Its vacation time! Yay! Tomorrow Adam and I hop on a plane bound for Savannah, Georgia, for a much-needed week of rest and relaxation in a little beach cottage on Tybee Island. As if that weren't enough, six of our good friends are also coming down for the week and staying in another condo nearby. It should be really wonderful. Here's our place:

I am taking the still-unfinished remnants of the quilt I started last year in my hand-piecing class. For the last six months it has sat forlornly, half-quilted in a basket in the corner of our basement tv room. But I am determined to work on it over the week, especially given that weather.com shows thunderstorms on every single day of our trip.

I'm also taking a working draft for my contribution to the CD Swap 2 being organized by Jennifer. The deadline to join has been extended - so join in! I've been hoarding mp3s and trolling iTunes for a week now, and I have a base of about 10 songs that I really like. Now I just need to listen to them together a few times to see if they work as a group.

Anyways, have a good week everyone! I promise to return with renewed energy and creativity to put forth on this site. Oh, and oodles of pictures. ;)

Posted by katybeck at 11:05 PM | Comments (1)

We got back from Tybee Saturday afternoon, safe and sound. What a fantastic week it was! Good friends, sinfully good food, warm weather.. I got a ton of quilting done - at least an hour a day, and on some days I worked for several hours out on the porch or in the sunroom. Of course I put it down tons of times to go play on the beach, or tour Savannah, or eat yummy things.

Some of the coolest memories from my trip:

• One night the whole gang took a midnight walk along the beach. The sand sparkled an eerie green color when we walked on it, and each piece of driftwood we passed would glow green from inside like a hot ember when poked. Turns out Tybee is chock full of bioluminescent organisms that emit light when under pressure. A truly amazing sight.


• Kayaking through a school of dolphins at the beginning of our half-day tour of the back river and Little Tybee Island


• Visiting this place:
  
  Its an outlet for students, faculty, and alumni of the Savannah College of Art and Design to sell their work. It was a crafters dream - filled with hand printed fabrics and papers, photographs and paintings, cards, books, purses, jewelry, clothing, ceramics.. it was immensely inspiring to me.


• And finally, our cottage:
  
  It was just so cute and and colorful. It felt and smelled like an old house, and was so quiet that all you could really hear were the whirring of ceiling fans. We loved the chaise lounge in the second picture so much that we had to take turns in it because it was so comfortable! I have an entire photo gallery of just the house. If you ever want to rent it - and I recommend you do - it has a website.

Posted by katybeck at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

Filed under Stupendously Awesome Ideas..

Craftlog has started a blog dedicated to Japanese craft books! The idea is to create a comprehensive catalogue of the books out there, as well as the vendors that sell them. Send her your favorites so they can be added to the list!

Posted by katybeck at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

The quilt is a long way from done, but I am making progress on it.. am I crazy for becoming really attached to my quilting hoop? I guarded it fiercely on the flights to and from Savannah..

For now I am doing some basic outlining of the major pieces, and then I will go back in and do some decorative stitching. I want to echo that leafy vine pattern on the darker fabric, and add some other fun stuff.

Times I have sewed my hand to the back of the quilt: 2
Times I have bled on quilt: none - and its staying that way, baby!

Posted by katybeck at 09:51 PM | Comments (2)

I mailed off all of my stuff for the CD Swap 2 yesterday morning. I'm sure I annoyed the guy in line behind me at the kiosk when I pulled out 7 tiny packages that each only needed about a dollar of postage! But it felt very satisfying to see them all stacked and perfect. A little teaser of songs on the mix: Beck, Psapp, Imogen Heap, Paul Oakenfold, Erlend Oye, and Frou Frou. I named it Rainy Morning Music because its chock-full of the type of music I turn to on a rainy morning. :)

Posted by katybeck at 01:03 PM | Comments (8)