Whirlwind

What a whirlwind the last week has been (or maybe it was the last month...or perhaps the last year). Last weekend, I flew down to Washington D.C. to go to the wedding of my college friend Amy (top) and spend time with my four closest friends (from left: Erin, Tanja, me, Amy, Martha).

One of the highlights of the wedding was the cupcakes, mousses, and mini treats they served for dessert. Beautiful and delicious!

It's always hard to know when the 5 of us will be able to all get together - the last time was when the girls flew out to California in May of 2006 to meet the newest baby, our little Caden. Now the next baby is on the way - Tanja is due in December! And the day we all left D.C., Tanja flew out that night for her new home in central Africa (Burkina Faso).

When I got back to Mass., we had just about 2 days to regroup and pack for our summer field season in California. Along with work deadlines and house maintenance projects (including some fairly major demolition in the attic), we slept about 3 hours the night before we left!

When we arrived at our old home of Sonoma County and our base at the marine lab, we had to really hit the ground running in terms of getting research supplies together and experiments started. All of a sudden, my schedule of working 9 hrs and sewing 2-3 hrs per day shifted to working 13 hr days. Even though it was a bit of a shock to the system, it's nice to be back to fieldwork after 10 months of primarily computer work. Here I am cable tyeing 'plates' (PVC tiles) to 'racks' (hardware shelves) which were later hung from the sides of the dock to attract little larvae settlers. Caden 'helped' :)

After 4 days of looking longingly at my crate of crafting supplies (bringing the bare minimum took up 1/3 to 1/2 of my luggage), I finally opened it up during a free hour this morning. I'm looking forward to spending the summer doing some little projects, including appliques and hand embroidery.
Now I'm off to bed at a record time of 10:50 pm - 2 hrs earlier than our usual in Mass. Matt is getting up at 5 am for fieldwork, so I think I'll get up with him and do some morning sewing. Me, sewing in the morning? Revolutionary!

Give me an I-D-E-A

You'd think with the way my 'to do' lists are looking these days, I could just shut down the 'idea factory' for awhile. Nope! I'm overwhelmed by both! Here's what's on my list:

Work = I just submitted a review manuscript yesterday and am now planning for fieldwork in California (we leave in just over 2 weeks); status: on track
Cascade Lemonade = need to make 6 Mylarkey Lunch Bags (possibly 9), possibly 3 Kathy Jewelry Cases, 1 Trio Set, 1 custom wallet, and a Teensy and Mini Moo Set...in the next 2 weeks; status: on track...barely
Home Decorating = need to make 1 duvet cover and a couple pillows for the guest room and kitchen curtains, preferably before Thursday when we have visitors arriving; status: here's where it starts to get shaky!
Plus...packing for 5 weeks in California (+1 week in Alaska), gifts for Caden's teachers, getting back on my 4x/week work-out plan...

(an example of one of my recent projects: this custom jewelry case)

Despite this busy-ness, as I often find when I'm multi-tasking, I have more energy than usual! And ideas just seem to keep multiplying. Here's my latest:

Vicarious Travel

I dreamed this up while commuting and working out a few weeks ago. I've always thought it would be cool to take an online quiz that would spit out my perfect trip - the same way you can take quizzes to figure out your political party, religion, and life expectancy...but even better! I've decided it requires an actual person, otherwise the results are inevitably cruises or tours that have paid advertising costs to come up as my 'perfect getaway'. The name 'vicarious' comes from my always living vicariously through others' travels; in the past, I've written up full itineraries for friends and acquaintances travelling to New Zealand and Europe, two of my favorite travel destinations. Since I don't travel as much now as I did in my 20's, I thought it would be fun to combine this travel consulting with my crafty pursuits, especially book-making (which I haven't done much of lately, I've been on a sewing kick). I've put the idea up for grabs in my Vicarious Travel Sets.
Here's how the customized travel guide works:

Step 1: Matt and I came up with a travel questionnaire that I'll email to customers after purchasing the set. It includes questions about destination, lodging, transportation, activity, and budget preferences and requirements. The traveler's job is to fill out the questionnaire and give any info they think will be helpful.

Step 2: I sift through online and print information, and rely on personal recommendations, to make trip suggestions, collated in a .pdf file

Step 3: I print out the .pdf and make a mini travel guide...so for less than the cost of a travel guide, the traveler has a fully customized guide!

Step 4: Hard and electronic copies of the travel guide are sent to the traveler, and it's up to them to critically evaluate the suggestions, including checking out websites (all given in the guide) and making their own bookings.

Step 5: If travelers send me a postcard from their trip, they get a coupon for use on future Cascade Lemonade purchases!

I can see lots of ways the travel guide can be customized...

Ariel has a budget and weekend in mind, but not a destination...I would come up with multiple options...

Becky is going to a conference in Lalaland and needs ideas for a nearby side trip and activities...

Corinna buys the set for her friend Dalia who just got engaged and is trying to decide where to go on her honeymoon...

Edith has her plane tickets for a week in Hawaii but no itinerary or lodging reservations...

Fiona has no time to travel *now* but is dreaming about where she'd like to go when she retires...

...etc!

Just my latest wild idea...following my 5th grade idea of selling poems to neighbors for 10c each to fund a visit to a friend who had moved cross-country (I don't think I could comprehend the cost of a plane ticket then)...and my 5th grade idea of posting signs advertising a dozen daffodils for $1.50 (wasn't my mom surprised when she got the first order by phone; lucky for me, she still helped me pick, package, and deliver them, before we took the signs down!)...I don't remember ever having a lemonade stand, but I do have a philosophy about them: always, always stop and buy a cup!

More ideas in the pipeline: a cookbook of healthy desserts, travel guide with the best bakeries (might have to be a little more narrow than just 'in the USA'!), and lots more ideas for the Cascade Lemonade shop, including more iron-ons, like this custom patch I just finished.

Stay tuned!

Dad's Day

Now it's time to give you a little peek into the craftiness of the other half of my parent team: Dad (now, to Caden, Adad) Bruce. Whereas the women in my family tend towards textile arts, the men - including my Dad and Grandad (more on him in a future post) - are and have been the wood-workers. I have so much respect and admiration for wood-working because of the natural materials, physical labor involved, subtle artistic touches, and utility and lifetime of the products. Dad has built lots of things out of wood - shelves, benches, picnic table, 2-story garage (!), chicken house, 'nut' guest/playhouses, tool sheds, etc. Here are a few glimpses:

Caden identifies items in our home by who made them. About this candlestick, he would say 'Adad make it'! Whenever electricity goes out - which it seemed to do a lot more back in CA than here in MA (thank goodness, it's colder here!) - we'd always light this candle and set it in the middle of the room. (Note: I realize those little S'mores figurines are totally cheesy, however I love them! I have about 10, but try not to display them in overwhelming numbers.)

Here's a bowl, turned from a burl (walnut?), that Dad gave to us in 2006 when our little Caden Burrell was born. For Caden's first 2 years of life, we kept all of his little memorabilia in it - hospital bracelets, etc. Now we use it for decor...but it's still too special to put candy in just yet!

This is his and my mom's most recent project - the cabin that they are building, almost completely by themselves, in the mountains at Wallowa Lake, Oregon. So far, my contributions to the project have been sanding and finishing a couple of the big, exposed, interior beams and helping to stir and pour the cement for the front step. Isn't it charming?! I love the exterior stovepipe - and you can see their tab trailer in the background. Dad currently lives out of a larger airstream trailer and travels around Eastern Oregon during the week, doing work as an agricultural economist and swinging by the cabin when he can, in between weekends back home in Western Oregon.

Dad and Mom resumed work on the cabin fairly recently, after repairs were made when a tree fell through the roof during a windstorm last fall (see slides 15-19 here). Although it's still a year away, I'm looking forward to spending a week at the cabin next summer (2009) with all of us siblings!

Here's one of Mom's creative vignettes on their mantle at home in Corvallis: a wood tree turned by Dad and one of her ceramic cottages (that I mentioned in my Mother's Day post).

Dad and Mom are such a great team, and we kids are so thankful to them every day, not just on Father's and Mother's Days!

New logo

This month, with my Creme de la Creme Collection, I'm excited to debut my new logo! It was created by this Etsy seller; I posted an Alchemy request, and she sent me this logo as an example. I fell in love with it - I love the texture and how she interpreted my original logo (which I sketched out and my husband designed in Powerpoint).




Here are my new promotional supplies, including business cards and address stamp from VistaPrint and a logo stamp and recycled packaging stamp from another Etsy seller.



It's fun to be a little more professional. I had been making my own cards and addressing envelopes by hand, to save money, but I decided not to worry so much about that because Cascade Lemonade is primarily a fun hobby, not a money-making venture. If it were the latter, I could work about 1/3 the hours at a bookstore as I spend sewing!

Notes from my Nest Sweet Shoppe & Giveaways

I'm flattered to be featured, this week, as Notes from my Nest's Sweet Shoppe. Check it out and comment, there, to be entered in the $10 giveaway. And speaking of giveaways, the winner of my springtime 'who's reading?' giveaway was ikkinlala, a math major and crafty gal in British Columbia. I'm preparing a little care package to send off to her tomorrow (I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by posting pictures).

Any comments on my Creme de la Creme Collection? Are there particular items you'd all like to see made with these lovely fabrics?

Creme de la creme collection

Starting tomorrow (yes, so soon!), I'll begin posting items for my Creme de la Creme Collection. Here's the skinny: I have a new logo! And new business cards, sewing labels, address stamp, and logo stamp. Yay! To celebrate, I'm going to sew up some things made with the creme de la creme fabrics from my collection. Yes, I've been holding out on you! Almost all of these fabrics are vintage, and many are unlikely to be in my shop again (unless this kind of fancy strikes me in the future!). Here's a sampling:


So here's how the collection release will go: I've collected 33 of my very favorite fabrics. (Almost) every day and (almost) always at 3:33 pm (EST) I will post items made from a different one of these fabrics for (about) the next 33 days. Can you tell that 3 is my favorite number?

Here's an example of my new Pencil Pouch design that I will be sure to make a few of (the fabric on the left is one of the creme de la creme's - I have just enough to make 1-2 more items before it's all gone):

Hope to see you in the shop at posting time - remember, 3:33 pm (almost) every day. Good night and sweet, lovely dreams!

Trip to my old stomping grounds

On Tuesday, I got back to my new home (Swampscott, Massachusetts) from a trip to my old homes of Oregon and Walla Walla, WA (where I went to college). I had a wonderful 4 days with friends and family: soaking in sunshine, hitting all the fabric stores I could, and enjoying some introspective 'alone' time (Matt and Caden stayed back in Mass. since it was such a short trip). First, I spent a night en route with my good college friend, Martha, and her family. Sofia and Conor seemed to like their new pillows and insisted on sleeping with them the first night they got them.

Then I swung by my Aunt & Uncle's in Pendleton for lunch, where I met up with my parents, and we all headed up to Walla Walla to meet Sally; our 3rd sibling, Jerry, met us there on Saturday. We did some summer clothes shopping at Macy's, ate great food, drank Jerry's home-brewed 'Yardwork Ale', screened Sally's senior film-making projects (including these commercials - one she stars in and one she directed), played frisbee in Pioneer Park, and attended Sal's Whitman College graduation on Sunday.

I picked up some yummy new fabrics from quilt shops in The Dalles, Pendleton, and Walla Walla (and mom brought somefrom the quilt shop in Sisters). Check it out: $40 of impulse-purchase fabrics (not pictured are lots of outdoor nylons that Mom brought me from the Rainshed in Corvallis and 'basics' from JoAnns - all filling 1/2 of my luggage)! I justify it by my Cascade Lemonade sewing and that I like to support small-town shops :)

Since I've been back, I sent a shipment of whale-theme Sack It bags off to the Petersburg Marine Mammal Center. They will be selling them there, with half of the proceeds a donation to the center and half to help cover a whale-watching trip for us and my parents up in Alaska this summer. It's a fun way to mix my professional (marine biology), hobby, and family interests.

To come...

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in my springtime giveaway drawing, held on June 1st! My limited 'Cream of the crop' Collection is tentatively scheduled to be released starting June 3. I promise I'll stop stalling and give details soon!

Spring flowers and 'who's reading?' giveaway

Although our first purple crocus bloomed on April 1, spring didn't seem to really arrive until the end of April/beginning of May. My studio is half (well, expanding to about 2/3 or 3/4!) of our sunroom, so I've had beautiful views out to our blooming tree, purple and (soon) red azaleas, tulips, and, at the edge of the yard, a bright pink bleeding heart. I am so ready for spring!

This past week, I've been busy stitching up gifts for various friends and family members to deliver while I'm in Oregon and Washington this coming weekend. My sister, Sally, is graduating from Whitman College in Walla Walla (also my alma mater), and it's supposed to be 90 degrees there this weekend! I'm hoping all this soaking up of sun and some extra rest (I'm travelling solo, only my 2nd trip away from Caden) will give me lots of extra energy to burn when I get back to Massachusetts on Monday. I have a week of sewing to do (Sack It bags for the Petersburg Marine Mammal Center, Pencil Pouches for Earmark to sell at the San Diego Farmer's Market with their pencils and stationary, and a couple custom projects) then I will be ready to unveil...

...my special limited collection...

...in celebration of my new logo design! I'm so excited - more soon!

Springtime 'who's reading' giveaway

I'd love to hear from those of you that regularly read or just happen upon my blog. Sooo, because I'm so curious, if you leave a comment between now and June 1, you will be entered to win a surprise care package, full of Cascade Lemonade goodies and finds. Please, when you comment, make sure that there's some way for me to track you down to get your mailing address. Looking forward to hearing from you :)