Used to be, I’d indulge myself and buy a sheet or two to use for the occasional piece of snail mail I end up sending out each year. But recently, USPS postage rates have been so on the rise that stamp values become obsolete way too quickly and I end up having to pair them with a gajillion of these make-up stamps:

Or these, which are slightly cooler but still annoying to use:

Like, 42 cent stamps came and went in such a flash (didn’t they?!) that I barely even had time to notice these awesome Year of the Ox stamps, much less get myself a sheet!

These days, I hardly use stamps anymore anyways. Even stuff that I used to snail mail — primarily legal documents, checks, that sort of thing — I now just scan and send via email, or pay with PayPal. Who needs stamps?! Not me. But I want them anyways! Who can resist USPS’s awesome online Postal Store, where you can find all sorts of cool stamps — AND OTHER STUFF! — for fun, for collecting, and of course for mailing. Doesn’t this super-cool Pewter Stamp Dispenser just make you want to run online and pick one and a coil of stamps up for yourself OR WHAT?!

Similar Posts:

• Curse you, BOE!
• Shopping for shipping supplies

1) I had the honor of submitting a guest post to Etsy’s blog, The Storque, and it went live today! And Etsy readers are so full of love and kind words. I love it! The Storque gets a whopping 2 million pageviews a month — that’s a lot of eyeballs! So we’re taking the liberty of feeling semi-famous…at least temporarily. Read on, if you please: “It Takes a Village to Craft a Handmade Wedding“.

2) A lovely gal on Etsy sent me the sweetest note entitled “Spotted your bag in the wild”. She said she saw a girl with a cute bag at Whole Foods in Oakland and asked where it was from, and it was mine! Awesome that that happened, and double-awesome that she went to the trouble to let me know about it. I am oozing with love and gratitude.

3) Our entire house is strewn with fabric and pouches and sewing implements because I’m preparing for the Bazaar Bizarre craft show at Maker Faire at the end of the month! I’m SO excited to get to be a part of the show this year, as I’ve always been in awe of Maker Faire. I’ll admit I’m intimidated by the amount of people that are expected to be there (the number 80,000 has been floating around), but I’m much more psyched than scared!

4) Earlier this week, I found out that I also get to be a part of Renegade Craft Fair SF again this year – YEA! The event will take place July 18-19 from 11am – 7pm, at Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion. It was such a great event last year, and I’m sure it will be just as grand this year!

5) When it rains, it pours?! The folks over at Madison Marquette, which owns a bunch of shopping centers here in the Bay Area (amongst other places), are looking for an innovative new business to help them grow San Leandro’s Bayfair Center mall and are running a contest called Retail*Star. The grand prize winner gets a FREE one-year lease on a retail space in the mall, plus a good chunk of seed money to get their business started. I was one of 66 contestants to submit my business idea to the panel of judges via a 3-minute presentation and 2-page written description, and I made the first cut as one of 15 semi-finalists!

6) There are a bunch more little mini things like the fact that I just had Henry’s Hunan Hot & Sour Beef for dinner followed by a bite of dark chocolate. But I’ll end with the fact that I just scanned in this photo that we had taken last weekend at a Mother’s Day brunch at the Marriott, and it makes me smile. They caught Gramma in a blink, but that’s not anything Don won’t be able to fix in Photoshop I think. But it was just such a great family-filled whirlwind of a weekend, from pitching my Retail*Star thing Saturday morning and booking it over to SFO to get to Santa Monica Pier to celebrate Mom’s 65th birthday then crashing at Ah-Yi’s; to this all-you-can-eat-plus-complimentary-family-photo brunch, followed by more family time and then off again to LAX and back home in less than 48 hours. Phew! Though it was short, it was event-filled and somehow particularly fulfilling. This photo cracks and warms me up all at once.

In conclusion, I have plenty of things to be happy about. And therefore I am!Similar Posts:

• Bazaar Bizarre / Maker Faire – all I imagined, and more!
• Blessings to the Bartizan 4200 portable imprinter
• Happy 2009!

Moment #2: blooms, baby, blooms!
Not one, but TWO bunches of bright beautiful blooms! One upstairs…and one downstairs!

Moment #3: work, baby, work!
A bunch of mini-moments filling orders in the sewing room, between 8am and 4pm, followed by a mad dash to the post office!

Moment #4: a little bit of greek goodness
Dinner at Kokkari Restaurant in SF. Best. Lamb chops. EVER! And a flourless chocolate cake, complete with candle and Happy Birthday scrawled in chocolate, on the house. I should have shot a photo of it but it flew into my mouth before I could get my camera out!

Moment #5: greased lightning!
Opening night of Grease the Musical at Golden Gate Theatre in SF. Cute and entertaining but managed to get stuck next to THE worst nightmare of a couple ever who talked, sang, guffawed, whooped and hollered at the tops of their voices for ENTIRE show. Except maybe for the 5 minutes after I asked them to keep it down. So annoying! Aside from that, a good time AND I have a newfound respect for Taylor Hicks who played Teen Angel in the Beauty School Dropout scene. Loved it!

Moment #6: meet me at the clock!
A few liquid desserts at Clock Bar at the Westin St. Francis with the hubs, Nalin, Tony and Jenn. Made Jenn bring a box of uncooked spaghetti so I could get my long life noodle in before midnight. Good drinks, great company. The perfect way to end the day!

Similar Posts:

• Deliver de banner, de sooner de better!
• Making progress
• My husband is one year old

Oh man, I could hardly stand it when I saw this wonderfully adorable, painstakingly crafted product in this morning’s Etsy Finds email. Just look at the detail on that little guy, right down to the collar/dog tag and everything! I’ve no dog or cat of my own and budget-wise would probably only be able to handle the custom needle-felted brooches, but those I must say are almost equally cute. Eek!

These fine pieces are made by KaysK9s, who will use your photograph of your dog, cat or…bunny and create things like sculptures, magnets, keychains, brooches, bookmarks and more! Better yet, she donates a portion of all her proceeds to the Ontario SPCA and/or local animal rescue organizations so when you make a purchase from her store, you’re not only getting a lasting  likeness of your furry friend but are also helping to support animals in need. Now how’s THAT for warm and fuzzy?!

I wonder if she’d make a needle felted version of Jimmy…Similar Posts:

• Making progress
• Vacation, baby!
• How to stay toasty this winter

Thanks to years of loyal credit card usage, a few hundred dollars worth of annual membership fees, some extra bucks to transfer a few more miles in, oh and the charge to buy a few more hundred miles we needed to top it off…Jimmy and I are headed to the Land Down Unda’ and Kiwiland, baby! I mean, mate!

My Etsy shop will take a little R&R as well but will be back with a vengeance on March 11! To be notified of when I’m back in action, please take your pick from any one of these options:

• Sign up to receive an auto-notification from Etsy when I take my shop off of “vacation mode” (this signs you up for a one-time email when my shop reopens only, your email is neither stored nor shared with me by Etsy)
• Become a fan on my Facebook page to receive special offers and updates
• Follow me on Twitter
• Send me a “conversation” (i.e. message) on Etsy (requires registration on Etsy)

I kinda wish Etsy’s Vacation Mode feature wouldn’t hide all of my products, but they make it so in order to avoid buyers mistakenly making a purchase when the seller’s not able to ship within a “normal” timeframe. And since I’m not sure how easy it will be to reply to messages while we’re hopping around our travel destinations, I figured it was all for the best anyway.

BUT, if you’ve a hankering to see what people have recently bought from my shop let’s say, go on and check out my SOLD pages! And thanks to each and every one of you who’ve brought me pride and joy with each and every purchase and piece of feedback.

Have a great couple of weeks everyone!Similar Posts:

• Your furry friend, felted and fuzzy all over
• My husband is one year old
• Magnetic cuteness from Button Arcade

The Subjects:

Snuffles and Dirty, before

Snuffles and Dirty, after

The Catch
Snuffles and Dirty were not allowed to stay with Auntie Eleen for fittings and such. Bang had to sneak them out of the house during the day whilst Vyl was at work and bring them over, on 3 separate occasions, to my home studio.

So what? Well aside from not having models at hand, I’d a) never made cargo pants before…b) for a stuffed toy…c) that is an elephant with shall we say, odd proportions…d) and a tail. On the same note, e) a zip up wetsuit was also new territory…f) for a tiny little stuffed dolphin…g) with a fin and two flippers to cut slits for(credits to Bang for cutting the slits).

Sure sure I’d sewn my own wedding gown and even make handmade bags, pouches and home accessories for a living so you’d think it’d be a no-brainer. Well, the gown took me three months to make. And my handmade products primarily have deliciously straight lines and angles. No fins, tails, or…blowholes. Okay enough with the excuses! Bang was very patient and didn’t make me feel bad at all about first missing the originally-requested Christmas deadline or for having a hard time with the fit around Snuffles’ derriere.

The Play-by-Play (sort of)
So poor Bang had to come eastward three times and hang out with me for a total of maybe about 9 or 10 accumulated hours. But it was good quality time and I learned quite a bit about him, including the fact that his Brain Age is 48. And he’s really good at selling things on Craigslist.

On the last day, I put Bang to work too. He helped Fray Check the inside seams of the cargo pants and, as I mentioned, cut the slits for Dirty’s fin and flippers.

We finished the project the Thursday before Valentine’s Day, and I spent the whole weekend wondering how it all went down. Happily, Bang took pictures of the whole unwrapping process and shared them with me! I love Vyl’s reaction here, from “What the…?!” to “HA! Stretchy pants!” I also love the gift box and tissue paper. It’s all in the packaging, after all…

The Aftermath
So now, Dirty can go for a swim anytime he wants and Snuffles doesn’t have to be embarrassed about leaving the house for want of a pair of pants!

Further, I get to say that I’ve made:

• a pair of custom-fit cargo pants complete with elastic waistband, pleated flap pockets with buttons and a buttonhole tail slit for an elephant, and
• a custom-fit zip up wetsuit made from an ankle brace for a tiny dolphin

And hopefully, Bang scored some major points for thinking of such a sweet, personalized gift for his lovely young wife!

all images from BangSimilar Posts:

• Embellished bibs for babes

I’ve been reluctant to put up another post following the one about Cooper, but I think if there’s any type of post that would be suitable for coming after that one, it would be one like this since it’s a celebration of and a look back on happy memories made…even if it’s just one year’s worth of them.

To celebrate our first year as hubbands and wife, Jimmy took us to the fanciest dinner I’ve ever had…at Gary Danko! I’ve heard lots of people rave about their food and their service, and they didn’t disappoint. We came out of their stuffed to the point of discomfort, and I even woke up with a mean hangover the next day (ya, lightweight)! I was too excited about being there to remember to take photos of all of our 10 dishes, but we got most of them. We even got a signed copy of the evening’s menu enclosed in a fancy folder!

Everything was soooo good. I especially loved the fancy cheeses, the creme brulee trio and my passion fruit daiquiris! My scallops were delish too, as was the risotto. The dungeness crab salad was as tasty as we imagined, and the beef filet was tender and oozing with juices. We even survived our first-time foie gras, which was recommended by too many people for us to ignore! DOH, I just realized that I forgot to have a taste of Jimmy’s chocolate souffle — what was I thinking?! Probably that I was about to burst, AND that we still had our year-old wedding cake to take a bite of when we got home!

Here’s the obligatory shot we asked the waiter to take of us before we left. You can see we both look kinda flushed and a little sleepy from all the “exertion”.

Back to the topic of cake, we were pleasantly surprised to find that after two days of thawing in the refrigerator, our wedding cake did not actually taste freezer burnt at all! Thanks to Christine for wrapping that thing up for us over and over with saran wrap, and to Clara for baking us a cake so special it barely even aged! =] In fact, it just tasted slightly dry and we had a few bites each.

It was kinda cool too that our anniversary landed on Lunar New Year’s Day! I’ll take that as a good sign for the year ahead. Why not?! Hm maybe should hang some Ox ornaments around the house to help that along… =P

Anyway, it was a really fun way to spend our anniversary day. And while Jimmy had to treat me to a super-fancy (i.e. expensive) dinner, I got away with giving him this hokey little handmade card. But he’s a good sport and claimed to like it very much.

Happy 1st anniversary, hubbands! To countless more ahead. <3 <3 <3 and xoxoxSimilar Posts:

• 7 months!
• Birthday moments, caught on film (sorta)
• Hard core lip balm labeler

I thought I’d share just a few of my favorite things about Cooper. Aside from having been just a beautiful creature inside and out, he leaves me — and I know a lot of others too — with a lot of dear and happy memories.

Cooper had many special talents, and one of them was his love of and skill for opening wrapped presents like this one from Don’s mom.

Like the retriever that he was, he also loved fetching sticks and Frisbees…especially in water! On one of our Tahoe trips, I took this clip of Cooper finding a clever way to dry himself off after a session in the lake.

And Cooper had this funny thing about hats. A pet peeve, I guess you’d call it. If you were anywhere near Cooper and had a hat on, he’d feel compelled to promptly remove it from your head. This made for some frame-worthy family photos.

Ever since he was a young pup, Cooper had this habit of sidling up to you and plopping his butt right into your lap. My dad used to find it amusing too. If he had only been around as Cooper got older though, because that butt got bigger and heavier with age! I have to admit that I loved it though…

And finally, what I most loved about Cooper — his big heart and gentle, caring, always-taking-care-of-everyone-else ways. These are photos of him at Croft Lake. The one on the left is Cooper watching and waiting for us to pull in safely at the dock, and the one on the right is maybe my fondest memory. Whenever Jimmy and I strayed during a hike, Cooper would come bounding back towards us and bark and wait, bark and wait until we caught up. Then he’d lead us to the rest of the pack, always turning around to make sure we were following, and then repeat as needed.

Thanks, Mr. Cooper, for all the fond memories. You were a good boy, and I’ll miss you lots.Similar Posts:

• So much happy!

In commemoration of this historic day, here’s a delightful little video from Common Craft on how our votes got us — and Obama, of course — here in the first place. I guess it’s a little back-asswards to be posting a how-to on the US presidential election process now that we’re already at Inauguration Day, but if you’re anything like me (i.e. can’t remember much from social studies in school) then any refresher on this kind of thing is helpful. Especially if it’s cute. Let’s just hope this lesson sticks…but if not I’ll just re-watch this video!

If you’d rather be out and about celebrating the experience with your American people tonight (and have some change to spare to get tickets), here are some venues to consider courtesy of SF Gate Events:

• Barack Obama Presidential Inauguration Skaters’ Ball at FunkyTown Roller Rink in San Francisco
• Inauguration West at the Metreon in San Francisco
• Obama Ball 09 at the California Ballroom in Oakland
• The Green 960 Inaugural Ball at Yoshi’s in Oakland
• Inaugural Celebration at H’s Lordship Restaurant in Berkeley

Happy Inauguration Day!Similar Posts:

None found

SOMEone in the house is a golf fanatic.

Something tells me…your house is filled with cute but useless stuff.

Doing a little bean-counting, are we?

And finally, I don’t know what this one says about me. It’s not even from the library. I bought it. Gasp! But, my sis got me into Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and now I’m hooked. She only had volumes 1-3, and Audible.com only had volumes 5-7. None of the libraries had volume 4 either (though they did have most of the others…WTH?!). So here’s my precious missing piece. “Must. Have. The precioussssss….!”

Thanks to the Alameda Free Library for all the lost hours and my fine library finds.
Similar Posts:

• Peachy patterns for purty projects