My new sewing room and fabric organization

Last week I was forced to take my sewing machine into the shop to get the timing worked out. Unable to get any sewing done for 1-2 week I decided to take on the task of organizing my fabric and finishing setting up my sewing room. 

A few months back I saw a blog where someone had wrapped their fabric on comic book boards making mini bolts of fabric. I loved the way it looked and how easy it was to view and organize all your fabric. I decided I needed mini bolts of fabric too. Of course I had to do it the hard way. Since we just moved we have a ton of boxes just hanging out in our garage so instead of buying actual comic book boards I decided to cut my own. Trust me my fingers are not happy about this decision and if I had to do it again I would just spend the money to buy them. After several days of cutting and wrapping I finally got all of my fabric wrapped onto little hand cut pieces of cardboard. Even after donating a huge bag of fabric to East Bay Depot I quickly ran out of room to display my mini bolts of fabric. After doing a little research online I went to target and picked up this shelf in a light wood color to match the furniture I already had. I managed to get all my fabric to fit with no room to spare. Yesterday I rearranged my furniture, hung up the rest of my pictures and finished decorating my little creative space. 

Here are a few pictures of my new favorite room.  

I love it so much! I can not wait to get my sewing machine home and actually work in here. 

Elvis Kitty

Last night my Eleanor Kitty allowed me to put some Elvis glasses on her and snap a few pictures. Every time I see this picture it makes me smile so I thought I would share that smile with you.

Happy October!

I can't tell even start to explain to you how happy I am to be back in the bay for fall. Fall is by far my most favorite season here. 

I am just in love with the changing colors and the crisp coolness of the weather (although it is supposed to be in the 90s today). 

Last week I kept busy sewing, sewing and then sewing some more. Now I have a nice little pile of goodies making it's way into the shop this week. 

And here are Eleanor an Wendy showing off how cute they are

Maybe some day they will love each other enough for me to take a picture of them cuddling or something. This is what their current relationship is like

Tent Project

After many days of having my living room taken over by an unsightly blanket fort I  decided it was time to upgrade our tent fun. I had seen this tutorial on Pinterest a few weeks ago and thought it was such a cute idea.

I showed the page to Miles and he confirmed that he did indeed need a new tent in his life. So we made our way to the hardware store for the necessary wood pieces and Ikea for some fabric and got to work building a dream tent for my little boy.

It was a pretty easy project. Home Depot had all the wood I needed already cut to size. I just had to use my drill (I love using power tools!) to put some holes in the wood.  Can't get much easier than that. The sewing part was equally as easy. Just pressing some edges and and sewing some really long straight seams.

Here is our finished product

I tried to get some pictures of Miles enjoying his tent but whenever the camera comes out he turns into a wiggly blur. 

New Stuff!

It's been a while but I finally got back to sewing this week and even updated my shop a bit. I am feeling pretty productive check out the shop and find these new goodies and more.

Wendy Dog!

For the past year I have been working hard trying to convince my husband that we needed a puppy in our life. I used every argument I could think of in an attempt to convince him. Miles needs a puppy friend, I need a running buddy, and I may have even tried to tell him that our kitty Eleanor needed a new friend.  He was very resistant. Every time I heard about a litter of baby labs that were available I would give him the information just in case he wanted to surprise me with a new puppy dog. He never did.

I had just about given up and then when we were in the process of moving my husband sent me a text that said "I want to get Miles a dog when we move". Yes, puppy time!

A few weeks ago we were out to brunch with are good friends and while standing outside a restaurant for like an hour waiting for a table my friend Stacy mentioned that the shelter they got their cat from was just up the street. Shelter? Puppies and kitties for us to pet and cuddle just a few minutes away? Somehow I convinced the husband to go to the shelter "just to look and see what the adoption process was like". I am still amazed that he agreed to go. So after our meal we headed on over just to look. I had gone in looking for a large dog like a lab mix. I someone I could run with and someone that  could handle my burly 4 year old.  We went in and met a super cute pup named Cholula. Cholula was a little thing a hound / terrier mix (whatever that means) and my first thought was she was just too small and then she stood up. This little pup had legs that went on for days and resembled and little deer more than a dog.  We ended up staying at the shelter for over and hour cuddling and getting to know this sweet little pup and I quickly grew attached and couldn't stand the idea of going home without her. So instead of just looking and researching we adopted a puppy.

We brought Cholula home and as  much as we love our hot sauce we decided to change her name to Wendy. So far Wendy has settled nicely into our family and she is in fact a great runner. I am still training her but she is running 4 miles 3 times a week. She is a little slow because she is constantly stopping to chat with other puppies but she is improving.

Alright, now it is time for me to attack you with too many puppy pictures.

Ok, that is enough for now. I am sure this is not the last you will see of Wendy though. 

Born to Run

Bruce Sprinsteen

  

In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway american dream

At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines

Sprung from cages out on highway 9,

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin out over the line

Baby this town rips the bones from your back

Its a death trap, it's a suicide rap

We gotta get out while were young

`cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend

I want to guard your dreams and visions

Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims

And strap your hands across my engines

Together we could break this trap

Well run till we drop, baby well never go back

Will you walk with me out on the wire`cause baby Im just a scared and lonely rider

But I gotta find out how it feels

I want to know if love is wild, girl I want to know if love is real

Beyond the palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard

The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors

And the boys try to look so hard

The amusement park rises bold and stark

Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist

I wanna die with you wendy on the streets tonight

In an everlasting kiss

The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive

Everybodys out on the run tonight but there's no place left to hide

Together wendy well live with the sadness

Ill love you with all the madness in my soul

Someday girl I don't know when were gonna get to that place

Where we really want to go and well walk in the sun

But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run

Where oh where has Petals been?

Where have I been? That is such a good question. It feels like it has been years since I last pasted on my blog. Life has been crazy busy the last few months and sewing has taken a backseat.
In the beginning of the year I decided to run a marathon which I mentioned here (in a post with a title similar to this one). Running a marathon and training for it kind of took over my life for a few months. I am thankful for how seriously I took it because on June 3rd I finished my first marathon with a smile on my face.

I was somewhere in that crowd freaking out about to run 26.2 miles. Looking at this picture gets me pumped and makes me want to go run. It was such an amazing experience.

Here I am about to cross the finish line with my good friend Brenda who went though the whole amazing process with me. She was an amazing running buddy for me because we run at the exact some pace.  Don't we look happy? Goofy maybe?  Happy we are almost done!

And here here is a picture of  my awesome race bling.

This was my first marathon. Actually it was my first race ever. My goal was to finish in 4:30 but around mile 18 I decided I would be happy just to finish in under 5 hours and I did it in 4:55. Woot!

I am kinda of obsessed with running now and collecting more medals (it's so addicting!). I just signed up for 2 half marathons in November and December.

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, a few months ago we decided to move. Just a year after moving away from the bay area we decided that we missed it and needed to find our way back. So we have returned to oakland.  We have been in our new home for almost 2 months and we are settling nicely. I am sure I will be sharing some home decorating posts in the near future.

One more bit of newness! Meet the newest member of our family Miss Wendy Dog.

Isn't she the cutest little pup? I will have to write a Wendy devoted post for tomorrow so I can share more pictures and gush about my little girl. 

Spring Cleaning!!!

Spring is here and it's time to do some spring cleaning in my shop. Now through the end of March enter the coupon code SPRING at check out and get 20% off your entire purchase. Happy shopping!

Where has Petals gone to?

I am still here I promise. I have just been distracted from things like the internet and blogging. With the new year I decided to run a marathon. So with a good friend I have joined up with Team in Training and in June I will be running 26.2 miles in the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon. Recently a lot of my spare time has been spent in the gym or running and working on fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
It is my goal for April to really get back to my shop though. So expect to see more of me. In the mean time if you would like to know more about my training or learn more about Team in Training you can visit my fundraising page here .

There are even some mildly embarrassing pictures of me running.

Superbuzy has a real life store!

Tuesday morning I woke up and decided I should start the new year off right and buy some new fabric. After my little monster was down for a nap I curled up with my computer and went to my favorite online shop for finding awesomely cute Japanese prints Superbuzzy.com. I spent a good amount of time looking at every page making sure I got a good look at all my options and quickly had a cart full of awesomeness. I knew that they were local and I could pick up my order instead of paying for shipping so before checking out I went to their contact page to get their address. With great joy I found that they had recently opened up a brick and mortar shop just a 5 minute drive from house.

So I abandoned my virtual shopping cart and made it my goal to do some real life (because everything on the internet is pretend right?) shopping asap.

On Saturday I was finally able to venture out alone and witness the greatness that is Superbuzzy. I walked in and it was like my own personal heaven. It was roomy and bright with racks of the cutest fabric one could imagine and everyone in there was super friendly. When I got home I realized I should have taken some pictures but I was so distracted by the fabric that shopping was the only thing I could think of.

I browsed through the rows of fabric several times and then carefully pulled out my favorites. I tried not to over do it just so I had a reason to come back in the near future. I still bought too much but it's hard to control myself when fabric is involved.
Here are some pictures of what I got.

This one is my favorite. 

Oh man. I can't wait to start sewing with these. 

And they don't just have fabric. They have patterns and needle felting kits to make the cutest little animals, Japanese craft books and the cutest stationary items. I picked up a super cute birthday gift for my niece that just turned 12. 

If you are in the Ventura area or visiting soon you should definitely check out Superbuzzy. It's a beautiful welcoming place and I can't wait to go back. If you aren't in the area you should check out there online shop which is also awesome. 

Now I am off to get my sewing room straightened up so I can do some sewing with  my new fabric.