Dear Daylight Savings Time,

What happened to our friendship?  I used to like you- I would look forward to seeing you (especially this time of year when you afforded me one luxurious extra hour of that sweet thing called sleep which I don't see much these days).  I thought we were friends?  We used to get along so well.  But now, as I'm writing this at 5:45am (and that's after I moved the clock back, so it's really 4:45am) with a kid who's wide awake and ready for the day, why do I feel like you've turned your back on me?  Why do I feel like you've been waiting to play this cruel joke on me the whole time we've known each other?  I have so many unanswered questions, but as of this morning our friendship is over. 

Your ex-friend,
Jen

Happy Halloween

This past weekend we visited Underwood Family Farms.  It's literally just up the road from our house.  It was a lot of fun, they had tons of things to see and do.  There was a corn maze which we gave up on probably a quarter of the way through.  It was huge!

There were food vendors (mmmm kettle corn!), a huge pumpkin patch, a field of sunflowers that were nearly 8 feet tall, pig races (yep, you heard that right), pony rides, a hayride pulled by a John Deere tractor, a petting zoo and various other animals.

We stayed for a couple of hours until Avery got tired- it was a lot to take in for an 8 month old.

We had a great time and can't wait for next year when she will be older so she can enjoy it a little more.  But we did manage to get our first "family photo"- I can't believe it's taken us almost 9 months to do this.  Have a safe and happy halloween everyone!

Yesterday

As a first time mom, I remember the first time I took Avery out on my own.  I think it was just a quick errand to the post office.  It seemed like there were so many little details to think through.  Which parking spot would be the best so I could get her car seat into and out of the car the easiest, did I set up her stroller right, would I have enough time to do what I needed to do before she needed to eat again, did I need to pack a bottle, etc.  Too many details!

So yesterday I decided to take her with me to downtown Los Angeles to the fabric district.  For those of you who don't know where I live, my house is about 45 minutes from downtown, without traffic.  But when is there no traffic in LA?  Driving downtown stresses me out- there are lots of one way streets, it's very crowded, there are crazy drivers, you get the idea.  But I needed to go downtown so I decided to see this as a challenge of sorts.  To see how far I've come in just 8  months. 

She cried or whined almost the whole way there (it took me a little over an hour).  I found myself driving the WRONG WAY on a one way street (luckily it was an alley not a busy street), got honked at and finger pointed (no not that finger), didn't find what I was ultimately in search of, and got back to my car to find that I had been boxed in. 

But I did it :)  There is no way I would have attempted that 8 months ago.  Something that seeemed so intimidating and difficult then is a piece of cake today.     

I miss working...

but only because of this:

Oh how I miss ~nice~ fabric.  I miss the shelves and shelves of fabric, in every color, texture and pattern you can imagine.  I guess when you're there day in and day out for a dozen years you take it for granted.  But now that I haven't been working for almost 9 months, I realize how much I miss it.

So I ordered myself some ~nice~ fabric and it came in today :)  I can't wait to dig into it and make something! 

Fun with Avery

My precious baby girl, so sweet and innocent-

Look how happy she is-

What's this mom?

She waits until I turn my back...

And then she does this:

Then she sees something else that catches her eye-

Pilates?  Is that a hint?  Are you telling me I'm eating too much Golden Spoon frozen yogurt these days?

My lucky find

It's been awhile since my last trip to the thrift store, so last week I made sure to go.  I never really have anything specific in mind when I'm browsing the racks, I like to see what jumps out at me.  Since the weather is turning cooler and fall is practically on our doorstep, I've been loving the richer, deeper colors I've been seeing in the stores and on etsy.  So when I came across this skirt I got pretty excited. 

I know what you're thinking...it doesn't look that exciting, so why is she so excited?  It's gorgeous 100% Thai Silk!  And it's iridescent- it changes colors depending on the angle you're looking at it.  Here's a close up:

The shades of purple, red, burnt orange are really beautiful and the skirt is pretty long, so I've got a lot of fabric to work with.  I've got some ideas, but you know by now it's going to be some kind of handbag :)

And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone for entering the giveaway- I appreciated your answers, it was very helpful to find out what your favorite colors were.  I'll be keeping that in mind as I make new bags for the shop.  And thanks to you all, I've now started carrying these little wristlet pouches in the shop.  I've already got a few in there and there will be more to come.  Custom orders are always welcome, just send me a message either through email or Etsy and we can get started.

And now, the winner of the green ginko leaf wristlet selected by random.org is:

Colleen!
Her favorite color is blue-green... kind of aqua...

Congratulations!

Yay, It's another Freebie Friday!

Making new bags for the shop (check it out!) has kept me pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but I managed to squeeze out this cute little wristlet during naptime earlier this week.  This kelly green fabric is so fresh, I just love it- it makes me happy eventhough summer is almost over for us here in California :)  For a little extra detail I appliqued a ginkgo biloba leaf on the front.  I'm thinking about adding wristlets to the shop.  I'm wondering if they would make fun stocking stuffers or secret santa gifts for Christmas- what do you think?

Leave a comment telling me your favorite color by midnight next Thursday 10/8/09 and on Friday I'll announce the winner selected by random.org. One entry per person please :)  Good Luck!

Beach Trip

Check this Out

If you want to see some truly beautiful handcrafted items, you've got to visit http://www.lovelyclusters.com. Rachel has a great eye and has created a website which features all these lovely items.

Oh yeah, and two of my bags were chosen for their product clusters! The Taylor bag and Josie bag- you can search for them under the Product Clusters in either the Handbag category or the Red or Fuschia color dots.