back in more ways than one

We're back in business... sort of. As far as we know the kids' school still has no power so we're not sure when they're starting up again. There are still many homes and businesses in our area that have no electricity. We came back home on Thursday night and were lucky enough to get power two hours later. We were beyond excited.

Thank you to everyone that kept tabs on us during this whole thing. Your comments and emails meant a lot. Thank you!

It turns out that all our neighbors had fun while making lemonade out of lemons. While they waited for the power to return they had a huge grilled feast as meats thawed out, played Pictionary, drank wine, had the kids playing outside all day (what else was there to do-nice change) and in general had a wonderful time. The camaraderie has continued and today we all went to eat to a restaurant together—all 19 of us.



I managed to get a lot of work done during the weekend and finally made a decision regarding my pattern designs. I will be selling fabric produced at Spoonflower from my Etsy shop (which I had abandoned a while ago). I'm excited about this and I'm really curious to see how I do. I only have the gray fabric in the shop and it's still missing some photos to show scale. I'm still narrowing down the designs and color choices that I'll be offering so I hope to have everything fully up and running in about a week or two. But I just couldn't wait to share the news. Here is a small preview of a design in two colorways. The swatch on the left is the sample I got from Spoonflower to help me with color choices.

small update

For some reason I'm in the mood for brevity so here's the latest:

- We're still at my parent's house
- We still have no power at our house and it may be 2 weeks before we get it (!!!!!)
- The kids don't have school this week
- Most of the grocery stores are down to the non-perishable items—nothing refrigerated
- Lines for gas are really long so we're limiting our traveling a lot

I think that's about it for now. ;)

Ike update

Hello everyone! We are very lucky because we're all ok. We rode out the storm at our house with my parents, brothers and sister-in-law. Our home sustained no damage at all. The streets are full of fallen trees, branches, debris and such—a lot—everywhere you look. We haven't had any power since Saturday at 1am. Our fridge is melting away and we obviously had to get rid of everything we had in there. I'm writing this from my parent's house where we are since this morning.

The storm itself was fierce. The power of the wind was incredible. I've never experienced anything like that. Fortunately, we were all so exhausted that we slept through most of it. I'm glad the kids didn't hear any of it. We didn't have to deal with them being scared. Typically I sleep like a log. Nothing wakes me up. Interestingly I woke up because all of the sudden there was no noise. Basically, we were in the eye of the hurricane. That must have been around 5am (Saturday). I was tempted to get up and take a peek but sleep won over curiosity.

In the morning, we all sat out on our mini-porch and enjoyed the remaining gusts of wind (probably still about 40mph). It felt great because the fact that we had no AC was starting to take its toll. By mid-morning we all fell asleep again to get some real rest.

My parents really wanted to know the condition of their home so they took off by mid-afternoon. It turns out that they live in one of the few areas that do have power. We have no idea when our electricity will be up and running.

Judging by what we've heard on the news and what we saw on our way here, we were extremely lucky. I feel so badly for those that have lost their homes to the flooding. It's all a huge mess further south from us. Please keep all those people in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you for all your messages. It was so heart warming to get them this morning - when my iPhone finally was able to pick up a signal. I was on Twitter until all signals went down and hadn't been able to post anything until today.

All in all I can't complain. I do want the comfort of getting back to our routine but in the meantime it definitely doesn't hurt to be at my Mom's house.

How are the Houston/South East Texas area bloggers - Dang & Blast, Sarah, Tisa, anyone else? Check in whenever you can. I hope that you're all doing well.

prepared

Everyone I've talked to is staying in their homes and they aren't calling for an evacuation of our area so we're staying too. The only thing on my mind today - get ready. Ike is definitely on its way here. I got the last of our supplies this morning (geez the grocery store was packed!!) and I've been getting things ready around the house. My parents and brothers will come over to our place because we're further north than they are. Mr. Z will get home at any minute now and will take care of the outside stuff. Since the hurricane will make landfall around midnight tomorrow, we're kind of expecting to spend the night in our master bathroom/walk-in closet (the safest place of our house) - who knows. Anyway... I hope everyone will be ok. Please keep us in your thoughts. I may be twittering a bit during this whole thing.

Here's what today looks like. Calm before the storm.



See you on the other side!

new month = new work and ideas

Back again! I've finally caught up with most of my emails (not done yet) and now I'm tackling new projects. It's funny how things work out for me. I'm really lucky. During the summer my graphic design work came to a screeching halt and all my efforts were concentrated on the book. Now that I've just delivered my manuscript and over 200+ photos and templates to my editor (wooohooo!) new projects are starting to pop up—interesting ones at that.

I've had these box templates made for a couple of months but only had time to put them together today. They're in my shop here. You had to see them coming, right?



Thank you to Lotta for naming me for the "your cover's blown" blog award. I'm truly flattered. I've always considered her work so beautiful. I'm about to run out the door to pick up the kids from school so I don't have time to mention the blogs that I'll be awarding. I'll come back later to do that.

In the meantime it's nice to be back. More plans, art and ideas to be forthcoming and no, I haven't forgotten about Crafty Synergy. I hope to post there soon as well. More importantly we're watching the hurricane (Ike) approach Texas. We're on pins and needles here.

winners

First off let me say that I never thought the auction would go this high. I took a peek at some other auctions and it seems like the generosity spread all around. It just shows how wonderful people can be in a time of need. Amazing and so heart warming. Thank you to those of you that participated. Laura, please contact me at info[at]alittlehut[dot]com with a copy of your PayPal receipt and the address you'd like me to send the piece to.

Now, the book giveaway. I love actually picking a number out of a hat, but in the interest of getting this done a little quicker I used a random number generator. I decided that the first winner would get Forecast and the second would get the Over and Over book. I almost feel like this was fixed (I promise it wasn't!) because I love the work by both these very talented ladies and they have always been very supportive with their comments about my work. Congratulations to you both! I really hope you enjoy the books.

Here are the winners:
Jules (Forecast) :: I've always envied Jules' talent for writing. Her blog is so entertaining to read and always makes me feel like I need to try harder. I love how she combines her wit with her obvious talent to tell a story. Who knows how many times she's just shaken her head in shock as she sees me stumbling along with my posts. I have honestly thought of that Jules! ;)

Lisa (Over and Over) :: Lisa's artwork has always inspired me. I love her use of colors and textures. Some of her work looks so dreamy and some so graphic. I find that contrast so interesting.

I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend!