I have come down with my first cold of the season. While I have been trying to ignore and deny it, today I can no longer do that. I am sick, and while not miserable, I wished it was not the situation. There is a lot that I would like to accomplish, but I am going to try to take it easy this time. I usually go full steam until I physically cannot do things due to feeling way to ill, which usually results in a prolonged version of the illness. This time I am trying my hardest to take it easy and nip this in the bud. I just have a hard time taking things easy unless I feel ultimately miserable.

It is the end of the terrace garden as well. I hoped it would be able to last through the winter, but the sun has changed its course in the sky and no longer shines on the balcony. The plants are also racked with whatever fungal or bacterial illness they received in the year, so most have died or on their way to that end. The only real producer on the balcony was the tomato plant, which was wind pollinated. I guess there are just not enough insects to do the job. Next year I will know and make up for them with the use of cotton swabs. Today I am going to work on taking down the lattice work and remove the plants and dirt for disposal. I wanted to get this done either today or over the weekend before the first fall/winter storm rolls in early this next week. I am also going to move the herb box into the house now that it has stalled due to the lack of sun. I hope it will do well with the morning sun coming in through one of the living room windows. I also am debating moving the lemon tree in as well. It also does not get enough sun, and I would hate to lose that. The jasmine is quite happy right now as is the rosemary. I need both a trellis for the jasmine to shape it onto and a larger pot for the rosemary since it has gotten so large again. I hope to leave those two outside unless there is a frost warning.

I did get around to photographing the Black and Gold Vine Sari pair down in the front courtyard. It proved to be a great spot for taking photos. I got over my shyness with doing this, and it turned out that few people actually noticed me. The few people that did were more worried about messing up my photos than being annoyed that I was doing it. The ease of taking photographs in the enclosed area was wonderful compared with the photos I took on the patio at the old apartment. There was less wind, so it took me only 15 minutes to get good shots versus the hour it used to take me at the old apartment. It was pure joy. Here is one of the product shot sets I took:



I am also going to work on some things in the shop if I feel up to it. The chocolate pin stripe pants are coming along well, and it would be great to get them finished up for photographing and listing next week. More likely, I will be working on a pair of green and black hairfalls I started. It would be awesome to get them up early next week as well. I think they would be a great addition to someone's Halloween costume for this year. Well I think the sore throat needs a cup of tea, and the laundry needs to get started. Off for some low impact activities.

Today I am finally going to bite the bullet and try out the front courtyard for pants photos. I have that wonderful pair of new black vines hanging in the studio, and they need to find their way into the Etsy Store and into a new home. It will be very different taking my pictures on street level, and I have decided to change from using a choli in the pictures to a nice shirt instead. I hope they turn out.

I also have finished up taking pictures of that second red work embroidered tin. I love the thistle style pattern on this one.



I also worked on taking pictures of this one and yesterday's box with a vignette setting. I used some of my own embroidery and sewing tools in the scene, and I am quite pleased at how it turned out.



I am going to get this one listed up in the store as soon as I am done here. Then it is off for the photo shoot in the front entry garden. Finally I hope to either work on a pair of chocolate pin stripe pants in a poly cotton blend, or sit on the couch and work on a set of Halloweenish hair falls. It all depends on how I am feeling and whether or not this cold starts to take a stronger hold on my sinuses. I hope to sew rather than braid now. I would rather work on the falls tonight with our television viewing. Right now we are working through the National Parks series by Ken Burns. It has been really interesting. Well I guess I should be off for my close-up!

Yesterday was truly focused. I got a lot accomplished in the time I was working on things for the shop. I cleaned up the kitchen, put away clothes, picked up the house in general, and then set to doing shop things. I finished up that pair of black pants that I was dragging my feet on. They look great. Here they are after the final ironing before taking pictures of them.



I hope to take pictures of them today and list them up either tomorrow or Thursday. I tried to take a close-up of the fabric for the blog, but it is a bit blurry.



I always love how this fabric looks and feels, but it is horrible to try to photograph. I am going to work out using the front garden of this building this time. I hope that the neighbors don't mind, so I will see today I suppose.

I also got those red work tins finished off.



I am working on some new photography for them this time, including a vignette style with some sewing accessories to make it more visually interesting. It may also help people envision how I use them myself. The sunlight patterns have changed since we first moved into this apartment, so it is hard to get pictures in full sunlight now. I am going to try using the lighting in this apartment and see if I can use that and editing to get good pictures for the store. I did get one really good picture of a tin before the sun dipped behind the building.



I hope to have the rest of the pictures taken today and load this onto the Etsy Store sometime this afternoon. I am also headed into the studio to work on a pair of chocolate pinstripe pants and cut out a pair of olive colored sari pants as well. Lots of inspiration now that I have my focus back! I am headed off to work!

You would think with fall in full swing that things would start to calm down, at least that was what happened in the last two years. This year has been exceptionally busy. Having Annie around is only a small piece of the puzzle. I think the newer bigger apartment requires more cleaning than the last one. It is more area to cover. Also the jam obsession has contributed to this all quite a bit. I am also getting back into baking quite a bit. My first pumpkin pie came out a true success, again due to Hubert Keller's pie crust recipe. I feel the pounds adding from this all butter crust, but I think it is so worth the extra walking I need to do for the pieces of this crust!



Plus, I am very happy to say, the early start on the Christmas sewing is nothing to sneeze at. Less pulling of hair this winter will be a welcomed change. The shop is also busier, with more orders this year than last year, especially in the custom work area of things. I am truly happy and blessed with all the hub bub of activity lately.

On Wednesday I had lots of appointments to make, mainly a dental one and a hair cut. I promptly fell asleep after eating lunch on the couch, so that day was chalked up to not much done. Thursday was mostly spent working on some computer and office work for the shop as well as tutoring for 826 Valencia. Friday was a fun filled day of showing Annie's brother around the city. We went for Dim Sum in the Richmond district and then wandered around Golden Gate Park. We took in one act at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and also visited the Glass House to look at flowers. My favorites were definitely the orchids and the special exhibit on edible plants.



Saturday was a low key day. Dan went to code camp, and I worked on cleaning up the kitchen as well as making some wrapping papers for the shop. I have not sat down and done that for a while, so it was good to restock the supply. We then took off for the Pacific Pinball Expo and had some great hours of pinball games. I especially liked some of the older Gottlieb games from the 1940's and 1950's. There seemed to be fewer machines this year, but it was still a really good time. I just wished there would have been a Circus Voltaire for me and a Junkyard for Dan, but we cannot always get the machines we want when you are borrowing from collections of willing people. Sunday I went and collected items for a potential custom order. I am waiting to hear back from the person who requested it. We also worked on cleaning out the Aerogarden. I decided to finally shut it down after the pump failure. The plants were still quite healthy and producing fruit, but I wanted to take a break from having it up on the counter.

Today I got orders ready to ship out as well as a care package for my sister. I also shipped out the pants that a friend made and wanted me to fix for him. It was a busy packing day before the postal worker got here. I also listed up the last pair of maroon and gold sari wrap pants.



I really loved this fabric, and it seems like people like it as well. I just wanted to let you all know this is the last pair in this fabric, and I can never get that fabric in again. So, if you are a lover of these pants like I am, go and snatch them up now before this last pair disappears! Today I am off to put the finishing touches on a pair of black pants as well as those redwork boxes. If the weather is good, I will get pictures taken and load them up for sale this week.

Annie and I have finally decided to call an end to the major jam production for the year. After canning another 24 jars of jams and jelly this last session, we both came to the realization that we cannot eat and give away this much jam in a year. Therefore, there is only one more canning session for jams left this year due to my want for caramel apple jam. I am really excited about that one! We tried our hand at jelly for the first time, and while not totally clear due to only doing one pass through our "jelly socks" and squeezing for extra juice, I am still quite proud of the product. We chose to call it natural unfiltered jelly, which is kind of silly because jelly is supposed to be clear, but the tasty product we made cannot be beat! I would like to think Dan's apple picks are most of the reason why.

We started with six pounds of rough chopped apples, leaving the skins and cores intact. Next, we cooked the apples with some water. Meanwhile, Annie and I finished off her preparation of the pear and pinot noir jam.



It was quite tasty! We then moved back to the apple jelly. After the cook time was up, we placed the cooked down mush into a pair of clean nylon stocking. Now, you may be scratching your head at this, but there is a perfectly good explanation. I am somewhat cheap, and the jelly bags you can get at many stores are just a bit to expensive when I am trying to be extra thrifty, so the stockings and high necked faucets work just as well as the expensive jelly bag set ups.



The most important thing is to make sure your socks are clean. We washed this pair of hose before cutting them up and placing the food inside. We then hung them over catch bowls and went to get some lunch.





From there we took the collected juice and added our lemon juice and sugar and cooked it all down.



We canned that and moved on to the plum and the peach that I had prepped the night before. All in all we had 24 half pints at the end of the day. I was proud of how much we did in the little time we spent canning. I guess we have our system down now.

Today I hope to get some time in behind the sewing machine. The call of my knitting has been a strong distraction lately, but it is not part of my Christmas sewing or my Fabulous Pants sewing, so I really need to leave that off till at night in front of the television. The black pants will be finished if it kills me today. I am also planning on finishing up this pants repair for a friend's pair of pants. While cool pants, the seams that the sewer used were way too short, so there are lots of little repairs for me to try to fix up the seams. I am taking most of it to the serger. I also want to make a killer fall meal tonight since the weather is so cold. Today was the first really cold morning, so I am even debating washing the quilt for the last time this season and getting out the down comforter. Hum... I think I need to make a pumpkin pie while I think about it. Test out that crust mojo and see if it is still here!

Yesterday I kept waiting for the heatwave to hit that was supposed to move into the area. Luckily, though, the sea breeze kept the heat over the Oakland hills on the other side of town from us. The house stayed delightfully cool for my fall housecleaning madness. I cleaned all surfaces. There was dusting of bookcases and tables, wiping down mirrors, polishing plates (Yes we have to polish our plates due to a reaction between the silverware and stone wear.), cleaning of bathrooms, and laundry in the machines. It was a whir of activity and a banishment of dust clouds. I kept the one last remaining good flower in the arrangement as a last hint of summer in the house. Today, it is still delightfully chilly despite blistering temperatures across the hills. I enjoy bay side living.

The only thing that did not get tackled is this:



I intend to get the desk mess in order today. Entropy is a hard force to fight. Just when you think you have it beaten down, it shows itself somewhere else. It will be great to have a fully cleaned house and work space. Today I am hoping to finish off a pair of pants and perhaps more handwork on a belt. There is also a matter of dessert to be made since the temperature is not hot again. I am looking to make a chocolate pie that I saw in my latest Penzey's Catalogue. It looks really yummy. Hopefully this will also be the end to my crust issues I have had as of late. I will report back to see if a new recipe and method worked better this time rather than the disastrous results I have been having lately. The red work boxes are being made, but are not finished yet. More on those soon. There is also the possibility that I will abandon all this to go and get some more tools for clay working. I am working up some new contraptions in clay and hope to have those out for all to see soon as well.

I am going to get down to work on this desk thing... hopefully it doesn't take all day!

I seemed to get a lot done yesterday. I made salsa, red food. I worked on my cross stitch, red floss. I went to Long Now to hear about kinetic art, red theater seats, and today I tasted the salsa, too sweet. This got me seeing red. I spent a lot of time working on the salsa yesterday to only mess up one thing. I did not cut the sugar amount in half when I halved the recipe. I guess that is what happens when you should have really eaten lunch but waited until your canning was complete.

Overall, I got some really great pictures though. I loves how red these tomatoes are. They were super ripe, so it made for easy slipping of the skins.





They were super fragrant and wonderfully juicy. I did not have to squeeze them at all for extra cooking juice for the vegetable mix of peppers and onions.



The cooking went well and did not take up much time. Like I said, all was well except forgetting to cut the sugar in half. After all the work, I only ended up with two full pints and one filled three quarters of the way, so it had to go in the fridge.



This takes me to what I am going to do to fix the problem. After some quick consultation with Dan for some ideas, I have decided to get four more pounds of tomatoes from the market on Sunday and make another half batch with out the sugar. Then I will open up the jars and pour them in and bring the mix back up to boiling for a few minutes. Then it will go back into clean jars and into the canner for reprocessing. Hopefully this works out for a better salsa. I also found that there was no heat to the salsa despite adding three full jalapeno peppers, seeds and all to the salsa. Now, I am not a big spice person, so this was a real shocker to me. I am going to add three more peppers to this half batch, and hopefully we will get some heat back into this.

Today up in the Etsy Store I am listing some new red gerbera daisy hair flowers. I really like them. They are a beautiful crimson shade with dark brown to black middles. They also have the same sturdy silver bobby pins for maximal placement possibilities.





Today I am determined to sew up a new pair of black sari pants for the store. I have had them cut out for a long time, but I have been too busy with canning and housekeeping to get to them. Today is the day. I also have the last of the tent adjustments to make at 826 Valencia. Hopefully I can squeeze in some muffin baking as well. Tomorrow I will post my thoughts on the Long Now talk from last night. For now the thoughts are still marinading.

Yesterday it was a contest between digging though books at the library to expand my jam and jelly recipes or to make cookies. Cookies won out hands down. I made white chocolate chip macadamia nut for Dan. Now I know that the white chocolate lovers out there sometimes get upset about the constant pairing of their chips and the macadamia nut, but it really is a winning combination.



I listed up some destashed jewelry making items yesterday. I placed some lanyard clips on the Etsy Store. The current listing is for a lot of 30, but I do have several more lots of them here. If you are interested in a larger quantity, please just let me know, and I will set up a special listing just for you.





Today I am going to finish up the deep clean of the house. There are still the bathrooms to tackle. After all that is finished, I am off to the library for that book hunt and some pants sewing as well. I am still working on the hand sewing and finishing of the elephant and peacock belt. It is finally coming along. I am still finishing off the tassels for it and need to hang them out before their final trim. Only eight more of those to go. I am also working on some hairflower listings today once I sign off of the blog. I will post the pictures here of the newly listed ones tomorrow. Check back to see them as they are quite lovely.

We ended up embarking on the trip to the apple fair in Sebastopol, California this weekend. It was in interesting drive up to the fair, and it took way longer than any time estimates said it would due to the heavy traffic, two hours one way! We were rewarded, though, with a fair right out of the midwest. It took the edge off missing our steam show and threshing bee that I have gone to most years since I was a child. This fair had some of the same things, the early gas engine displays and church groups selling delectable foods, animal shearing, but it also had the added benefit of selling, by the bushel, my new apple obsession: the gravenstein apple.

There was a train that pulled kids in homemade barrel cars:



And a maze made out of hay bails, which we could not go into because of my allergies to hay:



I even got to see a mohair sheep get shorn:



The biggest hit, besides Grandma's apple fritter stand, was the all you can drink yard of lemonade.





Dan and I loved this. After you bought your glass, you could drink as much lemonade as you wanted. The stand had two spigots coming out of it so it was serve yourself. The vendors would even fill up your glasses with more ice if you asked. It was a nice thing to be able to stay hydrated all day.

Once we came home, I started into applesauce making. We sorted the apples out into sauce and butter apples versus pie and eating apples. There were few apples with problems, and even those problems were small and only skin deep.



Dan would peel the apples while I cored and cut them up. We don't have a food mill, so we had to do this all the hard way, plus Dan likes chunky applesauce so a food mill is kind of out anyway. We put the apples in a pot with a little water and surprisingly little sugar due to how sweet they are naturally and let them all cook down.



I put the first two quarts full of this plain sauce into jars, and then I added some really nice cinnamon from Penzey's Spices into the pot to make two pints of cinnamon apple sauce. This way we can have plain or cinnamon when we want. We tend to eat more plain than cinnamon sauces, so it worked out nicely.



I hope that they work out. My mom said she always had a hard time keeping her applesauce jars sealed. I hope that these seals stick and that it does not go bad. We will have to see what time will bring. I will be monitoring them for the next week or so to see what develops, or hopefully does not develop!

Today I need to run to the fabric shops to gather some supplies for tomorrow's tent rebuild at 826 Valencia. I am also hoping to get some apple butter cooking away. First, though I need to call my sister, the apple butter queen, to get some recipe and technique advice. Hopefully I can get a hold of her soon! I also would like to get some more hand sewing done on those belts, so I can quit dragging my feet and get them listed. There is also some belt accessory experimentation that I need to do either today or tomorrow as well. So much to do in the late summer harvest season. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum and get a lot done this week!

Last night I got the cooking bug which meant I spent two hours cooking and amazing dinner. I made 40 garlic clove chicken for the first time. I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe that was to die for. I am still trying to find all sorts of new ways to use the massive amounts of garlic we bought at the Gilroy Garlic Festival a few weeks ago. I think we will be set with garlic for the year still! I made a brown rice with fresh herbs from the balcony garden and broccoli to round out the meal. We finished off with a fresh peach cobbler.



It was one of the best ones I have ever turned out. I guess practice makes perfect on this one. I used the left over peaches that would not peel from the canning day. When they wouldn't peel I, in frustration, just cut them into slices thinking I would find something to do with them. This was it, and it really hit the spot.

The summer film festival continued in the living room last night. We are trying to watch all sorts of movies this summer that we have missed out on when we were too busy with college or work or that we just have always wanted to see but never got the chance. It has been a fun way to spend evenings and a good way for Dan to unwind.

I am posting late because I wanted to capitalize on the early morning sunshine coming through the windows to take product pictures. Usually the mornings are foggy, so when I get a sunny one, I want to take full advantage. Here are two unedited pictures of some hair flowers that I will be listing next week:





The medium purple ones are similar to the current purple pair in the shop, only they are a tone darker. The red ones are a wonderfully stunning tone of scarlet. They look amazing, and I almost want to keep them for myself. I also have a great pair of magnolias but the sunlight had shifted too much for me to be able to photograph them today. Hopefully I will get a chance early next week.

Today is the final approach on the skirt repairs so that I will have it in time for class tonight. I would love to also get my new black choli done, but I am sure that is pressing my luck seeing as I did not get all my letter writing done yesterday and there is laundry and house sprucing up to do today. I will, however, keep my fingers crossed.

I am up early today and feeling like I have already accomplished a ton even though that really is not the case. I used to be an early riser, a very early riser. When I was a teacher, I was up at 5 am each day to get to my job that was quite the hike from the house, but once we moved to California, I took on Dan's working hours. That means staying up late, 2 am ish, and then sleeping in till 8 or 9 if I am lucky. This has resulted in me feeling like I never get anything accomplished. Today, however, I got up with the rest of the civilized world at 7 am sharp. I had to meet the plumber who was replacing a broken fixture in our apartment, so being up and ready for the day was a must. There is just something though about being up and doing my computer work earlier that makes me feel like I have more of my day ahead of me. I just can't explain it.

Yesterday I dropped off the curtains at 826 Valencia, and while I took the camera to take a picture of the finished products, the hanging hardware was not in place yet. When I go back next week for tent reconstruction I will make sure to take plenty of pictures for the blog. I also got the apricot jam done. This is my best of the jams so far. I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for since the fruit is so ripe, and the texture of the jam is much better. It is not quite as stiff as the other things I have made.



I also used the half pint jars that I saved for this and apple butter. I have to say that while the pints will be good for applesauce, they seem just too big for jam. Perhaps when I have a bigger family they will see better, but the little jars are still my favorite.

The patio garden has been getting some visitors as of late:



We always get song birds and sparrows sitting on the railing, but lately two pairs of doves have come to visit. Sometimes they sit on the rail and do their preening; other times they come down on the deck and walk amongst the plants. It is always fun to watch the birds out the window when I need a sewing break.

Today in the shop, I am going to finish off correcting mistakes to the bottom ruffle of my personal skirt. Once that is finished, I am picking up one of the two belts that I started. I am leaning toward the upcycled one since that is closer to being finished. As soon as I need a break from that, I am going to write up some personal thank you notes that are long over due as well as a letter to my Grandmother that is also very tardy. I hope to make it to the Gravestien Apple Festival this weekend. It sounds like a mini Sycamore Steam Show Threshing Bee from Illinois, which I missed very much this year, but with an emphasis on apples instead of just steam. If that happens, I am going to see if I can buy a scant bushel of these apples for some apple butter and sauce. I have to say that the crisps made out of these was phenomenal. I meant to take a picture of them, but, well, they were immediately eaten. They are a really sweet but strong apple flavored fruit! Usually you get apple or sweet, but this is truly the best of both worlds. The canning will continue until I run out of jars and produce, or Dan calls a halt! :)

I am feeling inspired to sew, and since I have more of my day than usual ahead of me from my early morning, I hope it is truly productive.

It has been somewhat gloomy lately here in Oakland; there is even the chance for some unseasonable rain tonight and tomorrow morning. The lemon plant, however, does not seem to mind. It is going through more blooming, and I hope that the apiary that was here earlier is still around so that more lemons can be in the works for Dan and I. I hope that we get enough so that I can try my hand at some preserved lemons. The aphid infestation seems to be slowed down, but I have broken my spray bottle, so the fight will have to be on hold for a little while. The dill is not looking so good after all of this. Hopefully it pulls through. The beans, however, are starting to finally produce something. We had our first harvest of five beans this past weekend. I wished in a way that I would have waited because there are a few more now on the plant. We could have almost had enough for a meal for two if I would have waited.



The destashing is continuing here in the studio. Today I am listing up some medium triangular bails for purchase. There are two lots of 130 pieces each.



They are made of base metal and are great for use with pendants and other drop style gems with straight holes. They measure 5/16" or 8.3 mm



You could use them for Scrabble tile pendants if you wanted to drill holes in them. I originally used them to hang Swarovski crystals in some of my jewelry experiments. Hopefully they find a good home.

Today I am going to finally finish some personal projects. I worked on some of those yesterday around some more housecleaning as well as some hand sewing on one of the belts. I mended a torn skirt and also worked on my 20 yard skirt that I began for Chaos Wars but did not get finished. Yesterday I rolled the bottom hem, and 20 yards really is a long hem to roll! Today I need to adjust the elastic in the skirt and then make some corrections to the bottom ruffle. I also have to mend my green skirt that I treated myself to at Fat Chance. It got ripped at Chaos Wars, and luckily it happened right in a seam. That is what I get for wearing my nice things out of the studio! I then have a lunch meeting with a friend and a sewing meeting at 826 Valencia to talk about tent reconstruction and curtains that we need in the lab to cover the white boards. Both projects sound like a lot of fun. I cannot wait.

The house cleaning was rather successful yesterday. There are just a few more things I need to clean up, mainly the shower and some bathroom sinks as well as give the sewing room a good vacuuming. Overall I am really pleased with how clean I have gotten the apartment, and while there was some dawdling, it mostly happened at the times I hoped. I also worked on aphid destruction and decimation yesterday. The first application over the weekend did a rather good job of cutting down on the population, and so I did another liberal application yesterday. I am going to give the garden today off and hit it with more soapy cayenne pepper spray tomorrow. The tomato plant has gotten so large and top heavy for the pot that it fell over yesterday. I guess some things are really liking the patio. It has even gotten a few small green tomatoes started. I will have to wait and see if any of them actually get red at all considering the cooler temperatures we have had this summer.

Today I want to get a personal skirt hemmed as well as a veil hemmed. There are also a few belt projects I would like to pick up and start to finish. One of those is the peacock and elephant belt that has been a few years in progress. The other is a belt that uses recycled fabric from one of my first costumes. I loved the fabric so much, that I kept this choli around for a long time in order to find it a good home. Since it has not really found one, I decided to upcycle to fabric from it into two beautiful belts. They are coming along nicely, and I hope to have them and a pair of black pants close to finished by the end of the week. I will take quick pictures whenever I get any of them finished. Well I think that I am off to work on some supply hunting and ordering for the shop as well as all those sewing projects.

This is the first week where I feel like live is getting back to normal. I have relatively little going on in terms of meetings and shows, so I can finally do things like clean the house and tend to the balcony garden. I did do some tending of the garden this weekend and found that the aphid infestation is back again. Right now it seems to be limited to my herb box and the radishes that were next to the herbs. I started off clearing out all the dead items that they had created, mainly dead parsley, mint, and thyme. I then cut things back a bit since some of the herbs, like the sage had gotten out of control. I then went ahead and "scorched earth" sprayed the boxes with my soap and cayenne pepper spray. This worked well last time, but the infestation was not as bad that time. I guess it has been building since I left for Idaho and then went undetected when I got back due to being so busy getting ready for Danse du Ventre.

On the subject of Danse du Ventre, it went really well. I sold quite a few things, and I had a really good time doing my first in person vending. I took some pictures of a few things I worked on for the show, but of course forgot my camera so there are no pictures of the booth. I did get a picture today of some of the necklaces and the boxes I had to put them in:



I also snapped a picture of some of the hair flowers that were left:



I ended up selling the purple hairfalls and the last pair of Fading Cobalt pants. It was sad to see the blue pants go, but I am happy they are in a new home with someone who will wear them instead of being packaged up here. That was one of my favorite fabrics. I also happened to take a picture of the black hairfalls that I custom made for a person in Greece:



It was interesting to work in a pallet of all black tones. It was challenging, but I was really pleased with the results. Today I am going to work on cleaning the house and getting things back into order. There is also another treatment needed on the garden to make sure the aphids are on their way out. If I get all this done, there are some personal items I would love to work on as well as some Fabulous Pants products that were not ready for the show that need completing. Look for some new products listed here and on the Etsy shop in the coming days. That, though, is all dependent on the weather here and if I can get some sunny days to take photographs. Without the sun, I really cannot take good pictures of the pants.

In the coming days, I think that I am going to start to work on opening up the Etsy shop to international shipping. Since the order to Greece, I found out how painless it can really be to ship internationally. I just need to spend some time working out all the costs of shipping to the furthest places. Those are the goals, so I guess I should get down to scrubbing.

Things are really getting going around here in preparation for Thursday's Danse du Ventre show and vending in San Jose. I have gotten almost all the steps done for my necklaces that I want to have for the show. They look like a science project in progress on our table:



The house looks slightly like a craft store had a stomach ache and threw up all over the house. I have a custom order of falls being worked on on the couch, so there is yarn and fiber all over. There is a pair of pants draped over the ironing board as well as other cloth that I want to have made into pants before Thursday. There are business cards and labels all over Dan's office making the mess travel from my area and some of the common areas into his domain. There are belt making materials all over the place. Including the living room and this weekend, I even took one with me in the car to work on. The elephant and peacock belt is still being worked on, but it hopefully will be done in time for Thursday:





Needless to say, Friday will be filled with house cleaning and craft wrangling. Today will be filled with hairfall order finishing, impatient waiting for necklace charms to dry, belt making, and a quest for bags that are what I want for packaging people's orders. There are also business cards to be printed. While it was nice taking a break for the Garlic Festival on Saturday and resting to try to kick this cold yesterday, today is full steam ahead to get things done and ready for Thursday!

So here is the big announcement for Fabulous Pants that I have been waiting to make. I will be vending at my first real time show: Danse Du Ventre in San Jose, California!



The event is at Splash Night club, and I feel like I have so much to do! I signed up to take credit cards yesterday and have been approved. I have lots of smaller items I am working on to have things to draw people into the booth and also will have lots of my pants goodness there for people to try out and love. It is all so overwhelming. I also had my first international and custom order to actually work out go through today, so there is a custom set of falls in process as well. I hate to cut it so short, but there is just so much to do. I will keep you updated with short postings next week and some pictures. Keep your fingers crossed for some great sales and wonderful dancing that night. This is my first attempt at selling in person, so I hope it all goes well.... there are necklaces to finish, falls to make, cowrie falls to work on, a few belts, ooohhhh more pants.....

I better get to work! I hope to see you all that can make it there! Entrance is free!

This weekend was more productive than I thought it was going to be seeing how little work I got done on Friday. I was so hesitant in working on the elephant and peacock belt because I am terrified of messing it up, that I fiddled around with ideas for way too long. I finally decided to just dive in and see what happens around 4 pm, so while not a lot got done, it did get started. Sometimes for me that is a majority of the battle. I cannot wait to get back to work on it today once I am done writing. Saturday was started off with Brunch with our friend at the Foreign Cinema in San Francisco. It was a really nice day, so we opted to sit outside to eat. The food was great and the atmosphere was also pleasing due to the unbelievably pleasant weather. Dan has declared that we must do brunch more often when the weather is like it was yesterday. We went from there to see the movie Moon. I liked it very much, but others in the group were not as big of fans. I am not one to spoil movies, so you will have to see it for yourself and make your own judgments.

Sunday was spent in a rather lazy manner. I tried to call the parents but they were not available, so Dad if you are reading this today, Happy Father's Day. I worked on a set of blue hairfalls most of the day, and they are almost finished. I hope to have them completed tonight and photographed tomorrow for listing. The garden loved the warm weather this weekend, and it seems like I can see a difference in the size of the plants from Friday to today. Hopefully the warm weather we are supposed to have this week will help this growth spurt. The radishes have all sprouted up, but there is no sign of the green onions. Hopefully they will appear soon. I will take pictures of them tomorrow.

The destash continues in my Etsy shop I am continuing to enjoy myself in finding things I no longer plan to use and listing them. I am not quite sure what is wrong with me, but the decorative placement of jewelry findings into neat patterns for my listing photographs has been oddly enjoyable.



I guess it is all those days of tangogram playing catching up with me. Well the sewing machine is calling, and I want to get this belt underway. Hopefully I will have this belt finished before Dan's brother comes to visit this week. I have a feeling that I will get little done while he is here, but that is a good thing. I miss Greg and cannot wait to see him when he gets here. With that in mind though, off to get as much done today as possible.

We went to see Spamalot last night in San Francisco, and I enjoyed watching the light hearted romp through some of the highlights from Monty Python lines and scenes. It was nice to revisit them in a live format and without having to supervise a classroom of high school seniors. We even got to go out for dinner afterward. It was so nice out in the city we sat outside to eat which seems to be a rarity this summer. Alas, the good weather is not holding out though. The fog is already rolling in at 12 pm, and the plants will most likely be denied their full sunshine of the afternoon that they so desperately need. These shifts in weather don't deter the birds though. They seem to be getting more and more used to me sitting and watching them on the patio through the open balcony doors.

In recent days, I have been trying to dive into making the embroidered belt. It is rather nerve racking as I have spent significant hours working on the pieces and I would be so sad to ruin them when constructing the belt. I guess the best thing is to just dive in, but I am still really nervous. In all the thinking and procrastination time I have managed to catch up on my way over due personal check balancing and also discovered some supplies for destashing on the Etsy shop. It has been fun thinking about the belt issues while creating decorative displays out of unused mirrors and jewelry findings.



I am getting rid of this circle cutting mat since I don't need it after the upgrade to my Olfa circle cutter.



There are also sets of mirrors both small and medium sized that would be great for mosaic work or making shrines or some other crafts.



There are also many jewelry findings that I am taking pictures of as well. I will be slowly uploading all the items over the next few days as I need breaks from all the hand sewing and work I am doing. I also will have a big announcement for me in the next week. I still have some things to confirm before I can talk about the details.

Today I am on usual Friday housework schedule as well as cutting out the pieces for the belt and a pair of pants. I would like to fix a choli of mine that I managed to rip, but I will leave that as a "reward" if I get down to work. I guess I better get to it all if I want to get my things repaired!

When my parents came to visit in May, they took lots of pictures as they usually do. I appreciate when my parents are around to do the picture taking, so I don't have to worry about bringing my camera with also. I finally got my cd full of pictures from them, and I picked out a few to share with you all. I hope they get me kick started into work today, as I for some reason am having a hard time getting going.



Here is a view of the Golden Gate bridge from the Marin headlands. It is hard to get a clear shot like this at the time of day we were there. Usually the fog is rolling in, but that weekend was unusually warm and the marine layer was staying away.



This is a view of the hotel that sits on the historic site at San Juan Bautista. It is a great little museum, and for the very inexpensive entrance fee for the buildings I would highly recommend it. There were wild chickens all over the place, and they were fun to watch.



Here is the view of the bell tower of the mission. While we did not pay the entrance of the mission, we did walk around the gardens, which is free. This tower was used in the filming of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.



On the last day that my parent's were here, we drove down to Monterey and went on the 17-Mile drive. It was a neat drive, and since we hit it at the end of the day, the otters were out in force feeding in one of the bays. All of the larger black blobs that are sticking out of the water are otter heads. There were too many to count. I could have sat there for hours watching them all working on shells and playing around in the water.



The final highlight on the drive was the lone cyprus. It is the symbol of Pebble Beach and was very beautiful to look at. I guess when my parents went on the drive the first few times, you could walk all the way out to the tree. That is no longer allowed for preservation purposes, but it is still a neat thing to see in person versus all the drawings and photographs I have seen.

Well I have more plants to get into dirt today and some pants that I want to finish up working on today. I have also started a new set of blue hair falls. It is nice to have some sets of falls to work on while Dan and I watch movies. I always feel weird when I am sitting with nothing in my hands to work on. Also, I am going to be working on finishing up the elephant and peacock belt that I have shown snippets of in the past. The large embroidery work is almost done, so I can move on to attaching them to the base as well as some more free hand designs on the base of the belt. Tassels will follow soon!

I had a little time yesterday to take photos of the new hair flowers I have put together. I even got one set listed today on the Etsy Store. They are beautiful brick red dahlias that I think would look great either on stage or out on the town this spring and summer. I love their spiky petals that turn from red to yellow to a green at the inner most points.



Today is really busy. I have a lunch meeting today with a friend followed by tutoring at 826 Valencia. Then I am leading a choreography session at Ariellah's studio. Needless to say, not much is getting done on the quilt order today. I hope to get a ton done tomorrow while I tackle the laundry. I have no other plans to go out on Friday, so hopefully I can get this accomplished. I need to pack up all the stuff for my various trips today still, so I better hop to. It will be time to leave for SF before I know it!