Do I look like a writer to you?

The boys and I are back home after an adventurous trip to San Francisco to visit the city where Dad has spent most of the year working. Most of the time we had a lot of fun, the rest of the time we were dealing with a very wiggly and hungry seven year-old and a moody twelve year-old who likes to exert his big brother power over his sibling.

We did all the typical tourist-y things, but this was the kids' first visit so we HAD to. The weather was gorgeous, although I am not a big fan of the dramatic temp change in the early evenings - I couldn't get the hang of the layering necessary to survive outside all day. The kids were great walkers, hardly any complaints and when they did complain, I had to admit my feet were tired too, so who could blame them? In the tradition of scouts, here's a list of my "Roses and Thorns" for the trip:

ROSES


The garden tour of Alcatraz, We got to go into roped off areas where other visitors weren't allowed - very interesting history of the landscaping and the prisoners who tended the gardens




Evan's fascination with the lazy sea lions on Pier 39. I think we went back three times so he could visit them.







Muir Woods was Awesome! We all loved it, had a fantastic time learning about the redwoods. Steve's "junior ranger" badge should be in the mail soon. I just wish I could bring the smells from there home with me. Nothing in Wisconsin smells like that. My favorite memory here will be the Haiku Aaron wrote as part of the requirements for the Junior Ranger Badge. Aaron has always been good at writing poetry and was happy to take on the task. He sat down on a stump and wrote this in about 10 minutes...

A Haiku

Tall ancient creatures
Witnesses to birth and death
Kings of the forest





Lunch at Pier 23 where a waitress asked me if I was a writer. Apparently some customers there thought I was somebody famous (what?) I told her she could lie and tell them I was! (What I should have said was, "no, but I am a famous handbag designer" Why can't I be clever at the right moments?)





Parrot Perch - the parrots were cool but not as cool as the homes in the area. The most gorgeous views and unbelievable gardens/landscaping. It took my breath away. That is where I would live. Absolutely worth the climb.





The shark hat the boys won on the Embarcadero. It went with us almost everywhere.








Pat's Cafe - breakfast here, definitely. Off the wharf by a few blocks so it's not crazy-crowded and the food is superb. I thoroughly enjoyed the California Omelet. YUM!




Spending time with Steve, although most of the time we were too busy keeping track of the kids to enjoy each other's company...I vote for the next trip to be "Adults Only".

THORNS

Um, definitely the trip home. The part where our plane had to make an emergency landing because there had possibly been a fire in the cargo hold, which was possibly put out by the extinguishing canister that is conveniently located in that area. The one that had exploded and set off warning lights in the cockpit. That was definitely NOT the highlight of my trip, especially considering that I have a pretty big (irrational, I know) fear of flying. I somehow managed to appear "kinda calm" to my kids but the 10 minutes it took us to get on the ground...I'm just saying I could have used a fresh pair of panties, if ya know what I mean. So, after another 2 hour wait and a new, unbroken plane, we were off again, and I'm not even kidding you - the cocktails were on the pilot!! Hooray!

I didn't take the fancy camera with us, too much trouble, but the little one didn't do a terrible job - see for yourself. Maybe you will be inspired to visit...

I'm Getting Off My Butt, I Swear!

The reason I haven't blogged about my handbag business in a long time has a lot to do with the sad truth that I haven't sewed in a long time. I slowed down a bit after the holidays to try to avoid the "burn out" I could feel creeping in. And before I knew it Spring was finally here and most of my free time was spent weeding and planting in my yard. Then came the last day of school which meant I suddenly had two wonderful boys home with me all day and, well, that sort of put an end to my daily sewing marathons.

I'm determined to get back in the saddle, as they say, thanks to a very loyal customer who keeps recruiting Sunshine Handbag Groupies (Thanks, Jan!), a few recent inquiries in my Etsy shop (at a time when I haven't been doing a bit of PR, so I have no idea how they found me in the melee of handbags on Etsy) and a very nice Etsy shop owner, KoolJewelry, who selected me to be featured in her weekly Etsy Blog (read all about it at www.kooljewelry.blogspot.com). All of this is very exciting to me and has been exactly the kick in the pants I needed to get me back in front of the machine.

I have a few "summer" bags to get finished before the weather turns but I'm really looking forward to making some bags for the new season because I just got my hands on some of the most beautiful fabrics - I can't wait to see them as finished bags and wallets! Keep checking my shop for the new arrivals! In the meantime, here are a few sneak previews of what I'll be working on...

 

 

 

 

Back to the Scene of the Attack

 

Aaron has been away all week at scout camp and Evan has been very lonely and out of sorts without his big brother. I've been filling up his days with fun events like mini golf and trips to the pool to keep him happy. Today we decided to take a trip to the botanical gardens to see the butterfly exhibit. We had tons of fun, saw many beautiful plants and butterflies and contrary to the sign posted outside, we did not get attacked by birds this time. Evan was a bit disappointed.

The One About Me Starring in a Vintage Horror Film

Yes, I've been away for awhile. A long while. I might have been in a blogging funk, not sure. I've been busy, maybe even doing some things that were interesting enough to blog about, but I just couldn't. And now I am.

Today I got busy celebrating the last full week of school. I'm trying to pack in all those things I said I'd do without having kids in tow. It was a gorgeous day here, sunny and almost 70, so I decided to take off to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I love this place. It's best to go alone, really. Or maybe with a quiet friend who also loves gardens. Today it was just me. And the birds.

I should have interpreted the sign to mean so much more than I did. The hand-lettered sign politely told wandering guests that "it's nesting season for our bird friends and some get a bit nervous when we get too close to their babies. They might swoop around your head to scare you away, so don't be alarmed".

Okay, what the sign should have said was, "run back to your car and grab your hardhat if you've got one 'cause the birds are nuts and they're going to try and rip your scalp off".

I am not kidding. It was like I had morphed into Tippi Hedron the minute I stepped into the garden. Red-winged black birds were dive bombing me (and others) whenever I walked near a tree where they had a nest. These freaking birds were literally crashing into my head, squawking and then flying off frantically in the opposite direction from where they came. And often it wasn't just one bird at a time, they would tag-team their helpless victims. I had to walk through most of the gardens with my purse over my head as protection so the birds wouldn't get their sharp little feet stuck in my crazy hair. It was truly unbelievable.The high point of my visit was the part where I was screaming, running with my purse over my head and trying to hit back with my other arm. I now think I have aviariaphobia or something like that.

But, being the true combat photojournalist that I am, I was somehow able to keep my purse over my head and snap some photos to document my time in the battlefield. The flowers were lovely and so were the smells.

My New Lamp

Here's a picture of the beautiful lamp my sister gave me. I absolutely LOVE it!

The Women Behind the Bags - The Sara Handbag

This will be the first of my "Women Behind the Bags" series.

Sometimes I amaze myself with the clarity of my wit. Just when I think I will never again have anything of substance to blog about, the neurons in my brain decide to play nice and line up to fire with calculated aim and the proverbial lightbulb glows so bright it shatters into a billion shards of glass. Kind of a mess to clean up, but at least I get a great idea out of it.

Each Sunshine Handbag design has been given the name of a woman close to my heart. Some are true sisters by blood, others are sisters given to me by fate. They are all amazing, wonderful, classy, smart and beautiful and I'm going to introduce you to each one. (See why this was such a great idea - it's not going to be just ONE blog, but many blogs, hence the "series". I'm set for at least a week or two!

The first bag I designed was the Sara Handbag. Sara is a sister by blood - we share the same parents, unlike two sisters I will detail later with whom I share only one parent but love them all the same. Sara is younger by four years and lives in Golden, Colorado with her patient husband and three adorable boys.

She's incredibly talented artistically and isn't afraid to experiment with decorating ideas no matter how much work is involved. She's hung corrugated tin on the ceiling of her living room (it's awesome), painted a rug on the hardwood under her dining table (beautiful), and built a vanity for her half bath complete with an aluminum washtub for a sink (still haven't seen pictures of that one, ahem!).

She's a lover of all animals, has been caretaker of several odd pets over the years including a desert tortoise, several retired lab rats, a handful of noisy birds, some type of lizard thing that I definitely did not like and many dogs, the most current of which looks exactly like a wookie and I love him.

Sara is uncommonly generous and will always be the friend everyone feels lucky to have. Her neighbors can always count on her to deliver homemade cinnamon rolls and yummy breakfast burritos on New Years morning. And she doesn't think twice about dragging three kids to Target to pick up the magical floor lamp at Target that her favorite sister was coveting but unable to find (when are you shipping that to me, by the way?)

For all of those reasons and too many more to list, the Sara Handbag is more than just a purse. It is an artistically creative and generous way to keep close to you all the treasures in your life.