Today, I was surprised to find a box full of iPop magnets and paperweights featuring Joel’s designs on our front porch. Joel mentioned he was working with this company a few months ago, but I completely forgot about it until I opened up the box. It was like opening an unexpected Christmas present!

I can’t wait to use them on every possible magnetic surface in my home; in fact, I might need to procure a few more magnetic surfaces to display these little beauties all over the house. Gift-giving for Christmas…hmmm…I know what our friends and neighbors are getting.

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If you are wondering where the inspiration for Joel’s latest line, Deer Valley came from, check out this interview he did for Kim Kight, the editor of the blog, True Up. I know my husband is a good writer, but I was really quite impressed with how articulate he was in answering her questions.

He didn’t make up the part about deer entertaining us all winter long. Seeing the beautiful deer in our yard almost every day was one of the few bright spots during what felt like an interminable winter here in Utah after moving from warm, sunny Florida.

One of the most enjoyable working “dates” Joel and I had earlier this year was to do the photo shoot for the home page of his website. When you are a small operation like we are, you don’t have the budget for a professional model, so Joel volunteered me for the job. Heck, after stressing myself out to sew the dress, I guess I should have been really excited to own that photo shoot and showcase my handiwork. Once I relaxed a bit, it was fun to have Joel photograph me, and more importantly, the dress in such a beautiful (albeit freezing) setting.




We have had dozens of requests for the pattern of the dress I’m wearing in these photos. If you are wondering yourself, I used the NEWLOOK 6748 pattern which can be found at Walmart. The only changes I made to the dress were to make the yoke out of a coordinating print, and then I added a border along the bottom edge of the skirt out of that same print. I know the pattern says it's for knits only, but it worked with the lightweight cotton fabric.
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