wise craft

studio. early morning. having coffee. thinking.

I have been waking early these days, before the rest of my family, and spending time in the studio.  Its my favorite part of the day.  The picture above is a French Paper promo print Peter brought home for the studio from that wonderful treasure trove  at his office known as 'the basement'.  I hung her on the back of my studio door.

Emma and I have had some fun one on one time together this week.  Shopping together, having ice cream before lunch, things like that.  The other day, as we were driving home, Emma made the following observation as we passed a couple of the more "colorful" shops in the area-

Emma: Mom, did you know there is a place called "The Love Zone"?

Me (oh dear...searching...searching) : I did, do you think they sell things that are Love-ly?

Emma: I think they sell things for girls to buy so they can get a boy to like them.

Me (now I'm curious): Oh...what kind of things would that be?

Emma (long silence): I don't know...like a skateboard?

End of conversation...thank God!

I will be away from the computer next week, with extended family.  In my bag will be a small knitting project using some yarn in the most amazing color of blue.  Curious Incident will soon be finished, and next up is In Cold Blood, an I can't believe I've never read it before books I forgot about until I saw the movie, and some embroidery to do with Emma.  Bloglines, go easy on me, I get a little freaked when I see thousands of blog posts that I haven't read.  I don't think Peter will let me get a studio assistant (above the age of 7 anyway).

Cheers!

Oh man these are cute!

I know I have way too much to do in the studio right now, but I had to make one.  When you look at the cover of the book long enough, you'll see, there is some subliminal cute factor in there somewhere, suddenly you have to make one of these.  This is a birthday present for someone who loves bears, I can't wait to give it to her.  I think I will let Emma name her (its for her grandma).  And, come on now doesn't every girl need a pair of red tassel loafers? 

You've officially started an epidemic of cute throughout the world Hillary.

A happy kind of day

Holy Patchwork!  At this writing, there is one lonely, yet very lovely gal left in the shop. I'm breathing a rather large sigh of relief today, but you can be assured that I'm working on getting the ladies all packaged up and sent off to their rightful owners.  Your support and encouraging words mean so much to me, thank you...just thank you.

I did find much time to do nothing much yesterday.  These are photos of my afternoon set-up in the kid's treehouse above.  It's hot here, 91 degrees yesterday.  Covered in a canopy of shady trees, this treehouse is just about the best place in the world to hang out and read.  (What is just out of the camera's frame is a small-ish pair of flip-flopped shoes, attached to a smallish body, reading while swinging her leg out and occasionally kicking me.  Oh well, mustn't lose my grip on reality completely.)

So, my purse itch is scratched.  Now time to move onto my various other itches.  I have a  less than a month to get ready for Plush You II, but have already found some wonderfully inspiring images around here.  I love the illustrations in this book I picked up second hand.

Its called "Animals at Home- The Whale", authors are Grosset & Dunlap. I couldn't find an ISBN number, but the illustrator is Iliane Roels, and apparently there is a series of these Animals at Home books.  A quick search brought up this.  Its fabulous, you can see more images here.

To my utter delight, this book came yesterday.  Oh, how Emma would love one of these (if I'd let her look at the book...we don't just keep things like this laying around for her to stumble onto.  She tends to obsess over wanting something like one of these, and I have no idea which parent she's gotten that personality trait from).  Anyway, I may have to halt any plans for the day just to stitch up one of these, it'll be fun soft toy practice.  Hillary, I've thoroughly read it cover to cover, absorbed it, and your book could not be any cuter or easier to follow.  Bravo!

Now...if I could only get my sewing machine up into the tree house, life would just about perfect.

Shop update is complete

Just a quick note to let you know that all the new patchwork bags are now officially up in the shop.  I had such fun doing an "official" photo shoot for these guys, I tried to get all Machine Made Patchwork-y, with lots of white light and random objects, so don't laugh.  You can also get all interesting notes about the fabrics in each bag here, I always think its fun to look back see where the fabric came from.  Enjoy!

I am so going to sit and read a book right now...yep, not doin a thing, probably for the rest of the day.

Summertime Patchwork Girls

Patchwork bags will be on sale tomorrow at approx. 9am PST over in the shop.  The one in the photo is just a little preview, its actually already spoken for.  The others?  They are all for you, because contrary to what my family may accuse me of, I don't need that many bags.  I hope they do not disappoint, to me, they are all so lovely.  Surprisingly cheerful even, considering the music I was listening to while whittling away at them.  Oh Morrissey, thank you for still being so melancholy and glamorous.  As Alicia once said, you understand, or at least are blamed for understanding.

As usual these days, I'm behind on replies to emails and comments.  Hopefully tomorrow you'll see why.  Thank you for all your kind words.  Till tomorrow...

Summer!

Happy Summer to you! We are already taking full advantage of our unplanned days to read favorite books...


doodle with shiny new markers and crayons in Tania's coloring book (little end-of-school year present)...I also have one of these adorable ones in my back pocket for another day. 

and birdwatch.

I've had an bit of an unplanned break from blogging this week, mainly because I've been doing necessary life things like cleaning my studio (which includes fun activities like vaccuuming out the spaces between the keys on the computer keyboard) and preparing for my biggest shop update yet.  Most of your comments have gone unanswered, I'm sorry, thank you for them all.  But all will stop long enough for me to buy one of these.  If it possible to physically reach through a computer screen, today will be the day I make that happen.

I love the Japanese dollar store

Look at all the great stuff I found there.  Realizing I had two kids with me, who were every bit as excited as their mom, just imagine what I could have brought home if I'd had the time to browse.  I was grabbing left and right.  Look at that little wooden 3 drawer box...oh, wait, I think that was actually $1.50, but still!   Click on the photo to get details.

If there had been fabric there, I think I would have stood right in the middle of that store and cried!

the warm...

You may have read in previous posts about Peter being an avid cyclist.  Long commutes to work, weekend "century" (100 miles) rides, competitive racing, and training inside on rollers in the winter months.  Being an athlete, he usually has sore muscles, and his comfort object has become affectionately known as "the warm" around our house.  It is a tube of knit fabric, filled with ordinary rice.  Heat the whole thing in the microwave for two minutes, and it's a mobile heating pad, it holds heat for a very very long time.  We commonly see Peter puttering around the house with "the warm" wrapped around his neck like a scarf.  I, myself was not a fan of "the warm", I'd never used it and was tired of finding it everywhere.  When I pulled my back recently, I was introduced to it and now I think everyone needs one.  We fight over it.  But, Peter's has definitely seen better days (and one too many games of toss with my kids), so for Father's Day he got a new one.  (Yes, that's how boring we are folks, he was very excited.)  Thanks to Maitreya's Marthadex, I was able to quickly find where this was originally written about.  Not that I really needed directions to make it, I just wanted to see her lovely version, the benchmark.  The above photo is Martha's version.  Our version is a bit longer (more wrappable), and the visual of Peter walking around with those pompoms bopping to and fro around his neck...well,  I omitted them.  I didn't have a picture to include of the one I made, but its gray, plain, you get the idea...

We love you Peter, Happy Dad's day.  This is our warm hug for you and all you do.

OK, now I'm going to go make myself one.  Although I'm thinking much prettier...with pompoms.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.

Red....haaaaarrrrrr

Emma the pirate, complete with a hook for a hand and a ruffled ascot.  I didn't have to make this amazing costume, we inherited it from my sis-in-law Jen, who made it for her son Graham.  (Jen, will you start a blog already??)

Thanks to everyone who left such nice comments about my color posts this week.  I am so thrilled to think I have snapped a photo that someone out there can relate to, identify with, or maybe just enjoy.  I never thought of myself as a photographer at all, and I really don't now, but I'm learning as I blog, so I thank you for helping support that.  Stephanie and Mav's color idea was indeed inspiring for me.  Fun to zoom around and see everyone's interpretations of the day's color (you can see the results of the week here, some incredible photos).  It was a great little exercise for me to stop and *see* colors in my daily surroundings, I definitely don't take the time to do that often enough.  The black/gray day was the hardest for me originally, but it may have turned out to be my favorite in the end. 

And, for Fiona's Friday WIP-

Headless, limbless birdies and strips for patchwork bags, my biggest batch yet, under the needle of my machine (or at least poised and ready to be).  Preparing for a shop update.  I love WIP photos, I love the story of the process, the evolution...don't we all?  My studio music today is courtesy of Lisa, two new mixed CD's she sent unexpectedly.  I love them (so does Peter, and he's a picky one).  Thank you Lisa, new music around here is just what I needed.  Plus you've made me realize that I need more Brigitte Bardot music in my life (who knew she could sing?  I didn't..  Where the heck was I?).

Posting only about color this week has been an unexpected break for me, of sorts.  I actually got more crafting done, so go figure.  Funny though, I found myself commenting on other's blogs with lots of explanation points in them (I'm here!  Still around!  Just not really writing much!)  Emma and Ian finish school this week, so our summer is officially beginning and I finally feel ready.  I feel sure you will be seeing more collaborative kid/mom crafting showing up here.  Emma, at least, has grand plans.  (As she tells me, I just smile, and reach for more coffee.)  Happy Friday everybody.

Blue

My all time favorite blue.

And because I can't seem to make up my mind, here's more blues.  I love a mid-toned, powdery, robin's egg blue these days.  Can't get enough of it actually.

Tomorrow....red.