon, Aveda! It's called Juniper! To say that I'm nervous would be an understatement. I haven't had my hair cut in TWO years. CRAZY!!!! Send me good hair vibes tomorrow k?!!

I got a *lot* of requests for the same custom order bundle that I posted last night, I got a shipping notice on one order of some snails and frog fabrics, so once they arrive I'll make a listing of them, they are different colors than what I already have which is so exciting!!!! I also was surprised how many people were interested in bundles of pads with a predetermined pad size and fabric, so I'm going to try to post those more often. I also got quite a few emails for bags, which I'll be listing more of. And! WIPES! Yes. Wipes. Right now I can't do wipes, my machine even with a walking foot sometimes "stumbles" on the corners of the fabric and eats them. I've been waiting to get my other Pfaff back from the repair place since DECEMBER. Argh. I'm going to try wipes on my other older machine this week and see how it goes.

Last night I started to organize my scraps! I love scraps! They are now in two piles, coin size and hex size. Each night I'm going to organize that days scraps and make stuff with them. I have *no* idea what my end goal will be, but I'm excited. Quilt? Bag? Who knows!!!! I made little notebooks from scraps last night, I'm keeping one for myself and sending the other two to my friends.

Okokok! Back to sewing!!!! I got two more orders out today and I'm hoping to get another one in the mail in the morning, I ran out of cores so I had to serge more. Woot!!! Yay for pads!!!

Send me good hair vibes!!!!

xoxox

{*Far!Far!Away!*}

The house has turned into a mini pad shop today!!!! I got a lot of new fabrics washed and ironed. I have bamboo and organic cotton freshly shrunk and ready to go. This is a very very exciting week!!!! Look at those new solid cottons! Stunning!!!! The colors are so very bright and vibrant!

I've gotten 2 custom orders done already today. I'm planning on updating the shop either tomorrow or Wednesday and the rest of the customs done and in the mail by Friday. Woot!!!! Love love LOVE sunny day inspired sewing!!!

I'm *so* glad I took the weekend off. Lots of delish food, tons of laugher, several Boddingtons ;), lots of sunshine. It was just refreshing and AMAZING.

I'm slowly but surely making progress in replying to emails and I've worked out a deal with my BFF for help with orders and replying to emails! SWEET!!!! Also, if someone could tell me how to reply to blog comments, that would be great because I can't figure it out!

But here's the real story.....I've fallen in love gang. Big time. And I've fallen hard.

Heather Ross has a new collection, Far Far Away and I'm in love. Imported from Japan. Double cotton gauze. Soft. Vibrant colors. Amazing. Best illustrations. So in love, I've been scooping it up as much as possible. Except...it's selling out. Insanely fast. So fast that THREE of my orders have been canceled. >:(

But I'm offering an amazingly sweet bundle of pads from this gorgeous fabric right now in my shop! 6 pads! 9.5 inches, medium! All with cotton backs! So breathable! How perfect for spring and summer does THAT sound?!

There is a chance that my other three orders might be canceled, although several places say they'll be getting more in late May/early June! *crosses fingers* :(

So if you want pads with these prints now might be your only chance!!! Eeekkk!!! You can find the listing here!

I hope you had a fantastic weekend and a great Monday!!!!

{*Addicted!!!*}

I'm obsessed. We got home from 6 Rivers Brewery last night, I sat on the couch and tried to ignore the little blank hexs of paper. Couldn't. At all. Spent the night on the couch, laughing so hard my ribs hurt today, drinking beer and folding/hand sewing little bits of fabric and paper.

It's perfect.

Tonight? More hexs, beer, homemade pizza and more laughing.

It feels so good to have such a hilarious houseguest, good food and a great relaxing project!!!!

{*Super Fast!*}

I added some custom listings to the shop! I've gotten a *ton* of requests for liners so there are TWO custom liner slots open!!! Plus two other listings! woot!!!!

Just remember that I won't start working on custom orders until Monday, as I have a few other orders and a house guest :)

Ok :) Back to sewing and house cleaning!!!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!!

{*Learning*}

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!*}

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*}

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

{*Give Away & Shop Stuff*}

(new thank you cards were printed today! eek!!!)

Yay!!!!

Tonight I'm announcing who won the PMS craving giveaway!!! Thanks so so much to everyone who entered...54 of you!!! I was expecting ten, so I've been in awe!!!

Before I get to that, it's time to talk shop. Things are changing here at modernacorn. To put it simply, they have to change so I can keep my sanity and keep doing what I love, which is sewing radical new pads with super gorgeous fabric!!!WOOT!!

Recent blog posts, twitter, flickr, all has generated a HUGE interest in cloth pads and I can't even begin to talk about how happy this makes me. I love love love advocacy, I surround myself with advocates of all sorts,(my bff from HS Danielle is doing an MS walk! awesome!checkout her story!) I'm happy when I'm making others happy and contributing to a greater good. I strive to make a difference in my little world.

Generally I wake up and I find myself bombarded with emails and in the past few months, it's gotten to the point where I've been looking into hiring an assistant. And I'm not joking. Normally it's stuff that I can answer super fast but lately I'm spending 2 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the evening replying! This is GREAT except..wow. That's a lot of emails. So Mr.McPorkchop was helping me reply. Which ended up just getting confusing! lol! So my amazing web designer Jody (who I owe a lifetimes worth of pads too) created this super rad FAQs !!!! They are great, they talk about shipping, custom orders, first time pad buyers, etc.

Now the doozy. Custom orders. Since I posted the giveaway I have 46 new people, just from MONDAY, who want custom orders. I am so so so so excited about this but also completely overwhelmed. This past weekend Mr.McPorkchop & I discussed my business and how fast its growing and new plans! I am happy as a clam sewing all day, but even if I wanted to, I can't accept that many orders. I need to have a little bit of a personal life because sometimes I tend to put my relationships in the backseat while I work, take time to eat, you know, have a life!!!! Hahaha! I'm still working on orders from February. And I get a lot of emails that end with "I'll wait!!! It's totally ok with me! Take your time!!!" which is so so so so nice and I *truly* appreciate that, but I start to feel weird holding on to peoples money and taking months to ship things. I'm not ok with that. That's not what I want for my business. I thrive on organization, productivity and making new friends, not feeling guilty because I have so many orders hanging over my head and you are grumpy because it's taking so long!!!!

What I do want is to make things more streamlined, more simple and faster! I want you to get your pads...you know, before menopause! LOL! So starting next week, if I can get caught up on current orders, I'm going to start putting custom listings in the shop. These listings will be really simple, they'll say for example "7 Daily Liners" and you will purchase the listing, asap I'll send you a link to a private online fabric gallery, you'll pick the fabrics and we'll be on our way! Once one order is done, I'll put another custom listing up for whatever there seems to be a high demand for like "3 overnights"! You get the idea. Then as time allows me, I'll make custom listings for custom cores. For example, if you need extra layers of bamboo. These are listings are going to cost extra, as mentioned in the FAQs. I've also made the decision to no longer use PUL or offer it in pads. I've always struggled with sewing with it, its very hard on my sewing machines and serger blades.  I'd like to move towards using more cottons and bamboos to make a more ecofriendly pad. I have some friends with verrryyyy heavy flows and I just use more layers of bamboo and have yet to have a problem, but I do understand that some women need it and I apologize that I won't be able to meet their needs.

I've also decided on a set work schedule and I'll be updating the shop Monday - Friday with whatever is sewn that day. This way there are always new pads to pick from!!! I know this presents a problem regarding shipping, my friend Karen yelled at me on flickr about cute pads the day after hers shipped, lol, so please please please know that you can ALWAYS contact me about combining shipping. If you want to buy stuff on Tuesday and keep buying til Friday, no problem!!!! A priority envelope will hold a TON of pads and it's $5! Sweet!

SO THAT! Is the knitty gritty!!!!!! I'll be emailing through out the night, week, weekend, etc to let people know that I can't take their custom orders.

So ready? Are you ready?

random.org gave me two lucky numbers 11 & 46!!!! In my blogs dashboard, those comments are....!!!!!

Number 11 is Alicia who says "My favorite… a banana and Nutella sandwich. Mmmmm." I agree Alicia, I adore Nutella!!!

And comment number 46 is Sarah who says "haha! the whole refrigerator is my craving. All of it. And then some pizza. And hard dip ice cream. Then I’d have some onion rings.AND DUDE! Nachos!" Oh Sarah!!!! Hahahaha!!! You & me both!!!!! I sometimes think I need to padlock my fridge shut!!!

So Alicia & Sarah please email me your addresses to modernacorn AT gmail DOT com so I can send you a pad!!! I'm going to have Mr.McPorkchop put the pads in their packages and we will play a game with the labels so we won't know who's getting which one, lol!!!

I snuck a few new pads in the shop as well!

Have a  great night and it's almost FRIDAY!!! YESSSS! Got any good plans for the weekend???

{*New & A Give Away*}

I'm going to try very hard not to be too wordy tonight! I'm going to address shop changes, FAQs, custom orders and more "shop talk" on Wednesday. I did get a chunk of orders done this weekend, but my serger needs a quick visit to the shop tomorrow. In more good news, if you are a frequent modernacorn pad buyer, I'm now including coupons for FREE SHIPPING in your orders as my way of saying THANK YOU!!!!!

SO! On to more good stuff!!!!

Firstly, I've made some fantastic new pads. And I've stocked the shop full of them!!! Get them while you can!!!

These pads are simply *fantastic*xten! Instead of being backed with antipill fleece, they are backed with super high quality (Amy Butler, Moda, Kona) quilters 100% cotton! Woo hoo!

What does this mean?

This means the pad is more breathable, making it a great choice for upcoming spring and summers warm days! They are EXTREMELY thin, great for wearing under your favorite shorts and skirts! They can even be ironed as long as you avoid the snaps!!! Sweeeeeet! Also, if you want too, you can wear the solid cotton side up against the skin or the cute patterned fabric! The choice is totally yours! YEEEEESSSS!!!! *jumps up and down!!!*

::Enter some Frank Period Talk::

Anti-pill fleeces main purpose in a cloth menstrual pad is its moisture resistant properties, which are great if you need to wear a pad for an extended amount of time, it'll help protect you if you can't get to the bathroom to change it. However, it also doesn't breathe, causing some women to sweat (myself included). Plus it makes a thicker pad...BOOO!!!!

Enter 100% cotton! WOO HOO! With 100% cotton backed pads, you mainly just have to "know your flow" and your own schedule, if you change your pad often, you won't have a problem with these pads. If you tend to go several hours without changing, they might not be for you, unless you have a lighter flow. I tend to change my pad each time I use to the bathroom and had no problems with cotton backing, I even made some overnight pads with cotton, no problem either, I believe I slept 8 hours that night, lol. If your concerned about leaking, but really want to try these, I suggest the same thing I do to cloth newbies, wear the pad around the house to get a feel for it!! The shape and core (absorbent part of the pad)  are still the same, one layer of organic 100% cotton fleece, two layers of bamboo fleece! I think your realllllly going to like these and become hooked on cotton!!!!

As an incentive to try them and to kick off a new product....

I'm giving two pads away!!!

YAYYYY!!!!! All you have to do is comment to this post and this post only by NOON PST Wednesday March 25th! At that point, I'm going to use random.org to generate two winners using their website! YAY!!!! At some point Wednesday night I'm going to post with the winners names and you'll have to email me your names, if the people don't email me, then I'll draw numbers again!!! Which pad you win is a total surprise, but it will be either Heather Ross Mendocino or Tina Givens Treetop Fancy!!!! Either pad is GORGEOUS and hey, it's FREE! International folks are more than welcome to join as well! The more people who comment, the merrier and there is more of a chance for more giveaways!

The catch?

You have to tell me your FAVORITE or INFAMOUS PMS CRAVING!!!!! For me? It's anything sweet and salty. Chocolate covered pretzels? I'm THERE!

***Contest CLOSED!!! I'll be announcing the winners later tonight!!! Thanks so so so much for playing along!!!! Check back to see if you've won!!!***

{*Changes*}

Hey Gang!

The shop has been updated!

So this week I know I promised a very large update and I'm so sorry, but it's not going to happen until next week.

This week I made a big personal choice, nothing bad, but I'm hoping that it's going to help me be able to focus more on the shop and feel better in general. It's already helping me sleep, which is *AMAZING*!!!

I'm also planning on some new stuff, working on a new business plan, working on some different prices, etc. Basically, modernacorn is getting a face lift business wise. I have a lot of loyal and amazing customers and want to keep up that relationship. Unfortunately I also have a few copy cats and would like that to stop. I need to work on a good balance between business and my personal life, its hard to sit down at night and relax when I have a sewing machine in my view, begging me to sew sew sew all night! Sometimes I need more of a reminder to stop, smell the roses and get off the internet! lol!

This weekend I'm going to be finishing all custom orders. I have around 60 pads to sew this weekend, so I don't think I'll be doing much blogging or emailing. Once I get these orders out on Monday, I'll be emailing people back about custom orders. I just don't feel right taking any more orders until I get these ones finished and on their way to their happy new owners! I have about 15 people who's emailed I've saved and filed, so be prepared to hear from me late Tuesday!

I'm so excited about feeling healthy, sane and spring-like in these next few weeks. Also, California's sales tax goes up on April 1st, so I'm going to try my hardest to stock stock stock before that happens so my local friends don't have to feel the heat right away on that!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone and I'll see you Monday...or Tuesday ;)