a little of my day
just put one foot in front of the other.
how was your day?
twenty-five years ago this day (in a land far, far away) a boy was born. one who would grow up to be a young man with loving arms. an open heart. an uncomplicated sense of right. ideas for a better world. a belief in the goodness of those he loves.
such a small gift to someone who gives me so much. an image from my hands of some of the things i see as part of him.
so, Happy Birthday, sweetheart.
a.
originally posted at: gloamingdesigns.typepad.com
in the shop.
Summer's Eve (excerpt)
Oh! how I love, on a fair summer's eve,
When streams of light pour down the golden west,
And on the balmy zephyrs tranquil rest
The silver clouds, far - far away to leave
All meaner thoughts, and take sweet reprieve
From little cares; to find, with easy quest,
A fragrant wild, with Nature's beauty drest...
Keats
vintage French linen and cream leaves from vintage fabric, stitched with silver thread.
happy weekend!
sigh - it's love. this is in the shop now - the Citron Vert Pillow. it's made from more of my vintage French linen sheet collection and a piece of 'new fabric': crazy quilt style scraps given new life and then sewn over with an abstract stitching. i want to lounge in a whole bed of these (reading a book, by the ocean, with some tea....). there are more colorways in the line-up too. stay tuned.
so, due to an address 'thing', i wasn't greeted with the glorious morning of tea and reading of Marie Claire Idees a while ago when the spring issue went out to the rest of you. it's ok, i have faith i will see it. but in the mean time, something else arrived:
Marie Claire Idees Hors-Serie Bebe!
Each year (starting 2 years ago, this is the third) M.C. puts out a special edition in April. the first was their "100 Best Ideas", the second was Kitchen Decor and this year it's baby. now, this copy (and indeed, my other copies) comes grace of Yvonne, my boyfriend's mother and crusader for French education. She assured me that the gift of this issue holds no ulterior motive and that there are plenty of things to make, even for the baby-less. and she is very right. here are just a few of the things i'll be obsessing about making.
these little birds are perched on twigs and framed by delicate wire cages that are so airy. i adore this and am trying really hard not to go get the glue and twigs in the hallway right now.
i would love to take a nap with these simple wooden shutters mimicking night with glowing stars and planets, let alone put a baby down for a nap in that room.
and, of course, this little album is perfection: natural linen with a fabric photo of the subject and just a bit of rickrack peeking out over the edges. there are so many occasions for these...
and i what can i say about this? i adore it.
merci, Yvonne.
i suppose i have some explaining to do. let me say firstly that i keep meaning to write, to say: hello, it's ok. i'm over here; be back soon. but each day i didn't get to it, it became like a larger and larger cat sitting on my chest and eventually was more than i could think about. but, i have an excuse! i was putting together a wholesale order to go to a lovely lady who has a store in California: Elysium. a week and a half of sewing, knit, cutting, sneezing (from the dust created by cutting), printing, and packaging. but oh the fruits of labor.
it was lovely to see everything coming together. but a strange possessiveness takes over too, as if they were my children. well, in a way they are.
and after a week and half together, and only a brief to look at it all spread out and perfect, we had to have our moment and part ways for the west coast.
in life's forward march (isn't that really 'full-tilt run'?), loveliness rushed in just after in the form of my birthday this past weekend. i'm not a center of attention girl and so the weekend was pleasingly small scale. friends from boston for lunch and a walk on saturday.
and sunday was my family and R. lunch in a favorite spot, amazing gift from parents and lovely treats from R, another walk in the woods - happy girl.
even Etsy wished me a happy day
and in the 'Perhaps Other Things' category: I've finally got a new banner and avatar:
it's so airy and fits how my pieces are developing. (but who knows how long i will resist the urge to fiddle and perfect and tweek.) what do you think?!
originally posted at gloamingdesigns.typepad.com
first, something not so pretty. i was sent this article and, i won't go into the details, but credit card companies need some guidelines. this article points out the incredible things these companies are allowed to do and point out a step in the right direction: The Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights. i think it would be lovely if you had 3 minutes to read the article and send a quick note to your Representative. and that's all i'm going to say about it.
but have you seen this? Sublet Clothing is a company that cares about their environmental footprint and good lord their clothing is so (so) nice! I love this Anne top - i think if i owned it though, i'd need two so i could wear it every day of the summer and wash the other. however, that may defeat the sustainability. oh well, it's lovely.
this past week and a half has been a little full. at the end of the week last week we went off to Boston for a full-tilt weekend of running around trying to get everyone in the right place at the right time. it didn't work, but it was still nice to see them all. the time to stock up on vibrant conversations and artistic sparks - oh we need more of that!
but just before that, and after, these sweet towels were working on
becoming a reality. i love linen (no, really, is it obvious?) and so
when a buyer asked about tea towels, well, there was no choice.
linen. because of their different use in the kitchen, the image on the
towels is done with a direct printing method - very durable and
completely washable. the hem is nice and substantial - 1/2" all the
way around. quite frankly, after the three popular crowned designs
were printed up, i began to think of so many more images i wanted on a
tea towel. they will come. in fact, i couldn't help myself and
printed a fourth design after the crowns. but i'm saving that for just
a tiny bit later.
so here they are in sets of the three crowns (lily crowned, rose crowned, and oak crowned)
or individually. sigh. it's love. speaking of love, wouldn't they
make a gorgeous wedding gift, or a housewarming gift? i know i
wouldn't mind!
and because i couldn't resist, and Easter cosy. bunnies, violets, robin's blue eggs. lovely.
this past weekend, i did this to some unsuspecting white yarn. the tutorial came from KnitPicks but as we don't have a microwave, i tweaked it. instead of 'zapping it' for two minutes, i turned the burner on under the pot until the liquid began to steam and quickly turned it off and set the pot on a trivet.
after the first round of this i pulled about 1/3 of the yarn out over the side of the pot and quickly learned that i should put a bowl under it lest capillary action make a pink swimming pool of my stovetop. after the second round of heating i pulled another 1/3 out and after the third round of heating, i left the last 1/3 in the pot and went for a (very blustery) walk.
when i came back, the bowl was full of only faintly pink water and i had an amzing yarn that ranges from strawberries and cream pink to saturated red. thanks to fruit punch Kool-Aid.
stay tuned in the coming week for what it will become!
originally posted at gloamingdesigns.typepad.com
I love the feature of Typepad that allows me to track how many visitors I get and, even cooler, what link they clicked on to find me. Well, yesterday someone clicked on a google.co.uk search result. Thank you. I clicked on this link and up popped the most shocking thing: other people's blog posts referring to my shop. Wow. I mean...wow. So it isn't an avalanche of links but still, I found that just seeing these few other people coveting and generally admiring what I'm making...well, it spurs me on! There's always a little lag, a little hurtle, between idea and production. But when there is that lag, I always think about all the other amazing people I see on Etsy and beyond making and doing and creating, and it gets me over that. But here, well, you've just added more inspiration!
Here is Drewzel from Australia's post in which she catagorizes my note plates as 'eye-candy' ::blush::
Esmerelda includes my French Snow Tree in her "Less Crap, More Craft - Etsy Holiday Ornaments" list
A Fellow Esty Seller kindly says that my sofa must not rule my life for all the reusing ideas I come up with. (my secret? our sofa is very small and the TV only gets one channel ;) hee hee)
So my point is - thanks!
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