Etsy infiltrates the Farmer's Market

Oh my gosh! You're not gonna believe this. Toady at the farmer's market I was actually next to a fellow Etsy seller!!! There's a first time for everything. haha

Holli is an artist and she makes the most beautiful mandalas. I snapped a couple of photos for you..

There are prints.

And cards & mini prints too. Aren't they gorgeous? I might have to pick one up at Sunday's market. (Can you see my booth in the background?)

Carnaby likes this mandala the best. He loves bugs.

Stop by & see Holli's shop & show her some Etsy love, she's listed a bunch of new stuff today.

Take it Easy

I forgot to mention some other goodies I picked up over the weekend. I found my new table skirt fabric for my market booth (no, not the monkeys!). I'll use those monkeys to make a baby gift set & some bibs. They're so cute! I've got a market tomorrow, but I think it'd be crazy to try & get new table skirts made by then. I think I'll do something a little more reasonable. Like mail & fill orders, pay for my car insurance, pack up the car for the market. Nothing too ambitious for me today.


Yesterday I spent the entire day at the computer. I got my pattern all written out & pdf'd. It's now in the hands of some lovely ladies who've agreed to test it for me. I hope it makes sense! ha!

Here's what the kitties did while I was working. Must be nice.

And a quick thank you to Nick for giving me this as a wedding gift. What would I do without it?

The Long Weekend is My Friend

Though I didn't get as much sewing done as I'd have liked, I was able to make a few things over the 3-day weekend. I've added a new shopper tote to iSew.

I put together a little quilted case for our new camera using all scraps & leftovers.

We went on a couple mini road trips. First to Healdsburg for a walk and a yummy breakfast. We visited a great shop called the Olive Leaf. There were so many great things to see in this place. Nick was hesitant to go in, but in the end I was waiting for him to leave. ;)

Nick spotted these vintage pages of a French child's schoolwork. Check out that penmanship!

Love the tins. I think I saw some like that in France.

We also took a drive down to Alameda, a small island across the bay from San Francisco. We just took a stroll and had some lunch. I found a great vintage feed sack and also got a few things at JoAnn's while we were out. It was a lovely day and I enjoyed just kicking around with Nick. Now I must get my pattern instructions finished so I can get it tested and into the shop!

Get Cooking

So here we are, approaching a 3 day weekend, and I've got no plans. Nick & I might do a little quicky road trip tomorrow, but that's all that's on the books at the moment. I was thinking about breaking in the quintessential wedding gift....

Yes, I got a KitchenAid stand mixer, thanks Mom. I got a food processor too (thanks Bob!). How cool is that? And I don't want to leave out my Le Creuset from Amanda, something I've wanted for a long time but would never buy for myself. But do you see how that wonderful stuff is all packed into the cabinet above the fridge?

I just got my very first Barefoot Contessa cookbook, and a lovely breakfast cookbook from the Bed & Breakfast Nick & I stayed at in Victoria. I might try making some scones with the food processor this weekend, but I thought maybe you guys could give me some great recipes or tips to go with my new kitchen wonders. We're itching to get that mixer out of the box, so bring on the ideas please!

One more thing, my Aunt Kathy has been working on JPL's Phoenix Lander project for the past 4 years and it's scheduled to touch down this Sunday at about 4:53pm PST. So, if you're in to space & Mars etc. you might want to check it out on CNN. Have a great long weekend.

Things To Do

Last night, Nick had one of his midnight phone meetings, so this morning he took it easy. We went out for breakfast and for a little walk.

We discovered a lovely park and Cultural Center nearby.

Nick's gone into the office for the afternoon, so I'm working on the pattern for this bag. I made these two so I could make sure my instructions are correct and also to list in my shop. Send me an email if you're interested in testing the pattern for me. UPDATE: I've got all the guinea pigs I need now, thanks everyone!

I'm also working on a pattern for some place mats. I suppose that's what's next on my list.

I also need to add this pretty new yarn color to my monkey shop for custom orders.

There's a new monkey in the works too. This guy is only version 1.0 He needs some work, but he's still pretty cute.

Speaking of cute, check out Jenn's shop if you like hedgehogs & kitties. OMG! She's amazing, no?

Must get back to work now. I'd really like to list one of these toady too. Happy Thursday to ya!

Market Report

After 41/2 months off, I finally returned to the Farmer's Market scene yesterday. I had a few new things to offer, but I'm still pretty low on stock. The bounce house guys didn't show up so the traffic down the artisan aisle was very slow. We need those bounce houses! haha Anyway, I did alright (I sold one of the new bags I made last week - the blue & yellow one) and it was nice to get outside for a while. Thankfully it wasn't 100 degrees! The weather has definitely cooled down. My next official market date is the 29th, so I have some time to sew.


I'm hoping to make some new table skirts before the next market. I've been racking my brain about what color to make them so they don't scream "baby stuff" but still go with my logo and graphics. Then it came to me on Saturday morning. . . linen! Think of all of those great Japanese crafts everyone's always talking about. That nice, clean look. That's it! I'm not going to use linen, way too wrinkly, but I know I can get some nice clean looking natural fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and it won't cost me $12 a yard. I might add a little patchwork strip toward the bottom, that'll help weight them down & add a bit of color. What do you think? I've added this project to my To Do List.
After a market, I'm generally useless for the rest of the day, but it's not uncommon for me to run into my sewing room and whip up a little project before bed. Last night, after we had yummy ice cream and went shopping, I made myself a little passport sleeve. I made a muslin first, which I've only just started doing (I know, I know, go ahead and scold me), and then I made a for realz one out of some of my favorite scraps.

I think it turned out just right (here's the inside). If I make them for my shop and/or the market, I'll add a snap closure or something. Now I need to get to work, the morning is flying past me.

Get to Work!

I can't seem to keep her off my table. I go through a lot of lint rollers, let me tell you.

Remember the other day when I said I was going to walk to Michael's? hehe I didn't. I admit it. It's not that I'm lazy, I'm not. I just didn't want to take the time and it's REALLY hot here right now. It was definitely in the upper 90's yesterday. Gross! We were in here melting all day.
You will be proud of me however because I have gotten lots of sewing done this week. I go back to selling at my local farmer's market this Sunday (I haven't done it since right before Christmas!). My stock is seriously low, so I've been slaving away trying to get some things made for my booth. Here's a little peek at what's been going on:

Two new handbags. I'll list them in my shop after the weekend.

50 tissue cozies. All made from scraps. I haven't offered these at the market before, we'll see how well they do. I'm thinking low priced items are the ticket for me.

Oh, and I realized this morning that I never really showed you what my wedding dress looked like when it was finished. So, here's a somewhat blurry photo of us on the day.

I'm really proud of how well it fit me, I was so lucky with that. I'm not sure all of the beading I did was worth it, but I am happy with the dress anyway (Nick's tie looks pretty good too). And, I'm lucky enough to get to wear it again in September. Round two of wedding festivities will take place here for all of our UK folks that couldn't make it over for various reasons. This event will be almost no work for me. The restaurant does most of it and Nick's wonderful Mum is doing the rest!! Hooray! All I have to do is invites & place cards. Piece o' cake.
Have a great weekend, I hope it's not so hot where you live.

Feels Like Monday

Just a cool piccie I took at the Farmer's Market on Sunday.

Well, we dropped off the last of the visiting relatives yesterday. The house is very quiet and I'm ready to jump right back into my work. I keep thinking it's Monday today, but that's not really a bad thing. Now that the wedding is really over I can get back to it with a fresh start. I've got a ton of new things I want to make for my shops and the market and I'm not quite sure where to start. My list of things to do is growing daily, but first I need to take a walk. I'm terrible at getting exercise and I plan to really try to make it a habit. I'm going to start by walking to Michael's this morning for some monkey yarn.
When I get home, I'm going to spend some quality time with my sewing machine. I'll let you know what comes out of that tomorrow. Have a great day everyone!

Leftovers

As you may know, I made almost everything I could for my recent wedding. And now that the wedding is over, I'm left with a pile of fabric scraps. I'll be using the table runners again at our UK reception, and I might make a kitchen curtain out of one of the table overlays. What should I do with the rest? I knew you guys would have some great ideas, so bring 'em on!

Even More New Things

Yesterday I finished an ongoing custom order I've been working on for several months, so now I can really get back to my shops.


Perhaps I can start utilizing my embroidery machine more in the coming months. So far I've only really used it for a few custom quilts. Any ideas?

I also finished a custom monkey. How do you like the stripes? I've been a little hesitant to do stripes because they aren't very stripey when crocheted. Bow that I've made this little guy, I kinda like it. You may be seeing stripes in the Monkey Travel Club soon. So many ideas, so little time.

New Things

#1 - You may have noticed that I changed the look of my blog. I've wanted a banner for the longest time and just couldn't wait anymore. I just picked a new template, made a banner and voila! A new, simpler iSew Blog. Hope you like it without the generic polka dots. I may make a few more tweaks, but this is it for a while.

#2 - Nick and I got ourselves a new camera last night. It's our wedding gift to ourselves. I'll mostly use it for product photos, but it'll be nice to have a better camera when we go on trips & such too. We thought about a digital SLR, but let's face it - I'm too cheap. We went with this Nikon in the end. It's new and has great reviews. So far, I'm very happy with it. It's got lots of megapixels and tons of digital zoom, sweet!

Here is a sampling of the camera's first few pictures....

Nick's breakfast

My morning coffee (compliments of Seattle's Best - Henry's Blend)

My awesome new monkey shower curtain - complete with a cameo by the toilet. A wedding gift from my friend Troy (who is also responsible for this)

One of the new coffee monkeys.

And, of course...

Jody

and Maple

Not too shabby, eh? Anyway, I'm glad we got the camera and I've already used it to photograph a stack of new monkeys that are waiting to get into my shop. I reopened both shops last night too, so come by & check 'em out. (p.s. Nothing new in iSew yet, still sewing)

Settling In

Now that I'm back home & settling in to married life, I'm trying to find my way back on to Etsy and preparing to start working again. Yesterday I took a much needed day off by myself. I drove north and checked out a little town I've been meaning to visit.


Healdsburg was as lovely as I had imagined it would be. The fabric store was a major let down, but the town square made for a great stroll. Nick and I will definitely have to head up there for breakfast at some point.

I have actually been working since we got home, I started restocking my monkey shop while I was still on my little honeymoon. I think I'll be able to reopen Monkey Travel Club tomorrow. There may even be a new item or two coming soon.

And don't worry. I haven't completely left my sewing machine in the dust after making everything for my wedding. Nope. I managed to whip up a few new place mats for myself over the last few days. I'm working on a tutorial to add to my shop for them. I really want to get some patterns in my shop too. It's going to take some time, but hopefully at some point iSew will experience quite a few changes.
Now it's back to the drawing board for me...

Monkey Coffee

A little while ago I received a request to use some of my Flickr photos in an article on nowpublic.com. I generally agree when I get these requests, I see it as free publicity. Anyway, I went on the site to check out the article and I had to point it out to you. Not only does it feature some great monkey photos (I love the monkey in the latte), but it's pretty interesting stuff.


I have to admit that what really struck me was the bit on top linking to an article about gourmet cat poo coffee on Wikipedia. Where have I been? Gourmet Cat Poo Coffee? ewwww

Honeymoon in Canada

Hey there. Nick & I are having a great time on our little honeymoon trip. We arrived in Seattle on Tuesday morning and quickly drove up to Vancouver.

We spent all morning in Stanley Park, had a lovely lunch and enjoyed the cool, sunny weather (it's supposed to be rainy & horrible, but someone obviously didn't get the memo). Now we're in beautiful Victoria, BC. We haven't made it out to the harbour yet as we have discovered the wireless internet connection, haha. We're staying at a beautiful Bed & Breakfast right next to Government House with a view of the sea and the Olympic Mountains, just gorgeous. Our host is a wonderful cook and is going to be making Nick's breakfast on TV today in Vancouver. She even wrote a cookbook!

Okay, we really need to go do some sightseeing. I need to work up an appetite for more scones. Yummy!