Happy [belated] Halloween!

I am still sorting through all my Quilt Market photos, so I thought I'd post my Halloween pics so there wouldn't be such an empty lull on the blog. Oh, and I also owe you all the 2nd sneak peek of my book. It's all coming this week, I promise. But for now... here is our little freak show...

Sydney was a Fairy Devil or Devil Fairy (it fit her personality oh so well!)



Sophie was Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter's girlfriend)



Jon and I went as The Walking Dead...



I even spent a few minutes playing with Photoshop to create this nifty screen saver for Jon. It fooled a few into thinking it was real! mwa-ha-ha-haaaaa



If you want to use the above photo as your screen-saver, just click on the image, which will take you to Flickr, and download the largest size.

Pink isn't just a color... it's an attitude!

Our baby girl turned 7 (SEVEN!) this weekend and we celebrated it the way any little princess would want to.... by having a Hollywood Diva party! Ohhhhh... it was so much fun, we didn't want it to ever end! Everything was pink and sparkly and glittery and girly! We turned Modkid HQ into party central and I want to share some of the highlights with you. Plus, I have included some FREE downloads at the end of this post so you too can give your girl a Hollywood Diva party!

We had super pink cupcakes with famous diva sayings on top...



There were famous quotes from classic divas, like Coco Chanel and Marilyn Monroe, and some more recent ones, like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga (of course!).





This was Sydney's personal cupcake...



I also used the same famous quotes to decorate the goodie boxes, which were hot pink Chinese take out containers filled with all the little items any diva should have, like lip gloss, glittery emery boards, funky pony tail holders, heart-shaped barrettes, faux diamonds and lots of bracelets!









We had some very pink finger foods...





Balanced out by others not-so-pink but still as yummy...





We even had "girlie-cocktails" for the little divas (Fruit punch + 7up + Maraschino cherries + little umbrellas + pink plastic champaign flutes from Hobby Lobby)



And, boy, were those the BIG HIT of the party!!! :)



The girls played dress-up and had their picture taken in our photo studio...







Then they strutted they stuff down the "pink carpet"...





We pulled up the white backdrop so they could have a dance party on our dance floor...



They made beaded jewelry (no pictures of that because I was helping the girls with their bracelets).

We sang Happy Birthday...



And opened presents...





Almost everything Sydney received was PINK! :) She is a happy girl right now! And mama scored big points for what she called "The best party EVER!" YAY!!! :)

I figured, there might be one or two or 3000 readers out there with little divas in their lives with birthdays coming up, so I wanted to share the graphic file for my cupcake-toppers and goodie-bag-labels. Click on the images below to be taken directly to my Flickr pool, then download the largest file available (original). These will print at 100% on your home printer on letter-size paper.

Print these cake-toppers on card stock if you can. They will be much sturdier that way. I bought my 90 lb. card stock at Office Max. Print two sheets so you can glue them back to back with a toothpick sandwiched in between. We used a hot glue gun for this.



Print the goodie-bag-labels onto full or half-sheet label paper (sticky-back), then cut them out with scissors and adhere to the front of your goodie boxes or bags. If you don't have adhesive paper, you can print them onto the same card stock as the cake toppers and just use spray adhesive, a glue stick or a hot glue gun.



Hope you can put these to good use! And please share if you do. I always love checking out other people's birthday parties. :)

Summertime

... and the living is easy.

You know you've been slacking on your social media when out of town relatives start asking what's going on because you haven't updated the blog in weeks! Ooops, sorry, everyone! But you know how it is... kids out of school, work, work and more work, then some fun stuff mixed in here and there.

This Summer we've decided not to enroll the girls in a Summer camp, so they've just been spending a lot of QT at MODKID HQ. It's not as bad as it sounds, though. Jon built them a little playroom in the back. It has books, a flat screen TV, a Wii game console with a ton of games and an art table. They go back & forth between reading, drawing and playing most of the day. Then at 3 p.m. every day (weather permitting) we go for a walk around the center square and visit all of our downtown neighbor stores. They've all gotten to know the girls quite well! ;) We usually end up coming back with some sort of trinket... or a smoothie!

Then every once in a while, we take little day trips here & there to break up the monotony...















On the work front, I do have some fun announcements coming up, but have just been waiting to tie some loose ends before I can reveal everything. So stay tuned, everyone! And have a fantastic Summer!!!

Spring Break 2011
... and the WORST trip to IKEA EVER!!! :(

First of all, I want to thank all of you for the most wonderful comments and warm wishes regarding our MODKID HQ. We are thrilled about this new adventure and are working tirelessly to make it all come together. Of course, since not everything always works out how you'd expect it to, we signed the papers just days before we were supposed to leave for our Spring Break trip.... something we had planned a long time ago. We couldn't cancel it because reservations were made and other family members were meeting us there too, so that would've been just plain rude. Plus, the kids deserved a fun trip (Jon and I did too, but in all honesty, we just wanted to move into the office right away).

So, we packed our bags and headed to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where it was all about fun in the sun — a far cry from the 30 degree weather we left behind...





On one particular day, the sun was out and the skies were clear but it was just a tad too cool to go in the water, so we took a nice walk on the beach and I took the opportunity to shoot some photos for a new pattern coming out in April (yes, folks... it's SNEAK PEEK TIME!) :)





Another day, we found out that Savannah, GA was just a short 35 minute drive from our resort so we decided to make a day of it. Jon and I had visited before on our 5th wedding anniversary, but we really wanted to go again with the kids and my parents.



A rare shot with me in it...



I just adore the architecture in Savannah. All that exposed brick and stone make my heart sing. The history and culture is palpable in every nook and cranny of this place.





Loved this dragon lamp post!



The kids loved it too... thank goodness!







Then, as I tweeted our location, a sweet tweep told me to check out Savannah Bee Company and boy, am I so glad she did! This place was AH-MAZING! Honey tasting, bath soaps and other products made with wax, a place for the kids to play and watch movies...it was just so cool!



And of course... bee and honeycomb imagery EVERYWHERE (you know I felt right at home!)





On our way back home we spent the night in Asheville, North Carolina, a town that Jon and I have been wanting to visit for quite some time now. It was everything we expected and more!

The night we arrived, we had dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant with a relative I had never met before! This is Josephine, a cousin of mine from my paternal grandfather's side of the family.



The next morning as we drove through the picturesque Historic Biltmore Village in search for a place to eat, we accidentally ran into Waechter's Fine Fabrics. I immediately recognized the name because they appeared in an episode of "On the Road with Austin and Santino" in which I had spotted several of my MODKID patterns made up into store samples. What a treat!

Sydney looked out our car window and shouted... it's mama's fabric on the window! They had a wonderful display of knits right on the front window!



Inside, the place was a sewist's paradise!





We even got our picture taken with the owner, Joyce Yarling, holding one of their fine creations... a Sydney Hooded Dress made with dupioni silks, created for the Holiday issue of SEW WOW magazine (pages 109-110)



The nice ladies at Waechter's told us to eat at Books and Breadboard. What a lovely cafe! Wonderful service, food and presentation. (You know I'm a sucker for nice packaging!)





The rest of our day was spent galavanting through Asheville. We drove by the Biltmore Estates, visited the Grove Arcade and spent some quality time at a park across form the Courthouse.







Photo opps galore!



It was the perfect trip!

So here's the part where you feel sorry for me:

When we got back home, Jon and I headed to IKEA so we could get some things for the office. I had a specific list (on my iPhone notes app) and a budget in mind. We were so proud of ourselves for keeping to the budget while still staying true to our aesthetic. When, BAM! My iPhone4 gets stolen practically in front of our eyes! :( I say "practically" because I did walk away from it momentarily while I looked at a piece of furniture, but it was gone in a flash! As soon as I turned around and saw it was gone, I yelled over to Jon to call my phone. He did and the jerk actually answered it! Jon heard some muffled voices for a few seconds (like they had their hand covering the speaker and were trying to decide what to do) then they hung up. We called it like a thousand more times and never heard a response so they must've turned it off immediately. JERKS! I spent some quality time with IKEA security and visited the Lost & Found and few times, exchanging numbers just in case, but nothing.

And before you all start telling me about Find My iPhone and Mobile Me or any other tracking device, let me just say that I was stupid enough not to turn on the Find my iPhone setting on my lost phone so there's no way to track it. I also did not have it passcoded (yes, stupid, I know!) We have tried everything under the sun to find it, believe me! Of course, after we figured out it was a lost cause, we deactivated the service and changed all my passwords, etc. so at least the jerk can't get into my accounts or use the phone. They can still sell it in the Black Market but oh, well, what can I do? In the meantime, I'll be using this lovely replacement because I'll be damned if I'm gonna spend another $700 on a new iPhone just 2 months before the iPhone5 is released!



In case you're wondering, that ^^^ is my old iPhone 3GS that broke right before Spring Quilt Market, last year. And the year before that I had a broken booth. Hmmm... hope there's no correlation! I can make & receive calls with it but the screen is way too damaged to type on it so I can't email, tweet or text. :(

Anyway... that was my sob story! Now, make me feel better by voting for Flora & Fauna at the Modern Madness game over on FatQuarterly. I am so proud of my girl, F&F, for making it into the Sweet 16!!! :)

xoxo