wise craft

will I finish it in time?

I may have to pull an all nighter...

photographs for me

I'm so in love with my new photographs.  The one on the left is "winter boots" from Jen of Photobird.  I've loved this photograph since the day I first saw it, I love the color of the coat, the perspective, the whole feel of it.  I love all Jen's photographs.  She brings breakfast into art form for me, without a doubt.  And she quite literally brings it into an art form in her new book.  Doesn't it look gorgeous?

The one on the right is from the lovely Kerry of lushbella and I am so in love with her prints (and her jewelry).  She photographs styled vignettes of her fascinating collections of all sorts of things, then types a list of the items on an old Smith Corona typewriter.  I must have spent at least a half an hour to finally settle on the print I chose.  I really wanted them all.  I picture them hanging somewhere together at eye level where you can really stop and look at them.  Because you really have to stop and look at them.

I also got Mav's postcard series "the freeze" because, well, I just love Mav's photography style in general.  These will be nice in my studio.  I'm adding a pink peony print from Laura's shop to the grouping as well. 

Good photography really resonates with me these days.  The right one feels like I've added a window to my room because it seems to add a lot of depth for my eyes.

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Some of you have asked, and unfortunately, I will not have time to do another shop update before the holidays (but thank you for asking).  I am now turning my crafting (and shopping) efforts to family.  There are new projects that will be going into the shop for the new year, I can't wait to work on those and share them with you.

 

so early, the dark

in front of the bathroom mirror, 5:00 pm

Home is a mental state as well as a place.  Ilse Crawford

I expect the early darkness during these months every year, but I still find it a bit of a shock to the system when it feels late and dark at 4:30 pm.  We are looking for dinner earlier in the evening...and Gracie is hungry earlier in the morning than we prefer (little paws walking up and down the length of my body until I wake up).  Still, this is my favorite time of year.  I have come to depend on the pacific northwest drip to come back each Fall.  In the midst of all the worry about the world and how we're ruining it, the drizzle returning is good to me.  I'm ready for it to warm and lighten up when it finally does, but for now, it helps me collect my thoughts. 

90% chance of rain tonight.

I say bring it on. 

With coffee.

busy relaxing together

I finally found something to do with all those pretty beads leftover from that jewelry making phase I jumped into so wholeheartedly years ago (am I the only one who did that?).  I sat in the studio for a bit on Saturday, stringing beads onto wire, tying the tops with bits of seam binding.  What a way to pass time.  And, you're right, I do have lots of other things I can be doing.  But it is satisfying to have all those lovely beads out to enjoy.

Little fingers kept busy drawing a Miss Small Object paper doll of themselves as a princess and a knight with a golden face.

Here's what we were listening to.  Whenever I hear this band I think of Peter and me on our honeymoon, in London, eating Indian food near Covent Garden.  Good times.

gift making mode

I began my attempt to make some gifts for the holidays by making a hat and bunny for August on Friday.  I pulled the ideas out of Simple Gifts to Stitch, and I still say this is a fantastic book if you're looking to add to your Christmas book/gift list, you will not be disappointed.  I used an older Heather Ross/Munki Munki cotton knit print that I still love very much, originally bought to make pj pants for Emma (which she still wears, even though they are more like capri length now).  I gave some of this yardage to Courtney when Lucie was born, I remember wishing I'd had time to make her something from it.  I wish made more baby gifts in general.  There is just something so pure and soft about making something you know a baby will use.  Anyway, I had hoped to deliver this to August in person, but why wait?

Holiday gift making, what a treadmill, huh?  Ian has asked for a T Rex "this tall", Emma is still thinking.  I have settled in my mind that I will make a few holiday gifts this year, but not too many to drive myself crazy.  I will buy handmade gifts for the rest, there's just so much good quality out there.

This all seems doable for me.  I'm excited about getting started.

now that was fun...

(the table all set)


(its Emma's job every year to make the place cards)

(the "good clothes" await dinner)

I will spare you the pictures of things like the turkey, how much food I had on my plate, the half eaten pumpkin pie, and all that.  It was all yummy, and I'm having pumpkin pie for breakfast.

I hope whatever you did yesterday, that you did it with friends and had good times.  Happy belated Thanksgiving to a group of people I'd love to have a Thanksgiving meal with some day.  Now that would be fun. 

sea of life

We took Emma and a few friends to the Seattle Aquarium on Saturday for her birthday.  It was all so beautiful and fascinating to take in, as always.

The other morning, on the way to school, Emma and Ian had a conversation about what they love about Thanksgiving.  As I listened, I realized they are at an age where they are beginning to feel the real meaning of the holiday.  There are no anticipation of presents at this holiday, no expectations other than the fun of dressing up for dinner (Ian will finally get to wear his hand-me-down tie from his cousin) and being together...and maybe having a tablecloth to draw on.

And here's a glimpse of the all important mid-morning fuel on my desk, stiff coffee to wash down some Green & Black's mint dark.  Who needs lunch?

The shop is officially updated at 12 noon today.  Please excuse the mediocre product photos.  I really did try my hardest given how dreary it is in Seattle right now.  Thanks again for all the love and support you've shown me in that little store front.  A big hug to you all.

scrappy

These are another collaboration with Emma...scrap fabric ornaments that will go into the shop on Tuesday.  We've had scrap balls out in a large bowl in our family room for about a month, and the kids work on them here and there.  (The original idea for this was from Danny Seo's book, which I still love so much.)  Emma got so excited about the pendants she made last week, she was motivated to finally finish these up.

I was going to restock the shop at noon today (PST), but it will probably be tomorrow.  I need a bit more time to finish up a couple of things, plus its just dang hard to get photographs during that smallish window of good natural light these days.  Sorry for the delay.

I am planning my Thanksgiving meal this week.  I love to do this!  The meal and all that goes with that, it really is my favorite holiday of the year.  After about 11 years of being responsible for making the entire meal, I've got that part down (and Peter does all the clean-up...I knew I married him for a reason.)  Several of you have emailed to ask about the leaf garland I made last year for our Thanksgiving decor.   You can find my original post here.  Martha seems to have moved the template I used for the leaves pictured above, but you can find several downloadable templates if you do a search on her sight for "leaf template".  For the kid's table, I think they will be decorating the The Small Object's "Dress up Doll" from the Kiddley archives while negotiating their food intake.

Oh, and a big hello to gorgeous August, whom I must hold very very soon.  Sooner than that, in fact...

red and blue

The colors that came from my studio last week were very red and blue...

(pillow I made for Sally)

(a stuffy that's going to live in Casey's new baby's room, thank you Casey)

I think these may be my Thanksgiving colors this year, maybe turn tradition on its ear around here, what do you think?  These colors really glow right now, such a contrast to the rainy skies outside.  Also, I flipped through the December issue of Martha Stewart Living last night, which is really good.  Like I had to put it down it was so good, because my mind went off on a crafting inspiration tangent and it was time for bed.)  Full of crafty projects and, interesting enough, full of red and blue.

And if I had the time, I would definitely make these for the Thanksgiving kid's table. 

Oh yes I would...

 

bits of candy and a gumdrop

I just cannot tell you with proper words how much I love the print of this fabric.  Oh.my.I.love.it.  The blues and greens are perfect and I need to find many ways to use it around my house. Pinking flower, by Kaffe Fassett (I found it locally at Pacific Fabrics for those who might look for it).  Gorgeous. 

Anyway, I stayed up last night to make one of Amy Butler's gumdrop pillow ottomans from it for our family room.  It turned out so so great.  I really love the idea of making furniture-ish things out of textiles, kind of feels like I'm beating the system somehow (the system here being our decorating budget restrictions).  Plus, having 10 bags of stuffing in my studio was good motivation to give this pattern a try, you can imagine how much room that takes up.  This is the ginormous version of her pattern, the 24" size.  I think I may make more.  And anyway, I was wondering why we've spent so many years putting our feet up on the coffee table (you didn't know we were so classy).

I think I'm going to pull this print into some pillows today.  Can you tell I'm in complete and utter nesting mode here?  Its all about the cushions and pillows.  Plus, we've got three good movies coming in the mail today, just in time to put my feet up and knit.

And I have to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your enthusiastic response to Emma's pendants yesterday.  You are such a special bunch, you really are.  She was over the moon that people bought her necklaces.  It sort of made up for that failure of a yard sale she and her friends had a couple of weekends ago (nobody wanted $6 Yu-gi-o cards...nobody!).  Martha commented over on Flickr that the pendants looked like candy all lined up, and the name 'candy pendants' is all thanks to her (Emma loved that, and Martha is good like that).  Those are all being shipped out today and tomorrow, I'm waiting for a little help after school in the shipping department (cause if Emma sells 'em, she needs to help ship 'em too, right?)  She had a great birthday, I brought gingerbread cake to her classroom and got to read to her class (I really really like to do that, and secretly, I was told that I was better than the teacher at reading because she always has to stop and sip her coffee.  Wow!)  Your birthday wishes were so sweet, I feel so lucky that you guys get what I ramble on about.  Thank you.

Oh, and I added some bird correspondence postcards to the shop yesterday.  This is the first time I've ever printed one of my images on a postcard and I am thrilled with how they turned out. 

Here's what Emma and I are listening to this week, I have always loved these guys.  Now Emma does too.