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.

Ok, I will admit it, I am falling behind in my plans this week, miserably! I blame it on me rediscovering my love for my lap harp that I still do not know how to play. My husband made it for me, and it is beautiful, yet I stink at reading and learning to play. I am a learner who needs an instructor most of the time. I can and usually will practice on my own, but I need the reassurance of an instructor when learning most things. So I usually just tune it and pluck around. No matter what you do with the harp, it almost always sounds pleasant.



I had trouble with the bottom hems of the lime peacock pants, so they are still being worked on. I hope to finally finish them off today. Then I need to work on wrapping presents for my husband's birthday that is tomorrow. Today is also laundry day, so that needs to get done along with some minor house cleaning. All of this may be impacted in a way though if Dan decides to stay home from work and work from here today. While I love the idea of him taking a more low key day today since all the extremely late nights and long work hours, but it makes wrapping presents and using the sewing machines kind of a challenge. It is really hard for him to concentrate with the machines running. If there is any time left in the day before prebirthday sushi dinner, I will cut out the black roses pair of pants. I have made the decision to do the black ones first and then the brown. Tomorrow is a total Dan decides birthday day. He wanted to go and do "free shopping" for his birthday, so we are going to finally spend all those gift cards we got for birthdays and holiday presents last year. These days are always fun because you walk away with a bunch of stuff that you did not pay for. The end of the day is going to be spending his gift card for a wonderful steak dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I have never been to one, but he tells me they are really good steaks. On Sunday I will be gaining a new skill that I have wanted to learn for a long time. I am taking a drop spindle spinning class. I have always wanted to be able to go from shearing to a finished sweater or scarf or socks or something. I have learned how to knit, now I will learn to spin. Hopefully I can then find a class in cleaning and carding. I will let you know how all the weekend plans go on Monday. Till then I hope you all have a Fabulous Friday.

Today I am going to work on the Lime Peacock Jakarta Pants. I got them cut out yesterday after doing quite a bit of computer work. I got a bunch of pictures uploaded to my flickr photostream. Feel free to friend my photo stream to keep up with all the pictures I am taking of new products. I also post new fabrics there, and that is one of the few times I can be contacted about custom lengths on pants that are longer than the standard 36-38 inch outseam. I hope to get the lime pants totally finished today, so I can photograph them tomorrow. I also want to retake my photos of the "I Dream of Asia" pants. In my haste to open the original ebay store, I took pictures with out ironing out the pants completely. Amateur hour I know. So I am going back and retaking the photos of the pants that I originally made when I am taking other pictures of pants with the same color falls. I also am replacing some of the tags in th pants. When I first made these pants, I made all the tags with my own handwriting. I now hand stamp them with the Fabulous Pants font stamp instead, so there are still some old labels floating around that need to be changed out. If I have time before I have to head into the city to Japan Town for a going away party, I will cut out either a brown pair or a black pair of pants. I am leaning toward the black sari pants, but the brown fabric is also stellar. Pictures of the brown fabric is forthcoming, but I will leave you today with a picture of the black sari fabric that is most likely next in production.