Open for Business!

The shop is finally back up and running. There's nothing new as of yet but I promise new things will be coming soon. We're battling the flu here in addition to unpacking and my day job has really picked up with tons of work, so much to my disappointment crafting has taken a bit of a backseat. Hopefully it's not for long!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Actually, it's been quite relaxing today sitting at my desk with the window open and listening to the raindrops falling through the trees right outside. It's been raining pretty much nonstop for the last few days, so I still don't have any pretty pictures to show you. Soon, I'm hoping, although the weatherman says the rain is sticking around at least for another day.

I'd forgotten how quiet and slow it is here in Iowa. It's not heaven but it's pretty close. I kind of feel like I'm on an extended vacation and it's been a little hard to get back into the swing of things. There's just something in the air that's just so calming and I find myself just sitting and doing absolutely nothing for long periods of time. It feels quite wonderful. No sirens, no buses or trains, just rain and an owl that lives in the tree outside. It's really perfect.

Tomorrow will be for unpacking my office/craft room, and putting the finishing touches on the paint. Although, I'm thinking the soft gray I chose for the walls may be a little too calm and relaxing. We'll see. I'll have to get your opinion when I can take some photos. Thank you so much for the well wishes and the welcome back! I missed you all here in blogland. It feels good to be connected again!

Talk soon...

Lots of Boxes and No Microwave

I've been absent from this blog for much longer than I had originally intended. It seems that moving to another state is a much bigger undertaking than I thought. Even though we had plenty of forewarning, lots of packing waited until the last possible minute. The moving itself was a comedy of errors. The movers were an hour late, not everything fit into the truck (one of those things being our microwave which I've missed more than I ever would have thought), and we were late to the bank to close on our house. It was such a mess. But, it's behind us and we have ourselves an adorable new house. It needs some work and I'm going to try to chronicle some of our efforts here in making this house a cozy home. Right now there are still tons of boxes to unpack so I probably won't have the shop up and running for another week or so. I hope to at least be back with a proper post with pictures in the next few days. I received some new goodies in the mail that I need to share!

Right Now I'm Loving...

Cross stitch. It all started with this post from The Small Object Steno Pad. I had finished packing away all of my yarn and fabric which was pretty sad and I needed something crafty to keep me busy for the next few weeks before moving. This came along at just the right moment. I rushed over to the cottonblue Etsy shop and snatched up this kit...
How awesome is this!? The red work is right up my alley and the idea of cross stitched patchwork is just so perfect. I hadn't done any cross stitch since I was about 11 or 12 but it was easy to pick back up and I've been really enjoying it's company. It's been such a refreshing and wonderfully meditative thing to work on in my spare moments which are too few right now for any other larger projects. This kit is designed by Perrette Samouiloff for A la Pensee.
There are some really beautiful kits in the collection and this won't be the last one that I do. Sadly cottonblue doesn't have any more of these kits left but you can order them directly from the A la Pensee shop. Most of the patterns also give the option of ordering just the chart instead of the full kit which is nice.

Here's some other great cross stitchery that I found poking around Etsy...
Wall Wear by Neawear here. LOVE the white stitching on dark fabric, so beautiful.

More beautiful red work, by aidatwentytwo here.

This is just freakin' hilarious... by thepinksamurai here.
Um, wow, is all I have to say about everything in the emilypeacocktapestry shop.
So all this has got me thinking about some wall hangings for my shop and maybe even some kits.
It sounds wonderfully fun to me... Another project to add to the list!

Thank you Paper and Stitch!

Brittni from Paper and Stitch was so kind as to feature the shop on her blog the other day. I love the blog, Brittni has a great design sense and I always like the beautiful things she features.

I'm so horrible, I completely forgot to post a huge thank you also to Irene from Bloesem for featuring me awhile ago. I was so pleasantly surprised to see myself on her blog! It's one that I read daily and am constantly inspired by, so it was just awesome to be featured. Thank you so so much Irene!
I'm so sorry I didn't post that thank you sooner... My brain has been scrambled mush for the last month. We've decided to move back to our hometown in Iowa, so needless to say things have been stressful, what with house buying, packing and dealing with our job situations. Chicago has been amazing for us but we've taken a second look at our priorities and have decided that Iowa is the best place for us to raise our family. We miss being close to our family and friends and miss the simple things, like big open spaces for running and kite flying, seeing the stars and catching lightning bugs. It's hard to do that in the city, not impossible but hard. Some people do very well in the city with families, we've just decided it's not for us right now.

We'll hopefully be moving the first week of September and I'll close the shop for that week so we can get settled in. I've got some new things in the works for the shop that I'm really excited about and some new prints that will have to wait to be listed until then.

I'll be back on the blog in the next day or two to share with you my latest obsession...

Shop Update

New colors of the retro cups print in the shop!

No Good Title

For lack of anything crafty to post, here are a few pretty polaroids. These have been patiently awaiting posting for awhile. About a month ago we attended a family reunion back in Iowa, at the farm that's been in my Dad's family for almost 70 years. These are some of the pictures I took while we were there. I loved the merging of so many different textures on the side of this barn. New and old coming together so beautifully. And of course the endless skies and green fields are just, sigh, beautiful. When I lived in Iowa I always harbored such utter disdain for it. Granted I was young and rather naive but I always wondered how people could live their whole lives there and not just be dying to get out. I think it took me moving away and of course growing up a little to realize how much it has to offer. There is such a raw beauty to it and the slow pace of things very satisfying after the endless hustle and bustle of the city. It's the simple things that matter there, like family and good food. Not that those things aren't important in cities like Chicago, it's just a different dynamic and so hard to describe the difference. I begin to understand its appeal and I'm feeling my disdain melting away into longing. Longing for a simpler life, without traffic and noise, with endless green spaces for Brodi to play and wild berries for her to eat with juice stained fingers. Where am I going with this? You'll find out soon enough :)

In the meantime I'm working on several new prints for special projects. Also working on re-printing the sold-out retro kitchen and cup prints in new colors. Brodi June has also requested another new PJ dress so I'm hoping to get that started today. We spent the morning at the farmers market buying all sorts of yummy treats, so I have a lot of cooking and freezing to do as well. It's been a busy weekend but a very satisfying one. I needed a weekend like this after such a stressful week and hope everyone else has enjoyed their weekend as much as I have mine!