under the sea...

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.

local love...

L+L has gotten some virtual ink on NBCDFW.com for their Buy Indie Wednesday feature!

Check out the article here!

snack attack...

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!

I chopped up a few tomatoes and a jalapeno from our garden, then added about a half a diced onion, the juice from one lime, a few pinches of chopped cilantro, and a pinch of salt. Make sure and let the pico sit for a while so the flavors mix together. We put it on our turkey tacos for lunch, and have been dipping tortilla chips in it for a snack. Yum.

me and my dad...

Happy Father's Day!

thank you!

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!

06.18.2005

Four years ago today. Happy Anniversary!

walk a mile in my shoes...

I have not been able to stop wearing these shoes, which I won in a silent auction benefitting Friends of TOMS, a non-profit dedicated to mobilizing, connecting, and empowering individuals who want to give further aid to communities served by the TOMS One for One mission. If you haven't heard of TOMS - it's a shoe company founded by native Texan Blake Mycoskie. What separates it from every other shoe company, or any company really, is that for every pair of shoes you buy, TOMS gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. Since they started, they've given away 190,000 pairs of shoes to children in Argentina, Ethiopia, South Africa, and New Orleans. 

Root Fashion in Fredericksburg, Texas held the event and local businesses decorated and embellished pairs of TOMS for auction. Read more about the event here. I loved this pair, decorated by Enid, and they also happened to be my size. It was fate. Now that I know how comfortable TOMS are, I'll be buying more. And now that I know how much I love all the stuff at Root and Enid, I'll be heading to Fredericksburg as soon as I can.

labels...

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!

confucius says...

The other day at lunch at a Chinese restaurant near our house, he got this fortune in his fortune cookie:

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:

Now we're just waiting for the fortune to come true. How long do you think it means when it says "near future"?

shopping trip: gardens

Last week, I met a friend at a local shopping/dining area for burgers, then took a stroll over to Gardens. 

Gardens carries not only supplies for the urban gardener - pots, seeds, bulbs, tools, gloves and small plants - but also a beautifully curated selection of furniture, pottery, books, artwork, lotions and soaps, and paper goods. As you can see in the above photo, I picked up this piece of wrapping paper to hang up in the small dining area in our kitchen. 

Gardens also offers a service for apartment dwellers where a landscape architect will help you develop a garden plan for your balcony, and even help you with potting. If I didn't have this guy taking care of things around our yard, I would definitely call in the pros! To contact them, go here.

on my nightstand: los angeles 2009

On my nightstand this week is this book, which I picked up in preparation for my trip west. 

Here's a budget friendly tip that I use: The library has guide books for any city you might be planning a trip to, and I think it's better to check them out rather than buy them, as the information becomes out of date rather quickly. I'm glad I picked up this book ahead of time, because I've learned that there's a better airport for me to fly into than I had originally planned. That info alone will save me around $30 each way on cab fares - not bad for a book that didn't cost me a penny!

everybody's doing it...

So if you've read this blog for very long (I know there are 2 of you that have!), you already know that Loop and Lil was named after two parakeets. Which makes it completely fitting that I can now be followed on Twitter! You can keep track of what I'm doing and working on here, and I will also post special discounts and specials for my Twitter followers. It's a tweet deal! (I know, I know...I couldn't help it.)

etsy pick friday: and furthermore

I realized the other day that I never know what time it is. I don't wear a watch, and the clocks we have in our house are in two rooms that I don't spend a lot of time in. I spend most of the day in my studio when I'm sewing or in our living room (when I'm cutting fabric or on the computer). So rather than move the microwave (which has a clock) into my studio, I'm thinking that this Doily Clock from Etsy seller And Furthermore is just what I need to hang up to make sure I'm never late for an appointment again.

on my nightstand: jamie at home

This is the first installment of a new kind of post here on the blog, where I'll detail what I'm reading from the library down the street!

On the nightstand (and kitchen counter sometimes!) is Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life by Jamie Oliver. This is the first cookbook I've read by Jamie, but I'll definitely be checking out the rest of his books now that I've immersed myself in this one. It's not only beautifully designed and photographed cookbook, but it has tons of information for people with veggie gardens. The book is divided into the four Seasons, and has recipes using ingredients that are in season for that time of the year. It also has tips on growing different fruits and vegetables and cooking techniques. I'm particulary interested in the short section on pickling, which I hope to take up with some of our okra harvest.