“Candy can’t come to the blog right now…”

“…she’s too busy cutting & fusing right now. Please leave a message after the beep…………BEEP”!

 

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Guest Blogging

Hi there! I’m blogging about taking photos over at Simply Robin today. I took some new photos of my new Journal covers (STILL need a name!) this morning and posted my adventures over at Robin’s. Here is the “money shot” – I LOVE this one…

I’m now off to sew 30 of these babies by…Saturday! Yikes!!!!

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More Clutches finished!

They’re coming with me to Idaho for the trunk show! We leave a WEEK from TODAY! YIKES! I gotta get cracking…next up, lots of Eco-Covers! (Need a new name for this type of thing – any suggestions?)  

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17 Years and counting

18 years ago, the last Saturday in June, my husband & I had our first official “date” – he cooked me dinner and we talked until…early in the morning.

52 weeks later we were married. Lots of rain, a huge tent in the yard of my Mom & Step-Dad to be, good music, pretty flowers, awesome food, an incredible day. I wish we’d had digital camers back then. For now, a quick couple of shots from my album (literally, I photographed the pics).

Until Andrew, a certain part of my energy was always spent wishing I had someone just like him. Now that I do, I can direct all that energy into living…

Raising these two (whoops – 3!) munchkins:

  Teaching:

And of course, all that I talk about on this here blog!

Often times, paying attention to him when he’s and the end of another long day doesn’t happen…but it’s only because of him that I can be so happy and full of energy to pursue all that I do.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

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Introducing…Eco Covers!

What are these? you ask!

Do you remember the notebooks I won the other day? They are made by Ecojot, a Canadian company makes 100% post-consumer recycled paper products. And although the covers are beautifully designed by Carolyn Gavin, I have been searching for just the right notebooks to make covers for! I love making notetakers & notelets:

except for the 2nd to last step, wrestling very thick peltex into the cover – it has to fit just right, and it drives me crazy! SO, I’ve been looking for notebooks to cover with very stiff covers, so I didn’t have to worry about so much stiffness. The other issue with these is they hold tear-off sheet pads,

and I wanted to find nice spiral bound notebooks/sketch pads so the paper can remain in them more permanently. I’m also trying to use recycled paper as much as possible: man do these Ecojots fill all my criteria, Plus, they have plain brown styles of just about their entire line, so I don’t have to feel guilty about covering up Carolyn’s pretty covers! This is one of those ideas I’ve had in the back of my mind for over a year now, and I’m always on the lookout in Office Depot, etc…

Any old who…I’ve abandoned all other projects for the past 2 and a half days, I’ve gone through 7 different versions:

And these are now ready for production! These photos are NOT the best, but I’m too excited to stop and try to take more!

1st up is the largest size (6” x 9”), the Eco-Agenda. It is a perpetual datebook along with 100 pages of lined paper in the back:

Next up is the Eco-Agenda & the Eco-Doodle. Both are 5” x 7” and have 80 sheets of paper, either lined or unlined!

Last, and cutest is the Mini-doodle: 3” x 4”, it has 50 sheets of drawing paper:

As you can see, all the covers hold closed with an elastic, and have pen holders and pockets. To give the covers body, they’re interface with med. weight interfacing and batting, and the lovely stiffness comes from the awesome Ecojot covers!

I’m so excited, these are exactly what I’ve been waiting to make, and make I shall! I’ve ordered 50 from Ecojot, and FedEx willing, they’ll be here before I leave for Idaho in 10, 9, 8 days – yikes! Here’s hoping the folks up in Sandpoint like these, cause I’m making a bunch for my trunk show there!

just in case you haven’t seen enough pictures:

I’ve got work to do!

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Going Home to Roost!

My Luck continues! A post Jan over at Scoutie Girl wrote yesterday alerted me to a fabulous new blog: Going Home to Roost. It’s a blog about (quoting Bonnie, the owner of this particular home):

“going home to roost is dedicated to a simpler way of life and focuses on handmade style and design. it features talented artisans, designers & eco indieprenuers. it also includes some handmade how-to’s, recipes and whole-living tips to boot.  it’s purpose is to provide daily inspiration and to allow its readers to feed their creative mind!”

Well, she had me at her tagline – “simply handmade an homegrown”. She has absolutely brilliant photos, and just look at these (on sale in her Etsy shop)

Birds + Apples = what could be wrong? AND, I've got a clothesline piece in my mind...

mmm...woolfelt...delicious in both texture & color

Lovely! AND, she was having a little contest offering a free month of advertising on her blog – and I WON! WooHoo!

Thanks Bonnie! (And thanks Jan for posting!)

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Getting it done.

Big surprise…the more time I spend surfing the web, the less I actually get done! With the countdown to vacation at 10 days, I’ve really got to put my nose to the grindstone. I kept blog reading to a bare minimum yesterday, only reading the blogs I’ve put in a special category called “1st read”, the others will get read at night when I’m relaxing on my chaise…isn’t that why they invented laptops?

Speaking of the chaise, last Friday I got a bee and my bonnet, and found bamboo blinds for lots of $$$ off at Bed, Bath & Beyond, had the hubby install them, dyed fabric for some side panels, had hubby install some fancy picture lights above the 2 quilts that have been sitting unused in my house for months, and the living room is pretty much complete! I’ve hung a couple of quilts in the Dining room, but those will change, hopefully sooner then later. Here’s the before and here is the after:

Now, I’m putting my nose back to the grindstone!

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I’m a Lucky Duck!

I have won ANOTHER giveaway! From a company that I find inspirational: Ecojot is a Canadian company makes 100% post-consumer recycled paper products. So, they are BEAUTIFUL as well as very Earth Friendly!

I was first drawn to their stuff by seeing Carolyn Gavin’s art somewhere on the internet. Her cartoony style, combined with awesome color combinations are right up my alley! Her blog is full of inspirational eye candy!

The contest was sponsored by “Ecojotter”, an “Eco-Enthusiast” who has a blog devoted to all things Ecojot.

What did I win? Feast your eyes on these:

A perpetual agenda, along with 2 sweet little notebooks. I’ve also been looking around my area to see if any local stores carry this line, and lo & behold, my local Barnes & Noble does, so I had to but that cute medium notebook to complete my collection!

One of the new things I’d like to make is a journal cover, very similar to my notetakers, but holding a spiral bound notebook instead of the tear off pad. One of the issues that I’ve been fussing over with this idea is what notebook to put inside…well, I think I’ve solved that problem:

Image source http://www.ecojot.com/

These fit the bill perfectly…Eco-sound sketchbooks, with a nice stiff cover, begging to be part of a little Candied Fabrics Art. It’s a little scary contemplating ordering a bunch of these wholesale, without any idea if they would sell. What do you think?

Eco-jotter is hosting a little contest over on Flickr, asking folks to photograph their Ecojots in action, so as I’m using my new agenda to plan our Yellowstone vacation, I thought it would be a great shot:

The contest is decided by the number of stars and comments a particular photo gets, so if you’d like to go vote for mine…well that would be awesome!

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June mid-month meetup

Here it is, June 20th – Dear Lord, where has the month gone? Oh, I know…I rearranged the whole house! Well, not the whole house, but it sure does feel like it! AND, after I did everything I blogged about the other day, on Friday, I re-did the window and had my husband mount some lights, and then we had a little dinner party, where he cooked 4 different tapas as well as a paella! No rest for the wicked here in the Glendening household! But, hopefully, with this beautiful new living room I can now focus on what I want to get done in the sewing room! So far not much has changed on this list from the beginning of the month:

Item	Date Due	% Done
RAA newsletter	6/8/09	100%
Little Wallets	6/30/09	20%
4 warm clutches	6/30/09	30%
Tote for Co	6/30/09	0%
Laptop bag for Mary	6/30/09	0%
AFHS Application Due	6/30/09	100%
WEBSITE!	??	10%
Camera Bag for Liam	6/30/09	100%
2 Baby Quilts	6/30/09	0%
Journal covers	6/30/09	0%
5 cool clutches	6/30/09	0%
Laptop bag for Liz	6/30/09	0%
Large Messenger for ME!	7/3/09	0%
Cool Colors quArt	6/30/09	0%
Laptop bag for Liz	6/30/09	0%
3-d Birdhouses	6/30/09	0%
3-d Row Houses	6/30/09	0%
Art Book for Sue B. call	6/30/09	0%

but I did complete something today! A camera bag for Liam! He got a camcorder for his birthday so he can become the movie maker he wants to be (plus, I wanted the family to have one…). Anyway, it’s a new design, based on the clutch, but 1/2” taller and 1” deeper. I think I’d like the flap to be about 1” shorter, but I’m happy with it as it is for Liam. We came up with the design on the flap together – any guesses what it is???

 

   

Let’s see if i can cross lots more stuff off that list the last 10 days of the month!

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Inspiration Bookhou

Do you know bookhou?

It is an artistic collaboration between Arounna Khounnoraj and John Booth. They have both a website and a brick & mortar store in Toronto.

Their aesthetic is clean and spare, with wonderful screen printed sketches on lusciously textured linen. What 1st drew me to them is their fabric boxes, there’s something about making a structured shape from fabric that really excites me, and these are fabulous:

  

 They also have wonderful bags:

 

 

What’s that fabulous house shape behind the bag you say?

It’s these:

Because they also work in wood!

Look at this awesome kids chair:

and the incredible texture on this bench:

You may remember that I’ve been quite enamored of the house shapes lately! Well, those wood houses were in my mind while working on my Robin Ferrier inspired quilt “Robin’s Neighborhood”, especially those wee little green houses on the navy blue on the right hand side:

And if the wonderful inspiration from them weren’t enough, I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a giveaway they just had of a prototype for a new bag:

That folds up into it’s own little storage bag:

Thank you Arounna & John!!!!

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