I went on a special shopping trip yesterday with Anina so that I could buy something I have been talking about for awhile… My new sewing machine!

Is it weird that I just want to sit and stare at it? :) I am just amazed that I have such a nice sewing machine! Part of me is amazed because this honestly was not the machine I went into the store planning to buy yesterday. The machine I had planned on buying was a step below this one (in the Activa line), but the shop was out of stock on that machine so they offered me an amazing deal on this one to make up for that. It was just too good to pass up, so this lovely machine came home with me :)

Anina did ask me if I was going to name my new machine, and even though it isn’t very original I think I am going to name her Aurora. It was either that or Nina – which isn’t too original either, but I am just terrible at naming things. :)

Apparently not having a sewing machine the last few weeks made me instead want to buy fabric. Does that seem a little backwards? I didn’t have a sewing machine, so I went fabric shopping a bunch instead. I think it was the crafting withdrawal or something :)

Some lovely new linen that was on sale so I just couldn’t resist…

Fabric from a shop that was closing…

Celebrating buying my new sewing machine with a little bit more fabric…

I think it is probably safe to say that I am addicted to fabric :)

Fabric shopping is not the only thing going on around here though, I am still working on setting up my studio space. Just a little sneak peek with Axel’s help…

A big thank you to my wonderful husband who wanted me to be able to have a better sewing machine, gets that I can never have too much fabric, and doesn’t mind that I only left him a little corner for his desk in my studio.

Edited to include: I am trying a little to catch up on project 365, so there are some new photos over on my flickr page. Head over there to check them out :)

My sewing machine is still packed so there isn’t any crafting going around here. Although I do know where it is, which is a start right… (Seriously we do have almost all our stuff unpacked except for a few things like books and such.) Actually I am not sure if I am going to bother unpacking it, since I think a visit to the sewing machine shop might just be in the works soon :)

So mostly photos without words this evening…

(This last photo is because I noticed I had a lot of photos of Pounce on my flickr & blog lately, but hardly any of Axel. Plus I think it is a cute photo of him :) 

Ben mentioned to me the other day that my blog was trailing my real life by about 2 weeks :) It really does seem like that! Right now, I still have photos sitting on my camera from over a week ago and I have photos from several weeks ago on my computer that I keep meaning to post. So I hope no one minds a couple photo heavy posts. Especially since we moved into our new apartment on Monday & my life this week has consisted of boxes, unpacking, and visiting IKEA for some new furniture… (Can I just say that it is wonderful to be out of temp housing & into our own place! :)

All of these photos were taken at a park in Seattle the first weekend we were here… (See I did say these had been sitting on my computer for awhile:) There were quite a few good photo opportunities, but I think the best part of the day was getting to meet the sweet German Shepherd in the photos below. (German Shepherds are actually my favorite type of dog.) He came up to us with a stick (more the size of a log) and wanted it tossed, so I asked his owners if I could take some photos of him. So much fun! :)

Posting all these photos has made me think a little about how far behind I am on project 365… During the move & the last couple weeks I didn’t keep up with it, but I think I am going to try to start taking a photo everyday again starting today actually.

Glad to see that some of you found the studio inspiration photos inspiring too. I am so ready to be moved into our new place and have my crafting stuff set back up.

In the meantime until I have my sewing machine, I have been exploring our new city a bit and of course taking a lot of photos (at least when it isn’t raining :). I actually have a list going of things to do or see around our new city since I keep thinking of things & don’t want to forget anything. At least it means we won’t have any reason to be bored ever again :) One of the things on my list was to visit the Japanese bookshop, Kinokuniya, which we actually did 2 weekends ago now.

I was just going to window shop until I saw the large selection of craft books! My resolve to not spend anything didn’t last too long – oh maybe about 2 seconds :) I ended up getting 2 craft books, 1 crafting magazine, and 2 cute little notebooks.

This book (on the right in top photo) is full of lovely stitching patterns. I think it is sashiko embroidery, but I don’t read Japanese so I am not totally sure about that. I just love the stitching though and the linen that is used quite a bit throughout the book…

The book in the middle of the top photo is the Cotton Time magazine, which really seems more like a book than a magazine to me. How much do you love those rainboots with that bag? I think I might need to make a bag to match my rainboots now :) There are a lot of other lovely projects in this magazine too…

The book on the left in the top photo has a lot of lovely clothing in it, but it also has some other projects like this lovely purse… Another pleated purse in a slightly different style. I just love how the colors on the bag look so bright & lovely against the solid neutral…

Of course when I spotted these 2 cute little notebooks I had to get them too… Although I had a hard time choosing which 2 to get, since there were a bunch of different colors. I think I might use one to keep my list of things to do in our new city a little bit more organized and maybe the other one will have to become a little ideas notebook for sewing. (Or I might just save them because they are so cute!)

Yesterday we signed a lease on a new apartment! Of course we don’t actually have our stuff yet, so we will have to wait till next week to actually get moved in to the new place… (It is all sitting in storage, and if it were up to me we would probably move in tomorrow but we have to wait until the movers are able to move it back out of storage and into our new place. Probably the only downside to having movers move your stuff!) In the meantime I am dreaming up ways to arrange & decorate my new studio. I put together a little studio inspiration mosaic… (click to see a larger version of the mosaic.)

1. tree card, 2. believe it or not…, 3. Studio Mirror, 4. My Studio!, 5. New Improved Studio 01, 6. The Posie studio, repainted and reorganized at last!, 7. sunday afternoon sewing, 8. Casa de Washtub, 9. Sewing table, 10. studio :: so clean, 11. studio 4, 12. studio 2, 13. Creative Nap-spot, 14. New colors, 15. my view, 16. a peek at my studio, 17. the shelves, 18. close up, 19. Sewing table with storage underneath, 20. 03.31.08 {nifty thrift | tablecloth }

I think I could spend days just looking for inspiration photos, there are so many lovely craft rooms out there on flickr! I think that decorating my own craft space is definitely going to be a fun project, so I am sure there will be some photos of the process in the somewhat near future :)