stitch 'n beeyatch

i may have mentioned before about the weekly stitch 'n bitch meeting that my friend chase hosts at l'myx tea shop in oakland....we meet every tuesday at the lakeshore location and it is fun fun fun! if you are in the oakland area you should come hang out. any how, what no one realized, including me, is that chase pays monthly dues to keep the online post and since times...they are tough, i encouraged her to make a donation jar to help the cause. so this weekend me made it happen and let me tell you we should be ashamed of ourselves for making something so f'n cute because it may prompt people to give us their life savings! how could they resist....

chase made most of it, she did all of the fabric and interior coverage plus the front embellishments, I am responsible for the back side embellishments and the lid. needless to say, we are quite smitten with this over the top beggar jar. ciao!

viva la mexico

hola mi amigas y amigos! i am headed to Mexico!! Today marks the 28 day count down and then i shall set sail along the Mexican Riviera with my long time travel companion and friend Amber.

why?

well....we are both turning 30 this year and many years ago had made a pact to travel somewhere for the big 3-0 if we were still in fact friends. i am happy to say that we are and now we get to see this teenage day dream come true. although the funny part is that we always said something along the lines of france or a villa in tuscany. i suppose we thought being 30 meant having money! ha! well thanks to some good fortune and a persistent pal, we are taking a cruise to Mexico on the cheap cheap cheap. otherwise we'd still be dreaming.

so i am inspired to do an art project for this journey. off the top of my head i hope to do a drawing a day type of thing. knowing that i am often intuitive and spontaneous with any creative endeavor, i will only promise to pack some art supplies and go with whatever comes to me. of course, i will report back with details and photographs!

in other news i have been a busy little bee, building web sites, making tons of brooches, experimenting with my knitting loom and cross-stitch, and i finally have some sort of logo up for minnow and the bee. the business cards are lagging...it's quite difficult to decide on a few components and i may just put the whole thing on hold for a while since business is good right now.

keep on keeping on little bees...spring is here and summer is in the air! xo

beauty, in this world

i just finished this gorgeous, wonderful, spectacular, poetic and oh so inspiring book by Muriel Barbery called, 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog'. this is my homage to this novel....
i wish it was a croissant instead of a crumpet, but that leaves some room for hilarity because of part 4, chapter 6...and seeing as though i do not wish to ruin the gorgeous details of this book by trying to explain what it is about, or how i responded to its brilliance and humor, i will say nothing and keep the deeply personal meaning and loveliness i got from it to myself. instead i shall give you a few of my favorite passages with no context in hopes that it will suffice. maybe you will then grab a copy for yourself. (my copy will go directly to the chase/angela household for immediate consumption.)
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"The only purpose of cats is that they constitute mobile decorative objects, a concept which I find intellectually interesting, but unfortunately our cats have such drooping bellies that this does not apply to them." -pg 51

"The camellia against the moss of the temple, the violet hues of the Kyoto mountains, a blue porcelain cup-this sudden flowering of pure beauty at the heart of ephemeral passion: is this not something we all aspire to?" -pg 101

"At the door stands a courier, chewing on what must be a piece of gum for elephants, given the vigor and range of mandibular activity to which he is compelled." -pg 164

"...I'd like to remind everyone that Colombe washes her hands three times a day and screams the moment she gets the slightest suspicion that there might be an invisible hair in the shower (visible hairs are more improbable)." -pg 237

"...does this mean that this is how we must live our lives? Constantly poised between beauty and death, between movement and disappearance? Maybe that's what being alive is all about: so we can track down those moments that are dying." -pg 273

"I remember all that rain...The sound of it drumming on the roof, the paths running with water, the sea of mud at the gate to the farm, the black sky, the wind, the horrible feeling of endless damp weighing upon us as our life weighed upon us: neither consciousness nor revolt."
-pg 287
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i should stop here, even though much of what moved me was in the bigger picture, which was of course revealed at the end. this is a stunning novel. quite funny. quite charming. i hope you seek it out sometime and let me know your thoughts.

a special Bee day

i am very excited! i just finished my nephew's birthday gift! he is turning one this coming week and although i have never met him, i know he is the sweetest little guy and wanted to get him something special. since this crafty gal is short on clams ($) these days i consulted some craft books and found a sweet turtle pattern in Amy Karol's 'bend the rules sewing'. Since his dad loves turtles (who doesn't?) i though it would be perfect....
so here he is...(i named him mortimer...)



here is the very special bee-day card i made to go with it:



oh happy day!

etsy store is up and running

well, the minnow and the bee's etsy store is up and running! we had our very first sale tonight and i just posted items yesterday. seriously cool. it is a ton of work keeping up with all of this, but i am sure it is just the initial set up and posting. whew, i am tired!

we had a great stitch and bitch session tonight at the tea bar. a great group indeed. i am so happy to have that-it keeps me going on spontaneous projects and so informed since everyone has something wonderful to contribute. we have been trading materials a bunch and tonight, near the end when it was down to me, Chase, and Courtney, we made business card holders! so fun. Courtney had these great books and some serious yardage of felt to share and we each came up with our own little version. Chase made a baby owl applique for hers, Courtney made a tiny bicycle and i just stitch some colorful dots on the back. i will post mine when it is finished.

we are up to some serious crafting these days and i am loving it!

until soon my fellow bees!