Gratitude

I can't seem to organize my thoughts into a blog. I've got so much to get out but at the moment I just don't know how. Brett's Grandpa Peterson, our sealer at our wedding, passed away during the night last night. Brett had a special relationship with him and I am so grateful for the Plan of Happiness :)

Bella Vista Craft Fair

What a learning experience! A fun one at that. I think I may be a little bit addicted.

It was fun driving up to grandmas house the night before and spending the night.

For the past 3 weeks I've been tucking Brett into bed and staying up late to work work work. Lorelai and I left for grandmas at 8 pm, after dark, and I was really worried about my ability to stay awake driving alone in those conditions so I stopped at Panda Express and bought a Dr Pepper, bom bom bom! But it did the trick! I made it safely to Grandmas just after 10 PM and was completely wired for the next two hours. I did manage to get to bed at about midnight thirty and got four hours of sleep before my big day. Poor Emily though, didn't get to bed until 2:30 or so trying to finish her last massive wave of bags.

All the same we still got up and met a block away from the school on time. We dropped Ems car off in the parking lot of the near by Beverly's (only appropriate) and joined the progression of mini vans, mondo vans, and massive trailers pulling into the school. We were directed around a bit until we found our spot and got to start setting up. The event didn't start until 8 and we were ready at 7. So Em and I sat down in the freezing cold to finish up some hand sewing. Fortunately the bags provided a make shift blanket so I didn't completely turn into a Popsicle. Em had 2 sweaters on and still was too cold to tie effective knots with out much much effort and hand rubbing together. Note to self, when the forecast says high 70's bring a jacket anyway until the sun comes up doggoneit.

We enjoyed watching passersby and the few sales we got were fun too. The morning was much busier and pretty much right off the bat Emily sold one of her bags. I sold a pettiskirt and a bag and a few smaller items. Then we sat around while Emily nearly passed out from exhaustion and customer after customer came by and toyed with our emotions. If I had a dollar for every time someone came by and exclaimed over the cuteness of my pettiskirts and then didn't buy one I'd be rich out of my mind and Emily would be the same with her bags. In the end someone came by and bought the whole Halloween out fit pettiskirt and shirt.

During the show we were invited to 3 more craft fairs and will definitely be going to 2 of them, plus another we had already planned on. Expect to hear more about it in the future!

Unfortunately I don't have pics from the fair yet but you can expect those in the near future as well :)

The Missing Bag

I'm freezing, tired and sore.

For the first time in a few weeks I got up and ran this morning. Ow! It was hard. My leg muscles were totally stoked and loving the exercise but my diaphragm and core muscles were suffering.

My poor body slipping into out of shape-ness, I'm glad I got up and ran and I hope, even though tonight is going to be just as late a night as the last 3 weeks, I will get up and run again tomorrow.

I'm freezing because I am waiting for the bus to pick up Desmond so I can take a shower. I was perfectly warm while running but when I got into the car afterwards, yikes!

Well for an update, these last few nights have not been frivolous. I've been working my tail off (figuratively) getting ready for this fair on Saturday. I finished 10 bags last night (go me!) and I dropped them off at the hospital so my mom can hand stitch the holes shut while I move on to bigger projects.

I just can't see myself mass producing bags this way again. I really like to do them one at a time. I like being able to listen to the impressions I get as I am sewing, the inspirations I get to make each piece its own kinda special. The 10 bags I made are nice but I'm not attached to any of them in anyway and I really don't like that. Next time I'll just have to pace myself better :)

I have 2 pettiskirts done, 4 halfway done and all the fabric cut out to finish the partials as well as the 3 pettiskirts I haven't even started. I should be able to get all of that done today. That is the first part of my two fold plan. The second thing I want to accomplish tonight is to get the fabric cut out for the American Girl skirts so I can sew those up tomorrow. Then I'll be done!

Good thing to because I leave for Sacramento tomorrow night. The fair is the day after tomorrow!! I can't believe its here already! I'm not quite excited yet. I probably will be when the skirts are done but I still have too much on my mind.

I'm off to re thread my serger (it's not scary, I love it!!) and serg my day away! Wish me luck.