good long while

right around the corner

Well, I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me. I'm hoping to work, work, work up until the Sunday Best Sale in Portland, OR on November 28th and 29th. I can't believe how soon it's coming up!

Here is the mailer for the sale. If you click on the image you'll be able to read all of the text. Also, there is a lot more info on the blog if you're curious - including a bunch of vendor profiles (which is personally my favorite part to read).

There is a really great group of artist participating this year. To be honest I'm just as excited to shop as I am to sell. I plan to make a big dent in my holiday gift list.

I hope you'll drop by if you're in Portland that weekend.

looking to the days ahead...

I think that I might be the last to admit that summer is over and fall is here (ahh, it's still hard to write that!). It's been cold and rainy the last few days and we've been using our new wood stove. I guess I can't ignore the evidence any longer. So long summer, looking forward to seeing you again next year.

One thing that I'm quite excited about with the onset of autumn is that my very favorite holiday sale in Portland, OR is right around the corner. I've been participating in the Sunday Best Holiday Sale since day one. This sale is actually what motivated me to start screen printing on linen four years ago. I wanted to hang out with some of Portland's best crafters and artists so I came up with my printing plan.

The blog is just starting up again for this year. Lots of info is already there, along with photos and profiles from last year. And I'm certain a lot more info will be posted in the coming weeks.

The picture above is of me and Julie from last year.

weekend

This weekend I spent a lot of time sorting, organizing and unpacking. The garage, which is also known as my studio, houses a number of lingering boxes from our move and I felt like it was time to deal with them. Some how this prompted a complete re-organization of my studio too. I'm not quite finished but I feel about a hundred times better about the space already.

Luckily I was able to break up the organizational madness by seeing these guys play at the britt on Saturday night. It was a really great show and the weather was perfect for sitting outside on a blanket listening to music.

don't forget....

the online portion of the summer social sale is open NOW! Quantities are limited so the early bird definitely catches the worm. I had a hard time picking which items to include above because there is a lot of really great stuff. One thing that I like about this sale is that you have the opportunity to select items from a handful of artists and pay for it all on one bill (with one shipping fee).

My etsy shop will probably not be restocked until next week. It was a hot and busy week here so I'm a little behind on my to-do list.

Happy weekend to you all.

summer social: recap + online sale

The summer social was a really fun event. I hardly took any photos, but lucky for us there is a flickr group with other people's images. There were so many cute and thoughtful details, a talented group of vendors and good times too.

I've been busy working away in the studio this summer and showed up to the sale with lots of goods. So I still have a great selection of items after the summer social. Abby is organizing an online version of the sale for those who weren't able to attend. The online shop opens officially this Friday at 10 am PST and will be open for only two weeks. More items will be added over the coming days including some of my work.

Also, I'll be re-opening my etsy shop soon (it's in vacation mode right now). I'll keep you posted on when that happens.

two for the road

I thought I'd be able to squeeze in lots more photos of what will be appearing at the sale but I ran out of time. But before I pack up the car and make my way to Portland here are two departing images. I picked this apron and this pillow to show you because I only made one of each and these were the two things that I momentarily considered keeping for myself.

I hope to see lots of you Portlanders on Saturday. It will be fun to meet some of my internet friends and also to spend time with some old pals too. Please come by and say hi if you can!

summery pouches

I made a few more pouches for the sale today. After I finished this batch and looked at them as a collection, I felt like they had sort of a "summer cabin" feel -- nature inspired, a little bit of a vintage fabric character, simple, bright and definitely summery.

printed & patterned napkin sets

I'm not a real matchy-matchy person. Fashion-wise I generally try to avoid outfits that look too put together. I don't necessarily like crazy combinations - maybe more of a similar-but-not-congruent kind of look. I have a similar approach with setting the table. For me, a little bit of variation goes a long way to keep things looking interesting and inviting.

For awhile now I've had my eye on a few different striped and checked 100% linen fabrics. I thought they would be a really nice compliment to my hand-printed textiles. Instead of just ordering enough for myself I decided to buy a little more. At the sale I'll be offering sets of napkins and tea towels that I think work well together. I'm calling them printed & patterned sets and I hope people like them!

The images above show two of the napkin sets. I'll try to post a photo or two of the printed & patterned tea towel sets too.

more of the blue

Just one image today. I'll be bringing a few of these blue tea towels with the pebbles design to the sale. The pattern is so simple but it's definitely a favorite of mine.

sale sneak preview

Here is one glimpse of some items that will be heading with me up north to Portland next weekend for the summer social sale. I'll post a few more peeks over the next week of what I've been making.

The top photo shows a batch of zipper pouches that I sewed over the weekend. You can see the new blue linen that I just started using. The bottom photo shows a handful of the many catnip mice I've made. A few of the mice have rattles - something new that I've been experimenting with. Also, the mice are now filled with bamboo fiber and they still have a good dose of the potent organic catnip that I've used in the past.