Monday, May 18, 2009

All Things Nature

The rescue of baby song birds that fell 20' from a palm tree on a 96 degree day...



The stocking up of nature indoors...



The Goby that sifts our sand...



The fresh fresh mesclun salad cut from the garden...



The great giant pumpkin sprout...

more about this pumpkin later!

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
~Lao Tzu

Sunday, May 10, 2009

What's happing in the garden?

It all began with these...

Sweet smelling African Blue Basil

A Pair of Cactus

Unfurling with morning dew

Oh I can't wait to eat this Japanese Lettuce!

Spicy Bush Basil

Cut and Come Again Mesclun

A dash of color to go with all the green

"The trouble with gardening is that is does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession."
- Phyllis McGinley

Friday, May 08, 2009

Mochi's Debut!!!!



Mochi made her debut on Zazzle this week. I'm so proud of my girl! Oh and the shirt is pretty cool too! Zazzle is a great bay area company that can custom print anything from business cards to skateboards! Mochi is modeling their new dog apparel line, love it!

"Whoever said you can't buy happiness, forgot about puppies"
-Unknown

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Yard Sale



I'm going through that phase again where I feel like I've accumulated TOO much and it's time to purge. When I think about having a yard sale my mind always refers back to an article I acquired many moons ago:







How freakn' awesome would it be to go to this yard sale?

"Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others."
- Spinoza

Monday, May 04, 2009

Baby Quilts & A Birthday Shout Out


First and foremost...Happy Birthday Karin! Belated Presents are going to the post office. Hope your day is lovely!

Well the camera is dusty, I almost forgot my blog password, people are calling me to see if I'm ok, etc. etc. I'm sorry for taking such long blog breaks...I find myself in a blog rut every so often. But lately there are a lot of babies being born! Which means my hands are busy making quitls!


For this particular quilt, I followed Alicia Paulson's recipe in her book Stitched In Time. Although I didn't have baby clothes to cut up and make into a memory quilt like suggested in the book. I used baby related fabrics. These are so easy and quick to make and makes for a much appreciated gift!


I couldn't forget Baby's Big Sissy! This doll top the Baby quilt gift. I made this with Emily Martin's recipe.
Many Thanks to all you creative Ladies out there sharing their recipes!

"You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
- John P. Grier

Monday, March 02, 2009

Straw::Hay Dilemma


Last week the California weather teased us with a few days of sunshine. It inspired me to start prepping the vegetable garden. But when I last looked, the weeds in the walkway between the raised beds at my Pop's farm were growing at least 3' tall. ugh! I started thinking and I could swear I read somewhere that you can lay straw/hay in the pathways to prevent future weed nuisance.

So off on Craigslist I went and wouldn't you know it "FREE OLD STRAW HAY".
"Wow (I thought to my self) this is meant to be!"
I called up the fellow and he says "Yeah, we have 60 bales out front come and serve yourself." Great, but it'll have to wait until I get off of work and see if K is willing to make the straw run. 6:00pm comes rolling along and K (willingly agrees) and we hop in the truck and head out to take advantage of carpool because the Bales are 25 miles away but very close to Pop's farm.

We only had to drive back and forth in pitch dark about 3 times on the listed street to find that the 12' stack of bales was around the corner (I know how could we miss it the 1st time?)

Woo Hoo, load up the rain drenched hay bales (they were pretty heavy)!

Saturday rolls around and I'm so excited to lay straw. We head out to the farm and as we finish pulling existing weeds, Pop's comes up and says "Oh, I see you brought more weeds!". So I laugh.....ha ha good one!

45 minutes later all weeds are pulled, legs starting to get sore and we cut the string holding the hay bales together and start spreading the miracle that will smother future weeds! My Pop's farmer neighbor comes rolling around on his bike

"Ah, I see you brought the weeds"
Ok....that's 2 farmers who made this comment, not so reassured anymore.
I say "what do you mean?"
"Hay has lots of weed seeds, but try it (as he giggles)"
Great am I making a mistake?

Another half hour later....the same neighbor farmer rolls by and LOL as he shakes his head....
I say to K "maybe I can prove them wrong"
K responds with "You think 2 farmers that have been doing this practically all their lives are wrong?"
Good Point!

One advantage that may benefit, it's old straw hay and the weed seeds may have been killed off by previous seasons. Let's cross our fingers! I mean it can't be any worse that the 3' weeds that we yanked out right?

“The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer.”
~ Will Rogers

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Writer's Block?

Would you believe me if I said I had writer's block? In all actuality I was just plain lazy! But I have been keeping myself busy with all sorts of craftiness.

I present you with Scenery under glass.



As you've probably noticed this apple juice terrarium now dawns my banner.





As some of you may know I have a glass house that usually is decorated with holiday scenery, however the rest of the year it collects dust. I finally decided that I really need to make use of the space for the rest of the seasons. I recruited K and another crafty friend of mine Martin to help me build a pine cone house village.



A few years ago I remember a holiday issue of Martha Stewart that contained an article on how to create this pine cone village but after an hour of searching on her website I turned up with no luck. So, I delve into my archive of old magazine clippings and finally came across it!



The houses were built with bass wood (a lot tougher to cut than balsa wood to my dismay!), twigs, pine needles and pine cone roofs. The wood mushrooms are definitely not to scale but who cares? By the way the mushrooms and tiny bunny were gifted to me from my dear friend Lorena and were part of the inspiration to this quaint village.

Ahh, how I adore minature houses!

“His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien quotes (English Writer and Author of richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, 1892-1973)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Castle In The Air

I'm lucky enough to live near the East Bay because I finally made it to Castle In The Air in Berkeley! It was well worth the trip...


Huge paper vignettes in the window to draw people in!


I tried to get as many photos as possible, but as you can imagine I got distracted with shopping instead. There are also photos on their website.




The most magnificent display was centered in the store...a gnome castle of sorts surrounded by baskets of ornaments.
Tucked in the middle of a trunk is a family of gnomes having a feast (unfortunately you have to be there to see it).





I think the yarn angel is holding home-spun wool yarn, fabulous!


Please visit the store if you're around it is highly inspirational! Plus the store is on a chic street in Berkeley surrounded by many other artist owned shops! However if you can't make it in person they have an online shop!

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."
- Amelia Earhart

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas To You!

Happy Day to you and yours!
(image brought to you by PaPaya!)

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!"
~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

Monday, December 22, 2008

Clothespin Characters

As you can see from my previous post...I am a very lucky girl to be surrounded by clever and crafty friends and family!

A Bride, A Groom, Jack, Indiana Jones, "Just A Girl", Super Man

With that said...I was able to convince some of them to create clothespin characters! I made each of them watch a 5 minute segment of Martha Stewart making these and they dived into the project with no fear!

"You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note."
- Doug Floyd

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Lights + Music + Pom Poms + Tassels...

No, not my next craft project, It's the details from our Ugly Holiday Sweater Party...well I guess you can call it a craft project!


L named his creation "Peace on Earth" Notice the bird detail perched on his shoulder and the glow his lights were throwing on the wall
Wow! Look at the lights!

K and Me. You should of seen the movement his tassels were making and my shoulders pads made me feel tough!

This is how we voted. We chose a sweater from the line, wrote the name of the person who we thought had the ugliest sweater and dropped it in the bag. Whoever got the most votes won!

The Winner!

"What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic."
-Anonymous

Monday, December 15, 2008

Case of the Bah:Humbugs!

Has anyone else caught the Humbugs?

The banner above is a photo of last year's hand-made ornaments I created for my co-workers. This year I'm on a mushroom kick.



I started sewing them on the machine but realized it was much more relaxing to hand sew and they came out better!



“In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism and skepticism and humbug and we shall want to live more musically”
-Vincent van Gogh

Saturday, November 15, 2008

My Ridiculous Obsession With...


This is another reason for my long absence! I read the Twilight series faster than Harry Potter (and I was pretty obsessed with those books too)! I'm even contemplating reading the series again. The movie comes out this Friday and I hope it is as good as the book (although it's never really as good as the book).

"...and so the lion fell in love with the lamb."

-Edward Cullen in Twilight

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Saturday, November 01, 2008

:: The Mummy and His CanCan ::

You guessed it! K's costume was strips of gauze, an old T-shirt and white torn sheets that were tea dyed and hung throughout the house for drying. Then on the night of Halloween he was transformed....ahhh!
Mine, a bit more complicated. The orange ruffled skirt was first purchased through ebay. When it arrived I thought it was a great piece but obliviously not the "complete" outfit. I went exploring again on ebay and fell in love with the pink and black dress. Especially the puff sleeves! When that arrived...i paired the two and was in ruffle heaven. The top hat was made for me last Christmas by Andy and the colors miraculously worked! A feather here, some vintage bling there and throw in some leg warmers and gloves...walla!

I'm a little displeased that we did not get good photos of our costumes during the whirlwind of activities! But we definitely put them to good use and had fun doing it!

Hope you all had a wonderful and safe Halloween!

"Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!"
-Jean Sibelius

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Hmm...can you guess what we are for Halloween?

Preparing K's costume...


and preparing my costume...


"Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, Voices whisper in the trees, "Tonight is Halloween!" "
- Dexter Kozen


P.S. Glittered Trophies are in the shop!