Become a Fan!

Just a quick posting today on a recent accomplishment I achieved. I have finished up, for the most part, my facebook fan page. If you would like to become a fan, head on over and sign up. I hope to keep you the most up to date on the blog here as well as on facebook. I will be posting specials to the fan page, so make sure you sign up to get the passwords and codes from me. If you are not on facebook, I will be setting up a quarterly e-mail newsletter in the future. Look for that announcement to come. Once again, thanks to everyone over the past year for the support you have given me. I would not be here if it weren't for you! Come on over and check out the new digs!

Tea and Cookies with Jam

Today is delightfully cloudy and misty. I call them Seattle days because they really remind me of the times I have spent up there. It was the perfect day for some tea with work. I had to take a picture of the tea pot on its stand. I know that it did not come through well in the picture, but the steam rising up from the spout was fun to watch and very beautiful. Today I am still working on the fortune cookie promos. There are so many of them, and seeing as I am doing over 200, it is taking a long time. At most I have only done around 150, so this is a big step forward. I hope it pays off.

I have been thoroughly enjoying reading The Gentle Art of Domesticity and have found it quite inspiring. It has also helped me feel even more grounded in my decision to remain a stay at home wife with a small home business. This weekend I made orange marmalade because I was so inspired with the idea of being a domestic artist.



Dan helped out with some of the stirring in the two day process and serves as a hand model in this picture. I was trying to cook up the jam using the natural pectin of the oranges. On day two, I chickened out a bit. I thought about it and decided that I probably took too much pith off the fruit for natural pectin alone, so I used some Sure Jell to make sure that it was a solid jelly instead of runny. For my first canning project, I think it went really well. All my jars sealed with only having to reprocess two cans. I am pretty sure they did not have the right amount of head room for an easy seal. I also found that the recipes in my 1964 edition of the Ball Blue Book are way bigger than they say they are. The original recipe said this would yield 7 half pints. I ended up with 12.



I hope that we can get through all this in time for next year. I am sure that my Dad will want some when my parents come to visit. Who knows, perhaps it will turn into some hostess gifts as well. I just need to make sure that it is jelled and not liquid before I give any away. The remainder of the jelly that I had left in the pan has really jelled up in the fridge, but the jars still seem pretty liquid. Time will tell. Well, the cookies are calling my name. I need to get them off in the mail tomorrow to meet the deadline. Time for some gluing action!

The Fog Has Returned

The fog has once again returned to the Bay Area, and I could not be happier. I am not sure what it is about the fog here, but I love it. It is a thick fog that stays high most days, but sometimes envelops the entire landscape so you cannot even see out the window. Today was a high cloud type of fog, and it also had a fresh sea smell today. Love it!

Yesterday was exceptionally busy, so I did not have any time to write. Between trying to work on promos and going into the city to tutor at 826 Valencia there was not much time. I also was invited out to lunch by my husband. It was a nice cafe style lunch at a little French bistro in South Park. It was rather romantic. In an attempt to get a ton of work on the promos done, I set up a work station in front of the television, so that after dinner viewing would still be possible.



I just do not trust myself to sit on the white couch and use permanent inks. I stamped my little heart out both on Wednesday and Thursday. I also worked on cutting all my wires and ribbon. Sadly I figured out late last night, read 1 am, that I do not have enough ribbon. *sigh* So, I need to make a run to the craft store today. I foresee my goal of mailing these out today slipping to tomorrow.

I also replanted all the new herbs into the window box. I love how it looks now, so lush and green.



So now I can just go to the window to get most fresh herbs. The only thing I use often that I do not have is cilantro. It just does not work out very well in the window. I also have a tomato finally growing in the Aerogarden. Sadly, though I am going to have to do some pruning. I put it off as long as possible, but the plant is dangerously growing into the light.

On the plate for today, Laundry! Yep, Friday=Laundry day. I also want to finish up all the promo cookies. I will try to pile them all up on a table or something and take one big group show. I also have lessons at Fat Chance this evening. Dan and I also are planning on working on orange marmalade part one tonight. Hopefully that all goes well. I will keep you posted.

Tutu Time

I finished up the tutu yesterday. It was a really fun project, and I am rather pleased with how it turned out. I look all over the web for different tutu tutorials (I love that phrase)and found that I really liked the one made by Plumtickled. I decided that Claudia is old enough to not untie all the tulle and she is also old enough to use an elastic banded one with out incident. Hopefully my judgments were all sound. I ended up picking up two rolls of 6" tulle for this project, one in pink and one in purple, because those are Claudia's favorite colors. She seemed to wear them a lot when I was out in Delaware to visit. I also found a great matching ribbon in the sale bin for a pretty bow on the back. I cannot wait to pack it up and send it off to the birthday girl. Here are some pictures of the finished piece.




I hope the future ballerina enjoys her first tutu. I also hope her parents don't kill me for it! :)

For today, I want to take things a bit easy. I have lots of promos to make and send out by the end of the week, so it looks like I have a date with some felt and a circle cutter. I hope to get my usual fortune cookies made and out the door by Friday. My goal is 350, but I will be happy with 200. I just hope I have a box somewhere that they will all fit in.

Cookie Factory

Yesterday I got rather wrapped up in working on my promotional items that are going to fellow Etsy shop Simply Sarah's Paper Perfections. I decided to stick with my two favorite things, Asian style items, and kitsch. I morphed the two into the following promotional item: felt fortune cookies. I got the idea, but had no clue what to write as my fortune to people getting them at the craft show. Should I just put the same content as my business cards? That seemed rather boring. I mulled over this for days, and finally when on a fabric buying trip, I stopped for lunch at a Chinese food place. In my fortune cookie, I got my answer for what to write inside. "Fabulousness in dress will send desirous eyes your direction." Thank you whoever wrote that one at the factory! So going out to the lovely Sarah are 60 of these handmade felt fortune cookies with my shop information. Look for them at the Seafood, Music and Wine Festival in Panama City Florida. Also look for Sarah, or if you aren't in the are check out her Etsy shop liked above. Here are some pictures of my cookie making day.


Cookies being assembled and glued together.


Close-up of an unfolded cookie.


Sixty finished felt cookies.

Productive Weekend, Trying to Carry That into the Week

I got more done this weekend than I thought. I was trying to keep off the machines, since the hubby needed quiet while he worked on his programming for work. I ended up working on a personal project but also on many things for the shop. On Saturday, I went to the knitting group I have become a part of. It is put on by Knit-One-One, a local knitting school that I will one day take some spinning classes from. I have learned to knit from a very talented friend, and am working on my first project. It is, of course, a scarf for my Grandmother for Christmas. I am hoping I will get it done in time along with all the other gifts I have to make. I then spent some quality lazy time with the husband. He even took me fabric shopping! He is a great man! I found some great fabrics and am really excited to start cranking out some new pairs of pants with them. They are truly gorgeous.

On Sunday, I did my normal domestic duties such as shopping at the Farmer's Market and picking up the other groceries at the store. I finished the laundry that is always supposed to get done on Friday, but always seems to not get done because of my working on pants items! :) I worked on some promotional items for the store that are going to be given out by a fellow Etsy shop Simply Sarah's Paper Perfections at a craft show in Florida. I hope it gets some new people into Fabulous Pants. I also worked more on braiding the purple falls I am working on for the store. They are super long! I really am liking this pair, and I hope that they find a good home soon when I get them onto the store. Hopefully they will be up in the next few weeks. They do take a long time since I braid almost all of the yarns that are attached on the bands. Pictures to come soon.... I promise this time!

Well it is time to get back to work on these promos. I also am down right determined to get the pants that I am working on for a special order done. They are made out of a different kind of fabric I have never used before for these pants, so they are taking a really long time. I really want them done though.... the person they are for has waited very patiently, and they need their pants. I just want them to be perfect. Hopefully this pair will make me gain some confidence though, and hopefully I will branch out further with the pants line because of this. If I do, they will be named after her! Off to work, and I hope you all have a creative day.