Portabellopixie

It's Happening

I've been feeling a little down the last 4 or 5 days because I somehow managed to put a major crink in my back last week.  Most likely due to the shoveling and moving that I've been putting into this:

My back has hurt.  Bad.  The kind of hurt that actually made me tear up a little bit every now and then, not because of the pain, but because it has kept me from doing anything.  Or so it has felt.  I know that isn't the case, but I've given in to a little bit of self pity.

This morning, since I couldn't work in the garden, I used my early morning time to put away some laundry and linens.  As I was folding (no sir-ee, I do not iron before I put these things away, I like the rumpled look) I glanced down and had a little double take.

Do you see it?  Here, look again:

Maybe in sepia?

Do you see it?  Everything is either handmade by me or a handmade gift from a friend. 

When Dustin and I started our little family, I had dreams of being surrounded by the signs of our years together at the end of our lives.  Little pockets of stories and creativity and kids and food and games and friends and good times wherever you turn.  Obviously some hard times, but mostly good.

Our little family is still young, but look-it's happening.

And now, my back doesn't hurt quite so badly.

xo

Sandi

Crayon Play Clay

As promised, our first crayon upscale project.  Crayon Play Clay!

I actually "developed" this recipe about a year ago but decided to wait to share it until I could be sure of its longevity.  I can happily report, that if you keep in it an airtight container, it will keep for a long time!  Our first few batches lasted about 6 months.  Note:  the wax paper wrapping in the photo doesn't count as "airtight" but it's pretty for pictures.  :)  We keep ours in those plastic throw-away containers.

This summer, I am bound and determined to keep my kids happy and active.  And creative.  I've found creativity to be the biggest self esteem booster in children (and grown ups!).  Whether it is through music, art, crafts, activity - it all boils down to being creative & busy vs. lazy.  And so help me, I will not have lazy kids!

So get your kids involved in this 1/3 science, 1/3 cooking, 1/3 arts/crafts, 100% fun activity.

The adults in this household enjoy it just as much as the younguns.

Click on the link over on the sidebar under the free projects to download!

A Box of Crayons

Last Saturday, I ventured out to the early morning garage sales and woke up Eliza to see if she wanted to come along with me.  She shot up like a snow pea and jumped to it. 

At one spot (where I found 7 tomato cages for $2-hooray) she found a box of crayons that were marked "FREE."  She squealed and asked "How much does free cost??!!"  ha.  I was honestly hesitant about letting her take the free crayons because our home has no shortage of art supplies already and I really try to not be someone that buys or takes something they don't need, just because it is a really good deal.  What's that saying?  If you buy something that is 75% off that you don't need, you still wasted 25%..  or something like that.

But I consented, and we became the new owners of a box of super cheap, waxy crayons.  We've spent the week playing with them, coming up with new crafts to use up a box of crayons and I'm going to share them with you next week.

So if you happen to be out this weekend and see a super cheap box of waxy crayons, snag 'em.  :)  And if you feel like getting a head start - peel 'em.

On Drafting Patterns, Body Parts & Poppies

I get a lot of questions about what I do.  One of the really common questions is "how do you draft your patterns?"  Then there are usually a lot of fancy schmancy phrases thrown out about CAD programs and slopers and drafters and which do I recommend...

I sooo have you all fooled.

While I have used professional drafters (which I loved working with) and fancy CAD programs (which gave me a headache) and done the whole bells and whistles bit, I find that I like kicking it old school with a pencil, scissors, and a few sheets of newspaper.  I test out the pattern that way until it is right, and then scan it and trace it in illustrator.  I've found this gives me much better results and takes WAY less time.  Which allows me to properly test the pattern and put time into the illustrations, which are the areas I would prefer to allocate my pattern-creation time.

It's just one of the things I've learned along the way in this journey of being in business for yourself.

We'll have new patterns in the fall, just in case you missed that in a previous post.  Took all the patterns down to give myself time to write this book, contemplated it endlessly, told myself it was ok and not a step back, now know it was absolutely the right decision.  So excited to offer new patterns though, armed with all I've learned since releasing the first wave of them.

Ok, back to it.

OH, but first, I promised pictures of those ginormous poppies.  They're the size of my hands.  Which might not mean a lot to you, but I've never met another female with larger hands than me.  It's my fingers - they're super long.  One of my pinkies even has an extra crease mark.  That bit of Sandi info was totally random, yes I know.  And maybe a bit weird, to be talking about body parts on my blog?  Hmm.  Oh well.

Look!  Pretty flowers!

And loads more to open!

Have I mentioned I am loving our chunk of earth?

Flowering Dill

My book writing continues.  I will wave hello and goodbye to the 75% completion point of the manuscript today!  Wahoo!  We have another photo-shoot Saturday (at the farmers market, how cool will these pictures be??) so I am busy writing, testing, sewing, kid happy-ing.

But every morning, I sneak outside for about an hour and a half (since I am still holding to my early-for-me morning risings) and dig around in my garden and flower beds.   Honestly, they don't look like much right now.  But I love taking care of land..  not a yard, but a chunk of the earth.  Our compost pile is as big as our first garden.  It's starting to smell all earthy and moist, it's fabulous.

This morning, I took a little shot of my container herb garden that I planted before anything in the gardens started sprouting up.  I eventually found that there are huge established rosemary and thyme already here, but whatever.  I planted the dill for the entire purpose of trying my hand at pickles this year.  Totally open to tips and recipes, I've never tried this before.

This shot reminding me of a design that I had started a few years ago while designing Farmer's Market, but it never reached the end.  I think flowering dill plants designs were pretty plentiful back then and maybe that's why I changed my mind?  Not sure now, but I thought I'd share those quick initial sketches with you now.

I love how a few of them look like a fireworks..

Custom Watercolor Palette

If you are looking for the winners of the giveaway, I have posted them at the top of the giveaway post!

I don't think I ever shared my watercolor palette with you guys.  I have this nasty habit of not be content with anything that is readily available by purchase.  I always have to customize.  Luckily, I have a willing-to-oblige-so-I-stop-going-on-about-it husband.

When I started really getting into watercolor, I found there weren't any palettes out there that pleased me.  Why?  they didn't hold enough colors.  Which I know is silly, since you really only need the three primary color to make any color you want.  But by golly, I like to give myself a rainbow.  So we ripped apart an aluminum palette and cut new container out of metal, glued the whole thing back together and sprayed it first with metal primer, and then enamel.  Custom watercolor palette, check.

I write that like it was totally quick and easy, which is not the case.  The project took about a month, mostly due to the learning curve of how to effectively work with metal.  I have another container that I am itching to warp into a smaller, portable palette for hiking, camping and the like.  If you are interested, let me know and I will photograph our steps as we go along.

Frankly, I love it.  So much more now actually, because it is covered in color!  I've been having a ball filling up my first watercolor journal (check these out).  I've always been a big fan of journaling, and have found that the periods of my life where I consistently kept a journal are the periods that I have the best recollection of. 

The daisies in our garden are just starting to open, along with some HUGE orange poppies.  I'll take some pictures soon.  These poppies are the size of my hand.

Lots of summer love to you all-

Sandi

 

Secret Garden, ala Slice Fabrique (giveaway!)

The Winners!  Comments are now closed on this post.  If one of the comments below are yours, you have won a Secret Garden Design Card:

And the winner of the Machine & Card package is:

Conrats to the winners!  Please email portabellopixie@aol.com with your address if you have won.

 

It's time for me to share a new project I've been involved with.  It's been a long time coming, and is finally heading out to stores in the next few weeks!  I decided to just keep it to myself for a while so as not to tease any longer than absolutely necessary.

(translate: I've been really busy and never got around to teasing like I normally do.)

Have you heard of Slice?  Or Making Memories?  Surely you have.  :)  I am so excited about this!  Making Memories contacted me about a year ago about putting together a design card for their personal cutter that was to be debuting at spring quilt market.  They sent me a sample to play with..  whoa. 

I am new to personal cutters, but I think this thing is pretty awesome.  It cuts paper OR fabric and is scissor free.  And small and portable.  Not huge, like some other models out there.  I was initially a bit worried that the size would somehow challenge the quality of the cutting, but I've had nothing but smooth sailing in the year I've been playing with the machine.

Since I was in the middle of wrapping up the design process for Secret Garden, I decided to use the artwork from that collection.  Seeing how they would be debuting at the same time, now everyone can play with both interchangeabley!  (Is that a word?)  I also included some of the shapes from some of my favorite, and most popular print.  Petal party, Henna Garden, Vintage Strawberries and my sweet little juicy cherries all make an appearance on this card.

Pretty fun right?  I'm going to be showing more projects done up with this cool gadget over the next few weeks.  But, for right now, let's have a couple giveaways.

First, the big prize for one lucky person:

And three other lucky people will win my design card.  But without the machine, so you'll need to pick one up!  If you happen to have the original Slice, but not the Slice Fabrique, the cards work on either one.

Leave a comment to win, I'll let this go throughout the weekend and announce winners on Monday.  Thanks for lettting me share, you guys are the best.  :)

Also, to learn more about this fun project, check it out on Facebook and "like" them for more chances to win free goodies and learn tips about the machine.  Ahem..  this is the first time I think I have "liked" something on facebook.  I'm a bit facebook illiterate, so this is big for me.

Sandi

Secret Garden Clutch

When I was designing Secret Garden, I wanted the three color groups to inter mix with each other.  I did this with Farmers Market and it was a hit.  It's really the truest to my design sense in regards to color anyhow, I don't like things too matchy matchy.  I like clean design, but I love when I see people creatively mixing fabrics.

When I realized I was going to need help sewing samples for quilt market, I emailed people I felt would really bring that through, and they did not let me down!  Miss Simone was the creator of three lovely bags, this being the first.  (You'll see them all, but I am in book writing crazy town, and need to trickle in the photos of samples so my blog doesn't fall dead over the next few weeks as I finish up.)  If you want to see more of Simones skillz, go here.

She skillfully selected fabrics from each different color story and completely made them work.  Thatta girl, Simone.

I love how it can be completely dressed up or down.  I'm wearing jeans and a tee shirt, but I can absolutely see this with a fancy dress too.  

More soon..

OH, I am spending every free moment in the garden.  Thank you for the comments on my morning stroll!  We moved to a home with huge (at least to us) amounts of space to play around with and are having a blast.  We even planted our own pumpkin patch. From seed!  Excuse my geek-out, but this is big for me.

Oh, and there are these huge flower beds that were completely grown over, but with fabulous plants in them.  It has been a family chore, tackled in 30 minutes chunks of free time, to tame them down.  I have a constant course of dirt under my fingernails and feel just spiffy about that.

Welcome Summer, we have been waiting for you.

Good Morning Garden

I've made an effort to get up earlier over the last few months. I am NOT a morning person, but through my efforts (yawn) I have managed to train my body to wake up two hours earlier than my norm.  I still go to bed at the same time, so I have succeeded in sneaking two more hours of productivity into my day. I can't tell you the difference it makes!

Yesterday morning, I stepped outside early in the morning and traipsed through the dewey grass, shoeless.  Bliss.

Good Morning Mountains.  I am so glad I get to see you and your foggy splendor from my deck.

Good Morning Dew.  If I didn't have running water, I would drink you up.  I do have water though, so I will just leave you to be pretty.

Good Morning, now almost dead lilacs.  Dustin and I stole you from an obliging field at midnight for our photoshoot yesterday.  You did your job beautifully.

Good morning Penelope.  You are so sweet to tag along early morning romps with, even though I have to side step your special treats left in the yard.  I am now "one of those people" who take pictures of their dog and post it on their blog.   Mmm.. that's ok, you are adorable.

Good morning purple flowers.  I don't know what you are, but you are a welcome surprise in the flower beds.

Good Morning Dandelions!  We came home from market and you were gracing the entire acre and a half of our property.  I let go of the OCD maniac in me and am now just enjoying your gentle fluff.  When my kids run through the yard and send up your small flurries, it looks like snow.  If I could figure out how to paint it, I'd be all over it.  Someday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend my friends!  As for me, I have two piano songs I need to learn before church today, so I need to ske-daddle.

Sandi

Quilt Market: Spring 2011 - Salt Lake City

Is it too late for a market recap?  Hope not, cause here I go.

But before that, thank you for the kind comments on my last post.  That's all I can really say about it right now, thank you.  :)

Also, I've had a few nudges to update my blog design with a Secret Garden theme.  (You guys didn't like the Valentines Day banner in the beginning of June? huh)  No, you're right.  It's been on "the list" and is now updated.  Come in from your reader to take a peek if you please!

OK.  Market.  Go.

I packed my camera all the way to Salt Lake and when I took it out to document the whole thing, realized my camera card never made it with the camera.  So these photos are thankfully lended from Amy, Calli, and Erika.

We won first place for best booth in our size this time around which was really nice.  (even though I think they probably throw everyones names into a hat box and randomly draw, because everyone does such an amazing job!)

 

I did a short schoolhouse and promptly lost my voice 10 minutes in.  As in, GONE.  So we had whispered conversations over the cute samples.  Speaking of my samples, I had a huge amount of help in sewing to get ready for this market and need to share some close up shots of the lovelies and sing the praises of my fabulous helpers (thank you so much helpers!!)  If it's okey dokey with you, I'll make next week Secret Garden sample week?  And continued "new stuff" show & tell.

We have a big 2 day photoshoot this weekend for my next book, so I need to go cook.  Yes, this book is part cookbook! 

I hope you are enjoy the lovely warming weather wherever you may be!

Sandi