Me, Me and More ME!

My friend Dawn, of Dawn Bergeron Photography, came by yesterday to do an "on location" photoshoot in my living room. I needed some fun portraits of myself for an Andalucia promotional brochure I am in the midst of putting together. I was pretty nervous at first because I'm usually the one behind the lens, not in front, but I worried in vain. Within minutes Dawn and I were cranking up the 80's tunes, sipping raspberry Lambic and having a blast.

She shot nearly 200 photos and I've narrowed them down to my favorites, but now I need everyone's help! I have to turn in the files for my brochure by Thursday (yep, in 2 days roughly) so I need to pick the best shot of me and the best shot of Sydney to appear it it.

Please leave a comment with your favorite shot of me and your favorite one of Sydney and be entered to win a little Andalucia surprise. Please include the number of your favorite pictures and a reason why you think they are the ones that must appear in the brochure. I will pick the winner (commenter & photo) by Wednesday night.

Here are the choices:

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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7.
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8.
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10.
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11.
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12.
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13.
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14.
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Sorry so many. I just had such a hard time narrowing them down even further, which is why I need your help! Please leave your 2 choices in the comments section and I will draw a winner.

A quick shout out to my friend Dawn, photographer extraordinaire, for giving me the best photos of myself I've ever had! Please check out her blog... she is awesome!!

And another shout out to the fabulous Heather, for making those adorable fabric playballs you see in all these pictures. She made these at lightning speed and they are just PERFECT! She sells them in her etsy store and will soon be carrying some made of Andalucia just like these!
Four!

My sweet baby girl, Sydney, had her 4th birthday party yesterday. She doesn't actually turn four until October 8th, but this was the one weekend where we could get all the family together, so it made the decision pretty simple.

Lots of friends showed up to celebrate...

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Faces were painted...

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More faces were painted...

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Let's just say we gave the face painting lady a run for her money...

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Even the adults got in on the action...

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Not only the girls but also the boys...

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Happy Birthday, my sweet baby! I hope you had an amazing time!

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Guess who's here?

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Sample yardage arrived yesterday and I haven't stopped fondling and adoring it...

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I broke it up into color groups... just for fun.

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I made fun pairings and dreamt of crafty little home projects...

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Then I made sweet little stacks...

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But most of all, I've spent the last few days making bundles of fabric like this one to send to my sweet and talented sample sewers...

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And, speaking of sample sewers, I feel I need to send some love and virtual hugs and kisses to this group of amazing designers who will no doubt make me shine on October 25th...

My mom (a.k.a. MarielizCreations on Etsy) will be making a series of purses and totes with the Fire and Earth colorways. She is already hard at work cutting out lining pieces and interfacing to size in anticipation of the fabric arrival. And she has already received a few pre-orders! Go, mami!! :)

Elizabeth Cranmer (SIL of my sweet friend Daria) is already hard at work designing a brand new quilt and quilt pattern with some of the Petal & Fire fabrics. I've seen a sketch and it is fantastic! Can't wait to see the final product.

Marcea and Janice of AbbeyLane Quilts will be creating a couple of quilts to display at the booth. They will offer the quilt patterns for sale at my booth as well, so if you'll be attending the show you'll have a chance check them out up close & personal!

Heather (a.k.a. thepolkadottotspot on Etsy) is making a series of adorable fabric play balls with a little jingle in the middle. She is a local gal and so sweet and talented! I've seen these cute little balls in person and they are da bomb! We found a way to utilize all 24 fabrics in very cool combos, so stay tuned for these!

Kristen (a.k.a. GocksFrocks) will be making a small collection of stuffies and if they are anything like her clothing designs, they will be immaculately made and oh, so cute! Can't wait to see them!!

Myrinda (a.k.a. Lady M of Sweet*Girl*Boutique) will be outfitting my sweet girl, Candy, in Andalucia style. I've heard talk of Feliz dresses, kimonos, twirl skirts, and even miniature furniture. You go, girl! Can't wait to see what you come up with. Myrinda will be attending market with her sweet girl, Lulu. I'm sure Candy & Lulu will hit it off right away. ;)

Thanks to all of you in advance for all your hard work and dedication. Now go check out these ladies' websites, blogs and Etsy stores. I promise you won't be disappointed!

In the meantime I'll be making clothes, pillows, furniture covers, lampshades and whatever else comes into this crazy head of mine...
Market Prep, Part 4.

I told you guys it'd be a teeny break. I want to thank everyone for your well wishes. Your comments, emails & phone calls warmed my heart more than you will ever know. It is just amazing to me to see the strong connections I've made with people I've never even met face to face. I love you guys!

But enough of the mushy-mushy stuff. I am feeling much better now after 3 days of lounging around the house doing nothing at all. I guess I needed the break. So now it's BACK TO BUSINESS!

It just dawned on me that we leave for Houston in exactly 4 weeks! Man, I have SO MUCH TO DO STILL! I've only just scratched the surface of my Market preparation. But, I just found out today that I will get all my Andalucia sample yardage from Michael Miller on Wednesday. YIPPEE!! So, I guess I should enjoy my last 36 hrs. or so of sanity because once that fabric gets here I will not have a minute to myself.

Luckily I have some amazingly talented women helping me make samples for Quilt Market so I feel I am in great hands. Oh, and I should mention that I truly appreciate all the offers that I've received lately to sew samples. Believe me, if I had a whole aisle of display area I would gladly take you all up on it. WOW, what a booth that would be, eh? But, unfortunately all I have is a tiny 10' x 10' booth area to work with and as it is, I will have to cram everything in there. Maybe next time, right?! :)

While I was lounging around at home I received 2 packages in the mail. I was so excited to see both of these items... at first. The first one was my second shipment of bookmarks. I quickly assembled a couple of them to see how they would look. Check them out... I just love them!

new-bookmarks

My second box contained my Andalucia MOO cards. Well... I was excited to get these at first until Jon got a hold of one of them, turned it around and said, "Whose phone number is this?!" Yep, you guessed it... I wrote the wrong number on the back of my cards! WAAAAAAH! Just when I thought I had one thing finished that didn't actually require manual labor!

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I like this photo better because it doesn't show my big screw up! Oh, and whose foot is that on the upper right corner, you ask?

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Well, that lovely foot belongs to none other than my new assistant! She is always there and always has an opinion on the matter. She is so used to being in front of the camera that she gets quite jealous when she's replaced... especially by some dumb cards...

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I finally have something to put in my vintage-camera-photo-holder...

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So, I should mention now that since my fabric is getting here on Wednesday, I will be closing my etsy store sooner than anticipated. So, I am announcing now a 48-HOUR CLOSEOUT SALE!! For the next 48 hrs. (so, until about 8 pm CST on Wednesday, Sept. 24th) everything in both my Etsy stores is 20% off. Write the code "GO ANDALUCIA!" at check-out and receive a 20% refund via Paypal after payment receipt. This sale is valid for both my MODKID store and my MODGREETINGS store and expires at 8 pm CST on Wednesday, Sept. 24th.

Oh, I also just listed a few samples and shoes on eBay... mostly teeny stuff. Just trying to declutter before the madness begins. ;)
Taking a teeny break.

I'm having one of my classic cases of insomnia. Maybe it's because I've been on bed rest all day after a procedure I had done early this morning, and now my body is rebelling and wants to be up!

I had a D&C and a hysteroscopy (not to be confused with a hysterectomy) done early this morning. And before the questions start pouring in, nope, I am not pregnant or having a miscarriage, thankfully. In an effort to spare you the gory details, I'll just say that I had some unusual symptoms earlier this week that prompted me to see my doctor right away. She performed an ultrasound in her office and then scheduled the D&C to take a closer look.

Today was a tad insane. Since we don't have any family in town we had to trek to the hospital with Sophie & Sydney in tow before the crack of dawn. I came prepared and brought them some new coloring books & toys along with their favorite snacks, but that just wasn't enough to motivate them to get up & going at 5 a.m. I had to check in at 6:00 a.m. so there was not a lot of time to lollygag this morning. My personal goal was to leave the house without yelling so I put Jon in charge of morning activities.

By 7:20 I was prepped, wearing a lovely gown, I.V. in right arm and ready for surgery. I remember telling my anesthesiologist that I wanted paper & pen right before dozing off to see if I could sketch something wicked in my half hallucinatory state. Despite the fact that he found it an unusual request and quite humorous, he insisted that it would be futile because I would be out within seconds. I was skeptical at first, but OMG was he right! He said "you'll feel a slight tingling in your arm" I did. Then I turned to him and said "Are you ssssurrrrre I ccccan't..."

Next thing I remember I was in the recovery room with a totally different nurse and asking her some questions while she snickered at me. I asked what was so funny and she said I've been making some very unusual requests. I said "Oh, you mean, the pen & paper?" to which she responded, "Nope. I didn't even know about that one. But you did ask us repeatedly what your blood type was and if we could remove your kidney and send it to New York."

It all made sense to me, even though it seemed to highly perplex my recovery nurse. Last night, before going to bed, I watched my friend, Lisa (a.k.a. The Domestic Diva) on Donny Deutsch's THE BIG IDEA. Even though I knew about her sweet teenage daughter, Marielle, desperately needing a kidney donor, the whole story struck me deeper after seeing both Lisa and Marielle on my TV screen and seeing the fervor in their eyes and the determination in Donny Deutsch's voice to finally find a donor for Marielle.

It's interesting to me that that is what was on the back my mind as I was going into surgery myself.

But, to make a longer story a tad shorter. They did not find any tumors but did take a scraping of my uterine lining (sorry if that was too much detail for some of you!) to run some tests at the lab. It sounds promising. I see my doctor in 2 weeks to chat about test results and going forward. I am staying hopeful and positive, since there's really nothing else I can do at this point... LOL!

By the way, I do want to mention that I debated for a long, long time, whether to bring this up on my blog. I almost didn't cause it's so personal, but since I can't sleep and a few of you know about this already, I figured... let's keep it real, right?

So, that's what's going on with me this week. In addition to that, I have a few other pressing things I need to do in the following days/weeks:

  1. Plan & execute Sydney's 4th B-Day party (next weekend!)
  2. Get house cleaned & ready for out-of-town visitors for Sydney's b-day (again, next weekend!)
  3. Receive sample Andalucia yardage, cut & redistribute it to the nice ladies who have so graciously offered to help me sew samples for Market.
  4. Upholster 2 chairs, cover 2 lamps and sew pillows & dresses for my booth at Market.
  5. Design and print a brochure that promotes Andalucia.
  6. Finish and submit my next line of fabric designs to Michael Miller Fabrics. (it's actually done, but I just need to put some finishing touches on it, give it a smashing name and print it all out.)

Speaking of upholstering chairs (and since I hate to write a blog posting without pretty visuals to accompany it), I will leave you with these ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS chairs that I found online at Squint, via one of my most favorite design blogs, 2Modern.

Why, oh why, did I have to come across that site? I am totally obsessing over these and that's not good. Not good because I have a bad case of OCD and when I get something like this in my head, I can't sleep or eat or function!

Market is less than 6 weeks away (OMG, writing that made it even more real! eeek!) and even if I started NOW, which I can't cause I have no fabric, I don't think I could ever accomplish something this striking and beautiful. Man, I'd give my right arm for a chaise like that one at the top!

or maybe my right kidney?!

Market Prep, Part 3.
Hanging out on THE GOOD side for a change...

I decided to give my fingers, eyes and ever-diminishing sanity a break and work on a fun project that definitely falls on THE GOOD category... another patchwork pillow, this time showcasing the softer shades of Andalucia.

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In the "Petal" colorway, you will find soft pinks, flirty fuschias, citrusy greens and crisp whites. Bright oranges and chocolate browns make cameo appearances every now & then too, so they can play well with the deeper shades of the collection.

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I got news yesterday that the sample yardage should be arriving late next week so I got brave again and put scissors to my strike-offs. You may notice that the patchwork in this pillow is not perfectly matched, which, believe me, bothers me more than it will ever bother you. But the pieces I had left of some fabrics were so tiny that I couldn't even get a perfect 4" square out of them, so I had to borrow space from others...

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I love how well this medium pink baby-wale cord plays with the quilting cottons... so soft to the touch. I can totally see a girlie nursery decorated in these colors/prints.

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Candy, my Papin Pullip doll, even came out to play. She thinks this pillow is hers but she may have to fight Sophie, the "Queen of Pink," for it.

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I'm thinking Candy may need a new outfit made to match the rest of this décor, but I'm not good with sewing teeny-tiny things. Anyone out there up to the challenge? I'd love to bring her along with me to Market. She is excellent company... hardly ever disagrees! ;)

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Finally I wanted to share a Pumpkin Fair find from this weekend. Yes, we went to a Pumpkin Fair but it was so rainy and muddy and yucky outside that I didn't dare bring my SLR with me so there are no good pictures to share, but something good did come out of our little outing. I came across a local artisan mother & daughter team selling these adorable bracelets made out of old typewriter keys... how cool is this?! I fell in love with this one immediately and clutched it close so no one would swipe it from me.

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They were also selling these clever photo holders made from vintage cameras. One of these days I will share with you my extensive collection of vintage cameras. I actually had one just like this one already but was surprised to see this one come with the original flash bulb (my other one has no bulb).

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Me thinks my new Andalucia Moo cards (should be here soon!) will look smashing displayed on this old Kodak Duaflex II.
Market Prep, Part 2.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

You guys said you wanted to follow me behind the scenes as I prepare for Quilt Market. Well, ask and you shall receive... but just be warned that it's not all wine & roses around here. There are some, shall we say, less glamorous tasks that I feel I need to show in order for you to get the full scope of it.

I wish all I had to do was make pretty pillows and floral arrangements... that would definitely fall into "THE GOOD" category. But sadly that's not the case.

I've spent the past couple of days working on my Andalucia bookmarks (giveaways for the show) and the greeting cards. If I had unlimited funds I would've paid a company to do all this for me, but alas I don't so here's what I've been doing:

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1. I had my bookmarks cut down to size at Jon's company.
2. I used a corner rounder to punch out those lovely rounded edges.
3. I used an 1/8" hole punch to drill the tiny hole at the top.
4. I attached metal grommet with my grommet tool.
5. I inserted and tied the ribbon.

And yes, of course, I did this in steps... all the rounding first, then all the hole-punching next, and so on and so forth. I had to do this to 200 bookmarks, so that means I punched out 800 corners by hand... OUCH! And the worst part is that this is just half the order, I have another 200 coming my way in a couple of days... different Andalucia design on the front... kill me now!

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In between bookmark assembly steps I gave my fingers a bit of a rest by switching gears and working on my greeting card assembly. This one is not as hard on the fingers... just monotonous as heck! The steps on this one are just:

1. Fold greeting card in half (they come pre-scored so it's a breeze!)
2. Match up with colored envelope
3. Insert in cello sleeve
4. Put in stack with same-style cards

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That's just a small fraction of the cards in that picture. I still need to assemble about 200 more. eeek! I plan to offer these at Quilt Market... retail & wholesale. So, if you are coming to the show look me up!


By the way, if you can't make it to Quilt Market, the bookmarks and greeting cards are available in my Etsy store and everything is 10% off the advertised price for a limited time. Just write the discount code "Go Andalucia!" at check-out and I will refund you 10% off your total order via PayPal after payment receipt. :)

So there you have it...

THE BAD: having to punch out hundreds of corners and holes with my bare hands.
THE UGLY: the way my bare hands looked after punching out hundreds of corners and holes.

I actually had to soak my fingers in ice cold water to alleviate the redness & swelling... yep, not a pretty sight!

Needless to say, I was in no shape or mood to cook dinner last night , so Jon picked up food from our favorite Chinese restaurant (mmmm... they have the best egg drop soup and pork egg foo young I've ever tasted!)

This was my fortune:

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I think I need to take this as leeway to get my manicure and pedicure once this is all done and over.

Or maybe I just need to finally take a shower.
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