wish list

I am so in love with these light houses from my house party. Aren't they magical? I also want everything else in that shop...



While browsing Uncommon Goods, I stumbled across this Aebelskiver kit - oh my lord. I must get this thing. Anyone else not know what aebelskivers were? Am I the only one?

And how freakin cool is this bottle and jar cutter kit?!? Arghh. No bottle or jar would be safe. I could even cut off the damaged part of my mixing bowl that chipped. This would make me feel invencible - seriously how many people can cut glass?!

Sigh. I will dream on :)

call of the small

I've just stumbled across a new blog through a ny times article - the call of the small (which begs to be written in small caps). She collects mini modern furniture (how cool!) and decorates these chic modern doll houses. Oh how I want one. I am thoroughly in love with this room - I can't even tell you how much I wish I could live in this room.


I'm already plotting how I can make that awesome square shelf - and that mushroom - gah! It's almost too much for me. I might even go gather sticks and put them in a vase in a corner. And how much do you love that art on the wall? This is the coolest doll house ever.


I am feeling a distinct urge to go through all my old doll things. I must acquire a shelf like this white one. Then I must acquire all the goodies. This kind of shelf could just go anywhere - shoved in a closet, out in the middle of a living room, anywhere. I feel very inspired. Thank you call of the small!

New Kitty

Say hello to Pipsqueak, our new cat! He has been hanging around our apartment building for over a year now, and we finally got permission to bring him inside :) He's already been neutered and declawed, so all we had to do was get his shots and flea/heart worm treatment. It has been quite an adjustment having a new member of the family, but it keeps getting better. Here's a video of him attacking a pom pom:

Lost and Found Yarn

I was thrilled to find this collection of yarn mixed in with my college books in my mom's storage. This dates back to my lap loom days. Most of this is from Hearth Song kits, but a few came from random early crochet projects (most of which did not end well).


Imagine my surprise to find this motley knitting sampler - unless my memory fails me, this is my very first effort at knitting (along with my two older sisters). My mom began the sampler with nice neat garter stitch - you can see it on the right side of the picture below. Then you can see sections where my sisters tried stockinette, ribbing, and moss stitches. Then on the far left you can see what I believe was my first attempt at knitting.


I have always been more ambitious than patient. 'nuff said.


That is really funny though! I laughed out loud when I saw it. I think I would have trouble recreating those mistakes! I'm glad I took some photos of this piece of crafting history - I plan to unravel it and use the yarn for something else. Perhaps something with a moss stitch - isn't that part pretty?


As a Christmas update, I have just completed my parents' present (if they are not completely stoked I will be sorely disappointed). I've also finished a couple of purses for H's cousins. Still work to be done on two sisters' presents, brother and his wife's present, and mom-in-law's. Gettin' there!

Halls are Decked!

Earlier this week, mom-in-law and I finally got the tree decorated. Fun! We have been enjoying it thoroughly every evening. H comments every night how good it looks all lit up. Christmas is in the air and I'm drinking it in :) I could really use some magic this year.

Are you tired of looking at it yet?

Last week I visited my parents and dragged a ton of junk out of Mom's storage (you're welcome Mom), and I've been sorting through it bits at a time. TONS of art supplies, which is really exciting. I found the first thing I ever knitted, paint brushes I used as a toddler, beads, beads, and more beads. Lots of work, but oodles of potential. More to come...

Poised...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. My mom-in-law is visiting with us until we travel home again for Christmas with my folks. Family time is good :) We have a very naked tree to decorate, hopefully today. I do have lights on it, so we've been enjoying it at night.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of decked halls to share soon :)

Merry Christmas!

special quilts

I was at my parents' house over the weekend, and I managed to get some pictures of some very special stuff. Here is my sister's first quilt - a perfect doll quilt. This formed my image of what all doll quilts should be. I love it so much.

It was a kit, I believe, which came with the patches. I absolutely love the combination of patterns and colors.

This is my pitiful recreation from my own kit. I can't remember how old I was when I sewed this - 8 perhaps? This is officially my first quilt. I do hold a special place in my heart for it, but it just didn't compare with my sister's, and so I have always been disappointed in it.

Fortunately, my mother cherishes both without being concerned with quality :) These next few pictures are of the mother of all quilts. This is the quilt. Literally - in my house when someone refers to "the quilt," this is what they mean.

The coolest part is that my mother let us play with it like wild things. As I was growing up (this was sewn before I was born!) it was my butterfly wings, a sale to my pirate ship, a giant treasure map, and most of all, the ultimate source of motherly warmth and comfort while traveling, sick or just cuddling. I really couldn't say enough of how much this means to me!

Before it was popular to be eco-friendly, this was an eco-friendly quilt. Mom used shirting fabric scraps from a shirt factory. I marveled at this when I was little - I thought it was so amazing to use shirt scraps, and I used to pick out the patches that looked the most like a shirt! As you can see, the backing is a rainbow sheet - no need to tell you how cool that is to a little girl.

The ties are yellow yarn, and the edging fabric is the most perfect calico. Don't you just love the little mending that occurred over time?

It is also interesting to see how the colors fade into soft pastels over time. I think I need to use this as inspiration in painting - and in quilting! I hope you all have something special and warm to snuggle up in :)

happy october!

Exciting things are happening around here... As you can see, I have gotten a beautiful pumpkin to celebrate fall - and not just any pumpkin, it's a organic pie pumpkin :) Right around Halloween I plan to bake it, puree it and make a yummy pie. It's sitting on a stack pure goodness - free, 100% cotton patches. Yes, you heard right - free! I shall reveal my secret:

Wallpaper books. If you call your local wallpaper store, they will very likely have discontinued books that they would otherwise throw away! A lot of wallpaper books have fabric samples too, which is where I got that beautiful stack. I swear it's like gold to me.

There you can see a fabric patch that perfectly matches the wallpaper sample. I haven't even begun to sing the praises of the actual wallpaper - it can be used for wrapping paper, book-binding, decoupage, note cards, etc. Anything you can use fancy paper for, you got it.

Gold baby, pure gold.

This is how many patches came from seven wallpaper books.


I was positively hopping with glee. Take a look at some of these beauties:

That round of books and fabric was particularly wonderful - I doubt I'll be that lucky again. I did go to another local wallpaper store and managed to get another 10 books (!) and 15 fabric books (!!!). Not quite as fantasmagorical as the last bunch, but beautiful in their own right. I have to sort the fakey fabrics from the cotton and silk ones. Lots of projects are looming on the horizon!

Once I deconstruct the fabric books and sort the fabrics by fiber, I'll start the washing, drying and ironing phase like with the last bunch. Gotta love eco-friendly free crafts, even if they do involve some work.

Soon I will post photos of two finished sewing projects (hint: they are wearable). I hope you all have a wonderful start to fall - and lots of pumpkin :)

handmade goodness

This beauty is a handmade quilt, created by H's grandmother. We've had this stuffed in the tops of tiny closets in Boston and New York, and lately stored in a cedar chest. A few weeks ago, we finally got it out to use for the first time in seven years! What fools to wait so long.

Because we generally guarded it carefully from the elements, we only ever got a look at it when we were moving, and that was usually cursory at best. I only ever got a real appreciation for it when I brought it out to wash it after our mold scare. When I was folding it to store again, I started noticing how bright and artsy it is.

And how modern - there are quilts of this ilk all over the internet these days. Wild, unexpected combinations of patterns - fresh and exciting colors.

I love the discreet size of the patches, and the matter-of-fact construction. H's grandmother meant business and didn't mess around.

It's hard for me to pick my favorite section of patches. The backing is a hefty canvas, which I love, and it is just the right weight for summer.

We've just put it back in the cedar chest after using it for a good while. I was sad to store it, but I plan to bring it out periodically to enjoy the brilliant colors and facinating fabric pairings.

Silly but Refreshing

Ridiculous to share pictures of bedding? Perhaps, but I was ridiculously excited to get these new-to-me sheets from my mom. I love them - they remind me a bit of anthropologie, and they are wonderfully crisp, especially for hand-me-down sheets. But then, my mother takes exceptionally good care of everything, so there you go.


I was trying to "make do" with whatever I had that would match this set of sheets when I realized I have a plain cotton sateen duvet cover I bought for nearly nothing in Boston years ago. I was delighted to see the effect this cream, semi-transparent duvet cover had when I slipped it over my blue duvet. It made this pale, minty-green that is hard to discern in the photos, but compliments the sheet pattern beautifully.

So yes, this is probably silly. But I figured anything I jumped around grinning about is worth sharing :)

Game Over

This is such a clever video by PES. I love the idea of battling with cupcakes and muffins with birthday candles!

Happy Easter!

Check out this adorable 1930's cartoon from Disney. This is an all time favorite of mine, and highly suited to this past weekend. Enjoy!

my inner gamer

i could hardly get to sleep the other night because i was SOOOOOOO excited about my new tricked out wii - my brother is a computer and gaming wiz, so he hooked me up with all of my favorite classic video games as an early birthday present!!!!!! eeeeee!!!!! oddly enough, we used to play these games on my family's old 1986 tv, which i've recently inherited :) i'm reliving my gaming childhood and it's great :) no more blowing the dust out of old game catridges or switching between consoles. thanks to my hip, modern, sexy wii all of my favorite games are in one place. the universe is at peace :)

i got a big kick out of this tee shirt from athenamat. very cool :)

missing new york

H and i have been missing new york lately. our cramped apartment, endless walking day and night (as woody allen says in annie hall, "The country makes me nervous. There's ... You got crickets and it-it's quiet ... there's no place to walk after dinner"), and excellent sushi and thai food.

honestly it took me a while to miss new york because i was so eager to get out of there. by the time we moved, i was completely exhausted with my daily routine and ready for the beach. i'm still glad we moved, but there are some haunting moments that come up and remind me how much fun it was to walk in central park, no matter what time of year, to walk from the east side to the west side of the city, to stumble across a great restaurant then eat there until we were sick of it, and to see random subway and street performances every day.

or to pile our bookshelves to the hilt... i miss those bookshelves. they were super cheap and fake wood, and you can see the shelves bending under the weight, but it was really my favorite nook in our apartment. when i took these pictures i was toying with the b&w and sienna features in my camera. who knew i would look back on them with so much fondness and nostalgia?

this was the sum total of my painting space in nyc - those little white crates held most of my paint and brushes (and collection of "mysteries" - i have a fondness for found objects - another thing i miss about nyc). i will always remember the look of panic on H's face when i reached to pick something up off the street. then he'd start a strange mixture of grumbling and ranting about dog pee and who-knows-what-else being on whatever took my interest. fortunately for my health i listened most of the time :)

here are our shadows and H's foot on a gorgeous day when we walked from our favorite hamburger place (the shake shack!) all the way past the empire state building, through central park, up 5th avenue, and back to our apartment on the upper east side. you might not realize it, but that's about 5 miles of walking! and certainly not the first time we did it :) lots of fun that walk.

if you are ever in new york, you MUST go to this place in madison square park - the hamburgers are incredibly good, and they have this insanely thick and rich frozen custard. D-lishus! my little heartstrings are being pulled! oh the pain! i must figure out a way for us to have a long working vacation in ny. and boston. my grand scheme in life with H is to live for several months at a time in lots of different cities. that way i can rest easy knowing it's temporary, and he can have lots of city time. plus we would get to enjoy lots of different cities in a non-committal type way. awesome says i! now if we could both find creative careers that would allow for that sort of city-hopping we'd be set. any ideas?