Paper n' Stitch for the love of housewares!

Fight of Birds Wall Art from Janey Mac Chalk Cloth Table Runner from Modern June Molly Crochet Cushion Cover from Emma Lamb Cuckoo Clock Placemats from Girls Can Tell Check out my new Modern June shop and all the other get shops over  at Paper n' Stitch!  It is a great place to shop for unique  hand-picked and handmade goods!

Freshening up

Last week I went on a cleaning bender, a Spring Cleaning kind of bender (but at the end of the Summer). I fought the urge to re-merchandise the house at that time. I know me too well. If I got to moving things around, I would never get the place as clean as I wanted it to be. So, today I started tweaking the living room just a bit. Nothing major, just move the collections around, mix things up and add a bit of life back in the old place.

I really wanted to go to Nicola Flora and grab a bunch of Sun Flowers for the mantle, but that just isn't in the budget this week, so off to the yard I went. I cut some of my giant hydrangeas--that bush is so big you can't even tell I took 2 dozen blossoms. They are so pretty right now, they have gone from white to green and moving toward that rust pink. Gorgeous!

I needed to strip the slip covers off the couch for a good washing, but I knew I could not stand looking at that ugly 15 year old couch, so I grabbed a vintage blanket from the closet, some pillows off our bed, and now I have a fresh new look until the covers are clean again. I may just wait to wash the cover for a few weeks, I like this so much.

This groovy rack once held 45's--now I holds our greeting cards. How fun is that? I just got it last week from a new Etsy Seller, Nerd Nest!

So now that I have the place all pretty again, and I can sit and enjoy a few minute with the family!

Chalk Love

Look at all the chalk love, this wonderful treasury by Crafted by Lindy!  I was so excited to see my super fun Chalk Cloth Banners!  Please go look at Lindy's gorgeous paper products, I just love her designs!  

45/15 day

I am having what I call a 45/15 minute day.  I work for 45 minutes and then spend 15 minutes doing something fun!  In my fifteen minutes I play with the kids, read or close my eyes.  It helps on those days when you don't feel like super woman!

papernstitch!

Have you all heard of papernstitch yet?  Well hold on to your hat people cuz your in for a real treat!  I am a proud to announce that Modern June is one of their hand picked shops!  

Crafty Yard Sale!

Craft and Yard Sale

August 29th, 8-1

Costen Floor

9840 Mayland Dr

Come see me and enjoy my rock bottom prices on fabric, notions and Modern June Samples!

Craft and Yard Sale will be held this weekend at Costen's Floor in the West End! Here is a handy map to help you find us! See you early for the best selection. I don't plan on bringing these things home people, I have to much good stuff to just sit in storage. Come see me and all the others, see you Saturday!

Easy-Peasy Desk Dots!

Check out my Oilcloth Addict Blog for a fun and simple tut! All over the country kids big and small are back to school! So I thougth I would bring back Silver Tree Art's Chalk Dot tutorial and make them Desk Dots. I know my homeschooling posse will love using these. Have fun!

Fall!

Man, I am really looking forward to fall! I have some new goodies in the works that I can't wait to show you all. In the mean time, I have a new peck of owls that are ready for fall.

Grab them in different colors, yellow, orange and brown gingham tummies are available! The Hooty-Woo Owl Oilcloth tote also comes lined and unlined.

I just love making these totes, look at the pile of beaks, they just crack me up.

While I can't break out a sweater, jacket or my favorite jeans yet I can change my tote! I can't wait to say goodbye to Summer and hello Autumn!

Just a few

just a few, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

YAY! We have 3 new shops that will be carrying our fun oilcloth party banners! Time to get busy!!!

birthday scavanger hunt

birthday scavanger hunt, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

Today my baby turns 9 and we are having a fun day to celebrate. I love this age when they know just what they want for the birthday. Aidan hasn't had a big party in about 3-4 years, he has been choosing low key parties with family and close friends. So this year when he was ready to invite all his new friends and have a big shindig I agreed wholeheartedly. I am glad he has branched out in his little world. It is nice to see them grow.

I have 50 million things to take care of so I will be quick and show you the scavenger hunt guides Don and I made for the kids. They will have to translate the hieroglyphics into words then find the object in question to move forward. I will have them come to me after they finish a page for a little trinket. (sorry friends, small plastic junk all my creative juices are focused else where these days)

I hope they enjoy it as much as I did making the guide. I love that kind of stuff. I am thinking we have to do this on a larger scale for the block party this October! How fun could that be???

Cake Wrecker!

Well it is official I have completely lost my cake baking mojo! This is my second attempt this month and I just can't bake worth a darn anymore. What happen? I used to be so good at baking cakes! Whine, whine... WINE! I must need wine.

If I am honest with myself I know the trouble. I know my mistakes but dang it I don't have time to make cake after cake wreck! When I made the second round of cakes tonight I realized that I only needed two tablespoons of oil not three, so the cake was too moist. Couple that will not letting it cool long enough left is crumbling in my hands.

Then came the Strawberry Frosting incident! What ever you do never use this recipe frond on Cooks.com. It is so messed up. I do think I can save the frosting with a bit more powder sugar and a half a stick of butter. What a mess.

Well the second round of cake needs to come out of the oven. Wish me luck!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, IT HAPPENED AGIAN. I give in. Night, peeps!

days off

Saturday at the Ashland Farmers Market.

I have been jonesing for a day off for way too long. I don't remember having one in August or July. Not unless you count travel days, no those do not count! Well Saturday was a full day, yesterday was a half day off. Today turned out to be a day off too. Too bad I will pay for it tomorrow, gotta sew, sew, sew.

So let's recap the weekend! Saturday was a girl date with Christie at the Ashland Farmers Market. Then I headed over to the Richmond Craft Mafia Retreat for sun, fun and food! I did some work on Sunday morning but then headed out to see Ponyo at Movieland. Don and I spent the rest of the afternoon napping. We all made our own dinner whenever we were hungry, nice! I read all evening while cuddled up with the kids while they watched their tweenie-bopper shows.

I woke up today intending a to clean a bit for my sons birthday party on Wednesday but it turned out to be a full day of de-cluttering and heavy duty cleaning. It was great! Man, without a day off in 6-7 weeks you can imagine my house sorely needed the attention.

Ahhhhh, balance! Ok, now for emails and convo's before bed. Night, peeps!

day off desire

day off desire, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

Oh man, I wish today to my day off! How dare the mailman tempt me like this, honestly I just isn't fair. Martha and a Pattern from Sublime Stitching. Ahhh, maybe later but for now it is back to work. I hate being a big girl with a big girl life.

Learning Curve

Here is an incomplete list of the things I learned at the Philadelphia Buyers Market two weeks ago.

• Hooks are your friends
• If you have to, make your own hooks!
• Need more of those cool hooks from the signs? Who doesn't! I got the down low on the coveted hooks from two experienced vendors. Many people leave their sign and their hooks, once they are gone snag the hooks! I did that and I felt very silly but I now have a couple dozen hooks! The more sensible and much more dignified way to score the hooks is to ask for them at the begging of the show. Too easy, right?
• Lighting is not to be forgotten or done at the last minute. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. Thank goodness that there is an Ikea 11 minutes away from the convention center! Even better to know is that Tony Lukes is close to the Ikea!! But wait, even better than Ikea and Tony Lukes, you get to see this crazy Titanic ship while at Ikea!

• A second layer of drape is good for hiding cords and not getting you neighbor all hyped up! Oops, sorry about that! This is where you need all those cool hooks! You can grab some fun curtains at Ikea, the ones with grommets then use the hooks to hang them up.
• Easy-Peasy!
• Mats-Mats-Mats! I hear that is the place to go for fun and functional flooring. For me it is all about the Flor carpet tiles. I just love that concept. While we were wonderfully gifted with free carpet, I would have skipped it if I had the chance since the carpet fumes gave me the worst headache. TIP: You can air out the Flor tiles at home before the show!!!

• My booth lay out was tricky. Going in to the show I had a clear vision for my 5 x 10 section of the booth. But, it was obvious that wasn't going to work at all. So I changed it up and I was very happy with it But then I was told to move my loot up to the front of the booth, I was told that I had a 'dark tunnel of death' going on. NICE! I wasn't sure I was going to take the experts advise but the next morning I got in early and moved the bakers rack and squish up the dress forms. It was a good idea after all. What I really liked was how I tidied up the merch on the bakers rack. It was less craft show, it was cleaner and easier to see.

• Philadelphia is great food! Reading Market is a must. Next time I am eating lunch there every day.
• Pack the hand truck first so that it gets in the van no matter how full the van gets. Who cares if you have to unpack the entire van to get to it at least you have the silly thing.
• Teamsters are cute! On Monday while I was moving the forward two big burly guys chatted with me about my first time experience, the economy and sales. It made me miss the gaffers from my movie set days.

I wish I could share with you every little bit of information and every pearl of wisdom that I gleaned from the other exhibitors and The Rosen Group. Everyone was open, giving and kind to share with us what they knew. I couldn't agree more with another Etsy Street Team gal when she called the weekend Trade Show Boot Camp!

Thanks for having us! I hope that you keep offering the program to Etsy Street Teams, it is truly an invaluable and eye opening experience!

Our Willow Kitty

Our Willow Kitty, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

We are missing our loud, underfoot kitty. Last week we had to say goodbye to her after 13 years of cuddles and meows. Our house is just way too quiet without her.

etsy luv

Here are two fun shops that I really love... 

Designed by Tijusai 

Bright Wall Luggage 

I'm trying real hard

After dealing with more than our fair share of ups and downs during the last 4 weeks, like trade show madness, 6 days without Mommy, the death of a beloved pet and a sleep over with silly girls, Don and I have decided that someone needs to embroider this quote from Pulp Fiction. We would pay damn fine money for that!

Entire quote from Pulp Fiction:

"There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you. I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd."

An Update...

Look what I just bought Tatoo Alphabet by Sublime Stitching  

All it has to say is "I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd."  I will know the rest!  I will laugh to myself and keep on going no matter how hard it gets!  

Richmond Etsy Street Team at Buyers Market!

Just a quick peek at our booth at last weeks Buyers Market of American Craft!

Tasha McKelvey, Zou Zou's Basement, Silver Tree Art and Modern June

A lovely shout out!

One of the great things about the Buyers Market is the people.  The Rosen Group, buyers, and crafters were fascinating, helpful and entertaining.  At a show like this you end up with some down time and it is nice to find a friendly person to chat with.    This was the case with Nancy from Round Rabbit, she was fantastic to get to hang out with such a great artist!  Check out her lovely shout out of the Richmond Etsy Street Team booth at her blog, the Rabbit Muse  

Thanks Nancy, it was great to meet you.  We shall see you again, I am sure of it!  

random news...

Well, I'm back and tired as all get out! I have lots to share about the Buyers Markets. It was really wonderful, long and tiring, but wonderful none the less!! I was just starting to feel like myself again when we realized it was time to say goodbye to our sweet Willow Kitty. I tell you it just hasn't been an easy week.

Here are a few tiny distractions from family life...

Etsy Front Page August 1st.

Indie Fixx shout out!!! We missed seeing Jen at the show... hope you feel better this week!

1. Happy Owl Glassworks ::: 2. Arin Arthur ::: 3. La Contessa ::: 4. Freshie and Zero ::: 5. Modern June ::: 6. Foundling ::: 7. Rocks and Salt ::: 8. Jenny Gaynor ::: 9. Dovetail::: 10. Daa Glass

We got to see a Screening of Handmade Nation, which was a total treat, especially since there was a Q&A with Faith Lavine afterwards. We bought books and had her sign them!

We are such fans! What an honor to be apart of the whole indie craft movement.

I will post some pics of the show once family life settles down again. Right now my family is just spoiling the old girl as much as possible. Saying good bye to Willow Kitty will be so hard.

30 things I learned yesterday

1) I could live on Butchers Hill in Balitimore!
2) Tasha has great friends.
3) I have a great sence of direction.
4) The Safeway in Balitmore smells like Old Bay seasoning.
5) I am the only one that found that unusal!
6) Being late is really stressful.
7) Tasha is a great co-pilot.
8) Richmond Etsy Street Team girls can load in to a show like no buddies business!
9) REST girls take turns having small freak outs.
10) It is really, I mean REALLY HOT in the Phillidelphia Convention Center on load in day!
11) A bag of peanuts doens't make for a good lunch!
12) You really shouldn't forget all your extenion cords.
13) It is best to think about lighting a bit more before you get to BMAC.
14) My booth buddies are great at sharing, loving and supporting.
15) There is an Ikea 11 minutes away from my hotel!
16) The Ikea restuarant can be rented out for private functions.
17) When Ikea has a private party you don't get feed!
18) You spend less time buying if you don't get feed first.
19) Tasha can actually go thought Ikea and not buy a thing.
20) When you get to check out without a wallet it is a real bummer!
21) There is a big and very old Titanic looking boat outside of Ikea
22) what the...
23) Tic Tacs do not make a meal.
23) Tony Lukes has killer Philly Cheese Stakes
24) Eating a meal before 8:00 pm is better then waiting all day to eat!
25) REST girls can eat and giggle!
26) Penns Landing is so pretty at night!
27) There are some scary place in Philly...
28) The beds in out Hotel are really nice! Really nice!
29) It is amazing how nice new towels are.
30) I miss my family so very, very much!!!!!