Notes from the Patch

And the winner is...

I've just reread all of your comments so I can pick a winner for my little give away.

To be honest with you I am the winner here.

I didn't do this give away to gather praise for the store, but that's what I got and I am so humbled by your sweet comments!

I've heard from friends that have moved away and miss our little store (I love that my blog keeps us connected over the miles), the poets of the group - Rory and Margaret and from all of you who can just use a little more fabric. But the one comment that got to me the most was from Katheryn Gilbert who recently started volunteering at our brand new Bakersfield Ronald McDonald House.

                

Katherine is a new mommy herself and to think that she would volunteer her precious time to families in crisis really touched me.

As some of you know, our oldest son has a son that has spent extended time in a children's hospital and we saw first hand the very real needs of  families of critically ill children.

Katherine, thank you for all you do and if you'll send me your address I'd love to send you your fabric, chenille and I've added a yard of Minkee to your prize.

Congratulations and thank you for making me aware of the Bakersfield Chapter of the Ronald McDonald House. I think I may have found a new charity to get involved with (the good Lord knows I have plenty of soft Minkee blankets that I could donate)!

Not me! Monday

              

Welcome to "Not Me!" Monday.

This blog carnival was created by MckMama as a fun way to 'fess up about some embarrassing or dumb things we've done ...by pretending we totally did not actually do them! To read what MckMama and everyone else have not been doing this week, check it out.

I did not spray soapy water on my hair thinking it was plain water. (Why is it that when you want your hair curly it's straight and when you want it straight it's curly)? The soapy water was left over from my infestation of spider mites on my house plants. Note to self: always label contents of spray bottles. (At least I didn't spray bug spray on my hair) LOL

I did not recently travel seven hours for a two hour birthday party. That would seem silly even for a Papa & Grammie to do.

Bill and I did not get lost at sea Sunday and have to ask a sail boat what the compass setting for Ventura Harbor was. A good captain and his mate would have made sure the navigational system was working properly BEFORE going to sea in the fog!

What did you not do this week?

 

BTW The winner of my fabric give way will be named later today. Stay tuned!

The Children's Corner

I've wanted to do a reading corner in the store for awhile. We have such fun children's book fabric; The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Paddington and next month The Poky Little Puppy. I just thought it would be fun to have a little table and chairs with the fabric and books so little ones could sit and "read" while mommy shops. Yesterday I set it up and today I had my first customer.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph, but I only had one shot before she was wise to me and ran to find her mommy. (Oh, darn those paparazzi)!

 

BTW If you haven't left a comment to tell me why I should give you two yards of Wildwood plus $10 worth of tangerine chenille go here.   

A wild sale, Wildwood and a give away

We've been busy here at the Patch. Seems our customers love a good sale and boy are we having one!

I got this urge about a week ago to clean house. So we put a ton of fabric on line at $4.00 per yard and talk about getting your attention. We've been cutting and shipping non stop for days. At these prices we're practically giving it away!

Oh my. You ladies do love cheap fabric a good value!

Well, with the hundreds of bolts that have found new homes came a store that needed a bit of sprucing and reorganizing (boy that's an understatement).

Here's a cute little vignette that I created using Erin Mc Morris's new  collection, Wildwood from Free Spirit.

  
I adore the bright sunny citrus colors that are natural and contemporary at the same time. And yes, we do have the perfect shade of tangerine chenille to go with it - thanks for asking!

Since I'm in the mood to give stuff away, how about a fat quarter of each along with a half a yard of tangerine chenille. Anyone interested? Simply leave a comment and tell me why I should pick you. I'll notify the winner on Monday.

Ta ta...

  

Hit by the "Beautiful Bandits" Part II

Here's what was waiting for me when I arrived at work Monday morning.

 

If you read my post on Sunday you know I was hit by these two...

the "Beautiful Bandits", Candra and Cindy, who secretly replaced my ugly stolen planters with two of these beautiful planted pots.

I love them and really hope they elude the temptations of our neighborhood planter thieves. To help assure that they stick around for a while I Gorilla glued them to the concrete.

Whether or not they last, I'll never forget the sweet gesture by these two special friends. I'm flattered and touched that you would do this for me.

Really.

You two are crazy...

...and beautiful!

 

Hit by the Beautiful Bandits - part I

Late Sunday morning I received an anonymous email that read:

"You've been hit by beautiful bandits!!!"

Along with these photos that are full of incriminating evidence.

 

Yup, that's my store's potless front door (nice bow girls)!

These girls have got style, I must say.

And here are the bandits with their bedazzled pink masks.

Style I say.

 

I'd know those eyes anywhere! That's Candra on the left and her accomplice, Cindy on the right. Caught in the act.

So here I am 135 miles away.

Dying.

Seeing photos of this crime going down and not being able to do a dadgum thing about it.

Monday morning can't come soon enough!

I do have a question for you Cindy. How many martini's did it take for you to come up with this one?

To be continued....

 

Thought for the week - week #37

              

                

                         

Hard day at work

I spent nearly five hours Friday ordering fun new fabric collections from my Andover sales rep, Cheryl.

Wanta see a preview?

Oh, I thought you might.

This is Girl Friday by Cosmo Cricket. I love the graphic qualities of the prints and the green colorway should be called Boy Friday!

    

Also by Cosmo Cricket, Snorkel in my new favorite color combinations.

  

And look at this cutie

 

This is just a tiny sampling of the fun things to come.

Have a terrific weekend everyone.

Tale of two trees

Some of you have asked about the exciting project I eluted to on Twitter last week. 

Here's the whole dirty story.

Every morning when I water the two pots that flank the front door at the store I think I need to prune, hose off, pull out those ugly trees. I just haven't wanted to ask Bill to spend his weekend down here working and I knew I probably couldn't handle those big trees by myself.

So, I asked Amanda if she thought the two of us could manage them together. She said sure lets wear our grubbies tomorrow and we'll get it done.

Minutes later Amanda's handsome hubby arrived with a big truck and pulled those babies from their root bound homes and hauled the whole mess away!

I was beyond excited (and grateful!) This was something I had wanted to do for months and I just couldn't wait to get potting.

My plan was to spend a few hours the next day filling the empty pots with fresh potting soil and plant a nice assortment of shiny, healthy plants.

The next day we were insanely busy. There was never a moment to purchase or pot new plants so my two huge heavy pots remained empty all weekend.

Well I'm not sure that is entirely true because when I arrived back at work early Monday morning my two humongous pots were gone.

Someone had come by and loaded up those heavy puppies and hauled them away.

Stolen.

(Creeps)!

So my exciting and long anticipated project was nipped in the bud.

I'm totally bummed.

I hope the thieves enjoy their new planters.

A word of advise though.

Better pot them right away because someone might come along and steal them.

 

Happy Birthday Genius Jake!

What do you do for a boys ninth birthday party?

Why, a Mad Scientist Party of course!

Here we have our birthday boy working on his experiment. Notice the explosion of blue goo on his protective eye ware.

 

All good scientists take careful notes to document their scientific hypotheses

 

and have able assistants who help mix potions.

 

Stay focused here assistant Nathan. This is very serious business!

 

Jake had a lab full of fellow scientists messing mixing all kinds of colorful, slimy, oozy gooey, sticky experiments

 

(Happily the only explosions were planned). Mwahahahaha! 

and a bubbling beaker cake made by Lab Lady (mommy) was enjoyed by all.

 

Perfect for a nine year old's birthday party!

Wouldn't you agree?