My Talented Sister

Thanks for your feedback on the brush delimma - I'm still torn! Argh. I'll let you know what I end up doing. Check this out:


Handmade goodness from my uber-talented sister - a GORGEOUS bowl! She has been taking a ceramics class on week nights and this is her first (yes, that's right, FIRST) coil pot project. !!! Isn't it just the living end? I love the colors, love the irregular lines around the outside (looks like the ocean, doesn't it?), and I LOVE the little spirals around the rim. It really does remind me of the sea.


This was meant to be a cereal bowl...but that almost seems too lowly a destiny for such a chic little coil pot. I imagine once I get a decent apartment I'll put it out on a coffee table or something. Eek, nevermind. I just thought about knocking it over. Mmm. This will take some careful thought...


Here is the rest of the package she sent (she puts together some amazing packages I tell you). She sent some of Jane Iredale's new makeup, and a lovely little pad that has a magnetic closure to protect the pages...perfect for throwing into a purse or bag.

I am spoiled ROTTEN. I'm also thrilled to pieces because this year hubby and I are vacationing in sunny SC for my birthday and aforementioned talented sister's birthday. Our birthdays are back-to-back, and two years apart :) There were a few years growing up that we hated it - both of us wanted all the attention, but we eventually loved it. One way we learned to love it is making each other birthday banners out of long rolls of paper. We haven't had a chance to do that in YEARS and we're actually doing it again this year!!! I'm so excited I could squeal! Whatever cake we end up getting, we plan to decorate it with colorful icing, put up balloons and streamers, and have a good old-fashioned birthday party like we did when we were kids. I CAN'T WAIT!! Maybe we could even get in some roller skating. That had to be my all time favorite activity growing up. SC, here we come!

Dilemma

My hubby gave me a very sweet Christmas present - a $200 gift certificate to Eva Scrivo's salon here in Manhattan. My dilemma is how to use the moolah. My original plan was to buy this here Mason Pearson brush:

It is supposed to have magical powers to calm frizz by transferring the natural oils from your scalp throughout your hair. It accomplishes this feat through it's boar's hair bristles. It is also handmade in England. It is also friggin expensive. Potentially more than my gift certificate (WTF!?!) depending on the size I would get. So a week ago I was convinced I would get this brush. But then, I wonder now if I should try getting a fancy shmancy hair cut at the salon instead. Martha Stewart goes there, after all. I have very long, all the same length, wavyish, frizzyish hair. Hubby was thinking if I want to try something new (but still long - I think his world would be thrown into an alternate dimension if I were to cut it short), that I might want to cash in while I'm here in fancy shmancy NYC. Apparently the professionals at Eva Scrivo's salon also have magical powers called the "Uncut", which is a layered cut which claims to not need a blow dryer to look cool. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate blowing my hair...I always end up looking like a poodle who stuck its tail in a socket. Also my arms have somehow never gotten used to being held up above my shoulders for that length of time. That is a tiredness I despise more than frizz. Also I hate the idea of being dependent on a hair dryer when traveling, AND I hate the idea of heat ruining my already frizzy hair. So you see my dilemma? What should I do?!? On the one hand, I have this magical frizz defying brush. On the other, a potentially cool looking 'do. Both would undoubtedly go above and beyond the gift certificate. Indecision I hate you!!!

Happy Easter!

Many happy returns on this Easter Monday :) I'm still confused as to why Easter is in March this year...does anyone know the reason? I have always associated Easter with April...mmm. Perhaps I'll celebrate Eastern Orthodox Easter this year - I think they're having it in April. Warmish weather seems to be a prerequisite for egg hunts in my mind. I'm telling you - as soon as I'm geographically close enough to my family to celebrate these sorts of holidays, I'm going to arrange an egg hunt. You're never too old to hunt for eggs!! Or to stuff your face with chocolate. Or put flowers in each other's hair. I remember one magical Easter I spent at my grandmother's house with all my cousin's when she let us pick whatever flowers we wanted out of her garden and put them all in each other's hair :) Very, very fun stuff. I miss Grandma :( She always had the coolest, most impossible-to-find places to hide the prize egg, which was always purple. One year she hid it in the knot of a tree behind a bird's nest!! She was so fun. I always think of her when Easter comes around.

Here is an image of one of my all time favorite cartoons - Disney's "Funny Little Bunnies" (1934). It's a Silly Symphony, and is one of the sweetest possible cartoons. Here is a link to it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZAnOab5zoU

Putting Myself in Imaginary Shoes

Oh how I wish I could go on a shoe-buying blitz on Anthropologie's website. Aren't these just so lovely? MAN I love these things.

There are so many cute shoes, and they're all over $100. Sigh. One day I will splurge. My mother actually splurged on a $128 pair of flip flops for me years ago. They also were from Anthropologie - gorgeous things. They're wooden platforms painted dark turquoise with elaborate beaded flowers on the velvet thongs. I've worn them only a couple of times (I have been a fashion victim most of my life - only VERY recently am I starting to pull together my weird tastes into cute outfits). If my family is able to get together for a beach trip this summer, I plan to bring along my fab flip flops to wear with a little summer dress. These are also some shoes I've fallen in love with:

They remind me of the movie "In Her Shoes." That movie was wonderful, and the shoes were just yummy. Upon further reflection, these do look a tad strange.....I am an artist after all. If I'm not going to dye my hair blue, at least I can wear some weird shoes, right?

I'm in Love

Isn't this gorgeous? April Cornell is one of the most sentimental designers to me. I hate that most of her stores in the U.S. are closed now (I believe she's based in Canada). She makes some beautiful, beautiful fabrics for bedding and tablecloths, and also some fabric collections through Moda. I have several aprons I bought in SC before her stores closed that are to die for, and a set of the cutest potholders...it's one big, round potholder with two buttons to hang four smaller teacup shaped potholders. I've got to post a picture of it at some point. Oh my word - I just found out she has a blog! I definitely plan to use some of her fabrics in a quilt sometime soon.

Getting back at my sisters - Part 2

Voila! The charming handbag (wonderful pattern from angry chicken's book, Bend the Rules Sewing). This will be winging it's way tonight to my eldest sister, the other culprit involved in sending me such a sweet package. Believe it or not, I made this in one evening - last night. It was so fun! I love love LOVE this pattern. Amy put the instructions for this together in such a great way, it was a pleasure from start to finish. I used thrifted material for the outside - it's not cotton, but a kind of slick, sturdy material. I think it used to be a curtain. The ribbon comes from a box of Godiva chocolates my hubby gave me for Valentine's day (man I love that ribbon), and the lining was a gift from my mom-in-law.

I had this fabric all picked out a week or more ago, as soon as I saw the ribbon on it that is. It's very bold and funky, but then so is my dear sister! I hope she loves it. I carried it around work to take photos in a nearby empty conference room (where I nearly dislocated my shoulder taking that first picture), and it actually is very ergonomic. I believe I shall make one for myself one of these days.

Here's the inside - I actually think it's mysterious and cool that it's such a contrast to the outside fabric. Here's hoping it really is, and not just my weird opinion.

I decided to continue the ribbon around the back - I much prefer things like purses to be consistent on both sides, especially with something as dramatic as very RED ribbon on cream fabric. All in all I'm really happy with how this turned out. I hope my sister is too!

Getting back at my sisters - Part 1

So - the theme for today is: no good deed goes unpunished :) I'm giving my freakazoid sister a sneak peak at her present I made her for sending me all those lovely goodies the other day (I forgot to take a picture of the fancy shmancy pasta and cherry cola she sent - yum!). The elder culprit sister involved will be getting her payback tomorrow. I made her present last night, and will post it shortly. SO - I made myself a little white hat over the last week or so, and of course left the pictures on my other computer (curses), so I'll post that in the coming days. I then made my sista a paisley version which I hope I hope I hope she likes. Little did this thrifted pillowcase know it would one day be a hat :)


It actually fits way better than my white one....so...I think I'm going to adjust the white one a bit. I got the pattern/tutorial from curiously crafty - fantastic pattern! I am so impressed that she came up with this - it fits like a glove, and really is easy to make if you have a little experience sewing. I cheated on the covered button - I just took a little button I had and covered it with a circle of the hat fabric, then sewed the edges together underneath then onto the hat.


The lining is pretty nifty...I didn't have enough of one fabric that looked right, so I just took two pieces each of three scraps that looked good together, and actually I like the effect better than just one fabric for the lining.

I WAS going to post the second part of the present, but I wanna leave that as a surprise after all :) I will post that after the recipient gets her package today :)

More to come soon....