the Brass Bell tolls....

So this weekend was the OFFICIAL launch of The Brass Bell Stitchery. Exciting. I know. Try to contain yourself. Although if you are a person who can do cartwheels, I would like you to go and do a few in honor of my shop launch, because I am woefully inable to execute a proper cartwheel without seriously injuring myself.

On top of that? Was contacted by the lovely Greta who told me she LOVED my shop, and wanted to promote my shop and do a giveaway! Hooray! So hop over to her blog before April 20th for your chance to get my delish little Amelia Convertible Wristlet. You know you want it.....



And here for your viewing pleasure are a few more goodies from my shop. Stop by and take a peek!



Do I smell smoke?

Oooh, nope! It's not smoke. That's just my brain.

Sheesh! For some reason it's been an EXHAUSTING couple of weeks. Let's just say that the little hamster on the wheel in my brain is severely overworked, and not happy. I don't blame him. I wake him up at all hours of the night.

I feel like I'm ready to go home, have a good cry in the shower, put on a bunch of cozy, layer-y, mismatched comfy clothes, and sit at my tidy desk sipping piping hot tea out of my favorite Noritake teacup and saucer. I'd like to listen to every album I have by The Shins until Girl Sailor is just burned into my brain. I'd like to go a whole day without talking to anybody. Actually, I'd like to do that, except I'd like to still tell Kevin how much I adore him. Other than that, no talking. I'd also like some of my Auntie Sheryl's Christmas donuts.

At least we're going up to the lake this weekend with our small group! That will require talking to people, but I'm hoping the gorgeousness of it makes me forget that fact.

Can it be nap time now? I'd like that.

Back to work...

Just like Clark Kent...

Know what I wonder sometimes? I wonder if Clark Kent liked being a reporter. I wonder if he liked his day job. I also sort of wonder when he had time to sleep - I mean, he was doing the whole Daily Planet thing by day, and then he'd pull of his work clothes and his Superman costume would be underneath, and he'd go around saving the world at night. Crazy. 

My Clark Kent job has been tiring lately. I feel restless and anxious and bored and like it's time for a change. Even so, I have been a busy little bee in the evenings and during the weekend. I dive into a pile of fabric and start cutting and pinning and ironing and stitching, until I have a pretty darned cute little purse, and I feel like I'm well on my way to the launch of my Etsy shop! The official launch date is going to be Saturday, March 19th (one week from tomorrow - YIKES!) and I still have LOADS to do! I don't have boxes to ship things in. I don't have my business cards done yet. I also have no idea what my prices are going to be.

Last weekend I made a delicious discovery - a fabric shop about 7 minutes away from our house that sells Amy Butler fabric - hooray! All sorts of it! All her new stuff, and a lot of her older stuff, and I'm SO excited! I had to hold myself back from buying dozens of yards and going home and rolling around in it with glee. I also bought one of her patterns, which I was SO excited to try. It turned out to be - however - almost un-follow-able. I know that's not a word. I literally got to step three, and then got totally confused and lost. I ended up ditching the pattern and just winging it, which I must say turned out pretty well.

Anyway, between the wine tasting at The Grape tonight with Ben & Mary, and softball with Kevin's buddies tomorrow, I will be sewing up a storm in preparation for the shop launch.

Brass Bell Stitchery - coming soon to a browser near you!

Just me and my little blue sewing machine...

About a month ago, Kev and I decided it was time to change our diet. We'd been doing the vegetarian thing, but we weren't loving it. Kev listened to an audio book about the benefits of a low-carb diet, and we're both hooked. We've both lost weight (yay!) and are feeling great with our 4-5K walks that we do together each day. The problem? Hello? I bake a lot. And baked goods are basically carbs. Carbs mixed with sugar. Uh-oh. So what was I going to do for fun? My baking hobby was about to take a steep nosedive, and I was feeling a little antsy, needing a new creative outlet that wouldn't reduce my figure to that of an Oompa-Loompa in a few months time.

So what's a girl to do?

I bought a sewing machine.

I've been spending an hour or so a night playing with different fabrics, and I've decided to open my own Etsy shop where I can sell my little collection of handbags. I'm REALLY excited about this - seriously. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, and I need to be very careful not to start thinking about all the yummy fabrics I have sitting on the shelf in the studio. When I do that, my brain starts whirring, and it's all I can do to get back to sleep.
ANYWAY, I've made about 6 handbags so far, and the last two nights, I embarked into the world of the clutch purse. I'm GIDDY about the outcome. My favorite so far is a little clutch I made from some adorable fabric I found at JoAnne's - I might need to buy multiple bolts of this fabric, and just cover the whole house in it. It's fab.

Kevin has a Microsoft-something-or-rather meeting tonight, and so I'm going to go home and put on my favorite pair of ripped, paint-splattered, super-comfy jeans, steal one of Kev's super comfy college t-shirts from his drawer, and settle in for a nice evening of sewing. I'll also be catching up on my Glee. I know it's been inexcusably terrible lately, but it's like a train wreck, I can't help but watch it. Justin Beiber? Seriously? Are you guys scraping the bottom of the barrel?

Somebody has a case of the Mondays......

Yep. I'm suffering from a case of the Mondays. Have you ever seen Office Space? Remember that wayyy-too-perky redhead lady with the annoying voice who asks if someone has a case of the Mondays? I hope she doesn't show up today, because if she does I might have to be mean to her.

Maybe it's a result of the chicken wings I ate last night, after not eating meat for quite a while. Maybe it's the fact that I'm still fighting this funky annoying cold that has me chilly, and snifflin, and coughing. Maybe it's because I had wierd dreams about Muppets last night, and didn't sleep well. Either way, here's a list of things I'd like to be doing right now:

1. experimenting with a new purse pattern.
2. wearing my strawberry pajamas and snuggling deep below a pile of blankets watching a Disney movie.
3. getting a pedicure. It's the middle of winter, and my feet are scary.
4. making a batch of blueberry pancakes with lemon curd.
5. hanging out with my mom, who is also sick. Bummer.

Back to work. Email box is full, and I can only ignore it for so long....

I am sick. Again.

How does this happen to me? How is my immune system so sub-par that I just walk around with a big bullseye on my forehead, waiting for a big gang of germs to spot me and rain down on me like a hailstorm?

See, I should have known last night. Kevin and I went to my parents house last night after church to watch a movie on my dad's GIANT new TV. It's huge. Anyway, we were munching on pizza and salad, and I took a sip of my Corona and it just tasted funny. Plus my appetite was pretty much non-existant. I went home and took a handfull of vitamins - a multi-V, vitamin D, a MASSIVE vitamin C chewable, and another big oval shaped one that I can't remember the name of....then I sipped a big steaming mug of chamomile honey tea, and drifted off to sleep praying that I'd managed to dodge it. Woke up this morning, and I SO did not dodge it. quite the opposite, actually. I think my cold took advantage of the fact that I was sleeping and got to work on my system.

I have that funny feeling in my head that you get when you have a cold, like your head is actually inside a moderately sized fish-bowl, and everything you hear is both muffled, and absolutely aggravating to your ears.

I have a scratchy throat that makes me want to not talk at all. Did I mention that my job is talking on the phone a lot? It is. Boo.

I have chills, even though I'm wearing a long warm skirt, and two long sleeved shirts. About to reach into my desk drawer and pull out my fleece shawl and wrap it around myself in a manner suggesting that I don't really care how I look right now. I'd like to go home now and curl up in bed with the big brown furry blanket, and snuggle up with a hot water bottle by my feet, and sniffle and sip on chamomile tea, and Canada Dry ginger ale, which reminds me of my Papa.

*sniffle*

PS: I also want some chicken noodle soup. I know I'm supposed to be doing the vegan/vegetarian thing, but I want some chicken noodle soup. And some vanilla pudding. And my strawberry pajamas.

I heart goat cheese....and my husband's chili....

It's Thursday, and I'm tantalizingly close to the WEEKEND. My brain is buzzing with all of the awesome potential of those two days...maybe I'll break in my new sewing machine, and whip up something awesome. Maybe I'll spend the whole weekend ogling Joy the Baker's recipes. One thing I KNOW I will be doing is having dinner tomorrow night at our house with our friends Bo and Sharon, and their devilishly handsome corgi, Reagan. I have a little doggie crush on him, and I keep dog cookies in the pantry just for him.
ANYWAY, my sweet husband is making us a big tasty pot of Vegan Chili. He makes the best chili. It's full of good stuff....pinto, kindney, black, and chili beans...sweet corn and cute little cubes of tofu...green, red, orange, and red peppers, and some adorable little sweet peppers, along with a couple jalapenos. Seriously, the man makes the BEST chili, and I'm not just biased because I'm his wife or anything. All of this will be consumed with some tasty, creamy guacamole I picked up from Trader Joe's this week. Heck, maybe I'll just throw the guac on top of the chili and scoop everything up with tortilla chips. Anything is possible on the weekend!
Another food-related thing I will DEFINITELY be doing is eating some goat cheese. I love goat cheese. Have you had goat cheese? It's fantastic. My love affair with goat cheese started at Eclipse di Luna, where they serve little balls of goat cheese fried to perfection, then smothered with caramelized onions and then drizzled with wild honey. I know, right? Yum. Incidentally, they also do these uh-mazing frenched lamb chops that you dip into creamy goat cheese sauce with rosemary in it.
What was I talking about again? Oh, goat cheese. Yeah, it's that good. PLUS, Trader Joe's started carrying these little individual portions of goat cheese that I've been eating at lunch. Yum. Time to caramelize some onions this weekend, pop em' on top of a little goat cheese, and break out the orange blossom honey. That counts as breakfast, right?