Phew. Can you tell I have lots of projects on the brain?
It seemed like last week was one filled with phone calls and emails packed with possibility. For starters, I finally got in touch with the manager of the farmer's market. They are definitely still interested in hiring me to blog for the market, but now I need to prepare a presentation to present to the board members next week. It's a mixed bag of people--including some who want nothing to do with the internet or email and have never even heard of a blog. But I'm excited to share with them my ideas and yours. I have such a passion for farmers markets and all that they stand for. And I'm thrilled to be part of it.
Then another possible project came up that will definitely involve me getting in touch with my preppy-teen-horse-girl side. A friend in the horse community got in touch with me about working on personalizing horse blankets, saddle covers and other "girlie" accessories. Apparently, these girls like all their horsey attire to match, even down to the cuff (that's my idea). So we're working on patterns, collecting ideas, and gathering ribbons in all those preppy colors like hot pink and green and red and navy stripes. I've been googling things like 'preppy horse ribbon' and 'matching saddle pads and covers' and 'teen horse apparel' to get myself in the proper mindset.

And if those two things aren't enough to keep my brain happily busy, I've also heard about another possibility at a trendy mother/baby store downtown. They opened this summer and the shop owners-a mother/daughter team-are looking for some unique handmade items from local crafters. So I've been brainstorming ideas of items that I want to take down to the store to share. The girl who told me about the shop had already told the owners about some of my projects and they are interested in seeing things. Honestly, I'm feeling very intimidated by it all. I've never approached a shop owner like this before, and I'm not exactly sure the best way to go about it. Knowing she already has some interest in what I'm doing helps. But I think I'd like to put together some sample work. I'm thinking embroidered tees and onesies....(is embroidered the right word? when I say that I think some people think of machine-embroidery instead of fabric embroidery) and maybe some personalized totes and cuffs. Ugh.

We'll see. I think I'll just start putting things together and see what comes of it. I raided my overflowing scrap basket today and began checking out some of these blank baby tees that I really like.

So, there's much going on in my brain these days. But it is all very exciting to me. I've really been looking for opportunities to make a little bit of extra income on the side, so maybe one of these possibilities would help.

Oh, and that first picture is Emma's pencil can. Yesterday, she opted to clean her room instead of nap. She's at the age now, where she's napping about three days a week and the other days she spends some time in her room 'resting'. She got this mad cleaning buzz that included reorganizing her pencils into said container and setting the dinner table. She even managed to get some "school" done with me, too.

Do any of you mother's of lefty's out there notice that your children write their words and letters backwards? She can spell certain words, like her name, perfectly, but they are mirror-image backwards. Today I had her putting plastic alphabet letters in order and half of them she placed down were backwards. I'm not worried. I really think it must be a left-handed thing that shel'll grow out of. But I'm wondering if anyone else notices this same quirk with their children....?