stuff about artstuff.

Summer Around Here.

And here it is, Labor Day Weekend already. When did that happen? Are you asking yourself that, too? Wow. Life does that these days. You know, goes by super fast. Moments after moments. A whirlwind of them. And in that most recent whirlwind of moments, there was summer.

Looking back I'd say it was full of pretty awesome moments.

Early morning walks around the neighborhood with Molly have been stunning.

Although my little garden got an extremely late start

it's come along nicely

and I've been enjoying favorite foods from my backyard,

and warm evenings with Molly, watching bats, stars, and the moon.

I've woken up in my favorite spot on the face of the planet,

and enjoyed days on my favorite beach;

gourmet meals cooked on a beach fire

and savored by sunset.

There have been other beaches

and impromptu picnics shared with good friends.

Time with family and friends has meant lots of ferry rides,

making new friends,

and time in the woods.

The best ferry rides are always the ones that bring me home

to my favorite city.

Riding bikes around neighborhoods,

soaking in the art,

sights,

sounds,

every little moment a celebration.

My little corner of the world is a pretty amazing place to enjoy summer. I cherish every moment of it, and look forward to all the moments in the new seasons: they're coming fast, I'd better not blink.

I hope your summers have all been full of beautiful moments too!

Thanks for visiting!

xoBeth

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NYC in May

I've been going to New York every May for 15 years now.  The first 14 of those were spent exhibiting at Surtex.  It's where I built the foundation for my art licensing business; it's where I met favorite clients and dear friends, it's where I learned and grew into the businessperson I am today.

This year, however, has been different.  The art licensing industry, and life in general for that matter, is a living, changing, organic thing: growing, stretching, twisting - never the same.  Growing and stretching with it (or when possible, just ahead of it!) is necessary for survival.  Change is good!  And it was time for a change.  For me and my business, focus has been the key word this past year.  Focusing on work I love to do, people and companies I love to work with, art I love to create.  Exibiting at the show had started to get in the way of that for me.  It was a big decision.  A long, slow, sometimes difficult one.  But then change can be like that.  And after all is said and done, I feel an incredible sense of peace and satisfaction about it.

I still ended up in New York in May, but this time it was with a very specific and focused agenda.  I visited my friends at Henry Glass, whose offices are there.  I got to spend time with a few other favorite clients who were in the city for Surtex.  I helped a good friend out in her booth a little bit, and was able to walk through NSS and Surtex and soak in all the great energy and inspiration those shows had to offer.  And best of all, I spent quality time with some of my favorite people, really enjoying the city.  Amazing friends graciously opened their homes and entertained me - it was a blast, all of it.

The sky over the Metropolitan Museum of Art - from inside and out on the rooftop

A people-watching stroll through Central Park

An awesome time with good friends at the NSS Party on the Battery, what a gorgeous night

Stunning dogwood blooms in Sue Zipkin's garden.

Feeling so blessed to have such great friends and to work with such awesome people, and to have the opportunity to spend time with them all like I did.

Here's to New York in May, hooray!

It's All Relative(s).

Well, here's something I haven't done in a long time.  Or technically, ever.

It's been a super long time since I did a holiday retail sale, like the annual Open House I threw for 17 years. Even longer since I sold stuff at a crafts fair of any kind.  And although many members of my family are crazy-talented (I said crazy-talented, not just crazy - get it right) we've never gotten together and showcased our handmade goodies together.

So, it's about time, don't you think?

We thought so.

After our vacation a couple months ago, when I made stuff pretty much every waking moment for 2 weeks, it hit me: dude, I love making stuff (duh).  I realized I need to make more stuff, because it's good for my soul.  Not just drawings and designs, but stuff.  Tactile, physical, made things.

And who knows, I could actually start to make a dent in all that weird junk I've been hoarding in my basement over the years insisting "I'm going to make something awesome with this someday!"  You know, when I have time.

So in the last few months, a lot of that weird junk has been migrating up from the dark corners of the basement to the slightly less dark corners of my desk, and I've been making time to make stuff with my hands, just for fun: jewelry, little painted objects, clay stuff . . . remember Sweatercats?  Yeah, that was fun.  They're back.

These guys are waiting for whiskers.  And a face.  And a few other parts.

And this time the Sweatercats brought friends.

I've been stitching weird and cute little buddies from ugly old clothes and can't stop.

My sisters and nieces make some pretty amazing stuff too, just wait until you see it all.  Seriously amazing.  I think this is going to be a blast.

So if you're in the area, we hope you stop by and say hi, and see what we've been up to.  It'll be an awesome way to kick off the holiday season: you can buy goodies for gifts, or just get inspired to make some stuff yourself - because making stuff is good for your soul.

And if you're nowhere near Washington State and are feeling left out, don't.  What doesn't sell this weekend (and what doesn't get finished in time for the bazaar!) is going into my Etsy shop in the next few weeks.  And looking at my basement, I can assure you: I'm not going to run out of weird old junk to make stuff with for a long, long time...

 

Well, It's About Time.

I mean, really.

Didn't I say I was going to do this back in July?

Yeah.  That's sort of how I roll these days.

But finally, here I am.

Because it was so foggy and cold this morning I wished I had worn mittens on our dog-walk.  Because I've already made (and we've devoured) 2 big loaves of pumpkin-blueberry bread in just 2 weeks.  Because every morning just before 6am I'm gently awakened then softly lulled back to sleep by the soft airy whir of the furnace starting to warm up the house for the day.  Because it's homemade soup and biscuit season and that's all I want for dinner every night.  Because last week the flannel bear bedding came out of summer-hiding and the bed is cozier than ever.  And because I've been threatening to do something similar to that with this flannel since . . . well, June.

Or maybe it's because I have a brand new little baby cousin named...

...Fox (welcome sweetie, I can't wait to kiss your warm little peachy baby-head!).

Because of all that and more, it's about flippin' time for me to finally give away a fat-quarter bundle of this cozy and cute flannel.

Just leave me a comment on this post: tell me something you like about fall.  Or fog.  Or flannel.  Or furnaces.  Or foxes.  Or anything you're liking this week; it doesn't even have to start with an F.  And that will enter you in the drawing to win a fat-quarter bundle of Snow Babies!

I'll draw a name next Thursday, October 17, and announce the winner on Friday, October 18.  Thanks for playing along! xo

Full Circle.

"I just make stuff I'd wear myself."

That's how she described what she did.  And for the better part of two decades, the only jewelry I wore was made by her.  I mean, when a best friend makes stuff you love, why even look elsewhere?  I used to have fun making jewelry sometimes, but my beads and stuff got buried in the basement over the years.  I never even thought of getting it out once she started making stuff.

"It's tempting when I'm making earrings to keep adding stuff and make them really long, but then I always find that the ones I wear the most are the super simple ones.  It's hard to hold back and keep them simple, but I always like those better."  She was right.  Some of those are still my go-to can't-live-without favorites.

 

Did I ever tell you how I got my start in business?

It was 1990.  In the years that followed dropping out of art school, I'd worked several strange and non-creative jobs.  Always threatening to "do something with my art" but never quite discovering what it was I wanted to do with it.

At the time I was painting on whatever I could get my hands on.  Mostly I was getting my hands on plant pots, picture frames, driftwood - weird stuff.  Sometimes I'd get my hands on a neat old piece of furniture or two.  People said, "you could totally sell those. You should start a business."

Yeah, a business.  With a business license.  That would be practical.  I should totally do that.

Practical wasn't exactly my strong suit, though.

That's where she came in.  My smart, practical, grounded - and talented - friend Dani.

Her amazing style sense: copied by everyone yet always unique.  And when she couldn't find exactly what she wanted to complete an outfit, she'd invent it.  It started with a few beads, a few earring hooks, some neat looking string.  She started making more and more, she couldn't stop.  People said, "you could totally sell those."  She said, "we should start a business."

"Let's start it as a partnership.  I'll sell my earrings, and you sell your painted stuff.  I'll do the paperwork and organizing stuff, and you can design our logo and anything else we need."

Ok, that sounds like a great idea.

We needed a name, "like a word that means nothing, but sounds cool."  She came over one day with a book of city names and a bottle of wine.

Ok, that sounds like a great idea.

We got through nearly the entire alphabet (and bottle of wine) with no hits.  Then we got to U:  Urbana.  That's a neat word.  Where is that?  I don't know, like, the Midwest somewhere. 

"Let's call it 'Urbana'."

Ok, that sounds like a great idea.

And we became proud owners of our very first business license.

Fun fact: when she told her mother the name of our new business, she just laughed.  "Why in the world would you name it that?" She explained our naming criteria.  "Well, dear, I'm afraid that word doesn't mean nothing to you.  You were conceived in Urbana, IL."

So much for that idea.  We still thought it was a neat sounding name, and continued along in our denial about it being a real city.  Or two.

We did a few street fairs, even Bumbershoot.  Be nice to street fair vendors, by the way, they have a really hard job.  Too hard for us, I'm afraid.  We wimped out after one season.  I found a few neat little shops to sell my painted stuff, and she found others to sell her jewelry.  Less schlepping, no worrying about rain leaking (or dumping) into our displays.  I designed advertising and packaging, and she filled out our taxes.  It worked out great for a couple years.

I found bigger things to paint (rooms in people's homes) and would do graphic design work when I could get it.  I started licensing designs with a couple local companies.   She became a mom and wasn't making much jewelry.  It was time for Urbana to become a sole-proprietorship, and the word "Artstuff" was tacked onto the name (a word, by the way, that she had made up).  She would still make jewelry once a year to sell at my holiday open house; my regular customers and all our friends looked forward to stocking up on earrings and necklaces for gifts and for ourselves.

Eventually Art Licensing overtook the rest and became the sole focus of my business, and when I incorporated, the "Urbana" got dropped and "Ltd." got added.

 

My friend Dani was the reason I ever started being at all serious about my art as an actual business.  The motivator, the paperwork-explainer and filler-outer, the driver and run-arounder, the tax-doer, the teacher.  Long after we were business partners, she worked as an agent for a bit and landed me a few magazine-illustration gigs.  The ways she influenced and inspired my business over the years go on and on.  From selling earrings, painted plant pots and driftwood mobiles to Art Licensing and everything in-between, she has been part of it all.

She was taken way too soon.  You know when the Universe hiccups and something wrong happens that was never supposed to, ever.  But it did.  All these years later, sometimes it still doesn't feel real.

One very minor detail of that loss didn't come up until much later: the first time a now-irreplaceable earring slid down the drain.  The dramatic and violent screaming, sobbing freakout finally subsided after the entire stupid pedestal sink had been ripped apart and the tiny trinket pulled from the thick, hairy/gooey drain-trap muck (thank you, Husband Guy).

Even faced with that stark reality, I still wasn't looking at other jewelry yet.  I'd avert my eyes or simply not focus on cute earrings in shops and boutiques; maybe it was just force of habit.  The thought of making jewelry myself was equally foreign.  It was 5 years later when Elizabeth suggested our afternoon at Shipwreck as a fun "halfway between us" get-together.  Hmh.  Beads.  I wouldn't have thought of that.

Ok, that sounds like a great idea.

I had a blast playing with those beads on vacation year before last, and this last month I packed up all my goodies to make more stuff while out at the cabin.  I started making earrings.  "Just stuff I'd wear myself."  Literally - I was just making a few pair, for me. 

But I couldn't stop.

These pretty little pressed glass beads from India were just too fun to play with.  I got color-drunk, like when I would get a new box of crayons as a kid.  They sort of remind me of beach glass: there's a real organic feel with the bubbles and irregularities.  And it was fun to pair them with some of my more bling-y beads and components.

I just kept making more.

And more.

She was right, it's sort of hard to hold back and keep from adding the kitchen sink to every pair.  But they needed to be something I would want to wear every day.  And they are - there are just way too many for me.

So I'll be selling them in my shop.  And I'm hoping this gives me an excuse to make more, because it's really, really fun for me.  There are just a few pair there now, but watch for more very soon.

I'm hoping that some of you might actually like to wear the same things that I would, because that's all they are, really.  Not crazy fancy.  Just little stuff I'd wear myself.

Not precious.

Just pretty.

Some little everyday trinkets, subconsciously inspired, I'm certain, by the super-simple elegance and grounded practicality of someone who helped shape me as a creative businessperson from the very beginning.

Jewlery my friend Dani created is not only unique and cool like she was, but now precious and irreplaceable.  I would never try to do what she did, but I can keep doing what I do: influenced, inspired, and in a way, hopefully honoring her "if-I-can't-find-something-just-right-I'll-make-it-myself" way of doing things.

Shrimp Aspic Says "Hi" - and Winner Announced!

"Hi."
There it is, in all its jiggly glory.  The now-famous aspic.

You can see what I mean about marshmallows and whipped cream subduing Fear of Jello.  Halfway through dinner, the Green Fluff is almost gone!

I know I keep saying it, but I've got to tell you again: I have had way too much fun reading all your comments on this one.

I would go on, but I think you have been waiting long enough for this.  I didn't mean for it to get so late in the day to announce this, but here I am - finally.

I printed and cut out your comments

folded them all the same way

and looked around for something they would fit nicely in, to stir and fluff them around for the drawing.

Here we go.

Perfect.

Fluff, fluff, stir, stir...

(drum roll, please)

and out comes...

Sandy D, you are the winner of the One Crazy Christmas Eve fat quarter bundle!

And wouldn't you know it, TypePad is having some sort of hiccup this evening and it won't let me access anyone's info when I click on your names, so Sandy D I hope you are reading this because I can't try to send you a message!  Please email me at [email protected] with your mailing address and I'll get your bundle of fabric on its way to you!

And don't forget, you have until Nov. 25 to enter the big contest over at the Henry Glass Blog.  The winner of that one gets a big fabric bundle + special gifts from each of us designers!

Thanks again everyone who entered this, for all the kind comments about my stocking (!) and sharing your own memories . . . really this was so fun.  So fun, in fact, that I am going to be doing something like this every week through the rest of the holiday season, so do check back for more giveaways and fun!  Thanks!

Welcome to Day 4

...of the Henry Glass Very Merry Holiday Party, that is.

I hope you've had fun so far, visiting my good friend Shelly Comiskey and the talented Wilma Sanchez yesterday - and if you missed them the first 2 days, you should go back and visit the amazing Linda Lum DeBono, Little Quilts, Dawn Heese, and Jill Finley.  These talented ladies have all got some supercool special treats for you and it's definitely worth dropping in!

As for me, ohmygosh, I've got so much to share with you here today!  This is sort of like three blog posts in one, so I recommend you settle in with a lovely beverage and let's get started:

 

1. Favorite Holiday Decoration and Tradition

If you're a regular here at the Artstuff blog, you may know a little something about my family.  How we tend to never throw anything away, ever.  How we love holidays and getting together.  How my grandparents collected and created just about every funky thing you could imagine, and some you probably couldn't.

I wish, oh how I wish, that I could hear my Granddad's high-pitched giggle if he ever heard the word "upcycling" and it was explained to him how trendy the concept is.  Granddad was the original upcycler.  One example: all the years he worked for the power company he would scavenge old motors from scrapped utility meters to mechanize his own Christmas decorations.  Every inch of their big house, where we would gather every Christmas, was decorated, and beneath the Christmas music, laughter, talking over one another, and jingling bells was always the buzzy hum of hundreds of tiny motors.

Every window sill

every alcove

from fireplace mantels

to an unused dumb-waiter

to what, looking back, I realize were simply areas between the beams in unfinished sections of walls (Granddad designed and built their 4-story, 18-room house and it was a "work in progress" for the entire 50-some years he lived in it).

I can't say there was one particular favorite decoration out of the whole mess.  It's the overwhelming kitschy mechanized excess that I loved so much; my Granddad's over-the-top style was a running theme through everything he created.

My grandparents both passed long ago, and that big crazy old house is gone.  Christmas day is still spent with a big, loud bunch of family, laughing and talking over each other.  The decorations are spread between grandkids' and great grandkids' homes, a good portion of them residing here now with us, although no one really knows how to keep those salvaged little motors running like Granddad could.

 

2. Favorite Family Recipe

Every family has them: those deep dark secrets, those terrifying controversies.

Mine is no different.

Except, maybe, that our family's controversy has to do with (cue the ominous music: "duhn duhn duuuuhnt!") Jello salad.

Yes, I said it.  Jello salad.  Specifically, a sweet-savory molded red salad filled with vegetables and canned seafood.  The dreaded Shrimp Aspic.  The name itself strikes fear in the hearts of cousins, nieces, nephews, and close family friends.  True, deep-seated fear.

For generations this dish has horrified unsuspecting guests, scared away possible suitors, and torn at the very fabric of an otherwise close and agreeable bunch of folks.  The words "Shrimp Aspic" are uttered in hushed, fearful tones, staring with hollow, darting eyes.  They run, but they can't hide.  It reappears every time we get together.  There on the buffet among savory goodies much more appetizing to the modern palate.  Goodies that don't jiggle creepily when they're touched.  Goodies that you don't have to ask "what in the world is that?"

The Shrimp Aspic eaters of the family are a stealthy bunch.  Laughing along at Shrimp Aspic jokes, comforting those who are frightened by the jiggling terror on the buffet.  Then quietly taking second, even third helpings, and filling old cottage-cheese containers to take home to eat later.

This is my mother's recipe:

You may notice there is written evidence of even more family controversy here: "Shirl adds black olives and hard-boiled eggs, I don't!"

To be fair, my Aunt Shirl's own signature Jello salad, also still making regular appearances on family get-together buffet tables, goes by many names:  Ambrosia, That Pistachio Salad, or most often, simply Green Fluff.  It is, undoubtedly, Shrimp Aspic's most deadly nemesis.  Those who fear Jello can often be subdued by marshmallows and whipped cream.  It's a scientific fact.

 

3. Free Project Download:

For my project I wanted to make something using my One Crazy Christmas Eve fabrics.

Now you probably already know, I do not claim to know how to sew.  I did, however, make my husband's and my stockings several years ago.  For those I laid out some pieces of velvet and cut them freehand into stockingy shapes, hand-stitched them together, then stitched random trims and tassels onto them.  You throw enough trims and tassels on any lumpy, odd-shaped sewing project and you're golden.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

They're ridiculously lumpy, though, because they are both lined with super heavy velvet from an old coat of my grandmother's that we found (already disaseembled, pieces folded neatly and ready for projects) in her sewing cabinet. Reaching for goodies on Christmas morning has never been softy-er.

So technically, I've made stockings before.  But I thought for this project, it would be fun to make a stocking like the ones I drew in this pattern

and I threw myself into the project.

I hope you like it!

Click the picture of the patterns for your downloadable PDF.  This pattern shape will end up making a cute stocking, whether you know how to sew or not - as the following tutorial proves.  And I do use the word "tutorial" loosely here.

First, I'm so excited about my new fabric-and-large-paper-cutting area.  I know, it's nothing fancy; technically it's just the laundry area with a cutting mat on it - but the new front-loading washer and dryer add so much new surface area to our tiny house that I'm beside-myself-giddy about it.  I bought the new cutting mat to fit, and last week I spent a few days doing nothing but putting up pegboard panels and shelves and organizing the space.

Again, giddy.  Seriously.

So.  The stocking.  First, I taped together and cut out the pattern pieces.  You'll see mine are empty (no writing) because remember, I'm inventing this as I go along; I wanted to make sure the sizes and shapes worked before finalizing the pattern-page design.

I chose the prints for the stocking body, cuff, lining, and hangy-hook: yes, I realize a stocking with pictures of stockings on it is silly.  I guess that's sort of the point.

First I cut the main body (along the black outlines on the pattern) with the fabric facing opposite ways.

Then I trimmed the pattern down to the red outlines, and cut the lining.  The lining is a smidge smaller so it will fit nicely inside the body, and the toe doesn't go all the way out to the point - I'll show you why in a minute.

Then the cuff.  I designed the cuff pattern as one long piece to wrap around because I thought it would make a more rounded, nice opening.  I really wanted to use one of the stripes for this but realized that because of the curve of the piece, if I wanted the stripes to all be at a uniform angle, I would have to piece lots of small sections, and you will see more and more as we go along why that wouldn't have been a good idea for me.  You, however, might want to give that a try, I'm sure it would be very cute!

All the pieces laid out

make it actually look like (gasp) this might end up looking like a stocking.

For my first step, I made the only part of this that I was confident in both my plan and my ability.  The loopy hook.
I thought that reinforcing it with something stronger inserted inside would be smart.  Here I used a piece of heavy hemp ribbon folded in half lengthwise.

With the fabric facing inside, I sewed around the main body, then cut notches in the curved parts; the idea is that it lays down more neatly when turned back around right-side-out.  I am not sure if my notches did this.

I ironed down the top edge to run an extra little seam along there, so no raw edges show.  You will see I went a little no-raw-edge crazy with this project which ultimately left me with a pretty lumpy finished product.  You may want to skip this step, or go about it in a more logical and sensible fashion, as you were taught in Home-Ec or something.
I never had Home-Ec; we were allowed a total of 2 electives per semester and Art and Band filled my schedule.  I may not be able to sew well, but if the need arises, I can play piccolo while marching in-time.  Oh, and the time-spent-in-art-classes thing has worked out alright, too.

20+ years ago my puppies destroyed some throw pillows.  I safety-pinned them together to keep the stuffing mostly-inside, threw them in the washing machine to remove any residual puppy-chewing-goo, and I have been using the stuffing ever since in random projects.

This time, a little fluff fills the pointy part of the stocking toe!  This is why the lining is rounded, to leave a little space for stuffing, so it stays perky and elfy looking.

I sewed the lining together, pieces facing together inward, and another little extra finishing seam along the top.

You won't need to turn your lining back out again like the other pieces, because you want it to face inside.  Sort of like the top sheet on your bed.

I turned mine for a few minutes though, so I could add my little signature.
I know, it's sort of dorky, but I like to add a little piece of the selvedge as a "tag" when I make stuff with my own fabric.

Next, assembling the cuff.  Now, this is where I got scared, because my brain has trouble wrapping itself around 3-dimensional engineering-type projects.  You know, how stuff fits together.  I pulled out my notes to make sure I was doing it as I had planned.
And to heed my own warning.  You may or may not remember my swim-trunks adventure, and how after sewing the lining together, they went from practical swim-trunks to "unlined-lounging boxers".
At least I understand my limitations.

For the cuff, first I sewed the end seams of each piece together.  I turned one inside out, and laid them together with the fronts facing each other, seams and points lined up.  Then I sewed the bottom seams (the pointy part!).

Again, cutting little notches, and again, not being sure whether it helped or not, because my finished product is always lumpy anyway.

Turning it back around I was a little horrified at the freaky poufy mess it appeared to have become, but ironing it into submission helped.

That's when I pulled out the pom-pom bag to choose a color.  The only color I had enough of was blue, so that choice was easy.

I thought that it might be clever to sew the pom-poms on while I had the pieces open at the top, before I attached them to each other.
This way the extra thread could just live untrimmed on the inside part.
As clever as I thought this was, it did make some of the assembly and final ironing more difficult than it had to be.  It's probably smarter to wait until you are finished with the rest before deciding on and adding your pom-poms, jingle bells, or I thought even cute buttons might be a neato addition to the points.

Again with overdoing my tucked-in edges.

And again with my inability to wrap my brain around 3-dimensional assembly.  I thought it would be very neat and tidy to insert the ends of the hangy hook (which is stitched together a crazy amount there inside this thing, in case I ever want to put something very heavy into this stocking) inside some hem or other, and the cuff seemed like the logical choice, since it would be the outermost piece.

I imagined that this piece would be wrapped around over the top of the stocking, thus this weird extra tucking-under and sewing-down thing that's going on here.  Don't do this.

This could have worked if my upside-down and backwards assembly that I had worked out in my head was not the wrong flavor of upside down and backwards.  I am still not sure what the right flavor of upside down and backwards is, and I'd kind of rather not hurt my brain thinking of that now.

Ready for final assembly, the lining was tucked into the body, and the cuff was sewn on the top.  The idea was that the seams would be under the cuff, so there would be a smooth line at the top.

Ruh-roh.  Something's very wrong with this picture.

After sewing together and ripping out the seams on more than one version, I decided to loosely tack my new attempts at engineering how this thing goes together rather than pinning, so I'd have a better idea what it would look like before actually sewing it.  Oh, and, this version was upside down, too.  Don't do this, either.

But the one pictured below worked.  I turned the stocking inside out, and sewed the cuff on like so
then when the whole thing is turned back around, that whole seam-on-the-underneath-side concept actually works.  Although my obsession with tucking seams under at every edge helped create a really bulky, lumpy end product.  Well, that, or my sloppy sewing.  You decide.  Either way, I am guessing you will figure out a more sensible way for your own stocking to be assembled.  I mean really, what are a few raw edges on the underside of a cuff, anyway?

The spoils of the day:
about a mile of thread ripped from wrong seams, and one broken sewing machine needle.  That hangy loop ended up being folded over itself way too many times in order to face the right direction after being so dramatically and severely attached to that cuff in such a weird way.  Like sewing through a stack of hot-press illustration board.

To be fair though, there is a sort of cute stocking in that same pile.

It's a little lumpy and crooked

but then that's how I know I made it.

It's a stocking with stockings on it: a stocking stocking.  What could be more stockingy?

 

4. Giveaway!

You made it through the rest of this epic post, you deserve a prize.  So I'm having a name-drawing for a fat quarter bundle of all 21 coordinates from One Crazy Christmas Eve!  You saw the fat-quarters all stacked neatly on the corner of my cutting area - this is what they were waiting for.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite Jello dish.  Are you afraid of Jello?  That's alright, just say so; that will enter you in the drawing just the same, and I promise the Shrimp Aspic Monster will not visit you in the night and steal your appetite.  Really.

You have until Thanksgiving to enter (yes, that's the next time I will be seeing Shrimp Aspic myself) and I will announce a winner on Black Friday.

 

Now be sure to swing by the Henry Glass blog every day this week to enter the BIG contest there, for a big fabric bundle PLUS small gifts from every one of the designers participating in the blog hop!  Wow!  All you have to do is match us to our childhood holiday pictures.  Ok, you don't have to guess correctly to win.  But I think you'll have fun trying!

Have fun at the rest of this party!  Today hop on over to my Day 4 partners, Leanne Anderson and Margot Languedoc for their super fun goodies, and tomorrow make sure to go visit Kari Ramsey and Heather Mulder Peterson!  And check here (or just take a peek at my last post, right below this one!) for links to the rest of your fabulous party hostesses, cheers!

And finally - if you're looking for One Crazy Christmas Eve - you can still find it out there if you look, although it was last year's pattern so it may be a little few and far between.  But I do have some yardage available in my Etsy shop, while it lasts!

Summertime, Girlfriends, and Other Favorite Things.

Hi there, Henry Glass Summer Party Guests! Welcome to my little taste of summer fun, I'm so glad you stopped by.

Time in the sun with girlfriends is pretty much one of the best things ever (these girls will be showing up on friendship cards in your friendly neighborhood Trader Joe's stores any day now!).
I've gotta admit, though, it's something I don't get around to very often, and maybe you don't either.  Making time, coordinating busy schedules - more often than not, stuff gets in the way, life happens, and dates get pushed back weeks, months, even longer.  But when it finally happens, we all wonder why we don't do it more often.

Last week the planets aligned and a group of friends got together for an amazing pot luck lunch featuring goodies from our gardens and one friend's signature mojitos.
The perfumy citrusy freshness of a mojito just screams Caribbean sunshine - which got me thinking about some extra-special girflriends-in-the-sun time I was lucky enough to get this past February.

My oldest friend in the world (no, silly, she's not that old, but we've been friends since we were toddlers) and I went on a cruise together.
We enjoyed sunshine,
beaches,
sunsets
and sunrises,
amazing food and lots of catching-up time together.
We spent a lot of time slowing down
and doing nothing (that's me, just floating) 
which is exactly what both of us needed.  It was pretty awesome.

I hope you make time this summer to enjoy some quality girlfriend time, it's good for the soul!

And good for your tastebuds: my friend Peggy's signature mojitos.  They truly are the best I've ever had.  I've tried many recipes with varied or fancier ingredients, I've even made my own garden-fresh mint-infused simple syrup, but nothing touches hers.

The recipe is a simple one but the secret, Peggy says, is in the process and the order in which it's done:

Drop 12 mint leaves into a tall glass, and muddle.  Add 4 teaspoons sugar, and muddle again.  Add 1/2 lime (cut into smaller pieces) and muddle again until there is a decnt amount of juice extracted; then add 1.5 oz light rum (she uses Bacardi), and stir with a spoon until mixed.  Add cubed ice (not crushed!) then fill glass with club soda.  Stir up again so the mint and lime are suspended in the ice and not just sitting on the bottom of the glass, and toast to your good friends!

And be sure to go visit my other fabric designing friends on the Henry Glass Summer Party for daily fabric giveaways and other fun goodies!  Happy summer, everyone!

So Lucky.

Sometimes the extra bonus goodness I get to experience from this crazy job I have is just too much, I really am constantly blessed in spite of myself! 

Art Licensing can create a very distant and removed lifestyle for artists.  Most of us who do this work alone in our studios, often quite isolated from the real world.  On one hand, that's something I enjoy about it - I tend to be happy with what may seem to most folks like an unnatural volume of peace, quiet, and privacy.  On the other hand, we are so far removed from the end consumer that it's difficult sometimes to grasp the big picture - departments and focus groups and agencies and committees, manufacturers and distributors and sales reps and retailers; the list of entities separating a licensing artist from the person who buys and lives with our products is pretty vast.  But that's just how the machine works; I could never make and sell my stuff like they do.

You don't go into this field expecting to make friends or share warm fuzzy moments.  But it happens.  The mentors, muses, and dear friends I've been blessed with make my life full and happy. 

One such unexpected friendship began a couple months ago.  A nice woman in Kentucky wanted to make a rag-quilt for a Christmas present for her grandson who loves camping.  She was searching the web for flannel with squirrels on it (!) and stumbled on my Etsy shop where I still had yardage from my At The Lake collection.  Who knew I was about to make a friend?   

We chatted online, one thing led to another, and when she had finished that one, made 2 others with more of my flannel - then offered to make me one for me.  I almost tear up just telling you about this (talk amongst yourselves) how sweet and generous is that?!

It arrived when I was in Atlanta attending AmericasMart last month.  I could hardly wait to open the package, but I didn't share it with you right away because as you can see, the blanket and I had some very important work to catch up with that first day home.

If you don't believe that this holds a prominent and beloved place in our household, take a closer look at all the pet hairs that have embedded, literally woven themselves into the fabric.  Curling up on the couch on chilly winter evenings here means there is at least one furry family member on top of you, usually two.

But in spite of the hairs, isn't that cool?  I love it, and it fits perfectly into our decor and lifestyle!

And finally, this amazing gift:

The happy recipient of the original quilt drew me a picture (look at that awesome tent and camp fire -  I love this!).

And like a true Southern Gentleman, charmed me to death with sweet compliments.

New friends, and physical, tangible reminders right here to treasure; I have so much to be thankful for, to fill my heart and make me smile - next time you catch me being a grouch or curmudgeon, you have my permission to just slap me.  I mean it.

Things That Make Me Smile: Vacation Edition

Dog walks every morning and afternoon are an every-day attitude adjustment around here, but on the beach, forgetaboutit.  It turns into an ear-to-ear grinning until my cheeks hurt thing.

At the beach, little things become fun events.

Some birds.
A boat.
A pattern.

The perfect latte in the morning is enough to bring a smile to my famously-grouchy-morning-lips (yes, we actually pack up the Breville and take it to the cabin) but it's even more fun when I pull a random mug from the cupboard and realize it's designed by my talented friend BJ Lantz!
Her cute beach design made me smile every morning (those who know me well will attest, this is a tall order).

And finally, 2 weeks of perfect sunsets, how can that not make someone smile?