Campfire Chic Interview

It's up!

My interview with Campfire Chic!

I feel so famous.

Check it out here:

http://campfirechicblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/seller-interview-megan-of-clever-apple.html

Thanks Kam!!

Also up are some new pieces in my shop.

I love this piece.





It's one of my favorites.

The "&" was made with a new satin silver floss I got and I love how it turned out.

Then there are these two super cute fabric pieces.





Who doesn't love some cute old lady goats sewing?

I had originally bought the fabric with the intention of doing some embroidery on it but I decided it was just so cute on its own that it deserved to be framed as is.

I also have made a new "Do Something Creative Everyday" piece that is 6 inches rather than the 8 inches.



I love adding the single sequin, its such a fun little detail.

I am also really excited because I finally sold Mimi the Mouse!



She was one of my first pieces way back in January.

I never understood why no one seemed to want her.

She was always one of my favorites.

But now she is headed to a nice home in Michigan.

Bye Mimi!

So all and all, an exciting week for CleverApple.

Guest/Craft Room

I realized the other day while looking through some old blog posts that I never finished the before and afters of the house!

Worst of all, I forgot to show you my favorite room!

The craft room! (also the guest room)

Here is the before:



Taking down that stupid border was such a pain!

After!



Aren't those scissors awesome! I got them at Target!

Guest Room Side:



Sorry guests, we never got around to getting a bed frame.

Craft Room Side:



Here is my little work space for my Etsy stuff.



Androgynous Andy helping me with my apple tags.



This is what I do with some of my pieces in limbo:



They are crying "please buy us and give us a forever home!"

Now not only do I love this room because it has all of my wonderful crafting supplies but also because of the special decor pieces.

Like this antique writing desk and piano stool.



That piano stool holds a lot of memories for me.

That was the stool my mom always used when she cut my hair as a child.

On top of the writing dest is the bouquet that I held while Maid of Honor at my best friend Anna's wedding.

This is the picture that is next to it.

(Sorry for the picture of a picture, I don't have a scanner)



That is Anna at her wedding.

The wedding dress was handmade by her mom.

It's a great crafting inspiration, as well as my very favorite picture of Anna.

This is where I keep a lot of my craft supplies.



That middle square is overflowing with Martha Stewart Living magazines.

I love Martha.

Well, at least the Martha corporation.

I don't know her well enough to say I love her personally.

On top of this organizer is a spice holder I got as a wedding present and had intended to use but it took up too much precious counter space.

So I used it here.



Here is the room facing the other direction.



Behind that cutain is this:



That blue dresser is filled with more craft supplies.

Don't ask me how I acumulated so many craft supplies, I honestly don't know.

I think they might multiply when I'm not looking.

Which is fine by me!

Friday

Ah Friday.

Yes, even a homemaker can enjoy Friday.

This particular Friday I am enjoying because I finished the yard work today.

I mowed all the lawns with our push mower.

I have never ever in my entire life mowed a lawn.

I had hoped to die with that achievement.

(That and never having tasted spam)

But it had to be done (the lawns, not eating spam)

Unfortunately the lawns hadn't been mowed for a really really long time.

Mowing overgrown lawns with a push mower is seriously hard work.

And the mower kept making this awful squealing noise and I have no idea where the WD40 is.

But I got it done.

I also pulled all the weeds.

This was one of the "weeds" I found:



And I trimmed the hedges with our electric hedge trimmer which I am always sure I am going to chop off my leg with.

(No worries, my legs are still intact...for now)

Before I show you the picture of the yard, let me just say I hate the landscaping.

Just so you know.

So here is the front of the house with lawn mowed and hedges trimmed.



And 2 ugly palm trees (I'll say more about them in a minute)

Here is the backyard, looking from the back of the house towards the garage.



Notice the hot mess those fanning palms are.

Here is the yard from the garage facing the back of the house.



Now in the backyard there are three palm trees (not counting those fanning ones).

I hate them.

I hate them because their tops look like this:



(Notice the pretty palm trees in our neighbors yard, why couldn't we have had those kind of palms?)

I hate them because their bottoms look like this:



And nothing will grow around them.

And little berry things drop from them and make a mess.

In summary, palm trees = ugly mess.

Also today I gave the dogs a much needed bath.

After their bath I put them in the house while I finished some of the yard work.

(If I leave them outside, they are bound to run around and roll in the dirt)

When I came back in the house, I found them like this:







Then came lunch time.

Now I am about to tell you about something amazing, but you may not believe me.

Now you have to trust me.

Have I ever led you astray?

No.

Ok so believe me when I say that kabocha, goat cheese and caramelized red onions are an amazing combination.

(Kabocha is a winter squash like butternut squash, only better)

So for lunch I took some kabocha I had roasted and pureed, some goat cheese and some caramelized red onions and put them on a tortilla.

(Now remember to trust me)



I then folded it in half and fried it like a quesadilla.

Then all the ingredients melt together into this amazingness:



You have to admit that it looks good.

And it so is.

Now to spend the afternoon finishing some chores around the house and this evening to give myself a much needed pedicure while watching Gnomeo and Juliet.

(One of the plus sides to Stephen being gone is being able to watch all the movies he doesn't want to watch)

Yard Work

Today, I dragged myself out of bed to face this:



Yes that is what used to be this:



Things got a little out of hand. <-- understatement

Let me first say that I hate hard labor.

You know those people who love "working up a sweat"?

I'm not one of them.

I don't like sweating.

I don't like having to work hard physically.

That is why I went to school to become a therapist and not a construction worker.

Working in the yard = hard labor.

The lifting, pulling, digging, bending, mowing, raking and all with the hot sun beating down on you.

You may like it (you also may be crazy)

But it is so not my thing.

But what is my thing is making my husband happy.

Nice yard = happy husband.

I also can't pass up a great before and after.

So here it is:

Before:



After:



You see that nice brick path?

All me.

Including the loading them in the cart at Home Depot, loading them in the car, then unloading them and carrying then into the yard.

I may need someone to brush my teeth for me tonight.

Any volunteers?

No?

While working in the yard I came in contact with:

geckos

flies

fruit flies

snails

worms

slugs

cockroaches

and

cute little frogs the size of a pea.

I liked the frogs but all the other creepy crawlies, I could have done without.

Another reason I hate yard work.

But now that the afternoon sun is up, the rest of the yard work will have to wait till tomorrow.

That is if I can still move tomorrow.

Now because I worked all morning on my least favorite chore in all the world, does that mean I can take the afternoon off?

No?

What do you mean the laundry wont do itself?

Dang it.

Going solo

About a week ago Stephen left to go to Texas for 3 weeks of training.

(Stephen pronounces Texas "Tay-hos" by the way, he's a goof like that)

I have found it interesting how when I tell people he is gone for 3 weeks they say "Oh wow, that's a long time!"

I fear that my response to them may make them think I don't like Stephen very much.

They ask things like "How are you doing with him gone that long?"

And I say "Oh, I'm fine."

And I am.

Sure I miss him.

Sure I would rather he not be gone.

But when your husband is regularly gone for chunks of time you learn to focus on the positive and not the negative.

You also learn to look at things in perspective.

For example, what is 3 weeks when he has been gone for 2 months at a time?

I survived those separations, I can certainly survive this one.

The biggest thing that keeps things in perspective is that most military wives have had their husbands gone for a year.

I have been so blessed to only have to part with him for 3 weeks!

So I certainly have no right to complain.

On the positive side, I can be very productive when he is gone.

I have so much more free time when I am not cooking and cleaning up after him.

So I have a long list of bigger projects that I can get done while he is gone.

This past week it was working on my Etsy shop.

Next week I am going to tackle the yard.

(Which may be a fight to the death, I'll let you know who wins.)

Here is some of what I did over the weekend.

I made a bunch of these cookies for a baby shower at church.



I got my bulk order of embroidery hoops.



These should last me a while!

I went to the farmers market and had this:



It was a locally made strawberry and goat cheese popsicle.

It was good.

I bought this there:



(That's ginger by the way)

And made this with it.



Yep, you saw right, ginger ice cream.

The recipe for ginger ice cream came from this book:



Which is awesome by the way.

And I thought, hmm....ginger, that would be interesting.

I have had chocolate bars with crystallized ginger in it and the flavors together were very good.

So ginger chocolate chip ice cream was born.

How did it turn out?

Well it's one of those things that you take a bite and say "Hmmmm, that's interesting.." and then take another bite, and another, still not sure if "interesting" means "good" or not.

I can tell you is that It certainly doesn't taste bad!

I am hoping to try some more interesting ice cream creations in the future.

Though I am not sure I will ever be brave enough to try the recipes for olive oil, black pepper or parsley ice cream.

(I'm not kidding, those are in the book!)

My Seattle Adventure: Part 6

Ok so this is the last part, I promise!

Recap: I flew from Hawaii to California on a military flight, then flew up to Seattle for 10 days, found out Stephen was coming back from Japan sooner than we had thought and on a Tuesday evening flew back to California.

Tuesday

My parents picked me up from the airport that night.

I had called Travis Air Force Base and listened to their flight info recording that lets you know the flights for the next 24 hours.

There was a flight first thing Wednesday morning with 70 seats, I was good to go!

Or so I thought.

Wednesday:

I wake up super early to start getting ready to go to Travis and I call to check the flight info and the flight was moved to that afternoon.

Back to bed.

My parents were both busy at work so my wonderful grandpa gave me a ride to Travis.

I figured he would just drop me off but him being a good grandpa insisted on coming in with me and waiting till I got on the plane.

It was a good thing too.

We walked into the terminal and I went to check in and they said the flight was pushed back till the next day.

Bummer.

So my grandpa took me back home and my parents had a nice surprise when they got home from work.

Thursday:

Woke up early again to go to Travis, called and the flight was pushed back to the afternoon again.

My grandpa and grandma took me to Travis that afternoon and they came in to wait with me.

I went to check in and was told the 70 seat flight was cancelled but that there was a flight with 20 seats and then another flight with 10 seats.

So I thought "I should be able to make it on one of those."

Now let me explain a little about how military flights, A.K.A. Space-A, works.

The Air Force has planes with cargo going from base to base and sometimes these planes have empty seats on them.

These empty seats are offered to military personal and their families for free.

How you get these seats are based on category.

There are 6 categories.

Now I am guessing that most of my readers don't care to hear what all the categories are and all the details, but if you are interested go here: www.spacea.net

But just to give you an idea,

Category 1: Active duty personnel on emergency leave
Category 6: Retirees

I was category 5.

Crazy I know!

Isn't there a special category 1a for cute redheads who really want to get home before their husbands?

No?

I want to speak to the General.

Anyways...

So when a flight comes in they will do a "roll call".

They start by calling the names of the people signed up in category 1, then category 2 and so on until all the seats are filled.

When the next flight comes in they start over again, at category 1.

So there I was at the Travis terminal with my grandparents and the first flight came in with 20 seats and the roll call began.

When they do the roll call there is a screen that has the list of all the people signed up, listed in order by category.

So whenever that first flashes up, everyone gathers around and starts doing the math to see if the people in the categories before them will take all the seats.

It was at this time I realized I was in big trouble.

There were a lot of people ahead of me.

It was clear I was not going to get on a plane that day and that I would try for the 70 seat plane that was scheduled for the next day.

So my grandparents took me home again.

(Keep in mind that with all these back and forths I was packing and unpacking)

Friday:

I get up early and my dad takes me and drops me off at Travis (he had a meeting and couldn't wait with me).

The terminal was full of people again.

Everyone was waiting for that promised 70 seat plane.

I felt really bad for the women I saw by themselves with children.

Some of the people didn't have family in the area and were spending all day and night in the terminal.

So while waiting, the 70 seat flight got pushed back to the next day again.

That's when I heard people talking and say that the plane was broken down at another base and they kept scheduling it thinking it would be fixed.

Crap.

While waiting for the small flights, I started to find myself getting irritated every time a new person showed up at the terminal and then their 8 kids in after them.

Im serious, I never saw so many big families!

There were at least 3 families with no less than 5 kids!

I waited through the roll calls for the smaller flights but it was clear I wasn't going to make any of them.

Apparently a lot of people want to go to Hawaii, who knew?

So my grandparents came and picked me up and took me home.

Surprise Mom and Dad! You tired of me yet?

Saturday:

So the 70 seat phantom flight was scheduled again for that afternoon.

So I packed up all my stuff, again.

I called Travis right before we left and surprise, surprise it was pushed back again.

My mom and I decided that this day would not be a waste!

We pulled out that awesome book she gave me,



And we decided to make macarons!



We were nervous about how they would turn out but they were amazing.



Some we made with plain buttercream frosting.



Some we made with chocolate buttercream.



Mmmmm I really wish I had one now.

Fast forward to Mother's day and I gave my mom this:



We ordered chinese food that night and watched chick flicks.

So that was a fun day.

Sunday:

70 seat flight scheduled, again.

Packed, again.

Went to Travis, again.

Waited, again.

Flight cancelled, again.

I was about to lose it.

Stephen said he was going to be home in a couple of days.

All I wanted to do was get home!

Now a military wife I knew, when she heard I was stuck in California, told me about a website, militarytogo.com, where you can get cheap flights.

I had checked it but the flights were still just as expensive (AKA over $500).

But now, I was so frustrated I decided to check again.

That's when I suddenly realized something.

When I had checked before, I had forgotten to click the "one way" option!

There were flights for $230!

I almost broke down into tears.

I immediately thanked God for this blessing and for the military wife who told me about it (thanks Christal!).

I bought a ticket for that Tuesday.

My parents came back and picked me up again.

And back to Napa I went.

Monday:

Hung out and relaxed knowing I was going home the next day.

Tuesday:

My dad took me to the airport.

I was never so happy to be at an airport in my life.

I even saw someone that had been at the Travis terminal all week too.

So back to Hawaii I flew and Stephen came home the next day.

The end.

New Shop Banner!

I am really excited about the new shop banner I made today!

I really didn't like the old one and I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to make the new one.

So here it is.

Before:



After:



So much better right?

It looks more professional and it matches my business cards.

One of the reasons I am working so much on my shop right now is that a wonderful blogger has asked to feature me in her blog!

I am so excited, honored and nervous!

What if they don't like me?

What if my interview answers are stupid?

What if my pictures are bad?

ok so maybe I'm not THAT nervous, but I am a little.

Her blog has over 400 followers!

I have 4.

Who is the "her" I have been talking about?

Kam from Campfire Chic!

You can check her out here: campfirechicblog.blogspot.com

(I wish I was cool and new how to turn the "here" into a clickable link but I am SO not that computer savvy)

So in preparation for becoming super famous I have been working on my shop.

I'll let you know when she features me, it should be sometime this month.

New Pieces

I have been working hard on my Etsy shop lately and have come up with some new pieces.

This piece was inspired by this quote from Alice in Wonderland:

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

(By the way, if you have never read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, you are really missing out)



For some reason whenever I think of Alice in Wonderland, I also associate it with the color purple.

This piece sold the same day I put it in my shop.



I knew there had to be a lot of Princess Bride lovers out there but goodness!

If you are not familiar with this quote, I may have to block you from my blog, we obviously have nothing in common.

Just kidding.

Kinda.

Here is another feather piece that I made with a very natural color palette in mind.



I also made another Mr. Darcy piece in a different color scheme.



Can you believe I have sold 5 Mr. Darcy pieces?

The ladies really do love Mr. Darcy.

I also put together this fun butterfly trio.



I'm in a bit of an embroidering frenzy right now.

I suddenly got a lot of good ideas and great fabrics and I cant wait to put them together.

In case you forgot, here's the link to my shop.

cleverapple.etsy.com