Blogtoberfest day 26 - Wordless Wednesday

blogtoberfest day 23 - sewing circle

Did your mothers or grandmothers ever talk about being in a sewing circle when they were younger?  Does it seem like a foreign concept to you - sitting around with other women, sewing, working on projects, talking to the other people in the room without the interference of a television or the internet or, in an ideal world, cell phones?  Well, I gotta tell you, there's something about it that brings contentment and joy to the soul.  Sometimes just sitting with only the sound of someone's sewing machine as background music brings about a contented sigh right out of you.  Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment you feel at the end of the day when you look at the pile of things you've gotten done.  Like this...

I mean, really!  Look at all that flowery goodness!  Done with my own two little hands.  Totally feeling accomplished and productive today!

I'm making these for the upcoming Christmas Boutique/Craft Fair season (we're doing 4 in 5 weeks during November and December).  So the sewing circle is coming in handy in keeping me motivated and on top of things.  Thanks ladies!!

blogtoberfest day 22 - technical difficulties and 2 winners!

Sorry for missing yesterday!!! I was having some trouble getting online.  As long as it wasn't the today when I had to do the drawings for my giveaway, right?!

Anyhooooo, without further ado, the winners are (drum roll) from the US - The Creative Beast! 

 And from the elsewheres (more drum roll) - Janet from up yonder in Canada!

Congrats to both of you!! I'll be getting in contact with you about all the specifics and necessary info, etc.

blogtoberfest day 21 version 2.0 - a short commercial

I just wanted to give a shout out to The Diamond Trail.  They're hosting a giveaway for an Etsy shop called Bagged and Loaded.  Bagged and Loaded's shop is full of cute totes with fun designs.  Check them out on Etsy then go and enter the giveaway!!!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

blogtoberfest day 21 - Flickr Faves Friday

I used to do this every Friday but stopped when the blogging became a bit tedious a couple years ago.  I thought, though, in honor of Blogtoberfest I'd revive it.  I've been meaning to redecorate my bedroom, or rather, decorate my bedroom and have bought the paint and everything already.  I've just been waiting for the motivation to get going on it.  I'm hoping these bedrooms will help. I'm loving grey and have bought a plummy grey color for my wall (s) so these are similar to what I'm thinking, at least for the color.  Most of these look like hotel rooms, sorta impersonal so ignore that fact.  Anyway, here are my Flickr Faves this Friday...

1. Purple White and Grey Bedroom, 2. Mirage Maple Charcoal, 3. Gray + white + yellow bedroom: Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint + ikat duvet, 4. Brian Bedside, 5. The sleep room, 6. New Inspiration: Elegant Bedroom Design by Mobil Fresno, 7. bedroom / nightstands, 8. Luxury Bedrooms at The River Lee Hotel, 9. black and white bedrooms, 10. Bedroom from Domino, 11. Bedroom finished, 12. gray bedroom

Mosaic made with fb labs

Oh...ps...one more day till my giveaway, don't forget to enter!!

blogtoberfest day 19 - wordless wednesday

Blogtoberfest Giveaway!

For this give away I'm giving away 2 items.  The first is for the folks in the US.  It is any item from my shop so please go peruse (and order if you feel so led).  If you win and you have nut allergies please let me know and I can send you an alternative.  For anyone outside the US that enters I'm giving away a goody bag of sewn items (included are 1 set of flower hair pins, one infinity scarf, one knitted beenie, and one coffee cup cozy).  To enter leave me a comment on this post and if you're from the US let me know which item you'd like, if you're from elsewhere let me know your favorite color.

Thanks, and good luck!!

blogtoberfest day 18 - Sometimes you just have no choice

I've been unemployed now for a year and 5 months and at first I was thinking that having all this time to myself is great, then the savings dwindled and the 401k was cashed out (not that there was much in there) and then that ran out.  It's funny how when you're first laid off you think it should be no problem getting a job doing exactly what I was doing, I'd been doing it for x amount of years after all and I'm practically an expert. So you send out resume after resume and nothing happens so you start to widen your parameters.  I've done retail before, you think to yourself, so lets start adding that.  Still nothing.  Next you add anything you might remotely be qualified for, or if you're not qualified for it you know you can learn it quickly.  Warehouse picker...sure I can do that.  Nada.  Finally, you add part-time and temp positions, hoping that, if nothing else, you'll get to have some money for Christmas presents.  Still, no nibbles.  That's when you decide, screw this, I'm going to start my own business, I have no choice. If no one is going to hire me, I'll hire myself.  And of course, you're terrified.  Scared it's going to fail, even more scared it's going to succeed and you won't have what it takes to keep it up.  But, really, you have no choice but to go forward with it because you know that after all this time not working no one wants to hire you and the government money isn't going to last forever and you know that the only way you truly fail is if you don't at least try.  And you know you have to get this business up and running in a matter of months or you're going to be in real trouble. 
That's where I'm at.  It's scary starting your own business.  I have days when I don't work on it at all because all I want to do is hide in bed and hope that when I do come out of my little cave it's going to be there, up and running without me having had to do the hard stuff.  Then I snap out of it and take a deep breath and dive in again.  Here's to hoping I'm not in over my head!

Blogtoberfest day 16 - I'm Back

Sorry for missing the last few days.  I was on a retreat up in the mountains and had no internet access or any communications with the outside world, really.  It was wonderful!!  Beautiful pines with pine cones as big as your arm, a gorgeous blue lake, a quaint village...just the right thing for what ails you.

I'm back, tho, and I'm in full production mode.  I just sent a box of 30 samples from my shop off to Traci of Sampler Village on Etsy for the Diva's Delights boxes this month, I'm sewing gads and gads of things for an upcoming fair, I'm working on developing new recipes and products and I'm helping coordinate a wedding.  It's nice being a bit busy.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!!

Blogtoberfest day 12 - Wordless Wednesday

Blogtoberfest day 11 - Antoni Gaudi

Barcelona is a city full of great architecture. But probably it's most well known for the buildings by Antoni Gaudi.  They're all very unique quite fascinating.  Unfortunately, we were in Barcelona for such a short time that we didn't get to go inside any of them because of time constraints so I only have photos of the outsides.

Sagrada Familia (or technically Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família)...probably the most iconic of all his works.  Gaudi took over the building of it in 1883 and it still is unfinished.  It is Huge and very striking.

La Padrera Apartments.  We didn't even stop at this one but it's still photo worthy.

Park Guell.  Originally, Gaudi was commissioned to build a community of homes and was given a bunch of land for them but there was no interest from home buyers at the time so they turned it into a park.

 Casa Batllo....this is by far my favorite of all his buildings.  I'm a big fan of curvy. as opposed to boxy and this building has curvy everywhere.  I love the tiles and the windows and pretty much everything about it

So that was our short stay in Barcelona. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Blogtoberfest Day 10 - Barcelona

Sorry for missing a day!! I don't know what happened but somehow I just completely forgot to post yesterday. 

Ok, Barcelona...

I don't normally take photos from the plane (the windows are usually so foggy or they distort), in fact, I didn't take this one but I love the circularness of this.  Los Angeles is completely not this way!

I have to confess that about 90% of my pictures are of architecture or art or in some cases both.  I loved these small little streets.  I absolutely loved that in the 16 days we were there I saw all of 1 SUV (a Hummer). These old buildings are so picturesque with their little wrought iron railings and the lights that look like earrings.

So, a little history (at least the way it was told to me by a tour guide)...Barcelona, for centuries, used to be a walled city, built by the Romans.  Then the Industrial Revolution came around and the citizens of the city started getting sick and dying from all the bad air.  So they started building outside the wall but never tore down the wall.  So, as you're walking around the old part of the city you'll come across parts of the old Roman wall. By the way, some parts of the wall date back to the first century BC...I can't even wrap my head around that!

Christopher Columbus Monument.  There's actually a teeny tiny elevator that takes you to the top to a teeny tiny observation deck where you can see the whole city. 

This is part of the view from the observation deck.

Barcelonetta beach

We were very excited to put our feet into the Mediterranean 

We took a hop on hop off bus tour and it poured on us.

Tomorrow is all about Antoni Gaudi.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blogtoberfest Day 8 - A day of fun

So yesterday I said I'd post pics of Barcelona but I'm not feelin it. Instead I thought I'd just post about my fun day today.  I attend a Saturday morning Bible study and this morning I really wanted to go to this local farm, Amy's Farm, and buy some veggies so I invited a friend from the Bible study to go along with my sister and I and we all packed in the car and went out for lunch and then to the farm.  The farm is all about educating people about preserving the land while growing organic produce and raising livestock in a very humane way. We went out meaning to buy produce but most of it was already gone at that point but we did buy 3 perfect little sugar pumpkins that will eventually make it into some yummy breads and pies and soup and...

After visiting with the goats and turkeys we left the farm and stopped at Cost Plus World Market (a particular favorite of mine) and then to get some frozen yogurt.  It's always nice to find some no sugar added froyo in flavors other than vanilla!  jFinally we ended the day making dinner at my friend's house and watching a movie...just the perfect laid back saturday in the sun with friends.

Here's a little fun we had while at Cost Plus...


Hope you all had a good Saturday!