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.

beautiful things

I want to share Avie Designs with you. Avie does gorgeous stationary, wedding invitations, baby announcements, bookplates (a GREAT gift idea), return address labels, calling cards (think biz cards for yourself or your side business) and lots of other cool graphic designy things. For those of you who don't know, I work a few hours a week for Avie, which is great fun and always inspiring. So, check out the Avie store here on etsy: http://www.avie.etsy.com/. Here's a few pictures to whet your appetite:

the willow wedding suite

dots and stripes bookplates

mums calling cards

Also, my flowers are blooming like crazy right now, so I thought I'd share a few pictures. I've been waiting for these guys to bloom for weeks!

pictures...

I have my camera back and have downloaded pictures of my trip to Blue Ridge as well as the latest two bags I've created. Enjoy!

Ben and I about to leave our cabin for a hike.



The cabin was lovely.

I think this is mountain laurel - sumac? Not sure, but it was beautiful.

We had such a great time on this hike. It was a pretty easy 6 mile hike and it misted on us the whole time. We felt like we were in a costa rican rain forest. Side note: my sister, Lindsey was also on this trip, but I have, at times, posted some slightly unflattering (so she says) pictures of her and she's not a fan. I don't think she can take bad pictures, but, hey, she's entitled to her opinion. I didn't have any on this particular trip that I thought would pass her inspection. :)

Who would guess this is less than two hours from Atlanta!?

And the bags. I'm crazy about this fabric. It's a purple and white luxurious linen so light that each panel is doubled to make sure all you see is the fabric rather than any inside material.

The first has one exterior and one interior pocket. No closure.

The second has two interior pockets and a light purple zipper for closure.

Check out a close up picture of the linen.


Two interior pockets.

So obviously, I've not been doing a ton of sewing, but I DID make it to the fabric store again this weekend and am excited to start on a slew of new bags. I also do have three other bags to show you all, but am having a hard time figuring out a beautiful way to showcase them. Any photography suggestions? I'm at a loss here!

Today, my good friend Katie is driving in for a short lunch visit on her way back home to New Orleans, and tomorrow Ben and I leave for four days in Tampa to visit with his family. I'm so excited to see everyone. I really hope to have my esty store open next week. I'll keep you posted!

Gail K Fabrics

Today I went to the coolest, largest, most overwhelming fabric store ever. It's called Gail K Fabrics and it's stocked with every type of fabric you could imagine. It was glorious! The only bad part was that due to the immense selection, I was completely unable to focus and figure out what I wanted. I ended up with a beautiful purple and white linen. Oh my god, it's gorgeous and I've already finished one bag with it. It's got two inside pockets - one is a cell phone pocket (mom). I wish I could post a pic, but it'll just have to wait since I left my camera at my parents house after our trip to the mountains.

Our trip to Blue Ridge was so wonderful. We hiked on Saturday and Sunday and also spent a little time in downtown Blue Ridge. The rest of the time was spent cooking, eating and hanging out with each other. ahhhhhh. As soon as I'm out of the city and traffic and stress and into nature with my favorite people in the world, all is good. North Georgia is so incredibly beautiful. i can't believe how close it is to home. Less than 2 hours away, but it feels like another country...like Costa Rica or Belize or someplace magical like that. As soon as I get my camera, I'll show some pictures of the weekend too.

I got a really late start today, so I'm off to try and get another bag started by the end of the night.

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!

Progress

I wanted to show some pictures of my latest creations. This one is the Calie and there are four of them:

And this is the Zebra - the one and only: