Hello June

The year is half over. Every year when I turn the calendar to the month of June, that is my first thought. I always have a visual or feeling for each month in my head, does anyone else do this I wonder? June reminds me of a basket of fresh picked strawberries and a pitcher of cream to go with it. Of course June also reminds me of our wedding and birthdays of many family members, including my husband and daughter. June is the fresh start to summer, and probably the only month in summer that I really enjoy. By mid July, I'm over summer.  I will have to say though, that I have really enjoyed summer living in this house. The best part for me, is when the deer start to come down from the hills to eat the wild plums, and some of the fruit on the side of the house. In the evening we hear them walking on the side of the house, checking out the peaches and plums. Little stinkers though, will eat many of the ones that are within their reach very quickly if you don't pick them quick enough! The other night, they were roaming very close to our bedroom window. David had gone to bed before me, when all of a sudden, he comes into the living room to tell me that they were making a lot of noise by the window. Heavy breathing and flipping rocks in the landscaping. We turned all the lights out and looked out the bedroom window, to see them gingerly walking on the large rocks, and eating what had dropped from the orange tree and wild plum tree. It is always amazing to see these creatures up close.  A few weekends ago, while looking out my kitchen window, to my surprise I saw a wild California brush rabbit hanging out in the flower bed. I've never seen a wild rabbit in all my years in California.  We have a sensor light in the backyard, and it is constantly going off in the evening, because of all the raccoons and other little animals. I keep wounding what goes through their heads when that light trips! Most likely......Run!!!

I meant to post pictures of Brooke and Trevor's wedding that we attended in May, but alas time got away from me again. Better late than never, so I posted just a few from the day. It was a sweet wedding, and the bride looked gorgeous. Brooke had invited several of her childhood friends from elementary school, so it was fun to go down memory lane, as well as celebrate the beautiful couple of course. Hard to believe all the kids are grown up and getting married, when not long ago we were going to girl scouts, and having sleepovers!

I finally got to work on a few baby items for the shop, they were fun quick little projects and hopefully I can get more items in very soon. I think at the end of June, I'll start working on some fall/winter items and this time be somewhat ahead. I say that now of course, when it isn't blistering hot. My studio tends to be the hottest room in the summer, even though there is an AC vent! I'll go in there, and work for a few minutes, then give up after I start to sweat. Hopefully there won't be too many super hot days.

Lots of changes at work. Many have quit from the original crew that opened the store, and we have a whole new batch of people to get to know. This Anthropologie is huge, so sometimes we never see some of the workers for days, and to commit so many names to memory is tough I must say! Our shop manager from BHLDN is moving on. She was such a good manager, and we will all miss her. Hopefully the right person will take her place, as we have such a great team and it would be a shame to upset the balance we have. I have been getting more styling appointments as it has gotten busier. I think my favorite appointments are the accessories and the moms. The moms tend to get lost in the process I feel, and I like to make them feel just as special.

Today they are filming in our little town. The show they are filming is "13 Reasons Why." Not a light hearted show, but still kinda neat that they chose our town to film some scenes for season two. Caitlin and I went downtown and had some coffee and watched all the big Paramount trucks roll in to set up in a building to shoot. We stood out there for a while with mostly teen girls hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the stars. One of the workers, told us we might be bored as all the filming was going to take place inside. We left for a bit, but then returned later, to see them start to leave and pack up. Out walks the character named Tony. He waved to us and he was then whisked away in an SUV.  We also found out that earlier in the morning, they had filmed about a block away from Caitlin and Cyrous' house! It will be fun to watch what it looks like once they air season 2.
On that note, I'll post soon on celebrations and June fun. Take care and enjoy the beginning of summer!

May Garden Musings

Ok yard, you need to stop showing off! With all the rain, the yard is on fire with life. Extra blooms on the Azalea bush this year, two times the amount of peaches and plums, which of course we are all excited about in our house, and just over all lushness. The peach tree branches are tall enough this year to dance along the kitchen windows with all it's little treasures, it sure will make picking the top ones easy. It's always such a pleasure to watch the peony show unfold. It starts with the dark pink ones, followed by the lighter pink and finally the white ones. They are so beautiful and large. I never know what to do as far as enjoy them all outside, or bring some in the house. I brought more in this year to enjoy, but for some reason, I'm always sad to cut them. Some of the photos of the peonies I took at dusk, and I think it really shows off their ethereal quality.   I just took a little walk around the house and took some pictures of all the fruit trees, just as a documentation as to when each year they are ripening etc. Hope you don't get too sick of all the flowers and fruit. It's just so magical to see them arrive each year that I cannot help myself.
After I finished my little mini collection, I have come to a bit of a stand still. I made the little baby dress and bloomers for my niece who just had a baby a few weeks ago. I really love making these little dresses, and I think I'm going to make more soon. They are the perfect little dress for little ones I think. I keep spinning my wheels as to the whole baby gift thing I mentioned before. I go back and forth with bibs, bonnets and bloomers. Should I do sets, should I just offer them per piece? I just don't know. Perhaps I'll just dive in and just make up various forms and see where it all goes! I just made a really cute bonnet, but have to get the right shade of ribbons for it so I can list it. All of my favorite fabric shops are through the tunnel as we say out here in the East Bay, so I haven't gotten a chance to source more notions.  Hopefully I will be able to tomorrow, as we will be celebrating Mother's Day on Saturday vs. Sunday this year. Why you ask? Well, both Caitlin and I forgot to ask for that day off! I will be working for 4 hours on that day....boo :( Oh well, Saturday we are going to brunch and maybe a trip into the city to the museum, and hopefully to Britex. I guess it doesn't matter so much about the actual day you celebrate right? Hahaha
Last weekend we went to Caitlin's friend's bridal shower.  Caitlin and Brooke have been friends since 1st grade! They were inseparable in grade school, and Brooke and her mom even came to visit us when we lived in France. Lots of great memories with this little lady, and now we get to see her take a big step in her life. Her wedding is on May 21st, and we can wait!

Ok...... Remember when a few months ago I told you that Nicole was commissioned to do a project for a major motion picture? I can finally tell everyone, as the movie is out this very week! She made a headpiece for a character in the new "King Arthur" movie! The character is "lady in the lake." I think it is the lady that holds the Excaliber sword. It's pretty exciting and of course I'm a proud mom.  The story on how she got the commission is pretty cool as well. She works at a high end fabric shop in London where all the costumers for movies, and theater shop. She was wearing one of her head pieces that she made on one occasion, when the costumer for King Arthur came  in and pointed to her headpiece. She asked Nicole, "Where did you get that?" Proudly she told her she made it. She pulled her aside and arranged a meeting with Nicole to commission a piece for the movie. She also told the manager of the store. "How long do you think you will be able to keep this one?!!" She has also helped choose fabrics for other movies and television shows. Recently the costumer for Star Wars came in. How funny that they would shop for fabric in London. I think I'll go check out the movie next week to see if I can spot her handiwork :)
Well guys, on that note, I'm off to try and get some work done in the studio today. Hope all the mamas out there have a beautiful and relaxing Mothers Day!

The Light is Changing.....

I know it is still summer, but can you see the light changing? I have noticed a lot of Instagram users posting magical light photos on their feed. This time of year is so golden isn't it? It's still summer, yet I can smell and see hints of fall everywhere I look. The apples in the neighbors yard, my miniature pomegranate, all are starting to ripen up in their fall beauty. The leaves are turning on my peach trees as well.  I saw some pumpkin spice items making their way onto store shelves. How did the whole pumpkin spice flavor and scent = fall start? I don't remember it being this prevalent in the past! It's almost overkill, even though I must admit, I like it.

Last Saturday Caitlin and Cyrous went with us to see the newly reopened SF MoMa. It was fun to see the new wing that they built just for the Fisher collection. The collection was owned by the founders of Gap, and was gifted to the museum.  I can't even imagine owning all those iconic paintings by Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, and other contemporary artists, it's a dream collection. Jury is still out how I actually feel about the remodel though.   We had dinner in the Mission, to a place Caitlin and Cyrous use to go to a lot when they lived in the city. It was fun to catch up with them. At dinner, Caitlin mentioned that there were still openings at the new Anthropologie &Co. that will be opening up in September in our area. She encouraged me to apply for a sales position in the BHLDN department in the store. I thought about it for a bit, and decided it would be a fun opportunity and applied.  Long story short, I'm now an employee of Anthropologie! I think I'm going to love being in the bridal department a lot. I'm going to feel things out a bit and see how it fits in my life and also with balancing my Etsy shop.  I'm not giving that up, as I will only be part time, and will still have time to do what I love on my days off. I feel, now that I'm a full fledged empty nester, I need to get out more and mingle with people. Truth be told, I feel like some days I have been a little bit directionless at home. I have taken for granted all my free time, and instead of being really productive, I procrastinate and do the minimum. I decided to give myself a kick in the butt and do something different. I'm not a stranger to retail, and I know it can sometimes be trying. I use to work for Crate and Barrel, but that was 22 years ago! Gulp, that is a long time ago. What I loved about working there, was the interaction with the customers.  I loved making sure they found what they wanted and I especially loved doing gift registries. My hip and back made me quit unfortunately, and I wanted to make sure I was at home for my girls full time also. No one is here during the day now, except for Riki the parakeet, and while he can sometimes sing a sweet tune to me, he is no match for actual human interaction, so I'm off to a new adventure for the time being. The great thing is, I don't NEED the job really, and it's going to be more of a joy to go in rather than "I have to go in." I always thought it would be fun to work at Williams Sonoma part time, but there is this one tyrannical woman who works in our WS that would make life very difficult, so I took a hard pass on that possibility. My second choice was Anthro. It was second choice because our store was small, and didn't carry all the cool house wears and all the clothing lines. When they decided to take over the huge building that use to be a multi level Barnes and Noble, I started thinking it might be fun to revisit the idea of having a fun part time job.  If you love their stores, this will be heavenly to you! It will have Terrain, BHLDN, and an expanded Anthropologie with furniture and lots of house wears. Just typing this made he get excited !!!

Ok, now for my shop update. I'm waiting for the cape fever to start any day now. I have many likes on the listing and that usually indicates sales, so I'm really going to have to plan my cape construction days very carefully. My customers on Etsy are the best, but sometimes I get the oddest requests that always makes me wonder what people are thinking sometimes. I really feel like people don't understand what it takes to design and execute a garment. Last night I got a convo from someone asking if I could put slits in the arm area of the cape and oh can you make it longer too?! NO!  Would they like to pay me for the time to redesign the entire pattern and then charge them more for the item?Probably not. Then we have the people who decide they want it for Halloween, and contact me two to three days before! Seriously?!  Rant over. The fabric in the above photos are the ones I am working with at the moment. I'm almost finished with a cute black dotted swiss top, so stay tuned for that!

I better get going folks, lots of planning before I start my new adventure. I'll check in soon!

Good Bye June Hello July

July is here!  No big plans for us this year as far as trips. Last year as I have mentioned was such a lost summer with moving and wedding planning that this year it has been nice to take a big deep breath and relax and play in the the yard and do some sewing for the shop.  We also love to explore our own back yard so to speak. There is so much to do in the Bay Area, that one can really have a fun staycation, and that is what we will be doing this summer.

As I mentioned in my last post, we dropped Cyrous and Caitlin off for their month long honeymoon, and here are a few pics of them so far. I love the one of them eating in Nicole's garden! I have been Skyping with them here and there, and took a few pictures of the day I Skyped on Nicole's birthday. The quality of the picture of Caitlin and Nicole isn't great, sorry about that, it's a screen shot. They were getting ready to take Nicole out to dinner. They are having a lot of fun visiting and exploring London. Soon they will be off to Scotland.
I'm anxiously waiting for these peaches that I took a picture of to ripen! Hurry up already!!! Last year I remember picking some around this time, but they were much smaller. David pruned them in the fall, and I'm not sure if this is what made them have way bigger fruit this year, or it's just that the trees are more mature. They are white peaches and they are yummy.....so like I said...hurry up already and ripen!!
A month or so ago we planted a fern on the porch, and I'm happy to say I have not killed it! It's looking so pretty and getting bigger. Ferns are so beautiful and for me so prehistoric looking. They also remind me of living farther north in Humboldt County where they thrive. I thought it would be too hot here for them to do well, but when we moved in I noticed some growing in the front yard and doing quite well, so I thought I'll put one in a footed urn and see what happens.  I might have to retire my black thumb medal haha. The other plant that I can't believe is doing well is the Trader Joe's african violet! It's so gorgeous it doesn't even look real and it's got so many flowers! I'll take a picture of it soon.

Ok, enough about plants. I just finished this sweet little sunsuit and it will be listed today. It's made with Japanese imported fabric. I love the print, because it reminds me of a Liberty print, and you all know how much I love Liberty! It's 6mo. size.  (link is on side bar).  Next up are some red and white gingham banded bloomers. I'm starting on those today, and I think after those I'll be planning fall and doing some basics.

Hope everyone has a wonderful three day weekend! Happy Fourth of July!