Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Spent the day working on more aprons for Muddy's. And when I wasn't doing that, I was looking up recipes to cook for the inlaws on Sunday. And when I wasn't doing that, I was looking at stuff for the babies. I'm such a girl.

I'm also a sleepy girl, especially now that my eyes are tired from crying thanks to Glee. So for now I'll just post pictures of the 3 aprons I worked on today:
.

And in case I haven't said it before - thank you to my husband, Joe, for allowing me to follow my dream of making Love For Sale my full time job. As if being the greatest husband in the world and giving me two little bundles of joy wasn't enough, he gave me the gift of time - time to follow my passion. I love that man.
Ok. The pregnant lady will shut up with the mushy stuff now.




Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Just Curious...

Is it Christmas? Because I opened the mailbox today and saw Martha Stewart holding presents and I sure thought it was Christmas. It was really just her magazine, but that's Christmas enough for me! Already I have plans to make 3 of the recipes mentioned in the magazine. PLUS, I ordered the ultra cheesy, but ultra awesome, Knit-Wit that Martha talks about in the latest issue. Yes, it's that infomercial, 70's, As Seen On TV, product that makes knitting a cinch. The official website of the Knit-Wit still boasts photos like these:

I neeeeeed that wicker chair. It's more like a wicker throne. And it's amazing.
Anyway, I have no intentions of trying the afghan, but I am excited to try some of the projects Martha suggested in the new magazine. She used the tool mostly for embelishments and I think it's going to be the perfect thing to spruce up some apron ideas I've had. Along with some purses and blankets for kids and a whole mess of other things. Cannot wait to play with my new toy. just 5 more business days...

And since I mentioned Christmas and aprons, I'll share with you the latest apron I've made for the bakery:

Monday, November 9, 2009

Phenomenal Woman

I'm not usually one of those people that's moved by poetry or things of that nature. Don't get me wrong - a lyric in a song or a line from my favorite book or movie will have a lasting impact on me, as many lines have already - but, I guess I'm not someone who quotes things that often. And I really don't have the attitude I should towards being a proud woman. Scratch that - I didn't...before this summer. I got married and the kids are on the way and I see the way my husband looks at my pregnant belly and how proud he is that I'm carrying these children. I take pride in the things I do as a woman all of a sudden.

This morning I was watching the Today show while I folded laundry and the editor of Glamour magazine was there, talking about the magazines list of the years most influencial women. The list included Michelle Obama, Amy Poehler, Serena Williams, and Maya Angelou, who was also there, on the today show. At the end of the segment she was asked to quote some of her poem, "Phenomenal Woman". Now I remember reading this poem in high school. I may have read it in junior high as well. I know I've read it plenty of times. And I'm sure many have you have as well. And at the time, I appreciated the poem for being written by someone I knew to be this big deal writter and poet. And I could appreciate that she was passionate in writting it. It's sincerity wasn't lost on me. But hearing it this morning; seeing the smile on Mrs. Angelou's face as she recited the poem with her eyes closed but with the most beautiful mannerisms, I, for the first time, felt really moved by the poem. And I immediately thought of my mom and stepmom and grandmother and my friends Betsy and Natalie and Christie, who are my peers and mothers, and my sisters, and my best friend, who spent the weekend helping her mother and sister open up their own interior design store, and I wanted to call them all to excitedly say "Turn on the tv!". But out of respect for these women I adore, I did not. Because it was kind of early.

So instead I'll post part of the poem here. And I hope that anyone that reads this, man or woman, appreciates the sentiment behind me posting it. I feel so lucky to know the vast amount of phenomenal women that I know. And behind so many phenomenal women, is a phenomenal man. So I certainly believe my dad, my husband, my brother, my best friends, deserve credit too :)

"Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them
They think I'm telling lies
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips
The stride of my step
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me."

I've got you under my skin

Is it gross that I've had that song stuck in my head for the past few days? I love Cole Porter (I mean I did name my business after one of his songs) so quite often, I've got one of his songs stuck in my head. But I sang it jokingly to my belly the other night and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I think it's cute. So don't find it offensive. Ha.

The babies are taking over...



I am apron lady...hear me roar

Seems that all I'm ever working on lately is aprons for the bakery (Muddy's Bake Shop). But that's no complaint, I assure you. Having more time to work on aprons or any other crafty endeavor has made me a happy camper.

So I'm sewing up a so I can get as many aprons out before I'm preoccupied by the new additions to our home. The best part of sewing aprons, most recently, has been that I've gotten a chance to start working on Christmas aprons. CHRISTMAS!!! It's my favorite time of the year. Yep. I'm one of those people. A total Christmas nut.

These are the 2 Christmas aprons I've finished thus far:




The half apron is a personal favorite because it jingles. What's more festive than that???
These are available at Muddy's right now if you're interested in getting your holiday cooking started early this year!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Before I hit the road today...

I'm taking a small trip over to Cleveland to visit the other love of my life, Laura Beth, to check out a fabric store and do some other "girly" things. But before I do, I thought I'd post some pictures of some recent additions to our shop. As I mentioned, I'll be working on the Etsy shop this week, so bare with me - it's on it's way! Until then, here's some pictures to tide you over :)

Patchwork Stuffed Baby Ball


Stuffed Alphablocks


Horsey Coat Hook



Patchwork Baby Quilt with felt hearts
So it's been awhile (since the beginning of summer!) since I've posted. I promise I have a decent excuse, though. I got married AND found out we're pregnant with twins! Needless to say, my time has been a little tied up. Between sickness and being tired and working on aprons and Cooper Young Fest when I could, the blog fell by the wayside. But I'm here to say "no more!" From here on out, I will resolve to be better about posting. And I'll be working on the Etsy shop this week for anyone interested in doing a little shopping :) For anyone who's been following LFS for awhile, you might notice the products are shifting towards more kid and baby friendly stuff. It's my way of nesting, I suppose, but with the twins on their way, I figure shifting that way makes total sense! But we'll still have a lot of our old standards, so not to worry!

So I've got to get to work! But I'll leave you with a small handful of my favorite photos from the wedding:





Friday, May 15, 2009

Designs By Mandy

My close friend, Mandy Weimar, whom I've worked with for 5 years now, has been the designer behind a lot of our formal business packaging (i.e. invoices, business cards, purchase order forms, etc.). She also does a majority of our stuffed creatures that we sell in our shop. If you've ever come out to Cooper Young Festival and stopped by our booth, she's been there with us for the past 2 years, and you've undoubtedly seen her cute face.

As a gift to me, she designed some new business cards for Love For Sale! They are so perfect and so darling and it's a really wonderful design:




Mandy does business designs for a handful of other company's and has a really cute and clean aesthetic. If you're interested in talking to her about designing for you, you can email her at designsbymandy@gmail.com.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

May flowers bring baby showers

I've had so many orders come in over the past month for baby shower gifts! I love that there's new babies being ushered into the world at the same time as new spring flowers. It's a sweet thing to think about.

Emily ordered a baby set for a shower shes attending this afternoon. Coincidentally, the shower's being held at Muddy's Bake Shop, which I think is a GREAT location for a baby shower!

The "baby set" includes a blanket, a bib, and a changing mat. This set was for a little boy, and I think it came out pretty cute:







Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Shirts to look forward to...

Going back to the BFF (Bicycle Film Festival), I thought I'd share a preview of 2 of the shirts we'll be selling at the event! Again, we're doing several bicycle themed items for the event. But these will be posted in the Etsy shop at the beginning of June as well.

(the LFS Etsy shop is under construction right now, but should be up and running by the end of next week so keep those eyes peeled for updates!)







Coaster Swap!

I saw this over on Candace's fabulous blog, Sparkle Power, and thought it would be a great deal of fun to join in! While this blog is still pretty new, anyone out there that DOES read it and is interested in joining should do so!

Kindred Crafters is hosting a coaster swap! They're even going international with it! Imagine the fun...
Go to this link and join in if you're interested! Sharing is caring :)

Bicycle Film Festival


I'm really excited to announce Love For Sale will be participating in the 9th Annual Bicycle Film Festival. It will be held in various cities across North America as well as other countries. In Memphis the festival will be held at the Brooks Museum, Friday, May 29th and Saturday, May 30th in Overton Park.
This is copied and pasted from an email I got about the event:
"The Bicycle Film Festival is a celebration of cycling in all forms. It started 9 years ago when a man (Brendt Barbur BFF Director) was hit by a bus while on his bike. He decided to turn the experience into something positive, and the result was the Bicycle Film Festival. The BFF goes to less than 20 cities in the world, including Milan, Paris, Chicago, NY, etc., so we are very lucky to have it in Memphis this year."
So if you're in the area the last weekend of May, please come out and show not only your LFS support, but some bicycle support as well! We'll be there all day Saturday with a craft booth, selling a lot of bicycle themed goodies as well as some of our traditional LFS merchandise.
For more information on the Bicycle Film Festival, visit http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/

Friday, May 1, 2009

Side Projects

I've been in epoxy heaven lately. I keep wanting to try projects with bar resin but it's such a huge undertaking and epoxy has the same effect in much smaller, easy to use packaging. I'm sold!

My dad is a huge pipe and tobacco enthusiast and saves all the really cool tins that his tobacco comes in. And of course, I sift through these boxes whenever I get the chance and always end up leaving dad's house with 20 great looking tins. And I'm always itching to do something with them.
So I played around with some ideas. None of these little projects are done, mind you, but they've been fun to play with.

Howlin' Wolf Coaster



Crazy Love Elephant


Test

Fresh Start

Well, there's big news for LFS - we're going fulltime! The decision was pretty easy to make when I was given an opportunity to financially support LFS without needing the current 40+ hour a week job I have now. It was really painful to not have the time to devote to LFS the way I've always wanted. This is what I'm passionate about. THIS is what makes me happy! So, I've found myself in a rare and fortunate position where I can really devote myself to the thing I love so dearly. I want to provide the best product I can with the most love I can give. I'm so excited about this opportunity and am so pleased that Love For Sale now has the chance to be something really spectacular.

Thank you to all my friends and family and customers who have poured out endless amounts of encouragement and positive feedback since announcing this big move. Without all of you, I couldn't live my dream. You're kind of a big deal.

Love to you all and here we go!