Houston Quilt Market 2008

Randy and I had the opportunity to have a booth at Quilt Market. I brought all my quilt patterns and at first the show seemed slow but as the days passed the wonderful opportunitys kept happening to us. I was approached by 4 magazines about submitting ideas and drawing for publication. I was picked up by distributors and catalogs. The most exciting thing for me was that a woman by the name of Nancy from Checkers introduced herself and told me she had seen my website and thought I should think about designing fabric. I have always wanted to do that, it seems like it would be a great fit for me. She then brought over Ann, who runs Red Roster fabrics out of NY and she asked me if I would be interested in signing a 2 year contract and I needed to get home and start designing! She wants my first line to release next year at Houston! WOW!!!! So exciting, if just a few of these things break open life would become even more exciting! What a great show we had even though I heard that the show was down about 50%.

We also went to Bernina's fashion show, it was incredible. The fashions were so exciting. Jay from Project Runway was there also, he was releasing his new line of fabric! Here are some pictures of our fun weekend.

The dresses are as follows, Galatea Adorned by Charlotte Warr Andersen, Midnight Waltz by Ludmila Aristova, Celestial Rendezvous by Janice Ellertson, The Body of work by Yvonne Porcella, Midnight Dance by Sandy Snowden. These were only a few of the many wonderful creations at the fashion show.

Friends

While I was at the art feastival this summer I love to just sit and observe people. People watching is so perfect when you are at large, outdoor venues like we were. There are so many different types of people, different colors, shapes, sizes, different lanquages, accents, clothes. Each one with their own opinion on what they like and don't like about the art. As I sat watching with my sketchbook I noticed two women sitting and talking. They were passionately sharing a story with each other, stopping to laugh now and then. I could only watch, unable to hear their story, I could only imagine what they were saying. I did notice that they both sat in very similar positions across the table from each other. Arms crossed on their chests, legs crossed sitting back against the back of the chair. I thought about how we tend to mimic some of the things our friends do the more we hang around them. The little things, probably unintentionally, but we do. I thought about my friends, the ones you can call at the drop of a hat and run out to lunch with. The ones that are available when you need to get something off your chest. The ones that will just do nothing with you. How blessed we are when are lives afford us those special people.

My birthday celebration early!

For my birthday the kids got us tickets to see Wicked at the Pantagas Theater in LA. It was a great play and now I know the real story!! After that we went to dinner at the Bonaventure Hotel in Hollywood, as we waited for our table we sat at the bar which turns in a slow circle to reveal a wonderful view of LA from the 35th floor. Then at dinner we had the same view but not moving. It made for a perfect day and night, this is our dinner view, taken with my phone. We were lucky that it was a nice clear day in Los Angeles. Today there are fires. I just love it when my birthday starts early then its like having a birthweek!

I think I am almost as old as Marta now! LOL HUGS

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Absorbed in the newness

I must say, I love helping with the babies. Its the whole thing, the bathing, the feeding, the smell of baby. Everything is so new, so fresh and so dependent. Everyday they change, their little heads and faces are changing shape, they are becoming their own person. Megan seems to be more needy and might need a pacifer where Rachel is happy to just lay there awake and look around. I wish I didn't have so much going on like the Trade show coming up, Jenns therapy, doctors appt. etc so I could just play at Kim's! LOL Oh well, I guess I will just have to run over as I can. The hardest part is that Nathan is not adjusting well. He is trying but for him its all changing. He is not the focus anymore. Everyone is trying to help him make the transition as well as possible. He keeps telling Kim that she need to stop taking care of the babies and take care of him now. Oh the saga of a three year old, only child who now has sisters.

The Babies are HERE!!

After the required amount of worrying, waiting and wanting the babies made their way into the world on Oct 5, 2008. My oldest daughter carried them for 38 weeks, which they say is very good for twins. They were born 6 and 6.5 lbs and withing a few minutes of each other. I never did see them cry, I hope that is a good sign for my very tired and apprehensive daughter. Today I watched Nathan, their three year old, and around 7:00pm they came to pick him up. He hadn't seen the babies yet. All he could say was "OH MY GOSH" as he tried to touch their hands and feet. He then looked at my daughter and said "Let me see your stomach!"

Back to a simpler time

This summer I have the wonderful opportunity to visit my mom twice! It was so nice to just get away and enjoy a different part of the state. It is very "country" where she lives, no fast food, one small general food store, farm supply. No hospitals just a small clinic. It is beautiful with surrounding vineyards and redwoods that stand like soldiers guarding the valley. Its one of those places that as you are driving through you are thinking " I want to live here!". But its a harder way of life. I often hear people say I wish we lived back when things were simpler and less complicated. Well simpler doesn't me easier. I think they must be referring to the lack of technology and their confusion with that. LOL But, with that said, there is something inside of me that is very homespun. I love all the things that revolve around the home, gardening, canning, raising our food, sewing, design etc. Just saying that makes me sound like a nerd! But oh well, that's me! I think I am a hip, cool, nerd LOL. I have often dreamed of living out in the country, doing all the things I love. With Jennifer now, that is out of the question, with the lack of doctors and sidewalks, being handicapped in the country would be tough!

While we were up there, enjoying the whole area, we went to Glass Beach which is along the coast. It is an interesting place, a unique area of shoreline covered in smooth glass. As I understand it, they used to dump all the glass trash out in the ocean years and years ago. The tide stirred up all the broken bottles and polished the glass and spits it up onto this one small section of beach. If you stand on the rocks overhead and look down the shoreline sparkles as the sunlight reflects off of the sand made of glass. People come from all over to gather the glass and they make jewelry etc out of it. Randy and I along with my youngest daughter and her husband decided to make the trip to the coast to see it. As we walked along the path to get to the beach there were hundreds of wild blackberries ripening on the vines. I could barely contain myself since the thought of blackberry anything sounds lushess. Randy promised he would help me pick them on our way back in. After a wonderful few hours on the cool shoreline and our pockets were full of glass treasures we made our way back along the blackberries. We picked a bag of berries and I went back to moms to make jam! Yummy, yes yummy. I brought home my goodies to enjoy and share. Here are the photographs of my wonderful find, and canned treasures. The question is " Is this the simplier way of life or would a run to the super market been a better use of my time? I will say that my emotional attachment to this batch of jam only became reality because of all the time and work involved in its creation. So now they sit on a shelf, being admired as though some rare artifact, I am even including them in my still lifes for painting before they are quickly consumed by my loved ones!