Subtlety

I made my wonderful friend Candice a Toby Tote for her birthday, after she…um…subtly hinted that, you know, maybe she’d like one.  

My original design called for red polka-dot handles, but I couldn’t resist using this charming yellow fabric instead after purchasing it last weekend.

The black and white liner, however, was a sure thing from the beginning. The fabric is very much her style, and I purchased it because I knew (hoped!) she’d really like it.

Candice is one of my only friends (if not my only friend) who’s into crafts, and she recently took a class to learn how to knit. She lives about an hour and a half away, otherwise I would have taken the class with her. In fact, I was sad that we weren’t able to learn how to knit together.

Perhaps I could drop a subtle hint that I’d, you know, maybe like a scarf for my birthday. I know it’s in May, and I know I live in Tampa, and I know it will probably be 100 degrees here by then, but still. Subtle hint vibes comin’ your way, Candice.

Happy birthday, my friend!

The Princess and the Pea she is not

When Alex and I are both on our laptops, Nola likes to lie in the “tunnel” that forms between the two lids. 

She doesn’t care if her favorite spot is clear. If there’s something where she wants to be, she just ignores it and plops her chubby little self down there anyway.

Notice anything?

Neither does she.

Weekend in Fernandina

I had to come to Fernandina on Friday for business, and I was able to turn it into a weekend trip so that I could spend ample time with my parents.  

When I say I “had” to come to Fernandina for business, it makes it sound negative. I was thrilled to come up here. The “business” that I handled on Friday was presenting a high school student with a prize for winning third place in a contest. It was so much fun, and I hardly call it “work.”

The Quilt Expo was in Tampa this weekend, and I planned to go before this business trip came up. My mom and I were driving around after the award presentation on Friday and noticed a large sign that said “Quilt Show” at one of the local rec centers. So of course we went. And even though it was much smaller than the Tampa show, it had that pride, charm and sweetness that you only find with these sorts of small-town events.

The show boasted about 100 of the most gorgeous quilts I have ever seen, all of which were made by ladies from a local quilting guild. Seeing all of those stunning, intricate quilts made me that much more excited to take my quilting class.

I also picked up fabric from one of the vendors at the show.

This morning, after a delicious brunch at one of my favorite Fernandina cafes, my parents and I walked to the Farmer’s Market for some fresh fruit and a loaf of bread. 

The colors at the market are always so fresh and vibrant. 

Fernandina is one of those towns where everybody knows everybody, so we stopped and chatted with several people while we were downtown.

And, because I think he’s the most adorable thing in the entire world, here is a gratuitous shot of my parent’s 10-year-old yellow lab, Jazz. My mom will probably say his nose isn’t really that big in person…but it kinda is.

Check

I had three projects on my plate for tonight. I should have known better.

1. Finish my custom Etsy order and prep it for the post office. Check.

2. Start — and ideally finish – the project I’ve decided to do for my blog giveaway. Well. Um. No check there. Not even close. But I am still planning to do a giveaway. I don’t mean to tease like this.

3. Start a gift for my friend’s birthday. I’ve purchased and washed the fabric and determined exactly what I’m going to do, so I’ll consider this one checked even though I haven’t technically started it.

I’m not sure if you can tell from the photograph, but the black and white fabric has a subtle metallic sheen to it. It’s quite beautiful.

I hope she doesn’t mind a little cat hair with her birthday present.

Autobiographically

Alex and I chose simple black frames for the four prints we found on Etsy.

We thought the clean frames would keep the focus on the artwork, where it belongs. The above print is from The Black Apple, and the following three are from Elsita.

Now if we could just get around to hanging them.

I did a little organizing this weekend.

There is something so very pleasing about seeing things arranged by color. I’ve learned through other crafters’ blogs that many of you do the very same thing.

So tell me…what do you organize by color? And if not by color, how do you organize things? Alphabetically? Chronologically? There’s a wonderful scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack’s character is rearranging his thousands of records “autobiographically” — in order by the date he purchased them. Clearly, that method would only make sense to him. I love that.