I enjoy the happy circumstance of receiving books before the release date ala Wiley publishing. Today Anna's new book arrived and my heart gave a little flutter. I flipped through it quickly, emailed a rapid congrats to Anna and am now packing it in my carry on to take to Houston. If I don't, I won't get a thing done over the next week. It's gorgeous, she did such a wonderful job! You can pre-order here and enter the snazzy contest here.
Congrats again Anna!!
xo
Sandi
So my work load has been a little bit heavier than normal lately. It's all good, and I'm so lucky to have been given some of the opportunities that have come my way! It is stressful though and I've had this ray of light in the distance to pull me through the heavy work load. Breaking Dawn, the final installment of Bella and Edward's vampire love story comes out tomorrow. And I made a deal with myself that I would finish up certain projects by the time it came out so I could fully enjoy the book. I'm not done with said projects. Close, but no shiny star for me yet. And I have been fighting inner turmoil over what to do. Stick to my rules (they are very important when you are self employed!) and be responsible and work through the weekend to finish up? Or give myself a break (I have soooo earned it) and indulge in some book time this weekend? I have been tossing and turning over the options, all the while working away like a crazy person at said secret projects. (I know secret projects are the pits for everyone but the secret keeper-sorry) I have finally conceded to myself that even if I did get my projects done Saturday, I wouldn't get to send them until Monday. And I could totally finish the book by mid Saturday, leaving me a good chunk of Saturday and Monday until 4 pm to finish things up. And I could listen to it on Itunes for a second time while I work. (In case you're wondering-that's not an option for the first experience with a book. The first time absolutely must be with your nose IN the book.) And if I didn't take a break to read the book-I would just be thinking about the rest of the world who IS reading it and I wouldn't get a thing done! Right? Anyhow, what's the worst that could happen? My boss will fire me? This whole self employment thing gets better all the time. And Dustin has offered to go stand in line for me so I can just work right up until he places the book in my hands. I will squeal, he will pat my head and smile.
If you aren't one of those who will be devouring Breaking Dawn this weekend, then here is another tutorial for you from my patterns. Enjoy. I have been biasing and piping everything lately - so much fun!
And here is the low resolution pic that you can download if the large file of the PDF is more than your computer can handle. :) I've been there-you have my sympathies.
Did you know that it's really difficult to come up with a phrase that has the word "gather" in it and not have it sound like you're calling cattle? Nothing wrong with cattle calling, I love a good helping of it. But this isn't the cattle / horse type of gathering, it's in the sewing sense. As in, here's another tutorial (gathering this time) that will be making it's way onto the pages of my patterns. That you can have for free, right here right now for the low low price of..well..free means free.
I've had a few people email and say that they are having a difficult time opening up the tutorials and patterns in the sidebar. Hmm..I wish I had a magic button to push but I really don't. They are all in PDF format so I suppose if you don't have a PDF reader installed on your computer they won't work? Any computer genious' out there that have suggestions? If you are one of the ones that are having troubles, here is a .JPG file of the Gather Up tutorial that you can click to enlarge and then save to your computer. It is a lower resolution that the file in the sidebar so it won't look quite as nice printed out. But let me know if this works and I'll see about posting .JPG files of the other ones. Also, when my website goes live, each tutorial will have its own page where you can just read it, with a link to download if you please. The site will go live when I have the patterns in hand from the printers. :)
Yes, I'm still alive. :) Thank you to everyone checking up on me. I'm just busy. I haven't left the house for 2 weeks except to go to church. Taking the kids to the park? Dustin. Grocery Shopping? Dustin. Library duties with kids? Dustin. Cooking? (ok-that happens at home but it's illustrating the picture.) Dustin. Bank? Dustin.
We make a point of trying to go out once a week on a date, we've been part of a babysitting co-op for a few years and it's been so wonderful to have a 4 hour block of time every Friday night that we know we will be going out for. But the last two weeks were canceled for various reasons. Tonight-we have a 5 hour date and I am giddy. We're going to have dinner, see Batman and go for a drive in the mountains. I cant wait to see if the rest of the world actually still exists. And to get to the end of this work haul, I am seriously in need of a little R & R.
Here's a fun little tutorial I put together a while back, it's going in with my cupcake pincushion pattern as a cute topper idea. However, I've been putting them on everything. Bags, hair, pencils. You name it! They're really easy and the tutorial is straight from my pattern so you can see how they are written. Let me know what you think! Take a look over at the sidebar-I spruced a tiny bit. :) OH-and for my mother's sake, I know that there is an "r" missing from the word "fabric" in the tutorial. It has been fixed and won't appear misspelled in the pattern. But I'm being lazy and leaving it there for now! Ha!
Thanks for listening-please bear with me for a little bit longer while I finish up the immediate things that need to be done. :) The plus side is there are quite a few free patterns and fun tutorials that will be showing up here pretty soon. All things that will show up as an extra in the patterns, so I figure it just makes sense to make them available for download too.
Sandi
That's a question I get all the time. The answer is Caroline. (OK-just peeking at her blog and seeing her eyes brings a goofy smile to my face, this woman is fun to be around!) Caroline shot me an email this morning telling me that her stock of Farmers Market is in her shop now and she is offering a 10% off coupon through July 23rd on the prints. Just enter the code FARMERS at checkout. It seems Farmers Market is selling out kinda quickly (blush) and I believe it's on backorder right now, so get it while you can! Caroline is good about keeping an entire line in stock, it looks like she has the Lei print from Ginger Blossom in stock right now too. (Another question I get a lot!) Just to refresh your memory..
And then just for comparison and because I think this kind of thing is so interesting, here are a few shots of the line from a few months back during I think the second strike offs. You can see how it gets tweaked along the way and how a some pieces get cut. Enjoy! :)
Dana over at Old Red Barn is giving away a gorgeous quilt made from Ginger Blossom. It looks like a really fun giveaway and I whole heartily plan on entering under 50 code names to better my chances at winning. Or does that fact that I designed the fabric make me ineligible to enter? :) Hop on over and enter!
I'll be back to finish up my 30 days of pictures soon-I have good reason for my absence. All will be shared soon!
More Market prep projects! Now you are finally seeing why the last few months have been a bit project-less around the blog here. I guess that's the one good thing about dry spells, the flood finally has to open.
I had an insane amount of people asking about these at market-if I would do a pattern / how to make them. They are soooo easy that I could never feel good about charging for a pattern, but I'll see about doing a tutorial. Maybe when the website goes live, which will be soon. I know I keep saying that, but really-soon is coming. For the patterns too. Thank you for being patient with me - one woman shows can be difficult but as time goes on, things just get easier and faster.
One day maybe I'll go into the hours that launching a big project entails but I would have to seriously think about it for a while. I wonder how many hours a designer puts into a line of fabric. It would be different for everyone, but it's a huge job all around. Maybe I'll have to take a tally with my friends (all listed over there on the right in the links) and come up with an average. It would be interesting that's for sure. Ok, tangent over, back to pictures. I must say, I'm really loving this post a day business. I feel like we're finally getting good and caught up with each other!
My tidbit for the day-a link to an interview I did a while back. Natasha of Creative Nachos (how fun of a name is that?) had asked me a couple months ago if I would be interested in doing an interview. I had just finished doing a few others and thought I had pretty much covered the basics so I told her that if she came up with some truly unique questions then I would love to do it! She totally delivered and I loved answering these questions. We talk about music (if you hadn't noticed, I kinda like it). I even touch on the surface of money a bit, which I know everyone is so curious about. I also talk (or gush) about one other designer that I just have goo goo eyes for and think is just about the nicest person ever. Go read for yourself to find the answers to these scintillating tales.
First off, it looks like Farmer's Market is starting to crop up for sale! I'll include links to different places when you get your stock in if you shoot me an email!
The pictures today are more of my "Market Prep" crafting. Do you ever have a night that you just remember being so great? The night I made these was one of those nights. My family was safely tucked away in bed, the house was clean. I settled down to watch the Jane Austen Book Club (I love Emily Blunt!) and get some work done. This was an easy craft to do while not paying too much attention to my hands. I spray painted the inside of the boxes (light layers over primer) and attached the fabric mostly by spray adhesive. I used a little Mod Podge around the lid, but for the most part used spray adhesive because I didn't want them to have that "glued on" look that you usually get with Mod Podge. Good project, good movie, good night. :)
So after declaring a post a day for 30, I miss the first day! Not my fault, honest! Our Internet is majorly spazzy right now and this is the 4th time I have tried to write this post! Here's to hoping the Internet spazz takes a chill pill.
A few months ago I received an email from Jason at Rag & Bone. They wanted to know where they could purchase my fabrics for their cool business. I put them in touch with and then proceeded to order half a dozen books to display at Market. So pretty!
We're back! Market was sooo wonderful and I have been trying to get on here and share my pictures (which are pathetically self absorbed-I didn't get around much). Dustin and I stayed a little longer in Oregon as we are thinking of relocating there in the upcoming future. Not immediate, but the future. If you have tips on wonderful spots, please let us know. We are looking for a quaint little town that is peaceful and quiet but near Portland. (Within a 2 hour drive.) I was supposed to hop up and see Monica and sadly didn't get to it. (Sorry my Zombie friend, we'll be back soon!)
But I'm getting sidetracked to the end of our trip, which in all honestly you guys probably don't care to hear about! You want the goods, the details, the ... pictures ...
Ok.. Here is our booth! Or the reason I haven't been showing any great projects on the blog lately as every spare moment or my life has gone into preparing for this show! It was a huge deal for us as we were not only debuting Farmer's Market (oh goodness-thank you SO much for the enthusiasm!!) but my first collection of sewing patterns! Look for sneaks in the pictures - I'm going to debut the whole thing throughout the next week. :)
We won the second place prize for best booth in the size category, with first going to my friend. (So I can be ok with her taking the blue ribbon. ;) I'm thrilled that we were recognized for our booth, not just because of the competition, but because my husband built this baby from scratch. The award really goes to him, I'm so proud. :) I said put a wall/shelf/hanger here and paint it this color and he did.
As always, market is a plethora of not only good times, but good people. I'm not sure if I have the energy to go through the whole list right now as it has grown immensely. Just picture every name possible associated with fabric and insert a name drop right here. Take a peek at my list over on the side bar-it has grown!
The launch of the patterns went way better than I ever expected and you will see them popping up in stores all over in about a month! And yes, distributors are placing orders too.
All the projects you see in these pictures will either be a pattern from my line, a freebie when the website goes live or a tutorial coming in the next few months. The fabric lantern/light thingies will be one of the first tutorials as there have been many requests for a pattern, but they are so simple I would just feel wrong putting it in a pattern! So rest assured, instructions will be coming. :)
As well as these fabric covered cuties:
There were so many people that helped get everything ready for us to leave that need special thanks! Jessi, Mel, Beverly and Carol-thank you so much for helping sew, paint, clean and get ready. You guys are amazing and I will be calling on you again! Girls night on me next Saturday. :)
Thank you so much Mom for coming out to Market and helping Dustin do the grunt work while I attended parties and meetings.
One big huge special thanks to my beautiful friend Amber. You know how you have a list of your top 5 favorite people in the world after your family? Amber is at the tippy top of my list and is insanely talented and the best mom I know. I strive to be like you! Thank you for coming and being our helper. :) Lotka over and over. (please go welcome Amber to the blogging world! She is new and you will love what she has to offer! I put my stamp of approval all over her;) You'll be seeing her around. Isn't she so cute?
All right friends, that's all I have for now! I'll upload more market pictures to my flickr tomorrow if at all possible! I just got my kiddos back and I think we're going to have to have some bonding kissy cheek time tomorrow-of course before we go see Indy.
OH! And for all of you that have asked-that is my little munchkin in the Mary Engelbreight magazine! And one other which I can't remember right now.. That was something I did for Kathy (who is now a tv star-make sure to read her new blog post!) a while ago out of one of the other Michael Miller lines! I'll see if I can scrounge up a picture of it and post on here, she's got a pretty cute look on her face. :)
