Tomorrow night (Sept. 14th) at 7:00pm I will be speaking to a quilt group in Santa Rosa, CA.  If you are in the area and would like to join the festivities - please feel free to contact me and I will provide you with the details.  (NOTE: rumor has it attendees will go home with free fat quarters!)

Big thanks to Sue Roberts for arranging the gathering.  Hope to see you there!

Why is 1998 a good number you ask?  Well California Assembly Bill 1998 is the bill to ban single-use plastic shopping bags.  It has made it through the California Assembly last week and its next stop is the state Senate!  If all goes as we hope, this could mean the end of plastic bags in California!  If passed, the bill goes into effect January 2012.  I am very hopeful and proud of all the people who have gotten it this far.

The other reason why 1998 is a good number is that it was the year Sus and I got married.  Tomorrow marks our 12th anniversary.  As we do every year, we will be making a pilgrimage to Bowling Ball Beach to renew our vows.  This year, after the vow exchange, we are heading off on a weasure (work+pleasure) road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway to southern California.  We plan to meet with customers, friends, family and on the 12th I will be giving a lecture to the Surface Art Association and then we will be heading home.  We believe this is the closest thing to a vacation we have taken with just the 2 of us in 12 years!  Should be fun!  Back to packing.... and prepping.  Have a great week!!!

From Dallas, Michelle and I migrated to Austin where we met up with Valerie from Mod Green Pod.  Nancy (the founder and designer) of Mod Green Pod and I have spoken from time to time so getting to see her space and meet her partner was a real treat.  Pictured here is Michelle of Cotton Monkey holding a dress made from both of our fabrics (Mod Green Pod on the outside and our Sweet Jane as the lining) and Valerie.  How fun to see both our visions come to life and come together.   

Later that day we had the pleasure of meeting up with fabric blogger extraordinaire, Kim Knight of True Up.  For you fabric fans out there, True Up is a must follow.  Thanks Kim and Valerie for taking the time to meet with us.  We had a great time! 

I spent all of last week in Texas.  It was a fabulous trip full of lots of fun with a little business thrown in too.  One of the highlights was spending time with Harmony Art's very first customer, Michelle of Cotton Monkey. 

Cotton Monkey will always hold a space in Harmony Art's history, but Michelle (the founder) also has a personal place in my heart.  She is funny, talented, kind, thoughtful and just plain fun to be around.  I think there needs to be a new word added to the dictionary that means friend + customer.  Any suggestions?

Michelle is AMAZING!  In addition to Cotton Monkey she also is a mom to an adorable 5 year old and manages an eco-event location in downtown Dallas called Hickory Street Annex.  The space is beautiful.  You can get a real idea for it on the Hickory Street web site.  I however, was fascinated with the art/recycled glass wall outside the building.  Michelle tells me I am the first person she knows of to take pictures from the "back" side.  Somehow learning I view things backwards from everyone else didn't surprise me.  

Recent studies and reports are showing that the chemicals in our food are making us fat! It isn't what you eat as much as what is in and has been sprayed on what you eat that may be leading to the obesity epidemic. There's a link to a recent article if you want to learn more.

The best way to avoid these endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), or as researchers have begun to call them, obesogens is to eat organic foods. My husband recently lost about 50+ pounds and I have to think that some of it has to do with our embracing stricter organic food purchasing, our reduction in processed food eating, and our vegetarian diet. Reading this recent article only reinforced our food choices. I don't mind paying more for real, pesticide free, healthy food. It's good for me and the planet. The alternative just doesn't make sense.

Photo is of hubby and me with our hula instructor. Note the skirt made by Hamakua Homegrown out of our Fields of Honey organic sateen fabric.

Check out these prints! The shirt and dress were purchased in Hawaii in the 50's by my grandfather (shirt for himself) and grandmother (dress was a gift for my then teenaged mother). We believe they had it made to my mom's measurements.

I have had the dress and shirt in my closet for - oh - at least 15 years. I had never worn the dress, until NOW. It just seemed right to bring it back to its birthplace and amazingly IT FIT me perfectly (well, I was a little scared to sneeze).

We headed up the coast to meet Stardove the founder and creator of the Hamakua Homegrown apparel line at Symbiosis. Stardove has been using Harmony Art fabrics in her line since ... well a long time. Those first few customers will always hold a special spot in my heart. When we found out a year ago we were going to Hawaii, the question became, "which island?". I have to admit that Stardove's being on the big island definitely had a lot to do with our decision. We were not disappointed in the island OR meeting Stardove. She is as charming in person as she is in cyberspace. I wore my Hamakua Homegrown skirt for the occasion. What fun it was to tell her about seeing her dress in the window of Moonsprout the day before.

I feel SOOOOOOO lucky/blessed/grateful to have such an amazing group of customers/friends/supporters. Life is indeed very good. I promised Stardove I would work on a Hawaii inspired design... so stay tuned!

Today, we went into Hilo to see the much raved about farmers market. On the walk from the car to the market, this was in the VERY FIRST window we passed! What a fabulous and fun surprise to see Garden on display at the adorable and lovely Moonsprout store. Geana (the owner) was there and we had a great time meeting her and looking at all of the Harmony Art products she had in her store. We saw things from Hamakua Homegrown, Rogelito's Closet, and New Native. I felt like a proud mama myself.

If you ever get to Hilo I highly recommend a stop at Moonsprout and be sure to give Geana a big hug from me!