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?

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!

So I picked up a copy of Domino Magazine the other day while I was standing in line at Whole Foods and was distracted by all the fun things that I don't really need for my house, or can't afford.

Case and point: They featured this amazing mirror by Kikkerland Design that's free standing on two cast pewter duck feet. The magazine lists it solely as Kikkerland Design and RISD/Works. I couldn't find it at the RISD store, but found it at a fun site called mookiegifts! So... I think I might need it for my dresser.

I have a series of reusable sacks and bags I use instead of getting plastic bags when I go shopping, but several of them are starting to look a little sad. I have one in particular I bought almost 10 years ago that has a few holes big enough for small cans to fall through. I also have several of the green totes from Whole Foods that look like their paper shopping bags but made from a green material.

Mallory over at MissMalaprop had posted a while back about Envirosax bags... and I bookmarked them to go back to. I had a n olderbag fall apart this week and decided to go and check them out. She really like the graphic series (at right), but I love the bright colors of the flora bags.

They're available individually or in packs of five that come in a pouch. They fold up really small as well (4x2) which is way smaller than any of my other bags (other than the ones I make) and that pouch should fit in my purse I carry! They also carry double what would fit in a regular size plastic grocery bag.

Envirosax is based out of Australia, and is only recently available in the US- both on their website and several small boutiques. They've also been well documented in the Australian media but not so much in the US.

Their company has a great mantra as well, believing in a sustainable future and being ecologically sound in their daily life.

(I ordered the Flora Pouch withe all five bags to replace my bags that are finally falling apart.)