5th Anniversary Extravaganza!

---

Good aftermorning lovely people!

We are creeping up to the 5th anniversary of my little shop (how did that happen?!) and I wanted to do something to thank everyone who has supported me over the years. Since I don't remember the exact date anymore, I've just decided the whole month will be full of cool stuff.

Mostly it's just three things... not really an extravaganza. A fun fair maybe? That sounds more right.

1. The first half of the month I will be hosting a big giveaway. There will be more information here on the blog closer to the date - I'll be posting a notice on Instagram (and maybe Flickr... does anyone still use Flickr?), but you can only enter here on my blog.
   
2. Once the winner of that is decided I'll be hosting a little giveaway - but you'll need to do some work for this one. ;)
   
3. At the end of the month there will be a huge Etsy update with lots of new stuff - new designs, old designs, and new-old designs. Hooray!
   

So get ready, it's going to be crazy. I might explode. @.@

Thank you all for coming on this insane journey with me, I hope you're all doing really well. <3

Etsy Update: August 20th @ noon EST!

---

First draft using current habits, and old pattern.... ^^;

Hello everyone!

I've finally carved out a little bit of time to sew while we wait for contractors to get back to us and will be posting a few items up for sale on Etsy. There will be long MNF butterfly cardigans, wrap bracelets, and (barring any catastrophes) Minifee Puff shorts! These are an old design I decided to revisit. They gave me a bit of trouble because I made the pattern a long time ago before I started using my current 'best practices' so it's taken a bit of tweaking to figure out what I was up to with the original. Oops!

Anyway, mini update will be on Saturday August 20th at noon EST. Hope to see you there! :)

Renovations + a New Studio Space

---

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably already know that we've started renovating our new house. Mostly it's just been painting and switching over the old light switches to ones we don't dislike, but we've also been planning some bigger renovations and are in talks with some designers to move forward there.

One closet gone, next one on the way!

The biggest thing so far has been my new studio space. Because I am spoiled and eternally lucky, I'm taking over two rooms upstairs. One was originally a bedroom... and the other one... well. It... uh... had a bed in it? I don't really know its original purpose as it was quite small (a twin bed took up most of the room) and it also has a door to a deck on the roof, which... seems odd for a bedroom to have? So who knows.

Both closets gone, wall and ceiling filled in, and fully primed. :)

We took out the closets in between these two rooms and have fixed up the walls and ceiling and primed and painted base coats on almost everything. The only major construction thing left is the flooring, as there is now a big space in the middle of the room where the closet wall used to be that has no floor. Once that's done I can finish up the painting and fetch all my materials from their basement prison! Yay.



The room is really big now... and to be perfectly honest, it feels a little TOO big, but there's not much that could be done about that with how the rooms were arranged... so poor me. :p I'm sure once my chunky furniture is stuffed in there it will feel a lot smaller, but regardless, I'm really looking forward to getting it all done and being able to get back to sewing and crafting!

I'll be sure to share some photos when it's completely done, but for now, thank you so much for bearing with me through all this! <3

---

All painted, carpets removed, and floor ready to be fixed up!

---

P.S. If you read this far, I love you and keep an eye open on August 25th for an awesome announcement. <3

10 Facts: Me (because why not?)

---

So I randomly decided to so one of these for myself... because... I don't know why. But here we go anyway!

---

Name: Melissa
Age: mid-20s
Birthday: January 11th
Favourite Colour: Green (generally more yellow/brown toned shades)
Myers-Briggs Type: INFP - Turbulent

1. I am 5' 1" (or 155 cm).

.
2. I can (usually) understand conversational French and Spanish but can't speak or write either.

.
3. I have a small tattoo on my knee from where I accidentally stabbed myself with a pencil.

.
4. The smell of wet peanut butter makes me sick to my stomach.

5. I am lactose intolerant.

6. I have central heterochromia (the most boring kind, but still) - the outside of my irises are blue and the insides are yellow.

7. I went to school for business and sociocultural anthropology.

.
8. I am really afraid of moths and grasshoppers.

.


9. Crowds and interacting with strangers make me really uncomfortable. My ideal living-space would be somewhere like York, UK or similar, where there are people and lots of interesting shops and things all within walking distance, but you're not expected to actually interact with the people... just sort of... be around them.

.
10. Cold rain and wet shoes/socks are things 100% guaranteed to put me in a bad mood. The weather affects my mood and motivation a lot, but wet shoes, just... ugh.

Backyard Photo Sessions

---

We finally moved in to our new house last week and I've been taking advantage of a nice photo spot in the backyard that works really well for Bella and Panaba. There's a patch of elfin thyme (which I might add to in the future ;) ) and a tree with moss and a nice bark texture. It's a huge tree so it's not really in scale, but still works. :)






Panaba got the first shot at it when I brought her with me to water plants. Investigating baby strawberries and the super tall tree. She's going to have a lot of fun here - just have to hope she doesn't meet the live raccoon that lives nearby!





Bella got some photos today too when starsarerobots came to visit. She looks really badass and it's a tad annoying. ;P She needs a new face-up soon but she's still rocking everything. I love how her hair was blowing in the wind here. One of the perks of alpaca wigs ~

I still don't have any photos of Bella and Panaba together outside, so I guess that's next! Overall I'm really happy with a lot of the photos from these shoots, so expect to see lots more until I find a new spot. ;) Need to upgrade my photo editing program because it's blurry on my new computer, so apologies if any of these are a tad out of focus. -.-;

This is my favourite photo from the whole set. It just fully encapsulates Bella as I see her - intense, strong, and effortlessly gorgeous. Every time I see this photo it's just... yes.

Rheia is such a beautiful sculpt. I'm so glad I was able to bring her home. She is so expressive and can flip between pensive and serene and firey and vicious with a slight change in angle. Bella specifically is always intense. I hope to continue developing and sharing her character with you all as we continue settling in. <3