Lovely Colors of Autumn

I always like to document the changing colors of the plants out in the yard, especially after some rain. The light is so pretty and everything is fresh. We are having another storm tonight, which is fantastic. Usually we don't get rain until next week, but happy that it made it's appearance earlier. Time to turn off the sprinkler system, and put away all the summer yard decor. Yipee!
I think I have finally adjusted to working the three days at Anthropologie, and I think my feet are now use to it too. I found some shoes that make it more pleasant to be there, instead of thinking about how my feet are hurting the whole day! I'm not really looking forward to the madness though of the holidays in that store. It's a huge store, with lots and lots of people, especially on the weekends. Hoping that it won't kill me.
Cape madness is finally over, as I think I mentioned last time. I'm about to start on a cute little dress, and if you follow me on Instagram, you saw my sneak peek. I think it will be really sweet and it's fun sewing new items for the shop again. I hope I can get a few things in there in time for the holidays. Given that I'm in retail now, who knows how much I can get done  hahaha.
 Monday was Caitlin and Cyrous' one year anniversary! David and I gave them this pretty frame with their invitation and one of the many beautiful pictures of that day. David also had the music printed out that he wrote for them, and put it in a pretty leather cover.  Still can't believe how fast that year went. SLOW down please! They went out to a lovely dinner at Chez Panisse to celebrate.
For those that follow me on Facebook, this will be a repeat story, but if you don't follow me on there, here is my cute story for the day.  This morning as I sat in my living room, I heard a thump on one of our big picture windows. I feared the worse. I looked down the side of the house and saw a beautiful little bird lying on it's side, but still breathing. I went outside and hoped it was just stunned and hadn't broken anything. I scooped it up and it's little eyes were still shinny, so I hoped for the best. I sat on my front porch for about 15 minutes petting it, and soon it went from lying in my hand to standing. It seemed to be collecting its faculties. It was such a beautiful moment to hold a wild creature and be able to look in its eyes. Eventually it flew to the porch rail and then took flight! So happy it was only stunned. I looked up the bird species later, and it was a Hermit Thrush. One of my dreams was to hold a wild bird. Not only did I get to hold it, but helped it over come a bit of a shock from slamming into the window. This made my whole day. The funny part of the story was that I was wearing my favorite cheap Target shirt that is covered in a little graphic print of birds, how appropriate :)
On that happy note, I better get some chores done, as I have to go in tomorrow to work. Not looking forward to crazy Saturday with hoards of people. I sure wish I could just work the week days only, but it is retail, so there you have it.          

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!