Lightning shot from the sky

A rainy night here in Ames. For me rain actually makes the perfect working weather if I'm already working. If not, it's not the greatest motivator to get things done. I have spent at least 10 hours sewing today in preparation for this weekend, so I don't have much to blog about. The only time I left the house was to grab dinner and some gelato with Joe. Tomorrow is another full day of sewing! I'm working on new wallet ideas I've been waiting to play around with and stitching up a custom wallet for a super sweet Des Moines girl. Tonight calls for finishing up some fancy zipper pouches and tagging everything that's already ready to go. Back to work!

Is it really the first day of fall?

Well I can say that I have totally fallen off the blogging wagon. I was planning on updating more often but of course life has a way of sneaking in and stealing most of my time. These days it's a challenge just to keep up with email and a blog or two if I'm lucky. My recent Twitter addiction does not help things either. Since we've been home from California we've made a few larger home repairs in our home and worked on getting it ready to sell, put in a bid on a dream house and lost to someone else, taken another vacation to visit my family, and taken some time to talk, think and follow our hearts in where we really want to live next. There's changes on the horizon and most of them are exciting, some are scary, and some may even be surprising. But until some things work themselves out I am going to be glued to my sewing machine this week prepping for Craft Saturday this weekend. Shoppers at Art Fence a couple weeks ago wiped me out a little more than I thought they would, but I can't complain. It just means I get to make even more new and exciting things! I bought a stack of fall colored fabrics this morning to help me get inspired. I've also got a new sewing machine to help ease the burden on my regular machine - a lucky score for only $5 a few weeks ago at a church rummage sale. My goal for this week is to blog every day in the hopes of trying to post regularly. I'll have plenty of new Monster Fashion items to share and I still have photos from a special destination in California to upload!

you're the hooves that lead me through the forest

We just returned from a wonderfully relaxing week long vacation to visit family in Southern California. No matter how many times I visit, I don't think I will ever cease to be amazed by the desert sunsets. It's good to be home though and now it's back to work prepping for holiday shows and getting holiday inventory sent out to shops. Here's some new vinyl pouches I made before we left for CA. I'll be making more in other states too and some other exciting things to share.

oh Etsy...

I love Etsy. I really do. I've been spending a lot of time on there lately and have found some pretty awesome things over the last few months. Things such as: these gorgeous necklaces which are a collaboration between Suspect Shoppe (available here) and Mood Swing Studio awesome recycled telephone wire jewelry by Courtney Watson and adorable hand carved stamps from The Mayberry Sparrow that seem to fly right out of her shop! I'm off to hit a couple garage sales before I get to work. Have a wonderful Friday! And.. P.S. Thank you for all the email condolences about our sweet old dog. I think we're finally adjusted to our new routine without her, although it still doesn't feel like she's gone for good.

RIP

Riley 1998 - 2008

Our sweet old boxer girl passed on just after 10am this morning. She was loved and will be dearly missed.

On Houses and My Mid-Century Dream Home

Now there are definitely some cool mid-century houses here in my small city (a whole neighborhood in fact) and a few in Des Moines, but when I saw this amazing home listed for sale in Des Moines, I was blown away. Of course we could never afford it, thus it's a dream home, but we've been looking through the Des Moines real estate listings since January and continue to find ourselves drawn to the unique and funky looking houses from the 50's & 60's. There are some cute ranches out there, but I want something a little more than that but from that same era. As an alternative option we've also put some serious consideration into building one of the Rocio Romero LVL prefab homes. Despite all of that, we have a few things we need to work on within our current home before we list it for sale and now that the weather is nice I'm hoping we can get a move on things! Here's a few photos of my dream home (how wonderful would it be if furnishings were included sans those creepy animal rugs?) - you can find lots more photos in the listing right here

5 Recent Faves of Mine

1. Headbands - Now that it's spring and my hair has been growing out all Winter I'm at my yearly debate of letting my hair keep growing or chopping it off. Usually it gets chopped but this year, I'm all about wearing headbands to keep it out of my face while I'm trying to work. I whipped up a few (seen above) in some new fabrics the other day and some will be heading to White Rabbit in Iowa City soon. 2. Uniball Vision Pens - These have long been my favorite pen but over the past couple weeks I've fallen head over heels in love with the colored inks. I want to write write write on anything I can with these. 3. Going to the Gym! We have decided that this is the year to get fit. I've been going an average of 3 times a week over the past few weeks and I'm already down almost 10 pounds and 1 pant size. We're upping it to 5 x a week this week and I have a feeling this time we'll stick with it. I actually look forward to a 30 minute workout on the elliptical now, so I think that's a good sign. 4. Garage/Estate Sales - Spring has only just begun and I've already had some amazing finds. Some of which I hope to share here and some I'm holding onto for an upcoming secret project (!!). 5. Heroes & Criminals Press - I bought one of Jessica's "Hellfire" prints this weekend at White Rabbit in Iowa City. I can't wait to get it framed and hung. (Sorry about the watermarked photo! It's dark out here which doesn't make for good photo taking.) Enjoy the rest of your evening! I'm going to go watch some Office reruns on TBS and work on some ATCs!