you can't see it but it's there!

this morning when i walked out to the bus stop at a bright and early 7:30 i looked up at the morning sky and saw a rainbow. i was surprised because it hasn't rained for days, but i guess the fog can play tricks with the light in the sky. anyway it made me happy. and i looked around to see if anyone else waiting for the bus noticed. it was a perfect semi-circle of a rainbow and i knew my phone wouldn't do the stunning light justice but i snapped up two pictures anyway. here they are. if you look really hard you can sort of make out the rainbow i saw, just trust me that it was a lot prettier than that.



for everyone i love who is having a hard time these pictures are for you, maybe you can't make out the rainbow right now, but i promise it's there. i'm not sure what's going on with so many bad things happening all at once but i'd like the universe to work out this kink and make it stop.

i attempted to make the rainbow more noticeable in photoshop and failed, but i thought they still looked pretty neat.

prettiest flyer ever

it's pretty isn't it? designed by the talented Ashley Rose Helvey for the craft fair i'll be selling all those things i've been posting about this past month. Ambatalia is a sweet little fabric store worth the trip to Mill Valley alone, and next tuesday there will be a whole bunch of talented people selling handmade goods there. i suggest you call in sick to work and drive on up there. or come by for some wine after your long day, we'll there until 8.

making more..

for my sanity this holiday season i've scaled back the amount of craft fairs i'm doing to two! the rest of what i make will be going to a few stores and in my Etsy shop if i have anything left over. the best part of all of it for me, no duct tape! i made the rings above using the vintage buttons i got when Susan was out here in August. a group of us went to an amazing little secret button shop just packed with vintage buttons. i wish i had bought more of that pink one up there. i'm tempted to keep that one but i have a feeling someone else will love it as much as i do.


the rest of the day was spent making more clutches. i'm having a lot of fun with these.


i also settled on a small wallet pattern to make with the vinyl, i'm using some of the fabulous trim Lisa sent me and i think they're turning out so sweet.

too much sleep.

this is what happens when i fall asleep at 9pm, it's almost 4am and i'm wide awake. what better thing to do than lie in bed and catch up on emails and blog reading? hopefully i'll get tired again soon, i've got a full day of crafting ahead of me tomorrow. Molly had sent me this link to her friends new blog a while back and i just caught up now. amazing. a new daily read for me for sure. i'm not even explaining it here just do yourself a favor and click on over. i love that PeeWee!

count down.

the table is set, food prep is done, sarah is passed out in bed and roger and dave are playing music as i sit on the couch and type this. and i am thankful for my amazing friends.

here's what our thanksgiving table looks like. it's late and i'm tired, but i'm pretty happy with it.





gobble gobble to you and yours.

thanksgiving crafts

I posted about some of my favorite crafty thanksgiving ideas over at SFist today. You can read it here. If my stupid camera was working I would post a picture of the name tags I made for the table last night. Instead you can look at Linda's pretty ones, and go to her awesome blog to read up on how she made them. Gobble Gobble!

trim!

Lisa sent me the most amazing, never-ending box full of trim! I opened it and repeated no way out loud to myself over and over. My camera is dead, and these cell phone pictures really don't do the pretty trim justice- but look at all this!! I feel SO lucky and I can't wait to start stitching them onto all the bags and wallets I'm making for the holidays.




Thanks Lisa! (If you're in SF be sure to check out Lisa's awesome new store.)

Craft On!

Just posted on SFist about the Craft Gym's annual Craft-Off happening this Friday. So. Much. Fun. Read it here.

heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking.

i don't ever cry at the news. people shooting each other, getting busted for stupid things, that doesn't get to me- i mean we're all a big mess. but why we gotta go and fuck with the birds and the fishes? i mean really. i can't believe oil spills still happen. i can't believe how devasting this 58,000 gallon spill in the bay is. last night i cried when they covered the rescue efforts of all the birds in the bay. the poor little things, being washed off and fed with tubes and sick and covered in oil. thank goodness there are so many willing to help recover these helpless little guys. i wanted to share something a co-worker sent today, she has some great info to offer to those who want to help.
****
as you all know by now, on November 7, the Cosco Busan ran into the Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay. it's a devastating event for the marine and bird life that inhabit our bay and coastal waters. hundreds of birds have been taken to the International Bird Rescue Center in Fairfield. how many of them will actually survive is yet to be seen.

i spent my weekend rescuing oiled birds in Pacifica. seeing the devastation first hand is as heartbreaking as Friday's Chronicle headline indicates. i'll be spending my anniversary day off at the IBRC helping to keep the rescue efforts afloat. if you have an interest in helping out with laundry, building pens, preparing feeds or anything else that they need, please contact Cindy Murphy at 916-616-4515. she is their volunteer coordinator and this is her cell #. you will receive a call back and anything you can do to help is very much appreciated.

if you can't volunteer, you can still help with a donation. The groups in need are:Baykeeper.org, Oiled wildlife care network, wildlifehealth@ucdavis.edu

crochet and rain

It was a cozy weekend here in the bay area. Perfect for feeling sick and learning how to crochet. I spent almost my entire weekend with friends in the east bay, loved that rain we got on saturday. Sarah and I took a three hour crochet class at Article Pract saturday morning, and even though I was a little more than groggy at 9am I left knowing how to crochet and continued to do so until sunday night. Mostly I just practiced, starting scarves and than unraveling them when things started to look uneven. I'm so excited I know how to crochet now as I think it's a little more varied than knitting. Saturday was also spent with some good old friends who recently bought a sweet little house in the east bay. I used to live with them and it was great to spend a rainy night in their new cozy home and even better to see their pets who I've missed ever since they moved out. That's Cody up there, cuddling up with my crochet.

this will soothe you.

i promise.

Is a Woman by Lambchop.

see you there!

If you missed the great piece on decor stores that also act as galleries in yesterdays SF Chron be sure to check it out here. Anh-Minh Le does a great job of profiling some unique shops that also support local artists and crafters. And as if shopping in these stores wasn't enough, this weekend presents itself with some great excuses to visit a few of these places with some great show openings.

Folklore: Drawings and Paintings by Diana Fayt
Tonight! 6:30-8:30pm
Candy Store - 3153 16th street

'Untie & Unfold': Collages by Lorena Siminovich
Friday November 9th, 7-10pm
Doe - 629 Haight Street

Musical Chairs: Work by Susie Ghahremani
Saturday November 10th, 6:30-10pm
Giant Robot Giant Robot - 618 Schrader Street

Lovely image above by Diana Fayt

Feeling Feisty?

I interviewed the lovely Leslie Yang of Feisty Elle for SFist. You can read it here.

Softies: The Movie!

Andrew did an amazing job editing/making this movie. I just played with toys and moved stuff around.. I'm thrilled with how it turned out.



And while you have that song stuck in your head go on over to Terry's website and vote for your favorite Softie finalist in the Holiday Softie Awards.

behind the scenes..

i have a pretty fantastic job most days. i get to work on some great crafty books with some very talented people. i do the easy part of opening up my big mouth and telling everyone how great the books are once they are all finished and perfect. but once in a while i find a way to slip some super fun and creative things into my job. today i worked on a movie i hired my friend to make for the Softies book we published this fall. we're doing a stop action short. i should say Andrew's doing most of it, although i'm seriously assisting. and this is stop action the old school way, where we move things a centimeter between each shot. it's labor intensive and hard for an impatient girl like myself, but it's a whole lot of fun. i'll post the finished product here as soon as it's done, but for now- here are some shots from our work today.



those adorable doughnut and ice cream sandwich softies were made by one of my all time favorite softie makers Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane. Be sure to check out her website.. so many amazing Softies for sale in her shop.

and of course the kitties lounged through it all, as if nothing different was happening in their house today.