first of all, thanks so much for your kind words and well-wishes from yesterday’s post!  i really appreciate it.  🙂

okay.  so i know i’ve mentioned a few times recently that i went to visit my friend Jess from Craftiness is not Optional.  today, it finally works out that we can post about it!

Jess and i both had to back out of going to Sewing Summit this year, her due to a nursing babe, me due to first trimester total lack of energy, but we both reaallllly wanted to meet each other and i had some saved up airline miles, so we decided to plan a trip when timing worked better!  AND since Em and Sadie have become such cute little long distance buddies, we thought it’d be extra special if she and i went to visit the CINOs together.  a girls’ trip!

oh boy was Em excited to go play with Sadie in person.  we had an EARLY flight but i had never seen her jump out of bed so fast!  i’d never taken a solo trip with her before, but she was so proud and happy to be going, travel was a breeze.

we flew down the second weekend in October, at a time where Portland weather had already turned to fall, but central California weather still felt like summer!  no chill in the air at all, it was so nice.

we hit the park, and the girls played dress up/my little ponies/barbies pretty much nonstop all weekend.  it was super fun to have them all wearing handmades, and to see Jess’ creations in real life!  at one point, Em, Sadie, and Charlotte were all wearing roller skate dresses.

hehe i think Charlotte and O are twins with their “slow to wake up-ness.”  😉

i slept in Jess’ sewing room, a pretty amazing place to be – girl has a seriously enviable fabric stash!  once we finally got the girlies to settle down and sleep at night, she and i pretty much talked blogging and sewed until it was time for us to crash too.  here’s Jess serging with her hand on the pedal whilst dodging my suitcase.

it’s always more fun to sew with a friend, and though i was super slow because of all the chatting and unfamiliar setup, i did manage to sew most of this blouse while i was there (and took photos of her in her version too!).  Jess cut out like a million leggings for KCW (which she posted about here).  oh and we also fabric shopped, of course, at a store we don’t have in Portland – Hancock Fabrics.

we picked out a joke fabric challenge for the other one to sew with, so look for that at a future date.  Jess posted our stacks to Instagram and people guessed right away which stack belonged to which blogger – i mean, i HAD just found out i was having another boy, so i guess it’s pretty obvious, eh?  😉

and then i went animal style at in-n-out for lunch.

last time i’d had those burgers, i was newly pregnant with Em.  i wasn’t sure if i had built them up in my mind as being better than they actually were, but they did NOT disappoint 6 years later.  SO FREAKIN GOOD.

on Sunday, i got to hang out with my pal Cherie and her lovely family, including her new baby girl, at an amusement park nearby while Jess was at church.  Em and Yuki rode a ride together!  such a fun bonus to see Cherie and visit with her while i was in town!

the week before the trip, i went on a little sewing frenzy and made little gifts for each of Jess’ girls and Jess herself (plus a couple little gifts for Cherie’s girls that I didn’t get photos of, gah!).

here’s the CINO rundown at least…

a simple doll blanket and doll diaper from this free pattern for Charlotte, the 3 year old little mama.

the diaper has a buttonhole to pull a tail through, just in case she’s more of a stuffed animal gal than a doll gal (like I did for Em here).  it’s made out of fanfare pink elephants, with some toweling on the inside.  the blanket underside is a pretty gray gauze.

an apron for Sadie (the 5 year old) to cook in (found out Jess is one of those “purple haters” while i was visiting…HA!  oh well, DEAL WITH IT, JESS!!).  😉

the fabric is anna maria horner’s sinister swarm in blueberry, with a michael miller cotton couture in violet pocket.  it’s made out of a fat quarter and i keep meaning to do a tutorial, it’s a quick and fun little kid apron and great for gifting.

for Ava (the almost 1 year old), a briar rose crickets skirt with bias tape finished hem.

i figured she’ll be walking soon and it’ll be skirt wearin’ time!

and for my hostess Jess, a foldover clutch out of violet craft domino dot in clementine, with yarn dyed black essex linen contrast panel.

clutch tutorial is my own, with contrast panel supplemental tutorial over at you & mie.  it has a minty green zipper and lining.  thought it’d be a good date night purse for Jess.

i interfaced the outer fabric so it has some nice sturdiness to it, and am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Jess overwhelmed me with gifts for me and my little ones (including baby!), which you need to go check out in her post today!  she is quite the fabulous gifter.  here we are doublegramming (side-by-side stolen from Jess, hehe thanks girl).

it was really an inspiration to see Jess in action.  the girl just gets stuff DONE, ya know?  i’d always wondered how she does it all, and basically she doesn’t seem to procrastinate or hesitate to do anything.  she finishes a garment, gets photos, edits them quickly, blogs it.  she wakes up, starts breakfast, cleans up immediately.  there is just an efficiency, motivation, and positive attitude to her both in blogging and in life that i really admire,  she’s an amazing mother, super patient and sweet with her daughters, who are in turn really sweet to each other.

she was such a joy to be around, especially in the mornings.  whereas i stumbled groggily out of bed and made some tea to wake up, she already had crepes halfway done.  🙂

i came home with a new outlook on how to blog more efficiently and less “in my head” like i tend to do.  plus i just really love what she’s built with her blog and we had some really great discussions about blogging in general.  it was cool.  i LOVE meeting blogging pals in real life, and for our kids to meet too was icing on the cake (speaking of cake, she is really an awesome baker – whips up all sortsa stuff like you wouldn’t believe).

thanks sooooo much for having us, Jess, and thanks to Rory for allowing two strangers into your home for a weekend!  we had a blast, and we’re already talking about how Jess and Sadie can come visit us next time and we can do a “tasting tour of Portland.”  🙂

check out Jess’s post about our trip here!