who's ready to go clam digging?

the brownie-goose clam diggers. funny name, awesome pair of shorts/pants. you see, that's where this can be confrusing. these are not shorts, nor are they pants. i would call them capris, but some daddys may shake their head at the thought of boy capris. so instead, let's use our imagination and go digging through some wet coastal sand (seriously, twist my arm...and a lime into my corona while you are at it) and roll up our pants legs while we are there so we don't get them dirty. and see my friends, now you have the clam diggers. :)

this is a great pattern to add to your collection for your little boys. and honestly, given the right fabrics and a girl could rock them too. with a flat front and an elastic waist back, not only are they easy to sew but they look great and are easy for kids to wear. spice them up flapped back pocket and button tab on the hem and you cannot go wrong. this pattern is available in sizes 6-12 mo, 18 mo, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 and it will be hitting my etsy store tomorrow! just in time for the weather to start warming up on us (hint, hint mr. weather....).

but wait, that's not all. once again i am teaming up with hilary of HBfabrics for a fabric coupon code with the purchase of this pattern. so, this is the perfect opportunity to grab the pattern, and then head over and do some fabric shopping. i just looked today and saw some dear stella that is dying to be some diggers, not to mention the robert kaufman metro tiles that i LOVES so much. 

so, here's the deal. buy this pattern in the first 3 days of debut (wednesday the 20 to friday the 22) and i will send you (IN A SEPARATE EMAIL) a code to use at HBfabrics for a discount. hilary gets a list of all the purchases, so please no coupon sharing. :) the coupon code will be good through sunday march 24th at midnight.

get it? got it? gooooooood.

and a special thanks as always the the fabulous ladies that help me get my patterns published. from my incredibly talented graphics girl (erin of easely erin) that makes the pattern all pretty and good for your eyes to the testers that help spot my TERRIBLE grammatical mishaps and english no-no's and make sure the pattern meshes well. this time i want to shout thanks to the testers over at the patched peacock, handmade by autumn, deisgner mumma, bella blu and katula palooza. thanks ladies!

40 days to help the strays, take 2

first things first, oh my word at the new faces! i took a bit of a facebook break over the weekend while i had family in town for nash's big birthday bash (seriously, when did he turn 2...and how did this happen?) and when i got back on this morning i saw TONS of new faces here at brownie-goose. welcome to all of you, glad you came and hope you stay!

so the season of lent is with us, and for some reason this tends to be probably my favorite part of the church calendar. there is something refreshing and renewing about lent to me. i have yet to put my finger on it, but i love all the self-reflection time and time to just allow myself to step back from it all and look at the larger picture. i know i could do this any time of the year, but for some reason it doesn't work the same unless it is actually lent for me. :) i am very obedient like that. hehe.

well, this year as i thought of things to "give up" i kinda got stumped. 3 years ago i gave up fast food, that was awesome considering it helped me shed a few lbs and got me out of a unhealthy habit. however, i have since gotten back on the french fry train and have found that i have a VIP seat on the caboose. oops. the next year i gave up dairy. oh dear me, that was the hardest. i love my milk and cheese, so that was a good year working on self-discipline and learning about reading labels. last year i gave up meat. and honestly, that was way easier than i thought it would be. however, i missed my hamburgers and found myself sometimes looking at cows in a very unhealthy and non-animal loving way. then, on easter i treated myself to half of a cow at 5 guys and was much better. ;) so this year, i flirted with the idea of giving up swearing and saying bad words. sadly, i thought this might be harder than giving up dairy. oh my. i toyed with the idea, and my sailor strongly butted heads with me - and i decided instead just to have a more watchful eye on my sailor and keep her tame. she's not liking it, but i told her she could walk the plank if she gave me lip.

so, where am i going? when i couldn't put my finger on something to do or give up, i decided instead to follow suit of something i did a few years back with BG. i started 40 days to help the strays, and donated a portion of my sales during lent to a no-kill animal shelter. i really liked this since i tend to be one of "those" animal people that see no difference between human children and animal children. i researched a few of the shelters in the area and landed on one that tugged my heart strings more than anything can. yep, you guessed it...it has something to do with labradors. my WHOLE entire heart.

 

this is the girl behind BG and lucy on the left (goose) and mallard on the right (brownie).

i decided for lent this year to give up my profits of BG. being self-employed, profits aren't much to write home about anyways, but at the end of the 40 days of lent this year -  i will be writing a check to atlanta lab rescue for a portion of these sales. atlanta lab rescue is a fabulous organization that is run strictly by volunteers giving their free time to help save labradors in the area. they find them in shelters, abusive homes, abandoned on the sides of the road, etc and take them in to their homes to foster, nurse them back to health, love them and scratch their furry ears until someone takes them home forever. these people, in my eyes are angels. while i would love to have a back yard full of labradors running around, wagging tails, shedding and chewing up all the tennis balls in a 10 mile radius...byron doesn't think it is such a good idea. no worries, i am working on brainwashing playing subliminal messages on his pandora stations convincing him to see my brilliant side of it. :)

so, anyways - that is it. if you are a huge animal lover like me, grab something out of my etsy store during lent and smile knowing a portion of your sale is going to help a sweet labrador in need. 

also - just a quick shop announcement. you may have noticed my bundle patterns are gone. confessions of a lazy shop owner right here...my instant download service didn't deliver the patterns purchased in bundles and i was having a hard time staying on top of delivering the patterns. so, i took the bundles out of the shop - but i reduced the price of all of my patterns to reflect what they would be as a bundle. i didn't feel you needed to miss out on account of my laziness. hehe.

and as always...

 

peace out, love the girl behind BG.

the Lake dress - a new pattern release!

well hello there blog, fancy seeing you here. it has been a few months. :)

my 2 month holiday was great! i enjoyed being lazy careless unplugged laid back away from the computer, the emails and the drafting/grading for a bit. what i didn't tell you before my holiday was that i was burnt out. major. i even had thoughts of quitting. so, holiday could not have come at a better time for me and my family for me to learn that i do actually love what i do, i just need to be better at self discipline and exhibit more self control about how i manage my time with BG. so, here goes. :)

my first few days back in the sewing room were wonderful. i spent time sewing for my kiddos, working on some house projects and things such as that. then, i dove into a new pattern. the lake dress. this dress debuted on my dock of the bay collection last year and was a huge hit! truth be told, i was excited about drafting this one because basically it is the hattie without sleeves. HOWEVER, the hattie whooped me a new rear end when it came to drafting and after working on that pattern over and over and over again, i decided that with the lake dress, i was going to start at square one. so much for taking the easy approach. BUT, in the end...i am so glad i went back to the drawing/sloping boards and started anew since the lake is a fantastic fit. pretty much exactly how i envisioned it. so yay!

after i told myself i'd rather poke out my own eyeballs than to publish a pattern with options again (hello 1,493 page henry/henrietta, just kidding...it isn't that many pages, but close) i somehow had a moment of not only poking my own eyeballs but amazingly doing that while having my fingers in my ears not listening to myself as well because the lake dress has options. :) fabulous options if i do say so myself.

she can be a flat front dress with or without fabulous military-inspired tabs...

she can have a pleated front (oh i do love pleat) for some dimension...

she can rock some shoulder tabs to display buttons...

and she can either have some sweet ole flutter sleeves, because who doesn't love a flutter? i am a huge fan of the flutter.

mix and match and have a blast with this one. my awesome testers sure did!

 

This next one makes me smile each and every time. Love this kiddo.

oh my...did i forget to mention, she also has inseam pockets. eeeeeeeeps!

and now for the details. this new pattern will debut in my shop on monday january 28th. and the best news...i am teaming up with HBfabrics again because who doesn't love a good fabric sale? not to mention hilary has those fabulous yarn-dyed linens and chambrays from robert kaufman that make my patterns look like a million bucks. eeeeeeks.

so, hit up my etsy shop on monday for a new pattern! and, if you buy the lake dress in the first 3 days (so before wednesday at midnight) you will get a separate email from me with a coupon code valid at HBfabrics to discount your order. now, i don't know about yall...but that sure makes me do the jig to start the weekend!

happy weekend geese!

a place for everything...

for those of you that may not know - i just recently did an out of state move. and when i say recently, i mean 6 months ago (but those are all just minor details, so who's really keeping time?). back in may, i had the task of packing up my sewing room. my lovely sewing room that my sweet husband renovated and added just for me. he thinks i am special. :) and for that, i loves him. well, i mastered the task of packing it all away in a matter of a day and was done with it. it went much easier than i had planned. 

now, 6 months later - i had the task of unpacking my sewing room. it did NOT go as easy or quick as i had planned. you see, one would think it would have been one of the first things to unpack since i do love it all so, but that was not the case. mostly because we didn't have space for it, and mostly because i didn't want my precious fabric covered in sheet rock and wood floor dust. upon a month of moving in, we took on an upstairs renovation that was a total gut job and took about 3 months. now we have a beautiful upstairs which houses both of the kids and all of their stuff (which is way more than one would ever think, and i still have some "stuff" in boxes in the basement which i think will just be donated at this point in time...we certainly haven't misssed it!). so, that cleared up some space for my "temporary sewing room." and by temporary, i mean for a few years. i bet yall are slowly catching on to how i define time periods. :) i started unpacking last week and just finished today and if i can sum it all up in one sentence...here we go,

i never, ever, ever, ever, ever need to buy more fabric. 

hilary, if you see my name on a paypal invoice...i need you to be a good friend and intervene. ummkay?

oh my word. you see, not only did i unpack, but i changed up how i wanted my fabric organized. i no longer had the awesome shelves to keep it bolted like i did, so i found some awesome old peach crates (twist my arm to go junking and use byron's drill to construct something i can place on casters) and decided i would use fabric organizers instead. however, i almost fell out of my sewing chair (not to be confused with falling off a rocker) when i saw how expensive the fabric organizers ran. so instead, i took advantage of an over-abundance of empty cardboard boxes and set out to the daunting task of cutting over 100 9" x 12" rectangles to house my fabric. a few blisters and very, very dry hands later it worked. then, came the task of un-bolting it all to re-bolt. now, a few days into this project (yes, i said a few days) i realized that i had an over-abundance of fabric. it was out of control. but at the same time, it was SO exciting to me to see all the gorgeous fabric i had been hoarding collecting over the years. have i ever mentioned how much i love fabric?

well, i finally finished this morning. i never imagined it would take as much time as it did, but i also wanted it to be perfectly organized unlike my sewing room at the last house. i think i did a pretty good job, now let's just see how long it takes to mess it all up. :)

my very first clementine (yep, #1) watching over my stash to make sure those few OOPs that i am hoarding collecting stay in their place. :)

casters, old wood and linen...these are a few of my favorite things!

 

oh buttons, how i love thee and little red cottage who keeps me supplied. 

ps - can you believe that i think i even missed those darned ginghers? not privy on the reputation of these things? read all about them here, and only give them nice looks. trust me. 

what do you think? this sweet face was sure happy to help. :)