Summertime projects

I know that this might sound a bit like whining, but it is just now, a good week after I have returned from my vacation that I feel like I have finally recovered. Now don’t get me wrong… I loved my vacation. I always love my vacation. Every year right around this time, our closest friends and their 3 children along with us and our 3 children pack our whole lives into our mini vans, including our dog and whatever vacation project I have dreamed up and we drive a few hours into Sonoma County to the Russian River Valley. There we unpack those same minivans, buy a lot of good food, blow up a lot of inflatable toys and spend the next week swimming, eating, playing games, talking, canoing, sunbathing, rock skipping, eating some more, just to name a few activities. In between all of that vacation goodness, we cook, we clean, we referee a hundred little fights and arguments, we bathe a lot of dirty kids, we smear on a lot of SPF 45, and somewhere in between all of that we manage to get in a few deep conversations and we try to relax and rest…

On the last day we watch a homemade slide show set to cheesy music of all 534 pictures that we have taken over said week and we feel like we have really vacationed. Every one is happy… until one of the kids wants what someone else has….
Every year when we finally get home [which was another experience all together this year which included sidetracking to 2 towns, blowing a tire, a cofee shop refusing to sell me iced coffee and sampling about 25 mustards at a wonderful little winery], all I want to do is sleep and sit on my couch, watch whatever TiVO has taped while I was gone and go through all of my mail. Its like an annual ritual and my husband knows that he shouldn’t expect me to move off of the couch that day. It’s just what I do. You could call it my transition time 🙂
Somehow this time around, my transition time has taken all week. I’ve made it off the couch… some days… but not others. I have accomplished alot of sorting and organizing… mostly from my couch.

But back to designing… I almost forgot that that’s what I was supposed to be writing about! Before I went on vacation I actually managed to start 3 different projects and sent them off the three lovely ladies in various stages of doneness to work on while I was gone. One of them is made all out of Allspice Tapestry and the other 2 are a mix of Allspice Tapestry and colors from the next line that we will be releasing at Fall Market. If you haven’t already guessed from my earlier hints… the line will be called Dandelion Girl. The swatches coming back are wonderful so far and I can’t wait to see the larger prints which should be coming soon… as soon as I’ve made some choices I will give you a sneak peek….

This line will have woven fabrics again and this time we have some really fun Spring specialty fabrics for you… I can’t wait to share them with you all as soon as I can. I have to tell you that when I was choosing woven stripes and plaids, I had so many wonderful swatch choices that I could have made at least 3 different lines with what I had. It was really, really hard to narrow the swatches down into a small enough group to make a collection. Anyway, that was one of the things I was accomplishing from my couch this week :-)…

Back soon.
P.S. All of our leather handles have sold but we will be placing another order soon so if you didn’t get a chance, please feel free to email and we will add you to the next order. We will be adding green as well.