Seeing Daylight (And a Cup Half….er, FULL!) August 12, 2008

At last…I am digging out of the hole that vacation put me in. I can actually see the bottom of the stack now…for now. Somewhere in the midst of the madness some new designs happened. Some by request, others purely by accident. These bunnies were happy accidents, because tell me, WHO is thinking bunnies (Easter) in August? But when an idea comes, SIEZE it, no? Of course, you substitute your own kiddos name:

And because we only offer our Patchwork designs to some of our retailers, new Patchwork bunnies too (in any pattern you choose).

A brand spankin’ new patchwork butterfly:

Patchwork his and hers holiday stars:

Patchwork Halloween pumpkin:

his and her trees:

Santa Hat:

and shoot, I had some more that now I can’t put my hands on…I’ll post them tomorrow. Anyway, enough of that. Let’s talk SCHOOL…

Yes, school. Back to school in AUGUST (this is wrong). Whoa. Really, Truly, NEVER has summer disappeared so quickly (maybe because technically it IS STILL SUMMER, so WHY ARE WE BACK AT SCHOOL instead of frolicking poolside?) I really feel like it never even started! And I am a summertime girl. I used to love winter because of the clothes (boot, jackets, LOVE) but I get bored now with winter clothes…they seem drab, and let’s be real here, cold HURTS. Kids in their bulky jackets are super hard to buckle into car seats, and all those layers take extra TIME to put on…plus, don’t get me started on LOSING jackets (and gloves and hats). For that matter, don’t get my MOM started. She’s still talking about jackets that were lost before she even paid the credit card bill. Endless trips to lost and found, that GIGANTIC pile of jackets in MY OFFICE that no one seems to see the OBVIOUS need to EVER hang up IN THE CLOSET (the one called–ironically–the COAT CLOSET), runny noses, freezing cold houses, dank, damp ugly brown yards, sickly looking trees, and wet, moldy leaves…..I know, I know, call me NEGATIVE (I am). Frosty car windows that need scraping when you are already LATE, book bags crammed with work sheets and requests for MORE MONEY and homework. Ugh. Homework. Pants that turn into floods midway through the winter. Static in the hair that makes for really bad hair days. Pill-y sweaters (yuck). Don’t I have such an extra special way of looking at the cup half empty? Geez. You want a better attitude? Okay then. Maybe I’ll just go out and buy tons of BRAND new jackets and super cool boots for the days when I decide to brave the cold, a sun lamp to keep my sunny disposition, and a ticket to Bermuda (for one, thank you) for the days when I can take no more.

Now how’s that for a dose of positive thinking. A cup more than halfway full.

I can make that frown turn upside down, like NO OTHER.

(BTW, I’m not sure how I ended up crawling out of bed on the wrong side today, but I’m going to get more coffee now, so I can enjoy this beautiful sunny August day 🙂

Chaos June 2, 2008

How cheesy am I with all my one-word titles of late…like I think I’m Madonna or Beyonce. (Okay, not so much, but surely you get my drift.) I guess things have been so nutty one word is really I all I can come up with. I have been working frantically on two really huge orders (and tons of smaller ones) and trying to gear up for Fall shows. I have to update all of my materials and that sort of snuck up on me. I thought I had scads of time, when really, it’s knocking at my door. So I dragged whirly girl outside yesterday, after working straight for 4-5 days with zero break at all, to take a few photos for a brochure. She was cranky, I was cranky. Not a good pair, the two of us, and it shows. I gave little to no forethought to what I was shooting, and that too, shows. Oh well, we’ll try again another day. Or in the middle of the night.

If you’re like my mom, you’ll ask “don’t you have a son too?” and my reply would be…”IT’S NOT MY FAULT!”. If the child so much as sees a camera he heads for the hills. I will tell you that he is alive and well…and playing a heck of a good baseball game. His team is #2, and they only lost to #1 but ONE POINT. It was a darn good game. They are going to the championships and he is all kinds of excited.

Ok. Back to the ole Monday grind. Here’s my grumpy girl.

Obviously this won’t work for any brochure–you can’t even see the artwork on the shirt.

But it’s sweet of her.

Poor thing can’t read, and has no idea her shirt has another girly’s name on it. That, my friends, is the most sincere looking fake smile you will ever encounter. It was made with threats and bribes.

There you have it. Three shots out of 50 and the best one has another kids name stamped on it. But We’re going out of town soon…virtually the ONLY way I can relax is to leave it all behind. I wonder if I can regain one shred of sanity? Anyway–maybe I’ll get some fun beach shots. Or maybe I’ll be too busy sleeping and reading smut magazines.

My favorites… May 10, 2008

Hydrangeas and peonies are two favorite flowers by far. And we have a yard full of hydrangeas of which were decimated in last years freakishly late frost (shame on Jack Frost–he’s a mean son-of-a-gun). So I can hardly wait for the comeback this year. Although I have to hide in the bushes with a stun gun because people literally drive by from Lord only knows where and STEAL them! Can you get over this? Well, now I have peonies too! My gift for Mom’s day last year was a bush, or plant or whatever they are officially called and I guess my gift for this year is that they have BLOSSOMED! They are a little weighted down by last night’s rain, and I’m not sure this is the variety of peony I fell in love with…seems like those have more layers or something…but I wanted to capture these because the color is PINKALICIOUS. Now mind you, I do think that pictures of inanimate things are sort of boring, so please excuse…it’s not my intent to put you to sleep. Just go get another cup of joe and you should be good to go.