Here's an illustration I discovered while straightening up the kitchen today. This one had to be shared.
Charlotte's inadvertent theme, "I am my own self," has proven so very true. It is not unusual to find her unusual creations lying about here and there.
Have a good laugh. Happy Wednesday.
We
did it! The Baileys took a vacation. I'd call it our first 'official'
vacation ever—that wasn't a family wedding, funeral, or campout.
Considering that Elijah is nearly 16, it was about time.
This could become a habit.
We spent a couple of days in Florida, followed by a tour of the
Bahamas via cruise ship. Before leaving town, I mailed off a new fabric
collection—so I could truly relax. Of course, travelling with a baby
isn't always relaxing. His needs accounted for half of our luggage.
There was the crib, the stroller, the diapers, the swim diapers, the
wipes, the formula, the juice boxes, the baby food for excursions (Conch
Salad on shore wasn't going to cut it), the multiple changes of
clothes, the quilt, the diaper bag. It was a workout.
My siblings came along with their kids, so Charlotte and Elijah had a
flock of cousins to hang out with. My mom was there too. We were a big,
noisy group.
Ten stand-out memories:
•
Elijah's glee at the sheer quantity of food he could order at will:
steak, then salmon, then steak, then dessert, and dessert again, then
pizza, and so forth. Teenage-Boy Heaven.
• A run on the beach with my sister at high tide in the dark. The worst/best workout ever.
• Touring the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach—Whoa! I will post more about this one.
Think mini Versailles.
• Siamese cousins at the airport (below).
•
Charlotte teasing the magician during his evening performance. With
hundreds in the audience, he called out in reference to her loud giggles
and taunting, "Now there's the reason some species eat their young."
• Spicy Ginger Beer and Goombay Punch in Lucaya.
• Jogging around the ship's deck during departure.
• The butterflies on the hill below Fort Charlotte in Nassau.
• Not having to miss the U.S. Presidential Debate while onboard.
• Cramming 15 of us into one van, with all of our luggage, for a ride back to the airport.
• Not one of my kids got sunburned—yes!
My vintage beaded purse came undone where the handle meets the bag —
the thread gave up the ghost. This purse is too darn fabulous to bury
though. I'm not sure if I recovered every bead that spilled onto the
floor, but I'm going to make it work with what I found.
It's time to dig up the perfect monster thread and rent a decent
movie, then set to work bringing her back to life. What good movies are
out right now? Was The Vow worth seeing? Or maybe Frankenstein is in order.
We love to cook. Isaac is especially talented at putting together
savory recipes. I'm petitioning him to write some of these down so I can
share them with you.
One fun product I discovered recently is freeze-dried garlic. When we
neglect to replenish our fresh garlic stash, freeze-dried garlic comes
to the rescue. When reconstitued, I've found it to be much more
flavorful and enjoyable than garlic powder—which really doesn't seem
that garlicky to me in the first place. And it stores in the cupboard
with the other spices. We have tried keeping packets of fresh garlic in
the fridge, but we don't have an easy time remembering that they are
there.
Have you ever tried this stuff? Do you have a secret ingredient I
need to know about? Almond extract makes magic when added to cherry pie
filling and we just started experimenting with Chipotle powder. Along
with smoked paprika, lime, and freeze-dried onions, Chipotle powder makes a
great base for vegetable dip.
With kids heading back to school, sales of our popular Fresh Picked Pincushions sewing pattern always make a discernable spike, as do our apple kits. An apple for the teacher — I love the cheek of it.
The two apples above were made by Robin (Robin Bobbin on Flickr) for her daughter Sophie's preschool teachers.
I'm making a bushel of these for my kids teachers. I figure if they
don't sew, they can use them as decorations. Ones that won't shrivel and
bruise.
Check out these super-fun paper stitcheries from Belinda Moon of Australia. She
starts with colorful craft papers and adds rows of free-form stitching
which adds visual movement—and panache.
I discovered Belinda's work in the HB Paper Crafts Flickr Group. I was
thrilled to see such a perfect and adorable use for my scrapbook papers. They almost
look like they are made out of fabric, don't they?
If you think these are fantastic,
like I do, brighten Belinda's day with a kind comment here, or at her blog. She has an Etsy store too, with birds, fish, pirate ships, robots—all sorts of
great graphic pieces to decorate with.
Show Belinda some craft-love.
NOTE: Such great projects are being posted in the HB Flickr groups—wow, you guys!
I'm going to make a renewed effort to spotlight some here and there.
Thank you for posting your projects. I get to craft vicariously through
you.
Some color-yum for you.
It's not often I get to help out with orders. But, every once in a while, I sneak my way into the warehouse and join in on prepping fabric, assembling felt and gathering stationery and other goodies for you, our awesome customers.
My favorite is gathering up your selected felts and rolling them
together. I love to see the resulting color palettes. Often, they are
truly unexpected and transfixing. Sometimes they remind me of a familiar
era or theme. Take this roll here, it makes me think of Sky King Tricycles, Radio Flyer Wagons
and other classic American toys. These colors make me want to sew up
some felt cars and trucks or something. They get my wheels spinning.
I'm often tempted to pin on a note that reads, "Ooo, wow!" or "So
delicious!" or "Please send me pictures of your finished project!" It
drives me crazy not to know what folks are making with these varying
color palettes. Same goes for fabric, really. Hm, what about including a
text-field at the end of ordering that lets the merciful 'tell Heather'
what they are planning to make. Or I can just resist hanging out in the
warehouse, right?
I do try.
Breakfast, my one weakness.
Here's a fun breakfast recipe. Make an omelet inside of a
roll—sourdough rolls are the best. And bake them in the oven till the
eggs are set.
Yum. But what to call this deliciousness? It's begging for a cheeky
name. Egg in a Nest. Bird in a Basket. Eggy-Breadlets. What would you
call an egg in a nest that didn't result in a bird, but a delicious
breakfast? Or is that gross?
These are things I should probably work out before posting. I should
just declare the recipe name with bravado. Chick in a Tub. Chub in a
Tub. Chubby Tubbers. Ranchy Scramblers.
But I have better things to do than deciding recipe names—like brainstorming
recipe names. Brainstorming is much more fun than deciding. On-a-Roll
Breakfast Breads. Rockin' Rolls. Rolly Pollos. Huevos Nuevos.
Fun in a Bun. Egg in your Face. Ooo, I like that one.
Saucers. Disks. Pucks. All good words to build on…
…while I snarf down another Scram-bowl.
figuring we could swap out the flooring in both rooms later on.
However, I'm liking it. It's incredible how much brighter the room is
with a big, white reflector for a floor.
Here's a glimpse of one of our finished work tables
too. They are amazing. Each table is seated onto a rolling platform.
The tables can be lifted off the platforms as needed for classes and
workshops—at some point—or for a myriad of other uses. And they are
tough as nails with a commercial-grade finish.
Now that the sheetrock dust and construction debris have been cleared out, it's time to get back into artwork. With Project Life under my belt, next up is more fabric. I'm working on completing a couple of new lines for next year. 'Tis true.
So here's the scoop!
I just wrapped up designs for a new Project Life collection — the Olive Edition. Becky Higgins announced the news on her blog this morning, along with a ton of sneak peeks.
I'm sure a bunch of you are already familiar with Becky and her
Project Life mission to "cultivate a good life & record it." If not though, I will LOVE to be the first to tell
you. Project Life is a fun and easy system for housing treasured
pictures, thoughts, memories, and life's important details, without the
time, fuss, expense and gewgaw of a traditional scrapbooking approach.
Of course, you can add as much gewgaw as you like.
Basically, you get a Project Life album, along with some thoughtfully-laid-out plastic sleeves (lots of configurations available) and a kit
of double-sided cards to slip into those sleeves along with your photos.
You can use the cards to track details and stories relating to your
photos or just use the decorated sides of the cards to add personality
to your album—or as placeholders till you are ready to write the details
down. There are paper packs and plastic month dividers too.
Here's the idea…
I have kept journals since I was ten years old. I know first-hand the
benefits of keeping a personal record. You recognize your blessings
better, you appreciate your day more, time doesn't seem so fleeting, and
on top of that, you are left with a treasure for your loved ones to
prize for generations.
Project Life makes all of these life-keeping benefits easy to access.
So, on top of my thrill in curating the new Olive collection for
Becky, like the founder of The Hair Club for Men said in his commercial,
"I'm also a customer."
The Project Life Olive Edition by Heather Bailey will be available to purchase in November through Amazon.com.
There are swarms of PL fans waiting for each new edition to be
available, so if you are interested, follow Becky's blog for updates and
be prepared to shop the day the collection goes live.
So, go have a look at Becky's announcement post.
She has way more preview photos posted over there than I do. Leave a
comment. And read up on how Project Life works. There's even a cute
little cartoon you can watch on her home page.
(Fabric-folk, you realize these images sneaky-preview some new designs for you too, right?)
