Portabellopixie

A Cupcake for Nie Nie

The power of the blog! I'm so excited to be able to help out with this cause. Some might raise an eye to the idea of being excited about this, but think about it - Stephanie and her family have been handed a blow. It will change thier life, but they will grow from it. And we get to help and watch the progress! It's pretty cool to be able to use your blog to help touch someone's life. I had never been to Stephanie's blog until her accident started popping up all over blogland, but after reading her past posts, I just see her as the type of person that isn't going to sit around and mope about what has been handed to her. Press forward. In case you haven't seen, today has been officially dubbed Nie Nie day and everyone who wants to can auction off something on their blog to go to Stephanie's family. It is a silent auction-bid in the comments. I am auctioning off one Cupcake Pincushion, made by me with my own two hands. I have had endless requests to sell these since I shared them for the first time a year ago. I have never sold one, knowing that I could not keep up with the requests and not wanting to pick and choose who to sell them to. But for this cause, I will do it. :) Bidding will start at $25 and go up in increments of $5. Bidding will end Tuesday at Midnight, MST. I will email the winning bidder and have them deposit the funds into a paypal account. (Either mine or the account set aside for this cause-I'm not sure of the specifics yet.) I will ship the cupcake worldwide, with a bonus collection of goodies for the winner.

A little more info:

This is the High Calorie version (the pattern will be printed in High Cal and Low Cal size)

This is the cupcake that was photographed for the instructions of the pattern so it's a bit of a collector's item.

This Cupcake Pincushion stands approximately 6 inches tall and is approximately 6 inches wide in the center.

It is a combination of quilting weight cottons and wool felt.

I will sign the bottom of it if you'd like but you're going to have to ask because I feel very strange offering my signature. ;)

And if you would like to read a little more about Nie, read here..

It was just a good day.

So you know those days when everything is just relaxing and nice and sweet smelling and fun? Today (or yesterday as I am writing this Friday night) was just one of those days.

It was Eliza's first day back to school which is a happy/sad thing for me. Sad because sending off your baby into the world into the hands of others isn't the easiest thing. Happy because she loves it. Anyhow-we had a calm morning getting ready for school and then off we went. We were a little early so she played on the playground for a bit, greeting all her friends from last year. James ("my brest friend") was there and they practically bowled each other over at the sight of one another.

Then Ethan and I went and picked out paint colors for Dustin and my bedroom and went and bought new candles.

You know the part in You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks talks about how wonderful fall is and how he wants to buy a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils? I so get that. That's me all the way. I love fall. I wait for fall. Fall and Sandi = BFF forever and E.

Sending Eliza off to her first day of school means that fall is officially here and I went and bought 2 fall-icious candles to make the house smell of cider and oranges. In case you're in the market for some yummy candles I got "Harvest" and "Sicilian Orange" both by Yankee and they are divine. The Sicilian Orange smells exactly like the Satsuma scent from The Body Shop if you're familiar.

Anyway-back to my wonder day.

After we picked up Eliza we came home and opened all the windows in the house as the air is finally cool enough to be enjoyable! Then we made chocolate chip cookies and sat there in the kitchen talking and eating cookies. Dustin has joined us by this point.

Then I worked on pillows for our new couch (pictures soon-I love it!)

Then Dustin helped me edit some proofs for some stuff that came in today.

Then I worked on the pillows a bit more.

Then I made dinner while Dustin hauled stuff up from the basement for the yard sale we are having tomorrow. Cheese soup, garlic bread and garden salad with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes.

Then I sat down to write a blog post while listening to the kids playing in the living room.

I don't know-nothing extraordinary, very calm, but this day has just made me happy and I'm in some sort of zen zone. *ohm*

Hope you guys have a great weekend-thank you for the well wishes on our vacation, it was much needed and very fun! Dinosaur museum, IMAX, amusement park, donuts, good food. FUN.

And we shall now be reacquainted...

This summer has been the busiest of my life. Projects upon projects and I've become a total late-nighter. My family has been so supportive but there is always a feeling of guilt at spending any time away from them. Time away from my kids is really difficult but the trade off is positive for our family and me as a mother. We are on our way out the door tomorrow for our only summer jaunt of a vacation and I can't wait. I'm not planning on bringing any form of distraction with me. No books, sketchbooks, audio devices or anything. I am just being with my family.

Apart from picking up my slack this summer, Dustin has taken over garden care, which has resulted in him using cute terms like "my lavender" or "my flower beds". He brought home a jasmine bush the other day for his flower beds. The photography we are enjoying today is a result of his garden.

When we leave tomorrow I am leaving behind an overflowing inbox of incredibly kind email that I have not returned yet. Pictures of project made out of my fabrics, questions about patterns, and more. I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to this-email is the one part of my business that I really struggle with. I am so touched by the kind emails that come in-if you don't receive an immediate response please don't think you are being ignored. I have an email day scheduled next week after we return. :)

I hope you are all soaking up the last bits of summer in style. I'll be back soon and we'll kick off some new fun around here.

:)
Sandi

That's all She Wrote

Yesterday I was in the kitchen doing the dishes and I heard a destructive noise coming from the bedroom. In general, destructive noises aren't what people like to hear, but if you have small children (specifically boys age 2 named Ethan) you don't like destructive noises. Especially if they come from your bedroom. I popped in and saw him shaking apart the remnants of my wedding bouqet.

Yes, I realize that fake flowers are somewhat looked upon as tacky in the wedding world but I wanted to enjoy them for a long time. And I have-except that now they are in a pile of fake flora in the middle of my bed. So I could put it back together but I've decided I want to make something out of them that's a little bit more useful than a bouqet. I've got a couple ideas but I'd love to hear some of your suggestions.

And don't worry-the little stinker is still alive and virtually bruise-less. ;)
PS-I just got a new computer! It's a MAC and I love it, but it's taking some getting used to. The typepad post generator looks different and there are a bunch of options missing. Is this because I'm on a MAC now or did typepad reconfigure some things since I last posted? The spell checker is missing which could bring my blog to a disturbing halt. I don't know what happened-I used to be an amazing speller and then I had kids. What is up with that? I will look at something and just not be able to see it correctly. There should be a prenatal vitamin specifically targeted at keeping your brain cells intact whilst you are with babe. Maybe that will be my next big project..hmmm...

I've also realized that my blog is a completely different color than I thought (not in a good way unfortunately) and that the pictures I thought were edited so pretty are seriously pixelated and wacky in color. But oh I am loving this computer. If you're a PC person and are in the market for a new computer, I would definitely urge you to at least go to an Apple store and try one. I'm loving mine!

Etsy Finds ala Sandi

So I ventured over to Etsy today and searched "Sandi Henderson Fabric" in the Handmade Category.  WOW.  Lots of beautiful goods out there.  I thought a little feature of some would be fun.  In fact I had so much fun looking through all the listings that I think I'll just have to make this a regular thing.  I only made it through the first 10 pages and there was so much more to look at.  Etsy is such a cool site-I highly suggest taking a peek.  I buy all of my jewelry off of etsy.  And there are all the sewn goods which are just so completely affordable for handmade.

BTW-I have in no way been paid to show these off nor do the sellers even know about it.  In fact I swiped all of their pictures without their knowledge and hopefully they won't mind.  :)  I don't take paid advertising on my blog just so's ya know.  I sometimes receive goods in the mail that people would like me to try out and sometimes I pass it along, but only if I truly like the item. Please know that if I give you my recommendation for something, it is a true recommendation and not a paid one.

That being said, check these out!

Caronlina Patchworks Farmers Market Quilt  I love this quilt!  My free Farmers Market quilt pattern (coming soon) looks an awful lot like this.  :)

Sew Gracious Bag  Love the mixing and matching of fabrics going on here and the clean stripe of linen.  Classy.  I'm seeing a bright orange vintage broach or something in it's future.  (Well, if it came my way that is..)

 

KinderKouture Dress  I just love love love the simplicity of this dress with the little flower!  Really shows off the fabric which of course I like.  :)

Abby Chase Tampon Hider  OK, every woman needs one of these-'nuf said.

 

Little Butter Beans Dress  This is so sweet!  The yoke is really working for me. 

Quiltville Bag  This absolutely had to be included in my list because of how much work this has to be!  And I'm guessing it's pretty big based on the scal of the fabrics-each square is probably about 4 inches.  So pretty and so affordable!

Hazelhouse Quilt - These are the colors I'm thriving on right now.  Orange and green, orange and green - so I love this quilt. 

 

Plaid Square Quilt  Another lovely quilt, I really like the differen shape elements going on here.  :)

OH-and I totally forgot to report on my weekend.  I totally took it off and read the book.  I stayed up ALL night Friday and finished it Saturday.  Dustin read almost the whole thing Sunday after church and finished it yesterday.  We're pretty big book people here.  Can I just say how happy I was with the ending?  All my issues with the story line were completely tied up which is what I was hoping for.  :)  Thank you for all the encouragement to slack off for a few days.  It didn't take much.

Portabellopixie Patterns - Analise

Another pattern making it's way into the world in a short bit..Analise.  Three options in sizes 12 months - 8 in girls.  (As are all my patterns.)  This is a fun pattern.  It absolutely will meet the twirl requirement of any little girl.  But I like that it doesn't quite look so huge and fluffy when it lays flat.

Child Tested and Approved

I'm getting a LOT of requests for the patterns and questions from you lovelies wanting to know when I will have my website go live.  I'm holding off until right before I have my patterns in hand because I've found that delays can happen and I just don't want to take retail orders for the patterns until I know they're going to be shipping at a certain date.  Every time the website goes live for a matter of minutes to do a little tweaking, orders are sneaking in and we have to cancel them which is no fun.  This is also the reason I've been sorta slacking on sharing the rest-the response has been overwhelming each time I share one and the amount of requests and emails that come in cause Dustin and I to look at each other with astonished, confused faces (me more than him-he more just looks smug with a "my wife is a rock star" look on his face) wondering if these emails are coming to the right place.  So thank you so sincerely for the excitement about the patterns, I promise you guys will be the first to know when they are ready to go out the door.  I hope that doesn't sound conceited, I truly mean it in a tone of gratitude and thanks.  And apology-for the wait.

Other Housekeeping-I've been getting some questions regarding the music playlist.  Some are saying that it plays scrambled up for them.  I check it each time and it sounds good to me.  I've got Dustin working on configuring a different, better playlist device (it's really cool, you'll love it) that pulls directly from my computer so the issues should be resolved soon.  I know the whole music thing is liked by some and not so much by others.  What's the majority rule on this?  Taking the music OFF my blog isn't an option for ME, but do you guys like it better when the music starts automatically or for you to go start it yourself?  I'm just curious..