Clever Apple

Well, in my last post I mentioned that I may try to sell some of my embroidery.

I thought at the time that it would be a few months from now before that would happen.

But then...I had a stroke of genius!

Ok maybe not "genius" but a good idea all the same.

So since then I have been working non-stop on getting my shop open and now it is!

So I would like to invite you all to the grand opening of....

Clever Apple!



To be completely honest, the name really doesn't mean anything.

I just found an adorable apple stamp and suddenly all the great possibilities of an apple theme with red and green was too good to pass up.

My "genius" idea was to do a series of pieces with animals and balloons.

It started with Elliot the Elephant.





Then Larry the Lion.





And last but not least, Mimi the Mouse.





I created all the designs myself and hand embroidered each piece.

In the near future I will start some custom work with these same characters.

Each hoop comes with this adorable tag.



On the back of which is a small nail to use to hang the hoop.



And here is my business card (made with previously mentioned stamp).



I may be getting a little carried away.

I am really excited to see how it all works out.

If I sell enough to cover the cost of supplies, I would be happy.

If I actually make money, well, then I would be shocked and thrilled.

So check out my shop cleverapple.etsy.com

Embroidery

My new hobby is embroidery.

You may be wondering, as Stephen often does, "why do you like doing that?"

It all started about a year ago when I got into a fight with my sewing machine.

We are both very stubborn and refuse to apologize and so we haven't spoken since.

This fight made me swear off the evils of machinery and decide to work by hand.

I have found that I really enjoy the creative tediousness of embroidery.

Embroidery floss, in its beautiful array of color and organization, was also a great draw for me.



Isn't it beautiful?

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.

I have also enjoyed creating my own designs to embroider.

This has allowed me to tap into the tiny bit of artistic talent I have (wish my mom had been a bit more generous with that gene).

The embroidery posibilites are endless.

I did a lot of embroidery when making Christmas presents this year.

Unfortunately, since the camera was broken, I wasn't able to take any pictures of these projects.

But here are two of my most recent projects.

They are gifts to my friend Anna for her birthday.

Here is the first one:



Now this comes from a youtube video and the parody of that video that Anna finds particularly funny.

I thought it would be even funnier to have it embroidered.

These cross stitches took me way longer than I had thought.



This second gift also needs some explanation.

Now if you know anything about my friend Anna, its that she is unique.

In a very good way.

And part of this uniqueness is that her favorite animals are sea monsters.

So I made her this:



Isn't he cute?



So I hope to continue this hobby and possibly sell some of my creations on Etsy someday.

I'll keep you informed of my progress.

The Shout Out

A few months ago I discovered that I could see how many people read my blog as well as what country my blog was being read from.

These stats cover from May 2010 til now.

I knew my family and in-laws read my blog but what I didn’t know was that I was read internationally.

Yes that’s right, I am “world famous”.

So here is a shout out to the

36 readers in Russia

29 in India

22 in Canada

18 in Belize

18 in Vietnam

17 in China

17 in Singapore

13 in Poland

11 in Germany

2 in Israel

1 in France

1 in Hungary

and

1 in Sweden

I have no idea why you read my blog, it's really not that interesting, but thanks.

Now those numbers aren’t really the number of people but the number of pageviews.

So technically there could be one reader in Russia who has looked at my blog 36 times.

Either way it's flattering.

Now how many page views in the United States you ask? 2,863.

The most popular post, at 27 views, is the one I did on containers in September 2010.

I really don’t consider that post my best work.

My favorite is still “The War” from February 2010.

So to all my readers, international and domestic, thanks for reading the mad ramblings of a redhead.

PS New to my blog is the "Meet the Pack" page (located just below the heading) where you can find out about our crazy family.

Skip

Growing up, our family always had pets.

We had 6 dogs, 3 cats, 2 horses and 1 rabbit.

We didn't have these animals all at once, this was over an 18 year period.

Now, obviously, my parents were animal people.

Now I have concluded, after great study and years of research, that there are 2 kinds of animal people in the world.

One kind is what I like to call “Crazy Pet People” or CPP if you will.

Here are the characteristics of CPP:

- They consider their pet a member of the family
- They get every shot, vaccination and preventative medicine vets have to offer.
- They often times dress their pet.
- They have birthday parties for their pet.
- They have family portraits with their pet.
- When you have a conversation with them, they always talk about their pet, even if it is unrelated to the topic of conversation.
- They take the pet everywhere with them.
- They will pay any amount of money to save the pet if it is sick or injured.

If you have 3 or more of these characteristics, you might be a CPP.

The other kind of animal people are simply “Pet Owners” or POs.

Here are the characteristics of POs:

- They see their pet as a possession.
- They may love the pet, but do not consider it as a family member.
- They avoid any extra medical costs by only getting the necessary shots and medications, nothing more.
- They do not dress, have parties for or family portraits with their pet.
- They probably don’t even know the pet’s birthday.
- If the pet is sick or injured, euthanasia, not surgery, is usually the choice.

If you have 3 or more of these characteristics, you may be a PO.

Now my parents, all growing up, fell into this second category.

They were Pet Owners.

My mom grew up on a farm with the mindset of “If the animal is sick or injured, just put them out of their misery.”

This kind of euthanasia, I assume, involved a different kind of “shot”.

My dad was a duck hunter and he had dogs that fulfilled a purpose and had a job to do.

I am a PO.

Stephen comes from a family of CPPs and is a CPP (in denial).

Ok so I have said all this to tell you about Skip.

A couple years ago, the last of my childhood pets died off and my parents swore no more pets.

Imagine my surprise when earlier last year they told me they got a dog, Skip.

And “bam!” just like that, my parents became Crazy Pet People.

My dad takes him to work everyday.

They dress him in a raincoat.

They not only have all the shots for him and preventatives but they also give him special medication for his irritated skin condition.

They talk about him every time we are on the phone.

They told me that they wanted me to take some really nice photos of Skip when I am home.

They were so (and I mean SO) excited for me to meet him when we came home for Christmas.

Well, I met him.

He is a pretty great dog.

He is perfect for my parents.

So without further ado, here’s Skip, the rough coated Jack Russell that turned my parents into CPPs.









Credit must be given to my pet photography assistant Stephen who kept Skip semi-still by holding a treat in front of his face.

The Come Back

Ok so I know these apologizes are getting old but sorry for neglecting you… again.

The truth of the matter is, when things get busy, the blog is really low on the priority list so it is the first to be neglected.

That is just the way things are.

If you don’t like it, you can leave.

Just kidding!

Please don’t leave.

So the reason you have been so neglected is for two main reasons,

1. With a broken camera, the motivation to blog was lost. A blog without pictures is very boring.

I know that is really juvenile, it's like only reading books with pictures but I can't deny the truth.

Even on my favorite of blogs, if there are no pictures, I am less likely to read it.

2. With Christmas looming I panicked because I had planned on making most of the presents, I just hadn’t planned on how much time it would take.

I truly loved making all the presents and it made me so excited to give the presents but I have learned my lesson and will be starting much earlier this next year.

Well now that I have a new camera lens (thanks Michael and Patti!) and Christmas is over, I have no excuse not to blog.

Well, unless a new excuse comes up that is.

Then you'll be hearing another apology again.

Sorry in advance.

So Christmas…

This is the one time a year we go home.

Sad I know, but then again, everyone comes to visit us during the year so it works out alright.

So we went home for a total of 8 days not counting the days we flew in and out.

That is 8 days to visit with both our families which, much to our relief, live in the same area.

It is always fun to come home and visit with everyone but also stressful because everyone wants to spend a lot of time with us so it can be hard to please everyone.

It’s tough being so popular.

As soon as we figure out what days we will be home I email everyone the dates and tell them to start booking their times to visit with us.

No I am not kidding.

It works out really well this way and I try to make sure we spend close to the same amount of time with both sides of the family.

In stressful times the OCD organizer/planner side of me comes out in full force (I get that from my parents).

So I didn't get the new camera lens until the end of our trip so I dont have many pictures but here are a few I do have.

This is Christmas day when our niece Avila got more presents from her adoring grandparents than you could count.

And she ate an entire donut in a matter of minutes.

She had a bit of energy that day.



Here's Stephen sister Michelle and her baby Emma.



Stephen's dad and his fiance Patti.



They announced that day, to everyones excitement and joy, that they were engaged.

Oh and they are having the wedding here in Hawaii during the annual Labor Day trip.

It should be quite the fun and exciting shindig!

Then on our last day in California we celebrated my mom's birthday.

We celebrated Napa style and went wine tasting at this place:



Which looks like this:



With a view like this:



With wine caves like this:



Full of barrels like this:




Then we went to a winery call Del Dotto that didn't allow photography but I was super sneaky and snapped this shot.




Gorgeous huh!

Other highlights of our trip,

Met my niece Kalynn for the first time.

Watched Stephen and my mom battle it out to the death on the Wii.

Saw Tower of Power with Stephen's dad and Patti (Stephen's dad wore ear plugs the whole time).

Had drinks with my parents and Scott Beattie (the mixologist and author of Artisanal Cocktails).

My niece Avila on seeing Stephen one day without me asked "Where's Auntie Megan?"

Visited my favorite stores in Berkeley with my bestest friends the Dunne Family.

Went to see the movie Tangled with Anna and Tyler who informed me after the movie was over that her favorite part of the movie was "the scary part" because she is 3 now and likes scary movies.

Stephen sharing his home brewed beer with everyone and everyone loving it (we brought 48 bottles in a suitcase).

All in all it was a pretty great Christmas.