It's been a very busy year at Loop and Lil world headquarters, and I'd like to thank everyone who has helped make this year so successful for my little business! I would never have been able to make a go at this without the support of my friends, family, and our great customers! We've been so many fun places and met so many fantastic people this year, and I hope everyone has a peaceful and joyous holiday. 
It's here! We're getting ready to head way north for Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago at Pulaski Park Fieldhouse this Saturday and Sunday. We'll be at booth #97 (near where the food is!) so stop by and see our new designs (cute new tees) and Christmas goodies! 
Head over to the Sons of Hermann Hall today from 1-7pm for the Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash! We'll be set up downstairs in the bowling alley.
Here's a shot of the giveaways I just finished putting together that will be included in the swag bags for the Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash. The bags will go to the first 50 people in the door. 
After a great time last weekend at the October Market, we've jumped right into readying ourselves for the Urban Street Bazaar. Come by the Bishop Arts District this Saturday (12-8pm) and Sunday (12-4pm) and visit us, as well as over 85 other great artists. And while you're down there, bring us a burger from Hunky's too! See you there!
I've just listed a new style of blouse, the Bridget Ruffle Front Blouse, in the shop. It's great not only for the Indian summer, but is cute layered over a long sleeved white tee or turtleneck for the winter as well. And each shirt features a few vintage buttons from the button stash. 
This Saturday from 10am to 6pm, we'll be at the October Market at St. Thomas Aquinas in East Dallas at Mockingbird and Alderson. We're excited to be doing a show close to home after traveling this summer.The October Market is a one of a kind shopping
experience featuring items such as jewelry, home
accessories, art, antiques, personalized gifts, clothing
and more. With over forty new vendors, this year's
October Market is bigger and better than ever!
So, come join us for a day of shopping, lunch at the
Mom’s Café, and photos in the Pumpkin Patch.
Stop by and say hi! If you mention this blog, we'll extend a 20% discount to anything you buy! Hope to see you there!
I'll be out of town celebrating somebody's birthday this weekend, but if I wasn't, I'd be headed over to Move Studio to check out the Style Stay-Cation Trunk Show. If you're in the DFW area and want to beat the heat inside while doing a little shopping, check it out on Friday evening, August 21st from 5-9pm and Saturday, August 22nd from 3-7pm. I've never been to a trunk show with this much fun stuff going on. Not only are there great vendors including Harrilu and Tara to the T (who were the other two Dallas artists at Renegade LA), but there are also going to be chair massages, makeup and hair consultations (I could desperately use), and other fun stuff. 
Preliminary note: I promise I don't work for the library, nor do I get paid by them. I just go all the time!!!
I just found out that I'll be heading to Chicago in early September for Renegade Handmade Chicago, so I stopped by the library to check out this book to get some tips for the trip. Like I've told you before, I stop by the library every time we go on a trip to pick up a guide book. It's much better than shelling out the money for a book when the info becomes outdated so quickly. Every little bit helps, right?
Ok folks, I promise to get back to regular blogging soon! It's been crazy busy the last few weeks - I've been working on new stuff for fall, and also trying to figure out my fall and holiday show schedule. Now that I have that out of the way, I should be able to at least try to keep this thing updated regularly!
Since I returned from LA, life has gotten in the way of blogging. Which is how it should be I suppose! I have been really busy, and can hopefully share some of what I've been working on soon.
Wish the image was a little brighter, but here's a shot of my booth on the second day at Renegade before the doors opened. I had a great time, and it was a great event. I wish I had taken more pics, but it was so busy I didn't even have the opportunity to see even half the artists there. 
Hope you had a great weekend – I'm in the home stretch and getting ready to head to sunny Southern California for Renegade Los Angeles. I'll be taking time off from the blog to do my final preparation and travel out there. Stop by Booth #203 if you happen to live in California! And check back next week for my recap of the show and the trip. I'll also be stocking up my Etsy shop after I return with lots of new items. See you next week!
A peek at another of the Sea Creature tees I'll be bringing along to Renegade. And while we're on the subject of water, we're headed to the lake this weekend to celebrate the holiday, then I'll be coming back and making the final push before heading to LA next week. 
If you are at all interested in food (other than just in eating it), definitely go out and see this movie. Now that I think of it, even if you aren't interested in food, go see the movie! Shouldn't we all know where what we eat comes from?
I wish I had as many arms as this guy does to help me out with preparation for Renegade! In addition to my other dresses, shirts, pants and skirts, I'll also be bringing a new group of t-shirts, whose little sea creatures were designed and printed by a good friend. I've added fabric pieces and button embellishments to some of the designs, and I'm really excited to be able to offer more things for little boys. Stay tuned for more of the designs later this week. These will also be available in my online shop after the show.
I wish I had known just how easy and delicious it was to make homemade pico de gallo, because I would have been making it all along!
A big thanks to Indie Mom for featuring the Little Birdie Mobile and the Fabric Flower Brooch on her blog! I'm sending good thoughts her way as she anxiously awaits her new arrival!
I've posted before about making labels for my garments. My method has worked for a while, but as the amount of clothing I am making has increased, I realized I needed to come up with a solution that's not so time consuming. So I contacted Etsy seller WorldwideLabel to get them made. It was a fairly easy transaction for anyone looking for clothing labels and not wanting to buy a huge quantity, and it took about four weeks from my initial order to delivery. All in all a good experience. And I'll be really glad I got these in a few weeks when I'm delirious from the all night sewing in preparation for Renegade!
This gave us a such a good laugh that we wanted to keep it around as a reminder. I taped it to a piece of scrapbook paper I had lying around, then popped it in a frame:
Last week, I met a friend at a local shopping/dining area for burgers, then took a stroll over to Gardens. 
On my nightstand this week is this book, which I picked up in preparation for my trip west. 
Here's a look at some of the fabrics I'll be using for the pieces I'll be making for Renegade. I'm trying to find fabrics now that work together, rather than just fabrics I like on their own. It makes it a little harder, but I think it will make things more cohesive. 
After I had been in the studio all day, he came home from work and asked if I'd like to make a spur-of-the-moment trip over to Fretz Park to see one of the Community Parks Concerts put on by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The weather was perfect, so I put down my patterns and we headed over. I'm definitely not a classical music expert, but the music was great - a sampler of pieces from composers around the world. It was still a fabulous and relaxing evening. 
Thanks so much to Keri for the kind mention on her blog A Bookish Life. She picked up one of the Louise tunics from Make for her lovely little one, and I couldn't be more pleased!
Well, Dr. Beach has come out with his annual Memorial Day ratings of beaches around the country, and Hamoa Beach, which we frequented during our vacation, was ranked #5!
Aloha! I'm still alive - trying to get back in the swing of things after 8 days in paradise!
New posts will be non-existent for the next week and a half, as we're headed off for an island vacation!
The last few weeks, my supermarket has had some really good specials on huge bags of apples. Since there are only two of us, I have to come up with creative ways to use the apples, since even if we eat an apple a day, the bag still seems full even after a week. 
I was made aware that today is Save the Frogs Day by my best friend, who is finishing up her PhD in Microbiology. Turns out there is some pretty bad stuff going on with the world's amphibian population. Maybe the frogs need a poster boy like this guy. Until then, see what you can do to help their plight here.
The Funky Art Queen snapped this candid shot of Pete at the Spring Fling and posted it on her blog. Now can you see how hot it was?
I told Pete he shouldn't wear his fur coat to the show, but he insisted, and regretted it! It was a tad warm at the Funky Finds Spring Fling (that's Texas in the spring for you), but we had a good time and met lots of great people. Thank you to friends, family and everyone who came out!
