well, hello there

So it's already nearly summer and I haven't written is five long months, which means lots of exciting news. First, I'm going to be an aunt!! Chad and Amanda are 9 weeks and counting til they meet their new baby boy. The whole thing seems so incredible to me...a new person! This is the first new baby in our immediate family, which must be why it feels so profound. When I try to put it into words, they fail to express the wonder of it all. They've made a new person who will have his own thoughts and ideas and future and personality. It's so very cool and I am so SO excited.

My next piece of news is twice as exciting because of Baby Armington. Ben and I are going to be moving to Oregon for school in September, so we'll only be an hour and a half from Chad, Amanda and the new little guy! I'm going to be going for a graduate degree in public health and Ben is going back for his undergrad. What an awesome adventure. I haven't been this excited about a move in a very long time. Corvallis is a small town of 50,000 people and looks to be about 2 miles by 2 miles. Obviously, we'll be in for some adjustments. I can't really even picture how drastically our lives will change, but it's a welcome one.

This weekend, my best girlfriends (including my sister, Linds) all met up in Fort Collins, Colorado which is one of my all-time favorite places in the world. It was such an amazing time. There was laughing, story telling, shopping, eating, biking and some pretty serious bingo involved. The whole experience made me think of how much i enjoy a slower pace and smaller town.

I plan on using this blog to keep everyone in the loop so it doesn't feel like such a long long way away (as your blog says, Amanda!). I planned to post a bunch of 2010pictures, but my newer camera cord posed as my old camera cord while i was blindly searching for it early this morning. Expect those pictures soon.

350.org

I think this is pretty awesome.

It's short - only two minutes of your time.....

please spread the word and this video if you feel it's important.

i do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqof641pWys&feature=channel_page

motivation

do you ever just get stuck? Sometimes it's hard for me to get moving and stay moving. I've had a couple week hiatus with my purses and it's not because I don't have something to do. In fact, I have enough completed to get them up on etsy. For some reason I'm dragging my feet at the final stretch. I just need to take the pictures and put them up. Simple enough, right? It should be.

I'm not so sure that it's simply laziness. I think it may have more to do with my perfectionism and fear that they're not just right. I really don't want to sell anything that's not 100% fantastic. Does anyone else feel this way about their art? I guess I'd better just get over it and put them online.

On another note, does anyone know anything about the field of cardiac sonography? Some of you may know that I've run into some problems with going back to school this year (grrr, georgia state), and if I want to get my degree in speech language pathology, i'll have to wait til fall 2010. This means I won't be done til I'm 33. Arrrrgghhhhhh. That number does not seem to have anything to do with me. Wow, thirties. Just around the corner. Geez.

Anyhow, so, I'm considering some other options. SLP isn't out (in fact, the more I volunteer at the hospital, the more I enjoy it) - I just want to see what else is out there. If you know of another field that you think I may enjoy, please suggest it.

the great outdoors

This morning i woke up at 6:30. This may seem pretty normal to everyone, but it's a couple hours earlier than i usually get up at this point in my life and it's been the loveliest morning. There is something about watching the world wake up and hearing the birds sing that gives me a peaceful, happy feeling. i think i'll be doing this more often. maybe i'll take my camera and go for walks as the sun comes up. these are things that i wanted to do when i had my 9 to 5 job and always used to sigh and dream about the lucky people who got to do whatever they wanted every day. i haven't taken advantage of my situation this past year. but, i still have this summer before school starts. better late than never.

Anyway, so this weekend, i'm headed up to blue ridge with ben and my family and i can't wait to get up there. we've got plans to hike and kayak, and maybe even fish. as long as the rain holds, i think we'll be outside most of the time. outside in the woods is my absolute favorite place to be. i'll have pictures on monday.

i've got a few more pictures of new handbags that I want to share. The first one is the camel fabric with a gorgeous purple organic lining. There is a fully lined interior pocket.

Then I got stuck. I made this huge bag (it was really long but not that wide) that tapered into a narrow opening. Once I finished, I realized that it wasn't at all functional. Because the opening was only about 6 in. wide, it was like a black hole. You'd never be able to find anything in there. And I'd just spent an entire afternoon working on it. So I cut it up and salvaged what I could. It's cute, but because of all the cutting and redoing, it's not sellable. So I'm keeping it for myself. it's also got a fully lined interior pocket.

The last thing I want to share is from my friend Grant. He gave me a birthday gift this year. The funniest bday gift I've gotten in a long time. I absolutely loved it....

I haven't had a barbie since elementary school. She's a ballerina barbie, complete with pink tutu. Now, don't think there's anything wierd about her pose. She is posed with a banana, but that's simply because her arms stick out all strangely, like she's supposed to be holding something. The only thing close by was this pretty rotten banana. It worked. We thought it was funny. Thanks Grant for the awesome bday present and card!

Getting off the ground...

I'm very excited to report that after years of sewing and dreaming of selling my handbags and other creations, I'm making it a reality. Meishy is off the ground and running!! Check out the new logo...

This week is dedicated to creating inventory. As much as I possibly can. I sewed my heart out yesterday and have the sore hands to show for it. Which is probably why I'm blogging this morning instead of finishing up the wristlets from yesterday. I've got a new messanger type bag in my head and I want to get into it, but I've got to finish these little guys from yesterday first.

For those of you who don't know me, I've been sewing for about, hm, maybe 6 years or so. I love it and have always wanted to start my own handbag business, but never felt like it was a real possibility. Well, last year (actually, it'll be a year as of tomorrow), my boss told me that they no longer needed my services. Up til that point, I'd been a fundraiser for a large non-profit. I had 7 weeks til my last day. It really sucked, a big hit to the ego, but I figured I'd have another job within four months, tops. But it didn't work out that way. It's been a year, and I've not had a single job offer. I will be going back to school this summer for speech language pathology and have decided to create Meishy in the meantime. Maybe it'll take off and will become my full-time career. Crazier things have happened. So, I'll be updating this blog with pictures of my creations and thoughts of starting a new business and other things that pop into my head. Thanks for reading!