Go Blue!

A little UM team spirit on it's way to you Mel! They will go out tomorrow as planned. :)

Fuzzi Bunz.

More Pirate Booty

Well, I finally got my machine back. It was only gone for a day, but it felt much longer! hahaha

Desiree, I have your 3d pocket diaper ready to go out in tomorrows mail. I haven't done a NB/SM size in so long, and it looks so adorable and teeny tiny! Thanks for being patient while I had my machine looked at. :)

Mel, I am planning to start your FB's on Monday and have them back out to you on Tuesday. If I get some time this weekend I will get a jump on them, but plan on Tuesday. :)

Thanks!

Something more important than cloth diapers

Many of you know that my husband and I hope to adopt a sibling group of three orphans from Ethiopia. At this point we don't know if it is going to be a possibility for the 3 children we have fallen in love with. Our agency and the children's orphanage are having difficulties with a few things. The financial aspect is also a huge one for us.

That aside, my family and I still have a huge burden on our hearts for the children who go to bed each night knowing they are alone in the world and hoping against hope for someone to love them. No child should have these lonely fears. Some of these children also have another struggle in their young lives, being born with or acquiring HIV. In our country, HIV is a manageable disease and children and adults can receive medications to enable them to live long and healthy lives. In countries like Ethiopia, a child with HIV has little hope for life at all.

The AHOPE Bracelets pictured above are designed to honor the children of AHOPE and raise funds for their care. For a $10.00 donation you can wear a stainless steel AHOPE bracelet that features the AHOPE logo, the first name of a child at AHOPE, and the Amharic word for HOPE. We pray that each bracelet will serve as a reminder of a special child and raise awareness of the plight of HIV orphans around the world. By wearing an AHOPE Bracelet, you join our efforts in caring for these children!

If you would like to order a bracelet for yourself or as a gift, please email Marissa and she can let you know how to proceed. Shipping and handling is $2.50 for up to three bracelets in one package. As my own special way to contribute, I will offer a 15% discount on anything in my store (or congo) to the mommas (or daddy's) who order a bracelet and send me their picture wearing it!

Stalking...errrrrrr...following feature

The sidebar of my blog has a new Blogger feature where you can follow the blog. I don't know how it works, but go try it out and see!

The sewing room

With my embroidery machine out of commission over the weekend, I decided to tackle my sewing room relocation. My son recently graduated and left for an extended visit with my dad and brothers in Hong Kong. His sister immediately took over his old bedroom and made it her own...complete with over 200 posters of the Jonas Brothers and Joe Jonas in particular. She is juuuuust a tad obsessed.

With her vacated bedroom I began dreaming of all the SPACE I could have if I moved my sewing room into it...not to mention an abundance of natural light with two windows...one to the south and another to the west. So I went ahead and bit the bullet and moved in! I was chatting with my friend Holly from Momufactured and we were swapping sewing room photos (hers is bigger than mine...and has more stuff!!), but here are a few pics of mine!

I finally have a closet big enough to hold most of my fabric!! Yay! Fleece, Minkee, flannel, and dyed obv up on top, five 14 yard coils of obv hanging on the right with bags of washed obv, obi, and obf behind, my bags of fabric scraps hanging in the center (cause everyone knows I can't part with my fabric scraps!), drawers stuffed full of fabrics and notions, 3 extra sewing machines stored to the left along with all my unfinished quilt tops (which I swear I will get done this winter...no really!).

In my strive for space, and because I couldn't imagine selling this loft bed at a loss when my middle son decided he didn't want it anymore, I turned it into a work center and it does beautifully in the role. Both my Bernina 'baby's' are set up here, my personal laptop, my embroidery machine laptop, threads, stabilizers, snaps...all within easy reach. My UFO's (unfinished objects) are in the laundry basket below, as are a few of my patterns. The left side is my pitifully small cutting area and below that is shipping stuff, trash, and more drawers of notions.

This shelf unit was my Nana's for the longest time and I repainted it a few years ago and it became storage for my other UNfavored serger (it isn't a Bernina and therefore is relegated to the corner!) when not in use, books, PUL, and more fabric yardage and I - Spy quilt charms...yeah I will get around to them as well! My makeshift lightbox is sitting on the chair there to the left...with the remnants of the soap I was taking pictures of today to list at Etsy.
And no, that isn't a real baby sleeping up there with the serger as it's pillow! It is my daughters old Berenger Reborn doll and has become my favorite model for tiny things I sew. :)

All in all, I LOVE the space I have now. I think the room is 14 x 12, so a full 40 or so square feet bigger than what I had previously! I don't love the carpet though and will need to get it cleaned asap. My daughter still holds the record for most gum and candy per square foot according to our carpet cleaning guy! Oh...and ignore my daughters porcelain doll collection up there. She now thinks they are 'creepy' and can't be bothered to move them to her (overstuffed) digs. :P

When and if my oldest son returns from HK, he gets the tiny ex-sewing room! hahaha Good thing he is a minimalist. All his stuff, including his clothing, fits into ONE box!

A new look and a Congo or two...

I am so very lucky to have a friend who is not only the best friend a girl could have, but also such a gifted web designer. I am talking about Andrea at Wanted Web Design. She has always gone above and beyond for me (whether with our friendship or with my various store incarnations) when I have asked...and sometimes when I haven't! She has a great sense of style and knows how to draw the eye without making the design look to busy. Her designs are top notch and it shows.

So a few days ago when I told her I was going to be joining The Spotted Box and Weeping Willows and would need a logo for each of them...and then told her that eventually I wanted to update the look of my HyenaCart and make it more seamless with my Etsy shop and the blog...she surprised me with the new logo AND the new HC design...overnight...despite her tremendous work load. Not only that, but she gave everyone a thrill when she did the new template upload right before my latest stock time not realizing that there were 40 some people in the cart at the time! hahaha Go check out the redesign and see what you think!

Since my embroidery machine is down at the moment and waiting to go in for service, I took it upon myself today to load the new background and colors into the blog and then update the sidebar with a few new features I hope you will take a minute to check out. One of them is a way to be sure you will get all the latest blog updates and looks like it is pretty cool.

If you are in need of some web design, give Andrea a shout, she won't disappoint! Thank you Abs for all of the hard work you put into making my store look so wonderful and for being the most amazing friend. I love you! xox

Autumn and Halloween!

I have been having fun doing some Autumn and Halloween covers...too much fun I think! I might even do a few more before the end of the month! Here is a sneak peek of a few of the cloth diaper covers I will be stocking on my HyenaCart this Wednesday...

Patchwork colors

Cheryl got some really awesome longies made and needed a few tees for Autumn to go with them, so we thought these went perfectly!

The octopus is one of my favorite animals, and this guy is just too cute!

I think they turned out pretty good for such stitch heavy designs!

*Edited to add pics. Could that little face get any cuter? She is adorable Cheryl!

Autumn Minkee and OBcV

In my last post I said I was going to try to get some diaper cuts sewn up and I have! I will be stocking them today on my HyenaCart and move them to Etsy in a week if they have not sold. So look for some Minkee/Minkee embroidered covers as well as an organic bamboo/cotton velour (OBcV) embroidered fitted.

As a special bonus, if you have ever posted a comment to my blog prior to today, I am offering a 10% discount on any of the items I have currently for sale on either cart (offer ends Sept 11, 2008)! Just let me know the post you commented on and I will send you a corrected Paypal or RME invoice. :)

*Edited to add a pic of one of the covers in action!