Pink Panda Says…

We’re getting a bit more mature and grown up over here!

We brought in some modern and retro fabrics from Anna Griffin’s Darcey collection that would work well for home decor projects and a few accessories for yourself (I’m always thinking about purses).

Anna Griffin - Darcey - Blocks on Blue

 A few throw pillows made with this fabric would look really nice against an all white sofa too. A modern seaside/cottage look.

Have a great weekend!

Another non related sewing post from me! Along with being a Glee Fan, I’m also a Twilight fan. Yes, I read teenage literature and I’m proud of it.

So for all the Twilight fans out there, I’m sure it’s not news that the movie based on the 2nd book of the Twilight series is coming to a theatre near you THIS WEEKEND. I’m soooooooo excited. So excited I don’t even know any words to describe what I am feeling. HA HA HA.

This day has been marked on my calendar since I saw the trailer many months ago.

New Moon Book Cover

New Moon was probably not my favourite out of the series (Twilight is still the best in my opinion) but the movie looks really good. Better than the first one. Maybe it has something to do with Jacob’s new “look” if you know what I mean. I’m just saying…

Now I never watched the first movie. GASP! Yes, I never watched it because I heard from friends and friends of friends that it wasn’t good so I didn’t want to be let down. Have you seen it? What did you think? The reason I haven’t been compelled to watch it is because the movie’s version of Edward wasn’t the same as what I had envisioned while reading the book.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m team Edward all the way… just not team Rob Pattinson — in my head, Edward didn’t look anything like Rob (I was thinking Johnny Depp from Edward Scissorhands). I loooove Edward (book version) and love Jacob (movie version).

After last week’s poll, I’ve decided to run another one run one this week! Which team are you on? Team Edward or Team Jacob? Does your preference change if we talk about the book version? The movie version?

P.S. Puck got the most votes last week. I’m quite suprised!

P.P.S I’m really liking this polling business. Don’t be shocked if you see more of these types of posts.

In case you missed it last week, we uploaded a whole bunch of childrens fabrics!

We’ve got elephants, bunnies, trucks and lots of polka dots! Yay! Finally, a collection for the boys.

So here they are:

Traffic Jam by Allison Jane Smith

Riley by Anna Griffin

The polka dots by Allison Jane Smith  are gender neutral and would work well for both boys and girls and sort of remind us of holiday ornaments. What about you — what do you see when you look at the polka dot prints? Maybe we’re just too excited for the holidays over here

Ok this post has nothing to do with sewing, fabric or anything of that sort — sorry for the lack of getting to know you (and me) updates — I really like writing those.

So for the past few weeks, I’ve been hooked on a little show called Glee - a one hour musical comedy about a highschool glee club. Have you seen it?!

From moiht

At first when I saw the promos, I was thinking “Oh another show about teenage drama, I’m dating him and then I’m gonna date his best friend” but I watched the first episode and was HOOKED!

So hooked that I even watch the episodes over and over again making good use of the “On Demand” channel we have. They didn’t have a new episode for several weeks (I think because of sports? I don’t know — I don’t watch sports finals very often) and I was quite bummed and anxious to see what’s next for the Glee Club.

Saw the episode yesterday and loved the song selection (I’m secretly hoping that one day they’ll do an NKOTB song - HA!). I’m so torn — I love both Finn and Puck and I keep trying to figure out if I were a teenager and still in highschool, who would I like more. Every episode I watch I keep flipping back and forth. Not that this decision needs to be made — I’m married and my husband asked this morning “Wouldn’t you like me if you knew me in highschool?” LOL! (I didn’t meet him in highschool so who knows what would’ve happened) 

The directors did a great job with all the actors that were cast. I love all of them — the principal has the funniest lines, Sue (coach of the Cheerios) has the snarkiest comebacks, Emma (the germ fearing counsellor) has the best wardrobe (I like all that vintage/50s look although I don’t wear those pieces myself), and Will Schuester (head of McKinley’s Glee Club) sure can dance!

Any other diehard Glee fans out there?

November’s busy-ness has just started! We finally got My Folklore in stock after months of waiting but we’re sad to say that we only got one out of the many bolts we had ordered. Lecien decided a few days after we placed our order to discontinue printing the collection and now the Forest Friends fabric is the only one we have in stock.

My Folklore Forest Friends Natural

So for all those looking for some Japanese kawaii goodness, you can find it here

And if you’re like me and always looking for something to make for your little one, we also got the new ModKid Boutique sewing patterns this week too. Too cute! I’m planning on making something for Pink Panda for Christmas!

For Amy Butler fans, we have restocked on some old favourites and brought in some new patterns too! How about making a Birdie Sling with some Echino?

We’re going to try our best to do weekly updates of stuff that’s new in store so keep your eyes open — there’s LOTS of new stuff coming this month! Fabrics, Bundles and more.

Happy browsing and have a great weekend.

As we prepare for 2010, we are trying to clear up some space in our studio for the new arrivals. We have already lined up a whole lot of new fabric lines and fan favourites so we want to make sure there’s room for them on the fabric shelves.

So what a great time to hold a sale to clear our shelves and help you save some money for your holiday projects (eek! I have not even started mine yet as I haven’t bought a replacement sewing machine).

Starting today until December 1, 2009 use coupon code HOLIDAY10 to save 10% off purchases $39 CAD or more (pre tax total) – enter this code during step 2 of check out (after you go through Paypal)

You can even use this coupon code for sale items too! This is not one of those “only on regular price items” type of coupons because we don’t like those kinda deals!

Buy some of our newer items, buy items on sale – it doesn’t matter, the coupon code works on all purchases $39 CAD or more.

You could save up to 35% off on your purchases! Are we crazy? Maybe. But we really need the space for next year.

Did we mention we also have FREE SHIPPING in Canada, no minimum required?

We offer free shipping to the US with a minimum order of $99 CAD too. We wish we could offer our American friends free shipping with no minimum but Canada Post just won’t have it.

Happy browsing and let the countdown to the holidays begin!

We are in the midst of planning what’s coming to store in 2010 (did you know we only have 11 weeks until 2009 ends? Wow! Did this year fly by quickly or what?) and we will be announcing what’s coming within the next few weeks and months.

We have a lot planned (thank you to all those that contacted us to let us know what you would like to see) for this store and hope that you’ll be able to get all your shopping done in one place!

Just a few clues about what’s in store: more organics – fabric and notions, Echino 2010, solids, polka dots, unique sewing patterns besides those that you see in store now and many more indie designer fabrics. We can’t wait to reveal what’s next. Stay tuned… we hope you like it!

And if there’s something particular you’re looking for, send us a note! We love mail.

We have enjoyed hosting giveaways on many blogs over the past few months and now we’ve decided to host a monthly gift card giveaway here in our very own store! We’ve noticed that our customers rarely win the giveaways we’ve been hosting so this is something we’ve come up with to thank y’all (see, I did it again — I love using that word! HA HA HA).

So here’s the details…

1. At the end of every month, we will be drawing for a $20 Gift Certificate so you can get more of this or whatever your heart desires:

Modern Designer Fabrics at Pink Panda Fabrics

2. To receive an entry in our monthly giveaway, all you need to do is purchase something in our store. For every $10 you spend, you get one entry. So the more you spend, the more entries you get!

3. At the end of every month we’ll randomly draw a winner (using random.org or do the old fashioned name on a paper method as Pink Panda wants to be involved in this) and announce it here on the blog.

Simple, right? So our first winner will be for October 2009 and announced within the first few weeks of November. Everyone who has purchased from Pink Panda Fabrics in October will be entered in this giveaway so don’t worry – you haven’t missed out .

Good luck everyone! We are very excited to choose the first winner!

I hope all of our lovely Canadian friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.   A little downtime was just what our little family needed. We didn’t have much planned over the weekend besides a wedding, a few family dinners and some other on-the-fly activities.

My husband and I took Pink Panda to the Petting Zoo / Farm thinking it would be a fun thing to do on a windy Sunday afternoon. Little did we know that she isn’t an animal lover – yet. Every time the sheep, goat, donkey, or cow would get close to the fence, she’d start shrieking in terror and tell us not to feed the animals the carrots we had brought with us. So our trip to the farm was a short one. We did end up feeding the animals all the carrots we brought — just did it while Pink Panda was looking in the opposite direction .

That same day, I went to my first movie date with my husband in 2 years. YES, you read right… TWO YEARS! I think the last movie I saw in a theatre was maybe Harry Potter. I don’t even remember.

Popcorn by y entonces

Why the absence? Well, I could never hold my bladder for more than half an hour while I was pregnant with the Pink Panda so I figured it would be easier just to rent movies and watch them at home. So this past weekend, I ventured out to the movie theatre with my husband to watch Couples Retreat (my choice, not his — obviously).

Thank goodness the movie had a few actors from one of my husband’s favourite movies, Swingers, else it would have been very hard to convince him to go see yet ANOTHER romantic comedy with me (he has seen many and we have a whole bookcase to hold DVDs from my favourite movie genre– LOL!)

Now I’m not a movie aficionado or anything and I don’t care what Rotten Tomatoes reviewers had to say about the movie, I thought it was a light hearted, funny movie and a great reminder that we should all celebrate the small things in life no matter how mundane they seem. My hubby was one of many watching the movie and he agreed that it was a good movie — appropriate for Thanksgiving weekend and as our first movie date that didn’t involve microwavable popcorn.

It was a great date night and I look forward to watching many more movies with my husband (and soon Pink Panda will be old enough to go too!). Just need to save up the pennies as I didn’t know that it was so expensive. Two tickets + popcorn and drinks was $30! Oy. Definitely not something that is in the budget every week (or month). And that price was a discounted price because I had a movie package that I got from my favourite store, Costco.

I must be getting old because I remember back in the day when a movie ticket was only $4.25 per person! Now it’s double that and I don’t know what has changed since then — ok maybe the seats are a bit wider and they can recline back a bit.

So how was your long weekend? What did you end up doing?

P.S. Thank you for all the comments about the sewing machine post! I did a bit of research over the weekend and have narrowed it down. Will do a full reveal/review once I get it!

I’m always so amazed by how talented and creative my customers are. To date, I’ve received about 50 photos via email – all of which I have to find time to post and talk about because I love them so so much – and am blown away about the amazing things people make.

I’ve received pictures of quilts, personalized tshirts and pillows, personalized buckets, wallets, eye pillows, and some beautiful clothing.

So I’ve started a little group on Flickr for all y’all (ok I realize I live in Canada and it’s not everyday you hear the phrase all y’all but I love saying it and typing it out — makes me smile) to share what you’ve been making with the world.

Pop Garden Pinafore by StrawberryRicRac

You don’t have to be a customer to join in the fun. We just want to see what you’re making. And hopefully someone somewhere gets inspired and falls in love with the art of sewing. I know I get inspired all the time and always tell myself “Left brain, why don’t you let Right brain take over once in a while? I wanna make something that isn’t a blanket or pillow case”

So here it is…. SEW MODERN FLICKR GROUP

There’s also a link on the right hand side in case you forget! And you never know… you might see your photo up here soon!