Watch AM Northwest tomorrow for fabric postcard projects!! The hottest thing in the fabric arts world.

We had a wonderful summer with many friends and kids filling our home. I took our son back to school a few weeks ago and he is settled in for another school year. Our daughter is having a great school year as she begins a new adventure in culinary arts. The high schools in Vancouver offer many different magnet programs for high school students. The kids can choose from many specialized programs from IB to Law to Medical to Culinary Arts. I think this is a wonderful opportunity and our kids are blessed to have so many choices.

My husband and I took our annual backpacking trip in early May and hiked in the Escalante Canyon with our backpacking friends. Our group ranged in age from 18 - 78. The weather was fantastic and I even managed to forge a river with a lot of help from a rope and borrowed tevas. A few weeks ago we ventured out again and climbed the south side of Mount Saint Helens. What an amazing adventure. This was a very hard climb. The trail (I use the term trail very loosely here) seemed to go straight up for the last three miles. It was worth the climb however because the view was amazing and the satisfaction of reaching the top was wonderful!!


Over the summer I explored some new opportunities inside and outside of the creative industry. I had a great time learning how to operate my embroidery machine. What an incredible discovery!! I also made several quilts and learned how to machine quilt. I just love having the ability to make a quilt from start to finish. My favorite part is hand stitching the binding. I think that is because is brings the project to a close and it is a very intimate part of the quilt making process.

I am starting a 6 week Photoshop class this Saturday and I am very excited about the opportunity to increase my skill level with that program. I have also been playing with new quilt design software and have found it to be very valuable.

I am continually adding new projects to my web site so check it out. The latest are three projects using vintage linens. My mother recently gave me several vintage hankies and some vintage jewelry.....think of the possibilities!!

Happy crafting and quilting!!

Deb

Summer is just around the corner. Our son will be coming home from his first year of college and our daughter will be finishing her first year of high school. Wow!! What a wonderful year it has been. I am looking forward to spending some family time around our new outdoor fireplace. I hope the weather knows that summer is coming. We had a little tease early in the spring with some very beautiful days...one even in the high 90's......then it started raining again. We have a saying in the Northwest...."I hope summer comes on a Saturday this year!"

As always.....so many craft projects, so little time :)

Keep on crafting!!

Deb

I had an opportunity to attend Fiskars Creative Academy last week. What fun!! Watch for exciting new products and programs from Fiskars.

Add some fun and beauty to your patio..........check out the new project on the web site. Follow the link below.

http://www.deborahspofford.com/projects/plant%20sculpture.htm

Finally I have a little break in my schedule....I am looking forward to decorating my house for the Fall season. I visited my parents yesterday and was inspired by my mother's decorations. I remember when I was a child coming home from school and having our house transformed to reflect the current season or holiday. What fun!!!

If you live in the Portland/Vancouver area I would encourage you to visit a new store. My friend Beth is having her Grand Opening this weekend. Her store name is Lizzabeth A and it is a wonderful place to find holiday decorations, home furnishings, linens, ceramics....etc. The address for her store is 415 NE Birch Street, Camas, WA.

Beth has invited me to her store for a book signing on Friday, October 21st. Hope to see you there!!

Watch the Creative Home segment on AM Northwest tomorrow morning at 9:00Am. I will be showing how to make Trick or Treat Bags for Halloween. If you miss the show go to the projects page on my web site and click on Trick or Treat Bags for step by step instructions.

Just back from Las Vegas. What a strange place....I saw Elvis.....twice!! Who knew he was short and tall and lived at the airport.

Memory Trends was very busy the first two days. I did not have much time to walk around the show.....but....when I did walk around I saw....paper, paper, paper....embellishments, embellishments, embellishments. It appears that the trends are more contemporary, sleek, clean, and colorful.

I will be attending Memory Trends next week in Las Vegas. I hope to see lots of wondeful new products. I know that Fiskars will be introducing several new tools. I can't wait to tell you about them.

I was the lucky receipient of two new sewing machines this summer. Both are from Brother Sewing Machine Company. I spent several weeks learning how to use them. My other machine was almost 26 years old. It was a wedding present. It was hard to give up the familar old machine but what a difference 26 years makes. I love the new sleek quiet do everything machines!!

The air is very crisp this morning and it rained very hard yesterday. I guess Fall has arrived. I noticed the changing color of leaves this morning when I took my daughter to school. Very beautiful!!

I have been suffering from what I have named PTTYFCTCS. This stands for Post Tramatic Take Your First Child to College Syndrome. This was a very big event at our house a couple of weeks ago. Our son is doing great...it's just his parents that are having a tough time!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak to a group of women in our area about the Creative Industry. It was fun to reminisce about how I got started in this crazy business and talk about the opportunites that are available for all of us wild artistic types.

And...of course we could not talk about creativity without an opportunity to create something. So...each person attending the meeting made a luggage tag simalar to the back pack tags on my web site.

Today we taped a television segment for AM Northwest in my studio. What fun!! The crew arrived around 11:00am and we were done by 11:30. We got the whole segment in one take. Watch for the creative home project on August 16th.

I just returned from CHA (Creative Hobby Association) in Chicago. They said it was unusually hot and humid in Chicago this week. It was a big change from our weather in Washington. I was wearing a sweatshirt two days before I left for Chicago!

The highlight of my trip was meeting Carol Duval!!. What a lovely woman.

The show was busy on Friday and then slower on Saturday and Sunday. I did not have much time to walk the floor but when I did...it was paper paper paper. New packaging and sizes seemed to be the trend. I did see a few new companies from other industries trying to merge into the "Scrapbooking" and Hobby industry. Might be a little late to get started...?

Embellishments are still big and it appears that several companies are adding "out of the scrapbooking box" ways to use their papers. I saw one example of this with jewelry charms. Great idea!!

I have reached a mile stone in my life. Our first child graduated from high school this year and will be leaving in the fall for Western Washington University. Wow!! I have very mixed emotions about this.....happy that our son will be experiencing new and wonderful things, but sad that he will be experiencing those things without us. He has a very busy summer including a mission trip to Costa Rica and a trip to Japan with his grandparents.

Our second mile stone is that our youngest will be entering high school next year....YIKES!! She is already very busy with the high school dance team that has started practicing for the fall football games and band competitions. She just returned from Virginia where she attended a mission based church camp. What a wonderful time she had with her friend Katy!! They have made this camp a tradition....attending the camp together for the past four years.

I hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing summer!

Watch KATU tomorrow at 9:00 for AM Northwest. Deb will be presenting ideas for desk top Zen Gardens.

Book Release
Papercrafting Room by Room is finally here!!! It is scheduled to ship this month so you should be seeing it the book stores.

The book is available for purchase in the bookstore at www.deborahspofford.com

DSD has a new web site design. It is faster and a little larger than the old one. Check out the new bookstore.

I am very lucky to have a talented son that is willing to create a web site for his mother and put up with my computer challenged brain. Thanks Tucker!!

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Holiday. My favorite week of the year is between Christmas Day and New Years Day. We make a point to be very lazy during that week and this year we accomplished our goal!!

I am gearing up for the CHA trade show in Feb and a trip to Costa Rica at the end of this month. But....the first thing on my agenda for this week is to clean up my studio... I find it very hard to be creative and tidy at the same time. So...I create, create, create, and then I clean, clean, clean. Guess which one I like better.

Watch for quick and easy holiday decorating ideas on AM Northwest on December 21 at 9:00am.

Learn how to make Penny Rugs on AM Northwest November 16th. The show is broadcast in the Pacific Northwest on ABC from 9:00am-10:00am.