Whew! It's been a crazy couple of weeks!

Firstly, a progress report on the wood-fired pizza oven project over at Modern in MN. The insulation materials I was waiting for arrived this week, so I'm on to the dome-building portion of the event which should be interesting. I'm hoping to get a start on it next week.

Then, a couple of gorgeous custom bags that have left the building bound for their new owners. I'm telling you, sometimes it seriously pains me to actually have to let go and sell this stuff! One of my absolute favorites was this sling backpack for Misti in Austin that came out so incredibily delicious looking that I wanted to lick it:





And this bucket bag commissioned by a local gal in buttery soft purple leather. What with it being ALL ONE COLOR and all, I wasn't super excited because you know how I am about my colors, but it turned out beautifully and the finished product really suckered me because it was so attractively slouchy and yummy feeling:


she picked a fun purple and green print for interior accent, and I couldn't resist using it in a modified version (with zipper) of my quick welt pocket:


And then, most crazy of all, I finally got to hook up with Marike, a journalist from Germany who first contacted me way last summer about coming here to do an article on me and the house. I was and still am certain I'm not all that interesting, but I immediately said yes because I thought at the very least it would be a fun experience. So we finally got to meet in person this week after several months of email exchanges, and she came with Claudia, a German photographer who is based in New York. We spent the day here at the house chatting and taking photos....and eating, of course. I made them my world famous chocolate chip cookies because I suspected it would be something they hadn't had before. That turned out to be a winning bet, and they both said cookies of any sort are not a big thing in Germany. I guess they are all about the cakes. Who knew.

Marike brought me the current issue of Brigitte Woman which is the magazine she's doing the article for, and she said her piece on me will run in one of the fall issues. Any German speakers wanna sign up to come here and read it to me when it comes out?
Anwyay, I had set my camera out specifically so that I would remember to take some pictures of them, but I forgot. So UBER BOO! I guess I was a little preoccupied...have I mentioned I HATE having my picture taken? And there's nothing like knowing every nook and crannie of your house is going to be photographed to put the fear of the cobwebs and dust bunnies in a girl...