m

it's ready for you, maria!

jonny too bad

you missed it.

this little piggy...

... goes to the market.



new piggy market totes.
i'm aiming to take better product shots and list these little piggies on etsy tomorrow.

shoat tote

did you know that "shoat" is a word for a little baby pig? i didn't, until a few days ago. i am currently re-reading "the grapes of wrath" -- i was obviously not ready for that book when i was required to read it in school - i had remembered nearly nothing about it. this time around, though? wowsers, the book is fantastic -- really, really, REALLY good. if you are in need of a good read, i highly recommend it.
anyways, the word "shoat" is used a few times rather early on in the book. i inferred from the context clues that the word meant pig, but i looked it up to confirm. yep, i was right; specifically, it's used to refer to a young pig. well, what timing for this new vocabulary word! my piggy-themed projects were already well underway and i had just finished one of these black tote bags. you know how much i love a rhyme or a pun --- shoat tote. wow. perf.





available for purchase through my etsy shop.

pork product number one

piggy hand/tea/dish towels are now in my etsy shop.


after seeing the post about my first attempt with these, my dear friend greg encouraged me to do a batch of these for the etsy shop. he adamantly insisted that i should do them with just the stitching, though -- no painted fill-in. as he is my most trusted creative advisor, i heeded greg's suggestion and so there we have it.


greg described these as having such a butcher quality. since he's said that, i can't get that out of my head -- i think of these as my "butcher towels."

oh look, they look great in the kitchen!


they look sweet in the bath!


they're positively porcine on the porch!



available now from my etsy shop.

open up the gates and let them piggies run

okay -- here it is; the beginning of the new theme and batch of goodies to come out of my studio;
it's gonna be a pig party, people.
more to come...

"she had dust on her hands from the sky...

... she said i touched a cloud."*

FIN_AL_LY i finished this set of clouds.


it's a custom order -- two four-inch pieces and one five-incher, with the potential to add on to the collection.
i had to get new fabric specifically for this order and let me tell you, finding really really wonderful blues in aida cloth is not as easy as one might think! there are lots of blues out there, but so many were too this, or too that... this one was just right (really quite lovely, actually) but it is a smaller grid-count size than i usually work with -- and i hadnt anticipated that... smaller grid-size = more stitches...
however, the pieces are now complete, and i really do love them. i'm happy with the way they turned out. i think they work well together. fingers are crossed that valerie likes them and, if she does, poof! they are out in the mail today.



(update - she likes them! she really, really likes them!)

*(chez-sucre-chez, referencing ride, referencing salinger)

mmmm...

cookies.


peanut butter/chocolate sandwiches...

aujourd'hui

a show of hands

so here's why i haven't had too much new stuff going up on this here bloggy-blog:


i've been stitching a lot of hands to fulfill my very first wholesale order.
hooray hooray!
both the brooklyn and the chicago stores of sprout home will be carrying my chez-sucre-chez hand-towels! yeah!

if you aren't in brooklyn or chicago and you know right now that you just must have one of these babies, you'd better click on over to my etsy shop right quick! i will only be selling them through etsy for another week -- then you're gonna have to go to sprout (which is an absolutely lovely place, anyway), or catch me at a craft fair. eeks. craft fairs -- i'm filling my schedule with those for the next few months! more on that later!

hand-embroidered hand-towels available in white: (click here!)


or beige: (click here!)

oh, just a random tuesday morning breakfast

fresh-off-the-cob corn pancakes with fig compote topping.


he makes the pancake, she makes the compote.

new studio view

my papa came over to my house this weekend to help me get my studio in order. although i still have more organizing and personalizing to do, this looks and feels so much better!

it's kind of an awkward little studio space, with two paths going through it -- one to the bathroom and one to the back stairway, but i really really love it. i love the light, which i can manipulate with a thin curtain (you'll notice that effect in these photos; the brighter, more whitish ones were taken with the curtain open and the more colorful, softer ones were taken with the curtain pulled across the window.)

the view from the main doorway to my studio:






the view from the doorway of the back stairway:






pop hung the shelves and the pegboard for me -- what a difference that makes!
i'm quite pleased with the pegboard space. it allows me to see my hoop inventory and to hang all of my cross-stitch pieces, so i can see what i've got and move things around to create groupings or whatever.

also this weekend, i bought myself a cute comfortable chair. this is much better for hours-long stitch sessions than the stool i was using before. my back says, "thank you!"


so yep, i still have some work to do; i'd like a little lamp and a table and a rug over by my chair, as well as some other details, but for now, i'm feeling pretty good about this workspace!
thanks for your help this weekend mama and papa!

(no witty title)

sorry, i haven't been updating so much lately.
dont think this means that i dont have anything inspired going on here in the studio -- oh, i do!
hopefully i will finish up at least one of the projects by the end of the weekend.
check in on monday and until then, have a lovely weekend.
xoxo.

going, going...

GONE! (11:22am Thursday -- they're all sold out! hooray for me, boo for you!)


folk-print zippy pouches are almost sold out!
if you want one, ya better click on over to my etsy shop and get it now.
(i'm happy to say that i have gotten such nice compliments and feed-back comments from people who have bought these already! hooray!)
until i can find another stash of this fantastic fabric, this is it!

ceci n'est pas une ravioli

greg, knowing how i do love most things frenchy-french, brought me this cookie:


we think it is supposed to be the french flag.
but it's shaped like a ravioli. awesome.

my friend guy comes to visit

happy almost birthday, greg.


so glad you are here and that i got to bake you my most favourite carrot cake.


(plated on the cake stand that my mama gave me for my birthday -- thanks, mama - i love it!)
get the recipe for the cake here. seriously, it is so darn good.

carving a pig

this is as close to that as i'll probably get in my vegetarian life.

awe-inspiring

i returned from my trip to nyc/nj yesterday and these were waiting in the mail pile for me:


i LOVE these postcards.
they were sent to me by my friend, the artist, barbara reiser.
she and i met when we were table-neighbors at a hearts and crafts affair (craft fair) at cafe grumpy in greenpoint last year. she was selling her drawings and i had my mish-mash of crafty miscellany on display. our work looked so cool displayed side-by-side. at the time, i was doing a lot of red-work stitching (like my red-on-white hand-towels) and had also done a lot of embroidered ponies. barbara had several drawings of ponies and her color palette featured complimentary reds and blues on whites, off-whites, and beige backgrounds.
her drawings are fantastic.
see for yourself here.

sweet!

i just saw this:


yay! hooray! thank you, holly, for the mention on decor8.

girl friday

it has been one doozy of a day! it's only 10:30 in the morning and i feel like i've already had a full day's worth of activity. (read my last two posts.)
friday! hooray! i spelled this out with letters that i had already made up here in the studio. i've been wanting to do this for a while but never could think of something to spell out where i had all of or at least almost all of the letters. this was inspired by my "i love friday" panties! haha! (i also have "i love saturday" and "i love sunday!" no, i am not going to show you!)
i'm off to brooklyn again this weekend to see a bunch of my favourite peeps. happy weekend!

so, i sewed a sow

after a text exchange yesterday which included the words/phrases, "so-so", and "so, so, SO," the so, sew, sow, sound got stuck in my head.
so, (as i told you in the title) i sewed a sow.


i had gotten the tea towel the other day -- i think it needed a pink pig.
but the stitching kinda got lost in the stripes.
so i filled it in with fabric paint.


pas mal. not great, but it's okay. it'll cover my sewing machine for now.

there's a bat in my bedroom.

really.
he's sleeping in my curtains right now... i'm just gonna let him snooze for a while...
(holy crap he's so cute.)


8:50am update -- he's still sleeping.
i dressed up in my best bat-gear.


and then i pulled the curtains down.


he didn't flinch.
he's having quite a nap, i guess.

okay -- next step -- i gotta go in there with a broom.

9:30am
Okay -- he's gone. SCHWEW! that was an ordeal. he was shaking, i was shaking. we were both scared and nervous and sad and freaking out. i pushed him with the broom and he slid in between the window panes (the top window and the open bottom window). he was just sitting there shaking like a little leaf and i was so upset i had to leave the room for a minute. i came back in and thought he was gone. he had just moved to the side -- the window casings. ugh. i thought i squished him when i opened the window wider. finally, he flew out. holy bat wings, that was entirely too much commotion for me today. emil and i were all snuggled up in bed and then heard this noise -- we thought he was a bird when he came through at 5:45 this morning, and by 5:50, i was up and out of bed and had the cat locked out of the room and the screen off the window and --- oh, man, i hope he doesn't come back.