Posie Gets Cozy

Last Bookbag Sale, Today, Noon PST

I have really loved making these. I've talked about them a lot, since last spring, really: It started with this bit of dialogue, then this nostalgic rainstorm, then this tribute to my college friends and my favorite book, then this peek inside, and then I almost got sick of them when they did this. But I think I'm done now, I think. Sixty-five of one thing is a lot more than I usually do of any one thing, but it's a true testament to how much I enjoyed everything about these. I even took my own to the library yesterday and got severely scolded by the librarian for my overdue fines. I had a LOT of overdue fines. I'm actually embarrassed to say how much, because Andy will read this and then I'll get more grief. Let's just say it was nearing the triple digits and I wish I were kidding. I actually didn't know it could even go that high. It was definitely a record for me. I thought maybe at a certain amount they just turned the counter off, or something. I figure this is how I donate to my non-profit organization of choice. It's almost like I can't return them on time, or something. Like, I look at the due date and it suggests to me that that's the day I put them in the car, and then if I happen to be driving past a library branch sometime in the next two weeks, I should drop them in. Meanwhile, 25 cents per book, per day, ca-ching ca-ching. I have a hard time believing that people were impatiently waiting for me to return Clouds: Biography of a Country House, but maybe they were. Three weeks is just not long enough when you insist on checking out eleven books at once. More than will fit in the bookbag, I'll admit.

ANYway. Where are we here. My mention of L.G. and M.P. was information I got from L.G. herself here, back in September. I don't make this stuff up, people. That's my little pop quiz to see if you've really been reading this blog.

*Bookbags will be here, and scrap bags here. Just refresh the pages to see the Paypal buttons at noon if you go there before hand.

Calico Concoction

I have some scrap bags ready for tomorrow. I was going to do just fabric (and these really are "scraps," some as small as just a few inches, some even just strips), but then I started to go a little bonkers.

Yep. I figured if I was going to take the time to prepare the bags, I'd include some of the vintage passementerie stuff that's building up around here again. So these scrap bags have fabric as well as a vintage pattern and a few other notions/flowers/buttons/ribbon. A few extra little things, kind of like the Passementerie Packs I did last winter, but with a little of everything in one bag. I only made twenty of these. But they'll be in my shop tomorrow at noon, too, with the bookbags.

I don't really know what to think about the Gilmore Girls finale last night, do you? I miss them already. I actually thought it was an oddly appropriate episode, sort of saturated with the collective feeling of being kind of . . . ripped off. It all ended so fast. I was glad Luke and Lorelei kissed (though, honestly, those two kiss like they're at a junior-high dance or something). All I can say is that I hope Lauren Graham can take a little time off now, and find time to date then marry Matthew Perry, thereby fulfilling all my hopes and dreams for both of them.

Where a Fine Layer of Half-Baked Bookbags Slowly Appeared, Covering Every Surface

You know that old phrase "bookbags covering every surface"? You don't? THAT'S weird. We say it around here all the time. "Should we eat this dinner at the dining room table?" "Can't. There's bookbags covering every surface." "Can I stop by and visit you this afternoon?" "I wish, but bookbags are covering every surface, so we'll have to meet somewhere else." "What have you been up to, hunny?" "I have no clue, but there are bookbags covering every single surface. . . ."

I'm planning thirty-two this time. It's only a couple more than I had last time, but I really am pretty much out of sheets. Not to mention mojo. So I seriously doubt there will be more of these anytime soon. Not to pressure you or anything. Nevertheless, these will be on sale at the Posie web shop Thursday, May 17, at 12 noon PST. And maybe this time I can upload the pages to the shop without forgetting half the photos, but I never really can promise that. I get so nervous on sale days that I just start flailing around and all sorts of crazy things happen. You probably know that.

I think I'm going to do fabric scrap bags, too. The basket of little remnants in my studio is overflowing, and they're just so pretty. A half-pound bag of little scraps for applique or flowers or whatever? Yeah, I think I'll do that, too. So bags and scraps, Thursday.

Working Girl

Man, I have a lot to do. My computer is really unhappy with me. When I got big black I set the resolution really high, so the computer is totally stuffed with a million huge images I need to go through and take off, or put on the external hard-drive or whatever the hell. Agh. How did everything get so overstuffed around here. Who snuck in here and overstuffed everything???

So, in the studio all day today. I'm trying to get the bookbags finished before they go on sale this time, which is not what I did last time, but I'm still thinking later this week? Boutties are headed out, too — I still haven't seen the real CL, but blink and you'll miss the blossom; she's just on a mannequin in a little spread about flowery accessories, so not a big deal, don't worry. I didn't know what it was going to be. (They were already featured a couple of years ago in the story about my sis and me here.) I can't quite tell from the scans (thanks for sending them, those that did — that was nice of you to take the time to do that!) what fabrics those are but they look pink, so I'll see if I can whip up some pinks and get them in the shop today, too, and thank you for the orders yesterday! So nice.

Mmm'kay, what else. Wow is it nice out. IT IS SO NICE OUT. It's really really nice out. But I'm staying in. I am staying in. I have to stay in. I can't go out. Even if it is so so so so nice out. I'll be staying in. Really. Seriously. I'll be in here, on the inside. Not outside. Noooooooo. Nope.

Bouttie Box

I ever-so-slightly forgot to remember that the Pouf Boutonnieres are making a reprisal in Country Living this June. Or now, rather — orders are trickling in for them today, though I haven't seen the issue yet. If anybody has a copy of June's CL and wants to scan the page for me, would you?* I just want to see which one they've included so I know if I still have the fabric for it. They asked to see a dozen but I think they only picked one to run, and duh, I forgot to ask which one.

If you're looking to get a Pouf, they live over here at the Posie web shop. I made forty of them while watching three movies yesterday (The Holiday [B-], Come Early Morning [A], The Last Kiss [A-].) Thank goodness for On-Demand is all I can say, because my tookus was grounded and didn't leave the sofa! Cut cut stitch stitch glue glue tie tie. But now, what a miracle, I'm a little prepared. When does that happen, never. Almost never.

*Thanks for sending the scans! I appreciate that you guys!

Post-Nasal Catch-up

Feeling better, still not great. But I'm going to try and answer email, write thank yous, return phonecalls, pay bills, generally get caught up. Or maybe not. I have totally been letting those things go lately and I really don't like that. But sometimes I just cannot keep up, can you? I can't. Sometimes I long for the days of smoke signals, or tin cans and string.

I'll most likely be getting more bookbags together next week, so please watch the blog for an announcement of when they'll go into the web shop, probably the second week of May? All of these first fabrics are gone now, but there are new ones in the laundry right now. Oooo, I can't wait. They just make me happy. All that mellow popsicle-colored softness.

I think it's supposed to be nice around here this weekend. I'm totally jonesin for my hammock, with its ginormous feather bed, some sunshine, and time to read all the books piling up. No less than five separate people have written to tell me to read Astrid & Veronika, which, surprisingly, I had already bought but hadn't read yet. Isn't that weird? I thought it was weird but maybe it's not, maybe this book is going around. I'm so out of it I wouldn't know. But anyway, that's my plan — catching up.

Bookbags, Today, Noon!

Update: Thanks everyone! Things are sold out now, but I'll take a fabric inventory after everything's made and see if there is any left for another batch. THANK YOU!

*Card-catalog card designed here via Amy via Theresa. Thanks guys!

Ready Position

A day in the studio, oh joy. I'll even vacuum it first. I've been cleaning a lot this weekend — did my Posie storage cabinets (hello Goodwill) as well as the dressers and my closet (double-hello Goodwill).

I gave several of the bookbags to my college friends, so now I only have five, but I really think I'm going to have more finished by the end of today and will put them in my web shop this week. I know I always say that. I've spent so much time on my 'ghans that I haven't made very much for anyone else lately. Yipes. Well, you gotta stick with your inspiration sometimes. Otherwise it feels like jogging on a treadmill — you know it's good for you, what you should be doing, but not that fun. . . .

But I've been going kind of slowly and steadily lately, trying to enjoy things rather than slam through them. When my intention is to go slow in my own life, deadlines and needs and demands of others necessarily speed it up, but I figure that just speeds it up to about regular speed instead of warp speed. Spring races past fast enough. Already the flowers on my trees are gone, replaced by small curly leaves. Others have yet to bloom, of course, but still, you know what I mean. It happens like a whoosh.

Layers and Pleats and Pockets

Thank you again for all the nice, helpful, funny, encouraging comments this week, honestly. I looked at the photo of the bookbags yesterday and thought that it kind of seemed like those strips of different fabrics were patched in, but actually they're layers, like ruffles, but pleated. I think these close-ups show it better.

I will be making these bags for sale, and will update the site next week, maybe, or the next. I want to do as many as I can all at once because cutting out the sheets is a challenge, for some reason. I don't have enough space to easily manage those huge pieces of fabric and it's the type of stuff you want to cut all on the same day. I've been stitching on all my rick-rack by hand lately, instead of just zooming down the ripples with the machine, and I really love the way it turns out. So, all that is to say that I'm so happy with these bags but they take quite a while to put together so it'll definitely be next week or the week after before I have as many finished as I'd like.

There's a pocket inside them, too.

You keep your bike key, library card, and overdue fines in there.

In Hiding

I'm in hiding in my room. Downstairs I can hear rattling pipes, and shouting between the plumber (in basement) and Andy (in kitchen): "Am I in the right place?" "A little to the left!" "There?" "A little to the right!" I'm twitching, about to put my head under the pillow. We have a leak somewhere between the kitchen and the basement. Lots of thumping down there. More hollered communications. They need walkie-talkies. Oh please, don't let this be expensive!!! Aggh! I think I'll stay up here until it's all over, and the check has been written.

We're not the only ones with plumbing problems. As you may have noticed, there is some trouble with the Kim Family Auction, and Lisa and Stephanie are in the process of sorting that out. As of last night, the auction was soaring off the charts of super-successfulness! I am absolutely agog (yes, agog) at how much money has been raised. Moly! If you were bidding, please stay tuned for whatever solution they hit upon; I'll keep you informed. I know they are scrambling to get things working again. Last I checked, Elodie-Anne herself was up to $375.00. I'm actually speechless over it. Thank you. (Update: Our illustrious lassies are working hard to get the auction happening again, but it looks like it will have to be started over. That just means more excitement! Please check the auction blog for further updates, as I do, I really do, intend to turn off this computer and go downstairs sometime today, and I might miss it, but I don't want you to, 'kay? Lisa's will make an announcement there when things are ready to go again, and she has more info there if you want the details.)

Did that collage look familiar? Remember all those movies I watched last week? I was only half-watching. Really, I was working on new collages that might remind you of my old collages. I was never sure if I was going to make these to sell, but I just had the major urge to do them last week, in thinking about everything, somehow. Of course, now having to pay for new pipes, I can't just give them anyway anymore, so they're all for sale over at the site now. But I really love them. Why is it so hard for me to part with things lately. It never used to be. I made a ton of them, but even so, I think this is a limited edition. You never know, with me. I've got some gorgeous materials, but I use them lavishly on my stuff, and then I'm out. I hear very loud drilling downstairs. It's actually rattling things in our room upstairs. I just heard the plumber yell, "ANDY!!!" That's not what you want to hear the plumber yell. Mommy?! I'm scared.

Look at this luminous creature. Her name is Rose Madeline, and she's a Sugar Rose Pin. The poufiest, frothiest flowers I've ever made. Light as meringue. Speaking of light, the light in P-town yesterday was very dramatic. This photo sort of captured it. Dark gray clouds, light on the ground. Glory.

Andy just brought up a big piece of rusted-out gunked-up pipe to show me, something the plumber apparently just cut out of the wall. The thing reeked. It looked about four-thousand years old. Oh. Dear. I'm on a need-to-know basis. I feel like having a Diane-Keaton-ish breakdown, that scene in Baby Boom when the well dries up? Where's a big puffy coat and a snowbank. I love that scene. When it's happening to her. Does a house this pretty seem like it should have a pipe like that in it? No, I don't think so either. Oh, but it does, my friends. I'm sure there are many, many other eighty-year-old gunky mysteries just waiting to be discovered. Yay. The longer I live in old houses the more I think my parents-in-law have the right idea. They built, brand-new, and you turn the fireplace on using a switch on the wall. My goodness. And I thought Duralogs were a miracle.