carrie girl

in print!

there isn't much to do in a hospital waiting room but read and watch bad tv, so when i got to kansas city i picked up a few magazines at a grocery store near the hospital. as i was thumbing through one called do it yourself by better homes and gardens, i found an article entitled "office anywhere" and literally freaked out when i saw my vintage fabric covered thumbtacks in the photos. at first i couldn't believe that they were mine...i mean there are plenty of fabric covered thumbtacks out there, but after closer inspection i noticed that each fabric is one from my stash either found in a thrift store or purchased at my favorite store in brooklyn.

i couldn't figure out how they got into the magazine until my mom told me that better homes and gardens is published in des moines, iowa. i guess someone from the magazine must have been at craft saturday last april and picked up a couple packages. after my excitement died down i flipped to the back to check out the resources page, and was a bit disappointed not to see my etsy store listed. i thought about it for a couple days and decided to write them an email. i explained how thrilled i was to see that the thumbtacks were in the magazine, but disappointed not to be included in the resources--especially since this is a do it yourself magazine and they were purchased at a local craft fair. i also explained that i am not the originator of the idea, far from it in fact, and that they're all over etsy and in blogland. i guess this is where the lines get blurred--perhaps they thought that since it is a pretty simple idea and a lot of people make them it wasn't necessary to mention who made the thumbtacks in the photos. at this point i haven't heard from them and i really don't expect to, so i think i'll just enjoy the fact that they liked my fabric choices and quality enough to put them in the magazine and call it a day.

40 years and counting

thanks for your sweet comments and emails about my dad! he's back at home and doing really well--modern medicine is pretty amazing. my dad's heart attack happened just as my folks were getting ready to go away for their 40th wedding anniversary, so on sunday at the hospital, instead of a romantic dinner for two, the whole family celebrated with cookies around the hospital bed. i am so thankful for the chance to have my dad around for many more anniversary celebrations, and holidays, and normal days, and to walk me down the aisle next july. i think about what 40 years together with ted will be like, and i only hope that we can love and support each other the way my folks have--they've set the bar pretty high.

july 26, 1969

things have been a bit quiet around here--i'm actually in kansas city with my family for the time being. my dad had a heart attack on monday night and quadruple bypass surgery thursday morning, so i drove down here and will stay for a while. it is so crazy how fast life can change in an instant. fortunately he's doing really well and we were really, really lucky. i think this experience will inspire a lot of really good lifestyle changes for every member of my family, and bring us all a little closer. 

oh, and the winner of my mini giveaway is karyn. i'll get your info and send the package out to you when i get back to iowa next week! 

now go and give your friends and family a big hug! 

two years down

my two year blog anniversary came and went in the beginning of july with no fanfare or even a mention. this is mostly due to the fact that i forgot about it, and also because i'm in the midst of packing and sorting and cleaning and doing very little blogging. since we are moving to an apartment half the size of the one we're in now, we've had to purge a lot and really think about why we're holding on to certain things. it is amazing how much stuff*one can accumulate in 2 years if you have the space for it.

my job today was to hit the craft room and really sort through materials. do i need to hold onto every tiny scrap just in cast i might need it some day for some project? the answer, my friends, is no. i truly don't need it all. i was fortunate in this apartment to have a room to myself to sew, and i filled that room to the brim with lots of really neat vintage books and piles of fabric and junk--and now it is time to simplify. and it. feels. good.

so in honor of simplifying, and commemorating 2 years of blogging i thought i'd put some of my small collection of liberty fabric up in a giveaway. it's a tiny way to say thanks for reading and inspiring me on a daily basis.

so in order to win this pack of 10 liberty fat quarters, just leave me a comment before midnight (central time) on friday, july 24th. 



*nice way to say crap

wild flowers

today i went to st. bridget's wild flower farm in solon to talk about doing flowers for the wedding. cathy was amazing and her farm was beautiful. it was awesome to see the types of flowers that will be in bloom for the wedding and talk about different ideas for the ceremony and reception. it is a bit overwhelming to see all the decisions that need to be made and how many different options there are for everything. we really like the idea of using locally grown flowers and supporting local farmers--the caterer we're talking to primarily uses produce and meat from farms in the area as well.

cathy sent me home with a gallon jug filled with fresh, colorful flowers that really make the apartment (which is in moving shambles) look so welcoming. i'm really excited to collaborate with her and see how this takes shape over this next year.

i'm back! 4 books read, countless bottles of white wine consumed, hours in the sun, a quick trip to montreal, endless games of rummy 500 and plenty of memories to last me the rest of the summer. while these last couple weeks have been great, i'm dreading what the next month or so has in store for me. coming home to a coffee pot filled with what used to be coffee which, over the last 10 days, has slowly turned into mold was not the way to kick off a marathon month and a half of craziness. to make matters worse, ted will be out of town for a while which really kills me. he's going to a couple writers' conferences and giving a reading in new york city, so this summer is very exciting for him. i'm just bummed to go it alone. anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself. one project i am looking forward to is the fixing up of our new (much smaller, but rather charming) one bedroom apartment closer to downtown. the kitchen will be pained a color called"beach blanket," and there just might be a trip to ikea in the works...so all is not lost! i'm happy to be back here in my little blog space, and i'm eager to catch up with my google reader. i bet you all have been very productive this summer.

leavin' town

i'm going to take a little blogging vacation while i'm in upstate new york. i will be sans sewing machine and have spotty internet access until the 13th, and i know you don't want to look at a bunch of nature shots of the adriondacks for 2 weeks, so i think it might be best just to lay low.

the last bit of sewing i did before packing today were these two clutches. the purple one is a custom order for a really sweet girl who was interested in a couple clutches and a bag. she actually came over and picked out her own fabric and we talked about the project. it was a really cool experience working with someone start to finish on a bag. the pink clutch is for a bag contest/silent auction which supports the breast cancer 3-day through home ec. workshop, a really amazing fabric/yarn store in iowa city. so if you're in the area go to home ec. and bid on a bag for a good cause!