new habits & clean spaces

I was away longer than I had hoped but it's been a productive few days away as you'll see, with more kitchen work, cleaned/tidy spaces, a craft show Friday night, and much more sewing/painting. So I wasn't just sitting on my duff watching the beginning of football season...like someone i know :o) Well, a start of a season is always exciting so I suppose I understand. I've never been a big football fan though - growing up in Panama we never followed football. We had our own sports like the 'ocean to ocean cayuco race' from the Pacific to Atlantic. 52 miles from one end to the other. I competed for 3 years - the 3rd year our crew won first place (female cat.) and set 4 new records - thanks very much! ;) It's funny that I'm thinking about this as it's been over 10 years since my racing days. But one of my dearest friends called yesterday and mentioned she might try outrigger canoe racing and wondered if I was interested (!!). I said 'hmmm...probably, yes, thanks for thinking of me'. Then about half an hour later I called her back with 'I'm really, really excited about it - please tell me when you know more!!' Guess I haven't gotten it all out of my system :o)

So here's the lowdown from the last few days...


I learned (thanks to KCRW's 'Good Food' program) that polycarbonate plastics are not safe for drinking and eating out of - especially as they age and especially when exposed to heat from the microwave or dishwasher (or sitting in the sun in the car...). So for me that meant the water bottle I've had by my side for nearly 9 years (craziness really) has been leaching a chemical called Bisphenol A into the water, and into ME! Not to mention all the times I've grabbed leftovers in plastic storage containers from the fridge and tossed them in the microwave, then eaten right out of them. I'm pretty disturbed by it all to be honest. I actually feel a bit wronged. Apparently Bisphenol A has been shown to cause all sorts of issues including messing with reproductive systems and causing miscarriages. Why are these things still for sale on the shelves at Target and everywhere else?? Do yourself a favor and put 'em in the recycle container. Switch to glass storage containers, and heat up leftovers in regular ceramic dishware, not plastic.You can pick up a stainless steel water bottle for drinking (make sure it doesn't have a plastic liner inside, as that defeats the purpose obviously). We ordered 2 'Kleen Kanteen' bottles from amazon and they're on their way!

On Saturday I cleaned up my 'lil office/studio. Jared was a sweetie and put together pull out shelves for my printer and scanner - works like a dream! I tackled the FABRICS - whew! Who knew I had so much squirreled away. I loaded up the bookcase with the fabrics organized by color families. It is SO nice to be able to see what I have right in front of me without having to sort through bins.


On the left was how my bookcase looked Saturday morning. By the afternoon I had arrived at the photo on the right - much better! Sanguine the cat got replaced by Bessie the cow. No, I'm not making the allusion that my cat is a cow...she's just fluffy! :o) See more pics at my flickr page.


Ahhh, nice tidy desk...how long will it last? I promise to make the effort...I WILL put things back where they belong, will file papers, and will not leave the remnants of 4 projects scattered all over the place!

I had a show/sale at Anno Domini in downtown San Jose this past Friday. It was super lovely...lots of great music and nice people. Actually pretty decent people watching now that I think of it. San Jose can be a fairly conservative place and it's nice to see the creative ones coming out of the woodwork for events like these.

I had lots of prints:


And new Wooly Flora (this one I had made just that day...I sold all but one) :


On Sunday we worked a wee bit in the kitchen and got the skinny glass subway tile wall put up:

It's SO pretty - I can't wait to get it grouted later this week. You can't really tell in the pictures and because it's still behind plastic film, but it is the most luminous shade of pale gray green/blue. It looks like it flows right from the ceiling.

And I have 2 new owlings in my shop today! Ella and Etta were adopted from my etsy shop so quickly I had to hustle and get Billie and Gillespie finished up and on there. I love 'em - they're both super cute and have vintage Japanese fabrics and super soft blanket fabrics in their construction (best-o-both worlds!).




Enjoy your day!