last minute christmas

we decided around 8pm, Christmas eve, to celebrate christmas with fair and whitman. michael and i both have reservations about the holiday, but the idea of seeing fair's disappointment of santa's absence was too much. so santa made a last minute stop...


rob and amy's amazing gift to the family

the crochet madness in amy's blood

fair's letter to santa. she fell asleep in the middle of writing it...

and whitman took advantage of the situation.

christmas with the family -- elfish whitman

fair'o'claus

santa's gift to whitman...

and fair's complimentary house on the lake. (thanks to the late night work of michael and christian...)

one of the two "rigor mortis" dolls that the kids got from rob and amy.

santa also gave fair princess makeup and daddy made her all up. he has a few years of experience under his belt... glam rock days and all

so christmas was good this year. we played Balderdash and i, being a great bull sh*&#er, of course won. the food was tasty and the company was warm. the monster, whitman, slept through the second half and gave us a chance to sit down and enjoy ourselves without the fear of something breaking. i hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays and have a great new year!

angela

my studio

i recently moved my sewing studio from our mudroom to fair's room (her bed is now in the corner of our room). the garage is too cold for michael to paint in now that winter is upon the midwest and i offered up my studio to him. this meant moving into an area half the size and kid accessible. so i had to consider how to make it kid-friendly and not be a pain in the ass to function. i think that i did a good job and this has forced me to turn the scary basement room into a cutting and storage area. the basement is not that bad, it's just that no one has really done anything with it for the last ten years and i'm going through the last four tenants crap they left behind. I did find some treasures though... an antique sewing machine, a "fake" book for a million old country songs, and other unique and random goodies.

the studio...slightly organized

my henry miller poster, an amazing ink-wash of flowers i found and some messiness

my weapon of choice

michael's ink drawing of fair playing her piano

i'm planning a trip with my best friend, na-do, to go up to chicago for a weekend. this will be the first time i've been away from the family for more than a day in forever. but a lady has gots to get her girl time in and have some adventures. so anyone who wants a bag, ask me now... trips cost money. i plan on bringing bags with me to hock a few here and there. we'll see...

New Design

small coffee sack messenger
9x10x2

After many requests, I have designed a new, smaller version of the coffee sack messenger bag. I really like the shape, kind of militaryesque. I made three for a friend to choose two from and of course she chose my favorite one, but i have enough fabric left over to make one for myself...but we know how that ends up... over someone elses shoulder. I will be posting these ones on my etsy shop soon. i think that I will have an officially update day after the first of the year.

i am waiting for my england order to arrive, so that I can post pictures of it. it was one of the most involved and time-consuming free motion stitching design on a messenger bag flap that i've done so far. alexandra... you're family so i went the extra mile and i hope that you love it.

i've been busy trying to keep up with my orders. this week i shipped to alaska, england, colorado, louisiana, oregon and hawaii. it feels good to know that my creations are floating around out there.

well, i have to get to work before the kids wake up.

mas bolsas

i've been waiting to snag my mom's camera to show the bags orders that i've finished in the last month. so here they are...

blue bird stitchin'

more blue bird

small pleated bag for amy's momma

amy's teacherin' bag

i love the interior fabric

and i have so many more to go and about 20 hours of drawing to do by tuesday night!

My Etsy Shop and The City

I have finally set up my etsy shop and will be adding bags over the next few weeks. It is so nice to have an easy way for far away folks to buy my stuff. And on to the city... Michael and I are looking into moving into St. Louis, "the city." We have been really homesick for Portland, in the last month, and we were plotting our return until a strange string of events pointed us to stay in the area. The first was a possible apartment rental in South City from a fellow artisan at the Home -Eco open-house. Then a visit to our favorite coffeehouse, when the kiddos are in tote, where we ran into a lost friend and a possible job oppurtunity. Then the next day, Fair just happened to say,"There's a future in the city," while we were chilling in our living room. My three year old soothsayer... Then the final straw was when we stopped into a bookstore, after a poetry reading and they were actually hiring. michael's dream job, aside from being a full-time artist. So needless to say, we are going to do whatever we can to make the move. I think we are going to shoot for mid-jan or feb. It will be so nice to walk to everything, or at least take the bus, the metro and not be tied to a car. The only downfall is me having to commute back to St. Charles for school twice a week. Well we will see how things fall into place... AHHH!! I have so many bag orders to work on and finals are due next week! breathe, just breathe...

Bizarre Bizaar

Join us as Rock Paper Scissors presents
the first annual "Bizarre Bazaar"
by: RED ANVIL
First Born Studio
fair ophelia designs
and many more...

We will showcase the creations of several
award winning local artists and give you an
opportunity to cross a few names off of your
Christmas list! There will be a wide and varied array
of desirable,one of a kind goods from which to choose:

• Wooden ATC & rolodex boxes
• Book Cradles
• Handbound Journals
• Paper Bowls
• Knit & Crochet Accessories
• Felted Brooches
• Jewelry by Red Anvil
• Notecard Sets
• & so much more (as if that weren't enough!)

WHEN: Friday & Saturday
November 23 & 24
11am-5pm each day

WHERE: Rock Paper Scissors
833 S.Main Street
St. Charles,MO 63301
636.724.5002

WHY: Why NOT?!
OH and because our
STOREWIDE SALE
starts Friday,November 23rd!
See you there!!!!

small pleated bags

i made a few new bags this week...

i free-motion machine stitched the above design. i love doing these, but they are time consuming.

one bag that i was tempted to sport myself.

i have a bunch of great fabric to make a lot of these bags and they are all have fall colors, so i'm going to be busy busy making bags over the next couple of days. i need to get them in stores soon for the holiday shopping madness.

The Family

the franklins... i thought a formal introduction was due.



fair ophelia

angela

michael

whitman st. morgan


thank you and good night!

collaboration

Michael and I were commissioned by Picasso's Coffeehouse to make "window treatments." So I sewed the coffee sacks together, with ties and all, and michael painted two retro-style coffee ads on the top portion. they turned out really nice and the atmosphere in their front room is a lot warmer, plus no blaring morning sun. and as i said when i posted this on my old site, michael and i survive the adventure of collaboration without any major wounds.

ALSO... i fixed my pay pal button so it should be working now for those of you that tried to use it earlier. sorry of the inconvenience.

i also was given a bunch of designer fabric samples that will be turned into bags, so i will have pictures of my pleated "market" bags up soon and for sale here. this is a picture of one i custom made for a friend. the floral print is actually part of her old pajamas she wanted to rescue from "don't want to throw it away, so it gets put in the corner of some random box" blues.

The lower bag is one i made for myself, but ended up selling it... like always.

I am putting these bags into several boutiques over the next month. They are $45, with s&h.
I really love making this design. I can be more creative with the fabric pairing.

off to do those drawings for class...due two weeks ago... goodnight all.

Home Eco

St. Louis has a hidden treasure, Home Eco, our first enivornmentally friendly home products store. And as of today, they carry my bags. It's great to support a business that is in sinc with ones own beliefs and reap the financial benefits. I will be part of their open house, November 30th 4-7pm.

Home Eco is at 4611 Macklind Ave. St. Louis , MO 63109
314-351-2003 info@home-eco.com

new bags

elephant bag

elephant interior: heavy brown with retro floral pockets

coffee bean bag

coffee bean interior and pockets: green

reviving the old

i decided to change over to my old blogspot, instead of continuing with wordpress. wordpress has too many restrictions and michael was tempted to throw the computer after trying to add a pay pal button onto my blog. so here we are, new and improved, with lots of creative freedom. i am going into the city tomorrow to visit some boutiques and try to get my bags out there before the holiday shopping heads into full swing. my old blog will remain frozen in time until further notice.
we will hopefully get my paypal button up soon...and my etsy store too...

whitman's 2nd birthday is this sunday! how much of a party do you throw a 2 year old? fair's 4th birthday is in april and that will be a major "to-do"... she's likely to remember this one.