It is the night before we leave for NYC and I have been rushing around celebrating Christmas with the family and then home to get loose ends wrapped up. I am formatting my images for the pins I am offering to my Lylou Customers for the custom bags. A few months ago I decided to allow women to create their own Lylou bag and one of the elements is a brooch of their choice. It is just a little something to make the Lylou experience a little more entertaining and creative. The shoe above is one of 20 of the brooches.

I will be in NYC until the 31st, so have a GREAT HOLIDAY!

Grandma Larson, my mother, is in her first publication (not the above photo). One of her painted trunks is in this months wedding addition of Athena magazine. I am so proud of her! Her next one comes out in January Athens Magazine Active Seniors Section. Oh, I should toss in that we are both on the 'society page' in the Athena, which cracks me UP...little ole Larson girls on the society page? Crazy!

Packing early is harder then I thought, but this year I get to take along 2 hand painted bags that my mother did for me! I tried to pick just one, but they were so cute I decided I have to take both. I don't leave until the 25th, but mom gets out of the hospital and I will be staying with her until I leave.

On a personal note: I have been going through a roller coaster of emotions since I was fired. I am happy I don't ever have to return to that terrible office with those terrible women, but I am excited and even more so scared to open a boutique on very little money. I have been broke before and I don't want to return, but at the same time I feel confident that this is a step in the right direction to getting my handbag and design business off the floor.

I am trying to breath....-grin.

Leslie

I found out today on Kristin's blog that my BFF's birthday (December 13th) is the same day as St. Lucia Day in Sweden! I always knew she was special. Happy Belated Birthday my special lady. We will have to find some glogg when I hit NYC and celebrate your special day...SWED STYLE!

Brian vs. Darth

The crazy thing about being unemployed is that I am busier now then I have been in the last 7 years. I have been helping mom get ready for her day in surgery (tomorrow morning), helping a friend organize her living space, interviewing (or at least making the appointment for interviews), sewing, packing, creating Shrinky Dink images for my new brooches for Lylou Design AND relaxing with the dogs. There isn't enough time in the day.

I am sorry for you that have been calling and emailing me without replies...I promise that I will get back to you in the next week...after mom has recovered.

ceramic painting by Ruth Allen

Saturday was the Big City Bread Holiday Market and like every year it was the worst weather in months.... rainy and cold forcing everyone to vacate after only 4 hours...luckily for me and my mother we were able to make a few hundred dollars before closing shop (unlike last year where I didn't sell even ONE item). This being a good money day was the least of my joys that came from last Saturday. I had been looking forward to the sale for one very important reason and that was I was finally going to see Ruth Allen, a wonderful friend and person, and share with her my news of my unemployment. Ruth is one of the most enlightened people I have come across and she always has this uncanning ability to put you at ease within a few simple words. When I told her I was fired the first words out of her mouth were "THANK GOD!" I went on to ask her if she could put out some positive energy to help me find my way and she told me "It is already taken care of, you don't have to worry about a thing. This is the best thing to happen to you." That was all I need to hear and I needed to hear it from her (for some reason). Since that conversation I haven't been worried one bit, but rather began the journey of figuring out what new path I am going to take in life. I am now ready to take my next step forward with my handbags! Time to get moving.

updated invite

Sorry I have been out this past week, but I needed to do some thinking and 'homework,' as I always call it (when one needs to work on ones passions and desires). I had the chance to sit back and think about things, not sure that it has done any good as of yet, but I can see in the long run it will work to my advantage. It is always funny to me that when in the dire straights one can find the strength to pull through and see the light at the end of the tunnel....the reason they will 'win' in life.

I have a number of opportunities that are open to me (that I have known about for the past month) and they only thing that is stopping me has been money and time, but what is that? Really nothing, when it come to ‘drive.’ I have decided that I can do anything I put my mind to and why let a little thing like money stop me…. worst case scenario it doesn’t work. I will update you as I work through these options (I have to keep you wanting more…Teehee)

The best news is that I am on my way back…(at least that is good news to me).
The above is a rough draft of an invite I am in the process of building for my very 1st home show. YOUR THOUGHTS PLEASE! I am no graphic designer, but I can do a little photoshopping…any ideas are welcome.

The same day that I recieved my new beautiful necklace from Tilly I was fired from my job at Clarke County School District for 'personal usage of the internet.' Ever since my boss was promoted I knew this was coming, I just thought they would be cool enough to wait until after the first of the year. People can be so hateful that it surprises me at time...they couldn't find anyother reason to fire me, but personal usage of the internet? COME ON! And life goes on....

I am out of sorts at this time....poop.

scarf made by Sarah Dunning

It was finally cold enough on Friday for me to wear my new scarf, but come Saturday it was back up in the 70's and uncomfortably warm. I spent my Saturday with 7 other designers at a trunk show. It was great meeting strong indie business women, but unfortunately the woman hosting the party didn't do any promotions so we ended up spending $75 sitting around talking with one another. Luckily for me, I was able to break even, but most of the designers didn't sell a single item. It was TERRIBLE! I realized during that how much I have my act together and how lucky the designers are that come to my home every year for no fee and sell their butts off are....

Pillow for your thoughts!

pillow by Karen

On my second trip out of my studio into the Bazaar I had my eye on this wonderful pillow by Karen. Since then I realized that ONE JUST WON’T DO! I need TWO! So, I hope to get another one in orange as soon as things slow down from the holidays.

I also, found myself carrying away 4 of Will's coasters. I had been eyeballing them for months and finally had the chance to grab a few. I have a weakness for naked clothing and his paintings are spectacular. I love the colors, texture, and composition...all of it. Since I can't really budget in a painting, I went for the next best thing, reproductions in functional coasters. Make sure to sign up fon his emailing list, so you can get his "Painting of the Week. It is fun to watch the process.

Naked Clothing -by Will

Bibbi's Garland


The first time I ever viewed Bibbi’s blog, she featured one of her amazing garland and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Since then I have been enchanted and amazes with every piece that Bibbi has featured of her work. If you have not yet taken a look at the beauty that comes from the hands of the wonderful and creative woman, you have to check out her blog immediately. You will be wooed from the moment it appears on your screen.

Sell One, Buy One

Immaculate Conception- Jasey Jones


My open house was so much fun! I would sell a bag and then roam around the house finding my next treasure. This huge flat bottomed bowl from Jasey was my first prize. If you look closely you will realize that you are looking from the inside out of the IC and all of the sperm have halos. The theme is fun, but could be offensive to some (not me), the image is wonderful, the amount of work that went into it is impressive....and it is ALL MINE! I have it proudly displayed on the coffee table in my front room.

Thinking through things.....

Mom, Brandon and Dad

Do any of you have those people in your life that are so hard to shop for that every year you look and look until your eyes are red and your brain hurts? Well, these two men are mine. One (my father) buys everything he wants and leaves nothing for us to gift him, so I will most likely buy a gift card AGAIN! The other is so cool that the world is filled with gifts I want to buy him and settling on one is so hard that I will most likely take so long deciding that again...I will get him a music gift card. Any suggestions? I was leaning towards handmade soap, a scarf or music, but ........OOOOO, how about the SIGUR RÓS ! URICA!

Coe & Waito

This year all of my holiday shopping is happening online and I have decided to purchase only handmade gift (except for Brian...he wants a meat attachment for his blender). I found this perfect bowl for Brandon (no, none of these people check my blog) through Coe & Waito. Aria, his girlfriend, will get treated with fish necklace from Paraphernalia's shop. My sister, being a little bit on the more conservative side, will be gifted with these amazing chestnuts by Ellerue. I give, I had to purchase a little something for myself, since I am going through a huge bird phase, Little Bird had the prefect 'Me Gift'. Let's just hope it looks as good on me as it does that display form.

The Doctor has a very big place in my heart...as you know.

Tis' the season for wonderful Christmas stories and Six to Eight Black Men has to be my favorite. What isn't to love about David Sedaris. I was lucky enough to get the audio book as a gift from Lee last year, so I can pop it in and sew to it.


A few more tastes of my favorite listens for tree trimming:
Come On-A My House
Champagne Taste
Reindeer In My Heart

Super duper man is coming for a visit - by Camilla

Camilla's title to this illistration cracked me UP! I love it.

Strange fact about me: I am always adding the word 'man' to the end of my mail friend’s names or nickname to make them into super heroes.

Example: Henry an ice sculpture, would be "ICEMAN!" You always have to say it load to get the full affect.

Blabble Sux - by Michael Lachowski

Today is the first day of the holiday season. I am taking off an evening at the gym and work and going to my first holiday function. It is a trunk show for Cristen Guest, a wonderful jeweler in Athens that I met a few weeks ago. I find myself drawn to her wonderful earrings. That could be because I am a total earring SLUT!

My next invitation came from Michael for his annual holiday party (Dec 22). I never miss it! He has been hosting this gather for as long as I have known him, which is close to 20 years. It is an ornament party, which means you have the option to bring an ornament of any kind for the tree. Last year Lyndon House contacted him about putting up a huge tree in the Gallery filled with all of the ornaments he had collected throughout the years. When Michael started pulling out box after box from the attic he realized that there was NO WAY any tree (well, maybe the Rockefeller Center tree) could hold the 30 year collection, so he just pulled out a thousand of his favorites. There was everything from Bavarian blown glass to red Georgia clay starts. It was magnificant. Needless to say, I will just be taking a bottle of wine...like I do every year. -grin

Amstel Light - by Michael Lachowski

KITTY!

Photo by Josh Payne

When this sassy little feline lived next door she was glamorized only by a photographer/owner with a beat up old digital camera that occasionally went out for photo op trips with his buddy about once every few months. Three camera's later and trips around the world and look what Josh can do.

Photo by Josh Payne

Ann has a wonderful interview on Jennifer's blog. I absolutely love to see women empowering women.

A couple of months ago Sono moved her studio from under the wonderful D.U.M.B.O. due to money and developers coming in and displacing the artists that made D.U.M.B.O. beautiful and unique. Anyway, I am so excited to visit her new studio on my trip to NYC that I can hardly stand it. To me it is as if I am a character in a Terry Gilliam movie.

A Walk Home....

The next few weeks will be filled with celebration and work. I have already lined up 4 trunk shows to be part of through December 15th, so hopefully I will bring in cash from handbag sales. This is my first holiday season with Lylou Design and I hope it is the kick in the rear that it needs to take things up a notch.

My friend Heather, in NYC, is also hosting a home show for me right after Christmas. I am really looking forward to this show, for even though I concider Heather a close friend, we have never met. We were introduced through a mutal friend via my handbags. She saw my site, ordered a few bags, fell in love with them...gave me great advice on refining the Jou bag...and next thing you know we are 'in love'.

Places I am taking Brian on his first trip to NYC

a walk around the gardens at the Cloisters, to the top of ESB for a kiss at dusk, a few cold ones at d.b.a, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into China Town for lunch over to Battery Park and then a quiet reflection at Ground Zero .....just to mention a few....I LOVE NYC! (and no, I don't have a shirt that proves it.)

It is Sunday night and the dogs and I finally have time to catch up on laundry and a little bookkeeping...two things that they take very seriously, as you can see from the photos below. If I didn't know differently, I would think they had been outside running around in the cold all day...they didn't. The hardest thing about my Sundays nights is working wrapping things up when I have a cute little beagle behind me snoring...calling for me to cuddle up and watch a movie. Alas, I only have a few more hours until I give up my freedom to CCSD for another week.

Iskq - hindi for LOVE!

Ashanti - hindi for CRAZY!

Jake - American for SWEET BABY!

Then there is me...pulling my hair out from stress...

where is Waldo?

My new logo

Thanks Be to Lee...

The day after the big cleanse I was surprised with a visit from Brian and Lee. It was the day before Lee's birthday (Friday), so I decided to toss together a birthday party for my baby doll. The bottom photo is Lee (right) and Brian (left) showing off the new gladiator doll that was cleverly wrapped in a glittery piece of foil. Boys will be boys and they still make me laugh.

The photo below was taken of me by Brian as I ran out to get my gift for Lee….a boring collection of books…I know, could I be any duller? As you can tell, it is now cold enough for me to wear wool! YIPPY!

Thanks Be to Sewing

Thanks Giving Day I spent my entire day getting my studio ready for this weeks upcoming Bazaar. It was a wonderful balance between sewing up loose ends and cleaning, organizing and listening to Godfather on TV. By 9pm I was tired and hungry with only pasta in the house, so guess what was for dinner?

memories

I recently sold a couple of this bags that remind me of 'the good ole days'. When mom made me sleep on antique brass beds that had to have custom mattresses made for them, because they stopped making that size long before I was born. She would have to custom sew the mattress cover and it was ALWAYS out of this fabric. It is a wonderful and casual design in cotton that is soft to the feel, but very durable…a combination that is not easy to find. I have been trying to push it on my women to carry, but most of them leave towards the more dressy fabrics. It is only those designer jean wearing sassy young girls that have found this fabric as appeal as I have…is that telling me that I am a sassy young girl at heart (without the designer jeans?). teehee

Heather Smith Jones

Heather Smith Jones

I flipped out when I saw this print by Heather . A couple of years ago I started surrounding myself with white. I started with my bedroom, then the two bathrooms, then the TV and slowly I am consuming myself with white. It happened after my divorce. I think of it as a cleansing and purification, but to be honest I have always loved white walls, white sheets, white curtains....I will leave the color for the second home I acquire in Belize. -wink

Flowering Teas

Flowering Teas by Numi

These are my new favorite things to wake up to!

Grandpa and Grandma's wood pile

Georgia is in such a terrible draught that even the Universities are restricted from watering their historical gardens. It has been so warm and so dry that the wood shack hasn’t even been touched. The say that if Atlanta doesn’t get rain in the next 30 days there will be NONE left for them to use. Fortunately, Athens is using another lake at this point and rumor has it that this ‘blue’ little town is doing very well at conservation. Even the Bulldawg fans that attended the home game this weekend restricted their flushing to every six uses, when doable…but what is a draught in Georgia when things like this are happening around the world.

Weather today: Sunny, warm a high of 72. (normal late November: Sunny to partly cloud, chance of an afternoon rain, high 40)

On a personal note, I am so unhappy at my day job that I almost cry when I have to come in to work. I have applied for a couple of other positions in the district, but haven’t heard from them. I think at this point most of the departments are waiting until after the first of the year to interview. I have even thought about looking outside the district for work, but the benefits are so nice that it would be hard to replace them and the job security is so great here that if things didn’t (which they won’t) work out with Lylou Design I have a good thing going here.

I can’t wait for 3pm this Wednesday! We have early release from work, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday and I am going straight to Lowes to pick up primer and paint for the ½ bath I have been renovating and getting cracking on wrapping things up in there. Who knows, I might even buy the toilet for it that day.

Grandma's little white devil, Savannah

Athens autumn leaves - almost dayglow

These are two out of three of my favorite reds ...the other one is up north, too far away to take a photo of today, but I guarantee you I will have plenty after my trip to NYC over the holidays. (Hint: It is Leslie)

I had a wonderful weekend in the sewing room. I was able to get 8 bags done on Sunday and have a wonderful dinner with my parents. While I was catching up on orders, Brian was cooking chili. It is always nice to have the smell of good food lingering around the house while I am wrapped up in winter clothing busy at work in the other room...and even better when I am not cooking it. Isn't it funny how ANYTHING prepared for you by someone else ALWAYS taste better then the one you prepare for yourself...from a cheese sandwich to pot roast.

Brian's beard

There is always a silver lining and even though the weather is changing from warm to cold and the sun is setting around 6pm, there cold weather foliage is coming out in full gear and the streets are lined with pine bunnies (as I like to call them). The days are filled with cool breezes and the perfect weather for locking myself inside with my sewing machine.

Here is a fact for you: I took up sewing a couple of years ago as a less expensive way to entertain myself over then winters then photography and oil painting. Who in the world would have thought that a couple of years later I would be spending all of my spare cash on starting up a handbag business? I love surprises like that!

Shower - self portrait by Lylou
I been tagged by Bibbi tonight and will follow the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as wellas links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Five random or weird facts....

1. I performed a silly dance number for Mother Teresa when she visited my school in 1974. Immediately following the show, she came back stage and introduced herself to us and thanks us all with big hugs.

2. I grew up a cowgirl on the eastern slops of the Rocky Mountains and I am still a cowgirl at heart.

3. Almost everyday I wake up with the fear that I am going to fail this handbag venture and wouldn't know what to do with the rest of my life....then someone buys a bag and I snap out of it (at least until the next morning).

4. I HATE chocolate.

5. I suffer from a severe depression that at times gets the best of me and drives me to drink.

TAG! YOU'RE IT!
Jared
One Black Bird
Kristin
that is all I can come up with at this point.....my bad.

Keen Zero's ceramic rattle

I opened my mouth as if to say
‘I once had a cat that couldn’t play-
She laid in the corner from light to dark
In her eyes there was never a spark.’

She reminds me strongly of you on occasion
Working for years without a vacation
When I glace in the mirror and see you there
I dream for that day without any care.

I know most of you have seen the ceramics that are going to follow the next few days, but hang in there b/c I just want to share some of my collection with my favorite Swedish potter, Bibbi

This working clock has a glass dome that covers it. it was too challenging for me to photograph this morning, due to my rush to get to work.

Rosemary has always had a fascination for dolls and enjoys rummaging through salvage yards to find just the right piece to adorn their bodies…offend creating angelic images.

by Rosemary Mendicino

Nativity

My orchard was destroyed by fire
The only safety was in the church spire
I climb the stairs leading to protection
When in the flames I saw my reflection

Alone in the night I pray for my soul
All of the stress had taken its toll
I clung to the memory of my first breath
Realizing the damage and what it had left

A river of tears stretched over my cheek
As I saw in the distance a cool running creek
My feet began to dissolve in the air
When I caught the scent of my burning hair

Inside I cried over the loss of hope
Recalling a time I was able to cope
I was not leaving anyone behind
This seemed like such an awesome crime

November Issue

This holiday season make sure to pick up a copy of Deep and check out all the wonderful vendors they are featuring for unique holiday gifts. (a little self promotion never hurt anyone)

Seeing the November cover reminded me of the wonderful weekend I spent with Brian (it is b/c of the fresh water in the background and us eating oysters). We started out the afternoon with a few food and wine tastings at

Shiraz, Healthy Gourmet and Aromas .

Then fresh oysters and wine at 5 and 10 .

After dinner we joined friends at Flicker Theatre and Bar .

Needless to say, Sunday was spent catching up on house work and sewing a few bags for outstanding orders, but all that running around Saturday called for a short break to watch Ratatouille

My new necklace from photoglassworks on etsy.com