The Good, the bad and the Ugly

Hello all, well it's been a rollercoaster mixed week of emotions, there have been definite highs and definite low points. I found out that a renter had stolen artwork and almost all my furniture, depressing. I tried to come up with a list of more depressing things that could be stolen to make myself feel better No 1. My dogs, if someone took them that would be heartbreaking and after that it became about things and while you can take objects, you can't take memories so that's what I'm taking away from this experience. It's unfortunate that people can't respect other people's belongings but I'm staying positive. There's still a chance (slim)that they may be returned.
The high's this week have been meeting up with old friends who moved up to Colorado, celebrating 6 year's of marriage and if that wasn't enough, a very big bit of news that I don't want to reveal just yet but it's very exciting for the Desiree B. brand.

This little ray of sunshine came to visit and was rewarded with his own bear.

I love a bit of wool plaid, vintage and Ralph Lauren no less.

Always look on the bright side of life.

More high's I found THE most fabulous plaid skirts while thrifting, couldn't believe my luck. Can't wait to use them in a project. Been working on a Mother's Day Card, I know in the UK it's already happened but not so this side of the pond. I've signed on for another Last Saturday's at SEED and a Cinco De Mayo at OC Mart. Two very good reasons why I should deinstall bejewelled from my Ipad, so distracting I've even written a motivational message to myself on a chalk board but since I just spent 10 mins looking for a bloomin' hole puncher and still haven't found it, it's not quite having the galvanising effect... Back to work.

Green Bliss Cafe

Slowly but surely my little tribe of furry buddies is growing. This week saw a switch from the norm when I had to make a card holding display. Thankfully I had a few wise pearls of wisdom in the carpintery department from the soon to be cover artist of sculpture magazine Andre Woodward. For a few hours work it turned out OK I think. It cost 68 cents to make because it was all scrap wood and that's what I paid for a wooden ruler which holds up the middle row. What made this a relatively simple task was the Ridgid jobmax tool I used. I don't like big power tools, they scare me but this little thing is safe and accurate. I sound like an infomercial but I was really impressed so much so that I bought my own. It's going to be so handy for making art panels and cutting random bits of wood.

I started work on a new Panda design which I will hopefully get a chance to work on this week. There's a batch of penguins though that need to be sewn so maybe not... All the official paperwork got sent for CRAFTED if you are a crafter looking to take the next step you should apply. I'm convinced it's going to be awesome.

I did some exercise first time since I got over the flu, I don't count riding my bike to work because it's not very far. Cardio tennis was the name of the class and it was pretty exhausting, one thing I learned from 3 days of sore muscles, stretching is important. Any how here are some pics from the newly opened Green Bliss Cafe in Fullerton a new outlet for the Desiree B. line owned by the lovely Rita Ho who has a fabulous eye for detail and decor. It's a beautiful space with delicious treats and coffees. I really love the furniture, as you can tell from the photos below.

Green Bliss Cafe

I love this sign made from licence plates.

There I am.

I want this chandelier.

View from the Courtyard

Love this table.

PS Looks like this flu bug is back again, so frustrating !

Visiting Crafted and other News.

I'm happy to report that all are healthy in the household right now and things have been progressing quite nicely on the work front. Once again there is a small tribe of wooly softies growing and they are really soft. I stumbled upon a wool blanket and it has made the most divine bears and owls. I will be heartbroken when its all used up. My husband forced me to clear up in the craft room which was probably a good thing all things considered. I bought this huge rolling rack made of steel (impulse purchase but in my mind I will have a loft style home and it will be filled with books, art and stuff) which had been taking up too much room in the garage and generally making his life a misery, or so it would seem. So I have now accomodated said rack in the craft room, in between two chairs that will one day be re-upholstered in a lovely neutral linen. I've had them at least three years, one of those impulse purchases! I'm starting to see how so many furniture items end up curbside, so difficult to get rid of them. I'm beginning to see that I need a bigger space to create in, or a mini elf that comes in and tidies. I always did love the story about the shoe elves, if only they really existed.

Giant rolling rack

New Home of CRAFTED

Those of you who keep up with the blog, (bless you all) will know that I've been accepted at CRAFTED a new development in San Pedro. Sunday was Open House and I couldn't wait to see the space for myself. The light is amazing and the building has so much character with lots of exposed beams. I love the repetitive linear patterns that run through the space as well as the touches of primary reds and yellows. I'm even more excited and I'm off to sew some more bears.

Grrrrrr

Lil bear

No sooner do I bemoan the heat and it's back to slightly chilly, some rain expected. This week has been extremely productive and exciting for a couple of reasons. In preparation for CRAFTED I purchased an Ipad so that I will be able to do credit card transactions, the fact that I can also play bejewelled and use Instagram are added bonuses.

Started working on a new owl pattern, we'll have to see how that goes. It looks cute but as I discovered with hoodie bear it took a couple of tries for the 3D version to not look odd. So this week sees some finished bears and cat cats.

Well, the rain brought another bout of flu and I'm usually pretty good at just resting it out but this time around it just seems to get worse, its been about 5 days so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the cold sweats and inability to do much at all will pass by the weekend. You know you're ill when even picking up a needle is beyond your capabilities. On the good news front my products will be carried in a new store which is very exciting. 

Heat Wave

Sometimes living in the OC is tough, the sun's shining and all I want to do is go to the beach. It's a BIG distraction. I did go on Wednesday which means I'll have to work Sunday to make up for it. Little did I know that I would be getting redirects to this little old blog by the nice people at CRAFTED there's me blithering on about my stolen GPS ! Oh, the professional facade that I had hoped to cultivate is shattered, darn. There's no turning back so I may as well just carry on. I've been watching Celebrity Apprentice lately, maybe there's a Donald Trumps comedy illustration in there somewhere, although I'm not sure trumps translates in the US, Donald Toots wouldn't be the same..... Maybe listening to John Legend while writing this blog is making me lose focus. Oh, Celebrity Apprentice, it's fascinating to see how teams can disentegrate so easily and how leadership skills, the ability to delegate and manage, straightforward stuff is just lost on most of the cast. Still it's good telly.

Unlike the show that inspired this card. My mother in law is a fan and avidly watches it, so when we visited I ended up sitting through one episode. More than enough, there are certainly no mensa candidates on there. Maybe I'm being harsh.... but that's an hour I'll never get back.
I'm also slightly obsessed with Pinterest and have been pinning a lot. The concept is genius, it's essentially the digital form of keeping a scrapbook but instead of having to print things out to remind you, you can just go back to your board. There's been patches of work this week but a lot has been graphics and computer stuff. Time to get back to my wool but its 80 degrees outside it just doesn't seem right.

Moving on Up

Well, I made a big decision and applied to be part of CRAFTED a new craft development opening in Summer 2012 and got accepted ! What this means is that I'll have a permanent store 52 weeks of the year, woo hoo. So the blogs may dwindle as a result, there's a lot to prep for this commitment but I'm excited about the change. Who would have thought that some random drawings of monsters would have lead me down this path ?

Here's a few cards from my Pop Sensations Collection. I found this action that you can use in Photoshop on Paint the Moon that makes it super easy to create these nice looking collages. They still took a while but I'll be needing some marketing stuff so it's a good thing.

I went to my first Cardio Tennis session and it was painful, it was a really hot day, more suited to sunbathing than doing laps around a court but there you go. I also went surfing so it was a double whammy of exercise I did consider swathing myself with Bengue Balsam but decided to just get an early night.  I discovered that I can't drink grapefruit juice which is a shame as I do like it. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't causing me discomfort but after drinking a glass it felt like the worst cramps ever. So that's that then.

In other random news our GPS got stolen out of the car, the dogs are always sticking there heads out of the windows so they were probably down and so it was partly our fault but we live in a cul de sac so it's not really that good for random thieving. (this example being au contraire) I loved that Gps had it set to British Daniel and was literally lost without it, I don't do maps even a stint in the reserves couldn't fix that so I had already started looking for a replacement. But in a happy ending British Daniel found his way home courtesy of Jeremy and his grandad's dog. It would seem that the thieves decided to rid themselves of their stolen goods in a nearby bush which the dog impressively lead his owner to. There was also a satellite radio that wasn't ours, why the bush who knows ? Jeremy had simply pressed go home on the GPS and so the happy reunion was complete. Things like that don't happen too often so I thought I'd share. Thanks for reading.

V-Day and Pot Dyeing

Following an unplanned seasonal bout of flu, things got a little off track. I did get to watch season 2 of Gossip Girl guilt free from the comfort of my couch. At the weekend I did a little Valentine's day workshop where in my rush I forgot to bring a camera. I had a good little group and we made very cute embellished heart pins. Finally made progress on a store front and I have one thing in my shop which by the time I post this will hopefully be fuller. You think it's going to be so simple and before you know it you have to design a banner and change all the colors of the text etc etc. I do protest too much, if I wasn't so indecisive I'd be fine. There's also been some graphic design projects which I'd been working on for some time which thankfully were completed. Nothing worse than a deadline and a raging headache.

Heart pin

You may recall I mentioned a Pringle jumper that shrank from XL to mini mini. I decided on some pot holders, too thick for what I had originally intended. I blanket stitched the outside. I'll probably stitch a design onto the center but trying to stay focussed.

Pot Holder Super Felted

These should be in Thrift store find. In the spirit of Valentine's Day his n her cups. I love these they both have little lids/coasters. Whoever decided these weren't treasures must have been mad they are so adorable aren't they ?

his n hers mugs

Before I got ill I decided to dye a pink cashmere sweater on the stove. Like most of my ventures it was messy but ultimately successful. I plunged this garment into a pot of boiling water and dye and a cup of vinegar. For the next thirty minutes I had to stir it with my wooden spoon. Cashmere is usually hand wash only delicate and there I was stirring it like a stew. The color looked amazing and I would be lying if I didn't think it was going to shrink to the size of a small infant tee but praise be no shrinkage and beautiful color. The secret is apparently to let it cool naturally no shocking it with cold water and no tumble drying. So if you have a sweater in a color that doesn't suit you, or is plain blah. Have a go, you're not going to wear it any less are you ? You can use your washing machine if you want but I didn't want to risk the wrath of an unsuspecting neighbor accidentally having blue tinged clothes in the next wash and it sounded far more complex than the pot method.

From pale pink to lovely blue

Invigorated by this success I am planning more dyeing adventures, there is a rather plain jane oatmeal blanket that I just purchased which will be perfect for testing out various colors. I'm thinking I can make some bags and exciting pouches, creatures who knows....