Portabellopixie

Give and Get

Time for a new debut! That secret project I've been working on that nobody was able to guess is finally ready to be shared.

Several months ago I was contacted by a company that is specializing in gift items. They wanted to put my designs on a range of products. After several phone calls, emails and a sit down (ha ha), I signed on the dotted line. And now here we are, the first three products are getting ready to go into final production which means they will be available in a month-ish.

They traveled to our home on Saturday with some samples to have a fun photo shoot. We sat on the floor for hours looking at the different items, trying to pick out the finals to take to production. (As Kathy Miller can attest, I am NOT a good cutter-outer. Keep it all is my motto. Things like production costs etc.. are not my top priority. sheesh.) Anyhow-there will be 3 products to begin-Baskets and Basket liners, Fabric Covered Gift Boxes and Fabric Covered Storage Boxes. We got the finals for the Basket liners and Gift boxes picked out but could NOT decide on the finals for the Storage Boxes. Here's where you come in. Want to help? If you would be so kind as to lend your opionion as to which of these 5 prints you would like to see on Storage Boxes, we would be oh so happy. We'll most likely keep the top 3 voted on. There will be 3 in green and blue as well-we just couldn't decide on the pinks!

So for your highly valued opionion, you will be entered into a drawing to win a complete set of my patterns, 4 fat quarters in your choice any of my fabrics, a cupcake pincushion kit and a bag of fun crochet trims.  Retail value of $125.  We'll give away three prizes, so spread the word!  You can just let us know what you think of them too if you are as completely confused as we are.  :)

The contestants are:

Henna Garden - Red
Retro Dot - Red
Vintage Dot - Blush
Dahlia - Aqua
Medallion - Bloom Pink

Here are a few more shots:

Here are the winners of the green and blue color group:

I mixed and matched lids here:

And I suppose the good thing is that whichever ones don't make it onto the boxes, they will all make it onto the Basket liner and Gift boxes.

These gift boxes are just too too fun.  You know the garment boxes you would get at a department store?  These are the same idea, but the tops are covered in decorator weight fabric!  They each come with a tag, ribbon and tissue paper.  Right around the same cost as a gift bag too.  Oh the embellishing you can do with these!

All right-that's all for now!  Remember, the ones we need your top 3 pick out of are in the top picture!

Giving Thanks (and FREE shipping)

I hope you have all had a happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving!  We have so much to be thankful for over here.  It has been a wonderful year for our family with many new exciting things to come in 2009.  I've had a lot on my mind lately and that tends to lead to a quite blog.  Rest assured, all is well on the Henderson front.  We've celebrated a quite day here which was quite perfect.  I don't think I'm even going to brave the lines early in the morning.  I may get up with a cup of cocoa and hit some online sales.  We'll see-I may cave at the last minute!

We started the day like this:

And ended like this:

Am I the only one?  I doubt it.  :)  And I've piped on my Holiday playlist on my blog for your audio enjoyment.  OH how I'm looking forward to the Christmas season this year-my goal is to take is slow and really enjoy the day to day small things that make the season special.  Like decorating with my family:

By the way-the wreath up top was $9.98 at Lowes and we stuck some lovely pepperberries in for a little pop of color.

I'm almost done with a fun little gift bag freebie pattern for you to enjoy this year.  ETA next week, after my big photoshoot Saturday for that fun project I've been working on that I haven't been able to spill the beans on yet.  Also-we've got a few new items for the website, good gifts and such.  As soon as I figure out how to add them, I'll direct you!  We had hoped to have them up for tomorrow (since we are offering FREE shipping this weekend) but there is a weird technical glitch that needs to be ironed.  Hopefully those will be up next week too!

I also have some fun thrift finds I need to share with you, and my couch and curtains are finally done-so expect to hear a lot from me in the next little bit.

Again-FREE shipping for the US and $5 International shipping until Sunday at midnight, MST.  Head on over!  Retail OR Wholesale

Also, every order throughout the weekend will receive a collection of pins from me to you.  Handmade by the lovely Gigi.  These are the pins that I always photograph my pincushions with!  I have a nice, happy stock of them and oh they make me happy.  So I'm passing them on to you.  Each order on my website this weekend (let's make it until supplies last-I have 100 to give away) will receive one handmade red apple pin topper and a selection of  hearts and leaves to go along with it.  (The Hearts and Leaves aren't by Gigi, they are the blog-popular ones that are store bought.)  I realize this isn't a spaceship for the cost of bubblegum, but maybe someday.  :)  I hope this helps you a little in your holiday shopping!  And I can't wait till I can figure out how to get the new items up-fun stuff!

Thank you for the support over the years-I can't express how grateful we are.  I also missed my blogiversary, so I think a nice fat, big giveaway is in order.  Stay tuned.

Sandi

Sisters Weekend

Thank you so much for the congrats on the new baby!  Everyone is very excited.  

I'm off for the weekend to Las Vegas for a doctor's appointment.  No terminal diseases, pregnancies or augmentations to report.  I'll expand on it in a few weeks.  Please don't worry, everything is fine!  Except the fact that I have to leave my kiddos again, but I'm making the most of it and dragging along my sister.  (Not the one that is days old.)  We're going to make a girls trip of it and go to Cirque du Soleil!  And Tournament of Kings.  And maybe I'll pop in on Camille and convince her to just sew up her giveaway quilt to ME!

See you soon!

PS-if anyone is trying to make a CC payment on the website, we know that it is giving errors.  It's being worked on-the paypal option works just fine in the meantime!

Back to packing..

A new plaything

Ahem, ahem..is this thing on? I am proud to introduce......Rudi Brown. My sister.

Yes, I, Sandi Henderson, at the age of 28, have a new, beautiful, baby, sister.  Is it a little strange for me?  Yeah, it was a bit-but I'm over it. I can't wait to smell this little one's neck.  Seeing her is causing a strange itching sensation in the depths of my body..hmm..  Simmer down there for a bit longer please.

I had the happy pleasure of taking maternity pictures of my step-mom, Tammy last week before the baby was born.  The events surrounding the entrance of this little one into our family are heavy indeed.

You may recall the passing of my Grandmother several months ago?  A few weeks after, we found out sadly that Carol, Tammy's mother, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  The same kind that Dana Reeves lost her life to-both were non smokers.  The life expectancy is very short.  Carol was a truly amazing woman, she passed away two weeks ago.

I like to think of this baby comin' on down to join us, like being primped for the prom by her 2 grandmothers.  

The struggle it took to get her here I won't even go in to because it is far too personal but oh how I admire what Tammy and my dad have gone through to have this baby.  Our family has had three family members leave us in the last year and a half.  Death is never easy to cope with, but this baby is a bright shining beacon showing us that life does go on and families grow, reshape and stay intact.  

I wish them joy, happiness and love.  I can't WAIT to get this little one in front of my camera!  And to get her in some clothes, blankets and sisterly made gifts of love.

I have wondered for the last nine months-how will I connect with this kid as a sister??  But I think I will get to play "young grandma" to her.  Spoil her rotten and send her home.  Is she going to get bossing privileges over my kids since she is their aunt?  Will I be as close to her as I am my other siblings?

It will all work out-it always does.

Both baby and mama are doing well.  I certainly don't remember looking anything like this after delivering my babies!

OH and I have to point out that Rudi looks just like her sister Shelbi here:  she's a teenager, you get the picture.

 

Thank you for taking a step inside my families world today!  I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this one soon.

Sandi

The Pixie and the Shark

Another year, two new Halloween costumes! I'm quite please with the results, seeing how I started them at 9:30 PM the night before Halloween. "Wing It" doesn't usually work for me, but happily, the "Wing It" heavens were smiling on me and Tinker Bell and the shark came to being just in time for the festivities. I even managed the bean bags and bean bag board I was in charge of for the school carnival. (Have I ever mentioned I joined the PTA? I am co-vice president. The other one is a dad and he blows me out of the water in terms of attentive vice president-ness.) Anyhow-I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween! My kids have talked about thier costumes for approximately 2.5 months give or take a few days and when they finally had them in hand-Eliza flipped with joy and Ethan hands down refused to even touch his. Screamed bloody murder at the school carnival anytime I brought it near him. Happily, around 8:00 he decided (all of a sudden-is my kid the only one to do this?) that he was excited about the costume and put it on. We hurtled down the street for some rapid trick-or-treating!! Please don't feel sorry for the poor pixie with cold arms-it was SO warm this year!

By the way-for future pixie costumes, the top I did is from the Claire pattern.  I just added a little elastic casing to the bottom hem instead of the ruffle!

BACK - back is good!

We have returned from Fall Quilt Market in Houston Texas. Reunited with my children-oh so sweet. Market was great! We made lots of new friends and are shipping patterns out to lots of new places. Forgive my lack of a goodbye and lack of a prompt hello. There was Halloweening to be done-more pictures on that later. But for now, here is a peek at what went down in Houston: Our booth was part of the Michael Miller exhibit this time, which won second place for best booth in it's size! We were snug next to Patty and Paula, who were both enjoying their market debuts. Patty was joined by her wonderful husband Jon and Paula was joined by her wonderful daughter and partner in crime Jennifer. (Who I think I could spend 72 hours straight with and not tire of. HI Jennifer!) I Love fresh flowers. I used to have qualms about spending the money on them seeing how they just die. Not anymore-they make me smile everytime I pass them. I currently have a bunch of sunflowers in the kitchen-oh so sweet. These are some vinyl stickers that I had printed up at our local place. Wow! What a statement and response. We're searching out manufactures to have them mass printed so we can distribute them. Retail and Wholesale. These things take time, but we're working on it! Another new project: Fabric covered metal tubs. I picked them up at Lowes and handed Jessi (who is now my right hand wonder woman and pattern excutive-or studio manager as she prefers) a paint brush, stack of fabric and mod podge. Nice and easy. Another new project: The petals are cut out of foam board available at any craft or framing store. Wrapped up in fabric (ala mod podge) and hot glued together. Easy easy! Look at the beautiful quilt that came by our booth! I didn't get the card or info of the person who made it though? Oh beautiful quilt maker-are you out there? I'd love to give you credit! A few more booth shots: All in all I'd say it was a pretty great market, we're looking forward to Pittsburgh! OH-Miss Bari was there and she's got exciting news as a result. :) And thank you to Caroline for supplying us with a beautiful table to use!