A Grand Day Out

I got to go on a little fabric odyssey today and it was a pretty good time. Nick had a seminar or some such thing over at Google in San Jose, so I drove him down there this morning & spent the rest of the day finding fabric stores. I went to 3 quilt fabric shops and 1 very large JoAnn store that I've already been to 3 times. Can I help it if Sisters n Stitches is off the same exit as the big JoAnn? Nope.
Here's some of what I got today...

I finally got a call back from the Marin County Farmer's Market today too. Their next jury selection will be July12th. That gives me a little less than 6 weeks to get some things made and get my booth in order. They require photos or drawings of my booth, and I've never done a show. I figure I'll just set it all up in the driveway and take some pictures. That'll give me some practice too. I want to get a tent and hang a quilt in the back with my logo on it. I got the fabric for that today too, so I hope to get it made pretty quickly. I got some fabrics to make more of my pennants (the fat quarters upper left corner, there's some boyish ones too) so I can hang them in the tent as well.

Those tags you see there were only $1.00 for a pack of 88 and I liked that they were so colorful. I plan to make my price tags out of them. Not sure yet what I'll do with the red floral print, but it was on sale for $5.99 a yard and it's sooo pretty. I got that at the first shop, Prairie Queen Quilts, in San Jose. It was a pretty big store, and had lots of great stuff on sale. Nick would be proud of how little I actually got at these places.

Tomorrow maybe I can work on situating my sewing room. What a mess of boxes everywhere. eugh

Tomorrow's a Big Day

Guess what's gonna be here tomorrow?

That's right. Our shipment from the UK, completely and exactly on schedule, is being delivered tomorrow. Nick is really glad that he'll have his stuff around him again, and I am too. The only downside is the unpacking I'll be doing...again. Because of the lack of bookcases etc., a good portion of what I had in storage here in California is still in boxes in the garage. Nevertheless, we're looking forward to seeing all of our things in one place. (A HUGE thank you to Sterling Relocation, they were amazing. Unless all my stuff is broken)



It will be fun to get my sewing room sorted out. At the moment, it's still just a 6' table and a bookcase. I've really been missing some things (see photo), especially supplies. I've had to go out and buy so many things that I know I have a million of. I have enough fabric these days to open my own shop. I'm seriously thinking of stealing Missses Kwitty's idea and making some inspiration kits or something. Though I only have fabric and not all that other cool stuff she uses. There are probably a lot of books I can get rid of too. Maybe I'll add some de-stashing items to my Etsy shop. As if I needed more things to do. Aaargh!

And on another note, we had a great time this weekend at Jim & Julie's. Her very nice son was there and her sister too. I'd never met Julie's sister, so it was a treat. She recently moved back to California after a brief stay in New Brunswick. She had been very helpful to me while I was in the Canadian Residence process. Too bad it didn't work out for me. Don't get me started on that subject.

Anyway, the weather was nice, a bit hot at times, but not bad. The drive was shorter than I expected, and I got lots of monkeys made. Nick was happy to be able to do nothing for a few days too. All in all, we're really glad we went.

Here's just one photo of Jim & Julie's property. I took this out in front of their house, you can just see the fence through the trees. Nice.Happy Tuesday!

Memorial Day Weekend

Hello from beautiful Ahwahnee California. Nick & I decided to take advantage of the holiday weekend and get away. It's great to be back in California so we can visit my friends Jim & Julie who live 20 minutes from Yosemite National Park. It was only a 3 hour drive, and I was expecting 4. I guess we'll be visiting a lot, haha. Jim, Julie & I met back when I used to play roller hockey, about 7 or 8 years ago. They're the nicest people and they love having company, lucky us. They even put up Nick's parents on their trip through California in March.

We won't make it to Yosemite this time, but no one wants to go there on a holiday weekend anyway. Here's a picture of my first gadget monkey on our last trip up here in February. Jim & Julie are the proud owners of Randy and have taken loads of great pictures of him. While we're here I've been hoping to get lots of new monkeys made. I've got a couple new ideas in the works, I hope you like them. So far I've made about 4 and a second one of these...he's a gadget monkey keychain! I recently made my 50th Etsy sale to a repeat customer in Maine, so I made this keychain as a gift for her. He turned out pretty cute, so I'm going to make some more. If I can get into the Marin County Farmer's Market it'll be good to have some lower priced items.

That's it for me right now, hope everyone has a great weekend and gets lots of free time to do what they want. I'm off to make a custom monkey for a buyer in Austria. How cool is that?

A Good Sign

Yesterday I finally got to get a haircut. It's only been a few months (pretty good for me) but I was desperate. I got a tip from a lady at my Weight Watchers meeting (yeah, I'm just trying to shed a few. I hate being over 30) and the guy was great. He had all sorts of local tips about parks to visit, places to go etc. Anyway, we got to talking about my business(es) and he said he had some great contacts and would definitely be making some calls. He also asked me if I'd been to the Farmer's Market yet. I think I may have mentioned it in a previous post. I had high hopes & it turned out to be rubbish. The sort of thing where you expect to see little children selling Chicklets. He said, "Nooooo, the one at the Civic Center...on Sundays & Thursdays." "Oh, that one. Umm, no, but I've seen the signs for it on our street." The ding-dang thing is across the freeway from where we live.

So, Rick proceeded to tell me how huge the San Rafael Market is, especially the one on Sunday. Being a person who needs more exercise, I decided I'd go for a walk. It just so happened that yesterday was a Farmer's Market day. Poor little me had to go past that Frank Lloyd Wright Marin County Civic Center to find the market, but it was a nice walk (I found a Post Office on the way too, yeah). The market was really nice, packed with people, and had at least 10 crafty booths. It wasn't huge, but it was good. I spoke to a ceramics dealer & he said the one on Sundays was at least 3 times the size of the Thursday. Sounds good to me.

I was very encouraged at this point so I made my way over to the Market organizer booth. There were 3 ladies there, all very nice. I asked them what I need to do to sell at their lovely market.

The first question to me was, "What do you sell?.

I reply, "Diaper Bags, handbags, booties, bibs, quilts.....and these." (whips out gadget monkey with neck strap, conveniently located on body at that moment)

"Gasp!" "Oh my God!" "He's so cute!" "That's adorable!" From the ladies.

I took this as a good sign. They told me that the market is juried, by your peers, on a quarterly basis and were certain I would be accepted with those wonderful monkeys. Also, one of the ladies bought the monkey right off me. That's definitely a good sign. So when I got home, I left a message for the man in charge. I'm a bit worried that the jury process will not happen again for a while, but I can't be sure until I hear back. Most likely on Tuesday. The point is, I'm really excited about this Farmer's Market. For one, it's walking distance from my house. #2 - It's every weekend & Thursday - year round. #3 - $42 for a 10x10' space. In proper Napoleon Dynamite voice, "Yessssssss".

Wish me luck. Also, this is what I came home with. Hope I don't spend all my money if I start selling at this thing. Hey, they were only $8.00!And no, the kitties haven't even knocked it over yet. :) Wait a minute, nope, still good.

p.p.s Jody had his stitches out this morning and is very happy to be collar-free. He's sooo much better these days and completely back to his sweet self.