Soccer, Japanese Erasers, and Christmas Twirl Skirt Set

This little Twirl skirt is off to it's new owner. I am working on all kinds of holiday gift items and will be showcasing at several shows the next few weeks:

If you are looking for a little outing next Saturday, come visit me and many other artists at the Olivenhain Arts and Craft Fair. Saturday, Nov 14 from 9 am till 4pm. ( At the old meeting hall on Rancho Santa Fe and 7th Street). I am hearing great things from many of the artists, and this would be the best place to search for very affordable Hand Made items for holiday shopping.

At this time of year, it is so much fun to attend these shows and see all the talent that is available in our local area! I am in awe at each show of the creativity that goes into each artists works....

So has your home been invaded by the "Japanese Erasers, Craze"? This collection has grown beyond the shadow box on the wall, to taking over adjacent bookshelfs... and the craze is still a huge driving force for the 11 yr. old in our house! The one time I hear no grumbling about going grocery shopping is if we are headed to the Japanese Market, where she is in hopes of adding to her collection. You have to admit, sure beats the "trading card craze" of years past! And the price is right, very inexpensive hobby!

End of soccer season is here for the Black Pearls. We had our pizza party today after the game, and trophy time! Next weekend is the tournament and then we bid this season, farewell... with mixed emotion! Great to have such a wonderful group of girls this season, and we will miss our weekly time at practice and game day on Saturday's.... but, nice to have some down time too, especially those early Saturday am game times!

The weather has been cooler and slightly crisp. Even though we don't experience true "Fall changes" here in Southern CA, we do get to add a scarf and a light weight jacket now and then... I think this year, Thanksgiving is receiving the honor that it should! We all have so much to reflect on during the tough year that is passing, and knowing that as families, we are all paring down some on extravagant expenses. I think these tough times, are bringing back the true meaning of the holiday season! We are all learning to find pleasure in the simpler things of life, and for that I am grateful...... So let's make our "Thanksgiving list" and when times seem overwhelming, maybe we can look at our list, and take a breath...... knowing in the end, it is health and happiness... not all the material things we had all grown so accustomed to in years past, that makes life special.


Happy Holidays!

Pictures From Sunday's Halloween: Mermaid Mercantile

Hand Painted pictures frames accented with very cool retro stamps... did you even know I did some painting work?

This very cool old baby bed frame is housing memory boxes, handmade baby blankets, and recycled record album set crafted into cool collection bowls and journal books... very nifty guy gifts.

Go completely GREEN, with these Cotton double edged napkins. Perfect for sprucing up your table for the Holidays. And at $2.00 ea... what a great buy for a lovely gift!

This wall hanging took hours and hours of piecing work. Each little square was hand cut, and pieced. The entire piece was quilted. and is a very gorgeous light catching piece for a bedroom or bath area.

Check out the new Booth Space, Debi from Out of the Blue helped me work it over... and I think it looked amazing! This venue is a fun place to be for the day... not only as a customer but as a vendor... we all had a great time!

Ahh, the soul of my sewing... Twirl Skirts. This one is All Charlie Brown... and it brings Thanksgiving and the Great Pumpkin on with a bit of retro fun! I hope some little girl gets to twirl around in this one very soon...

The wine bag collection found a new place to hang on this cool vintage bench.


The weekend was exhausting as usual. The ladies were all amazing, and we will all be back next month. Look for details soon. The dates of the next Mermaid Mercantile in Solana Beach are: Nov 28 and Nov 29.... the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving.... the BIGGEST shopping weekend of the month. Remember, give handmade. Supporting a local Mom who works from her studio/kitchen table is putting the money back into your local community! All of the artists work many long hours producing these hand made pieces, then setting up at local venues..... each sale is treasured and very needed for her to stay in business. Support handmade....Please share.

Wine Bag Party

Fall is here, if you don't count those 80 sometimes near 90 degrees days that pop in now and then... Halloween is just around the corner. I love Fall, I love the change and the crisp air. In the next round of Kids College we are going to be learning some weaving and I can't wait to pull out the great oranges, browns, and other great Fall colors. Nothing beats pulling on my favorite shorts, a T-shirt and topping it with a light weight sweat shirt or button down shirt... yes, I know fancy right? But, ahh... that is almost as good as comfort food to me!


On the crafting scene lately it has been wine bags, scads and scads of wine bags! I think I am starting to dream "techno colored" wine bags. These bags for me are a means of mixing recycled fabrics that I search out from garage sales, outlet stores, and friends give me from discards... and of course my own closet... and yes... don't fret I wash and properly clean before starting each project... my favorite are old JEANS! I love taking old jeans and using the legs for the inside lining of the wine bags, they make WONDERFUL linings! The outside of the wine bags are an inspiration from my Granny Fryer's patchwork style of quilting using fabrics that I purchase from travels, from coupons ( I am an AVID coupon fabric shopper) and again from garage sales, and friends sharing with me the discards... all of these treasures are then sewn up "quilt style" into my own designed wine bags...

Best part of the wine bags, they are the "IN VOGUE" of the "GO GREEN SCENE"... what better way to keep your wine nice and chilled, give it to family or friends in a completely hand crafted bag that can be used over and over in all natural COTTON fibers! and when soiled just machine wash ( delicate please!) air dry....and use over, and over, and over... how GREEN is that!

Telling off on myself... after a few years of full time sewing... I recently was making up several twirl skirt sets ( photos will be up soon) that I will be selling this weekend at the Mermaid Mercantile... and all of a sudden while using the ruffler foot my machine started going completely haywire! I had just recently purchased new materials including some threads.... and couldn't imagine what in the world was going wrong... I cleaned everything out... digging out the mess out of the inside of the machine... and started over... Within a few minutes, again a complete uproar of thread above and inside my machine occurred... I was going insane! So I spent the better part of the day doing this over and over... deciding my wonderful Bernina sewing machine was now sick and going to have to go see the Bernina Sewing Machine Doctor. Bright and early the next morning, I pack my sick machine up, drive it over to the doctor, and within 2 seconds they say... ahhh that's your problem your running Polly/Cotton 50/50 Blend Thread instead of 100% Polly or 100% Cotton Thread.... I said your kidding me? No I'm not.... But, yes... they were right... with my "decrepid" eyes I had recently purchased a blend thread not realizing it...as I couldn't read the fine print... UGHH!!! So, I have to say where is the petition to the sewing thread manufacturers to put the details on the thread in large print???? :)

So back up and running, I am turning out wine bags, twirl skirts, even working on a mermaid doll... yes, I said a Mermaid Doll... any help in this catagory would be GREATLY appreciated! I am trying a "rag style" simple, cloth doll... and not sure yet on the proper size.... still in the "development" phase. Also working on some holiday napkin and place settings, and even a quilt.

I attended the Wine for Art auction last night for Soroptimist International of Oceanside/Carlsbad held at the Art Museum in Oceanside. The event was to raise funds for local art scholarships to be given within our community, and I was very proud to be a part of this organization of hard working women. The current display in the museum is from :
Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz was absolutely heart tugging from an artists perspective as well as a part of history that we should never let be forgotten. What an amazing story put into fabric. It is only here until the 25th ( later this week) so, if possible please go see this wonderful collection.

So, for now... get crafting, try something new! And remember to smile!

Quick update

Just a quick update. Events coming up:

The last Sunday of this month I will be at The Mermaid Mercantile... Sunday, October 25 from 10 am till 5 pm at Out of the Blue in the Cedros Design District in Solana Beach... contact me for more information.

Sunday, November 1st will be the HUGE Carlsbad Street Fair, I am located on the NW Corner of State Street ( one block West of the Post Office) from 8 am till 5 pm.


Saturday, November 14 find Yono's Creations paired up with Shelly from "Get The Hook" a great friend who creates some wonderful one of a kind yarn creations at the Olivenhain Arts and Craft Fair at the Old Meeting Hall on Rancho Santa Fe and 7th Street Olivenhain, CA. from 9am till 4pm. This show is a don't miss for your holiday shopping needs.

and last but not least... don't miss:

Yono's Creations @ Casita Center for Technology's Holiday Bazaar December 11 from 5pm - 8pm. Great chance for those last minute holiday needs! And what a great way to help a local school as I will be donating a portion of my sales to the school.

Hope to see you during this holiday season, come by and say hi!

Watch for some pictures soon, as many items are being finished up for these shows... and I will take some sneak peak shots!

Kids Expo and Mermaid Mercantile

I will be setting up this weekend at Kids Expo in San Diego at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Event is Sat. and Sunday : http://sdkidsexpo.com/

Yono's Creations is giving away some awesome deals: A complete handcrafted Scrapbook Valued at over $980.00 AND 3 people will have a chance to win very cool Accordion Style Scrapbook's valued at over $100.00.....


On Sunday, the Debut of "Mermaid Mercantile" hits the Cedros Area of Solana Beach. This amazing show will feature local artisans in a unique shopping experience. The Fall inventory's of each artist will be seen for the first time this season. You won't want to miss this!

So... Saturday find me at Kids Expo.... and Sunday find me at Mermaid Mercantile.

If you make it out to Kids Expo on Sunday, I have a wonderful lady sitting for me in my booth ( she is a dietary planner and will have some great hand outs for you to take home), and you will still have a chance to enter all the great giveways... and stop by Mermaid Mercantile on your way home and say hi!

Yono's Creations @ Mermaid's Mercantilel

Yono's Creations has joined forces with a great group of artists in Solana Beach, Ca. to bring a collection of amazing art together in one show. "The Mermaid's Mercantile" will be a place to shop a collection of vintage to present day handiwork by over 20 awesome artists in a "cut out of the Blue" in the Cedros Design District. Sunday, September 27th 10 am to 5 pm and then always on the last Sunday of the Month you will always be able to come, shop and find something fun and new!

Location: Out of the Blue 315 South Cedros Avenue Solana Beach, CA you can contact myself or the shop directly: 858*755*7630 for more information. This coop of artists will be bringing new pieces of art each month, in a unique environment. Share with family and friends, and come see what is being made in Southern Ca....

Purses on Parade Starring "Fred" The purse holder...

It has been a parade of purses at the sewing machine lately... Small "clutch" reversible style and larger "market bag" style.


I added an inside pocket to the market bags because frankly, ladies we are ALL about the pockets right! With me, even my pants have became... ALL about the pockets... ( well, and stretchy waist band, but that is an entire blog post all it's own!)

Why so many pockets? Cell phones! If it isn't in your pocket, or in the purse pocket.... it is a problem. I go upstairs, leaving my cell phone down in the "crafting area" only to hear it going off time and time again.

The other item pushed into the pockets, is my I-pod. Since I spend many hours a day creating, or marketing I am always listening to my favorite crafty podcasts. With over 350 podcast subscriptions, I must never be too far from my I-pod! Ok, I don't actually listen to EACH and EVERY one of those... but, free is free and why not subscribe to the things you are interested in so that you have a "library" to choose from. So yes, I am a podcast "freak" of sorts... and the day that I have to pay for listening will be a sad day indeed!


So how do you like "Fred"? He is a turtle souvenir I picked up our last trip to San Francisco.... so he is a new resident to Carlsbad... I needed a purse holder this morning, and he volunteered for the job since everyone else was gone!

And for anyone who cares... it is 85 degrees in our house today... this being the 3rd week of our 2009 "heat wave"..... This coastal living, isn't too pleasant at the moment! Sleeping at night has been rather YUCKY!