The Perfect Beach Tote

We're at the beach having a great time in Florida with my family. I was a little worried about the weather before we got here. It was looking pretty bleak. A dark and stormy beach forecast did not make for ideal visions of beach bliss. But it turned around quickly and we've had great weather every day! Before we left I was on the lookout for a new beach bag. My boat tote has seen better days and I've been wanting something a bit more hardy that can stand up to the wear and tear of general life dragging (mostly spilled, dripped, crunched kid) stuff around in a bag. And that made me think of Susan Hoff's tote bags made from recycled sails.

How Fabric Is Made

This week the fabric label Cotton and Steel revealed their first collection at quilt market. Headed up by Melody Miller whose own line of fabrics has been so popular in recent years, Cotton and Steel is a new kind of fabric company, which includes designers Melody Miller, Sarah Watts, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Kim Kight, and Alexia Abegg. Before starting C&S, Melody considered what wanted to do next. She had an idea for a unique fabric company, one that was collaborative and would highlight various designers' individual styles while also working well as a comprehensive line of fabrics. She approached RJR fabrics who loved her idea agreed to produce it. The result looks great from what I've seen on their instagram. This video is a wonderful introduction to C&S. They recently also released a behind the scenes look at how their fabric is made in Japan. I love fabric, and I love to see how things are made. I think most of us often take for granted how and where things are made, as if we're so detached from how things are produced that they just appear like magic in stores. I found this brief look into how C&S fabric is made very inspiring and thought you might enjoy it too. I'm looking forward to seeing Cotton and Steel fabrics in stores soon. (Images here from the C&S instagram feed.)

Stitching Naturally

If you are a quilter or just admire quilts and the quilting tradition, you are sure to be inspired by Maura Grace Ambrose, creator of Folk Fibers. Her quilts are predominately hand dyed and hand stitched, and all beautiful. In issue 29 of Mollie Makes I had the honor of writing the intro to the denim quilt she made for that issue, which you can read there or here on the Mollie Makes blog. Check out issue 29 for more on how to make a denim quilt and head over to her web site to see more of her beautiful work. Her instagram feed is also a constant source of inspiration.

I Scream for Ice Cream!

I love dresses. They are probably my favorite type of clothing. Every year in spring I look forward to finding one special summer dress, and I've found this year's dress! I first read about There's Only One Amy Laws in a recent issue of Pretty Nostalgic (which is a wonderful magazine, by the way). There's a nice feature showing one of her silkscreen printed umbrella dresses. I really liked the dress but what made me go to her web site was the name of her company. How great is that name? I wondered if it meant there's only one of each item she makes, or if it simply meant she's an original. In any case, the name of her company is fantastic and it made me head over to her web site. As soon as I saw her ice cream dress I knew it would be my summer dress pick for this year. I LOVE it. It's handmade, the perfect simple shape, navy with polka dots on top, and a sweet candy pink on the bottom with ice cream cones. I love that the ice cream cones are hand printed onto the fabric and that you won't find this in every Topshop on the block. It fits perfectly and is very well made. I think her prices for handmade are very reasonable as well. So much work goes into one article of clothing! Having made (just) one dress so far, I really admire anyone who makes handmade clothing. (You can see my one dress at the bottom of this post. I'm very proud of it!) Some people like to keep great things to themselves, fashion being one of them. But not me. I'm happy to share. After all, ice cream is best when it's shared. Though I'm partial to the ice cream print, Amy also has a lot of other wonderful prints and clothes for little ones too. I might have to order two mini scoop dresses for Lois and Ellie. 

Adorable Paris

Christmas was a lot of fun, especially for Lois who as soooo excited about santa, and gifts, and really just everything Christmas. But I'm happy it's over because I can't wait to get to Paris! It's all I've been thinking about. We've settled on an apartment in the 6th.

Get Inspired: Beehive Style

Doesn't Natalie Wood look so strong and beautiful here? I love this picture of her. I think I've posted it before, but ah, it doesn't get old for me. Just like her personal style, the photo itself is classic. I'm not sure just how classic my personal style is, but I'd like to daydream that it's a bit like hers. I'm really excited to be involved with promoting Beehive Style, a great new boutique that sells handmade jewelry, accessories, home decor and kid's items. And I'm also excited to have my personal style featured on the "get inspired" page of the site! I paired the Natalie Wood photo with a Beehive Style necklace, a nice modern asymmetrical tear drop neckalce that I'm coveting, along with a Topshop little black dress, and some Christian Louboutin booties. Sizzle! Hmm, I could use a bag to go with it. Back to shopping!! 

Print Workshop at Urban Outfitters

My friend Chris from San Francisco will be in town soon promoting her book, Print Workshop, at the Spitalfields Urban Outiftters. Chris will be signing books and demonstrating some of the great at-home printing techniques featured in the book. I'll be there too, so if you're in London, mark your calendar for Thursday, May 19 at 1PM. Chris is awesome and so is her book, so don't miss it!

Happiness Is . . . Finding Beautiful Cards

A few days ago I bought some of these beautiful cards on etsy, which I originally saw on Poppytalk. I think they're so pretty and so sweet. You might wonder why in world I'm buying Christmas cards when I make them myself. Well, I'm a bit of a card junkie, and I don't always send out my own cards anyway. I send out some, but I like so many cards, I can't resist buying other cards and sending them out as well. I just love cards! I keep all the cards people send to me.

Here's a my rickety, old, paint chipped metal card rack that my mom bought for me at a flea market. It's filled with all sorts of cards. Every now and then I read through some of the good wishes and kind words that live on my card rack and think about how grateful I am for receiving them. I have a few boxes full of cards under my bed too, which are mostly from my mom. I started collecting her cards first. I also have a drawer full of blank cards yet to be sent--cards I just liked so much and knew would be perfect for someone, someday that I had to buy them. And when I buy a pack of cards, I almost always keep one, just for the sake of keeping it. I try really hard to send that last one out, but usually never can.


I'll definitely keep one of these "happiness is" cards. The card reads, "happiness is a fresh blanket of snow." And what a cute, curious bunny that is! I just want to pat its little cotton tail. I also like how Erika describes the card: "When snow is falling in the woods, and you can hear it. When all is quiet, and animals don't even know you're there. I imagine a tree somewhere that's been decorated for this time of year. The colors are inspired by memories of childhood--going to bed when it's snowing heavily, cold winter days, blankets of snow on trees and on the ground, looking into my backyard forest. One of our favorite books in the house is this darling little newsprint book by Charles Schulz called Happiness is a Warm Puppy where the characters of the Peanuts cartoon tell what happiness means to them. "Happiness is a good climbing tree; happiness is a night light; happiness is . . . happiness is a blanket of fresh snow . . . this is what happiness is to me this time of year."

This card makes me happy. It also makes me happy that now we're at my mom's house in Atlanta for Christmas, and soon the cards should arrive here in the mail. I think it will be too late to send them out this Christmas. Lucky for me, then, I get to keep them until next Christmas.

Paper Quilt Pack

I was so excited yesterday to find my paper pack in the mail from the Paper Quilt Project! I'm only allowed to use what's in the paper pack, which makes me nervous because I'm afraid I'll start with an idea and want to change it halfway through (as I often do) only to find myself with ruined, cut up paper scraps. We'll just have to see how it turns out! I'm gonna go have a peek now at some other paper quilt collages for inspiration. I'll post a picture of mine when I'm done.

Build a Nest

I've been super busy this week filling a few custom for kids orders and making more Christmas cards for a craft show this Saturday to support Nest. Nest is a non-profit organization that provides micro loans to women in developing countries to start their own craft based businesses. The funds are generated from independent artists and designers who give a percentage of their profits to Nest. So if you're in San Francisco, come to the show to support Nest and shop for great handmade gifts. Oh, yeah, and Christmas cards too! I'll have plenty. The craft show is on Saturday, from 12-5 at the Hardware Store Gallery, 3824 Mission Street, San Francisco. Below is one card that's new this year and made with some cute vintage fabric that Caroline gave to me. Then the other card is one of my new custom for kids cards. It's not online yet, but will be soon.

Home is in the Art 12

From Katrine's Kandi Shop: "While We Were Sleeping." I think that's a barn in the background, but like I said before, houses for animals count too! In addition to her prints, you'll find cute cards in her etsy shop. Her tea party cards are some of my favorites.
Image shown with permission.

Mission Indie Mart

Something fun to do on Sunday if you're in San Francisco:

Paper Quilt Project

I'm so excited! I've been asked to participate in the Paper Quilt Project in December! Each month artists are selected and sent a random paper pack to create a paper quilt, or small collage, representing a day in their life. Then those 12 quilts will be sewn to all the other months' collages, creating a larger paper quilt. Once the quilt is complete, it will be auctioned off or donated to a charitable cause. Check out the gallery section of the web site to look all of the beautiful collages created so far.

Home is in the Art 10

Welcome by etsy seller Ashleyg.

Home is in the Art 8

Works in Paper by etsy seller nickolya. He describes them better than I could: "To reduce a city to almost nothing, to render the landscape in two dimensions, to see the world in a sheet of paper . . . is to see the humanity in everything."

New York

London
Images shown with permission.

Home is in the Art 7

Ruby from Studio Mela. Tweet, tweet. Happy birds over cute houses.
Image shown with permission.

Home is in the Art 4

Safe House by etsy seller Handmaid. I think I'd feel safe here. Looks cozy in this wintry, night scene.

Image shown with permission.

Home is in the Art 3

The house journal by Yellow Canoe. Available in red and green with more colors on the way. Perfect for random thoughts on home (among other things). Check out Erin's blog as well where you can read about her crafty projects as she makes them.
Images shown with permission.

Home is in the Art 2

One of the most unique rings I've seen . . . the Neighborhood ring by J. Davis Studio. Check out her etsy shop to see more of her great work.

Image shown with permission.

Home is in the Art 1

I'm always coming across great home-related art, so I decided that a few days a week I'll start posting some of what I find. Here's one house by Danny Mansmith that I found that I thought was really unique and beautiful. At first glance I thought it was a painting, then I realized the lines were stitches, not brush strokes. How cool. Check out his web site to read more about him and his work, and check out his etsy store to purchase his work.

Image shown with permission.