shameless pictures of my girl in her new jumper...

Okay so I was fairly cryptic in my last post - which when accosted by some of my friends, I found humorous because I really can't believe that people are interested in what I have on the horizon. That's me, lack of confidence girl.  I will fill you in on that later, but first I have a new jumper to share.  

I was hired to do a jumper, so went out and picked out some fun fabric and such.  Turns out it wasn't exactly what my client was looking for - no problem, so I decided that it would be just perfect on Penny, and it is.  You see I don't sew every day (yet) so I like to do a small personal project before I launch into a hired one.  It's like getting my sewing legs about me.  Plus, I wanted to try a few different things in the way I laid out the pieces and how I put it together - which ultimately saved me time and made for a much more finished looking product.  I am happy - now if I just had a serger, it would be perfect, but that will have to wait until a few clients from now (it finishes the raw edges of fabric). I also was pretty happy to test drive my new pressure foot.  So if you are at all familiar with sewing machines they have a foot, a little two toed foot that puts pressure on the fabric evenly so that your stitches are straight and your fabric is smooth.  Well about a year and a half ago my pressure foot broke -it was plastic and I had my needle set wrong and BAM - it was gone.  So one would think that finding a pressure foot for a Singer sewing machine would be fairly easy.  It's a name brand and the machine is just ten years old.  Well you would be wrong.  There is only one store of ALL of central Indiana that carries the foot I need.  It was in my old neighborhood, but I don't get down there much and when I do the store is usually closed. I could order it online you say, well that would be true, but I wanted to see the foot, size, etc. since I also join pretty tiny ribbon together -so larger feet wouldn't necessarily give me what I need. So store shopping was my only option.  A few weeks ago I sauntered down to the ol' neighborhood and picked up my foot - a metal one.  I am smitten.  Up until now I've been sewing with a zipper foot - which is a pressure foot, but it only has one side so you can sew in zippers, making my job feeding the fabric and joining ribbon that much more difficult.  It is amazing what correct tools will do for a project.  So sewing Penny's jumper today was a dream, it actually takes my more time to cut my pattern out than to put it together - now anyway, with my new foot.  It went together like with out a stitch (pun intended) and Penny is a doll about being fitted and letting me pin things onto her.  Ah, such a girl.  Well here are like a billion pictures of my ragamuffin girl in her new dress that she reluctantly took off before bed:

details

discovering pollen

Penny rarely walks, she's always running AND falling and then running again

hello model pose (mom clearly takes too many pictures of this child)

 wishing the grill wasn't there...

Penny has naturally curly hair, so we experiment on a daily basis on how to tame the beast during this humid time of  year, we've yet to win, but we aren't quitters...

mom and her girl

So what I discovered with my latest client is that I like giving choices.  It takes some of stress off of me to find "the perfect" fabric, as if I were reading their mind.  So instead I went out and found 6 sets of perfect fabric and emailed her the options - she loved two and we agreed that one really was going to be the best fit for her - here's a teaser:

I've got to be honest with you, I LOVE to pick out coordinating fabric and pull it together with just the right accents.  I never thought I would love it as much as I do, but I do.  So these evening I'll be cutting out my next project and hopefully getting that done this weekend (coming your way Stacey!)  Working on this project has opened my eyes to a new world of possibility.  I don't have things completed, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I am expanding PP into a few girlie items.  Right now it's just my jumper and I'm farting around with a top and skirt pattern, along with little purses and such.  One thing at a time though.  Right now I'd like to incorporate what I did with this project, offering several groupings of fabric and allowing my client to choose from those fabrics.  Of course, I'm always game for a creative license endeavor, but I think that a lot of people like the ability to choose, making it entirely their own.  I guess I'd like to ask some of my loyal friends and fans for their input on how you think that should be laid out - do you have any suggestions? I'm all ears - so for now I am annoying my friends with girls who shop and shop well - I've been fortunate with a multitude of hand-me-downs so I am not as savvy when it comes to shopping for the little ladies.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, be safe and enjoy.  I'll be hanging out, sewing and painting (I am working on what I think is one of my coolest paintings yet) and I'll post again soon!  Thanks!

BTW - if you haven't had a chance to check out my Noblesville Blog for the Indy Star - I'm going to include a link here on this page - check it out or RSS it if you are interested.  Thanks!

there are changes a comin....

So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and decided to make some changes, or some expansions if you will based on the comments of some friends and clients.  I've got a LOT of stuff going on at the moment, two jumpers, a painting and then my special secret stuff.  So you'll just have to wait and see so stay tuned!

Thanks!

Lindy

So my dear friend Heather, or Hea as we like to call her contacted me EONS ago to do a custom 8 x 10 canvas piece for her friend who just had a baby.  Well this was all in the midst of my Seattle trip, Meredith's table, getting ready for the Relay and my Indy Star blog starting up, and to top it off in the middle of baseball season.  To say that I bit off more than I could chew was the understatement of the year.  So much for under promise and over deliver - thank goodness Hea is a thoughtful and understanding friend.  A lesser person would have fired me!  Anyhoo - she didn't and thank goodness because I had a lot of fun making Lindy's canvas.  I love doing custom pieces, I love getting basic information and translating it.  For Lindy, being born and to be raised in Kentucky, her room is Thoroughbreds, navy and white ticking stripes and batten berg lace.  A dainty country girls dream!  So I pulled that together and came up with:

Lindy's horse ranch

Neigh!

Notice the "L" on the horse blanket - yep, did that on purpose!

So cute! Here's what Heather had to say:

Annie, 

I had to email to tell you know that I absolutely LOVE the lindy portrait.  Better yet, Susan LOVED it.  You are a remarkable, amazing artist and I am so proud of you!!  It was PERFECT!!!  I loved the different horses, the hay bale and silo -- simply wonderful!  I can't thank you enough for your beautiful work and your time.  I am so glad to be your friend.  :)

Thanks, my sweet friend.
Love, Hea

Jon's new do

I know that I said I would do Lindy next, but I wanted to squeak this one in really quick, so I can put Lindy up in another day and leave that up for a few.  Here is the evolution of Jon's hair...

Jon and Jack, pre-mohawks

So if you know my Jon, you know in the last year he's had some pretty long hair - rock star hair if you will.  It suits him, he has the perfect type of hair to pull it off. I personally loved it - as did he.  Now over the last few months he got a few comments from some punky third graders - because you know 9 year olds are at the height of cool.  Well Jon is bit thin skinned, so these comments would bother him. So I'd trim him up and give him a "who cares what they think, they probably have ugly hair and their jealous" pep talk. (I can be so mature, really) Then we started baseball and two of his best friends Jack and Sam both got mohawks. Jack wanted a mohawk last summer and I told his mom - it's the summer, let him.  Well this summer she did and so did Sam's mom, then Marcus, so the pressure was on.  Now I don't really care - hair is just one of those fights that just isn't worth it - it's hair, it grows back, it gives me little concern at this point.  It is just a battle that I leave alone.  So Jon began the campaign for a mohawk.  I explained to him that we would need to cut his hair and then we'll do the mohawk because at this point his hair was down to his shoulders - layered, but still long.  So he bought into that and we did - we went to a real hair dresser and got his hair cut, I told her two inches, he came out five inches later and my hairdresser just said, "he kept smiling at me and telling me a bit shorter."  He already knows how to woo a lady with the power of his dimples. Girls beware...

Intermediate Cut

So it worked out well in the end because we adjusted to shorter hair - I told him lets give it a few weeks and then we'll do the mohawk - still wondering if this would run its course.  Well today was hair cut day, Dad, Drew and Jon, Dad got his typical buzz, Drew just a trim because he is miserable to cut hair for and Jon a mohawk - I was SO nervous - I love his hair, so thick, yet fine - it lays so nice, frames his precious face.  But I did it, I cut it all off - and he looks adorable in a punk kind of way.  The rule is he can keep it and then grow it back for school - while I am not going to pick hair battles, I also am not going to have hair spectacles at school.  He's already figured out how to use "product" to spike it up and I guess I'm just lucky he's a cool kid and can pull it off. Without further ado - the Jon-hawk:

How did I wind up with such a cool kid?

Sweet spikes

A lot of hair - my hand is just there for reference. With everything he'd cut off in the last month we might have been able to donate it to locks of love - next time we'll definitely do it.

Next up - Lindy!

I relayed...

I spent my Saturday participating in the Danville Relay for Life.  Many of you know this, because you donated to my team, for that I thank you so very much.  "Why do I do the Danville one? " you might wonder.  Well my brother is the team captain of our team "The Danville Class of 2000" or TDC2K as we like to call it.  Again, it seems squirrelly - well my sister-in-law Anna and her friends had been doing the relay since high school (yes, they are a bit younger than me if you do the math) and they have continued the tradition by adding spouses and in-laws to the mix.  The idea is that you set up your booth Saturday morning, the event goes for 24 hours and you have one team member walking the track at all times. I believe the rules get a bit fuzzy at 3 am, but you didn't hear that from me.  

Steve and I

Steve and Anna

Through out the day they have different themed laps and ceremonies, cancer "victors" telling their story and music, lots of music.  Each year the relay has a theme - this year was the eighties.  So my team chose "Sweatin' for a Cure" and yes it comes complete with our own Richard Simmons.  So for the costume lap we all donned our best eighties apparel.  I will say we have a bit of a reputation to uphold, we have won  best costume two years in a row and I am happy to report that this year was our three-peat!  Seriously we looked hot AND our performance, led by my insane brother was hilarious - I seriously almost peed myself several times.  Let me just say that it involved lots of Richard's classic workout moves.

"Richard"

TDC2K

Sad as it is my brother didn't have to shop at goodwill for his outfit

Most of the day involves walking and eating and walking and eating - I feel a bit like a bloated pig - I be running right now, but honestly I'm still a bit pooped.  At the end of the day they do a luminary ceremony that included over 1000 luminaries in memory of or in honor of.  It is so moving and sad at the same time to see so many people affected by this awful disease.  It's a wonderful time to reflect, pray and remember - it is probably my favorite part of the whole day, bittersweet as it is. 

I will sum it up with this, there was a group called "Laps for Laura," we found out that Laura was a teacher in Danville and in her early thirties, she had two boys and delivered her baby girl in July.  She died in October from Cancer.  I takes your breath away doesn't it?  I think about my mom at 33 being diagnosed for the first time with me- 7 and my brother- 3.  I think about myself and my girlfriends and it scares me to my core that it could be me or anyone I am close to.  I pray that it isn't, that our fate is different, but it does push me to embrace my days, my family, my friends and what I love more and more.  You just don't know what tomorrow will bring. Thanks for letting me share!

Laura's son said it best on his luminary

Up next Lindy!

Meredith's Table, Finally!

I want to thank you for your patience.  It's been quite a while since I've posted Penny Pickles stuff.  I've been busy working on some things, but they've taken longer than I would have hoped, I took a vacation, busy with end of school and baseball starting up, yada, yada, yada...

So I am more than happy to present to you Meredith's table and chairs that I finally finished.  Meredith is my wonderful and talented friend Leslie's, daughter.  She is quite the adorable character and it was fun to do something just for her.  It was cool too because Leslie gave me total creative freedom to do what I wanted - so I thought a bit about Miss Merdi and recalled some of the elements of my previous work that Leslie seemed to like the best. The outcome was simply adorable.  I am pleased as peas that Merdi loved her table, as did Leslie.  It was the least I could do after all the wonderful photographs she's done for me of my artwork and my family. Not to mention my incessant questions on photography once I bought my own big girl camera.

Well I'll shut up now, Leslie did a beautiful job photographing this little set.  It was a bit trickier than usual to paint it.  When I paint on canvas, I can usually get through one part and then go back and either do another layer or start to do details.  With wood things don't dry quite so fast, so after smearing several flowers, I figured I needed to muster up my patience and wait for the layers to dry.  So it wasn't really more labor, just more drying time.  Then it's the poly layer to protect the design from what kids will throw at it, which takes a day or two - unless you want your kid high on fumes.  So without further ado- 

I couldn't resist this one, I stole it from Leslie's blog - one of the first things that Merdi did was set up a tea party for her and her pink unicorn.  So sweet - even if the unicorn is freaking me out a bit.  

Thanks again for your patience, I have more Penny Pickles to share.  Next week is Lindy's horses!

Also I my new Indy Star blog releases on Monday, so check it out if you get a chance - I will be sending out a email link, let me know if you want to be included.  Thanks!

Exciting News!

Okay - so I DO have some Penny Pickles things done, they aren't photographed so that isn't what this post is about.  This post is to pre-announce some exciting news going on in my world.  

So a few weeks ago I saw an ad in our newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, requesting bloggers to write about their community. I thought, "hey I can do this!"  (and i said it just like that!)  I contacted the person noted and sent one of my blog posts to him to show my writing style and such.  Well I'll be damned he wrote back t and said that he liked my writing style and if I was interested they would love for me to do a blog about my community.  Ha!  I am really, really excited.  I mean I enjoy writing more than I thought I would and for some silly reason I have a decent following of people who seem to be mildly entertained by what I write.  I also really like the community that I live in, have several friends who are local business owners and I am very involved in my school. So I am going to get paid (albeit very modestly) to write about these great people and the events and activities going on around me.  How cool is that?? I have a meeting next week to sign some paperwork, get educated on the software and get my picture taken.  My blog will be promoted online at www.indystar.com and if I get a good enough following I could even get some print ads, but I am getting way ahead of myself (can you tell I am excited?).  So when I am all launched and ready to go I will include a link- this blog will remain my Penny Pickles work and personal stuff, so don't forget about this one when you get all caught up in my awesomeness over at the star.

A shooting star...

Penny is already taking precautions due to the potential for fame to come her way via her mom's blog.

Thanks!