sandpetal: bound by button holes

Oh November, how did you come so fast? Wasn't it just last week that it was the beginning of October? Time is flying. always I guess. Things have been really good lately. This fall has been really lovely and very dry. Only 3 days of light rain this whole season. I really hope that winter proves to be a cold one, we need the rain! Especially being off the grid, I have to think about things like our well.

October has been a very different month then in past years. But I've been adjusting to the changes.
With some extra free time, I decided to make a little road trip up to Ashland to visit my sweet friend Brittany. She's been living there for a while now and it was so good to catch up with her. We went on an awesome hike, checked out the little shops of Ashland, did a soak and sauna, ate really yummy food, drank coffee, talked for hours and went out for cocktails and to the local farmers market. Pretty much the perfect mini vacation ever. Definitely going back for another visit soon.

When I returned from my trip, I packed up a few things and then headed into the woods with my friend Aly to post celebrate our birthdays. It was a good time out in the wilderness. We only camped for 1 night but it felt like a week had gone by out there. The place we hiked is called Ace of Bean. Such a sweet spot. And I just love the name, makes me think there's a jolly green giant somewhere amongst the forest. On our way back we saw an old abandoned cabin that we decided to check out. Kinda creepy and kinda cool. Glad I got a mini hike in this fall, especially cuz the summer annual hike with the lady crew didn't manage to happen this year. Crossing my fingers it lines up for us all to go next year.

October was also about going to a show in the city. Hardly ever get to do that and it's always a treat when Gus and I can both get away together. This show was extra special due to the nature of how I acquired the tickets. There was a contest being offered on facebook, so I entered and WON!! We got to see Alice Russell in SF at Yoshi's and that show was fantastic! I got to meet her after the show and she signed a cd for me. She is such a sweetheart. Here's a link to my new favorite song off her new album. Our seats were fantastic! When she played this song everyone got up and started dancing around! It was so awesome. Been following her for like 8 years. She's from the UK and I was thrilled to win those tickets! : ) A for sure highlight of this fall season.

After taking a 3 month break from school, I'm back and right now I'm taking a tailoring class. It's been really good to get back into the swing of things, needle, thread and all! Learning so much about the inner workings of a jacket. Now I get why hand tailored suits can be $5,000! Surely my jacket will be worth that to me after all the hours I will have invested when it's all over.

I chose to use a beautiful shade of purple wool and a mango orange as a contrasting fabric for my jacket. This week I am cutting out the silk lining and have been working on making bound button holes and welt pockets with a flap. I love my school so much and really want to devote more of my blog posts to the fashion and sewing world my heart is so fond of.

Gus and I got crafty together this halloween. He decided to be a snail and I wanted to be a zebra. I really wanted to start putting my skills to the test from school and made my costume using my own drafted pattern. I scored some very old early 1900's victorian lace with beads and an amazing opera silk cape from a rad antique shop out in Sebastopol that I used in my costume. Gus was the cutest little snail I have ever seen. He made the frame of his shell out of chicken wire and used paper mache for the outside. I helped with the paint and glitter and it all came together so great! The kids really loved his costume and they kept asking him if he had candy in his shell. One little kid even said "Come on man, stop holding out!" Kids say the funniest things sometimes.

Speaking of kids! I've been lucky to get to spend a few weeks hanging out with a friend of mine who came for a visit from Nova Scotia. He brought his little girl Mare that I got to meet and she is seriously the smartest little girl ever! She's not even 2 yet, already knows shapes, colors, animals, even a butterfly and a moth. Can say rectangle and I love you! I found her a little bear costume for Halloween and so she was Mare bear! So cute. She melted my heart and it was hard to say goodbye when she had to leave. Looking forward to seeing her again soon.

Gus and I have also been working on getting our house more in order these days and helping Gus look for building supplies on craigslist. This fall we scored a really awesome old 1950's double apron sink that I've been hunting for all summer. The guy we bought it from lives in Berkeley and is remodeling an old 1920's victorian. We ended up scoring some old cabinets with glass doors too. We also found a cute little apartment size Wedgewood stove for the summer months. We use a wood cookstove for the winter but it's hard to want to use it in the summer when it's like 100 degrees outside, so the little stove will be perfect! The best score so far definitely has to be the butcher block. We went to an old bowling alley from 1958 that is being torn down and bought part of a bowling lane to use as our butcher block. It's a 3inch thick piece of maple that is almost 8 feet long. We're gonna resand it and make a cool island out of it. So fun to recycle things from the past. Our kitchen is definitely gonna be a little funky with some flare for sure! Now we're on a mission to find a really cool spiral staircase for the loft. Thank god for Craigslist!

Things are just moving along. We hope to get our kitchen dialed in soon. I was really hoping to have thanskgiving dinner here but gonna have to wait till next year for that.

Haven't been doing much thrifting these days either, seems like any time I go, I never seem to find much. I really enjoy using etsy to find all my treasures and antique shops. Sometimes they have the best deals!

Speaking of etsy, boy do I need to take some time to work on that project. I have bins and bins of amazing vintage clothing from the shop that I have been wanting to put online for so long. Maybe this winter that will be my goal. I was hoping to do some traveling to Europe this winter but looks like I'll more than likely be staying around these parts, which will give me some time to work on getting an online shop going. I sure miss my storefront. It was hard to let it go but I do enjoy the free time it has given me.

Oh and a movie recommendation! I found the cutest little series called The House of Elliott...
It's based in the 1920's and it's about 2 sisters that try their hand at opening a fashion house in Europe. It such a sweet show that was filmed in the 1990's and I'm on disc 4. If you love fashion and old time periods, I highly recommend it.

Well I better get back to sewing and homework. Lots to do on this beautiful Tuesday.