My father-in-law, Steve, is the keyboardist/organist.

See more photos of Sock Monkey on my Flickr page.

Partway through the off-and-on stormy day, the power went out!

Luckily, it came back on within a few minutes.

Our day lasted from about 8:45 am to 9:30 pm. That’s a LOT of scrapbooking!

See more photos of Scrapapalooza on my Flickr page.

See more fireworks on my Flickr page.

Recently Nikki of TinyAirplanes and her fiance Jake were robbed of all they own. Within 30 minutes of their plight being featured on Regretsy, buyers had contributed by purchasing every single item they had for sale.

I’m helping out too: 100% of profits from HappenstanceHandmade from orders placed between 6/15 and 6/30 will be donated to Nikki and Jake. It isn’t much, for my store is new and small, but if you have a moment and a few dollars to help them get back on their feet, it would be much appreciated.

Love,
Brenda

Well, that was fun.

Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend and a trip to Ryan’s family’s cabin in Forsyth, MO. I can’t really lug the sewing machine around, and I wanted to take something fun with me other than a book, so on the way we stopped at a craft store and I picked up a box of various glass beads.  Alas, once I opened it, I realized that there weren’t many matched pairs; despite the quantity of beads, I wasn’t going to get many earrings out of them. Still, I was able to craft a few pairs, one of which was promptly snapped up by my mother-in-law! Here are the prettiest:

Since I haven’t had much time for sewing, I have posted both pairs of these earrings on my Etsy store so it won’t feel lonely and un-updated. I don’t know how far I really want to foray into jewelry-crafting – tune in after my sister gives me the piles of jewelry-making supplies she has promised me!

Some of you know that I’ve been working quietly for several months in preparation for opening a small side business. This week saw the culmination of those efforts and HappenstanceHandmade is now up and running! It’s still a little small, but it will grow!

I have several goals in opening this shop; the first and foremost being a way to improve my sewing skills, because nothing hones an ability quite like putting it to work. And thinking ahead to the time when Ryan and I decide that what the world really needs is one or two little Burrells to shake things up (still a long ways off, so don’t get too excited!), I want to be prepared for us losing my part of our regular income during the months of my maternity leave, which at my job is unpaid.

I started off with checkbook covers and zipper pouches, because, well, they’re easy to make. I plan to add small jewelry pouches to the product list fairly soon, and I’m considering Matthew‘s suggestion that I sell my “Shoe Fix” as well (let me know in the comments if you think this is something I should add to the shop, or if you have any other suggestions). I want to expand into handbags and clothing as well, but that’s a little further down the road.

So head on over to the shop and take a look around… and if you like what you see, well, you know what to do!

Ryan and I decided to try our hand at gardening this year (since we have our own back yard and all) using the Square Foot Gardening method.

This is our garden today:

Well… that was what it looked like before I harvested our first crop of spinach!

Needless to say, dinner tonight was a spinach quesadilla.

And it was full of yum.

Not too shabby for a quick snapshot before a conference.

I love these shoes.

I never wear these shoes, though.

When I walk, this is what happens.

Bummer.

But all is not lost! Here is my inspiration:

(Forever 21)

And here is the end result:

Here’s how I did it:

1. Take two pieces of fabric (I used navy blue), 25″ x 3″. I didn’t use any interfacing or padding, because I wanted to keep it light and airy. Fold one piece of fabric in half longways with right sides together, pin, and stitch a seam using 1/2″ seam allowance down the long ends.

2. Trim the seam allowance.

3. Turn the tube right side out and press.

4. Topstitch 1/8″ from each edge.

5. Fold the raw ends under 1/4″, then fold under again. This is where my photography skills went on vacation.

6. Topstitch two seams to secure the end.

7. Sew down a piece of velcro on one end, flip the strap (this is important!), and sew the other piece on the other end. Oh look, the photography came back!

8. Repeat for the other strap.

That’s it! Slide on the shoe, slip the strap underneath, twine around your ankle, and velcro shut. I am debating stitching the crossover together and/or hotgluing the strap to the underside of the shoe, but for now I am leaving it at is so I can keep experimenting with other ideas.