{*~Inspiring~*}

in

I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed lately. I'm trying to find an allergist locally, preparing for a craft show, trying to finish up a custom quilt, get caught up on bee blocks, work on swaps, work at the quilt shop, plus earn an income to pay my bills, get my medicine ($1,000 a month...barf) and stick a tiny bit in my savings. I need an extra ten hours in a day!

I know I can do it...or at least most of it. But it's really testing my patience right now!!!! I hate feeling behind and when I start to fall behind...the vicious cycle of catch up begins. I know I should start saying "no" more often, but I really want to please people! Super bad right?! I need to bow out of a few projects I think. Maybe do some seam ripping this weekend and add some fabrics back to my stash, I take these kinda weeks to weed out quilts and whatnot that I'm feeling "meh!" about...it's good to do some fabric gardening every now and again!

I keep finding myself SO inspired and LOVING IT but HATING lack of time! Crazy right?! I have my sewing space completely clean, my fabric collection is pretty much epic...I can't ask for more, when I sew I like the stuff I'm making, I've discovered a few palettes and techniques I've loved exploring...it's like everything is aligned...except time!

Here are a few things I'm *so* inspired by lately!

I hope your having a good week so far! <3!

{*~Moving On~*}

in

Wow. I can't believe how many kind comments & emails I got after my last post. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like the internet community of quilters is kinda surreal.

I've made some summertime rules/goals for myself and sticking to them has felt a lot better. I'm becoming really good at saying no. At turning off my phone. No emails or anything on the weekends. At being more "present" when spending time with Porkchop. Taking time for me & being more kind to myself. I'm going to of course keep blogging & flickring, but only when I want too, I'm not a blogger who makes money off of it so it makes sense to just do it when it's fun!

We've spent the weekends getting into all sorts of trouble....day trips, laying in the sun, bike rides, visits to the mountains (there was still snow!), going to the movies....our thing is going to the movies first thing on Friday morning...it's only $5 to get in and we sneak in diet cherry limeaids! So far we've seen Toy Story 3 (I cried nonstop), MacGruber (dreadful), A-Team (Bradley Cooper? Wowzers!!! ;)) We are trying something new & going to a midnight viewing on Thursday for Knight & Day.

HEY, did you guys know Klean Kanteens are made in Chico?! I had no idea! I stopped by their warehouse the other morning before work and picked up a bottle for myself, Porkchop & Porkchops dad. I also got a bike rack! I have a little project I've been working on with these bottles in mind that I'm excited to show you once I get caught up on swaps & orders. Plus I have a little shop update coming up soon!

Also: This bike...ohhh how I love it. I bought it on a whim in Eureka but never really rode it much...lately all I want to do is ride!!! It's kinda like a beach cruiser but with gears and front brakes. I'm not going to lie, part of me is wondering if I can paint it. I don't like the stickers and whatnot on it.

I've been insanely inspired by Castle Peeps! It's really a fun line to play with. If you know me, you'll be surprised by this: I bought ONE!!! and a HALF YARDS of my favorites from the line. I'm strictly a fat quarter girl and this line...wowzers. So much cute potential!!! I'm debating buying this cute pdf and making some boxers for Porkchop & I...can you imagine how many cute shorts can be made from Castle Peeps?!!!! Eeep!

I hope your summer is starting on a kind note...I'm all about the sunshine...and I have the tan to prove it ;)

{*~complications~*}

in

If I could sum up the past few days, I'd use the following phrases:

"bloody nose","this is why we can't have nice things" and "does this taste like metal/fish/spoiled/off/gross to you?".

Mmmm yes. Excitement around this place! Broken electronics, total klutziness, strange side affects from medicines and a whole lot of cussing & laughing. Typical McPorkchop behavior!

I'm doing a little bit of sewing today...in between projects I made Mr. McPorkchop this doodle jump inspired mini quilt. It's all free motion quilted & applique. Wayyyy too much fun. It's a blast mostly because it's scribble-y! I'm sure if you aren't familiar with the opening screen, this mini just looks like a hot mess, but accurate to the game, haha.

I'll be updating etsy later on this week with slots for custom mini quilts (provided I have finished the 3 orders I already have!), some patchwork camera straps that are cuuute, four mini quilts, kindle pouches, some mug rugs & some patchwork zippered pouches! woohoo! I hope that if I type this out, I'll actually update it, someone should hold me accountable, haha. I have no self confidence with these sort of things, I talk myself out of selling stuff because I'm convinced everything has some tragic flaw which is my excuse if things aren't 100% factory perfectly made, for example, one of the custom mini quilts I'm finishing for the FOURTH time because I'm not satisfied with it. Yeah. I'm a bit hard on myself.

A few things I like today:

This bread which is free of all my allergens and still tastes great! However, it's extremely expensive ($7 a loaf!!!). But doesn't upset my stomach...so I'll buy it as a special treat every once in a while.

This set of paper, I got it as a gift! I'll be using it for this class!

This dress that I can't stop lusting after. It appeals to my New England roots & my inner smothered yuppie who's tired of wearing jeans, teeshirts, flannels & reefs.

This fabric which is begging to be beignet.

Speaking of patterns, I adore this but the largest bust size is too small for me!

I'm off to iron some fabric & work on a custom mini. I just finished season 3 of Buffy last night...watching her graduate high school & say goodbye to Angel was so bittersweet. How the heck did I get sucked in so completely?! Not to mention the first episode of season 4 is her at college...oh how I could relate to her first day college experience...minus the whole vampire slaying ;)

Have a great Tuesday!

xo

{~*Like A Good Neighbor*~}

in

This week has been insane! So much stuff getting done! So much stress! So much running around!

Today is my day to play catch up...in a good way. Catch up with google reader, catch up with 2 months of magazines, catch up with some errands (new Liberty rain boots became mine as a gift from Mr. McPorkchop!), catch up on taking photos.

I thought today I'd share some of my favorite flickr friends. Do you ever look at a persons photostream & wish they were your neighbor? Like someone you'd love to spend an afternoon with and you just *know* you'd have a blast?

Let me introduce you to some gals I have a flickr neighbor crush on! I'm building my own personal neighborhood of awesomeness!

First up, jenib320!!!! Ok, not only does she sew some super cute stuff, but she is seriously the queen of awesome thrifting! She finds the BEST stuff ever. Every time she posts I think "mmm I should visit a local thrift shop"...and I'M ALWAYS LET DOWN! I think she just has a great eye & fantastic luck! Add her as a contact and you'll see what I mean! And she has a cuuute blog!

Secondly, The Sometimes Crafter! Gosh, this gal knows her way around a camera! She takes beautiful photos, sews some great stuff and documents life beautifully. Plus, she's GORGEOUS!!!! Her blog is full of great stuff as well! I feel like she & I could be great real life friends!

Every neighborhood needs someone ultra hip & a great place to sew.... theworkroom! She is a great flickr contact to have, she posts a lot of beautiful photos that aren't always posted on her blog. I really like seeing the creations her customers make and I'm constantly finding inspiration in her personal projects! She makes some incredible dresses from Japanese craft books that are stunning!

I think this is a good place to stop but I think I'm going to keep introducing you to more people I'd love as neighbors. Of course there are my besties, which I think I'll blog about next week!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

P.S.: If you'd rather I not use your photos/blogs/flickrs, please let me know & I'll gladly take it down :)

{*~Neurotic~*}

in

Hi! My name is Amanda & I'm neurotic.

I feel like days like today I need either a swift kick in the ass or a long nap under the hugest pile of blankets.

I don't like to admit it but I'm SCATTERED right now. I have a bunch of different projects I'm working on, some stuff for the shop, some custom quilts, some camera straps, some Blythe dresses & some personal stuff and everything is just MEH to me right now. The few things I've completed I'm not happy with & I'll be spending some of my day with my trust seam ripper.

It's so weird how one day projects look *great* and the next day...meh. Not feeling them. I know I get like this often, I get scared of the direction things are going and second guess myself. Just ask poor Mr. McPorkchop...when we first started dating we'd have an amazing weekend & I'd suddenly become terrified & want to call things off. Scared of commitment? Scared of failure? Scared of taking chances? Check! Check! CHECK! That's me in a nutshell! My poor bestie has had to have many talks with me about this. Thanks Buddy ;)

One of my 2010 goals was to stop letting fear take control over my days, to buck up & accept the good AND the bad, to realize that I'm not a sewing machine & not everything I sew will look perfect 100% of the time, that handmade literally means HAND MADE & to be more accepting. Having a goal is one thing...putting it into practice is a different story. I'm spending the rest of this super sunny day by going for a walk around the block, maybe shooting some film & accepting that sometimes things just don't go as planned!

Tonight we are moving my sewing machine so I can have more space & sit in front of our very nice windows. Right now my sewing machine has a wall behind it and it makes chain piecing & quilting kinda a PITA, so now I'll have a window to gaze out & a taller table that has more depth. Greta (that's her name!) will take up the width of the new table, but not the length...hmmm. My old sewing space will be for cutting & for Mr. McPorkchop to do homework on.

Maybe I'll make some bunting for the window in front of my new space?!  That's a good way for some positive sewing mojo & inspiration! Plus some pandora rock music!

My question to you friends is this...what do you do when you are feeling less than stellar about the things you create? Any favorite songs that pull you out of your funk?

{*Learning*}

in

I seriously can't believe its Thursday. How did this happen? Like, 4 minutes ago it was only Tuesday!!!

Today was quilting! It was a blast as usual. I quilted my clutch. I'm not 100% in love with it, my Pfaffs tension is real wonky and I couldn't adjust it right >:( I really *really* need quilting Thursdays, they just are such a great release! Everyone is so nice, so positive, it's GREAT. I wish I could get to purl n' hurl Humboldt on Thursday nights...sheesh. I start to get all anxious and nervous in public situations, clearly, I need to get out of the house more.

Liz taught me how to english paper piece! omg. ADDICTING!!!! I've made about 6 little pieces so far. Liz was talking about being unable to jut *sit* and thats TOTALLY me. I need to be working on something at all times. Watching tv? Knitting or embroidering. Reading a book? Sketching and writing down things that inspire me. Journal writing? Daily. Literally every second of my day is spent doing *something* creative and work related. I was going to make more and sit on the couch building and handsewing but we had unexpected guests of Aric & Ashleigh! WOOT! I <3 them so much.

We ended up going to Michaels where they had yudu supplies! YES!!! We got a ton of stuff and I bought a porcelian marker. Why do you ask?

Because I bought a neti pot!!!!

I ended up going to the co-op and they had a coupon so I got a cute ceramic neti pot for around $15. Score! I'm planning on drawing all over my little white pot. I want to put silly sayings on it, like "blow me", because you know, blowing my nose! Haha. I won't go into the details about it, but if anyone has any suggestions, please share! I could literally sit there for an hour and stuff would still be draining. Ick.

I'm about thisclose to a full blown sinus infection but I've been rinsing my nose every few hours to release the pressure and it's been helping. I don't want to get sick right now. I have too much fun stuff going on!!!

I'm almost done with my current batch of custom orders and they should be shipping tomorrow and Saturday! Yay!!!! I'm most likely going to extend the 72 hours to a week, just because I don't want to rush, a custom order means I take special time, ya know?! I also ordered new colors of cotton for the backings of pads, I found an amazing site with low shipping costs and it was within my budget, that always makes me so so so happy!! I've been getting SO many requests for cotton backed pads and I'm hoping people really really like them.

Tomorrow I'm getting up early to finish orders and list some liners. I'm not sure what time I'll update, as I have to go to the bank and run several business related errands in the morning (need more envelopes!!)

Yesterday I took an hour to work on a painting. I haven't painted in months. I reallllllly needed to pick up the brush again. Mr. McPorkchop & I have been collecting lots of beach trinkets lately and I want to paint them. They just make me so happy. Especially the broken shells. The little edges just make me so very happy!

I did try a watercolor block that I've never used before and I have to be honest in saying that I most likely won't finish this painting because the paper was driving me BATTY!!!! It kept buckling and wrinkling, which is odd to me because I'm a very dry watercolor painter. Go figure. But I did buy new watercolors from Daniel Smith last year for a painting class I was taking and wow. Just wow. Amazing pigmentation. Amazing colors. They just glide so evenly. They completely blow my sennelier paints out of the water. Which I *never* thought I'd ever say, considering that palette is 3 years old now and still going strong. Either way, it was really really nice to sit, listen to music and paint.

I attempted to sit down and knit last night. I was rummaging through some stuff and found an almost finished project. So I wanted to finish it and sheesh, it was rough knitting. I found a lot of mistakes I'd made and I just wasn't feeling it. Also, I'm pretty much obsessed with all of Yahaira's current triangle scarves. I super love the look of them, I've already attempted to copy her Ishbel and failed, springtime bandit is beyond my skill level, but frostberries might be perfect! Woot!!!! I might give it a gander!

This weekend we are having a very hilarious, very rowdy house guest. He canceled last weekend, so I'm not sure if he will again for this weekend, but yay for houseguests!

I have a small list of things I'd like to get done this weekend:

  1. Finish custom orders
  2. Update the shop
  3. Make myself a pouch for my id and debit card. I'm torn on fabrics on this. VW buses? Japanese cactus fabric?
  4. Finish my moms bag and apron
  5. Work on Kelly's apron

A pretty modest list for me, but if we have a house guest, it'll be more like 1, 2 and 4. And maybe toss some knitting into it. I feel like everything hinges on if I can kill this sinus infection before it gets worse. One more meeting with neti before bed, plus some mushroom pills and vitamin C, I'm crossing my fingers that I wake up feeling better!!!!

What are you doing this weekend? Anything good?