Shop For Makenzie Day in Portland!

Next weekend Cat in an Apron will join 12 other awesome (I simply can't break that WORD - I quit using it for about 20 years and then my son started using it and it is BACK) retailers at Purple Moon on Northeast Broadway.  I'll finish up my Christmas shopping!
AND Cat in an Apron will have *giant* markdowns.  We are talking *huge*.

Come see us in Person!!

Cat in an Apron will be joining some GREAT local artisans at the Portland Nursery THIS sunday, July 25th.

Here are the details:

July 25th, 2010 from 2-8p

'Summer Soiree'

Portland Nursery

9000 SE Division St.

There will be an amazing Silent Auction benefiting My Voice Music! "My Voice Music is a nonprofit organization based in Portland Oregon that engages marginalized youth in music and performance in order to promote self-esteem, social skills and emotional expression." http://www.myvoicemusic.org/

Check it out on Facebook.

Two Events This Weekend

Cat in an Apron will have a booth at TWO events this weekend. On Friday we'll be at the AMAA Handmade Holiday Craft Show:
December 5th
4:30 pm
Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects
SW Macadam, Ste 150

then on Saturday we'll be at the Holiday Shopping Soiree:
Saturday December 6th,
4 - 7pm
Me Too Cafe
16755 Baseline Road in Beaverton
come shop, sip wine and enjoy tasty treats!

We'll have everything marked down for both shows!

On the Second Day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me:

Two Turtle Doves
and a partridge in a pear tree.

The doves are supposed to represent the old and new testament, or as doves mate for life, fidelity, faithfulness, and forever love. Pretty nice.

Today's charity is Habitat for Humanity

"Habitat for Humanity seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action."

Habitat has built nearly 300,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.5 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. That is just amazing. They are a "teach a man to fish" kind of organization. People who are blessed with a Habitat home must work a certain number of hours on the construction and take classes on home ownership. They aren't just handed a free house.

If you would like to know more, go to their website. You can donate money or volunteer your time. How lucky are we who own our own homes - let's help those who need it.

Coming Soon! Twelve Days of Christmas

Starting December 1st, I am going to be showcasing a different charity a day for 12 days. If you make a purchase at catinanapron.com, I will donate 15% of your purchase to the charity you choose from my list. I know this holiday season is difficult for many of us, and I'm afraid the charities will also be taking a hit. This way, you can buy a great gift for someone you love (or yourself!) and know that you are supporting a wonderful charity during this difficult time. However you celebrate this season, I hope it is warm and filled with people you love!

Poinsettia Pins

Here they are! I'm so happy with how they turned out! They were really easy to make - well, I'm not finished yet, but putting the first bits together went pretty fast! I was setting aside a LOT of time to make these! I cut out squares of red and green, then cut them into the shapes, then felted them together. Now I'm going to sew some gold beads in the middle, and sew on the pin backing, and they'll be done! I think they'll look just lovely on a warm coat, or a crisp white shirt. I'm going to attach one of these to one of our poem cards with a 15% off coupon for the swag bags for the show I'm doing December 6th.

New Christmas Tree Ornaments

I've been making felted bags for a couple of years now. I LOVE FELTING! It is like painting and sculpture only faster. I make little hand bags that are lined with cotton and are bigger, so I thought smaller ones would be great for the tree. The body is a recycled wool sweater that I felted, and the designs are needle felted on. I gave them as gifts last year filled with cellophane bags of candy that I made. They also fit a gift card perfectly. When I was growing up, my parents always put special gifts ON the tree, and these are a lovely little holder for them.

I'm making some great pins in the poinsettia design, too. Right now I'm focusing on getting them done for the swag bags for the Holiday Shopping Soiree that I'm doing on December 6th. Hopefully I'll get enough done that I can put them on here, as well.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Baby O is due on InterNational Talk Like a Pirate DAY!!! This is very fitting as we have two pirates in the house already, and have been looking forward to the Portland Pirate Festival all YEAR! The day was instituted in 1995 by two local Oregonians. LOVE IT. A good friend of ours used to say he was going to list on his resume that he spoke fluent "Pirish", followed by a litany of answers to typical interview questions spoken with a squinted eye and followed with "ARRRRR". He is an architecture professor now, and I sure hope he is teaching his egomaniac architecture students (they just all are) to have some fun in life!

Here is the Pirate festival information for Portland this year. It is really a great time! There are tons of re-enactments, booths from which to buy EVERYTHING piratey, gigantic blow up slides for the kids, face painting, parrot shows, and much, much, more.

Here are our pirates an entire YEAR ago. How does time fly so fast?!

Just Between Friends

I've not had a chance to attend one of the Just Between Friends sales, but I've heard that they are really fantastic. They seem like a great avenue for selling your "ready to pass on" baby and kid items, as well. If you sign up as a volunteer, you get into the PRESALE, which is great, because i guess the product moves FAST (especially things like double strollers or sit and stands for those of us with more than one little person). They are in 16 states, so check the website www.jbfsale.com to find a sale near you.

Here is the Portland event info:
September 27th 10 AM - 5 PM
September 28th 9 AM - 3 PM (many items half price on Sunday!)
(Volunteer and consignor pre-sale on September 26th!)
Rose City Rollers practice facility at Oaks Park.

This is the last day of the season for Oaks Park, and it will be open until 7 pm - good "positive incentive" for good behavior if you are bringing the kiddos with you.

Baby Expo

Come see us at the Gentle Birth World Congress! We'll be in booth #420 at the free Baby Expo. Check it out here: http://www.gentlebirthworld.com/ and http://www.freebabyexpo.com/

It is very exciting that Portland has been chosen as the site for this gathering. The congress sounds just amazing!

AND, Cat will have all of our lovely things for all to see. We'll be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Check the website above for all of the hours.