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Hey friends!  Today I am excited to introduce to you a shop with the best name ever (good + my husband’s name), haha!  No, but really, are you familiar with this shop?  It’s full of bags of all sorts, diaper bags, yoga mat bags, clutches for your bridesmaids, wristlets for every day use, sunglass case bags, as well as colorful accessories such as scarves, cowls, and more!  Melissa, the wonderful mastermind behind it all, uses a variety of materials and fabrics to hand make each and every one of them.  And the quality just looks to be impeccable.  Read on to learn more about Melissa and enter a fab giveaway!

{MEET MELISSA}

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you decided to open up shop.
Hmmm, let’s see. I am full-time Mommy to a gorgeous 15th month-old girl (no bias here), a part-time Pilates instructor, an adjunct art professor (I teach sculpture and design), free-lance photographer, and a fine artist as well as an intense crafter. Know that expression – jack of all trades? Some say it would apply here, but I like to think I’ll be an expert of everything by the time I’m 64.

I decided to open up shop during the bleak winter of 2009 when I had a freshly minted MFA in Painting in hand and no full-time employment. I had a growing stash of knit scarves, a steady supply of free fabric scraps from the sweatshop next door to the studio I rented in Philadelphia, and plenty of time to experiment. I had recently met Margaux Kent, of Peg and Awl and The Black Spot Books, and was encouraged by her to open up an online shop.

2. What are your favorite color combinations of the season?
If I am completely truthful, I will have to plead ignorance here. I am woefully out of touch with fashion trends and usually google them when I start seeing them pop up on etsy. I did google the spring 2012 Pantone color report and I am really digging the sodalite blue contrasted against cockatoo. When I choose fabrics for the items in my shop, I always grab the patterns and colors that pop out at me from the shelves. It is a completely intuitive process.

3. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
This one is tough. I would say it is a three-way tie between pumpkin, chocolate peanut butter, and lemon ginger snap from Trader Joe’s. I like to eat seasonally – so the pumpkin is great for fall, the lemon ginger snap in summer/spring because it’s so fresh and tart, and chocolate peanut butter is good anytime!

4. What advice would you have wished that someone told you before you first opened your shop?
I think I got plenty of great advice in the beginning that went unheeded. I really need to learn things in my own meandering way and since this shop was a complete labor of love, I was not good about listening to advice. That being said, I think one of my biggest mistakes was not pricing my items high enough. In fact, my first customer on etsy told me my stuff was too cheap! It wasn’t until I had my daughter that I really began to appreciate how much time it took for me to make my items and to start to raise the prices to reflect my effort. Once I no longer had much time to spare, the time I did have seemed much more precious!

 {GIVEAWAY}

Dear Austin,

This past week you hit two milestones: nine weeks old and two months old!  It’s funny, sometimes Daddy and I think to ourselves, “Oh my gosh, you are growing up so fast!” but then other days it feels like two months has been two years.  In terms of eating, you are still pretty much on the same schedule as before, eating 4-5 oz every 4 hours or so.  Lately, you’ve been liking to cluster feed between 4-7PM where you’ll eat 1-2 oz every hour or so within that time frame.  I think it does help you sleep better for that first stretch of the night but it’s also tough on Mommy and Daddy since we’re trying to eat dinner within that time too.  And speaking of sleeping, you’ve been sleeping longer stretches at night and not waking up every hour or so, which is a great accomplishment!

During this week, Mommy brought you in to her work to show you off to her coworkers!  You were dressed in business casual attire and only cried for a max of 1 minute the whole 2 hours we were there, woohoo!  Don’t worry though, it will be many many years before you’ll ever have to work, just leave that to Mommy and Daddy for now.  The sad thing about this week was that it was Ah-Ma and Ah-Gong’s fifth and final week here with us.  You really had SO much fun with them and they were so sad to be leaving you.  It won’t be long until you get to play with them again, promise!

For your 2 month birthday, Mommy dressed you up again in another Calikatrina bowtie and your sticky belly 2 month sticker.  You really like wearing those bows as they instantly turn you into a sophisticated dapper little man.    Your Aunt Amy, who is Mommy’s friend from high school, sent you some monthly sticky bellies for your Mommy and Daddy to wear so you wouldn’t be alone this time.  So of course, we happily obliged to take a picture with you.  See?  Mommy and Daddy really do love you!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win $30 credit to Sunshine Stitch giveaway!!

Dear Austin,

In this past week, we really started nailing down a schedule!  You eat between 4-5 ounces each feeding about 6 times a day.  You’ve started to sleep for longer stretches of time, especially at night where you can sleep up to 4 hours or so max.  We’re so proud of you for being able to sleep so long and not going to lie, it gives us a little bit more time to sleep as well.    Your constantly amaze us wit new facial expressions, especially your new favorite one, the pout.  Mommy, Daddy, Ah Ma and Ah Gong all melt in your hands at that one.  You’re also really ramping up those vocal cords and talking up a storm these days.  We can’t always understand what you’re saying, but we will one day, I promise!  Oh yea, another thing that happened is that for some reason you started sucking on your pacifier so hard that it leaves marks on your face sometimes, too funny!

Your new favorite place to go this week was none other than Target (it’s one of Mommy and Daddy’s faves too).  We put your car seat carrier in the big part of the shopping cart and for the first half of the trip you were looking around in utter amazement.  There were so many new things you hadn’t seen before and of course looking up at the lights was probably your favorite.  And then after about 15 minutes, you fell fast asleep as Ah Gong pushed you around the store.   Then the day after that, Ah Ma and I took you for your second stroll around the neighborhood.  You’re so lucky that the weather has been unseasonably warm this February so you could go out to play!  Oh and one last thing, you wanted me to tell the world that they better watch out, Jeremy Lin ain’t got nothing on you.  You’re already spinning basketballs at only eight weeks old! 

Love,
Mommy

Yup!  You read that title right.  Austin is only 8 weeks old and he already said his first word.    Here’s proof…

Gosh, they just grow up so fast, don’t they?

If you would like to see how many words Austin can say by the time he is 3 months old, please follow me on:

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Google Friend Connect will unfortunately be going away for me on March 1, 2012. 

Tank Top: Target | Zip Up Hoodie: JC Penney | Skirt Leggings: Yesstyle | Boots: Gap | Necklace: Melody Joy 1983 | Baby Onesie & Hat: Target

Being on maternity leave and all, there’s some days when I don’t even leave the house.  And on those days, I surely do not get dressed up in colored jeans, pumps, or any of those other outfits you’ve seen me wear.  But rather, I wear my “chill clothes” (term coined by moi), ya know, the clothes you wear for “chillaxing”.  Really?  Did I just say “chillaxing”?  Oh yes, I did.  They kind of have their own genre of fashion and I’ve discovered the latest trend for them – skirt leggings!  Say what?  How many times have you seen girls on the street wear leggings with a shirt that barely covers their bottom and all you want to say to them is that leggings are not a substitute for pants.  Well, their solution lies in skirt leggings, that’s right, it’s a skirt (that covers your bottom, duh) that’s attached to leggings.  I first saw this trend on Yesstyle and totally bought into it.  Or I guess you could just wear a skirt over your leggings… but hey, it’s faster to put on if it’s just one item.

What do you wear for chilling around the house?

P.S. The winner of two prints from The Little Illustrator is Chantilly from Chantilly Songs!  Congrats!  Please email me at sandyalamode(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and two prints of choice and we’ll hook you up! 

P.P.S. Don’t forget to enter the $35 credit aPearantly Sew giveaway!!