Day 6: Delphine Cubitt, Mary Jane Carey and Jess Goldman!!

Thanks for following along our Summer Party. We are having so much fun! Are you? Make sure to keep commenting on EACH post. We are having daily giveaways!

Our next designer is Delphine Cubitt. Here she shares some of her summer and favorites. Be sure to check out her Story Time Rhymes fabric collection. It is fabulous!

Delphine Cubitt

Hi there, well, my absolute favorite holiday destination, and I'm sorry to go on about it (if you saw my recent profile on the Henry Glass blog, you will already know) ... is the tiny Island of Lindisfarne. Also know as The Holy Island, it's where Dave and I and our 3 little boys pack up gear for all weathers (we are in England!!) and head up to this beautiful little sanctuary just off the North East Coast of England. We have to make sure that we get there in plenty of time to be on the Island before the tide comes in and cuts us off completely from the mainland. We never go alone though. usually we take with us Grannys, Grandads, Uncles and we also meet up with our very lovely Scottish friends who we sometimes don't see all year, and spend a brilliant week with them.

We stay in the same old Georgian house every year, and it now feels like our second home. As it's the perfect house for entertaining, we all congregate here to eat, drink and play. the rest of the time we explore the Island, cycling, sneaking off to the secret beach (making sure the other tourists don't follow us!!), dipping in rock pools, swimming in the sea (you have to be brave for thi sone, even on the hottest days the North Sea stays bitterly cold!) Visiting the famous Castle and Priory is always on our list of things to do. When the tide comes in we sit and watch the sea coming right up over the road, reassuring us that we now have the Island all to ourselves (apart from a few other people who have discovered this magical Island!!).

My favorite summer drink:
On a nice hot day a chilled glass of Chardonnay is called for, but as I live in England and hot days are not that frequent, a nice glass of mulled wine is great for warming you up after a blustery day on the beach!

My recipe for Mulled Wine:
In a pan warm a bottle of your favorite red wine, add honey (to taste, I like mine nice and sweet!), sliced oranges, cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, a good grating of fresh nutmeg and a few teaspoons of brown sugar (again to taste). Just let your mulled wine warm in the pan (do not boil!) and infuse for about 15 mins. to 30 mins. (I can never wait any longer than this, but you can!) and then it's ready to drink and warm you from the end of your nose to the tips of your toes!

My absolute favorite ice cream flavor:
Rum and raisin, not forgetting a chocolate flake added to finish off!

Mary Jane Carey of Holly Hill Quilt Design is our next guest here at the Summer Party!

Mary Jane Carey

Best vacation spot:

Key West for winter beach time and lake Winnipesaukee for summer fun. My favorite vacations as a kid were going to Wisconsin to visit my grandparents on their dairy farm. I got to help milk the cows, feed the baby lambs with a bottle and then visit lots and lots of cousins. It was heaven for a little girl from Los Angeles! I even had a "barn jacket" that I didn't want my Mom to wash because I loved the barn smell.

Favorite summer drink:

Iced Celestial Seasonings tangerine orange tea.

Favorite ice cream:

Definitely mint chocolate chip (but I prefer the small chips which are harder to find).

Holly Hill Designs studio notes:

When we talked to Mary Jane, she was on her way to vend a show in ME. She's definitely busy! This summer she's been working on projects with her Ninth & Vine fabric too! Look at the birdhouses! Have you checked out her latest fabric and the fabulous projects that are on our patterns page?

Here's some exciting news! Mary Jane is giving away TWELVE Melon Patch patterns here in addition to our fabric bundle! Awesome! Thank you Mary Jane! Make sure that you go and say hello to her!

[Melon Patch - Holly Hill Quilt Design]

We now welcome Jessica Goldman of Bananafana Designs! We love her fun designs and her Polka Perch fabrics are so very pretty!

Jessica Goldman

Jessica Goldman of Bananafana Designs is one busy lady! When we heard from her, she told us that she was going through some crazy, busy times right now! We are grateful that she shared this post with us because she has been on vacation!

 [HG: Jessica, your kids are so very cute and we love that expression on your little one!]

Jessica sent an acrostic poem to us to describe the fun-filled 2012 summer in the Bananafana household!

by Jessica Goldman

Soaking wet children chasing each other with squirt guns and water balloons across the soft green grass!
Umbrellas ... well the only ones we used were in the gorgeous rain forests we explored this summer on our 2,800 mile trip up the west coast!
Marshmallows roasting over a crackling hot campfire just waiting to be squished between chocolate and grahams as we sing songs and giggle with our sweet little kiddos!
Melting popsicles running down little hands and arms (goes well with lots of slurping and lip smacking)!
ENORMOUS redwoods that made us look like "LEGO men" as my 8 year old son would explain to people when they asked us about our trip!
Riding bikes, skateboards, trikes, scooters and anything else with wheels ... and kissing and cleaning all the booboos that go along with those activities!

More news from Jess:
Summer goes by too quickly! When the fireworks stop popping and the popsicles stop melting my heart melts and pops a little to think that another summer has come and gone. Summers are always magical in their own special way and I'm glad that I get to share that magic with my sweet little family! They make summer exciting and happy for me. Whether we're laying on the trampoline out back star gazing, visiting the zoo, taking a trip, having a barbecue or whatever we might be doing I know the reason I enjoy it so immensely is because I'm with the ones I love most! Life will pass you by whether you're having fun or not, so I choose to have fun and make life fun for those around me. Our time is too precious to not make lasting memories, memories that I love to revisit as the years fly by! I hope your summer has been eventful, and if it hasn't, well then get out there and do something!!! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Jessica shared her answers to our party questions with us.

Best vacation spot:
The redwood forest and fishing in Alaska ... I couldn't pick one or the other because they are my top two favorite family vacations we've taken!

Favorite summer drinks:
Orange soda with sherbet ice cream floating in it, lemonade-stand lemonade, homemade Italian sodas! Yum!

Favorite ice cream:
I'm a sucker for anything with lots of gooey fudge, peanut butter and candy bar pieces!! I love making homemade ice cream - it's the best!! Ice cream is one of the basic food groups for sure!

Bananafana studio news:
New crafty patterns coming this fall!!! Keep an eye out!
Our Polka Perch fabric line for Henry Glass will be in stores in August! Yippeeee!! You'd better get some, it's really yummy with lots of delicious colors! Eye candy, I tell ya!!

Come over to our blog to find out the details on how you can win a 6 pack of patterns ... not abs, patterns. I wish that I could give away 6 pack abs, but I can't ... go to our blog here! [HG: fabulous!]

Thanks to Delphine, Mary Jane, and Jessica for some great reading! Go and visit their websites and blog for some more great posts!

For today's question, do you prefer camping in a tent or staying in a hotel? Leave a comment here for this question. You have a chance to enter all of the Henry Glass Summer Party giveaways on this blog only [does not include any individual designer giveaways] up until midnight, August 10, 2012.
GIVEAWAY COMMENTS CLOSED ************
-hg