Thank you to everyone who entered the fabric give away for Storybook Lane! Today, the random number generator picked a winner. Congratulations to Nicole! I’ve already sent her an e-mail, but in case you’re reading, Nicole — I’ll be sending you a stack of fat quarters as soon as the fabric arrives. I can’t wait to see what you make with it!

I have enjoyed reading all of your comments and thinking about the Alices and Little Reds and other characters you are planning to make. It makes me so excited, and helps me stay motivated during this next big push. I have been sewing lots of test houses and projects over here, and thinking a lot about booth construction. This week, I traced my logo onto giant pieces of Styrofoam, purchased crown molding at Home Depot, dyed some fabric (the wrong color), and strapped plywood to the top of an SUV with my dad. I’m a little exhausted just thinking about it.

Next week, I’m planning to hunker down and sew, sew, sew! I’ll try to pop in here with some updates.

I hope you have a great weekend and wonderful Easter and Passover.

Spring is different here.

Over the weekend, we went to the Washington Park Arboretum.  (It’s hard to believe we have only been here for 7 weeks, and we’ve already been to two zoos and two gardens.  Can you tell we’re looking for something that reminds us of home?)

We saw some familiar faces — camellias, cherry blossoms, and daffodils, but they looked different against their backdrop of moss and damp earth.  The forests here have a monotonous sort of beauty.  Everything is carpeted in green and guarded by seemingly endless trees.

I was telling a woman I met how pretty I thought Seattle was.  ”Your trees have moss on them!” I exclaimed.  The lady looked at me like I was insane.  I think this is akin to saying, “Your dirt has grass on it” in most places. However, I have never seen so much moss.  Not like this.

I am realizing that living in Southern California for so many years, I never really understood the concept of Spring.  Spring, to me, was just the weather “trying to be Summer and failing at it.” I never thought of it as a destination all its own.  Outside, it looked nice, the weather was warm, but still not quite warm enough.  I wore the same combination of t-shirts and hoodies year round.  There was no dramatic shift — only the same sun, the same ocean breeze. The temperatures rose slowly, so gradually you could miss them if you weren’t looking.  And usually, I wasn’t.

Now, I see why people like Spring, look forward to it, wish for it, need it.  These new blossoms stand out here — bright spots in those stretches of green.  The fact that it is still so cold and sometimes raining outside only makes them feel more miraculous.  How did these flowers get here?

I feel hopeful that I will be able to find lots of inspiration in this new place.

P.S. – THANK YOU to everyone who has left me such sweet notes about Storybook Lane.  Don’t forget the free fabric give away ends on Sunday, April 1st at midnight!

I always love to see where people live although I’m not always good about returning the favor.  I think I fall victim to wanting to wait until everything is all decorated and perfect looking.  Since we don’t plan to live here forever, it’s pretty unlikely to get that way!  So I’m showing you how we live for now (minus the laundry I moved over, because we don’t need to get that real).

[And please excuse the photos.  I did my best, but the wall of windows makes this tricky.]

This is the living room. We have large windows along one wall and although I had been warned about grey Seattle weather, I have to say – we get a lot of beautiful light here. Most days, this apartment has a lovely, diffuse glow that makes it much brighter than our place in LA.

In the middle of the wall of windows is a fireplace which is kind of weird, but ok. The TV sits on top. We were worried the back of the TV might get too hot in front of the window like that, but HA – what were we thinking?  This is Seattle.  The TV seems fine for now.  No one here watches TV during the day, so the light isn’t an issue – and the nighttime view is gorgeous through these windows.

We have a galley style kitchen.  I think the architect was extremely tall, because I can only reach the bottom shelf on the upper cabinets.   The best part is that there is a big cut out that looks into the living room so I can see all of that pretty light while I wash the dishes (or while I contemplate maybe washing the dishes later).

This is our Dressing Room/Library (above) which you would see when you walk in the front door and look to the left.  This is also a photo of the world’s biggest dresser.  See?  It’s so big, I couldn’t get the entire thing in the photo.

We don’t have any artwork on the walls yet.  (It’s only been 7 weeks, so I think we are still in the “hanging artwork grace period.”)  All of our big frames are stacked up against the wall. We might get to it.

The office/studio is smaller than my old room, but I like the set up.  (My husband is going to be shocked that I didn’t bother to pick up anything before I took this picture.  This is the only room in the house where I can get away with this.)  I am surprised by how much I enjoy the white walls.  They are very calming to me.  It makes me think about keeping my office more subtle in the next place.  I would pick a prettier white and keep everything very soothing and light-filled.  I feel like my head is clearer here than it has been in a long time.

Ok, I better go get back to work.  I have so many little houses to sew.  It’s very contemplative work — stitching up these tiny abodes and wondering where I might live next and what it might look like.  For now, I am grateful for a place to rest and catch my breath.  Hope your week is going well.  Be back soon…

And now for something totally different, I wanted to show you my apartment.  It may not be as neat or as cute as any of the ones you’ll find on Storybook Lane, but that might be because I spend more of my time decorating their houses than my own!

Today is just the floor plan (click on the picture above to see it large).  Later this week, I’ll be back with a photo tour.

One of the challenges of moving here is that we wanted to live in downtown Bellevue so my husband could be close to work, but most of the apartments here had really small rooms.

We had two really big pieces of furniture that we were worried about: a giant white sectional and what the moving company referred to as “the biggest dresser we’ve ever seen.”  (See illustration below.)

The couch and the dresser were also our nicest, most expensive pieces. (Ok, maybe our ONLY expensive pieces.)  When we flew out here to apartment hunt, we realized we were in trouble.

We were fortunate to find an apartment with some extra nooks and storage space that made everything fit.  (BARELY.)  There were two bonuses in this apartment: a very generously sized laundry room and an office nook when you first enter.  The laundry room now houses extra linens, cleaning supplies, and other storage items.

The office nook became the dedicated home of the world’s largest dresser.  We like to pretend that this is less weird by calling this room the “dressing room/library.”  We comfort ourselves with the fact that we don’t know many people here so it’s unlikely we will have to explain this to visitors.

The large gray cabinet where I store all of my fabric and craft supplies was supposed to be in the office, but it was too big and heavy to make it that far.  It now sits in the entry way.  I kind of like having it there, and my husband tolerates it.

The couch situation was a little harder.  Since our living room was too narrow for the sectional, we rearranged the pieces to create a “Bouch” (couch/bed combo).   And no, the “bouch” does not replace a real bed – it just makes for a really cushy place for two people to sit and watch TV.  It would be completely dysfunctional though if we had people over.

So far, we like our new space, but I am not going to lie: the layout is weird!  Do you have weird layout issues in your place? How do you make do?

WHEW! Thanks so much for following along on our Storybook Lane tour (part 1, part 2, and part 3) and for all of your encouraging, generous comments. Now, to cap this all off I think we need a contest!

I am giving away some free fabric.  Win an entire stack of fat quarters (that’s all 18 prints)  All you need to do is leave a comment and tell me who your favorite Storybook Lane character is.  I will randomly pick one lucky winner on April 1st at Midnight PST.  The winner will receive their prize when Storybook Lane fabric ships (in May).

(Please note: if you are my sister or best friend, you are automatically disqualified.)

I can’t wait to see what you all do with all of this fabric!

In the meantime, I wanted to include a personal note from me: I am busy finalizing patterns, getting my print orders organized and ready, and spending a lot of time talking booth construction with my Dad. This is definitely the part that I was envisioning all those years ago when I started down this path.

Each time I hit a new rung on the ladder though, I find I want to share more of the blood, sweat, and tears that came first, because I think sometimes it’s helpful to hear that part. Some of us need to know that it isn’t all easy or fast. Sometimes, it’s just chipping away steadily for a long time – often so slowly, you can’t really see any progress.

People ask: “How long are you going to keep doing that?”  It must be so painful for them to watch.  But with hard work and grace, you look up and see that you did make it.   Keep chipping.  Don’t give up.

Lots of love,
Kelly