Let's Celebrate!

About two years ago, I received an email from my beloved editor, Roxanne Cerda. She had the idea for a book filled with oilcloth projects, and she wanted me to bring it to life. You know I almost died of happiness that day! 

A year later, I found myself with my new friend and photographer Megan McSweeney photos for the book. It was crazy fun as we went from location to location setting-up and then taking fabulous pictures. By this time I was also doing author reviews--the process of fine tuning text and patterns in my book with Charlotte Kughen, my Project Editor. The review process was really fast paced--there was a constant stream of emails going back and forth between the two of use for months. I actually have over 500 emails from her during that time.

Fast forward one more year, and I've just I received my first Royalty Statement--not a check, but a count of my book sales from the publisher. Our book did very well in pre-sale and during the first 2 months and I am thrilled beyond belief!

What an amazing two years it has been! What I learned about writing books and publishing patterns could fill an entire book by itself. I learned most projects require four pattern revisions and subsequent mock ups before a pattern is ready for someone else to look at. And more revisions may be needed after that. Phew! Who knew it would take all that time and energy?!?!

Since publication, I've had the chance to travel and share my book with people from all over the country. Thanks to Country Living Fairs, local shops, my websites, and Quilt Market, I've met a lot of great people, introducing them to the joys of working with oilcloth and laminated cotton. Honestly, its hard for me to convey what an honor that has been for me.

So, I say its time we celebrate and give away a two signed copies of The Book along with 3 yards of oilcloth. You've got to have fabric to go along with a book of projects after all.

To enter please head over to our Modern June Facebook page "LIKE" us before Wednesday 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, and then leave a message on our Wall. Do the same with our Oilcloth Addict Facebook page. By entering a message on both, you'll get two chances to win. Only one (1) entry per Facebook post, per person, for the duration of the contest, for a total of two (2) entries if you post on each page for the duration of the contest.  If you "LIKE" us already don't worry, just leave us a love note mentioning the contest on our Facebook page to enter. But remember, do this by 5 PM EST, Wednesday, February 1, 2012.  I'll pick two random winners that evening, one from each page. The winners will receive a signed copy of my book, and 3 yards of their choice of oilcloth fabric.

Good luck!

Bedroom???

So, what do you think? Sea Glass on the walls, with citron, blue and orange accents.

Reno Update: Week 11

To start off week 11 we emptied out our bedroom this week to make way for a bit of plaster demo and a new wall and ceiling. The only thing left in our room is our bed and our dressers. The rest of our bedroom in hanging out in the dining room, it's not like we've been able to use that room since early November.

 

The chimney for the boiler is right behind the whole in the wall. Years of water damage was added to when the tree feel on the back of the house. Our bedroom ceiling will be crack and water damage free too. LOVE that!!!

This was the weirdest night thing. The room felt like a a bad fun house. I had the hardest time falling  asleep, when I laid in be the room felt like it was tilted. 

Now it looks like a padded cell. Now don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I am just thankful that we aren't sleeping in the dining room. My vacuum and I are very close friends.

This is a bonus, we didn't have a proper deck floor before all we had was a prickly roof paper underfoot. This is lemonade in wood form.

Working late...

My hubby bought this sweet little cafe set the night before Hurricane Irene struck. You heard me right. The. Night. Before. He ordered it from Lowes and set it up on our old deck with a bunch of my flower containers from the porch, it was the only nice surprise I got that weekend. The tree hit the weekend that my book was released, this bistro set was my "you wrote a book and deserve a nice get away spot" gift.

Well, guess what? I have a nicer spot now!!

This is looking so pretty!! The clay moon plaque was bought on our trip to Tennessee right before we had our Maddie, it makes Don and I smile. I am just happy that it survived the tree falling upon it. The chimney couldn't say that.

I know it's winter but this is so bad!! Let's just say I am adding a lot of images to my garden Pinterest board. More on that project later...

Oilcloth Swatches Winter 2012

Oilcloth Swatches Winter 2012, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

Check out all our swatches over on our flickr page! Can't have the winter blue's with all this fun fabric around!!!

Look what I made...

Check out what I made for a returning client of mine, it's a 3 x 12 1/2 foot floor mat for her parrot room! How perfect and fun is this?!

This new print is called Aztec Black, we'll be adding it to the winter swatch page later today.

The pink of it all!

the pink of it all!, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

We are just loving these laminated cottons! What do you think?

Reno Update: Week Ten

Our exterior bedroom door before.

I cannot believe we are about to begin week 11 of our "a-stupid-freaking-tree-fell-on-our-house-5-months-ago-and-it's-still-not-fixed" RENO!!! Seriously? Seriously!

As if closing down my retail business 5 weeks before Christmas wasn't bad enough. We hit rock bottom when my kids started worrying about us not having a Christmas tree because the dining room furniture and 25 bolts of fabric was in the living room? What could be worst than all of that? Well let me tell you  what's worse I'm getting kicked out of my bedroom. Today my husband and I having to remove everything from our bedroom into out dining room, one level below. 

Told ya! It just got worse, didn't it? Who knows how long this will take, best guess 2 weeks. They guys have to board over the ceiling with new drywall and remove a plaster wall to assess the damage from the trees impact and fix all the water damage. Fun. Good times. I. CAN'T. WAIT. 

Can you tell I've gotten a little surly. Hell ya I am, I am so totally over this. NO more lemonade for me. Today these lemons are rotten. Maybe tomorrow (or in two months time) I'll be back to seeing this massive project as lemonade. But today, it's just rotten.

The silly during shot.

It was a slow week here in reno-land, the guys just touched up the paint in the kitchen and dining room and put in 2 NEW exterior door in our bedroom!! Okay, all surly bad attitude aside, these two doors really rock my world. They are so strong and fancy. No rotting wood or broken glass. We won't tell the insurance company that a lot of that damage was there when we bought the house 13 years ago. Not that they paid for these beauties entirely, but every little bit helps. My hubby went the extra mile and told the contractors to make me happy and to put in the primo doors. I love that man!! The light that is pouring in is worth all the extra money we're paying.

I found some time to move some of our kitchen stuff around to new spots, I am making the most of that pretty window by making a useful vignette.

Since I moved the (little used) Kitchen Aide to the top of the fridge I was able to get the bread box my Mother-In-Law gave me a better home. It's needs some tweaking and some navel jelly but it's progress. 

What's really exciting is that the studio is all put away and working out so nicely. Well mostly working out, I did a really bad job with the cutting tables finishing tape, that will have to be redone. Don't you think we need a pretty new cutting mat? A giant white one will have to be ordered soon. 

OK, I stand corrected, there's some lemonade to be had!

I took some oilcloth and covered the backs of the cube book cases to make it all wee bit nicer. I love my stashed storage. A rolling rack keeps our scraps organized and the rolling filing cabinet is perfect. LOVE!!

BTW, the white bin is filled with strips of selvedges for my roman shade project!! Note to self: You gotta get moving on that!

Maddie and I hit IKEA last week so I could the chair bases for my fun red chairs. Don't you love them?

The best part of the week was the fact that I could open up the window when the temperature hit 60. Please keep in mind I have never-ever-ever been able to open a window in the studio before now. What a gift! OK, there it is, I am happy again. So the tree falling down wasn't but so stupid.

Reno Update: Week Nine!

No lights on!

Pot lights on!

All the lights on! 

Can we talk about this color??? I just love it, it's Behr Poinsettia!!  Can we talk about these lights? I had to pay for these myself and they are worth every single dime -- even if I had to work through the Christmas Holiday to pay for them.

My second favorite upgrade in the kitchen is the trim along the ceiling! We've never had trim in the kitchen before, how very fancy. We also got toe kick along the kitchen cabinets, the toe kick we where supposed to install in 11 years ago. Oh, what's a decade here and there?! My only regret, no new floor first. Oh well, there's always the year 2021 for that.

Next up for the kitchen? The kitchen cabinets will get a good scrubbing, the trim will get painted and I'll overhaul the glass front cabinets with a fresh display. 

Moving on to the dining room...

Behr's Mellow Yellow

I was totally excited, after fretting and fretting, I really love this color. It's just pure sunshine.

It's insanely bright and I love every bit of it. I am sure my M-I-L will hate it, and that's how I'll know for sure that it's right for me.

 Look at it with the white trim and a new Modern June tablecloth!! Love, love, love!! Now I need some red chairs. : )

The pièce de résistance is the old stain glass window. My M-I-L gave us oh so long ago, I am glad that it finally has found a new home. I can't thank my contractor, Sander, enough for suggesting this. 


Well all and all a great week!

Two great new prints!

P1060482, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

I am totally in love with these new prints. Today we'll make a laminated tablecloth out the citron print, it's for "product photo's" and for my new yellow dining room!!

Reno Update: Week Eight

You've got to love a contractor that brings your family treats!! They look like plain old cereal treats but don't let them fool you, they are pure crack on a plate. My contractor, Sander, doubles the marshmallows to make them pure gooey heaven.

They guys finished up the kitchen on Friday. It is the most lovely shade of red. Behr Poinsettia!! It's a real shame that the insurance company didn't pay us to have the trim painted too. A. Real. Shame. I swear that tree made all of our white trim all dirty and I think they should take care of that for us too!!

Next on the agenda, the dining room. Yellow sucks, I can't find the right shade. One is too pale, one is too grey, and the other is to "highlighter" yellow. Oui!

 I started playing around and came up with something... I really hope we all like it.

The guys have the ceilings looking sharp with Behr's Ultra White in semi-gloss, our new ceilings are now bright and perky! We're just happy not to see the wall paper seams that came with the house. Crazy, right? Who wall papers their ceilings? Yuck.

I finished up the cutting table that the guys made for me a few weeks ago. I used the weird orange tool to trim up the edges. This is meant to create a slight beveled edge, but I must say it didn't really work out very well. I ended up painting the chipped and rough edges with white paint and then gave it a light sanding.

I used the an iron to adhere the melamine tape to the edge of the cutting tabletop. This worked out well, now my sweaters are safe from the rough edge of the raw board.

I finally got a few more boxes unpacked, no more digging though my shed looking for my supplies. Doesn't the peg board look much nicer with the trim? Thank you stupid tree for all the perks!

All the cutting stuff is back at the cutting table. I love these Ikea bars that I put up 2 years ago. Everything in it's place and as much stuff off of the table the better.