brought to you by the letter "o"

"O" stands for "organization".

"O" stands for "overdrive".

"O" stands for (according to my mom) "Oh my gosh, what are all those boxes???"



What? Your foyer doesn't look like this after a week's worth of mail?

Lots of deliveries came in this week. They can be split into four categories: (1) work for the Blurred Boundaries exhibit showing at Fabrications, (2) door prizes for Fabrications (3) work for the Breaking Traditions exhibit showing at the American Sewing Expo and (4) retail therapy.

I'm really excited about the Blurred Boundaries (well, I'm always excited for exhibits, that's nothing unusual). I've met several new-to-me artists through it and its so exciting to see the work in person. (I have an artwork storage system all set up, it gets segregated from the rest of the house and is all snafe and snug.)

The laundry basket has the door prizes in it. I'm so drooling over the donation from Briar Rose Fibers, she's one of my favorite dealers. There's lots of good stuff (all generous donations by the way) in that basket - yarn & patterns from Briar Rose Fibers, books and angelina fibers from Embellishment Village, "Digital Essentials" book by Gloria Hansen, Sophie's Toes sock yarn from Emily Parson, Mistyfuse product from Iris Karp, and mixed media collages from Eyembellishments. I'll bag them all up into pretty bags before they get whisked off to the retreat. In the meantime its nice to pet them all.

The deadline for Breaking Traditions is also coming up soon and the work is beginning to come in on a regular basis now.


The quilt there you see on top is from Kristin La Flamme. Awesome, yes? This year's exhibit benefits A Place to Bark. Here's a cool video showing some of the animals that Bernie rescued during a puppy mill raid (all the wagging tails and excited faces is a good indication of how much the doggies dig her):





There's still time to get in on the action (every quilt is shown and there are chances to win tons of prizes), go here for the guidelines.

I also spent some time unpacking the things that I ordered while practicing retail therapy. (Things have been stressful, it tends to happen.) Here is my latest art acquisition:


This is "Moon Rider Bird" from Cart Before the Horse. Jo, the doll artist part of the Cart, is one of my all time favorite doll artists. I purchased one of her skeleton dolls a couple years back and have been stalking her work ever since. When this one went up for auction, I did one of those little gaspy noises and knew I was going to bid on it. Dooley and I celebrated when we won it. Its sitting on top of the TV and I think it looks good against the stone background so I'm going to leave it there.

So now that all the boxes are unpacked and everything is sorted, its time to deal with the paperwork end of all of it. (Please take notice of my faithful servant. He also helped me unpack everything by laying on my feet and making sure that I had to watch where I stepped so I didn't squish him.)


I have a lot of paper to put in binders but for some sick reason, I find this thrilling. Only second to going to office max and going through all their binders and folders. It gives me a sick thrill to be amongst all those office supplies.

So that's been my day so far. Its actually relaxing for me. I plan to work on my little quilt for Breaking Traditions today, lots of embroidery planned for that one and just generally relax a little bit. I've been sucked into an overtime schedule at work and its left very little time for anything else.

But one does what one can and in the end it'll all get done. (Can you tell I've been repeating that to myself over and over again? I think its starting to take over my brain...)