welcome back

I went to Target today and spent too much there as always. But it was for a special cause...my kids go back to school next week! Can you hear the cheering and see the dancing. Picture me doing the hustle, or better yet, don't!

During the summer it goes by so slow and it is so hard to keep my kids off of each other. I always have so much planned to do but there is so much that doesn't get done. Calling those old friends to get together, going to SF museums, surprising daddy at work. These are all simple things, but they were missed.

So I thought I would (should) look at things positively and share some more of the things that we did do this summer.


Went to the Alameda Flea Market first Sunday in June.


Did some sewing with William. He picked out this fabric and it turned into a blanket for his dog. He also got a real big boy haircut.


Picking blackberries with the kids just before July 4th.


Finally getting some work done! yah!!


Getting to do a full day of thrifting. Orange was calling my name all day long!

And now that I am seeing the end of summer, I wonder where all the time went. It really did go by fast! Welcome back to school! I hope your kids are looking forward to it too!!

i'm home

You know I like to travel, right? Well did you know that my traveling is usually spur of the moment? That's what happened to me this time too. On Friday I bought my ticket. On Monday I bought William's ticket and on the following Friday we left for Massachusetts. I just came home yesterday in time for dinner.

My two sisters just moved to the east coast and one of them is in MA. And since my Uncle Paul just turned 70, off we went for ten days of fun. It turned into an unplanned family reunion. Mostly cousins, and my cousins kids. It was great to see them all and to visit the state where my dad grew up. I haven't been there for 14 years and it didn't seem that long ago, until I say it was 14 years, then it has been a long time.

Here is some of the great stuff that we saw and/or did:


The Louisa May Alcott house in Concord where she wrote "Little Women". This is a cute house. It even has some drawings on the walls that her sister made. Did you know this family was vegetarian?


Found some gardening inspiration there too.


Went to a really neat consignment shop in this building where I spent 50 cents. It was upstairs and we went up some really old worn out steps.


We just happened to walk by this large Irish Famine Memorial in Boston. Doesn't it look sad and painful.

I will be posting more pics to flickr of course. So keep an eye there for more. And thanks to everyone here at home for taking care of the rest of my family while I was gone. Especially my hubby who worked a few half days so he could take the kids to their swim lessons. A tough job!

does size matter?

It just might matter when your kids are waking up on Christmas morning and there is a large stocking hung with care and full of toys and such!

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This one is from Kristen. She says this is one of her favorites. It's quite big and holds lots of goodies. I love the fabric, such jolly snowman!

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These are made from the girls at The Tin Thimble, my friends Emma, Sharon, and her sister Caron. These stockings are wonderful and are ones that I have admired for a long time, especially the argyle one! Each is made using a wet felting technique.

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Made again by Sharon which is hand appliqued with wool felt fabric. If you want to see more of their work they will be at the Folsom Thursday Night Market on Sutter Street, tonight.

stockings challenge

I have Christmas stockings on my brain today. There are so many other things I should be making today. But for some reason I am thinking of a stocking pattern that I saw in an old quilting magazine that had directions for making a stocking sewn up in red and covered in a few green yo-yo's.

I am also wondering if you have some pictures of your favorite Christmas stocking? Is it one that you made, or an old one that was store bought when you were little. I'm sure that it is put away in your Christmas decorations box and is very hard to get to. But if you want to share come on! Just email me your photo and I'll post it here for us all to see. I know that there is a flickr group for this too, but let's see it here too! I hope you're interested...



This one was made by my sister Judith. When I was in Tucson this spring she got these out to show me, and I immediately got out my camera. I love them! Don't I have the craftiest sisters!

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And here is a few of mine. I'm sure that you've seen these before. But like I said. I have stockings on the brain!


made with a little piece of vintage embroidered linen.


a little Moda display at the Houston Quilt Market 2007. Gotta love the retro!

[caption id="attachment_266" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="some little ones made for little ones"][/caption]

So, please email me with any of your own christmas stocking photos! Let's see what you got!!

vintage skirts

Here is my new summer skirt for little girls. This one was made especially for my girl. But I have enough fabric left for one other little girl (see my vintage katie jean if you're interested).This is vintage fabric that I bought from Emma and Sharon. And it's trimmed with little aqua pom-pom's. Really cute huh? I think so! The black tank has a little flower sewn onto it, looking like a corsage. Perfect for running errands with mama!



This is the skirt that I will also be making with some cute vintage terry cloth fabric, also known as towels. I went thrifting with my friend Diane and got some really cute ones to cut up. Some towels are pink, some towels are yellow, and one has fish all over it and is so totally wonderful that I'm not sure if I can bring myself to put scissors to it!

The fish towel gave my heart a leap when I saw it. It was a little thrill because I have one at home already like it. It's from the 50's and I think it was my grandma's (the one I already have). What are the chances? I mean a towel, really?

shopping

We have been waiting all summer for Anthropologie to open. The closest one to me is in Berkeley. Which is a great place to stop on the way home from the Alameda Flea Market. But now there is one in Roseville at the Fountains. I bet it is packed with shoppers there everyday. I know it was when we went there.



So when "the girls" Katie and Maggie were going, I tagged along with my girl. And I didn't forget my camera this time! I was pretty sly, because I heard that some shops don't allow picture taking in their stores. I'm a rebel. My camera takes decent indoor pictures without a flash. Other shoppers were wondering what I was doing and I'm sure they thought I was weird. Why is that girl taking pictures of that curtain?



Hasn't everyone heard of flickr? Isn't everyone addicted to flickr? I have gotten better and don't post pictures everyday like I used to. But I do go check it out in the morning while I have my coffee. Great inspiration. So check out all of the pictures that I took at Anthroplogie. There is a ton of inspiration there, and they have decent sales.

bjo on etsy

I have this finally set up! There are still some individual items to post. But you can see the entire gift collection now. And I love my new banner, made by banner bee. Isn't it cute?