Sew Junie Shasta Series!

I have a great new toy and I'm sharing it all with you. Head on over to my new Modern June blog and read all about the history of my little Shasta camper!

A New Beginning...

When I started blogging way back in January of 2007, I was a stay at home mom of two, at the beginning of a creative journey. The Modern June and Oilcloth Addict blogs took me down roads I never thought possible. After running a great handmade business and writing two sewing books, I’m ready for a new start. I’ve started a new blog on the Wordpress platform, and I trying to find my creative voice again.

Running a creative business can take it’s toll on a creative person when it becomes all about money and management. At some point, I started to feel like I had nothing more to say to the world,  so I stopped blogging. Then my family went through a really rough patch and I became very tired and worn. As a result I decided to take a break from the handmade side of my company, and I let my staff go and I stopped making tablecloths and the other Modern June goodies. Since the end of September I’ve been working through my burn out recovery. It’s required a lot of Hulu, family fun and many, many pajama days. Thankfully, I started feeling my like my old crafty self again in December.

Please join me at ModernJuneBlog.Wordpress.com as I craft, sew and DIY myself silly. My Modern June (1297 posts) and Oilcloth Addict blogs will stay around as an archive and resource for us both. I still sell fabric, books and patterns at ModernJune.com and I’ll still the Oilcloth Addict on Etsy.

Here’s to a new journey for me and Modern June!!

Cheers,
Kelly McCants
Modern June, the Oilcloth Addict

New DIY Kit: Hanging Chalkcloth Banner Kit

Perfect for the holiday chalk art, dinner party menus, or an everyday to do list! Use this kit to make your very own Hanging Chalkcloth Banner. Click here to see the tutorial! 

Kit Includes:
- 18" x 47" of chalk cloth
- 24" dowel rod
- 1 yard of mini pom-pom trim
- 1 yard of ribbon
- 1 yard of bias trim
- 3 yards of 3 different rick racks
- 1 piece of chalk
- 1 permanent chalk marker
- Instruction sheet

Kit Price: $20.00

Choose from 3 colors, green, aqua and red!

 My Thanksgiving banner!!

Ooh, Dream Chicken...

[Chorus]
Ooh dream chicken
I believe you can get me through the night.
Ooh dream chicken
I believe we can reach the morning light.

Yep, I went there!! I am as cheesy as I am kitschy, and proud of it.

So, let me tell you a little something about myself: I have freaky dreams all the time. Bizarre dreams that are fragmented and combine different aspects of my past and current life. The dream I had this morning before I woke was hysterical, but only since it wasn't real.

In this dream, one of my crafty friends does another crafty friends job poorly.

Meet Deana, she owns and operates the cutest little shop here in Richmond, Strawberry Fields Flowers and Finds. She's been selling my wares at her shop for over 7 years. And over the years I've seen her working on wedding after wedding. If you walked in on any given Friday the work tables and fridges will be filled with centerpieces and other weddingy things. Naturally, she is the person that I went to, in my dream, to make me a last minute wedding bouquet.

Yep, I was dreaming I a 20-something Kelly, that was getting married on a whim. (Thank goodness none of my boyfriends back then would have done that with me, I would have been divorced 3 times before I met Don). It was a Friday afternoon, right before happy hour (Well, that sounds about right!) and I needed a wedding bouquet for the next day. So, I headed over to Strawberry Fields, taking my own flowers for her to arrange for me (Who even does that?). Even stranger, I found the flowers in a grimy neighborhood market that never has flowers. The flowers were bright yellow lilies, and I loved them!! (Keep in mind I would never buy yellow lilies, ever!)

So I get there and Deana's no where to be found, but one of her best buddies is... Meet our friend Karyn Shonk, a fabulous gal that makes AMAZING jewelery. Now... in my dream I ask Karyn to take my bright yellow lilies and make them pretty for me (Keep in mind Karyn doesn't work with flowers, she works with wire and gems!). She proceeds to take off a few the petals from the lilies. (As I've seen Deana do many times.) But, Karyn doesn't stop with less attractive the outer petals, and she ends up taking the flowers down to stalk and stamen. I was mortified, but I trust her when she says that she can fix it for me.

So I leave and come back, to find that she's taken some kind of magic clay that proofs like a yeasty bread dough and she's used it to sculpt a bright yellow chicken for me. At that time, the yellow chicken was flat, and about the size of a dinner plate. I was not amused. But wait, it got so much weirder as a few minutes later the chick has enlarged to the size of a really fluffy bed pillow (I kinda want clay like this!).

Karyn then proceeds to get ready for her own wedding, with to die for flowers, and leaves me on my own. I start filling a box with my yellow chicken and my flower petals and go off to forage for flowers in the forest that's magically appeared outside (You know the one that's never been in this very populated and historic neighborhood since the early 1800's).

So, that is why I got out of bed and painted this chicken!! Aren't you glad you know all that now? LOL!! Have a bright sunshiny day!

Modern June's 3 Day Sale

Starting today I'm having a Instagram sale! For the next 3 days I'm selling some of my fabulous Modern June stock. Think "gift giving," but don't forget yourself, you totally deserve a gift or two!

How does an Instagram sale work? Just head on over to your Instagram feed and search for @ModernJune_IGshop. Once you have found me, click to follow, or simply click on this and then the follow button. I'll be showing up in your Instagram feed and you'll see all my special listings over the next 3 days!

Once you see a product that you like, simply leave me a valid PayPal email address and your zip code to claim the item, first come first serve. If there is more than one item available, be sure to let me know how many you would like. At the end of each day I'll send out PayPal invoices for any item you bought. If you order several items over multiple days, I'll be happy to combine shipping.

Flat rates for shipping are $3, $6, and $11, with prices determined by the weight and size of the item. You won't be charges more than $11 for combined shipping. Sweet, right?

See the list of details (in the image above) for more information.

Be sure to come back a few times each day as I will be listing items all day long today, tomorrow and Sunday!

Please note, I'm still not making items at this time. The items that I'm listing on the IG shop are ready-made stock items. I will not be making custom items for this holiday season. See why here!

Getting real on Instagram!

A few weeks ago, I opened up about something that's been bugging me for quite some time now... You all know it. You've all felt it. It's the dreaded BURNOUT!

Now, I've been burnt out before, but never like this. I have burnout on top of burnout. When you run a crafty biz you don't have much time for burnout recovery, do you? Nope. You job is to keep creating. To keep churning out the handmade goodness at the rate of a small factory. Ug, that is hard work. It's compounded when you have a staff that relies on you to help pay the rent. No matter how much stress you have, stress sucks!! Big. Time.

As some of you may have noticed I stopped making handmade goods for now. My Modern June Etsy  shop is on vacation and that I'm only selling fabrics on my website, Modern June and at Oilcloth Addict. Why? Well, that's a big question, and the answer requires us to sit down for over a long dinner while sharing a bottle of w(h)ine. For now, I'm just trying to open up and share a bit more in-the-now, after I've mentally processed it a bit, and I'm a little less raw.

So to kick-off my journey, I'm sharing my Instagram story from a few weeks ago:

It's an honor to have all day to play (around and draw all day) like this!! Not too long ago my days where filled with making cool loot! I really enjoyed making tablecloths and other useful goodies until a year ago. Work and staff management kept me away from my kids for 9-14 hours a day. Even when I was home I was working on the computer or at my sewing machine. I would go weeks at a time without a day off. Basically, I was more than exhausted. The more successful I was, the more there was to manage. Money, supplies, and Junies (my workers). When I started #modernjune 8 1/2 years ago I never really meant to run a company. I never imagined writing sewing books, or having a staff. I had no idea that all of these things were possible. I rode the waves of hard work and opportunity where they took me, rarely saying "no." Over committed was my middle name!! Until last year, when I caught myself in a lie!! I told a customer who was gushing over my booth filled with product, that I had a blast managing the making of it all. The fact was, I was tired and I missed being #mamahen! It nearly took me an entire year to whittle down Modern June to a manageable specialty #fabricshop, Oilcloth Addict! Now, everyday I try to be creative! I do a little drawing or crocheting before and after I #homeschool our teenaged kids. Every day I remind myself that #mycreativitydoesntneedtobemonetized. I remind myself that my self worth does not have to be tied to my success as an #entrepreneur and maker. Sometimes being a mom is everything! Soon enough, I'll have an empty nest and I'll be able to do all kinds of crazy things I never thought were possible! #grateful!

How have you beat burnout? Leave me a comment below so we can chat about it. Also, check out my Instagram and see daily drawings and much more!

My Country Living Fair Booth - 2014