Currently: On Vacation in Wonderful Wintery Wyoming! Happy Holidays to everyone!
I finally finished my gift to my neice. Just in the nick of time. I made her a stocking and filled it with all sorts of stuff. I also mailed out this years's Holiday Cards. Done!
I covet this "swank" bar cart from The Pottery Barn that is featured in the current issue of Budget Living. Megan has some interesting comments and a link to Glitter about this magazine. (I think it's interesting anyway). I have wanted a bar cart for quite a while now...or at least a "bar area" where you display your bottles of hooch and accessories. Sort of like Maude Lebowski's bar in The Big Lebowski. I think it looks cool.
My good friend Trina sent me a link to this:
a felted snowman stamp. And speaking of Felted Snowmen...the project has been added to the Projects page. I hope it's okay, I didn't really give it a final read. I did spell check it though. Let me know if there is anything you guys think is unclear, or hard to understand or whatever.
Coming soon, to a Project page near you: Felted Snowman.
I am currently working on the instructions.
I am amazed how great Knitty is. Take a look at this felted purse. And then there are the felted booties. I also really, really like the striped Marc sweater. The designer said the sweater "was inspired after seeing some vintage Marc Jacobs shirts in a fashion magazine." I think I know exactly what she is talking about because I saw them and liked them too.
I seriously need to think about Christmas items...it still feels like summer here and I am so not in the spirit. I was in the spirit in June when I was thinking: "I should start making things for Christmas." Then I talked myself out of it by saying "It's only June, what's the hurry?" I should remind myself to take myself seriously next year.
So..you remember my post about West Elm back in May? Basically I said I was a little disappointed that it was a Williams-Sonoma thing, when in my mind I envisioned a young hip group of people/person starting it. Turns out, a hip young person named Lisa IS the one that started West Elm. She emailed and basically described the initial situation I had envisioned in the first place. Hip young people working their butts off in a loft in New York City. She has worked very hard along with a group of people to create West Elm and was lucky enough to have some help from the people at Williams Sonoma. I was so happy to hear that and somehow everything is right in the world again.
I know that Jenny just posted about these yesterday, but I have to comment on the Shawnimals. I think the thing that sets his apart from the other "stuffed artists", in my humble opinion, is his site. It's so funny and set up so well.
I forgot to tell you about the mini-riot I started at the supermarket checkout line with my bottle of Cucumber Method Soap. The checker held it up and shook it in my face and said "This stuff is GREAT!" Which made all of the people standing behind me go "What is it?"
"It's dishsoap!" the checker said.
"Dishsoap?!" said the crowd.
"This stuff is GREAT!" said the checker as she shook it in their general direction. She proceeded to tell me all about the other cleaning products made by this company which I saw when I grabbed the soap off the shelf. There was one guy in the line that kept saying "That's great packaging." over and over again while this whole riot was going on. "That's great packaging."Late last night I was watching Goldfinger on "The New TNN", and during a commercial break, the TV got stuck in a Clorox commercial vortex of hell. You know that stupid faux reggae jingle "Mamma keeps whites / sparkling like sunshine / mamma keeps something something something springtime / mamma's got the magic / mamma's got the magic of Clorox bleach." Here's how it went: Clorox Bleach commercial, Clorox Disinfecting Wipes commercial, Clorox Bleach commercial (again), Clorox Toilet Drop in thing commercial, and finally...Clorox Spray commercial. It was enough to make me scream at the TV. Yes, I could have changed the channel, but once I got sucked in I couldn't get out.
Check out these FABULOUS felt ornaments that The Dining Company is selling. And THESE! I wish I would have thought to look here at Halloween. One of my mom's old 1970's craft books that is now in my hot little hands has some patterns for stuffed toys. There is also a great used bookstore near here that has a great selection of 1970's craft books. I need to look for toy making next time I am there.
The Container Store has some really great wrapping paper. I like the techno trees a lot. And take a look at the oil cloth bags. Kinda cute. Reprodepot Fabrics has some cool oil cloth. Sew Wrong has an Handy Wee Bag Pattern in a PDF format you can download and use to make some bags of your own.
I love these artists: Kozy n Dan. (Link via Amy Beth at Supah) I love their illustration style.
I got suckered into a subscription to Food and Wine by those annoying college students that are taking a semester off to travel the country and bother people at their homes so they can go to Alcapoco. I usually don't answer the door, but they saw me moving around and wouldn't go away. Anyway, the December issue of Food and Wine has a snippet about this stationary company, JackandLulu. Check out the moped cards (under Modern Collection). Too cute. They also had a feature that lead me to this site, Formaggio Kitchen. Oh man! they have artisan cheeses and exotic spices like fennel pollen and white truffle flour...I don't know what you would do with either of those, but it's damn cool.
I am thinking about creating a new project instruction page on how to felt. I have gotten a lot of emails on the subject so it seems like a good topic. I need to try the "knit and felt" technique used on purses such as these. I will keep you posted.
P.S. Happy Belated Birthday to Mr. Mike Donegan.
I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. Ours was nice. Good food and friends. The overwhelming hits of the cocktail party: Artichoke-Prosciutto Gratin and the Espresso Bean Cheesecake. We have a freezer filled with WAY too much cheese now.
Last year I was watching Rosie O'Donnell, and she had a Christmas item she was eating that I swore I would try to find the next Christmas and here it is:..the Giant Caramel Apple.
I love the handknit striped tree skirt from the Sundance Catalog. I bet one could crochet it instead. Also (mom, I told you about these)...the stained glass star ornaments. I cannot believe they are charging 35$ per star! Crazy.
