Giveaway | 2010 Tea Towel Calendar

Let the holiday festivities begin!

One winner, randomly drawn, will receive their choice of either design, Forsythia or Queen Anne's Lace.

In order to enter, please leave a comment below about your most wonderful, memorable, fun, special, or beloved holiday present. I'll start! : 4 years ago on Christmas morning, my husband gave me a sweet little metal box and inside was the most beautiful engagement ring. I was so very surprised... and he's kept me on my toes ever since :)

Deadline for entry: Sunday, Dec 6th, 11:59 pm EST.

Anyone in the world can enter.

One comment per person, please.

LEAVE CONTACT INFO!!!!!

(sorry, didn't mean to shout, but it's really important that you do this last bit if you want to win)

My Little Poet

I often wonder how my son's talents will present themselves and how we can help cultivate them. He's quite creative in his way, but doesn't latch on to any one thing and he rarely displays a "need" to be creative- it's all very spontaneous. Today he showed me something he wrote in school and I just had to share because I found it so sophisticated for this little 8yr old boy who at homework time can resist putting three sentences together in order to create a paragraph in under 10 minutes. Maybe the paragraph format stifles him? Maybe it's the theme? Maybe he likes poetry because there's no rules in the punctuation? How do I help him explore this further? As I sat there going "You wrote this all by yourself? Did you get help from your teacher? Did she give you an idea of how to write a poem? Did she show you any examples?", he's busy pointing out that he did the pumpkin all by himself and he's particularly pleased with the long green tooth...

leaves leaves falling

from the trees

leaves leaves turn

red, orange, yellow

leaves leaves fall

from the branch

that one day

will fall soon

from the snow.

- Karl

Bravo Karl!

Homework | Stage 2-B (Nearly There)

The foyer is finally looking like it's part of the house. We still have painting to do but basically, it's finished.

I'll be hanging some artwork back on the walls once we're finished with the painting. I have hopes to redo the little bench there (which belonged to my great-grandmother) with a fresh coat of paint and a new slipcover. I'm also on the lookout for a sort of half-moon table for the left side in place of the old plaster column that I've had since my thriftier days in college.

Down the road, in a few years, we'll probably replace all the windows on the ground floor with the new windows and trim that we have in the foyer. I would love to paint all the 1950's orangey-varnished trim right now, but my brain can't take any more fumes and the clock won't afford me any more time. I constantly contemplate trading out the wooden blinds with a nice white sheer curtain, but again, with the windows in such a lack-luster state I wonder if it's even worth the effort (and $). All this dreaming never ends, of course.

All in all, a very productive and busy, nice-to-be-away-from-the-computer weekend. But thankfully, my shop enjoyed quite a little boost in pre-holiday sales, so I'll be one busy lady for the next day or two. Also, I have an advent calendar planned (of the Pokemon variety) for my son and I'm hoping to get it done before he returns home from school today.

Holiday Special

This Sunday, November 29th, only, receive free shipping on all items in my shop.

Enter code: CSSunday at checkout to receive a refund which will be issued as a refund through PayPal.

Good internationally, too! Offer good all day through 12am, Nov 30th EST.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Hope your holiday weekend was nice. We saw Fantastic Mr. Fox today - the first real movie for our 27 month old! Sat through the whole thing, no fussin'. Gotta love Wes Anderson.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm taking this week off from blogging, Tweeting and Etsy shopkeeping. It's a short week and time is going to fly- unlike this little guy that my son created for a school project. Didya notice the Shade Garden fabrics??

Watching my son put this together really gave me an appreciation for his unique perspective and personal creative flair. He's extremely spontaneous and quite happy with simple results... never fusses, never second guesses. I feel that's a gift. I wish I could be more like him.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Homework | Stage 2-A

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Can you believe these photos were taken at about the same time of day? Despite the shift in the sun's seasonal position, the light just BEAMS through an area that was like a dark cave. There are pretty little windows on both sides of the door, so it gets east and west sun now.

aaaaaahhhhhhhh.

Orders Up!

First wave of calendars went out yesterday- all of the October pre-orders.

My schedule is once again upset this week and again, calendar production is delayed. All I can do is hope... so here goes: hoping to get the balance done and a bit of inventory ready by end of this week.

I sound like a broken record!!

Homework | Stage 3-A

A wee update, since it's been sloooooooooow moving here.

You'll see from our last update we now have a freshly paved drive, a small retaining wall, a coat of paint on the door, primer on the portico and handrails. We are not happy with the handrails, unfortunately. I've never shopped for them in my life, and having done it now, I can honestly say, you get what you pay for. In this case, inferior quality. So, we're at a crossroads with this particular aspect of our project. From afar, they seem fine. Which is good enough for the winter. Perhaps we'll wait until spring and see how we're feeling at that point. *sigh*. Just a disappointment. And a costly one at that.

This week, we hope to have the portico finished, light hung, numbers on door, windows installed. Crossing fingers all goes as planned.

Procrastination | The Sewing Sessions

Took the day off yesterday to paint doors with my husband (promise, there's an update to the renovations coming soon!). Today, I finally finished the sewing of all the panels. And for your viewing pleasure, here it is- minus the snagged bobbins, the umpteen bobbins that ran out of thread, the sewing of an entire side just to find the thread was not in the needle the whole time, the hems that wouldn't behave, emergency fabric store run for more thread and the cursing that goes with all of that stuff. Some may wonder why I pause here and there, and it's because all the corners need to be folded in slightly to make nice neat front side... the perfectionist in me won't have it any other way, so it takes what it takes to get the job done.

As an added feature I make a little appearance at the end! (Music in background: Whistle for the Choir by the Fratellis) (ha! I just watched it and heard me sigh about 3/4 the way thru. Yes, this is REAL, people!)

I will not bore you with the chores of cutting dowels and sanding edges, snipping threads, pressing for a 2nd time, attaching hangtags and rolling them up in tissue. I hoped to get all this done this week, but yesterday (which was productive in other respects) really knocked me off my schedule here. I'm planning a Monday haul to the PO.

Ironing x 65 = Procrastination x 10

Just for kicks, I thought I'd show you my last few days' work.

It's as riveting as the job itself. Thank goodness for music. (featured here, Sunshine by Keane) I'm still not done either. You can clearly see the level to which I can take procrastination. I even had to figure out how to convert an .AVI to .MPG for the job.

Off again, off again, jiggity jig.

Update Monday evening: I'M FINISHED! Tomorrow, I'm breaking out the sewing machine.

Recipe | Michelle's Chicken Taco Meatballs

I am a taco fan. Big time. So is my family. I don't make them as often as I crave simply because there is quite a bit of excessive fat involved even with the substitution of ground chicken for beef. But the other day I had a little day dream about taco meatballs. I saw the whole thing forming in my head and once I believed I had the recipe down, that's when I took to the internet to seek out what others may have done.

So, yeah, it's not completely original... there's been many-a-taco meatball made... BUT! none with polenta! (not that I could find, anyway).

Tonight I gave it a whirl- and within 10 minutes of roasting in the oven, I knew I had made something good. A bit fussier than basic tacos, I admit. There's more hand-on... more time involved in prep. It's not an every night type of thing to make, unless you're down with the meatballs and I'm more a throw-everything-into-one-pan type of gal.

Essentially, it's this recipe for my chicken taco filling, only a few little tweaks:

• Add all the raw ingredients for the chicken taco recipe in a large bowl, then add 1/2 cup polenta (that tube of polenta that's already pre-cooked), broken up finely and 2 tbsp taco sauce (I like Ortega's because it's smooth)
• Form 1 1/2 - 2" meatballs.
• Poke a hole with your finger deep enough to insert 1/2" cubes of cheddar cheese (or your cheese of preference), then press the meat back around and smooth over with no holes- or else the cheese may ooze out in baking.
• Bake in 350˚ for about 30 min or until meat is no longer pink.

For my kid, I just served on bed of shredded iceberg lettuce with a drizzle of more taco sauce. For people who can handle a variety of veggies, sky's the limit: ripe avocado or fresh guacamole, diced tomato, chopped onion and green pepper, olives, beans, etc.

These would make awesome appetizers for a party.

As I was making them, I realized I could've easily have made a meatloaf, too - just put alternating layers of meat and cheese into the loaf.

Busy Signal

You may wonder where I'll be for the next few days... well, here's my inbox: 65 calendar panels that need to be hemmed, pressed, dowels cut, sanded & inserted, strings tied, hangtags attached, rolled in tissue paper and packaged nicely in their tubes where they will await shipment. All by myself this year, too, because my mom's decided this time of year would be nice for a visit to France and Belgium. hrmph.

Hey, I'm not complaining!

OK, maybe a little...

Autumn Bliss

We had a fun weekend. Hope you did too!

Breaking News | Big Decision & Big Sale

Throughout the month of November I'll be running a 20% off sale on all my cotton/linen fabrics. I've never offered a discount on them before because the profit margins are so slim- it's also the reason I never wholesaled them.

This morning after chatting with my husband, some things suddenly became clear and I'm wasting no time on acting on my decision.

After months of contemplation about my Cicada Studio shop for the upcoming year, I've decided to deplete my immediate fabric inventory and then make the fabric a custom-order-only product only available through Supermarket. That means I'll stop offering smaller cuts like fat quarters and focus solely on 1 yard minimums. Anything left over from this sale, I hope to convert to handmade items, such as pillows, totes, and sachets.

Fabric listings are currently for fat quarters. I am only listing 1 at a time so I can track my inventory easier. I will have more fabric available on most patterns, though, so if you'd like a custom order, I can work it up for you. Yards of fabric, which were $68 are currently $54.40.

Right now I have no plans to make new designs. I had hoped to work with my Cloud9 partner, Gina, to see what we could do in the organic cotton efforts to work out a more "Cicada Studio" range. But with the growing success of Cloud9, I am not interested in creating more work down a different avenue before refining what we've already begun. Time will tell where the future lies for new Cicada Studio fabrics. I'm actually excited about this fresh start, and this feels very right. And a little liberating.

So, if you've been eyeballing Feeding the Birds, Wild Mushrooms, Grass Green or Queen Anne's Lace, now may be a very opportune time to purchase!

Family Shout Out | Pomme Designs

My first cousin Sara is an amazing talent. She's design director at Fishs Eddy, she's a refined illustrator and sculptor, she cooks, she decorates, and she sews (I'm sure there's a bunch of things I'm neglecting to point out, too). Lately she's been sewing a lot more and so much so, that she's decided to open shop and sell her wares.

We're a bit of a Francophile family, what with our grandmother being French and having oodles of French family members to go and visit (and vice versa). So, it's no surprise that Sara, who even studied in France for a while, should tip her hat to her love of this inspirational country. Her uncomplicated, yet sophisticated work is accented nicely by the names of exotic locations, while her fabric choices reflect the memories of her journeys.

Counterclockwise from top left:

Province Sunglass Case

Lotus Tote

Marseille Mini Coin Purse

Bretagne Zippered Pouch

Shade Garden | Quilt Project

Another collaboration between my friend Tia and me. This time, she didn't really have much to go on but a sketched image and some dimensions. She did a BEAUTIFUL job.

Look at all this crazy work she did!

Thank you, Tia!!

Little Helper

I don't even want to think about how he got here, but when I reached for a pin and saw him there, I just couldn't help but smile.

Shade Garden | Shared Projects

I am loving some of the beautiful creations made from my Shade Garden fabrics these days and want to share them with you, too.

Left to Right:

• Karen of Nellie's Needles created a pattern that she previewed at this past quilt market (contact her for sales info).
• Caroline or JCaroline Creative made this adorable kimono top (pattern by Patty Young)- you can also buy Shade Garden fabrics at Caroline's fabu store.
• New email-friend Laura worked her magic on a darling baby quilt.

My crate is due back (finally) from quilt market today. Lost in transit, then found, then my driveway getting paved = unusually long time and buildup of stockpiled work to be done. I can't wait to show you the Shade Garden quilt I designed and my friend Tia sewed up for me!

New Item In Shop | 2010 Tea Towel Calendars

Some of you will remember this grand idea I had, whereas, I would have my calendars manufactured for me. I'm sorry to report, it didn't pan out. The product they made just wasn't up to par, so I chose quality over quantity. So, it's back to my previous method, which is not only costly, but time consuming. While I'd love to sell oodles at a more-than-reasonable price, I opted for selling some at a fair price. We shall see where it leads me.

Thanks to everyone's input in my giveaway, I also decided to go with both designs... and honestly, they just look so nice and clean, I am very thrilled that I fell back on what I knew would be a top-notch product.

Check out Forsythia and Queen Anne's Lace in my shop Etsy and Supermarket shops. Also, there's an incentive for buying two or more.

Available for PRE-ORDER - should start shipping within a week.

Mother Lode!

I always knew my husband was awesome. And he knows I know he's awesome. But last night he got the award for Most Awesome by bringing me this old Christie's Auction catalog packed with textile design goodness. It's FILLED with inspiration and will make a well-used edition to my reference library. Thanks for thinking of me, Sweety!

Giveaway | Epicerie Goodies

This giveaway I'm "mixing" it up a little with a giveaway for my mom's spice mixes.

Epicerie specializes in custom blended spice mixes with recipe included. In this time where Slow Food seems all the rage, she's been doing it this way for as long as I can remember. Mealtime at Mom's is no casual affair. Scratch that... even the Casual Affairs are something special, because she's a complete whiz at making something simple seem more complex. Take the Chicken Provencal or Curry... the recipe calls for a few fresh ingredients that almost anyone would have on hand, plus Epicerie's super mix of spices and voila... a meal you can hardly believe you've prepared with so little effort.

Epicerie offers a wide variety of recipe packets which are nice if you like an assortment- or as gifts (think housewarming, hostess, stocking stuffers, off to college, etc)- Encore! jars for when you can't get enough of a particular dish and a unique Recipe Greeting Card for those who'd like to send a little Slow Food by Slow Mail. Each packet is designed with her original photos or illustrations (yes, she's a Jill of all trades). She also carries a few other items, such as recipe cards with a traditional French motif and placecards.

Here's what's being offered:

Grand Prize is 8 pack assortment and 2 runners up will receive a 3 pack assortment- all with the recipes of your choosing from her shop.

Here's what we'd like from you:

Tell us what's your favorite item in the shop- could be a particular recipe or an item itself. In particular, if you'd let us know what's more appealing- packets or jars, that would be awesome.

Entry deadline is Tuesday Oct 20 9pm EST.

Anyone in the world can enter.

Please PLEASE leave contact info, else I may have to pick another winner (boo).

UPDATE 10/21/09-

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS AND THANKS FOR ENTERING!

GRAND PRIZE- BECKY

RUNNERS UP- JODI AND NIAMEY.

We're Back!

The Quilt Market was amazing. It was SO worthwhile and we surpassed both our hopes and expectations. Cloud9 Fabrics was so wonderfully welcome and we met and chatted with the nicest people. Everyone was so enthusiastic and it made us very proud.

I will be updating our stockists page with 15 super new customers (including Australia!) and we even hooked up with a Canadian distributor.

But of course, some of the biggest news is the preview of Beyond the Sea! We even received some pre-orders- so how happy are we?

I hardly got to get out of the booth, but I did drop by a few to mingle and see what everyone else was doing. It's a dizzying array of fabric and other fun things there- if I were a buyer, I would hardly know where to begin. We were quite content within our comfortable 3 walls though and were actually sad to see it dismantled last night.

More updates when I can catch my breath!

Off To The Market!

I'll see ya on the other side of Market! Wish us luck :)

Featured | Do It Yourself Magazine

A few months ago, I was contacted by designer Angie Packer as she wanted to use my Dandelion fabric in this project of hers that is so BEAUTIFULLY featured in the current Winter 2009 issue of Do It Yourself magazine.

Unfortunately, there was an oversight and I am not credited for the fabric in this project- on page or in the resources guide in the back. Which obviously is a big disappointment. Hoping that it can somehow be rectified, but as this is a quarterly, it's not likely people will stayed tuned to the next issue to find out who made that awesome fabric and where can I can some? Maybe they can post something online?

Anyway, it's one for my portfolio! (trying to maintain positivity)

What's particularly nice about this issue is all the Etsy featured artists and products and a big spread on my friend Patricia's new book Home, Paper, Scissors. I also see a lot of other familiar names and pieces.