Just a quick note to let everyone know that I won’t be here tomorrow through Sunday. Hence, the store will be closed until Tuesday, June 24.

I should lie and say that I have some super-duper-craft-and-business related stuff to attend to but the truth is that I’m flying to Vegas tomorrow afternoon to meet Mr. Mess and some friends for a weekend of fun and sun. Yeah, about that, Steve informed me yesterday that it has been around 107° there all week (he’s been there since Sunday for a conference) but the a/c is set so high everywhere that I’ll probably need a cardigan or shawl. Nice. Back in January when this trip was proposed that sounded delightful.

I see a couple days of lounging in a shaded, mist-cooled, poolside cabana in my very near future. Oh and SPAMALOT! (You know I will be saying the lines along with the actors.)

I will try not to fart in your general direction.

This may be the coolest thing I’ve seen all summer! Over at Skip to My Lou they have a fabulous tutorial on how to make a Duct Tape Bullwhip!

I’m frequently asked if I have craft classes and activities for boys. I always answer in the affirmative because I think boys can and should sew, knit, paint, make books, felt, etc. etc. But in all honesty, it isn’t always easy to find projects that would interest boys. Add to this the fact that I’m a Mom of two girls who grew up in the shadow of two older sisters. I do have an older brother but he is 10 years older than me so I don’t really remember him as a kid. So I’m stuck in a no (wo)man’s land of having no clue what boys like to do and make.

I would really appreciate any ideas, links, books, or suggestions to help me add to my crafty repertoire some boy friendly projects and activities.

Saturday I had the pleasure of teaching Addie and Miriam how to make a custom tie for Father’s Day. Addie’s chose Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern Martini in yellow and Miriam chose Large Petals in Raspberry by Tina Givens. “Mr. Rick” is going to be one styling Daddy-O!

 
 
 
In addition to a lot of pinning, cutting, stitching, pressing and hand-sewing we had time for groundhog watching (I didn’t get a picture for some reason!), music appreciation, lunch and chatting. Did you know that groundhogs (or woodchucks, but NOT otters!) can climb trees? Not very well mind you but we did observe some mild tree climbing capabilities in the neighborhood herd. (It seems that I am located in the middle of quite the population of groundhogs. I may have to set up a video camera aimed at the neighbor’s on each sides’ porches and make my own “Groundhog Manor” show for Animal Planet.)

Overall it was a fun day.

*Beau Brummell is credited with introducing and establishing as fashion the modern man’s suit, worn with a tie.