Pretty Little Quilts by Lark books is out. YEY! I wrote a how to project for this book a year ago, so it's great to see it in print. There are some great projects in this book. I love the little quilt of the whole family's hands traced, then embroidered in red.
So my project is the Tea Time quilt that is on a house shaped frame for hanging. The piece itself is for sale at Hope for Haiti etsy shop to enable Doctors Without Borders, to do their great work.
I couldn't quite get the hang of photographing myself while I did a happy dance and jumped for joy, so I submit this photo from our last family water balloon fight.
My etsy
sales meter hit 300 today. Yey
!!!!!! I am hosting a give away for number 333. Stay tuned.
AND today, Lark books invited me to design for an upcoming book of woolen goods. I'm happy to be asked! I've designed for two of their books, which will be out next spring. As you know, I love designing, and the whole experience was fun (except for cutting the shipping date a little close). I envision my future to hold exciting new design projects, being published, writing for magazines, and teaching. And creating. Always creating!
It's a nice burst of fresh air after a few difficult weeks. It's not fun to talk about while IN the trenches, but I can now say my kids are getting over whooping cough. Son #1 caught it at the end of school and it went undiagnosed, then misdiagnosed for quite some time. Poor guy! Son #2 caught it, and we were all run down from sleepless nights and way too much coughing and worrying.
Then there was the quarantine weeks and cabin fever. The kids have been more cranky and quarrelsome than usual. My typical solution is to take them on a hike or bike ride! But... when the child coughs till they throw up at the slightest exertion, that's not an option. =Cabin FEVER! We are not big tv
watchers and have a video game -free house. Luckily we have lots of fun card and board games, and as you know, lots of cute animals to occupy us. It's not been a terribly "fun" summer so far however. Looking forward to the rest!
The sweetly blooming rhododendron out front. When we first bought the house in the fall, we didn't know what plants, bulbs and such would come up till that following spring. We all took bets on what color the rhody would be. "Please not pink, please not pink...." was in my head. Finally, after all the other rhodies were in full bloom up and down the block, ours put out two pathetic little purple blooms. Well she's not pink, but she's not happy either, we said.
I went about learning what I could, given all the other things that needed doing, about how to care for rhodies. I pruned her at the right time, added fresh healthy soil, and this spring, she's making small, but plentiful blooms all over. So pretty, it's like magic. Maybe next year, she'll be looking like that hot red rhody across the street with blooms bigger than my head.
These are the Charmed Coffee Cozies I designed for the upcoming Lark book, "Pretty Little Cozies". The project is about making coffee cozies (of course) but using favorite charms (you know the cute little prints in your stash, that are too cute to cut up? So they just sit and sit. Let's use em folks!), along with some of the pretty stitches your machine can make (but you rarely use?). 
Side view
I'm warming to the idea of making more, special, one of a kind cozies.
Good Morning!!
This is me first thing this a.m. making coffee with my happy French Press covered in a cozy gift from Adopt-A-Critter, for my birthday. While known for her plush monsters, she's also a knitting fiend! It's cute and keeps my coffee warm till I'm ready to pour. 
Speaking of birthdays, let me introduce you to my new helper, Tilda. She is the present I asked for and everyone went in on together. She is a photo printing/photocopy/scanner machine. Who could imagine the day we would have our own copymachines in our home? I can print newsletters and make copies of the kids drawings. I can print photos of archival quality instead of just looking at them online. I can prepare my art for use with the gocco machine. I'm so excited!!!!!
I have a lot to be happy about this week. First on the list is finishing my first art tutorial for Lark books. I designed a fabric jewelry project (based on my now-not-so-secret secret jewelry line humming along in the studio) called "If Life Gives YOu Lemons- Make ART!". I'm excited to be in my first book. The Art of Fabric Jewelry by Lark books is due out spring of 2009. 
Second happiness is a coffee cuff reorder by one of my stores: In Other Words in Portland.Third? The kids have the day off of school today, and the sun is finally out and due to STAY for the weekend. Grey skies and rain rain rain damp was really getting to me earlier this week. This coming from a very sturdy Oregonian is saying a lot! We are about to go letterboxing! I'm going to try to take the day off of Bliss Monkey Studio work, but I may not be able to resist. I love making my art, running my Etsy store, chatting with clients, and meeting so many wonderful makers and fans of handmade goodness! Plus, I'm up to the elbows in finishing a big batch of monster mitts because the world said we needed some fun spring wrist warmers. Love you all!Aly
I've been eagerly awaiting Lark book's reply to my cozy submissions..... and the verdict is: They accepted one of my submissions! In their upcoming book "Pretty Little Cozies", I get to teach you how to make a coffee cozy using your favorite print charms. Yey!!!!!!
I couldn't quite get the hang of photographing myself while I did a happy dance and jumped for joy, so I submit this photo from our last family water balloon fight.
The sweetly blooming rhododendron out front. When we first bought the house in the fall, we didn't know what plants, bulbs and such would come up till that following spring. We all took bets on what color the rhody would be. "Please not pink, please not pink...." was in my head. Finally, after all the other rhodies were in full bloom up and down the block, ours put out two pathetic little purple blooms. Well she's not pink, but she's not happy either, we said.
These are the Charmed Coffee Cozies I designed for the upcoming Lark book, "Pretty Little Cozies". The project is about making coffee cozies (of course) but using favorite charms (you know the cute little prints in your stash, that are too cute to cut up? So they just sit and sit. Let's use em folks!), along with some of the pretty stitches your machine can make (but you rarely use?). 
Side view
This is me first thing this a.m. making coffee with my happy French Press covered in a cozy gift from Adopt-A-Critter, for my birthday. While known for her plush monsters, she's also a knitting fiend! It's cute and keeps my coffee warm till I'm ready to pour. 
Speaking of birthdays, let me introduce you to my new helper, Tilda. She is the present I asked for and everyone went in on together. She is a photo printing/photocopy/scanner machine. Who could imagine the day we would have our own copymachines in our home? I can print newsletters and make copies of the kids drawings. I can print photos of archival quality instead of just looking at them online. I can prepare my art for use with the gocco machine. I'm so excited!!!!! 
