Busy Fun

This week has been a bit hectic. Saturday morning was Connor's last soccer game. He was quite proud of his four goals and medal. Later that evening I had a lovely dinner out with my husband followed by a cocktail with my oldest friend, whom I tend to loose contact with for months at a time (yeah I know - bad friend - but she is to blame too jet setting all over the country with her new beau!).

And last night we attended a concert, the Gabe Dixon Band. The band formed at the University of Miami while I was studying there and I always enjoyed hearing them. So naturally when I heard they were coming to Minneapolis I was ecstatic. They played at the Varsity Theater which is right in the neighborhood I lived in when I attended the University of Minnesota. It all brought back good memories - both Midwest and East Coast. Anyway, very talented, fun, high energy band. Too bad they only played the opening. Next time I'm hoping for a full show.

Yes, these days most of the live music I am graced with comes from "The One Mand Band." And just like the band mentioned above this one is very talented, fun, and always full of energy.

Oh but I am not used to going out two times in the span of three days. Yes, I am not a young college student anymore, just an old mom! I am tired and desperately need to clean my house (but I had lots of fun!!).

Finding the Perfect Pumpkin

Sunday afternoon was spent searching for the perfect pumpkin:


And we found it, well three of them (one for each of us). Picture quality is not the greatest here as it started drizzling right when we got in the car to go. We got these at a local farm, Fred's Farm to be exact. Funny, Justin worked there as a boy picking strawberries. Connor thought that was pretty neat - "I got my pumpkin at the pumpkin patch where Daddy used to work." He says it as though that makes his pumpkin extra special. I think he is right.

Some Goodies

Grandma did it again! She surprised me this last weekend with a bag full of goodies, actually three bags. She went digging through her house and found lots of treasures for me. A very lucky granddaughter I am to be the recipient of some wonderful vintage fabric, buttons, lace, beads... Here, just a few of my favorites:

The original price tag is still attached to that lace - 8 cents! Funny as I was typing this I started searching for the cents symbol on my keyboard, not there. Since just about everything now costs over $1 I guess we just don't need that symbol anymore. But I need it, for the first time in all my years of typing, to talk about that lace! The cents symbol is still on that old typewriter I have at work though.

Enough on that tangent. Thank you Grandma, your gift was so much fun for me to look through. As you can see someone else had fun looking too! We both have already started to envision what may come out of these three bags.

First Sale

Exciting news, well for me anyway. I sold my first item and only two days after opening the shop! I was not expecting this, thought it would take a few weeks, months... Many thanks to Amanda for her purchase.

(I think I had as much fun making tags as I did the actual items)

Small Shop, Grand Opening

My shop is now open! In it are a few pouches and totes:

And coaster sets and bookmarks:

As a grand opening bonus the first three orders will come with a gift!

More Apples

Connor has desperately needed a special spot to put all of his school papers. So far everything has been piling up on the kitchen table, on the piano bench (?), or on the floor of Connor's bedroom. Then when we go to look for something important, a book order form or that one "homework" that Connor just has to finish, we have a very hard time finding it - CHAOS! So I made him this little organizer, well actually it is not so little. As I was figuring the layout I kept thinking of more items that it needed to hold and the size kept growing.

Yes, we (or maybe just I) have been a little apple crazy lately, but it is the season. After starting I realized that the theme was very appropriate considering Connor's bedroom window looks out over our own apple trees.

The organizer has lots of compartments and hooks for odds and ends including two very large pockets for all the papers that come home in that big backpack, because you know we can never actually get rid of anything around here. As you can see we have already started organizing all of our schoolwork. Now if only I could get all of my other stuff piles straightened out.

New Shop

I've been preparing for the opening of my shop, finishing sewing, taking pictures, etc. I am new to the posse of Etsy sellers, although I have been a buyer a number of times, so I have also been trying to figure all of that computer stuff out. Lots of work, but very enjoyable work.

As for the items for sale, I have incorporated some wool/felt for fall and lots of embroidery. That's all I'm telling, the rest will have to be a surprise. Hopefully all will be ready by early next week. Stay tuned.