I really do like random-ish emails. Not the spammy/porn type, but the discover a new place to shop, or a book I might not be able to live without type. Some days I think they do nothing but clog my inbox, but then there are other days I discover gems!

Today I recieved an email announcing "I've got Color" from CB2. And since I'm procrastinating going home to move the rest of the odds and ends from the old house, I opened it. CB2 is apparently a modern-ish home decor store similar to things you'd see from Chiasso and West Elm, but owned by my all time favorite of places to spend money Crate and Barrel!

So back to the email! CB2 has teamed with apartmenttherapy to host a "I've got Color" contest, with the winners getting fairly substantial gift cards to CB2 both at the regional level and at the national level. On a side note, the regions are random (maybe associated with CHB2 stores?) but the closest location to me is Chicago I think- they're probably about equal.

The gist is that they want to see photos of your spaces that you use color in, and how you use that color. The only caveat is that you need to be quick, October 15th is the Deadline for submitting photos.

Think I can get unpacked in time?

There are pros and cons to moving your entire house and life.

Pros
1. There's the fact that there's no question that the house you're moving into will actually be clean for a little while
2. You can organize to your little OCD heart's content

Cons
1. You have to move it all.
2. When people help you move, they inevitably think they know how you organize, and you lose things.
3. Your cats are hell bent on massive destruction on their quest to investigate the house.

So- I'm almost done moving, and hopefully this will be the last move for a long time. No bad neighbors (I have yard on both sides), no letting the significant other move in, no landlord selling the house. I'll share some photos a bit later this week!

This is a quick shout out to the folks over at Instructables who have my Color Picking 101 Tutorial as a featured tutorial on the front page! Thanks so much to all of you that have clicked through, or have found me as a result!

So I've finished my tutorial on choosing colors for crafting in general. As many of you know, I work part time in a fabric store and have worked at a half a dozen crafty type stores in the past. I'm always amazed at people who are amazing artists, being afraid of color and afraid to work outside their box.

Many people who come into a fabric store either ask for help in finding matching fabrics, or they buy pre-packaged bundles and kits we put together when the store is quiet. I put it together more to inspire confidence to new crafters more than anything, and I too use this method especially when I'm working out side my comfort zone of colors.

I hope you enjoy it- you can find it here at instructables!

As promised, finished monster dishtowels for a housewarming gift for my brother! I was really happy with the way they came out and he's going to get a kick out of them! coming soon- review of the new creative vision machine!

Several the local southern Louisiana Etsy sellers met with Erin Haldrup at Flora's in New Orleans and talked about crafting post Katrina. Erin's posted the first part of her videos on the Storque, Etsy's new news format! I was there, as were Mallory (Dismantled), Mag (ArtbyMags), Mischa (BakingwithMedusa), Michelle (GreenKangaroo), Kerry (RustChic), Heather (NolaSalvage). We had a great lunch, and met some local characters, one of whom runs the website neworleansbywater.com

So I know I haven't been posting much recently but the school year has started again and I've been in Dallas, Texas all week for the Pfaff convention. (More about that later though) We drove to Dallas on Tuesday night, and got here a day before the convention to make stops at the Moda/United Notions and P&B Textiles warehouses to shop for the quilt shop before we had to go to classes.

We started at Moda/UN at about 7:30 am. First of all, it's a beautiful building, and the lobby is nicely decorated with many of the Moda premade house things and many of the sample quilts are hung off the balcony upstairs.

We of course started in the clearance section, where it almost looks like a normal everyday fabric store. Bolts on racks, flat folds, notions, and fabric headers all for sale (other than you have to buy the whole bolt!). So we did a bit of shopping, picking up some more pieces of the Roman Holiday Collection, and picking a lot of more random fabrics to fill in some holes on the color wall. Everyone who works there seemed really happy, and they all wear thouse cute Moda aprons. Even better several of them were riding around the warehouse on tricycles with big baskets filling orders. We also bought a bunch of great jelly rolls for the shop since they've been so popular recently (Monkeys, repros, and great trendy prints)!

We also hit the United Notions side of the warehouse, picking up lots of odds and ends for the shop, including scissors, books, and Mary Ellen's Best Press (If you haven't tried it you have too- it's amazing and it smells nice. It also doesn't leave crap all over my iron).

Above the United Notions warehouse is their showroom. As one of the staff members explained it to us, it's their idea of a perfect shop, and it's even better because no one messes it up! I've included a couple of photos, but you can find more in my flickr account! They've got one of the coolest classroom spaces I've ever seen, and use it for business meetings and conferences. It seats 12 students, all at their own table and chair with lighting that's independent from the rest of the shop area. You can also see it's in the middle of the area, so everyone shopping can see how cool the class is.

Just off the showroom was possibly the coolest feature of the whole place. They have a Moda fabric library, where they've kept a half a yard of every fabric Moda's EVER PRINTED. It was awesome to look through and see fabrics that I have and love, or remember seeing in the stores or in great quilts. There are literally thousands of pieces, labeled by name and the year and month they came out!

The P&B warehouse was hot, way smaller than the other, and not quite so customer friendly (Though I do understand... it is a warehouse after all). Though the awesome part was that there were people working while we were there putting fabric on bolts from the hug commercial runs! They were working on these big awesome machines that I'm not sure what they're called (Folders?) that take the big commercial bolts, folt the fabric, and spin it on the cardboard ones we all know and love.

More tomorrow on sewing machines and convention!