Umbrellas in the Sun

Dancing, driving, making some sweet new clothes, those are the things that are on my mind these days. So, this weekend was a little creepy. I’ll tell you why. Saturday night Melanie and I were on our way down to Portland to spend some time with our friend Stephanie before attending the fabulous Crafty Wonderland. We had driven about 15 miles past Centralia when all of a sudden the accelerator pedal stopped sending gas to the engine and we started to slow down. Mel coasts us to the side of the road. Long story short, we’re towed and have to go back to Oly. Next morning. Sunday. The day of Crafty Wonderland. I head down with my buddies Abigail Adams and just when we think everything is going frostingly well (made a trip to Voodoo Donut in Portland) we realize that Sarah’s car is NOT going to start up and we’ll have to find a ride to the Doug Fir. YIKES! What bad luck. Her car was dead too. I blamed it on the half eaten voodoo doll shaped donut that Abby left on the back seat. Anyway, with the help of our lovely and talented friend Claudia, we make it to the show. Crafty Wonderland is truly a wonderful event, lots of great people who make cute and adorable things get together under one very stylish roof to conduct some business. A craft fair. Only, my clothing is not considered to be something that would normally be sold at a craft fair. At least that is what I realized this Sunday. My stuff is special, it’s women’s and men’s handmade designer apparel that is priced correctly. Like people don’t normally go to a garage sale and spend $85 on a tea kettle right? Nor do they spend $85 on a hoodie that rests on a rack next to another rack selling $10 tee shirts. So needless to say we didn’t make much money. In fact, I didn’t sell a single item! Although Sarah and Abby did and that made me happy, we BOTH had car repair bills to pay off now. So, we left the crafty show slightly bummed, even though the event itself was super cool and I’d totally go back as a shopper to support it. After a really nice night playing a form of charades that consists of reenacting scenes from movies while the other people in the room try to guess the movie at our friend Aaron’s house, we get up the next morning to bring our unsold wares to a local boutique. We get 4 blocks away from Aaron’s house and BAM! Our van is hit by a giant garbage-style truck and Sarah is on the floor. A yelp that escaped from my lips is echoing in the air, and Aaron’s door is knocked. Stuff is all strewn around. Breathe. We’re safe. No one was hurt, well, not physically. I totally thought I had caused the accident by my insane bad car luck. What if every vehicle I stepped into crashed or broke down. Is it only getting worse? I found out later that evening that Mercury was in retrograde so it all kind of made sense in my head. The lesson we gained from this weekend was that sometimes a forced break in routine, in mental clutter and “I gotta get this stuff done right away” attitude is really really good for you. Even if a bunch of bad stuff goes along with it.

So, let me tell you what I’ve been working on lately. A little number I like to call

Miami Vice Umbrella Skirt.

This here is the Plaid Banana Shirt

This is a dress called the Polka Tan

This is the Aer Lingus Drawstring Dress

Here we have the Plaid And Pleated Sports Jacket

And the good old Brown Lace Belted Tank

I’ll be bringing my new collection to Olympia’s own Hot Toddy in a couple of days, so stay tuned for that!

XOX

Heather

p.s. Thanks Clea and Melanie for being such exuberant and attractive models.