{*~Doodoododooo!~*}

I thought I'd blog this morning and chat about the upcoming wedding.

I have to admit, I'm not a traditional bride. I didn't want a white dress. Or a priest. Or a large hohum event. Nada.

I did want something very DIY, very casual (no one is wearing suits/fancy dresses), and just like a celebration of us as a couple, I'm not so much one of those brides who's "ME ME ME! MY DAY! MEEEEE".

• We are getting married on Oct. 30th, I silk screened our wedding invites and rsvp cards myself.
• My amazing friend Shanna gifted us an amazing The Small Object Cake Topper:

Sarah was an absolute DREAM to work with. Since we aren't having a conventional wedding, we decided to have our topper dressed in our daily "uniforms". I'm a jeans, deep v teeshirt and cardi kinda girl, Mr. McPorkchop is  red flannel and wrangler jean wearing kinda guy. Perfect!

• Instead of a cake, we've decided on having cupcakes! My moms friend Kathleen is an ammmazzzing baker and she offered to bake for us! We are having spice cupcakes (perfect for autumn) with cream cheese frosting! Now for the fun stuff:
• We got these lace doilies!
• These wrappers!
• Edible gold!
• And of course, these, these andddd these!

As far as a ceremony, we picked a very simple and loving reading.

For my dress, I'm wearing a light champagne colored satin. I made it myself from a Cynthia Rowley pattern, number 2497. I had a LOT of help with it. The sewing itself was easy, however, making the dress flattering was another story. I think I have an awkward body shape. In the end, the dress isn't 100% flattering but how many people can really say that they MADE their wedding dress???

I need to get a hair cut before the wedding, I realized today that my hair just isn't cute! lol.

I think thats everything?

One last thing...my dream wedding gift? Nook. I want one so so so bad. I think his & hers ereaders would be the perfect way to start a marriage. lol.

{*~Eek!~*}

I've been completely neglecting my blog lately. I'm sorry little blog.

I unfortunately got the flu in the worst way and while most of the flu is gone, the fever has stuck around. For like, 4 weeks now. It's been pretty uncomfortable!

I'm getting married next Friday!!! How exciting is that? My dress is finished, the rsvps have been coming in, we've planned a party for the night before...a bar crawl through Chico with my very bestest friends, the honeymoon is booked...we are going to Tahoe!

We spent the weekend in SF with my bestest friend and her boyfriend, it was amazing except half way through the day I was falling apart, I was sooo hot from walking around with a fever, so we went back to the hotel early, which I was SO bummed out about. :( As soon as we got into the hotel, I laid down and BAM! I slept for 5 hours...woke up..had some dinner and then fell back asleep! What a boring girl I am!

I'm behind on Octobers pad of the month club, it'll go out in the mail by Friday. I'm also REALLY behind on emails, I apologize but being a sick little eggling will do that to ya!

I meant to blog so much more this month, October is my FAVORITE month of the year!

Sheesh!

{*~Sunset~*}

It's sure been quiet around here.

The truth is, I've been avoiding the computer all week. I just haven't even wanted to check my email, log into flickr, tweet on twitter. Nothing.

My heckles were raised all week last week. I was alerted to a website and an etsy shop who were using my images to "pre-sell" mini quilts and larger sized quilts. After fighting for over a week both shops/websites have now been taken down but it was seriously a heart breaking battle. Trying to "prove" that you are in fact YOU is extremely hurtful and annoying. Once one battle was done it was brought to my attention a second website. I'm thankful I have friends who let me know these things but it also sucked because they were ripped off as well!

Last Thursday afternoon Mr McPorkchop & I were completely at our wits end. We decided to take an impromptu trip to the valley to stay with his dad, soak up some sunshine and completely unplug from all drama.

It was so so so nice. And so so so needed.

Our days were spent driving down dirt back roads through walnut, almond, peach and plum orchards. We got more than a few diet cherry limeaids from Sonic. We listened to our favorite country station with the windows down and our sunglasses on. Driving through cool, irrigated rice fields and scaring up flocks of ibis. Watching workers load up giant bins of fruits to ship to people far away. Visiting my bestest friends. Eating the most incredible seafood fettuccine ever. When we weren't driving around, we were laying on the couch reading. I read 6 books in 5 days. I'm so completely addicted to iPhone's kindle app. Books in an instant? Yes please!

The truth is, it took a lot out of me to see my hard work being ripped off. I found it extremely gross that someone had the balls to comment on my blog, when they were also ripping me off. I'm genuinely appalled by the crafting communities "ethics" and some of my so-called-"friends". And how people find "inspiration". I know some of you think "hey! move on!" but this is how I make my living. This is how I pay my bills. This is my passion. This is my livelihood. Sewing is the one thing that keeps me awake at night, new ideas building in my sleep. Sewing has enabled me to find more confidence in myself. Sewing has given me an amazing group of friends. Sewing gets me jazzed to jump out of bed in the morning and build new rad things!

And the past few weeks? No desire to sew. No desire to come up with new ideas. Nothing. None. I've been quietly changing website settings, flickr settings, making lists, making more lists on top of that and trying to decide what exactly I want to do. I know that this is just a minor setback and it's a fact of doing business. I know that I'll snap out of it. I know that I'm not the only one who this has happened too.

I'm taking a class tomorrow, I'm hoping it will help me get some quilting/sewing mojo back, it's a class teaching free motion quilting from an amazingly talented lady, Pat Durbin. I'm really really REALLY excited about it. I'm needing to learn the "basics" of free motion quilting because I taught myself and I just "know" there are better ways to do certain things. It's going to feel good to have more knowledge under my belt. I'm just hoping I can shake off some of this fog by tomorrow morning.

I'll leave you with some things that have inspired me lately and I keep looking at to try and get out of my rut, these are some real beauties!:

tree collection

finished flop bag

couch pillows

dahlia

fall

stitching in the sunshine

kindle case

I'll back next week, stuff will be shipping Monday, good moods and positive posts will be back! Chin up!

{~*New Start*~}

Can you believe that it's almost SEPTEMBER!? When did this happen?

Thanks so much for all the kind emails this weekend. I did a *lot* of thinking and talking things over with Mr. McPorkchop. I sent several emails requesting my photos be taken down off websites that weren't mine, I sent etsy convos letting the sellers know that copy cats weren't appreciated. Basically, I stood up for myself and fought via email with some jerks all weekend. I changed flickr settings, took down some photos and worked on twitter. I accidentally blocked some friends from twitter and when I try to add them back it completely won't let me, so I'm trying to figure that out. Eeek!

The thing that struck me the most is that I got over 25!!!!! emails saying that copy cats had happened to them before. Sheesh. What does that say about people?! :(

And in between that I went to a beer festival, which was great fun and spent Sunday morning in bed with netflix and Mr.McPorkchop hand sewing the binding on a large quilt.

There were SO many times that I didn't want to work on this quilt but I just kept going and going and now it's finally done! It's over a mile and a half of thread on the quilting. That's INSANE! It reminds me so much of Humboldt County, the rich greens and the murky blues. It's currently being professionally laundered but I think I'll be picking it up tonight! I can't wait to see how crinkly and cozy it gets! It's going to be perfect for our bed and traveling.

Pattern: 5 & Dime from All Washed Up

Fabrics: Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, Philip Jacobs. Backed with Kona Cotton and Shot Cotton. The solids on the front are shot cottons. Quilted with color# 224 Gutermann thread. 10.5 spools of 247 yards.

Time: This quilt is a breeze to put together, I had the entire quilt top done in one afternoon. Not too shabby. The quilting is dense and took around 15 hours but I'm glad I took the time to do it because it looks like duponi silk and woodgrain all at once.

Where to find the pattern: I purchased my pattern at Scottie Dog Quilts

Pattern Comments: This is a super easy pattern. Angie and Weezie make the directions extremely clear, concise and easy to follow. The pattern has great diagrams and couldn't be simpler. I'd recommend this pattern to anyone new who is looking for a simple, modern, first quilt pattern. It's fun to lay out and the cutting doesn't take long, so it's also great for last minute gifts.

I'm still feeling less than impressed with sewing but instead of dwelling on it, I'm going to be making a ton of pads. With lots of brand new fabrics. I've been getting a lot of etsy convos lately, so I'm going to be stocking both etsy and my shop all week with tons of new goodies. I'll gladly combine shipping between the two shops as well. With people starting their holiday shopping I want to get lots and lots of new cute pads out there! I might start taking custom orders for wet bags as well.

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

{*~In A Rut~*}

Do you know my favorite movie the Royal Tenenbaums?

Margot says "I'm in a rut" at one point in the beginning of the movie and for some reason that really hits me this morning. That combined with this post from Rachel about being honest about feelings.

I just need to get something off my chest I think. I've been debating posting this for the past few weeks and I think now I need too.

I haven't been a happy camper for the past few weeks and I barely have felt like blogging. or sewing. or really getting out of bed. The truth is, I feel guilty being personal and upfront about negative feelings here on my blog. I feel like a lot of people come here to read about quilting and sewing and I don't want to add any negativity to that.

But you know what? It's my blog. And I'm pretty gosh darn unhappy lately. For a ton of reasons. I just am REALLY unhappy. And I need to make some changes to make myself happy and panic free.

Some of it is no fault of my own. Some of it is me being tender skinned. Some of it is my own doing. And someone of it is just from passive aggressive jerks.

I love flickr, I truly dearly do, but nothing annoys me more than lately someone will favorite a photo, I'll get curious and look at their photostream because I freaking love looking at "new to me" people and a week later I'll find they've copied something of mine and put it on etsy. That's so not cool. At first I thought I was being over sensitive, but now I'm waking up to emails from friends who are like "omg amanda have you seen this?!" and it's heart breaking. And unethical. And incredibly stupid because if you favorite something of mine and your flickr name is soandsosetsy and then I click your name and see stuff identical to what I've made...um...your not even trying to hide it!!!! Sheesh.

Or I'll put my heart and soul into a project and someone will "borrow" an idea from it, make it their own and make a pattern from it with the words suggesting it was their original pattern and you can't make and sell stuff from it. Without mentioning me. Even when we've exchanged emails back and forth. And I've helped with the technical knowledge to create something when the person has known nothing. It makes it so I can't do a darn thing with something that was my original idea to begin with! That really really REALLY is upsetting. At least say thank you!

That kind of stuff gets me down. So down, I've not wanted to sew. At all.

I've fallen behind on my 12 squared group blocks and I've debating dropping out. I feel so so so mentally blocked (no pun intended!) and the idea of accidentally ruining someone elses fabric ( did I mention that when I do sew things lately, I spend more time seam ripping than I did sewing in the first place?!) sends shivers up my spine. But it's also not fair to expect the ladies to wait around while I get my act together either.

The truth is, I need some tougher, thicker skin in order to be a crafty girl online these days. That's a big part of it. Another part of it is I need to stop being so nice and helpful. I pay someone to teach me to quilt so why do I think its ok to give basically private quilting lessons free via email to someone who's just going to turn around and sell something made from the help I give them? Because I'm genuinely nice and helpful. But I can't be anymore. No siree!

Now, I'm not talking about when I get an email and the person is like "hey I love such and such that you made, can you explain to me this one part?" because thats totally ok and I've emailed people doing the same thing, what I mean is "hey I love such and such that you made, can you show me where you got the fabric, how you learned x-method, where to order the supplies, can you take a few photos so I know what your talking about, what kind of thread to use and I'm going to learn all this from you and then blog/magazine/sell it". :( I don't mind helping people AT ALL. Because people are generally very kind and have helped me, but theres a difference between asking for help and just mooching ideas/knowledge off someone. I think on twitter at LEAST once a day I see a fellow crafter tweet something along the lines of "I'M NOT GOOGLE!!!!!" "GOOGLE IT!!" "GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND". Everything I've learned about sewing I've either paid for with classes or taught myself by using research and trial and error. I don't think I'd have the balls to email someone and ask them for step by step hand holding because I'm too lazy to research it myself. And maybe people don't see that there's something wrong with that?

Last night I made my twitter, flickr, google reader, etc all private. It pained me to do it because I love being able to share cool things and meet new people all the time but I also need to realize that not everyone wants to be my friend in the way I want to be theirs. Plain and simple. I'm going to use flickr less and show less "in progress" photos. The projects that mean the most to me will be kept close to the chest until I'm ready to share them. I'm also not going to even try and keep up with the quilters who can make a queen sized quilt in a weekend. I'm putting tons of pressure on myself to make a quilt like, every other day and thats realllllllly hard. Hahaha. :)

Of course there is a LOT more to it than I'm comfortable talking about here, more real life stuff, more personal every day things, I save that sort of private stuff for late night conversations with Mr. McPorkchop, but I'll talk about the crafty stuff because I know it's not just me and I think it's important to show that yeah, I LOVE being crafty and being blessed with the ability to make a living off of what I love, but its not always sunshine days! Sometimes I'll turn on wii fit and box until my little arms feel like there going to fall off.

Ok. Phew. Off my chest.

So this doesn't seem all doom and gloom, I've started working on our wedding invites! We ordered paper from paper-source, I'm using this kit (a wedding gift from the designer herself!) and I'm going to either gocco or yudu the invites very very soon! I'm so very excited! I'll share them with you once I've printed them.

Today my goal is to jump in the shower and then head over to quilting, I have maybe 25% more to quilt on my five and dime quilt, its about a 2ft section and I'd be so excited if I got it finished. Binding a quilt is my FAVORITE part and if I get there, tonight Mr. McPorkchop will go to the video store and we can rent something and I can sit and hand sew the binding on! Best night!

Thanks for listening to me bitch :) Have a great Thursday!

{*~Giant Hexes~*}

I'm a sucker for making easy things difficult. A simple tote? Nah, lets applique some hexes on it! But wait, even better, lets applique some huge PATCHWORK hexes on it.

That's how I spent my Friday night and boy was it worth it. I made two totes, one for myself and one for the shop. They were so so so fun to make. It's like making a puzzle, you want the seams of the patchwork to line up nicely but you dont want them to be on the corners of the hexes or they don't fold down neatly. Mr. McPorkchop watched curiously as I made these because the templates for the hexes are HUGE! Three inches! When you measure hexes you measure the top straight line, so really these hexes measure larger than 3 inches!

This morning I saw that Posie Gets Cozy posted about hexes and english paper piecing and that makes me so so so excited! I love when "famous" bloggers get into something because it means more and more people will try it!

Here are some of my favorite projects that I've made using english paper piecing!

Star Quilt

Snail Quilt

Hex Bag

Moleskines

This is why I love quilting and learning new things! Once you learn one foundation of quilting technique (I learned from my friend Liz who rocks the grandmothers flower garden and all things 30s) you can totally tweak it and do whatever you like with it! I think thats why I love quilting with my Eureka friends, they are traditional amazing quilters and learning the "important" stuff from them allows me to creatively play around with it! I can sense Brenda Lou smiling right now!

Moral of todays post? Learn english paper piecing or any other new type of craft today! Once you learn and know the basics, you'll totally be inspired to run with it!

Happy Saturday!

{*~MsMcPorkchopQuilts~*}

Well! I've taken a leap and started an etsy shop! It's called msmcporkchopquilts! So far I have 4 little items but I'll be adding more tomorrow :)

To celebrate the opening, if you add the word "blog" when you check out, I'll refund your shipping only until Friday! Yay!

Back to sewing :):) Hope your Wednesday is going GREAT!

{*~Hey Gorgeous~*}

Well! I got my featherweight back!!! I bought it in early May off eBay. I got an amazzzzzzing deal. I promptly took it to a local gal to get completely cleaned, adjusted, the whole shabang. Yesterday, she came back to me. She's so so so so gorgeous. I'm buying some car wax this weekend to reallyyyy make her shine!

Unfortunately, SHE STINKS. She's the most musty smelling thing that I've EVER encountered! Ick! Her original box stinks and it's been lightly bleached this afternoon and stuffed full of dryer sheets but her...sheesh. I'm not sure what to do with her!

When I posted this to flickr I noticed some other featherweight users came out and chatted, do you have a featherweight? Did you name her? I think I'm going to name her after my great great grandmother who was a seamstress but I'm not too sure.

The details:

1951 Featherweight

Centennial Edition

Rewired the food pedal cord and powercord but kept the original bakelite powerplug and foot pedal.

So far she runs like a DREAM. DREAM! I pieced an entire quilt on her today, she's THAT good. The best part? She's SMALL. 11 lbs! I went to Target, bought an extension cord and sat outside with her. And sewed. Outside. On a little fold up table. It was the BEST thing EVER!!!! The only thing I'd change is that her front plate is striped and not scrolled. But thats ok.

The good news comes from a morning of YUCK. I finished all my pad club pads yesterday afternoon and my new snaps arrived today. I went to snap something and BROKE A DIE. This might not seem like a big deal, but this is an industrial freaking snap press. I didn't have it tightened, it came loose and I took a chunk out of it where the snap would lay. So I have pad club pads, shop pads, etc here and...no snaps. I called the place and they were AMAAZINGGG and I'll have a new snap die by Friday at the latest. Thank goodness.

In other news, I've decided to give etsy a go! I've made a shop, my friend Amanda made me a banner. I decided to keep modernacorn simple. High quality rad pads are what it's known for and I'm totally going to keep it that way. I'll announce when the new etsy shop is open. I'm starting small but hopefully the stuff will put some smiles on some faces, thats my goal :)

Have a great Tuesday!

{*~Home Again~*}

I'm back in Eureka! Yay!!!!

My birthday was great! Mr. McPorkchop & I relaxed, went to some yard sales, ate an amazing lunch and laid around. It was so totally what I needed. He gave me a birthday card with freaking MICHAEL from the Office on it. I about died. He spoiled me rotten and got me all sorts of great gifts. It was perfect!

Today I'm waiting for my sewing machine dealer to give me a jingle and let me know my work machine is done being cleaned, then it's back to making pad club pads! OMG! I'm seriously dying for you guys to see them. They are so freaking cute!!!! Kawaiiiii!!! Zakkkaaaaa!!!!! BEST!

This week things are going to be pretty gosh darn busy, I'm going to be updating the shop almost daily with new pads and good stuff. I'm also curious about a few things and I'd love it if you could give me some feedback!

As you know, it's my pet dream to start a mini quilted goods shop, selling all sorts of cute quilted little trinkets. I can't decide what to do, do I sell them on modernacorn.etsy? Do I start a brand new etsy? Do I start a brand new big cartel? I love that with etsy I can meet new people, which is always so so so much fun to me and more people can see my stuff but sadly just like flickr, people use etsy as "inspiration" (sarcasm) and it's so easy to get burned :( I'm so torn but I have entire summers worth of rad new projects and I'm just too wimpy to show them off!

I'm unsure what to do because I want to keep my pad shop and quilted stuff seperate.

Thoughts? Feedback?

xox

Have a GREAT Monday!

{*~Busy Bee~*}

ZOMG! Where has this summer gone?! It's flown by so so so fast!

I'm so incredibly overwhelmed right now! I'm heading back to Eureka for good on Thursday! Yup! TOMORROW! I need to pack up an entire summers worth of stuff TODAY. There is fabric everywhere, thread in piles, stacks of unfinished projects. SHOOT ME NOW ;) Just teasing!

This week has been so so so busy! I've been working on some shop stuff, some personal projects, stuff for my mom. It's been insane. But today everything has to be put away and put on hold!

Yesterday I sat for my dear friend Mel, she did this amazing tattoo for me in exchange for a quilt! I made her a rad camera strap yesterday and gave it to her before we started. I freaking love it. I adore Shooter Jennings like whoa, I've listened to this song DAILY in order to keep my head up and not completely snap. You can see the inspiration for it here

It's my birthday on Saturday. I'm turning the big 2-7. And then in 3 months I'm going to be a Mrs. McPorkchop! That's a lot in three months! I'm so excited for all of it. We aren't doing anything big for my birthday, I kinda want to head out to one of the lagoons and just go fishing and paint. Maybe go out for sushi. Something verryyyy low key! I just want to spend the day with Mr. McPorkchop and relax like whoa :) Hopefully there will be some animal crossing tucked in there for good measure :)

I'm insanely behind on replying to emails. Once I get back to the Coast on Friday I'm going to sit down and go through my entire inbox. It feels like I get caught up and no one emails me and then suddenly 40 people will message me all at once which I am so so so excited about but I'm the type of person that needs peace and quiet to keep a train of thought going, lol! Also, keep an eye out for pad of the month packages. I've already been sewing them and I think they'll be in the post realllllyyyyy soon! Yayayay!

What are you up to this bright Wednesday? Sewing? Working? Relaxing?

xoxo

*~{DQS7}~*

I'm feeling absurdly overwhelmed today. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the day off yesterday to float around the lake like a giant lazy bones!

Instead of being overwhelmed I'm going to talk about Doll Quilt Swap 7!!!!

Background:

Doll Quilt Swap is where you have a secret partner, you stalk their blogs and flickr to learn about them and then you make them a top secret mini quilt! And then at the same time someone is stalking you and you get a mini quilt!

Fun right?

I've been stalking my partner since I learned who she is! I've decided to make a chrysanthemum dresden plate, she said she wanted applique and likes traditional and contemporary, but I'm still pretty torn if she's going to like it though. And she likes Kaffe so I thought I'd use his prints + shot cotton.

Since I know my partner will be reading this, I'll share this:

Right now I'm obsessed with coin quilts, wonky star quilts, anything applique, I love english paper piecing, as well as cute foundation piecing where people make gnomes and trees! I love far far away, anything japanese kawaii/zakka, the colors marigold, mimosa, gray, pink, peach, etc. I don't love neons. I'm in love with autumn, halloween and am getting married the day before halloween! I love woodland themes, Erin Michaels lush is one of my favorite lines ever! The same with Heather Ross's West Hill & Lightning Bugs!

Today I'm taking it easy. I woke up feeling gross and now I feel even grosser. I went to the post office and mailed packages and felt like throwing up the entire time. Ew. I need to take the dog to the vet at 3, but I'm just going to relax on the couch until then. I got cosmic pluto knits simple yet effective shawl pattern and I'm knitting it with some pigeonroof studios yarn! Very rad!

What are you up too today?

P.S., if you sent me a birthday gift with no return address or name, please contact me :) I'd like to thank you!

P.S.S. There are still some slots available for pad club and some pads in stock! I got the fabric in the mail yesterday for Augusts pad club and I know your going to love it!

~*{Star Filled Nights}*~

Yesterday was so fantastic and today is looking to be just as good!

I sewed all day. Like 15 hours. I had the shop stocked and updated early in the afternoon, I taught Ashley how to make a Jane Market Bag, she brought over her sewing machine and I was insanely jealous, it's an older Kenmore and completely metal and heavy duty and just really really neat. So we made her an awesome Jane bag out of some Heather Ross fabrics, I made my mom a quilted Kitchen Aid mixer cover, the prototype for the ones that I'll be wholesale selling at a shop here in Redding, CA, I need to still take photos of it. Around 6:30 I finally stopped sewing, ate some dinner and finished reading a book from Amanda. Then I decided I *needed* to try to make a wonky star block. These ideas just happen. I'm sure they've happened to you too!

I've made "correct" star blocks before, I made my mom a sparkling cider table runner which has some great stars in it, but I wanted something wonky and fun and playful. And plus I'm dying to make some mini quilts to sell in my shop and get some practice for my commissions! So after some bitching, some hair pulling, lots of seam ripping, I made the above block. Little did I know that with googles help, I could have just used this fantastic tutorial! *face palm!*

I read a little more and then went to bed. When I woke up this morning with plans of quilting and backing the mini quilt and then I thought...wow...this would be SO cute as an entire quilt! The block is BIG, 17.5 inches, BIG! So when in doubt, ask flickr! Everyone on flickr is rooting for a big quilt and I am too! But now I'm torn!

I have 5 more pink unicorns, plus some in green and peach. And I do have the princess and the frogs from far far away. Do I make just a unicorn quilt? Or do I go crazy and make wonky stars using the entire line as the centers? Do I make all different sized stars? I think I'd free motion quilt shooting stars on it because I'm big into stars, my mom & I have matching star tattoos on our feet even! We like stars in this household! I know I could do a block a night and make it into a longer running project, something fun to look forward to working on each night.

What do you think?

In other rad news:

Today its going to be 113 degrees. Eek!!! So I'm heading to the lake to float around on a raft and soak up the Redding sun! I'll only be here for another 4 weeks, then its back to Eureka with no sunshine, but all my amazing quilting friends who I miss to bits and pieces! I always feel so inspired to sew after being away from it for the day! Know what I mean?

Also, did I tell you that on Saturday I'm learning how to make sushi from Helen Chen? YUP! How awesome is that going to be?!?! It's an early birthday gift from my mom! If your in the Redding area, you should check out thatkitchenplace, they have awesome classes! You can even learn how to make pasta from scratch from my very own mom!!!!

ok! I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!

xoxo

PS: If you sent me an early birthday gift of magazines with no return address and no name, please email me, I'd like to thank you :)

{~*Let's Sew!*~}

I had such a great weekend! Except for the fact that those pinching pains are actually tendonitis! Charming huh? I get to wear fancy wrist braces now when I sew. But thats ok!

I took the entire weekend off from sewing. I do post a lot of photos of stuff I'm working on, but I don't post as many as I did before. Unfortunately there are some questionable ethics these days on flickr/etsy. I've been finding people favoriting my photos and turning around and copying me and selling their goods on etsy. Which is kinda lame. So now I kinda filter myself, which is ok!

I'm in the process of making some mini quilts. I have two commissions both of which I am so so so excited about!!!! I've decided that I'm going to start listing mini quilts in my shop! SO exciting!!!!

Also, I'm part of Doll Quilt Swap 7, I'm sooo excited for that! I've ordered a crysthamum dresden set for use in my partners quilt...along with some Kaffe prints! Oooooo!!!!

I just updated the shop with 3 more slots for pad club, along with some new pads! Yay!

How is your summer going so far?

Also! If you recently sent me a birthday gift of magazines, please email me :) I'd like to thank you but there was no name on the package :) modernacorn AT gmail DOT com :)

{~*pinch pinch pinch!*~}

Pinch pinch pinch!

A few summers back Mr. McPorkchop & I visited the Newport Oregon Aquarium and they had this great exhibit about crabs, complete with a little dance. Pinch pinch PINCH! Dance dance dance!

I woke up this morning feeling like my fingers were asleep! But it didn't go away. And three of my fingers are numb and feeling like they have little pins and needles hanging out in them. I'm taking new medicines and my mom suggested doctors to rule out weird medicine interactions, but nope! Pinched nerve! Pinch! Pinch! PINCH! It's in my elbow.

With Cheri, my wonderful dr's help, it's determined that embroidering + knitting + sewing have pinched a nerve in my elbow through repetitive motion! Oh BOO! Just when I got new fabrics and I'm 80% done with an embroidered mini quilt AND almost to the decrease rows of Baktus. One of my flickr friends, Kelly, she always jokes that I never sleep and I guess I truly make the most of each day, lol, so much that I pinch a nerve because I have 900 projects I'm working on! Plus planning a super magical wedding!

I have 5 new pads that are done and waiting to be snapped, I'm designing a longer length pad for a friend and I got some amazing civil war prints to use for them for her, there's a cute stack of pouches for the craft show and two custom doll quilts that I'm anxious to start. Not to mention my TWO months of blocks for 12squared! AND I find out my swap partner for DQS7 today maybe! Sheesh.

Instead I'm laying on the couch watching an NCIS marathon, reading and alternating hot and cold, all while trying to stay off etsy. There are wayyyy too many cute fabrics calling my name and I have no self control!

I'm debating indulging in a new book for my iphone, I lovveeeee the kindle app sooo much! Books on demand! Love it! Shanna has been telling me allllll about the new Nora Roberts and I'm trying so so so hard to hold off buying it, especially because I know Amanda sent me some paperbacks AND Eva suggested a bunch of new books to read too! EEEEK!!! But I can tell you that the weekend I went to Grass Valley, I read FOUR paperbacks in the car! Mr. McPorkchops dad sat in the front seat and I laid in the back seat with the warm sun on my face and read and embroidered and knit. It was glorious. There may have even been some napping involved!

Also, there are only a handful of spots left for the pad of the month club! I've gotten 7 emails from ladies asking for a hint...so heres a hint...one fabric is a cotton linen blend imported from Japan. That's all! The rest is top secret!

okok! Back to reading and being a semi lazy bum!

xoxox

{*~Pad Of The Month Club~*}

Hi Everyone!

I hope your summer is going fantastic!

This past weekend I went on a mini quilt shop run, I basically made a list of 7 quilt shops in the area around Eric's dads and I found all sorts of great stuff and it was soooo inspiring! Let's just say I picked up all sorts of new goodies!

And....I've decided to start a pad of the month club! I've been wanting to do this for quite some time but I just got all the kinks worked out and I'm *so* excited to start!

The Club will be:

• 3 months long starting in August and ending in October!
• have an autumn/halloween theme using upscale designer 100% cotton fabrics!
• will feature surprise fabrics never seen in the shop!
• will be a surprise to you in the mail! You won't know what pretty goodness you get until the package arrives! I love surprises!!!!!
• will be my most popular 9.5 inch size, backed with fleece, but if you'd like cotton backed, please send me an email.
• each month your pad will ship to you before the 10th!
• if you start this round then you will have first dibs next round!
• it's very very very limited to the amount of people in the club. I'm getting married in October and I'm sensing this is going to be a very busy fall, but this will be rad and I'm so excited to start!
• Sign ups will start today and end Friday or whenever the listing sells out :)
• the shipping is paid all at once, so there are no upcoming bills, just one easy listing to purchase!
• one time payment to ensure you get some cute modernacorn goodness automatically sent to your mail box!
• Canada and international customers are more than welcome to join!
• Each package will come cutely wrapped!

Are you excited? Do you want in? Are you getting jazzed at the thought of a little modernacorn surprise each month?

Well come to my shop at 5 pm PST tonight and purchase the special listing!

If you have ANY questions please don't hesitate to send me an email: modernacorn AT gmail DOT com

xoxoxo see you at 5 pm!

{*Awe!*}

Thanks so so so much everyone for your kind words on my upcoming wedding, we are pretty much dying of excitement!!!!

I've just updated the shop with new stuff! Yay!

My friend Amanda sent me this amazing package with owl fabric, all I want to do is make owl things! I'm making an owl quilt from scraps starting this weekend!I'm going to cut out owls and then make big blocks from bits and pieces of stuff! Cute huh?

We are driving and spending the weekend with Mr. McPorkchops dad! Does anyone have any suggestions for quilt shops in or around Grass Valley/Nevada City? I'm dying to go there and see the Victorians Houses and Gold Rush stuff! I'm a history buff, did you know that? I accidently left my field guide to American Architecture at home in Eureka though :( Any places to visit would be neat :)

I'm off to finish a custom order and resew a lost order!  Tomorrow is post office day so anything you buy today gets shipped tomorrow morning! And bobby pins will ship for free if you buy them along with something else :):)

Have a GREAT Tuesday!

{~*Ms. Becoming Mrs.McPorkchop*~}

Mr. McPorkchop & I are going to be married on October 30th, 2009! We are so very excited! We've picked a theme of "autumn woodland". I'll be yudu-ing our wedding invites which I'm so excited about! I have an amazing photographer, my dearest friend Jody, our wedding bands will be made by the extremely talented and lovely Abigail Percy, its just going to be amazing! My mom is catering the entire thing and it's going to be held at her bff Liv's property in Sweet Brier, CA. Mom is making...wait for it....a SPICE CAKE with MERINGE MUSHROOMS!!! EEEEEE!!! Did you know my mom is a chef? This is going to be amazing. I think I might even have a violinist to walk down the aisle too! There is even a rumor of a small object cake topper ;)

I'm simply obsessed with oncewed.com. It's been amazing to look though!

We are both over joyed! We are going camping tomorrow morning until Sunday! I'm planning on journaling the entire experience! It's so soon!

Did I mention I'm making my own dress + a quilt for Mr. McPorkchop as a gift? If anyone has some paint by number deer in the blues, please let me know :) I'll gladly buy it from you :):)

Have a great weekend everyone!!!! Happy 4th!!!!

xoxo

{*~Summer Cooking~*}

I sometimes forget how unappealing food is for me during the summer. Here in Redding, CA; the temps can soar and it just leaves me thirsty and craving the lightest of light foods with very crisp and fresh ingredients.

I thought I'd switch things up a little bit and share with you one of my favorite foods, step by step!

Tonight I've made a cold tomato mozzarella basil salad for you! Well, technically it's for my mom, but I'll gladly share with you!

First lets gather our ingredients:

1. 1 lb pasta of your choice, I've used a farfalle tricolore because thats what we had in the fridge.
2. Tomatoes more or less to your liking. We are big on tomatoes here so I used 5 smaller sizes ones.
3. Mozzarella balls! I used an entire package that was 8 oz.
4. 1/2 a tablespoon coarse kosher salt + 1/4 salt, divided
5. 2 cloves of garlic that have been finely minced
6. Fresh basil to your liking
7. Good quality olive oil. This is important because there isn't a heavy sauce or anything to hid behind.

Start by filling your pan with water and 1/2 tablespoon of salt. Cover and then set on high to boil.

While the water is heating, cut the mozzarella in halves. Make sure you drain them :)

Cut your tomatoes into quarters. If they seem on the large side, cut them into chunks. This is really an easy, improv, make it up as you go recipe! Pinkie swear! At the same time, mince your garlic and chop your basil!

Once your water starts a rolling boil, add your pasta. NOW. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Keep an EYE on your pasta. To me and my snobby self, I don't do mushy pasta. My family is pro at al dente pasta. It takes a little bit of learning, tasting and watching, but once you get it, you'll cringe at mushy pasta. Al dente simply is a way of cooking the pasta so its firm but completely cooked, so not hard or fall apart in your mouth mush. There is nothing wrong with scooping up a piece here and there and testing it!

I've found that if you can cook normal semolina pasta al dente, you have a better chance of really enjoying alternative grain pastas such as quinoa, corn, rice and whole wheat. Each pasta has its own learning curve and who complains after having to try different types? ;)

Once your pasta is al dente take it out, drain it and rinse it under cold water. The only time you should rinse pasta is in a cold dish, it stops it from cooking and also rinsing the starch away so your pasta doesn't cling together into a giant chunk.

Now is the fun part! Toss the pasta with the garlic, tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and add a splash of extra virgin olive oil. You want it to delicately grace the pasta, not drench and soak it.

Voila! A super light, clean tasting, amazing summer dinner! I usually make mine an hour before I plan on eating it so it'll absorb all the basily garlicy goodness! You can also add some balsamic vinegar to this as well!

buon appetito!

xoxo

{*~Quiet~*}

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately. Lots of spending time writing, reading, pondering, writing some more. Just trying to figure out lots of little things that have been bothering me lately. Tons of time is being spent with friends and family. Even more time at night has been spent sitting in the hot tub at night chatting with my mom!

I've been sewing here and there. My mom is getting the inside of our house painted by Wes's sister April! Awesome! The fabrics I've brought with me are scattered around the house, in rubbermaids and plastic bags >:( So I've been working on some knitting and handwork! In fact, I added some hexagon moleskines to the shop! I'm hoping to add some coffee cup cozies, pouches and other rad stuff I've been working on through out the week. I'm also getting started on a big wholesale order that I can't wait to show you guys photos of!

Yesterday Mr. McPorkchop & Mr. McPorkchops Dad & I went for a drive! I of course stumbled upon a quilt shop. And by quilt shop, I mean GOLD MINE!!!! I was stunned. This awesome shop is called Tater Patch Quilts in Merrill, Oregon. I freaking loved it. I mean I was running around the store embarrassing myself. It was THAT good. And I of course had to share my good fortune :) Hopefully this will not only make a fantastic quilt shop happy but also make some of my favorite quilting ladies happy as well. Mr. McPorkchops Dad was kind enough to buy me an entire UpTown fat quarter tower, then Mr. McPorkchop bought me some paint by number deer and birds. Can you guess what I'm going to make? A lush + uptown quilt! yayayayayy! I think I might design it myself. Oooo what a rebel!!! It's going to involve lots of fussy cutting, different sized blocks and a cute quilting design on top!

Guess what else? I saw sandhill cranes! I can now scratch them off my lifetime list of birds! YAY!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm slowly making progress on my teal/red/cream string quilt...its slow going! I'm trying not to obsess over where to place fabrics and make it random but that hasn't been working out so well! lol!

I'm hoping the painting will be done by Monday-Tuesdays. Then I'll be packaging up swaps and whatnot that I've been slow with :):)

xoxo

{*~Break~*}

Hey All!

Happy Saturday!

I've gotten quite a few emails asking where/how I've been which is so so so sweet.<3 you guys to BITS!

On Tuesday I had a very unexpected personal/heath issue. I don't feel comfortable talking about it in detail but everything will be ok :) I'll be in Redding for 4 weeks at the shortest, I'm staying at my moms, which is pretty fun!

Yesterday Mr. McPorkchop & I went to Eureka so I could grab some fabric, clothes, my sewing machine, etc. Well somehow my sewing machine got put the car without the case. Which means no foot pedal. No power cord. NICE! Thankfully I found an amazing dealer, Greens in Grants Pass..or maybe I called Medford? I spoke with Rosemary, who was a SWEETHEART, I ordered a new foot pedal and powercord and it's being UPS Expressed here. SWEET! How crazy is it that with gas prices its cheaper to do something like that than drive home!? Sheesh.

Today we did some little errands but I'm freaking beat so we came home pretty fast. I did visit two "new to me" fabric shops and it was a blast! I found some great treasures! And Mr. McPorkchop bought me a super cute little clover bobbin holder! I'll post photos soon. We are having a BBQ tonight with Mr. McPorkchops Dad and my mom! Hopefully some other friends will come by too!

I'm wayyyy overwhelmed with emails, swaps, etc. I'm going to most likely catch up on Monday when my mom is at work and I'm getting stuff organized.

Have a great weekend pals!