Live The Life You've Imagined

I have been keeping such a big secret and I just can't take it anymore.....I'm not good at keeping secrets......it's just so much easier to always tell the truth.....it means you have less stuff you have to remember.  I would have been a terrible spy....if I had been captured, all they would have had to do is say "you really want to tell us everything.....come on.....you know you want to" and offer me a glass of wine and some cupcakes and I would have spilled my guts!  Anyway.....where on earth was I.....oh yeah....my big news!

I am closing the quilt shop and following my dreams and starting an exciting new adventure!  I can't tell you everything yet.....I'll wait until the new website for my new adventure is up and running so I can have that fun moment of "The Big Reveal"......so hey.....I guess I can keep some secrets, can't I?  But I obviously had to tell you that the shop is closing because that means BIG Fabric Sales for you!!!  Soooo.....as of right now everything in the shop is 25% off the current prices and I have a feeling it's going to go fast!  Please use the Discount Code word Adventure to get your discount when you place an order. 

And if you want a little hint as to what I'll be doing next, here goes.....my passions have always been designing and creating things.  And running a quilt shop just didn't leave enough time for those things.  I'll miss my sweet, little shop but I know I'm making the right decision and I'm sooooo excited about it!!!  And if you're wondering, the image above is my "Mood Board" for my new website.  Looks pretty yummy, doesn't it?!

Hugs,
Jenny

Forty and Fabulous

My 40th Birthday Week has come and gone and it was full of everything I love - lots of sewing, good food, relaxing with Col Sew Fab and the fur babies, running, hot tub soaking and lots of champagne to celebrate.  And so many sweet and thoughtful gifts too!  Here are a few highlights.....

Beautiful roses from my BFF of 25 years....

My favorite photo of Emma and Baxter blown up onto a giant canvas from Col Sew Fab's sister.....

And a pile of wonderful goodies from Col Sew Fab.  He knows me soooo well!  What 40 year old DOESN'T want a mountain of Hot Pink Hello Kitty awesomeness for their birthday???!!!

And I gave myself the gift of time for crafty fun and spent soooo much time happily obsessing over fabrics and sewing blocks for the Economy Block Quilt.  I actually had to start setting alarms on my phone to remind myself to eat and let the dogs out to potty because I would get completely lost in these squares for hours and hours and hours.....

And I'm well on my way to completing my goal of running 140 Miles in JENuary for my 40th on 1/14/14!  118 miles down.....22 miles to go!

Hugs,
Jenny

The Year Of Everything

Wow.....I have no idea where to begin and how on earth to summarize 2013.  I fondly referred to 2012 as "The Year Of Nothing".  Pretty much nothing significant or big happened in 2012.....and that's not a complaint......it was blissfully normal and routine......and then 2013 came along and was the complete opposite!  It was "The Year Of Everything."  It gave me the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and one epic challenge after another.  My mind starts spinning when I think about everything that happened.....when the year started I had 3 cats, 2 dogs, I lived in Florida and I thought a 6 mile run was really long.....when the year ended I found myself living in California with 2 cats, 3 dogs and the belief that a 20 mile run is completely normal.

Soooooo.......here are the highlights......and lowlights of 2013.....

-I ran my first half marathon which was actually my own personal race called the "Run Bunny Run" on Easter Sunday.

-Col Sew Fab got his dream job and we had to pack up, find a house and move to California in 6 weeks.

-Sweet Daisy unexpectedly left for kitty heaven far too soon.....

-We found our dream house on the same day that Daisy left us......and there was a bouquet of Daisies on the coffee table of that house......

-We took an epic cross country road trip from Florida to California in June with 2 cats and 2 dogs and moved into our new home.

-Baxter joined our family 8 days after we arrived in California.  He and Daisy were both born on March 26.

-Emma had a horrific health scare which thankfully turned out to be a mild health issue.

-I became Aunt Jenny on August 7 to a sweet little baby girl named Aurora.

-I went to an amazing, life changing and all around awesome retreat in September.

-I ran a full marathon.  

-I met my idol and favorite artist, Susan Branch!

-And I didn't finish any projects.....not a single one!

And now I'm looking forward to seeing what 2014 has in store for me!

Hugs,

Jenny

JENuary!!!

Can you feel the excitement in the air???  Not only is tomorrow the first day of JENuary........it's the biggest JENuary ever!  I will be celebrating my 40th birthday next month!!!  And no....the JENuary thing is not a typo.  Long ago I decided to rename the month JENuary in my honor.  As you've probably already guessed, I'm not one of those people who says that my birthday is no big deal.  I plan on celebrating ALL MONTH LONG! 

As of right now, I have a 3 part celebration plan....

Part One:  I was inspired by the Mission Statement of Saucony (a running clothes company):

At Saucony, a good day is when we get to run.

A great day is when we inspire someone else to run.

So here's the plan.......I'm going to run 140 miles in the month of January for my 40th on 1/14/14 aaaaand.....I want you to join me!  I want it to be kind of like a quilt along......but we'll be running or walking instead!  But don't panic.....you can drop the 1 and just run or walk 40 miles next month.  Or 14 miles.  Or 4 miles.  I'm so, so, soooo excited that I already have a small group of awesome peeps on Facebook and Instagram that have said they're giving it a go!   I really hope you'll join me for my Run or Walk Along.  I'll be doing weekly updates about my progress....and I hope you'll be posting comments about your progress too!

Part Two:  A week long Staycation.  Yeah.....I know.....I just took one.....but it's my 40th birthday so this is no time to be practical or responsible.  Some people want a huge party for their birthday.  Or a long, extravagant vacation.  I just want to be at home with my pets and Col Sew Fab and hang out in my jammies while watching Netflix and working on all sorts of crafty projects!  I'm sooooo cool!

Part Three:  A weekend trip to Napa sometime next month.  Because I love wine.  And food.  And wine.  Did I already mention that I love wine???

Well, Happy New Year.....but don't stay up too late....because we're going running tomorrow!  Col Sew Fab and I have an exciting evening of sipping champagne, eating a nice dinner of tenderloin, bearnaise, creamed spinach and button mushrooms with warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert, watching t.v. and pretending that we're on the east coast so we can go to bed at 9:00!  Like I said before.....I'm soooo cool!

Hugs,

Jenny

Quiet Holidays

Is there anything better than a quiet holiday season at home full of your favorite things?  It's my favorite way to celebrate!

Puppies in Christmas sweaters....
Staycations with champagne minis and lots of sewing.....
The Twelve Days of Christmas in cross stitch....
Lots of yummy food to nibble on.....

And a quick Daycation to the winter wonderland of Yosemite.....

I hope your holiday season has been merry and bright, warm and fun and full of everything that makes your heart happy!

Hugs,
Jenny

Susan Branch

I can't believe I haven't told you all about this yet but I MET MY IDOL last month!!!

The most amazing artist EVER, Susan Branch, was doing a book tour for her new book, "A Fine Romance" about her journey through the English countryside and one of her stops was at the sweetest little quilt shop about 3 hours south of me.  So, I grabbed my amazing friend Karen and off we went on a mini adventure!!!

It was love at first sight when I first laid eyes on her artwork 13 years ago.  Everything about it was just so sweet and perfect and warm and full of joy and inspiration.  And ever since I discovered her, I have been on a mission to gather up EVERYTHING that has her name on it - books, scrapbooking supplies, fabric, greeting cards, calendars.....if she makes it, I buy it!

I was absolutely giddy with excitement when I got to meet her!  Fortunately, I didn't say anything too embarrassing.....although I do think the first words out of my mouth were "I am SOOOO excited to meet you."  Hey, you should never postpone joy, right?!  Why act cool when you can't contain your excitement???!!!  Just go with it!

And Susan was just as gracious and kind and sweet and lovely as her paintings are.  It was a fabulous day and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet someone so inspirational who I admire so much!  I can only hope that one day I inspire someone as much as she has inspired me!

Hugs,
Jenny

12 Days Of Christmas

Just thought I'd pop in for a minute to show you my latest project!  I got caught up in the cross stitch frenzy going on over on Instagram and last Friday I caved......even though I was determined to not start another new project.....even though my addiction to cross stitch had been on the back burner for a few years......but I just couldn't help myself and I started this adorable 12 Days Of Christmas counted cross stitch sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery over Thanksgiving weekend.

It's a mystery sampler which I've never done before because.....well.....I'm kind of a control freak and the thought of starting something when I didn't know what the whole pattern looked like never appealed to me.  But when I saw how cute the first row is, I HAD to throw caution to the wind and just do it!  The second row comes out tomorrow and I'm seriously giddy with excitement!

And now I've gotta run.....no, not to get back to cross stitching....we're having a party for Col Sew Fab's work department tomorrow and I'm nowhere near ready.  I have lots of fun baking and decorating and appetizer making ahead of me and I've gotta get to it!

Hugs,
Jenny

26.2 miles

Well......I DID IT!!!  I finally did it.  On Sunday, November 3, 2013 I ran my first marathon.  Yup.....26.2 very, very, VERY long miles!

This is Col. Sew Fab and I before the marathon (he ran the half marathon).....

And this is me crossing the finish line.....

It was exhausting and exhilarating and epic and it made me feel kind of invincible.   I went from being a non-athletic kind of girl to running a marathon in the course of two years.  Pretty cool, huh?!
 
It was also a bit overwhelming at first.....so much excitement and energy in the air....so many people around cheering on the runners....so many funny signs....so much to take in and soak up!

But somewhere around Mile 8 when I was really starting to "hit the wall" my arch nemesis appeared.....yup.....SHE just couldn't leave me alone.  Maybe you know her too....SHE is the voice inside my head who likes to tell me things like.....

"You can't do this."

"Everyone else is so much better at this than you."

"What makes you think YOU can do this."

"You're not going to succeed."

And finally I decided that I'd had it with her!  Enough is enough!!!

So, I told her "Shut up!  Shut up!  SHUT UP!!!  I am trying to run a marathon here and it's really, really, REALLY tough and I don't have time for your negativity and shenanigans right now.  I need to focus!  I'm done with you!  Buh bye!!!"

And I left her in the dust and kept on running.  And I haven't heard a heck of a lot from her since that day. 

So much of the rest of the run is a foggy blur in my mind.....but I distinctly remember that at Mile 20 each mile became twice as hard as the previous mile.  But all of the wonderful people that stuck around and kept cheering on the slow poke, stragglers at the end of the race really motivated me to keep pushing forward one step at a time and to keep giving 100%.

Wouldn't it be great if every day there were crowds of people that you'd never met cheering you on and telling you you're awesome???!!!

And finally......I saw the finish line.....and started to cry.  Mostly because I was so overwhelmed and proud of what I'd accomplished.....but also because I was so darn happy that I was about to be DONE and didn't have to run anymore!  

And Col. Sew Fab stuck around for HOURS after he finished the half marathon so he could be there to see me finish the marathon in 363rd place!  How sweet!!!

Soooo.....if you're wondering.....

Yes, I'm sooo glad I did it.

Yes, I'll do more marathons in the future.....but I'll probably do a few half marathons first!

Yes......I was incredibly sore and exhausted for several days.  I knew it would be hard on my body.....but I was pretty surprised by how mentally draining it was too!

And I guess the moral of the story is.....

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."  -Henry Ford

Hugs,
Jenny

Not At Quilt Market....

So I wasn't at Quilt Market this weekend.  But you know what?  I'm totally o.k. with that because I've been looking at the bright side.....

I slept in my own bed all weekend.....

I went for a long run in fresh air, under bright blue skies and along streets full of trees showing their glorious autumn colors.....

I made TONS of progress on my hexie quilt......

I spent my days relaxing with Col. Sew Fab and the fur babies....

And I felt like I was "virtually" at Quilt Market thanks to the all of the wonderful, inspiring, colorful, fun photos all over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  All of the eye candy.  None of the travel hassles!

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better.....

I woke up this morning to a super cold, grey, blustery, rainy day......and I LOVE IT!

Because that just means today is full of fleece pants, hot cups of cinnamon spice tea, homemade mushroom soup, a warm, glowing fireplace and snuggling next to the fur babies as I work.  Heaven!

Hugs,
Jenny

P.S.  Are you on Instagram?  I'm a wee bit obsessed with it lately!  I'm @SewFabShop.  Who are you???

Still Hexie-ing Along....

It's finally coming together....

I'm almost halfway there.....

Bit by bit.....piece by piece.....a sweet, little, hexie quilt is coming to life....

And as I'm sewing hexie after hexie.....I keep thinking......Oooohhhh.....I should do a Christmas hexie quilt.....or maybe a red, white and blue one......or maybe autumny colors......or maybe a bright one in shades of lime, aqua, pink and orange.....or maybe one with little motifs embroidered in the center hexie of each flower.....how cute would that be???!!!  The hexie possibilities are endless!!!
But for now, I'm just looking forward to a weekend full of sewing hexies, playing with Vintage Valentine quilt pieces, sipping wine, eating warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies, snuggling with my fur babies and chillaxing with the fabulous Col. Sew Fab.  Happy weekend to all!

Happy Sewing,
Jenny