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Good Afternoon

So I had my day all planned. I was gonna pick up Gabe, finish looking at the new entries, take pictures and post them to the website. Guess again. I picked up Gabe and he was in rare form. ya, he got in trouble for trying to stand on his head during story time and then wouldn't listen to his teacher. I asked him about it, he cried and said "I need to. I want to". And that was the start of the afternoon, "I need to, I want to and Mommy, mommy." Needless to say I am hours behind right now.

Oh, then why am I blogging right now? Cuz I need a bit of "alone" time. I can handle Gabe most of the time, but this whining today needs to stop soon. Ha, good thing we have a babysitter tonite.
I have been going through all my pictures for the Art fair and realized I so use the Heather Tank and Lacey Tank for everything, I love these two pieces. They are so dang simple.  If you don't have them yet from the Hot Line collection, contact a Trunk Keeper to order them.  You'll be glad you did.

Ya, other than the whining Beast it has been a great day. All good stuff coming my way? And who sent those cookies to the office? I did not see them but Chris told me they got cookies. They were so happy! Thank you. I'll have to see for myself when I go back in. Sometimes they lie just to get a rise out of me. 

So we got cookies, good news from Carla, I'm wearing a cute new dress from my Target gift card, my strike offs are done for next season. I am so dying to see these things. It feels a long way off but wow, it really is not as far as production goes.  Oh, and plus, I so thought we were sold out of the Alice Knot Top. Ya, right...guess again.
Oh, so the reason for the mid-afternoon blog, besides it is quiet in here, my hands are fuller than I expected today. So voting will have to be Saturday May 2. I could pull  off tomorrow but I am worried I would not be able to give a fair and accurate representation of the the top 10. Oh, did I say that?  I meant 13.

Ya, blame that on David. He was so cute last night. He wanted everyone to win. He even asked if we could afford more than one prize. I'm like, ahh....Target? House payment? Food? School Tuition? ummm..a new camera? No, we'll figure something out.

You guys worked so hard on all of these. You really poured your spirit, heart and creativity into each one. I cannot even tell you how excited I am about them or how wonderful it feels to know that you really do like Matilda Jane.  Amazing.

Okay, some little guy just showed up saying "Mommy, I need you, I want you..."

See ya.

Pondering

It seems a majority of the day was spent going through all the entries. Well, that or thinking and talking about them.
I don't have an accurate count but we got lots. Lots and lots. And they were all so dang good. I really thought  someone was gonna send me some dryer sheets. We always here how good things smells. Nope, didn't get any.
Sara, Sam and I went through them all today (yes, we still have more to come). We read them and put them into 2 bins, no and MAYBE. We then passed the MAYBE bin to Becky and Diane. They then sorted into a no and MAYBE. They passed the MAYBE bin onto Lynette and Kayla. They then sorted into the no and MAYBE bin. Ya, so pretty much nothing got done today in means of work.
By the end of the day this was all I had to bring home. I've got to narrow down the last 17 to 10. Then you get to narrow down the 10 to 3. And we get to narrow down the 3 to 1.  It is hard. Each entry brings me to a different place or memory.  They are all real good whether they be a thought, image, story, or object. Each one is so different from the next.
And now I must say, Miss Mary Virginia you have converted me. I snagged this right away from the box. Not because I like tea cuz I don't. Joe does. This little good smelling box made his day. And me, yes, I am converted. I love this tea. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my.

Think Tank

Usually somehow and in someway we can find a way to blame Kayla. I guess that comes with the territory when you dabble in everything. It is usually little things like "Oh, they wouldn't cash your paycheck?" Ahh...that is Kayla's fault she can't forge my name correctly. "Oh, we don't have any note cards left?" That is Kayla's fault she never told me. "Oh, she did tell me? " Well, I forgot, she should have reminded me.  "You gained 5lbs?" Ha, probably cuz Kayla has all that junk food around this place.

And that is usually why everyone loves Kayla.
That and she comes up with the great idea of splashing in mud puddles all afternoon. We had a few more pics to take and it was freezing and rainy. But hey, "Oh, Ava is sick?" That is Kayla's fault for making her go outside.
Ava fell in love with this wig from the moment those brown eyes fell upon it. I knew she wanted it really bad. And I mean really bad. So today, I purposely hid it so she wouldn't get upset that she couldn't wear it for all the pics. Yes, because I am a mom and I know, out of sight  means out of mind.

I turn my head for one brief moment and lookie there. Ahh..that would be Kayla's fault again. And guess what Ava brought home?
An old piece of la.ti.da complete with Matilda Jane ties and of course....the blue wig.

Okay, so now on to me. You all know how I love to talk about me. I work carpool on Tuesday and Thursday. Well, last Thursday I was telling Lori how much I loved Target. I could buy everything. And seeing that is not possible my simple solution is the "Think Tank". This simply being dump everything you want into the cart and thinking about buying it while you stroll around the store. And then when you hit check out the cart is either emptied or left behind. People may hate me for this but my credit card loves me cuz she gets to stay tucked in my purse.
And look what I got today! Thank you Lori. And you know what? I bought some super cute stuff...too bad they didn't have the skinny armed tanks cuz I would have bought one in every color.

Okay, Miss Gun Doggy Slim Jimma aka Elaine, shoot an email to Sara, saras@matildajaneclothing.com and she'll hook you up. Oh, don't you love Herb Brooks?

We're going to start going through the contest entries tomorrow. I can hardly wait and those 2 cutting girls, Sam and Sara (aka. The Dream Team), are just dying to open the packages. We have been waiting to call it fair. You know, you open one early and you dwell on it for days. I wanted us to dwell as one!! If that even makes sense. But there are a ton, so we are gonna start tomorrow. Voting will take place Friday May one from 8am till midnight est. I'll fill you in tomorrow with some pics of the festivities.

9 2 5 4 435

You like that title? Yup, the genius David reigns. Oh, man.

I feel like I have been ignoring my blog. My mind is in 20 other places. For example: Matilda Jane, 435 art fair, online art fair, fabric addiction and no room to store it, preview party, how to thank wonderful TK's, how to thank you, mom's day, why Sam called in sick Friday, what to get Becky for her wedding, Matilda Jane again, when can we go through all our entries for the trip, how to stop eating, how'd it get to be summer and I'm still chubby, (you know any tank tops that make your arms look thin?), should I move or just fancify my house,  and the list goes on. None of them crucial to life but just so dang fun to think about.

I brought in the reinforcements this weekend to help out. It is so hard to see what you have in order of outfits till you start dressing little ones.  Joe came in to help. Oh, first, I must brag. He had his first baseball game EVER and hit the ball!! back to MJC...Joe loves to help at work. he'll pick out outfits, oragnize fabric, sort size lable, you name it and he's game.  You have no clue. No clue. May just have something to do with all the cute girls surrounding the clothing.
It was a good day, we cleaned, folded a zillion pants, cut some new dresses (crossing my fingers they turn out) and pretty much tried on clothes. Oh, and wigs. Little Miss Ava was born to be a star. I'm not sure what it is, but this girl is amazing. Not only is she beyond beautiful she is the silliest chick. She is full of personality.
My other little helper, whom you should all know, is LouLou. She has been around since the beginning. Love this girl to the core. And I have a funny feeling so does Joe.

I know a few girls are dying to hear their name, Annette M step right up and let's have Shelly and Kari too, shoot your email to sara at saras@matildajaneclothing.com. Yup, it is Eva Zeisel.  If you haven't read about her, go for it.  She is as amazing as her work. Pure Talent. But then you know what they say, "You don't have enough talent to win on talent alone. ...."  She has many other wonderful attributes that make her who she is. So do you really know who said that? First one in.....

Now I really need to get off this computer. I have a long day ahead of me. I left the workshop a complete dive. Ya. It's bad.  And I thought this was good.

Simple

For the past few days I can't get rid of the "I want something new" itch.  It's getting real bad. It lingers from a new house to a new camera to new furniture to a lake house to a new purse then to new floors. I'm not sure where it is gonna settle but I need something "new".  Maybe this is just a sign I need to do some spring cleaning?

Who knows right?  Maybe I should just buy some more fabric, huh?  ..15 minutes later from tucking in Joe and the Beast..okay, maybe I should just really clean my house tomorrow so I can see all my pretties? In doing art fairs for well over 12 years I have come to acquire some great pieces of art. Most of them through trade seeing we could never afford to buy original art work.  That is surely one of the better perks of being in the art fair circuits.

A few weeks ago I dd go visit Anne. Remember the Protein painting? Well, I got another. I'll clean up so I can show you. In the meantime, I had forgotten I took these pics while at Anne's studio.  Man, I just looked at her home page, I so want that huge painting. It is called The Smoker. I love it but it is 6feet x8 feet. Hmmm...

Anne's studio is fantastic and I love looking at it over and over.  It reminds me so much of when we painted. Well, except we did furniture for the most part. We started canvases right toward the end of the road.

Man, I always loved peeling off all the paint from the brushes. Oh, the number of paint mugs I have spilled. My gosh. We had all these coin cups from Vegas that we used. I brought a ton home one time just for that sole purpose. Heck, they are free.

This is so my favorite things at Anne's. Her walls are covered in inspiration. I am totally knocking this off. Our walls are bare in the cutting room. Yup, I'll fill 'em up before your arrival!

So lastly, who is this lady your are probably wondering? She is simply one of the...okay..wait.. you tell me? I need her name and that is all. And I'll take the first three to get it right.  She is so worth googling. Simply wonderful.

I'll hold comments till tomorrow so no one can peak at answers!! Ya, it is a hard one. But if you know me, and know my taste, my favorite places to shop (that I can't affod) then, you'll know who she is.

UPDATE 9:30am- Oh, you poor souls,I may have been too hard on you. But there is one who knows exactly the gal I am talking about. I mean, you guys are the master of finding things on the internet. Can't you google my face or furniture or pottery or something?

Oh, and I'll put up the comments seeing they might help you out.

I do love Joe. We got his report card in the mail the other day. He asked me what it said. So I read it to him. He responds in a very concerned manner, "But did it say I was kind?" I am telling you, he may be a cry baby anytime he doesn't get his way but he has such a great soul.

Today we had conferences. I told him if it it went well he could pick wherever we went to dinner. Of course his teacher loves him. He wanted to go to the Chinese restaurant that he went to with Chris.  All he could do was talk about how good the tea was and could he get it.  Oh, I do love Joe. And I do hate tea.

I love, love this picture.  This morning I called Stephanie,(okay, I texted her) and asked if we could have a Center Street weekend reunion. Just the girls on the street: Me, Deedee, Liza, Stephanie, Stacey, Andy Darci and Jodi.  We all lived on the same block of Center Street, oops Liza was one down. This picture so reminds me of us and all the fun we used to have.

We had an ice skating rink across the street and could skate all night. We had a huge hill filled with Strawberries we'd pick all summer and sled down all winter.  We'd play flash light tag almost every night and put on plays in my garage. I had the best time with those girls and it is those girls, that no matter if I go 10 years without talking, I love them to death.

and this girl promised to start being more reliable on her blog. Ohh...kids. ya, and guess who broke the cutting knife today?

Oh, so Persnickity (Lisa) gets to win the goods. Just shoot sara an email, saras@matildajaneclothing.com with your address and size.

We are planning a preview party for 435 on Friday night.  As soon as we get the details I'll post them. It is so fun making all this art fair stuff again. I love cutting for collections but nothing replaces the fun of making something new every hour! Love it

MJC Love

You guys are killing me with all these fantastic pictures. My gosh. Did you see I even started another Spring Chicks Book? Thanks so much for taking the time to send 'em my way. I really do enjoy seeing them all.

Do you know I have some of the cutest friends in the world? And one of them, I named the Gretta skirt after. I'm not sure why I am just now thinking of this, but she came to conference in New Orleans and was sitting there watching the fashion show an the awards given to the Trunk Keepers and says to my dear friend, Renee, "What the heck is going on? Why are we here?" Ha, this goes to show you how much I talk about MJC, not much. She literally had no clue it was my line.

So the other day we had the (I can't think of a great enough word to describe them) One Lucky Guitar team come visit us. They are just across the parking lot pretty much.  For those of you who don't know them, Matt is the brains behind the Matilda Jane identity work and the rest of his team has done many projects for us. Gosh, they have been around since before we even made our 100th piece of clothing. And image how cool I felt when I saw some Matilda Jane love on Drew's blog. So it is not really love, well, aside form love for his camera, but there are pictures of 435!

David is driving me nuts getting the kids all wound up before bed time so I have to go be the bad witch and tell them to settle down. Good night.

Okay, wait, I have to throw in a little contest...who can be the first to tell me what Drew refers to his camera as...what a goofball.

 

and thank you Stephanie Lynn for letting me show off your absolutely darling daughter...

quick note...

Ya, I know, they couldn't be any cuter. Gosh, I so remember those days! And I just noticed, Monika, you are training them pretty young? Gotta love that fountain pop! ya, sure it's juice, right?

Today is the first day I have been awake all day. I'm not sure what I had but all I could do was sleep and cough. I was really hoping for it to be Mono but no luck. Heck, what's a better way to loose 10lbs? Sick in bed, sleep and get skinny. Perfection. And the entire time everyone feels sorry for you. I love every minute of that!! Okay, so a few seconds of it.

As usual I am 30 emails behind and David keeps rattling off all the things I need to do so back to work and I'll chat up with you tomorrow.

Oh, and before I forget...we got our first entries today. They were good, real good. But I do want to mention Sara is pregnant so be warned she cries at everything. I told her today she was coming off prize patrol cuz I can't pay her to cry all day!!! See I am mean...but honest.

<12.5x9.5

Did you know I slept from about 10am to 2:24 pm today. Jealous, huh? It was unreal. I had the worst headache and fever. Man, why is sleeping so dang fun? And do you  know what kind of phone call woke me up? The nice ribbon place telling me not 2 of the 19 ribbons I had ordered were sold out but ALL OF THEM. Is that crazy? So see I know how you feel. I literally laughed on the phone, like she was joking. Yes, I was nice. But for real, 19 out of 19 and a 6-8 week wait. I simply said, "what do you have? Uh huh...okay, I'll take that."  Then went back to sleep.
Before I forget, Jamie you are dang smart. Ellie with a jean skirt? Ahh.. super cute.

Did you know one of may favorite jobs was at Speedway gas station the summer of my freshman year of college. Loved that job. I'd give coffee to the same cheery folk every morning, rotate the hotdogs on that little spinner thing, fill the window cleaner by the gas pumps, fill the pop cooler and what not. I never did get to change the gas prices on that big sign, though. The only embarrassing part was when an ex boyfriend (the same one that I hid from while working at KofC) pulled up with his cute new girlfriend and there I sat in my stupid uniform behind the plexi glass. I was cute though... at least I thought so.  What is it with stupid looking uniforms anyways?

  20 minutes later.....and an quick apology for the dusty shelf.....

Every morning I wake up I see this bluebird. I think of that job, if even for one split second. The manager gave it to me when I left and told me it was called the "Bluebird of Happiness".  I'm not quite sure if it really is, but it is exactly true of what it reminds me of.  I have had this since 1992.

So my contest is to you to send me something that reminds you of Matilda Jane Clothing.  And there are a few requirements. It must fit into a envelope no bigger than  12-1/2" X 9-1/2". That is your typical USPS Priority Mail Envelope. It doesn't have to be a thing, it can be a story, a word, a picture, a little pieces of fabric, it can be anything.  But it does have to be received by us at MJC, attn "Sara S.,  435 e Brackenridge, Fort Wayne IN 46802. And it has to be received no later than April 30.

The deadline is April 30 because we have to have time to pick the top 10, and then have you pick the winner by mid May so we have time to get the details organized. Cuz we are going to bring you and a friend to 435 Art fair.  Yup the entire trip (airfare within the US, car, hotel, food) and then some is on us.  (oh, I'm so excited about this...)
And on a side note...Miss Kayla above is exactly what our MJC Kayla most likely looked like as a child. Ha, I'm dying here...ask Sam to share some of Kayla's glamour shots with you. I don't want to get into trouble.

So now you have lots to think about, I'll leave you with a pic of Rosie. She came in to tell me something this morning and I was like "stay away, I am sick..." and she looked so scared.  I was like "wait, I have to get my camera" so I could show you how cute she looked!

Once Again

I am in complete awe of all these little girls. And Kate, you so get the shot every dang time.  My gosh. Good thing I have 2 boys, and good thing my 2 boys are in training to be the kindest and most caring of all boys. As I am sure all you moms of boys are saying the same.  That is the best thing about boys, is we can raise them to be wonderful little gentlemen.

Oh, so once again...I have no business blogging. Gabe is beating up Joe and Joe is crying and Gabe is laughing. Give it a few more minutes and the roles will be reversed.  Yes, I know I say kind and caring but they need to get all these little "spitfires" out of their system now before they hit real school.
These tubes are usually weapons of choice, but tonite it would be the infamous vacuum cleaner attachment.  Lord help me, for I may be losing my mind....David please get home soon...ya, and maybe I should stop blogging but it is quiet in this room...sorta.

Just a little of what Sara and I cut today. That new knife is a scary soul. But without it, we would not have accomplished this.
I love looking at stacks of un-made goods. I have all these blots lined up at the door, tied together ready to get rid of. There must be about 100 or so of them. Lynette says, "Ya...(a little hesitation and puzzled look) wow, they are almost pretty." And that they are.

Ha, and this was not even planned, and I am so not kidding. For real.  We all know Megan. But do you know how I met Megan? In short, I once had a little shop named Daffodil Hill. Megan came in and all I thought was " Wow, she is young to have 2 kids? Wow. And she is cute."  Then she started coming in more and more. Ya, she must've liked me.  Then I was like, "wow, she is having another one?"  Oh, she was so damn cute.

Almost as cute as this bag that she surprised me with today. I seriously had to try not to cry. I even hugged her, twice. I am not a hugger. But my gosh, it is so me. I love you Megan....and I still think you are young and cute and now you have 4 kids!!  Megan was one of our original TK's and was with us for four seasons...but decided to take a break this season.

I love, LOVE, did I say LOVE this bag. I'm just so happy thinking sweet little Megan was out and saw this cute thing and thought of grumpy 'ol me. Ya, you guys think I am nice, but you have never called me. It most always goes like this, "Ya, what do you want?" Okay, I can't talk right now, click". I am not much of a small talker when I am in work mode and that is usually pretty much most of the time.

On a side note, a quick side note cuz the Mac n Cheese is almost done. Ya, we are living large tonite, I got the spiral kind.  Sara and I racked our brains all day while cutting.  We have a great idea that will result in one amazing gift.  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. I have to make sure David is still on board cuz it is a big one and he writes the checks around here.   But that does not matter.  What does,  is what you come up with. So think about one thing triggers your mind when you think Matilda Jane, or vice versa.But you may want to keep it to yourself...this is gonna be the contest of all contest..