thoughts of fall

It's that time of year again, friends.  The time of year when I step out on the front porch, prop the camera up on a few books, and try to take pictures of myself, all while acting nonchalant and like I am certainly NOT photographing myself whenever someone walks by. 

My life is fairly glamorous. 

But, um, speaking of glamorous- have you seen this bag?!?  I set out to design something that was a cross between a messenger bag, a briefcase, and a purse and I think I just about did it. 

Don't you love it when you imagine something and then manage to somehow produce what was once in your head?

My biggest vision for this bag was its general boxy-ness.  I wanted a bag with clean lines and sharp corners.  Nothing too slouchy or flowy.  Fall makes me long for contrasting colors and straight lines.  I bought a striped shirt last weekend and have been swooning over some striped mittens at Target. 



Fall also makes me wish I was going back to school.  Not the homework part, or the class part, but the buying school supplies-walking around campus-cheering on the football team part.  So I made a bag that I would like to take back to school with me, if I were going.  Or that maybe my mom or teacher friends would enjoy taking to school with them.  It is the perfect size for notebooks and folders and the flat bottom makes it easy to organize things. 

In a burst of foresight, I made an extra one for myself, so that I wouldn't have to go through the parting anxiety of making something I love and then selling it. 

Today I am working on some other sewing projects and making pizza with homemade tomato sauce.  I'll share the recipe tomorrow if it's tasty!

one of us got older this weekend

I had a great weekend celebrating my favorite person.  In fact, I had so much fun that sometimes I felt like it may actually be my birthday. 

We started the day with breakfast on the porch and enjoyed the cool September air.  And it really felt like a special occasion because we each got our own Starbucks drink and usually we just share one. 

We spent almost the whole day outside- reading in the yard in the morning, lunch on the patio at Dean and Deluca, and a trip to a garden in the afternoon. 

You know how much we love gardens. 

This particular one- the Wing Haven Garden and Bird Sanctuary- we had never visited before, even though it is right here in Charlotte.  This garden is actually in the middle of a neighborhood because it used to be someone's backyard.  The owners were passionate about gardening and when they died, the house and yard and a few lots on either side became a public garden.  Visiting made me imagine, yet again, what amazing things we could be doing with our own quarter acre. 

Probably the most exciting part of the garden tour was when I looked up and saw pomegranates growing on a tree!  I mean, have you ever?  I had NO idea that you could grow pomegranates in North Carolina!

All of the outdoor time was great, but my favorite part of the birthday was Steve's genius idea.  Since we weren't going out of town as originally planned, he suggested that we use those funds to buy some new linens and make it feel like we were on vacation at home. 

We had so much fun filling a shopping cart with new towels, pillows, sheets, and a gorgeous linen duvet cover.  After lots of laundry, it was all clean and ready to go and I must say that last night I slept like a rock. 

Celebrating Steve is one of my favorite things to do- every year I like him more and more. 

This week is pretty busy with outside-of-the-house work, but I did find time today to finish the new bag design I've been working on.  I'll share pictures soon! 

a quilt, a purse, and 2 boxes of tissues

Yesterday I washed and ironed all the fabrics that I've collected so far for our quilt.  It's finally happening.

How many times have I mentioned making my first full sized quilt?  I'm sure so many that you've completely given up on me by now. 

The problem was committing to a color pallete, you see.  As much as I love color, I have color committment issues. 

I had cut an example of the quilted pillow sham above from a Pottery Barn cataloge many moons ago and recently revisited it.  I decided that I could live with the color scheme for a long time- red, white, blue, brown.  Who gets tired of red, white, and blue? 

I think I may have too much blue, so I'm now on the hunt for some white and brown to tone it back a bit. 

My goal is to be sleeping under this thing by Christmas.  While visions of sugarplums dance in my head. 

I've also been working hard this week on new purse style.  When I design a new product, I sort of learn as I go, so this bag has already evolved a bit from my initial sketches.  But I think I like it even better now. 

I wanted to make a bag to match the new checkbook covers because I think that matching sets make great gifts.  And we're coming up on gift season!  Whenever possible, I like to work ahead of the need. 

Our birthday weekend plans are on hold until we figure out if the cold we both have is getting better or worse.  Either way, we plan to eat some great food and disconnect from the outside world for a bit and I'm totally excited.  Sniffles and all. 

labor day weekend

We had such a great time last weekend while Steve's family was here!  They came to kick off his birthday celebration a week early.  And if there's anyone who deserves a birthday celebration that lasts for a week, it's Steve. 

We spent two days running around to some of our favorite spots here in town.  Our first stop was the farmer's market, where we picked up flowers, figs, candles, kettle corn, and lots of veggies for dinner.  I am always super proud to show off our farmer's market, because I think it's the best one I've ever been to. 

We also spent some time downtown, checking out Steve's office.  The views were amazing!  He is on the 25th floor of an all glass building and we spent at least an hour watching the city from above. 

Being at Steve's office made me realize how different our days are from each other!  He sits at a desk in this very businessy-looking place, high above the city, while I putter around our house and yard and sometimes venture out to run errands. 

There is a beautiful old cemetary near Steve's office that we walked around for a bit.  It was strange to see the short lifespans of people in the 16th and 17th century.  I have always liked reading epitaphs and noticed that most of these referred to patience in suffering or endurance of pain.  Many of the stones were so old that the words can no longer be made out. 

We ate great meals together and had plenty of time to talk and I know that Steve felt really celebrated.  We sung to him a little over blueberry pie. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I am doing a lot of shop work this week and posting new items for fall.  I love posting new items!  Be sure to stop by the shop and let me know what you think!

shop update

I used up all my blogging time today posting new items in the shop.  I've still got several more things to post, so be sure to stop in tomorrow as well to see it all.  

These new checkbook covers are ready just in the nick of time- I sold the last of the old ones last week.  I'm also working on a matching purse to go with them that will be ready in a couple weeks. 

I've sewed up a couple of new baby blankets for all those cold babies.  It's almost fall, you know. 

And the scarves.  Oh, the scarves.  Even though I almost got heat stroke hanging out in the yard with sweaters and scarves on for these pictures, I was still super excited to be wearing a scarf once again. 

Come on back tomorrow and I'll tell you about the long weekend!

normal as blueberry pie

I had a delicious slice of blueberry pie while we were in Maine and have been dreaming about making one ever since. 

We're hosting more house guests this weekend, which seemed like the perfect excuse.  (As if I need an excuse to make pie...)

I was a little short on blueberries (and wishing that Mom were here with a bag full of fresh picked ones from her patch), so I threw in some peaches for good measure. 

One of our current favorite CDs is "Normal as Blueberry Pie" by Nellie McKay.  It's a Doris Day tribute and makes me want to twirl around the house with a feather duster.  I caught myself humming snippets while I worked on the pie this morning. 

I recently learned this trick for covering the edges of the pie crust.  Normally I would just make a million little strips of foil and try to wrap them around the edges.  The other day I read that you can trace the bottom of the pie plate onto a piece of foil and then cut out the circle in the middle, making a perfect crust shield.  I love learning new things. 

Labor Day weekend is always so much fun!  We may even get the pool out on Monday for one last hurrah.  We're also planning to squeeze in a farmer's market trip, a visit to Steve's new office, and, of course, blueberry pie. 

Hope your weekend is long and happy!

how quickly we unravel

I found a little bit of fall this week and it made me smile.  Fall is my favorite season and September is one of my favorite months.  It's in the top three and I can never really decide on a favorite, so I just keep it at a three way tie.  And usually just end up calling whichever month it currently is "my favorite". 

But this post is not really about fall, or months, or nature, for that matter.  It's actually about this quote:

     "They say that every society is only three meals away from revolution. Deprive a culture of food  for three meals, and you'll have an anarchy. And it's true, isn't it? You haven't eaten for a couple of days, and you've turned into a barbarian."

There are mixed opinions on who first said these words, but Steve has mentioned this quote to me on several occasions.  And I never really gave it much thought, except to think, "Really?  Three meals?  I would like to think that I am civilized enough that it would take more than missing three meals to turn me into a barbarian."

But then last week our car died.  It's a very old car and no one can really blame it for dying, but it put us in a little bit of a bind. 

Not wanting to be a spoiled American who needs my own car, I was a little excited about the idea of sharing a car for a while. 

Three days in, this was our conversation over dinner:

L: I almost didn't have time to do the grocery shopping today.  I had so many other errands to run and appointments that I needed to get done today while I had the car, that I just didn't think I would fit it all in.  I considered walking to Food Lion tomorrow, while you have the car, and getting groceries there, but I wasn't sure how to get them all home.  If only we had a wagon or something. 

S: Or a wheelbarrow.  Maybe you could borrow a wheelbarrow.

L: Maybe.  I finally decided that I would just ask the store manager, real nicely, if I could please walk home with one of the shopping carts if I promised to bring it back soon. 

S: Good idea.  I was afraid you'd be running behind today and not be at the train station to pick me up on time, so I started looking around for a good place to nap while I waited for you. 

So here I've been, patting myself on the back for being so civilized, when in reality we are only ever three days away from stealing grocery carts and sleeping at the train station.  Pretty humbling. 

I think we are finding our new groove now though and I almost rather like the fact that there are days when I can't leave the house.  Except maybe to walk to Food Lion. 

Today I am doing some much-needed sewing and being thankful that I can get fabric delivered right to my front door.