We're moving to California.
Those are words that I never thought would come out of my mouth.
Col. Sew Fab applied for his dream job which just happened to be in Fresno, California and he got the job. He's going to be the guy in charge of an F-15 squadron AND he'll get to start flying again!
Sooooo.....that means we'll be packing up 2 houses (our house on the military base and our "real" house in Destin).....one quilt shop.....and heading off for a 4 day cross country road trip sometime at the end of June or beginning of July with 5 pets. We're leaving the beach and heading to the desert. Sounds like quite an adventure, doesn't it?!
Now that I've had a few days to adjust to this news and the shock is starting to wear off and the room is no longer spinning I'm starting to have all sorts of random thoughts and questions popping up in my head......
-There aren't Waffle Houses in California, are there?
-We'll be living in the Pacific Time Zone.
-There won't be hurricanes in Fresno.
-What the heck is Trader Joes? I hear about this magical, wonderful place from people on Twitter and Facebook but I have no idea what it is. But everyone seems to love it.
-Will people look at me funny if I say "y'all" in California?
-There's a marathon in Fresno in November. I think I'll sign up.
-I just bought a large jar of mayonnaise last week. Will we be able to finish it before we move?
-Oooohhhhh......we'll be near wine country!
-Uh oh......we have about 6 months worth of work to do in 2 months.
And the rest of the time my mind is like one of those fuzzy screens you see on your t.v. when the cable goes out.
But wait! I forgot to tell you the BEST part! I'm going to get a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy! So who cares that we have to pick up our lives on short notice and move to the other side of the country because I'm going to get a puppy!!! That was the deal - if he gets the job, I get a mini-Emma to love and hug and kiss and squeeze and hopefully Emma will teach it everything she knows about how to be EMMA!
Soooooo......if you know anything about central California please tell me! We'll be heading off to Fresno this weekend to look for a place to live and it will be my first time there. It's kind of crazy that I'm about to move to a city that I've NEVER even been to! So tell me all about it if you know something!
Hugs,
Jenny
P.S. As you can imagine the shop will be closed for a couple of weeks this summer as we move. And it will also be closed at the end of this week and for most of next week as we travel to Cali to look for a place to live.
Progress has been made!
The borders are now on the Going Coastal Granny Square Quilt.
And as soon as I get this quilt sandwiched and pinned and ready for hand ties I think I'm going to start work on my Swoon quilt. Because once one quilt has moved out of the "piecing" stage and into the "quilting" stage you're allowed to start piecing another quilt, right? It makes perfect sense to me!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
Little by little progress is being made....
More than half of the ties on the pink and black Little Lady quilt are done....
The borders for the Going Coastal Granny Square Quilt have been cut and pieced together.....
My foot has healed to the point where I'm able to run again....
The laundry pile continues to grow at an astronomical rate but you can't win 'em all, right?!
Baby steps. They may be small steps forward but at least I'm heading in the right direction!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
P.S. Check the upper right section of the blog for our new feature, the "Sale Of The Week." We'll announce a new sale every Monday. This week Lush Running Stitch Fat Quarter Bundles are 25% off.
I've been a very bad quilter lately. Yet again, I have absolutely no progress to show you on any of my Works In Progress. But I have found the time to plan ANOTHER possible quilt. Remember the other day when I said I thought that the Old New 30s Collection would look perfect in a Swoon quilt. Well....I ran with that idea and I picked my 9 favorite fabrics from Old New 30s and paired them with 9 dots, ginghams and solids from my stash and this is what I came up with.
Just picture these.....
Turned into something like this.....
Hmmmm.....that would be pretty darn cute, right? I think the number of projects on my "Must Make" list just went up. What do you think? I HAVE to make it, don't I?
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
It's been slow going around here during the last week.
I went from being the half marathon running Hare to being the slow poke Tortoise with tendonitis in my foot pretty fast.
It's taking twice as long to get anything done and I'm trying to keep my foot elevated and iced as often as possible so that hasn't left me with much time or energy for fun projects. My only big accomplishments over the weekend were planning a new quilt and finally making perfect homemade focaccia bread and doing some online shopping for running clothes. Because yes.....it's oddly comforting to buy new running clothes when you're unable to run. I know I'll be back out there on the track soon!
And oh yeah....the new quilt idea. I've been in love with the Swoon Quilt pattern since it first came out and I was starting to feel like the only person in the world who hadn't made one.
I think I was just waiting for the perfect fabric collection to come along. And I think Old New 30s just might be that collection along with a few dots and ginghams from my stash.
What do you think? Can you picture it? Is it a match made in heaven? Wouldn't it be the perfect picnic blanket? Have you made a Swoon yet? Or what's your idea of the perfect Swoon?
I'm gonna try and hobble back on over to the cutting table now and cut the binding for my Going Coastal Granny Square Quilt. The sooner I get it done the sooner I can start on my next quilt!!!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
P.S. The recipe for the perfect and VERY easy focaccia bread is in the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. I can't recommend this book enough! The bread is super easy to make. Incredibly delicious. And no matter how many times I mess up or forget a step I still end up with fabulous bread!
I did it! I finally did it!!! I ran a half marathon for the first time ever!!!
It was my very own race which I named the 1st Annual Run Bunny Run Half Marathon. And since I was the only contestant in my half marathon I guess that means I came in first place, right?! Well.....Col. Sew Fab ran for half of the time with me. So he was the winner of the Half of The Run Bunny Run Half Marathon.
It was tough. And exhilarating. And exhausting. And I was kind of sorry when it was all over. Seriously! And it made me realize how far I've come since I took up running a year and a half ago.
The most interesting thing I realized was that what used to be a LONG run to me is now considered a short run. And what used to be an impossible length run to me is now quite doable. When I was at the 7.1 mile point and I thought to myself....."only 5 more miles to go, no biggie.....wait a minute.....since when did it become appropriate to put the word ONLY behind the words 5 miles?".....well.....that's when I realized that things have really changed and I have really made some progress.
When I got home Col. Sew Fab was waiting at the front door for me with a towel soaked in a bowl of ice water. And this was on the front door.....
And then I found this taped to my computer......
After I settled in (and cleaned up!) he made blueberry pancakes and bacon and mimosas. And then I spent the rest of the day in bed or on the sofa. I had all sorts of big plans of how I was going to spend my Sunday afternoon. Sewing. Dollhousing. Printing fabric for the dollhouse since we finally figured out how to print fabric using my new printer!!! But noooooo! None of that happened. I knew I was going to be tired after the half marathon. But I didn't realize I was going to be THAT tired. Too tired to sew. Too tired to read. Too tired to think.
I'm feeling great today and I'm gearing up for my next big challenge. After I take about 2 weeks of semi-rest I'm going to start training for the 1st Annual Run Bunny Run FULL Marathon. I've already taped my full marathon training plan to the side of the refrigerator where the half marathon training plan used to be. It should be fun to do marathon training during summer in Florida, right?! I can't wait to get started!
Hugs,
Jenny
It's all fun and games until one of your kitties "deposits" a hairball on the quilt that you're working on and causes the cancellation of Work In Progress Wednesday. Soooo.....since I have no quilt pictures to show off today I'll distract you with a picture of the "suspects" instead.
Sweet little Daisy (left) celebrated her 16th birthday yesterday! And after that huge health scare last summer I really wasn't sure if we'd see this day. And before we make any of those jokes about Daisy being old enough to get her driver's license I should mention something.....Daisy is on blood pressure medication that specifically says it may impair her ability to drive or operate heavy machinery. It always makes me giggle when I see that label on her pill bottle. The pharmacy knows the medication is for a cat. But they still diligently put that sticker on every time!
The quilt did survive it's roller coaster ride in the washing machine and is now happily air drying out of reach of the kitties. Hopefully I'll be back to work on a dry and stain free quilt tomorrow!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
P.S. That's Bailey, formerly known as the sour puss cat on the right.
P.S. #2 - Cassi, my good ol', almost 19 year old cat is still doing great. She just wasn't in the mood to have her photo taken today!
Back to reality! Such a nice feeling after months and months of a mind-numbing website/computer project.
My post-website redesign weekend consisted of running.....and baking.....and quilting....and playing with the pets....and sipping wine with friends in front of an outdoor fire....and watching Netflix....and soaking in the hot tub and just doing normal stuff that didn't involve any computer code!
I finished the sashing on the Going Coastal Granny Square quilt over the weekend. And now I'm playing with border options. I'm thinking of a blue inner border to match the sashing and an outer border of Going Coastal Bottlecaps - that's the fabric I used for the fussy cut squares in the blocks. I like how the Bottlecaps fabric adds so much color and a touch of fun and I think it really pulls everything together.
What do you think? Did you do any fun sewing this weekend?
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
Yesterday was a good day. A very good day.
After months and months of work that has been boring at times.....frustrating at times.....with occasional bouts of jump up and down level happiness due to the smallest of victories in my battle with the computer......I can now say....
I have created a brand new and totally improved Sew Fabulous Quilt Shop.
Yup. That's the big, huge, secret project I've been working on FOREVER. Well.....since November. But it feels like forever. I know, I know.....a lot of you were expecting to hear me say that I'd designed a line of fabric or that I was launching a line of patterns or something much more fun and fabulous. And maybe one day that will be the reveal after a big, huge secret project is announced. But for now, this will have to do!
And this isn't just a website "makeover." This is a completely NEW website. And that means that every single category.....every single product....every single image....every single description....had to be moved over, re-organized and re-written ONE. AT. A. TIME. And I had to learn a completely new website management system. And then I double checked every single category and product. Because that's how I roll. Yeah......it took a while.
I still have some work to do. I'm still putting some finishing touches on it and making it better and better but the moment it was at the 90% point (remember my 90% rule) I made her live to the world.
It was a scary moment when I did it. It was the kind of moment where you feel like you're about to jump off of a cliff! My heart was racing. My blood pressure must have been sky high. I watched a video on how to "flip the switch" to make the old website go away and the new website take it's place about five times. I took notes. I did a dry run to make sure I knew exactly what words were supposed to go in what boxes to make this computer magic happen. And then I did it. I entered the magic words in the magic boxes and hit "save." And guess what....
Nothing happened.
That's when I got the pop-up message that it usually takes an hour but sometimes up to 24-48 hours for the new website to "flip on." Are you kidding me? Seriously? I'm about to have a heart attack here and you're telling me I may have to wait TWO whole days???!!!
Fortunately, my website went live about 45 hand wringing, pacing, nerve wracking minutes later. What. A. Relief. And then we popped the champagne!
So now that this life sucking force type project is DONE I can get back to other things. Like quilting. And dollhouses. And quilting. And cleaning the house. And quilting. And Illustrator classes. And quilting. And more huge, super secret projects that will be more fun than this one was! I think you get the idea.
So hop on over to the new website and let me know what you think! I always love to hear what you have to say!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
P.S. If you had an account with the old website I'm so sorry to say you'll have to set up a new account on the new website. Shouldn't take more than a minute the next time you decide to do some shopping!
P.S. 2 - Constructive criticism is very welcome! If something about the website is confusing or hard to figure out please tell me! I want to know all of your thoughts so I can make everything as perfect as possible!!!
My sweet puppers celebrated her 7th birthday yesterday and she partied like a little rock star! Every year we try to meet up with Emma's doggy family and her breeders at the dog park for a little celebratory reunion and it causes some serious cuteness overload!
Left to Right: Nikki - littermate, Kerry - biological father, Pearl - littermate, Doug - friend, Lisa- littermate, Emma Jane!
And because a birthday isn't complete without cake and presents we also stopped by PetSmart to pick out a new toy and the doggy bakery to pick up her cake.
Then it was time to collapse and spend the rest of the day snoozing and snoring because partying like a rock star is some seriously hard work!
And this concludes your Daily Dose of Cute!
Hugs,
Jenny
