There was indeed a time when we didn't have snow.

My entries to the Fair last summer - they both got honorable mentions. I'd long wanted to get some sort of ribbon at the Fair, and I was so incredibly happy to get these last summer.

Both of my parents entered items into the Fair's judging along with me. My mother entered some seedless blackberry jam. This is a picture of the actual judging of her very jam. She won a fist prize blue ribbon! Unfortunately, my dad's honey was deemed to watery. We didn't know that could even happen. However he has vowed to try again this summer, should summer time ever come again. 

Birdhouse Mini Quilt

I discovered a Mini Quilt swap on Flickr, and on a whim, decided to join in. This is the quilt I made. In the next day or two I'll find out who to send this one too and then I'll get someone else's in the mail. It's an idea that's full of win to my mind.

I used freezer paper to piece together the bird house, and treated it like a giant coaster in order to avoid binding, as I have yet to really figure out how exactly to do binding. I just need to get together with my sewing mentor (aka Mom) and practice a bunch. Or maybe I'll start making round mini quilts!

Design Style

There is a design style that I adore, in the way of people remembering their favorite childhood stuffed animal. I connect it with the highlights magazines that were and are ever present at the Pediatrician's office, and the TV show Bewitched, and the Fifties in general. 

Today I have links to two artists the embody this style to me, one I'd very much like to emulate someday when I grow up to be a cloth designer.

This is a lovely entry about Tammis Keefe whose simple lines and colors evoke such sweet whimsy.

The second is a designer from Japan, shinzi katoh. He's also someone who uses simple lines and a limited color palette to evoke friendliness with a heavy dusting of kyoot.

here's a little preview

of the bags I'll be delivering to City Market on Monday!

Officially on the sales floor at City Market!

I am super excited. People really seem to like my stuff. amazing!

What I've been up to lately.

I wish I had more in-progress photos, but I have been sewing up a storm in the past little while. So much so that in the next few days the patchwork bags that I've made will be available for purchase at City Market, This makes me all kinds of fluttery inside. Anyway, here's a little preview of what will be on sale. Also, soon to come will be fabric coasters!

Home Team for the Long Haul.

We are going to get married!

Squidwort

I'm trying to concentrate on work today, but my mind keeps wandering to that cat, who hurt himself yesterday. By the way, Mike is not scared at all of the cat, he's just pretending. Squiddy can look intimidating and he's done his fair share of actual intimidating, but he's mellowed the last couple of years, now that he's a senior cat. He's my dear friend who always knows when I need an affectionate headbutt. So I wish I could be there with him today, helping him not run into walls and scratching his neck where the plastic collar hits.

post vacation

RE-entry after vacation is often tough. This time, the heat wave and my subsequent love for any device that won't cause me to schvitz make it much easier.

Happy or sad? Half empty or half full?

I suppose it's about time I said an actual something, rather than relying on the secret messages I seem to think my pictures send. I'm out of practice at expressing myself with words, and trying to break through the belief that if I say something I want out loud at anything louder than a whisper, I'll jinx it completely.

Things don't really happen for a reason. They simply happen and it's up to your perception whether or not it's good luck or bad luck. to be cliche; hindsight is 20/20. We are able to decide, more powerfully than we think, whether something is good or bad. Thus is it possible to live in bliss all of the time?

I did not get something I really wanted at work today - my job grade will stay the same - despite what I thought was a well reasoned argument. An argument I've been making in my head for over a year. I did not realize until the moment I got the news how very important it was to me, and rather than roll around on the floor and have a tantrum right then and there, I instead gathered storm clouds over my head and wore them all day. I was not happy, and in an aggressively passive way I wanted people to know it. It's a few hours later now and I am chagrined at my behavior and wondering how, next time, I can more quickly and efficiently turn the disappoint around into looking for the good at which I am much better.

Do you see a face in that picture up there? Does she look like maybe she's related to Rosie Jetson? Depending on my mood, sometimes I see a hint of a wry smile. Other times I see feelings of isolation, forever looking away from the thing everyone else pays to see.

ohh summer time.

Shiro, Dad & Yukiyo

An early foray into photoshop.

Grampa's House

at the Fun-o-rama, York Beach, Maine

mike, my super seriously sweet sweetie.