purples

I picked this beautiful bouquet from my garden last Saturday, perfect for photographing purples.

I am in pursuit of the perfect purple, which is hard to reproduce.

 These items are in my West Branch shop, and the pillows are also in my  online store.

It's been pretty quiet lately in the land of retail.  I am taking the long view when I'm not worrying and getting ready for the christmas rush.  I am making pillows.  Many, many pillows.  Most are this cute 12x16" size so they are easy to ship.  I will be putting them in my online store soon, I think they will make nice gifts.

I also decided to renew my ads on Iowa's public radio, but I need to work on my ad's text.  I am not good with words!  If you are reading this and like my work and are good with words and think you can help me I will give you a prize.  Feel free to e-mail me at sshinnick@mchsi.com.

I haven't sewn clothes in over a year but I have some linen that I will be sewing into simple long tank dresses.  Look for them online in a week or so.

My daughter Izzy and I visited one of Iowa's few remaining remnants of native oak savannah prairie, Rochester Cemetery in Cedar County.  There is an informative article from the Des Moines Register here.

We were a little early for the spring wildflowers, but I found a great source of oak galls for natural dyeing under the huge scraggly trees.

We also met the neighbors.