Yoyos on parade

Told you I had been busy making these.

Yoyo barrette

Been making a bunch of these yoyo barrettes for the Upscale Backyard Sale... And found a new use for them today...

This is my quiet time

I've been itching to feel normal. Wanting to blog, sew, read, meditate...
But my new life with foster care appointments, social worker visits, sleepless nights and a week of half days for Mimi- along with an adorable, but sick baby who is happy as long as he is being held... (thank you, sling) .... Has left me with minimal time to be Libby. So today, this is my moment of peace... Walking Z home from preschool before hopping onto the 10 freeway off to get Mimi. Note: the lump in my shadow is a happily snug slung baby.

International Sanctuary - aw, shucks.

I was peeking in on Tori's blog the other day and saw that she'd helped International Sanctuary get their new website up and running. Which of course I had to check out - because I love the whole "purchase with purpose" concept that they have.

If you've been a long time reader of mine, you'll know that I had lunch with the founders of International Sanctuary a while ago whose mission is:

"iSanctuary is a new and growing non-profit organization that was formed to develop social enterprises for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.

Currently we are training 40 rescued girls, from the ages of 13 to 18 in Mumbai India, in the skill of jewelry making. Once the girls are trained, their products are brought to the US and UK to be sold to fund their futures."Anyhow, I figured, even though I would be seeing them soon at an event I am hosting for MOPS - a mini-boutique in December, that I needed to make a little purchase in support of them. For a while I've been eyeing their "Ring of Fire" bracelet - it's kind of a signature piece for them and when I have noticed it on other women it's something I immediately recognize as an International Sanctuary piece. So I dropped one of those into my cart. Then I went over to the necklaces page and saw something that was so sweet! They have a necklace named the Liberty Necklace and is fashioned after a design that I made with Stephanie that day last December. We had such a fun time talking about clustering colors and shapes in the variety that would create a rich look... and I'd made some earrings and a necklace for her and off to our lunch we went. I knew we'd had fun together, but I'd never dreamed that they'd use my design and name it after our work-session. What an honor.
I bought one. And wore it proudly yesterday. I may need to buy a few more as gifts. At a mere $20, they are a lot of fun to pick up for thoughtful gifts this winter. (and they're cute!)

Fall Day in LA

I love driving through Hancock Park in each season. Today I got a great dose of autumn while driving down Rossmore from Hollywood. I love that I managed (while driving) to catch both autumn leaves and palm trees. Perfect.

NEW baby

You knew I couldn't resist embellishing all of AJ's onesies. Too bad
it's got to be covered up by other layers! (though
you won't catch me complaining about cool weather). ... More to come...

Ice Cream, You scream

I told you I'd post a pic of the awesome tee Christy made for Mimi for her birthday.
There is a lot more work put into this than it looks. nicely done, Christy! (also, she made a point to use all scraps from my giveaway last April, that Mimi would recognize as "momma's skirt favrics")

Whatcha think?

I've been really wanting to get back into purses, but to find a way to make them a little more affordable and accessible to people to buy.

What do you think of this REVERSIBLE number? Ain't it the cutest? (price $39)

Do you think I should have my seamstress make a few up? My current thoughts now are that I will list these two on etsy and see the interest - they could also be made in most of the fabrics that I have on hand, too...

any thoughts?

Nesting - sewing, really

What do you do when you are waiting for a baby to arrive? You nest.

Which is exactly what I have been doing. Organizing, sewing - trying to get through my to-do pile of things to sew, really...

here are some of the projects I've done recently for some lucky kiddos... (i.e. they're all custom orders for people)

PS - apparently, you also BLOG while nesting. I'm trying to get a few posts done tonight. We get AJ tomorrow!

Z Jayne

You know me and recycled or repurposed products... I love them! I'm constantly doing what I can to turn J's old shirts into clothes for the kids, I've turned old Hawaiian shirts into Father's Day gift bags, I reuse even the timiest scraps and I always try to support artists who reuse... Well, here is a great one! I cat even remember how I found her on etsy, but zJayne (www.zjayne.etsy.com) rocks!
She reuses old tshirts (she's sold over 1000 bags!) and makes them into little pouches and shopping bags. She gives you a billion choices and when it comes to personalization - you can choose your colors, etc.
I LOVE this bag! I'll be ordering more for sure. My kids are getting some cool kiddo mp3 players (link later ) for the holidays, maybe they need cool pouches like these to hold them...