Moody Monday: New Years Eve

Photo via Pinterest

Wishing you and yours a glamorous and Happy New Year!! 

Santa Baby

Before the holidays flew by (while I'm down with the flu) I wanted to share a few holiday vignettes.

First off... A tray full of vintage ornaments from Don's family and thrift finds topped with a Santa floral stick.You gotta love that Santa is on a stick.

Gnome love on the mantle! 

My salt and pepper shakers have been snuggling up. Don bought these for me a few years ago on Ebay, he's so good to me!!  

The charming vintage pieces on the right are from my Jacki, my mother-in-law. I love them bunches!! 

Okay, the four Advil that I took before lunch are starting wear off so I am back to my sick bed. Happy Holidays!!

CPBB'S

As you know that this is not a food blog and I am ssssoooooo not a foodie. But I do have a blog and I'm going to use it to remember how I did my annual Rice Krispies Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls this year. So here goes! 

My kids and I hate the way the peanut butter mush feels on our hands when we roll it into balls but we love these yummy treats to much to not make them!! The sticky sensory thing we have results in peanut butter blobs and not balls. So this year I started use two spoons to divide up the peanut butter mixture into same sized (nearly) portions. I tried using a scoop but it was just too sticky.  

 

Once I had that all sorted out we covered our hands and parchment paper with powdered sugar and rolled the dough into balls and then plopped them into paper cups. Next, chill them for few minutes while the chocolate melts.

Okay no let's talk about the chocolate. Humph! For years I've avoided adding in pectin or Crisco to my melting chocolate but this year I finally gave it a try. I did so because my improved PB balls looked like round brown globs. (Refer back to the first sentence to this post).

Ta dah!!! I think that result speaks for speak for themselves. Pretty and appetizing! 

I am off to pack these up for our neighbors!!

Empty, but not for long...

Untitled, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

This empty room almost makes me sad. My team and I have done a lot of work here in my little home studio. Six and a half years of making, cutting and creating.

The space will soon be filled back up with different furniture and will serve as our family craft room and office. The four of us really like having a big project table to make a mess on.

I am already on a hunt for a comfy reading chair to stick in the corner. It'll be nice to use the room for a little R&R.

Last Minute Holiday Gift!!

We've whipped up some special chalk cloth runners for your last minute gift giving pleasure. The holiday runners are 14" x 66" and are bargain priced at $18.00. 

Keep these in mind for New Year's Eve, they would be a blast to use on the bar!!

 Don't worry if this gift is for you, we won't tell on you!!

I'm checking my list, I'm checking it twice...

Everyone has been very good this year.

Thanks for all your great orders this holiday season!!

Two Day Sale for 12-12-12

Wednesday is the last day to order any custom made products for Christmas. 

Please order now and save 20% by using the following coupon code: 121212.

Shop on!!

Book 2

1 chapter 

6 projects 

12 prototypes 

18 photos

23 illos
48 uploads

&

 countless stitches

Happily turned in!

Handmade Holiday!!

Cyber Monday Super Sale

Just in time for the holiday gift giving!! 

Save 20% off the entire Modern June shop. 

Coupon Code: CYBERMONDAY20

Now through 11-26-12 at midnight.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am so thankful for you and for prepared Thanksgiving dinner!! 

My family and I are spending the day cleaning up the house and decorating for Christmas. I couldn't be happier! I hope you and yours are well this holiday weekend. 

xoxoxo, 

Kelly

How happy I am?

... I am happier than a Slinky on an escalator!

It's only been one week since we made a few BIG changes here at Modern June and it's easy to see the positive side!! Last week I started a new schedule with my newest Junie, Geneva!! She's now coming into our home studio and working 5 to 7 hours a day. In just 4 days we knocked out the same amount of tablecloths that once took us 2 weeks to make. Now that is a good thing!!

It's not that we my other Junies didn't kick butt, no, they really did! The difference is that we are keeping all our custom work in house. That is the key to our current success!

Once the holidays are over we expect our custom order turn around time to go from 2-4 weeks to 1 week depending on fabric availability. Once we are in the new studio I know that we'll be much more organized and able to keep up the stock more efficiently. Hopefully, fabric availability shouldn't be too much of a problem.

This is a dream come true, seriously!! I am so happy!! How happy? Happier than Gallagher in a farmers market!

MJHQ Project #1 - Update

I finally clicked the button and bought all of these pretty fabrics for the room divider in the new studio. I ordered it all from one of my Quilt Market buddies. Jenny and I had a blast drinking mojitos and talking shop a few years back. I always love the fabric that she stocks at her online shop Sew Fabulous Quilt Shop

Stay tuned project #1 will be underway soon!!

Changes

Photo swiped shamelessly from Google Images

Change is hard, great and scary, isn't it? Modern June is in a massive time of flux and growth, so naturally changes are bound to occur. We've never been busier, thus I've never been crazier. My husband describes me an Elemental Force. Wow, that's hard core. (Whine) I don't want to be hard core, instead I want to be warm and fuzzy. I want to approachable and available to my family, friends and Junies, not just my company.

For the last two to three months (probably more) I've been running on pure adrenalin. I've been so irritable--man, I do not like being snippy. I haven't been taking good care of my family--thankfully my sweet hubby has been working overtime to take of every thing he can--Homeschool, the household and most meals, while working a full-time job. I've neglected my kids so much that it makes my heartbreak. My self-care has been non-existent--I've gained back and added pounds over the last year, my chiropractor hasn't cared for my aching back in ages, and  I haven't had a "lady doctor" check up in 27 months--much to the shock and horror of the woman that took my appointment yesterday (thanks lady, I really needed a MOM lecture right about now).

Pillow crafted by Bloomsbury Loft

I want a simple life filled with love and comfort. I want a home that is filled with warmth and laughter. I am sick to death of the all too common line, "Sorry, I've got to work now." When you work at home you are always at work. My computer is always on, the cutting table is always waiting for me, and the fabric is all around my house. This summer the product for the CLF shows was stacked up in the dining room for so long that I need to dust it. Good gravy, it's more than four people can take.

When you work from home and have workers that come and go or stay and work, your house is a free for all. My neighbors must think that I'm a dealer. Thank goodness they see bolts of fabric coming and going, it's proof that it's really fabric that I'm dealing!! ; ) When you work from home your kids can't ever run around in the jammies, they can't use the bathroom when they need to. They are tied to home and their mothers work. It's crazy.

When I was young my parents worked two jobs, they worked day jobs and then ran their own businesses at night and on the weekends. While this enforced a strong work ethic upon me at an early age, it made me very lonely. They were never home, so I thought I was doing us all a favor by working at home. And I think that was the right course of action for a very long time. But now it's time to go--tt's time to separate work and family life.

Image Credit: Fantastic Mag!!

It's time for me to move work out of the house. It's time for me to compartmentalize my life. I look forward to working at the new Summit Street studio, so I be "Kelly" at home--so I can be the Kelly that is present for her family!! I really miss that Kelly.

As we move into to the new studio space, my Junie staff has been changing, growing, evolving. I've had to let a few people go, and I've had some contractors leave. We've gone from a part-time work force of 8 to 4 almost full-timers. That's a really big deal.

Thankfully it's turning out just how I imagined it years ago. I've wanted to slim down all the part-time contractors to a few people that worked more hours. By doing so, I should have less people to manage, less personalities to worry about, and less payroll to do, right? I hope so! It really seems like the productive thing to do, but when you have a gaggle of Junies that work part-time, who do you let go? Who do you want to be working in your house 30-40 hours a week? Now I love my Junies, I really do, but this is my house, my home. My kids don't go to school--since they are homeschooled they are here all day, everyday. Having a full-time person here would just too much of an intrusion on our personal life.

Enter the new studio that I'll be sharing with my friend Heidi Rugg from Bare Foot Puppets!! By renting out this little space I can now have a full time employee!! Geneva's my girl!! She'll be able to come in and get her job done while I'm at home doing my mom thing, or in my personal studio writing my books. It'll be a place where the remaining part timers come and go as scheduled.

(Heavy sigh)

I'm so excited!! This feels so right to me, and even though I know that there will be challenges within the change, I know we'll all work it out. I have a tight and talented team, and a family that cares for me. I'm golden!!

Kathie (Production Manager and Shipping Director)  Geneva (OCA cutter and full-time stitcher) Nicole (Longest Junie Standing/Stitcher) and Kerri (Ohio Sewing Contractor) I give you this...

...our new Modern June home!!

(told you it was ugly)

New Studio Project #1

As we prepare to move into a new studio over the next couple of weeks I am obsessing over one thing. Shockingly it's not paint color. Weird right? I am going with a stark white walls and concrete floors. The opposite of our home.

The large room that I will be occupying will also have a small storage area and my studio mates sewing corner. There just happens to be this cool track splitting the room at just the right spot. Now we don't expect to be there for very long, just 12 to 18 months tops, so I'll be making do on a lot of pretty projects. Every project for this studio 2.0 will have to be portable or be re-purposed.

So it looks like project #1 for our studio will be a room dividing curtain. I've done a lot of self conversing on what material to use. The psycho-babble has gone a little like this...

• Oilcloth? No way, too stiff. 

• Laminated Cotton? To expensive and to hot of a commodity. 

• OK, cotton it is! 

• Drapery Fabric? No, too ho-hum or too costly.

• Vintage Sheets? Cool!! I like it... but wait aren't they going to be to short? Nope not long enough to go from ceiling to floor.

• How about quilting cotton? OK, now we're talking! The weight will be just fine and we can mix and match panels to create a fun and funky look. Then if we want to use it for something else we can. 

I am hard person to talk with sometimes!! 

 Photo Credit Inga Powilleit via SF Girl by Bay

So here is my inspiration for my 9' x 16' room divider... Emily Chalmers' own loft/office curtain meets the bedroom found on page 140 in her book Modern Vintage Style.

Photo Credit Debi Treloar via Modern Vintage Style

I am going to use strips of quilting cotton to create this eclectic look. I doubt my print choices will be this Brady Bunch --not that I don't love that completely. No knowing me, I'll go more June Cleaver's kitchen curtains or better yet I'll find a mix of all the kitchen curtains on June Cleaver's block.

OK, enough dreaming head on over my Fabric Lust pin board to see what I'm shopping for and then head over to the Dream Studio board to see more fabu vintage wallpaper projects.

Burnt out and sick...

It's impossible to know which came one first, the burn out or the sickness. Does one come with the other? Hmm... Or, is it just a bad timing? Actually I think that it's rather good timing. I am going to be completely empty and unable to find my creative fire I might as well have a cold from hell. And if I can't think because I have a head cold then I might as well shut down creatively. Right? Right.

I'm just thankful for a team of Junies that will cover me until I am back to my old self. My dear friend and assistant, Kathie, told me that it takes two PJ days to get going not just one. All I know is that now is not the time of year to have to shut down for mental and physical health reasons.

Meanwhile, I'm taking the time to dream of my next book. I have the table of contents taped to my lamp shade so I can plot and  problem solve. I am also resourcing new and vintage fabrics, props and supplies so I can get to work as soon as I can pry myself out of bed. My first deadline is on December 5th so I better get to it ASAP!! YIKES!

I also have a big surprise!! I am moving out of my home studio and into a studio space in a nearby neighborhood called Scott's Addition -- a cool industrial spot that is filling up with creative spaces and loft dwellers. It's seriously ugly right now but soon, very soon it will be amazing!! Check out my Pinterest board Dream Studio and Craft Room for all my inspiration.

So once I get my bad self together I am going to resume conquering the world, but for now, I am going to pry myself up and get dressed for the second time today so I can go and get my sweet girl from her classes and my son to his appointment. (No rest for the weary.)

Photo Album: Country Living Fair ATL 2012

The Modern June Boutique Booth, Atlanta Country Living Fair 2012.