busy days

Hello friends!
The last month and a half or more was intense. I felt like I was constantly racing to meet deadlines and didn't feel like I could take a moment's rest. Well, I'm in the clear again, sort of, I think, for now....


(mulling spices! the house smells so good when I work on putting these together.)

Now I'm working on getting ready for the holiday season! Yep, yep... I know, it's not even Halloween - no one wants to hear about Christmas season marketing, it's true -- but for little businesses like mine, now is the time to prepare. Whew.

First though -- bowl covers. I have no idea how many of these things I've made in the past couple of months.. I kinda wish I were more organized and would have kept some sort of record because man, it must be a lot. The first goal was Crafty Bastards, which was last Saturday and then, the Martha Stewart American Made Marketplace which is coming up in two weeks, but I had to ship all of my product on Tuesday of last week. So, you see the tricky timing? I sold out of bowl covers well before the end of both events last year, so I knew I had to make a lot more than that and I thought I did.... I took almost all of them with me to Crafty Bastards, leaving only 5 of each size here to ship to NYC. When I was packing the car and looking at the boxes and gigantic bag of bowl covers I was thinking, "KJ, you crazy, girl - this is WAY too many." But you know what, I came home with a lot less than I thought I would. Phew! So, I've been making them like crazy all week and now, I think I FINALLY feel on top - so much so, that I updated my shop and added the new colors. Woohoo!

Here are the current color/fabric choices:


The "DS" ones are fabrics designed by Denyse Schmidt for Joann fabrics and I just love love LOVe them. That blue one is my current fabric obsession; I just think it is absolute perfection. The "Autumn" one is a little bit of a different fabric choice for me but the other day, as I'd just driven a couple of hours through this amazing Fall/Indian Summer splendor, that print totally called out to me. It feel so warm and bright and fall-like to me. (Warm fall, not cold fall - I *hate* cold fall days.) And "Playhouse" -- why the name "playhouse"? Well, that's another fabric that is maybe a bit different from one I'd usually choose, but again, I was drawn to it and had to have it. It wasn't until hours later, after I'd come home, washed it, dried it, ironed it, cut out circles and was sewing bowl covers that it struck me -- this fabric is VERY similar to a print/fabric that my mama used to make a tablecloth for my little playhouse when I was six-ish years old.



I have this theory (maybe theory isn't the right word -- a musing? a thought?) that the people who are now designing for the big companies and the market at large, in fashion, home design, textiles, etc, are mostly my my age. It makes sense that the fashion trends that we loved in high school are coming back now, and the textiles that we grew up with are having an influence on the ones we see on the market today, right?

Aaaanyways. Bowl covers. Yes, they're back in the shop now!



I hope you're enjoying this *gorgeous* Saturday. The weather here is amazing -- feels like summer. I'm stuck doing my taxes this weekend (because I am a PRO-CRAS-TIN-ATOR), but in between, I'm gonna repot all of my little houseplants and take care of the garden. And I think I might go apple picking in the morning... We went last weekend and we still have plenty of apples, but really, with weather this great, I'm happy to go back to the orchard!