Random stuff I am into lately:

Peppermint. Mostly I want to smell it all the time. So refreshing! I bought what I thought was a peppermint shampoo earlier this year but it ended up smelling more like dandruff shampoo than peppermint. Disappointment! When my friend nathan came to visit back in April he'd leave the shower all peppermint-y smelling. I asked him what he was using and he said it was Dr. Bronner's. I tried that once but I don't like the way it leaves my hair+skin feeling. Maybe I'll just use it as a cleaning agent for my bathroom/kitchen.

Weddings. Well yes of course I still dream of re-doing my wedding. And one of the funnest parts is dreaming up what my dress would be. This designer is really quite heavenly. Usually I don't find such well designed wedding apparel on etsy, but wow! Check out her  sold items (on the left column) for some more of her designs.

Cottage chic. I don't want to decorate my home with beach cottage-y things, but I'm sort of longing to be surrounded by this look. Maybe what I need to do is buy a beach cottage. Somewhere in northern California. Hah! I dream of white painted wood slat interiors, wicker furniture, sea glass and shells scattered artfully around the home. Wide windows with views of the water. The smell of salt in the air. Ah....

Sewing my own clothes. This is an obsession that never leaves me. If only I had the time... I've been busy with a few other things you see.

This is from about 10 weeks ago. We've been calling him "junior." And yes, it's a boy.

basically I want to dress like an 8 year old

I'm finally getting around to reading the latest issue of small magazine. I started reading it well before I got pregnant because it's so well designed. And because I love children's clothing. More specifically, when I flip through a children's clothing catalogue/magazine I love all the little girls' clothes and I want to wear them myself. Is that weird? If so, I'm okay with that. I mean look at these cuties from french designer rose desbois:

I could so rock this look.


I wear something similar to this already.


This might be a borderline look. Where I look juvenile instead of cute and chic.

And the rest of these I'd get for leftie. The last two I think only a little girl could pull off.




I love the way mini dresses+boots look.


I want that cowl.



(All images from rose desbois.)

today I am obsessed with art

Well, it's been going on longer than just today. But today I saw this piece on poppytalk and I really want it.

(Dancing by Matte Stephens)

After typing this, I clicked through the rest of then artist's etsy store and WOW! I love all of his paintings! They are so charming and reminiscent of another time. I think they would look great in your living room or kids room. The titles on some of them are also fantastic. Brings a smile to my face!


I've been wanting to start a print and art collection. Our walls are bare and it's sort of sad and I really don't have any artwork anyways. I wish I didn't want so much stuff (right, mish? :).

jars and other kitcheny stuff

(Edited to add: PS. Their tea towels are also to die for.)

I just found out about this cute online shop that sells awesome porcelaine jars with wooden lids. How I'd love to have a few of these in my kitchen!








I also love these oil and vinegar carafes. I would use them as budvases as well.


And isn't this pasta spoon the best? It would go so well with the Alessi Juicy Salif citrus squeezer I plan to own one day.

(All images from Huset)

wanty

I want some easy socks to knit. No more crazy patterns. Just some simple stockinette in a self striping yarn. I think these yarns from Lorna's Laces would do me just fine.

(clockwise from top left: 064 gold hill, 509 satsuma, 118 woodlawn, 808 maple grove)

today I am sad

I really want to take this sewing class offered in Brooklyn. Back when I lived in LA and she lived in Kansas I didn't ever think I'd have a chance to meet her or take a class from her. Now I am in Stamford and she's in NY. Dudes! How awesome would it be to take a class to learn sewing techniques from Jenny Gordy??

This morning as I was getting ready for work I said to m: I want to take a sewing class in Brooklyn and I have a feeling that I am feeling unreasonable about this. Talk me through the pros and cons.

And of course, wouldn't you know it, the cons outweighed the pros.

Anytime I say that I'm not thrilled with living in Stamford, CT because there is nothing to do, it's so suburban, it's out in the middle of no where, etc. People always say: yeah, but you've got NYC so close by!

F-you random unhelpful suggesters.

It's just close enough to present a glimmer of hope but far enough away that it makes getting to and from it a little unreasonable.

I could get a ride from my co-worker who lives in Queens each Thursday that the class is offered. That would be easy. He leaves here at 3:30 and says it takes him about 45 minutes to get home. I would carpool with him. Take the bus from Queens to Brooklyn, find a cafe to get a snack/early dinner and then head over to the class.

It's only an hour and half long class. It's only 4 Thursdays. I'd be done by 7:30. But then I'd have to take buses and trains to get back to Stamford and according to google maps that would take about 2 hours. Yikes. That's unreasonable, right? Like a little obsessive/crazy? Right?

See? That's why I'm sad. So close, yet so far...

crochet necklace

I don't wear much jewelry. I forget that part of getting dressed in the morning. Most days I feel like if I walk out the door and I'm not naked I'm doing a good job. But if I were to begin buying and wearing more jewelry I'd love to have one of these:

(image from wrenhandmade)

Isn't is just the prettiest thing you ever did see? Laura Normandin crochets these unique little charms by hand. Her crocheted flower pins are also pretty freaking awesome.

See more of Laura's work here. Her shop is here.

Today I am obsessed with:

finding a recipe to make Korean rice dumplings (garaeddeok) from scratch


Sewing a fall/winter bag for myself
Can't find an image. Think big, squar-ish, tweed, grey with simple lines.

The idea of moving to London to live there for a year


and, um Colin Firth (shhh! don't tell m).


NB: The last two have nothing to do with one another.

c'est bon

I can't wait for these shirts to come out. I just might have to pick one up for myself:

For those days when I'm pretending to be a printer.

NB: Bon à Tirer // Taken from the French, “bon à tirer” is a technical term used by printmakers to indicate the final proof of a print, the standard against which all others in the edition are judged. -- from Beast pieces.

Love it!
More here.

too many hobbies

Today I am obsessed with Sashiko embroidery and Hawaiian quilting.

in my inbox

...from yesterday, the link to the latest issue of small magazine.

It totally rocks! Chock-full of lots of awesome clothes, products and photos. I'm sure you crafty readers already know about small, but if you haven't, check it out and be sure to sign up for their mailing list. They also have all their back issues archived on their site.

Some of my faves below:

The first fashion piece is laid out in drawings by Emily Martin of (Inside a Black Apple) fame. She's one of my crafty-makey heroes. She's also selling the drawings she did for small at her etsy shop sometime this month. I won't be able to catch one any of them, her original art sells out so quickly.


Kids wearing cute hats.


Littles+rockstar aesthetic=cute overload for me.


Truly inspiring product design with recycled materials.

poladroid love

I know swissmiss mentioned this awhile ago, but I just got a chance to check it out.

HOLY COW!

Poladroid is Awesome! I love how it takes my formerly blah photos...


...and turns them into romantic-nostalgic-polaroid-dreams! Suddenly my photos are so hip and edgy. Ka-pow!

NB: I added the writing in photoshop.

Check it out.

(as if I needed another computer toy to play with...)

(fabric) power to the people

Edited to add: PS. There's also a Flickr gallery of everyone's fabric designs.

You may have already heard about Spoonflower, but just in case you haven't I wanted to direct your attention to this newish web-forum organization. Talk about giving power to the people!

Have you ever combed the racks of fabric stores searching for a particular print on a fabric and come up dry? So frustrating. Recently I've been on the hunt for baby blue cotton fabric with white polka dots on 100% cotton. You'd think that wouldn't be so hard to find, but I haven't had much success.

Enter Spoonflower. You can submit your fabric print design to them and order a swatch, a fat quarter or up to five yards (they'll increase the maximum in the future) of fabric on 100% cotton that they have printed for you. Shazam! You might want to check their FAQs for more details, and you do have to sign up for an account in order to submit your fabric design for printing. They're still in Beta so you'll be put on a waiting list before you can sign up for an account (I did so last Thursday or something and got my account setup email this morning). I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to have printed on fabric (and what I'd be making with said fabric). In the meantime, I've enjoyed watching their little videos of featured fabrics that they show off before they are shipped to the original designers. There are some really talented folks out there. Check it out!

it's not just me!

Looks like one of my admired designers Betsey Johnson is also rockin the retro vibe. Check out her Spring 2008 show!



I think this yellow one may be my favorite. I would wear the flowers in my hair too. But only for special occasions like lawn garden parties.


And speaking of hair accoutrement, I had to include an example of the big bows, cause swear to god, last night and part of the day before I was thinking to myself about how the big bow only had a few years' of fun back when Madonna was sporting her material girl look? And how no one's brought it back. And it's kinda cute and fun. And maybe I'd try to bring it back, but then again I get carded for ordering a glass of pinot grigio at CPK when I wear a barrette in my hair. With a big bow, I would probably get carded for buying booze, showing up at a voting booth and driving a car. Probably not a look I could sport for the every day.

retro

I've been on a retro kick lately. Really drawn to clothing and furniture from the mid-century. Over the weekend, m and I were in a thrift store and scored an awesome radio in really good working condition. I'll have to post a photo of it to share.

Today, I stumbled across this site and now I wish I had known about it before my wedding. I would love to have had a dress like this. (though to be fair, I wasn't on a retro kick back when I was getting married.)

There's so much to love from her Autumn-Winter 2007/2008 show, I probably would want to have 5 or 6 different weddings to get to wear all the different dresses I love. It doesn't work like that though, does it?

I remember after the wedding, I'd want to turn to m and say: you know, the next time we do this we should remember to....

Ha! Silly jean.

favorite photo for the day

I know it's only 10 AM, but...

From the Sartorialist.

Also, I have now put the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island, NY on my list of things I must experience first hand in my lifetime. His photos from last year's party are also divine.

plotting

I bought some fabric yesterday from the big box store and I have been plotting.

This stripey stuff (they called it boating fabric? I have no idea what that means) which I have been coveting for some months now got marked down to 60% off. There were only two yards left so I took it home with me. I really really want to make a dress with it. I have an idea for the design in my head (knee length, unfitted bodice, maybe a white placket front? or from the same fabric, possibly two buttons, 3/4 sleeves with button tabs) I hope I have enough fabric. Now if I can only make it happen...


I actually went to the store to pick up some fabric for a completely different project I was plotting, but then picked up this yellow cotton, then the pink, then the salmon and the coral and I thought: oooh.... pretty. I picked up a dark brown, but put it back down when I saw the gunmetal grey and loved the way these colors looked together. I could spend many happy hours with swathes of colored fabric, pulling together pretty combinations.

I have an idea for a quilt that I want to make using these colors. A non-traditional sort of quilt, perhaps a baby quilt for a friend's little girl. Little semi-circles overlapping so that they look sort of like scales. Hmm... a quick google search did not yield what I was looking for to show you as an example, I'm probably using the wrong word. So here's a messy little doodle from my sketchbook:

Anyways. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to applique the semi circles in tidily or if I'll leave the edges frayed which would add an interesting texture, I think.

And lastly the whole reason for the trip to the fabric store, I'm gonna make a quilt. An old fashioned one. I'm not a huge fan of traditional quilts normally. They just don't fit my personal aesthetic sensibility. The shapes lodge the work firmly into homespun americana which is fine if that is what rocks your world. And the colors (for the most part) also don't jive with me, with possibly the exception of the Gee Bend work which I think is out of this world. All that said, I got inspired by this hourglass quilt and decided I needed to make one of my own. But with a (mostly) limited palette of yellow and white.

My yellows.


Even the frayed edges are pretty.

The white part will be regular ole cotton muslin.

My questionable notes and plans will yield an unorthodox way of quilting that should put some traditionalists off.

I'm so excited about this! I'm really hoping that by posting my intentions, I'll be forced into seeing this project through. Okay, time to make some tea and cut some fabric up. Go team!

une petite entreprise of my own

Today my dream job is to have my own indie retail business like Emily. I just listened to a podcast where she was interviewed on her life as an indie retailer and it just put a lot of thoughts and ideas in my head.

Like the idea of starting my own business, which is a desire that has been swimming around in my head for quite some time (much longer than the carpentry thing, if you must know). But I've had some difficulty in realizing it. One of the roadblocks that I feel like I can't clear is this idea of my identity and style as it translates into a product. More specifically: what is my style? Most days (and especially recently) I feel like I've gotten very good at copying ideas from other people. But not so good at coming up with my own. I don't feel very original, I guess.

* * *

I've been trying for a few days to articulate my thoughts on this (on paper and on screen). But I keep hitting delete or re-writing the same few sentences over and over again all saying the same muddled thing but with different words. I guess I need to let these thoughts simmer for a bit longer before they are ready to be shared. Or perhaps the ideas are so obvious so as to not need being stated. Either way, it's been a good exercise in dissecting my wants (as far as a career or work is concerned) and ruminating over them.

* * *

The above poster is from an exhibit at the Southbank Centre in London commemorating protest posters from an anti-Charles de Gaulle conservative government movement from about 40 years back (whoo boy, that is one ugly sentence!). Fascinating curatorial work. And I really liked this particular reprint. There's a limited number of these posters for purchase at the Keep Calm site. I'm also fond of the "Retour A La Normale" for knittery and literal reasons.

Found out about this from Doug Wilson.

random fantasy

I have been nurturing a random fantasy to enroll in my local technical college and take up studies in carpentry.

The bump in this fantasy road is trying to decide if I should focus on cabinetry and mill work or basic housebuilding.

Then again, I could just try picking up a few books at the library and figure it out?


I told you, random.

here it is

So this has been bugging me all day and now I need to get it off of my chest.

If you ever say Voilà as an American English speaker, please note that there is a V at the beginning of the word and not a W.

Here's an audio example of how to correctly pronounce this word (look for this audio link partway down the page).

Though if you want to be a really anal retentive linguistics nerd, this isn't absolutely correct either for nit-picky reasons like midi files not correctly capturing the tension of the accent at the right moment. But it'll do. Just remember that voila is pronounced with a V not a W. Unless perhaps you are from Austria or Germany and you are speaking English but for that one word. Then I have no reason to correct you. Really I suppose I have no reason to correct you regardless, but that's my problem.

Please carry on with your lives.
Thank you.