To the Farm and Back Again

Hello! I have been a bad blogger. I was SO BUSY last week getting ready for the weekend's event! Show of hands: who is from eastern Washington? No, my dear Seattleites, eastern Washington is NOT Bellevue, nor is it Cle Elum. Sheesh! We're talkin' Almost-in-Idaho-Eastern-Washington. Ok, if you are still raising your hand, you really should educate yourself about Red Barn Farms. Red Barn Farms is a fantastic new place near Pullman, WA. Maybe I'm a little partial because my cousins own and operate the place, but I swear, even if I didn't know and love them, I would love this place. They have farm fun for everyone with their seasonal festivals. Music, food, activities for the kids, shopping...they have it all.

Hay Rides--how cute is that??

So I went with my suitcase-o-stuff and set up shop with my cousin Ann. It was awesome! We had a ton of fun listening to the great music and enjoying some good Palouse sunshine.

So: Eastern Washingtonians, AND you adventurous Westerners too...mark your calendars for October 11-12...for the Red Barn Farms Oktoberfest! More on this to come...

Stitch Witchery and Bad TV

Oh hi!

Yesterday I got to hang out with the neph. I brought my embroidery for nap time (how could I sit with nothing to do?). Three hours and 6 bad (by bad I mean deliciously addicting) TV shows later I had:

These lovelies will soon be appearing on items similar to this, made this morning:

Close up:

And one more thing--I just joined a Blog Game called On My Desk... Started on kootoyoo's lovely little blog. She says...

"On my desk... is posted on a Wednesday. It's just a shot of your desk & maybe a bit of banter. Let us know what you're working on or what interesting bits & pieces have crossed your desk during the week."

Sweet! I had to REALLY restrain myself from staging this shot to make it look more neat-and-tidy. Ok, maybe I tidied JUST a little bit. (yes, that is a church photo of my parents in the background, circa 1992).

It's all about the details, baby

I love it when a customer knows exactly what she wants. Case in point:
Super cute, huh? Not only was this incredibly easy, but I have been meaning to start more embroidering, and this gives me all sorts of ideas. Thanks, Dawn! Another example:

Looks like a plain ol' market bag, right? Wait for it....wait for it...

Yep. It's a zippered pocket. I've never done a zippered pocket inside a bag. I was a little scared. Amazingly, it was (again) super easy AND I did the whole thing without making a mistake. Usually I'm bound to make at least 28 mistakes and what comes out of my mouth would make a sailor blush. Must do more zippered pockets. Hmmm....Do I remember how I did it? Did I write it down? Of course not! doh!

So thanks to Andrea on this one. Bring on the custom orders, ya'll!

A New Design

Here's more newness:I love a HUGE bag that holds everything, don't you? Thanks to my lovely model. hee hee.

Hey! Why don't you head over to my Etsy shop to see it there?

Afternoon Delight

I have a date every afternoon at 1:00. Mmmhmmm. It's a hot date for SURE. My date is with a patch of grass by Greenlake, my book, and the sweet sweet sun. I'm lookin' to store up mass quantities of Vitamin D in preparation for the grayness that is October through April. Greenlake is the bees knees. View from my spot:Take a look at sister's post on the very same subject (we're not twins!). We share the affinity towards the lake...and we also have a heated competition over who will circle the lake more often this summer. She got a jump start but I'm ALMOST caught up. Watch yo back, sista!

New News

Here's something new! Well the pouch design isn't new (Amy Karol's "Artsy Clutch"), but I have had "something new" on my mind forever, and I finally sat down and just made something!

I've been doing lots and lots of fun things but haven't had the drive to blog about it..what's with that? Summer, I guess! But here is something else that is new.... drumroll please....

The newest ice cream heaven-on-earth: Molly Moon's! It's located in beautiful Wallingford, on 45th and Woodlawn-ish (you know, kinda by Musashi's Sushi) Pretty sweet name, huh?

Awesome signs indicate awesome product.

How can you not love genuine, homemade ice cream?? It is the best ever. And this place has some really interesting flavors. If you can't stray from cookie dough, don't come here. (Although I think they rotate their flavors, so maybe someday they will have cookie dough) If you are scared of flavors like salted caramel, don't come here. In fact, don't come here at all because the line is always out the door! Just kidding, you should totally go support the local ice creamers. The best part of this little shop isn't its funky flavors...it's not the cute little dog on the sign...it's not even the fact that the whole place--ice cream, toppings, containers, furniture--is either organic, local, biodegradable and/or sustainable. The most amazing thing about this place is that Jamie (Mr. I-Don't-Like-Ice-Cream) actually has started initiating visits AND HE WILL WALK THERE. Never before seen. Why don't you go there right now?

Well there is a lot more new newsy news...guess I'll have to post more often than every two weeks! sheesh!

Jewelry Case Craze

Have you ever made the same thing so many times that you know you could make it in your sleep? There are several patterns in this category for me. This week I got extra extra extra practice on these jewelry cases!

It's all about the bridesmaids, baby. ALL of these cases (it looks like more but only 10 in all) are going to lucky lucky bridesmaids (and one bride). These un-monogrammed ones were for my lovely teacher-friend Mandy...
And these of the monogrammed variety were sent off to one fabulous Etsy customer. Now to add some to my shop! I've already begun...see here.