The adventure begins

Today at 6 am we officially started building our house!

This picture is from last night. The empty lot…nothing very exciting, as you can tell. It is a regular lot in a neighborhood that was started about 10 years ago. Our lot is one of the last to built on. The neighborhood was planned so that no houses that back up to each other. So everyone has ‘community’ land behind their house.

The WHOLE ‘project’ started well over a year ago. It feels good to finally begin the actual construction. We’ve taken it from developing the floor plan all the way through permits, bids, and now construction. Luke is the General contractor on the project….and I’m in charge of designing the kitchen! (I get to start that process tomorrow morning!)

The kids in their future back yard! It will be much better than the dirt lot it currently is. Although, we will not have real grass, we have plans to make the backyard very green by using native plants (and some fake grass!) We tried real grass in our last 2 houses….now I know that you just don’t have a big grassy yard it Tucson. It does not work.

We had the house designed to take advantage of these spectacular views! I can’t wait to show you more as things progress. You’ll probably bore quite quickly of my updates….so I’ll try to keep it to major changes. Have a great weekend!

Necessary Things

There are apparently certain things that are “necessary” when running a crafting oriented business. I am clueless when it comes to most of them. Here are a couple I know about. Let me know of others…please!

The blog – for starters. It’s a good thing I actually enjoy it!

“Do you have a crafty blog?”

“Why, yes! Yes, I do!”

I like blogging so much that I have 3 blogs (or at least I like the idea of blogging…sometimes they are a bit neglected, I admit). My fabric blog (you’re here!), my handmade/personal blog, and a group blog (under construction at the moment…I’ll post a link when it’s running again). I like to think there are more than 2 of you out there that read my blog. Let me live in my imaginary world a bit longer, please!

The Flickr group - so everyone can see how wonderfully creative all of you (or both of you) are! *NEW* click here!

“Melanie, here’s a picture of a chair I recovered using fabric from you.”

“That is AWESOME! Post it to my flickr group!!!!!”

Well, the flick group just came about today. Please post some pictures to it. I uploaded one, to test it out. But I think it would be kinda dorky if I just uploaded a bunch of things I made Thanks to both of you!

My grand idea is that I will also have a page on my website for customer creations. I thought it would be up already, but other, more pressing, things keep happening. SO – the flickr group is a start! Go post some pictures

And what good would a post be without a picture? I wish I had something exciting to show you. Well, fabric is always exiting, right? When I went to a textile show up in Phoenix, I saw this print. I had to have it. It is SO pretty in person. I am not going to the Portland quilt show (can you hear me sobbing?) but I’ll save that for another day.

(from Michael Miller called Black Midnight Mums)

And I need to do the tagged thing…but I have not come up with 6 cool things to share yet. I’ll get to it, Louise! I promise All for now.

Working away

I am getting the fabric onto my website, as well as eBay and Etsy. It is a long process – and having SO many new fabrics, it is taking me longer than I wished. I LOVE the Alexander Henry prints – and Tina Givens’ line, Annabella, has started to arrive as well. It’s all very exciting! Here is one picture to entice you. There is also more Moda waiting for me and of course Amy Butler as well. I promise, I am working working working to get all of these fabrics available to you! Slowly, patiently, steadily working away!

And Handy Husband did come up with some awesome solutions to my storage problem- so I can’t wait to show you pictures of my new area. It is so great!!!! See you again soon.

My Little Monsters

I had to share this picture with you! Before Taylor’s birthday, I bought these little monster patches from a store on Etsy. Jodi has so many to choose from, so it was hard to decide. Then I sewed them onto shirts for the kids. TOO CUTE! Every single time the kids wears them, people stop to ask me about them. I probably should have bothered to put on matching thread, but I guess I was being lazy or in a hurry or something. They are still really cute!

You know that I make a lot of hooded towels, right? Well, what you may or may not know is that my towel source recently redid ALL of their colors. So all the hood pieces that I had on hand were useless. Guess who got them? Yep! Jodi – and it looks like she’s already started to use some of them. I’m just happy they are being used. Go visit Jodiflowers on Etsy and see these cute little creations for yourself!

Oh – and in case you’re worried about Haley – please know I make her LOTS of things when the boys get nothing.

Boxes

The UPS man brought me some presents today.

I have been working all day on rearranging so that I can fit everything. I *may* be out of room. Hmmm….handy husband will have to come up with a solution of some sort. Watch my store for all these fun things to be added!

I have to take a little break from sewing while my machine gets her annual exam. She’ll come back to me better than ever. Actually nothing was wrong…but the first year tune up is free, so I wanted to take advantage of it!

Perfect timing! I have LOTS of work to do now. Have a great weekend

Stay at home Mom?

I used to tell people that I was a Stay-at-home Mom, now I say I’m a Work-at-home Mom. To many people, it is no different…but I know that there is a big difference. The hardest part for me is that my work is ALWAYS here and so I feel like I have to work on it during any extra moment I have. Can any of you WAHM’s relate? (And I know that there are many daddy’s out there doing the same thing!)

So, one thing I have been trying to do better is be “at home” more often. I have been taking the kids to the park and even trying to watch a movie or two with my husband on the weekends. (This is REALLY hard for me…and I’m not joking!) Today, I even helped chaperon Kyle’s kindergarten class on their field trip to the zoo. It was a blast…and I’m worn out. We got a behind the scenes tour and the kids even got to feed the giraffes. Kyle was SO happy I was there. That made me smile.

Onto fabric news….Malibu Monkeys from Erin Michaels has arrived. I don’t think I’ll get it added to the store tonight. I’m tired! It’s really cute and just in time for summer. There are more and more fabrics arriving, so I’ll be updating you on those soon. For now, I need sleep!

Still Kickin’

Yep – we are still alive, believe it or not. We are slowly getting over all our illnesses, and hopefully we won’t manage to catch something else before school is out. I never showed you a few of the things that I had been working on when I was crazy busy. So here are a few pictures for you.

Cute Nap Mat in the best fabric ever! Hmmmm…and can I just tell you that there are some new great things coming from Michael Miller Fabrics. Yep, super excited about them!

Fun burp cloths with Alexander Henry Fabric. More of this is on the way to me…so you can be watching my store for it.

My Flower Power bag found a loving home. It’s sad to say that this fabric is no longer in print, so no duplicates to come! Robert Kaufman has Another Iota though, and it’s lots of fun too

What is that you say, you want more? Alrighty then! Hooded Towels – I have made so many of them recently. I think this might be one of my favorites.

It’s made with the Silly Safari fabric. Everyone who gets these hooded towels just LOVES them. Often times, the gift recipient becomes a gift giver and they tell me ‘This is the best gift – I have to get one for my friend.’ That makes me smile!

And then there is the embroidery machine. I’ve been contacted by several people to do “little” projects. Whew – sometimes these little projects take much more effort than I had imagined. I was contacted by a sweet lady in Colorado about doing a nursery wall hanging, and I’m trying to get a design laid out – but just haven’t found the time to finish it and present the idea to her. Has it come to a point where I have to actually turn someone down? Yikes – I don’t know. Needless to say, I will not be opening an official embroidery store just yet. But most of my “customers” are friends and are happy not to have to pay big bucks to get a name onto something!

Like this patch for a softball bag.

There is even more. I’m getting together a box to send to a friend whose husband was recently deployed to Afghanistan. (as long as it’s taking me, he’ll probably be home by the time I finish everything!) And my chalk cloth arrived, so I’m working on some fun things for Christmas Craft Fairs (yep – Christmas already!) And the list just goes on and on. So while I have been silent on this front – as you can see, things have not been silent around here!

I’ve also been tagged on both of my blogs – and I WILL get to that – but I like to put some thought into those things before I reveal too much

Have a great week!

Still kickin’

Yep – we are still alive, believe it or not. We are slowly getting over all our illnesses, and hopefully we won’t manage to catch something else before school is out. I never showed you a few of the things that I had been working on when I was crazy busy. So here are a few pictures for you.

Cute Nap Mat in the best fabric ever! Hmmmm…and can I just tell you that there are some new great things coming from Michael Miller Fabrics. Yep, super excited about them!

Fun burp cloths with Alexander Henry Fabric. More of this is on the way to me…so you can be watching my store for it.

My Flower Power bag found a loving home. It’s sad to say that this fabric is no longer in print, so no duplicates to come! Robert Kaufman has Another Iota though, and it’s lots of fun too

What is that you say, you want more? Alrighty then! Hooded Towels – I have made so many of them recently. I think this might be one of my favorites.

It’s made with the Silly Safari fabric. Everyone who gets these hooded towels just LOVES them. Often times, the gift recipient becomes a gift giver and they tell me ‘This is the best gift – I have to get one for my friend.’ That makes me smile!

And then there is the embroidery machine. I’ve been contacted by several people to do “little” projects. Whew – sometimes these little projects take much more effort than I had imagined. I was contacted by a sweet lady in Colorado about doing a nursery wall hanging, and I’m trying to get a design laid out – but just haven’t found the time to finish it and present the idea to her. Has it come to a point where I have to actually turn someone down? Yikes – I don’t know. Needless to say, I will not be opening an official embroidery store just yet. But most of my “customers” are friends and are happy not to have to pay big bucks to get a name onto something!

Like this patch for a softball bag.

There is even more. I’m getting together a box to send to a friend whose husband was recently deployed to Afghanistan. (as long as it’s taking me, he’ll probably be home by the time I finish everything!) And my chalk cloth arrived, so I’m working on some fun things for Christmas Craft Fairs (yep – Christmas already!) And the list just goes on and on. So while I have been silent on this front – as you can see, things have not been silent around here!

I’ve also been tagged on both of my blogs – and I WILL get to that – but I like to put some thought into those things before I reveal too much

Have a great week!

Still kickin’

Yep – we are still alive, believe it or not. We are slowly getting over all our illnesses, and hopefully we won’t manage to catch something else before school is out. I never showed you a few of the things that I had been working on when I was crazy busy. So here are a few pictures for you.

Cute Nap Mat in the best fabric ever! Hmmmm…and can I just tell you that there are some new great things coming from Michael Miller Fabrics. Yep, super excited about them!

Fun burp cloths with Alexander Henry Fabric. More of this is on the way to me…so you can be watching my store for it.

My Flower Power bag found a loving home. It’s sad to say that this fabric is no longer in print, so no duplicates to come! Robert Kaufman has Another Iota though, and it’s lots of fun too

What is that you say, you want more? Alrighty then! Hooded Towels – I have made so many of them recently. I think this might be one of my favorites.

It’s made with the Silly Safari fabric. Everyone who gets these hooded towels just LOVES them. Often times, the gift recipient becomes a gift giver and they tell me ‘This is the best gift – I have to get one for my friend.’ That makes me smile!

And then there is the embroidery machine. I’ve been contacted by several people to do “little” projects. Whew – sometimes these little projects take much more effort than I had imagined. I was contacted by a sweet lady in Colorado about doing a nursery wall hanging, and I’m trying to get a design laid out – but just haven’t found the time to finish it and present the idea to her. Has it come to a point where I have to actually turn someone down? Yikes – I don’t know. Needless to say, I will not be opening an official embroidery store just yet. But most of my “customers” are friends and are happy not to have to pay big bucks to get a name onto something!

Like this patch for a softball bag.

There is even more. I’m getting together a box to send to a friend whose husband was recently deployed to Afghanistan. (as long as it’s taking me, he’ll probably be home by the time I finish everything!) And my chalk cloth arrived, so I’m working on some fun things for Christmas Craft Fairs (yep – Christmas already!) And the list just goes on and on. So while I have been silent on this front – as you can see, things have not been silent around here!

I’ve also been tagged on both of my blogs – and I WILL get to that – but I like to put some thought into those things before I reveal too much

Have a great week!

Still kickin’

Yep – we are still alive, believe it or not. We are slowly getting over all our illnesses, and hopefully we won’t manage to catch something else before school is out. I never showed you a few of the things that I had been working on when I was crazy busy. So here are a few pictures for you.

Cute Nap Mat in the best fabric ever! Hmmmm…and can I just tell you that there are some new great things coming from Michael Miller Fabrics. Yep, super excited about them!

Fun burp cloths with Alexander Henry Fabric. More of this is on the way to me…so you can be watching my store for it.

My Flower Power bag found a loving home. It’s sad to say that this fabric is no longer in print, so no duplicates to come! Robert Kaufman has Another Iota though, and it’s lots of fun too

What is that you say, you want more? Alrighty then! Hooded Towels – I have made so many of them recently. I think this might be one of my favorites.

It’s made with the Silly Safari fabric. Everyone who gets these hooded towels just LOVES them. Often times, the gift recipient becomes a gift giver and they tell me ‘This is the best gift – I have to get one for my friend.’ That makes me smile!

And then there is the embroidery machine. I’ve been contacted by several people to do “little” projects. Whew – sometimes these little projects take much more effort than I had imagined. I was contacted by a sweet lady in Colorado about doing a nursery wall hanging, and I’m trying to get a design laid out – but just haven’t found the time to finish it and present the idea to her. Has it come to a point where I have to actually turn someone down? Yikes – I don’t know. Needless to say, I will not be opening an official embroidery store just yet. But most of my “customers” are friends and are happy not to have to pay big bucks to get a name onto something!

Like this patch for a softball bag.

There is even more. I’m getting together a box to send to a friend whose husband was recently deployed to Afghanistan. (as long as it’s taking me, he’ll probably be home by the time I finish everything!) And my chalk cloth arrived, so I’m working on some fun things for Christmas Craft Fairs (yep – Christmas already!) And the list just goes on and on. So while I have been silent on this front – as you can see, things have not been silent around here!

I’ve also been tagged on both of my blogs – and I WILL get to that – but I like to put some thought into those things before I reveal too much

Have a great week!