Yum Yum Yarn

Yeah for birthdays! I got a little money on my special day and ... you guessed it .. hit the yarn store. Look at the yummy yarns I purchased! I've been wanting to try the Rowan Kidsilk Haze forEVAH. It is sooo luscious. And the Mochi, from Crystal Palace ...well, just look at it! Gorgeous color scheme. I badly need a new scarf or two for winter. I'm down to just one and it's looking pretty tatty after some very hard use last winter. So I'm going to treat myself to two new scarfs :)

For the Mochi I'm using a pattern from Inside Crochet. It's a British crochet magazine that I just ADORE and am fortunate enough to have stocked at my local Barnes and Noble. You can get digital downloads of Inside Crochet here if you can't find it locally. You need to keep in mind that British crochet terminology is a bit different than US while working, but the patterns are all very well written and photographed.

As for the Kidsilk, I think I'm going to make that fabulous striped scarf from the new Rowan Crochet Workshop book. Which is really good! I think I'll do a review on that soon. It's definitely THE book I would purchase for a friend who wanted to learn to crochet.

In other news .. I'll be taking a week off here, so all orders will be shipped out NEXT WEEK. Thank you!!!

The Joy of July

It's July and there is so much to be joyful for! First, I entered a blog contest over at Waterrose and won one of her fabulous rings! I already was an admirer of her gorgeous hand embroidered cuffs, like this "Wildflower Romance Felt Cuff".Now I'm a ring fan too :) She even asked me what colors I wanted and then custom made this for me. Eeeee!! Just love it. I love her style of embroidery because it is so delicate, fanciful and organic with lots of swirls and nature imagery. And, for me at any rate, it seems to have a more antique feel while still being utterly modern.
And this is really a joy for our family ... because we did it from scratch and the results have been awesome! Do you remember the lattice I and my boys built?
We now officially have PEAS!!! They are way taller than the lattice now and just bursting out with peapods all over. We pick them every night to add to our dinners and I swear they grow more overnight. This urbanite is really feeling like a farmer now :) These were such a wonderfully easy and satisfying veggie to grow. And very interactive for the kids too. They LOVE to go out and harvest!

I also bought myself a treat :) and books are always a joy to this bibliophile. Have you heard of Snoop?
The premise is that you can fake a portrait of who you are (ex. interview, date, visitors, etc.), but gradual accumulation of clues in your living space seep through and that snooping through your stuff can yield a penetrating portrait of your true identity. By-products of our true behavior, like a wilting plant in the corner, are more telling than explicit signals we provide, like a portrait of Marx. I haven't read it yet since it's still in transit from Amazon, but here's some of the interesting points inside:

* inspirational posters are signs of emotional instability
* Bedrooms of liberals tend to have a larger variety of books, music and art supplies, while conservatives have more flags, alcohol bottles and sports paraphernalia
* Smart, creative people are not shown by the number of books they have, but the diversity and variety of reading material.

Interesting, no? Can't wait to learn to be a "stuff Sherlock". :)


And lastly ... the Sweet Treat Giveaway Winner is ~*~Patty !!

If you haven't had a chance to go look through all the fabulous sweet summer recipes from the giveaway yet, go look at the comments on this post. So many wonderful recipes! Thank you to every one who entered and shared a yummy recipe!

Mail Love!

I am so happy to be a participant in the Speckled Egg nest swap! I strayed out of my normal artistic territory and did my first shabby chic piece. I think it turned out just darling! Love the expression on the little bird and all the egg-laden branches woven into the nest.
My swap partner for the nest swap was Karla! Here is the queenly bejeweled bird she sent me. Isn't she beautiful perched in her teacup "nest"? And surrounding the base is the stunning "amour" banner I won from Bristol at Honey Bend. This is SO gorgeous and the photo doesn't do it justice at all. Even the back is completely and meticulously finished with a great toile. Thank you Karla and Bristol!
What do you know? I won something in the One World One Heart Giveaway! I won this delicate beaded heart pin from Bev at Big Black Dog Studio. This is so lovely and I have already worn it several times around town, receiving many compliments on it. I love how it has the little flower embellishment too - perfect for spring!

Thank you to everyone who sent good luck wishes to banish my weird steak of bad luck - looks like it worked! The whole family decided to get out of town and go to the coast last week just to get away from it all, and nothing horrible has happened since we got back (knock on wood!). I hope to have some pictures of our trip to share soon. It was our youngest's first time seeing the ocean and it was just so enchanting to see it through his eyes. And .. nothing makes you feel better than a little retail therapy. Japanese crackers, an awesome new Japanese craft book (these are a great source of innovative and fresh craft trends - even if you can't read them), and dreamy yarn that looks like 18thc. French ball gowns -- ahh! Feeling better!!
I even squeaked in a little studio time after getting back from the coast to make several sets of dreamy Italian paper magnets (at Etsy). LOVE this paper - it's making my run-of-the-mill fridge look very elegant and upscale :) I love displaying artwork made by my two little guys, so our fridge is usually covered in construction paper artistic masterpieces. It takes a strong magnet to cope with all that art, but there's no reason strength and beauty can't go together, right? :)

Pay It Forward - Handmade Gift Exchange

Thanks to the amazing and very sweet jewelry artist Sheela of Eclettica who posted about this in the etsy forums, I have joined in her Pay it Forward (PIF) and now it's my turn to post about this wonderful opportunity to give to others! I'm sure some of you have seen this floating around in blogland, but if not, here's how it works:

I will send a lovely handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment here requesting to join this PIF (pay it forward) exchange. I'm not sure what that gift will be yet- it will be a surprise! The only thing you have to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Once you sign up, I'll email you to let you know that you are one of the three. Then copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.
Let's keep this going and share the handmade love and spread some holiday cheer - Pay it Forward!

Oh, and you can of course still comment without volunteering for this :)

I'm feeling the guilt here. I took the handmade pledge and then this weekend bought buttons and some cards that weren't handmade. Bad Bejeweled! Everything else this month has either been crafted by me or a fellow creative indie soul, so it's OK, right? :) I've been looking for vintage style pear cards with a French feel for forever. And the buttons? Well, just look at them - especially those fleur de lis ones that look like hammered pewter.

Still working on writing that tag - I'm up to number 8! Almost done :)

(image from Better Homes and Gardens)
Blogging today has been a bit like surfacing for air. It has been CRAZY busy around here! Orders, post office, client meetings, more post office, a birthday party to plan, yet more post office, crafting, home maintenance issues, and my favorite.....buying our first artificial tree and getting the kids all excited... then dismantling and repacking it 20 minutes later to go back to the store. Because ..... it had lead warnings on it!!

Did you know that almost all artificial trees have toxic lead in them?? That you need to wash your hands after touching them? And that they can shed lead-laced dust, which may cover branches or shower gifts and the floor below the tree??!!? I didn't. How horrible to have such a happy thing for children, the Christmas tree, be contaminated with lead that could give them lead poisoning. Back to the store for our new tree!

**upate** links for more info on lead in artificial trees: here, here and here.

It's Pumpkin Latte Time

The air here is starting to have that morning chill and Starbucks has pumpkin coffee lattes back on the menu -- fall is coming! This almost-fall week I went shopping for goodies. Look at these gorgeous lacy trims I found this weekend! Some pretty mini-flowers and a great strand of miniature faux pearls too (love this). I also bought some really cool victorianesque blacked silver & "diamond" buttons. Yum! I can't wait to try these out on the paper dresses I'm designing!

In addition to happily crafting paper dresses, I'm starting to amass stock for the Art & Antiques fair I'll be vending at in two weeks. And getting a bit stressed at all the preparations I need to make. Making LOTS of nests and bird tiles of course. Those new little painted bird earrings will be there. Also, these new little felt earrings I'm experimenting with. I'm calling them "flirty felts" and I think I will put them in the web boutique too.


Also, I have recently become aware of a fantastic resource for swaps. If you have ever just missed a swap sign-up, had trouble finding a swap to join, or hosted a swap and wanted to advertise it, this is a blog you will want to check out! I'm just in love with the idea of having a central location to check for cool swaps. Maybe I'm the last one in blogland to discover SwapDex, but if not, I wanted to share this awesome resource with you. Speaking of swaps, everyone who signed up for the paper dress swap should have received an Official Paper Dress Swap letter by now and know who your partner is. If not, please e-mail me ASAP. Thanks!

This last item may seem like it's coming out of left field in an arts/crafts blog, but it's not really given that my degree is partially in Japanese Art. I found this hilariously funny satirical commentary on learning the Japanese language. If you don't study Japanese, it probably won't mean much to you, but if you do or ever have, I thought it was funny and you might too :)
(A scene from "The Tale of Genji" courtesy of Wikipedia)

August in the Garden

Life in the backyard is good! Tall iced teas and chocolate rum balls in the evening. Butterflies, hummingbirds and droning bees flitting amongst the scented herbs during the day. But this week, we are forgoing the usual garden pleasures in favor of stone pavers, mud and gravel! That's right ... we're laying a patio! And not just any patio..... a two tiered wonder, with a seating area at the bottom and an area for a potted culinary garden at the top. We're doing all the work ourselves, so for most of this week, I'll be out of blogland and building paradise! The butterflies are watching us work, each as beautiful as this carved bone one:

I did take a quick break today and picked up these gorgeous new papers! Most have impregnated glitter or satiny bits. I was looking for some fun papers to photograph my jewelry on. For example, the butterfly was photographed on the paper at the far right. The deep rose sheet at the very bottom is three dimensional and looks like flocked, embossed metallic paper. Reminds me of those old ceilings in saloons or gold rush hotels. Too busy for a background, but so interesting, I needed to take it home too :)

Lavender Summer

With the fresh bounty of summer farms all around us, my family and I picked buckets full of fresh berries and lots of fresh lavender. I'd love to make lavender cookies and lavender iced tea this year, but this first batch was destined for potpourri. Here's a little sampler of a white/purple lavender mix. I have some rose petals drying that I'll toss in too. I love putting some of the plant leaves in my potpourri - it just gives it that special somthing. And around it are these really cool metallic glaze buttons I found this morning. The big ones are 2-3 inches across and just gorgeous!

I've also been hard at work on a new product for market. Here are the raw materials ... anybody want to guess what I'm making? I'll post the completed items next post :)


And my swap package from Tammie Moore's cupcake swap arrived. My swap partner was Tammie herself and look at all the tasty cupcake goodies she sent! Such creative, pretty and festive treats packed in a darling cupcake box. What a joy to open!

Birthday Time!

This week, my best friend gave me a fabulous birthday present. She colluded secretly with my husband to abduct me from my family and treat me to a girl's day out in downtown Portland. Now, I love my children dearly, but I had SO MUCH FUN!

We went to the very interesting, controversial anatomy exhibit Body Worlds 3, window shopped in all those delightful little shops on and near 21st, and sampled unique artisan teas in this really cute tea shop. We stopped in the Lush store, home of divine handmade cosmetics/soaps. I couldn't bring myself to pay $24 for a bar of soap, no matter what it was made of, but we both enjoyed smelling all the innovative concoctions. We also looked at Turkish colored-glass chandeliers with amazing iron fretwork, vintage jewelry, antique bits and bobs, and .... she bought me these awesome vintage chandelier crystals!!
But, the best part of the evening was yet to come. She took me to Marrekesh, an authentic Moroccan restaurante for dinner!! Now, I have been trying to eat here for 10 years....yes, that's right ....10 years. It's only open for dinner in a different city, I didn't own a car, my husband dislikes ethnic food....there were reasons.......but I finally got to go!! It lived up to every expectation. Eating with your hands on the floor was ........bliss. Sheer bliss!


My two little muchkins gave me the sweetest hugs and kisses and sang the most beautiful Happy Birthday song. Their little voices are just SO angelic! And what did Hubby do for this festive day? And no, I'm not telling how old I am. Let's just say, it's old enough you stop counting :) He surprised me with a decadent towering carrot cake from a local gourmet pastry shop and this:
A gift subscription to one of my favorite magazines, Belle Armoire!


This week was filled with happy things, but I was especially pleased to discover at Dare to Dream this amazing YouTube video called Women in Art featuring a really beautiful, creative treatment of 500 years of female portraits in Western art. I've been doing so much with historical portraits lately, this really resonated with me. And I got a special thrill from identifying as many of the portraits as I could:)

Firebird Necklaces

I've gotten so many lovely comments on the little Firebird pins that I made especially for the "ONE World-ONE HeART" Spring Giveaway, that I decided to make some as necklaces for the shop. With their sparkly surface treatment, they were challenging to photograph, but I finally was able to capture their look by putting them in a sunbeam to photograph. Usually a very bad idea, but it worked great! I'm also happy to report that "Happiness" is a new best seller for us. Yeah!! So, I'm making two special ones, both as horizontally drilled pendants with gemstones and crystal, but one has a really cool gold antique finish. I *hope* to have them finished and posted this week.


I also had a rare chance to go shopping. I found these great flower sliders, some yummy wool yarn for felting and these vibrant chopsticks. I've always wanted to make hair sticks and I think these chopsticks would be ultra-cute turned into hair sticks. I also found some amazing washi (Japanese paper) at one of my favorite places, Uwajimaya!! The one I visit has a Kinokiniya bookstore attached and if you like Japanese craft books, is an amazing place to get the newest ones, hot off the presses.

Turquoise Treasures Unearthed

I've just returned from a fantastic gem and bead show. There were just tables and tables of precious gems, stones and pearls piled high and look what I found deep inside one of these heaps of gemstones! These African Turquoise strands are really gorgeous. I'm already envisioning some cool sterling wire wrapped necklaces with them, maybe even some oversized cocktail rings.
Did I find other cool things? I sure did! I picked up a lot of other new treasures to make fantastic items for the Jeweled Elegance boutique for your Christmas shopping pleasure. Look for them in November!

Indie Spotlight: Mixed Plate

From Hawaii, this is a great blog of random goodies by the multi-talented Liana. If you like super cool stuff (and who doesn't?), she reviews a lot of really unique quality indie products and shops. She shares gems of the indie world with a really witty writing style I think you'll like. She also features a "blog of the week" if you are looking for some new daily reads. Check out Mixed Plate for a daily mix of savory bite sized discoveries and commentary. You'll be glad you did! Liana also is the creative power behind On A Friday (jewelry and gifts) and the opening soon Punk 'n Pie.

Indie Spotlight: Valhalla Soap Company

Recently I had the pleasure of testing an awesome product, a Cafe au Lait Gourmet Coffee Body Polish called "Cafe Vienna". The smell of this is divine, and reminded me of sipping Kona coffee and eating croissants on a lanai on a cool Hawaiian morning. I swear you could actually smell fresh milk and newly ground coffee, and it left my skin buttery soft and smooth. Thanks to Donna at the Valhalla Soap Company for the wonderful scrub! Her website is filled with other body treats yummy enough to eat, so if you get a chance, take a look!