and, we're back.....

Returned from Austin yesterday, and tried to recover from the very long weekend.

For a recap of Sunday, see this. He does a better job of covering what happened anyway.

Today, I do laundry, get my life back together, and start getting ready for this!

overload...

Music is a very big part of my life, and my husband's life. Seeing live music is one of my favorite pastimes, so from time to time, I'll probably be posting things about the bands we see. Here's a rundown so far of who we've seen at the festival:

Friday was great. Saw Jamie Lidell, M. Ward, Mates of State, The Swell Season, and Alejandro Escovedo. Swell Season were my favorites of the day. If you haven't ever seen Once, I highly recommend it. Trivia fact: Swell Season are the only Oscar winners we've ever seen at ACL.

Saturday was a long one. I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog before, but I'm in the process of training for the White Rock Marathon. I ran the Half Marathon last year, and had such a great time, decided to do the full one this year. Well, Saturday happened to be a 10 mile training day on my schedule, so I woke up early, then ran for approximately 2 hours on the hotel treadmill. What a way to start the day! After my run, we got ready and headed over to Zilker Park, where we saw the Old 97s, Jose Gonzalez, Drive-By Truckers, Robert Earl Keen, Spiritualized (my favorite of the day), John Fogerty, Iron & Wine, and Beck.

By the end of the day, my legs were locking up and I was sunburnt and covered with dust from head to toe. But I couldn't have had a better day.

this just in...

Newly listed in the shop, the Louise blouse. More blouses in different patterns/colors to be listed soon. 

On another note, tomorrow we'll be headed to one of our favorite cities in the world for our annual pilgrimage to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It's three full days of sunshine (um, heatstroke?) and great music, and every year we discover at least one band that becomes a new favorite (like them). We've perfected our routine with each passing year – ways to cope with the heat (umbrellas are a lifesaver), the right snacks to bring (NOT granola bars with chocolate chips because they melt), the entry with the shortest line (not telling or it won't be the shortest line anymore!), etc. I would venture to call us ACL Festival Experts at this point. So let me know if you need any advice. A yearly favorite is the gospel music tent on Sunday morning. If you don't feel the spirit a'moving in your heart after a few minutes in that tent, then you're not alive.

And for us, a trip to Austin isn't complete without tacos from here. So delicious. I can't wait! Hope you're doing something you're happy about this weekend too.

tag...you're it.

After countless hours of online research trying to source clothing labels for Loop and Lil, I decided to try my hand at making some of my own. Most of the woven labels I was able to find are actually produced overseas (even the ones that you order from smaller distributors), and that doesn't help me one bit in my quest to reduce my carbon footprint!

I found a lot of great information on other blogs for different techniques for these labels, but in the end, I decided to 1.) have a custom stamp made of my logo, then 2.) stamp onto cotton twill tape with fabric ink. One tip: to make the ink permanent, it has to be heat set with a dry iron, or the stamped twill tape can also be thrown in the dryer.

Terry at Acme helped me with the custom stamp, and was super nice, helpful, and fast! I got my fabric ink from Monica at Stamp Asylum, another helpful and nice shop owner.

I'm happy with how the labels turned out, and more importantly, I'm glad I'm able to make them on my own.

getting ready...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately (and it's only the second week of my blog!), but I have been keeping myself busy working to get ready for this and this. My camera is also low on batteries, so I can't show you what I'm working on! But I'm excited! Stay tuned...

3....2....1....blast off!

Here it is – the inaugural post on my very own blog! Inspired by him, I've decided to start this blog to track the progress of my fledgling business, and to show people on the outside what I do all day in my little studio! 

Welcome...this is just the beginning.