Here’s Tong’s answers to our questions:

1. What do you love about living in Ontario?
I love that it’s so diverse!  I grew up in Ottawa and then moved to Toronto for university and have now settled here.  I love the natural resources, the beautiful national parks.  I love Toronto and all the different cultures from around the world that thrive in the city.

2. Who’s your favourite fabric designer (don’t feel pressured to name one in store!)?
I LOVE Denyse Schmidt, she is most definitely my favourite.  I also love Heather Bailey and Anna Maria Horner.

3. Do you have a secret stash of fabrics that no one else but you knows about? If so, what are you planning to do with it?
My fabric stash is no secret, my mom knows it best because she has to share a room with them when she comes to visit.  I’m lucky that my boyfriend/common law partner is not only so supportive of my (little) hobby, but encouraging of it too!  No need to hide the stash in our house!  =)  But I am hoarding some Far Far Away unicorns (from Cheryl!) for my future daughter, the boyfriend doesn’t know about that, haha.

Congrats Tong!

It was fun reading about what your plans are for the Summer. Like many of you, we will be spending most of our time in and around the city. Our daughter is 2 and is infatuated with hippos and requests to go visit the zoo every weekend. Thank goodness for the annual pass!

Without further ado, the winner of this giveaway via Random.org is …. #10 Melissa! Congratulations!

We hope you have a fun this Summer in Nova Scotia (we’ve never been but hope to visit that part of the country one day) and Ottawa!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. We have another fun one with some other mom run businesses coming up after the long weekend next week! So stay tuned.

Thank you also to Alexandria of Clippopotamus and Lindsay of Grace Announcements too.

Far Far Away II by Heather Ross for Kokka

Needless to say, the Far Far Away II collection by Heather Ross is now in Canada and it is gorgeous (but I think that about all of Heather Ross’ collections)! You can view the entire collection here.

This collection is the sequel to Heather Ross’ first Far Far Away collection (released last year) but this time around instead of double gauze, the collection is done in a 80% cotton, 20% linen blend.

There’s a bunch of new characters this time including some cats, owls and Sleeping Beauty.

Ok that is all for now.

Go back to celebrating the beginning of Summer.

Or entering our 3 $25 Gift Certificate Giveaway – only one week left!

There are a few more giveaways lined up so check back often (we’ll also announce the new giveaways on our Facebook page and Twitter)

So let’s get started!

It was a little over a year ago that I met Alexandria and Lindsay online. They are two of the kindest online friends a gal could ask for. And did I mention, they are very talented too?

Clippopotamus was started in 2008 as a hair clip company while Alexandria was on maternity leave with her daughter Story. Fast forward 2 years and one child later, Clippopotamus now offers products for girls and boys  and Vanessa was brought on board to help with production.

My daughter is the proud owner of 6 Clippo clips and a pair of mitt clips. So if you ever see a girl running around the city with 6 clips in her hair (yup, she requests all of them to be worn at once), you know it’s my daughter!

Grace Announcements was started in 2005 by Lindsay and offers custom invitations, cards and wall art. You may have seen some of Lindsay’s work with your fabric orders – she designed postcards for Pink Panda Fabrics a while back.

My daughter has had this elephant print hanging in her room since she was 9 months old. Needless to say, the word “elephant” was one of her first words (right after “more”, “cheese”, “Mom” and “Dad”)

On Friday June 25, 2010, one lucky person will receive a gift certificate to all 3 stores:

1. $25 gift certificate from Pink Panda Fabrics
2. $25 gift certificate from Clippopotamus
3. $25 gift certificate from Grace Announcements

To enter:

1. Leave a comment below and let us know what your plans are for the Summer (big vacation, staycation, work, relaxing by the pool? Whatever it is, we want to know!)

For additional entries:

1. Like Pink Panda Fabrics on Facebook
2. Like Clippopotamus on Facebook
3. Like Grace Announcements on Facebook

Leave a separate comment for each “like” (if you say you like all 3 in one comment, it will only count as 1 additional entry and not 3).

Giveaway open to CANADA only and expires on June 25, 2010

Good luck and have a great weekend!

Wahoo! It has been so much fun running this little store for the past 2 years and getting to know you all (on email, Facebook and Twitter)

Pink Panda Fabrics is run by me (Cheryl) and a few helpful friends and family members (they help cut and ship packages on weekends) and we’re honoured to be nominated for such a fabulous award.

Vote for Pink Panda Fabrics!

So if you have a free moment, we’d appreciate your support and would love you to vote for us to win this year’s award.

No pressure though. You don’t have to if you don’t want to

And if you have already voted for us, thank you thank you thank you! We hope to offer even more fresh and modern  designer fabrics to sewing enthusiasts in Canada in the coming years.

To celebrate this nomination, we’re going to run a few contests (giveaways) with a few other mom entrepreneurs we’ve met along the way. Can’t wait to introduce you to them – they are a hoot (and the best cheerleaders one could ask for).

First giveaway starts Friday June 11, 2010. You don’t want to miss it!

Here’s Yvette’s answers to our questions:

1. What do you love about living in Ontario?
I live in a rural area on a farm in the GTA, I love how rural we are, yet how close we are to everything.

2. Who’s your favourite fabric designer (don’t feel pressured to name one in store!)?
Probably Heather Ross and Alexander Henry, though I love lines by many designers.

3. Do you have a secret stash of fabrics that no one else but you knows about? If so, what are you planning to do with it?
Not really – I’ve sewn since I was about 13/14 but only started sewing a lot in the last year, though I’ve had a fabric stash of some sort for many years LOL right now I’m starting to do more clothing for both my daughter and myself.

Congrats Yvette!

This time its for fabric fortune cookies.

Fabric Fortune Cookies - Sweetspot.ca

Chantal Simmons of sweethome has a step by step tutorial on how to make these cookies.

They are just too cute! Too bad they’re not edible (yup, I’m a foodie!).

Thanks Chantal!

And for those who are foodies like myself, she has a few food projects on her blog. Including Cake Pops.

Yum. Probably shouldn’t be surfing for these things before dinner time….

We know lots of you have been asking about it and it’s here. Thanks for being so patient. We were very anxious too!

What’s your favourite print? I think mine has to be Sandpiper (because I have a thing for animals). Just the name reminds me of family vacations we used to take when on Summer vacation!

My husband and I started a little flower garden (ok more like a patch) in the front yard and we’re looking for a place for a big vegetable garden. I suppose it might be a bit late to start but we’re still gonna try to grow some tomatoes this year. And eggplant.

Fabric Covered Flower Pots tutorial by Lavendar and Limes

Anyways, for those looking for a no sew project and are into gardening, Lavendar and Limes has a tutorial for fabric covered flower pots

Beautiful aren’t they? They’d be great as centrepieces at a baby shower and an outdoor garden dinner party or afternoon tea party. Happy Mod Podging (is that a real word? Ah well… you know what I mean!)

Here’s Christa’s answers to our questions:

1. What do you love about living in British Columbia?
I love living in B.C. because even though I live in the city, I can easily go swimming in a lake, lie on a beach by the ocean, or hike a mountain and still be home in time for dinner.

2. Who’s your favourite fabric designer (don’t feel pressured to name one in store!) and what will you be making with those fabrics?
I’ve just started quilting so I don’t quite have a favorite designer yet, however I’m in the process for creating a bedspread and the key elements of it are designed by Etsuko Furuya so I’m collecting & stashing complimentary scraps in turquoise & burgundys to go with it. So far I’ve only made a couple of baby size quilts that I have given away as gifts but this one I’m going to keep for me!

Congrats Christa!