Project Runway Sunday

Several months ago, a chic and trendy not-just-fabric shop opened here in Fairfield! It's called Make & Mingle and is co-owned by three wonderfully creative women, Alexcia, Karen and Natalie. Their shop is colorful and inspiring with craft project ideas everywhere. There are embellishments galore and even funky furniture to lounge around on while you dream up your next creation. It's an all-round super hip space and they'll even host craft parties!

Today, my girlfriends, Casey and Amy, and I went to Make & Mingle for a really fun workshop with Maya Luz, one of the incredibly talented contestants from this season's Project Runway!! Anyone watching along? Do you love her or what?! And no, she wouldn't tell me who wins (as much as I tried to pry for even a smidgen of a clue. She did smirk though, which made me wonder if it could be her? hmmm).

Maya showed us how to make a clutch handbag out of old clothes that we were asked to bring in. Hers looked very cool (um, to give you an idea of how mine turned out...when I brought it home and showed it to my husband, he put it right on his head. If I were on Project Runway, they'd have to rename it "Project Runaway" so maybe I'll show you next time). But having fun is what it's all about, and here are Amy and Casey having a great time:
Maya was nice enough to show me her sketchbook and to share a bit about the concepts for her new clothing and accessories collection. I really love looking at artist's sketchbooks—that's where it all begins. And there's something about those initial marks on a piece of paper that contain all the energy for what's to come. It's like inspiration made visible, an idea made concrete, which sets things in motion. Beginnings are such an exciting part of the creative process and it was obvious that Maya was well on her way! Such talent!

And as if things couldn't get better, ya know who else was at the workshop??? YA, Ms. Sis Boom herself! Now Jennifer, we're supposed to be making handbags, not uh...fancy summer dresses!
Seriously though, it was such a wonderful joy to meet Jennifer Paganelli. She is so nice and so much fun and we totally clicked from the moment we met. She showed me some beautiful quilts that Nancy Geany had made from Jennifer's new line So St. Croix — which is just gorgeous. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. She's giving away 5 yards of it (in 1 yard increments) on her blog. Head on over and leave her a comment. I did! Nancy was with us today too and it's a good thing we had a project to do, otherwise I think all we would've done is talk and laugh!

It was a great day and thanks to Make & Mingle, not only did we make new handbags (or in my case a new hat), we also made new friends. What could be better than that? I wish Maya much success as she follows her dreams!!

Me, Maya & Jennifer