timing is of the essence

this made my morning:


just last night i was having an i'm-about-ready-to-give-up moment -- or day, or week...
it's been a lot of work since i made the conscious decision to try to make this my full-time job. this ain't easy -- that's for diggity-damn sure. 12 hour days six or seven days a week is a lot of work and sometimes i get booey-hooey when i've had a tough week or two or three.
but then something happens like this d*s post, and i realize that i'm doing what i want to be doing and that i am happy with my work and that other people like it too... and it gives me a little push of encouragement.
now, if only that rich benefactor would come along...

g-whiz

this is on its way to you, gina!
(and, uh, do you see that background?!?! oooooooh -- new (old) fabric - i'm pretty thrilled about this recent score.)

"i might walk home alone, but...

yeah, a little something different.
this is, hands down, my favourite smiths line, and i had been wanting to spell it out with my cross-stitched letters for quite some time. i needed to make more letters, though, and i just knew that i wasnt going to get to it any time too soon.
so i tried it this way.
i've not been so interested in doing cross-stitched sayings or whatever; samplers, yes, but little wall-hangings with mottos or sayings or quotes hasnt interested me so much. it's been done, and it just doesn't excite me, but i had to give it a whirl just to be sure.


the letters look pretty, but i don't think this is something that i will be doing a lot of...
maybe i will whip up a few for some of the up-coming craft fairs... maybe.


giving credit where credit is due, my desire to actually make this project happen was re-awakened by tiffany, who wrote to me and asked if i had done the wall-hanging in emily-black-apple's house. that smiths quote wasn't stitched up by me -- i am pretty sure that is emily's handiwork -- and so i was inspired and emboldened to stitch up my own smiths love by these two lovely ladies.

a sachet by any other name -- still smells as sweet

a few weeks ago my friend lillian brought to me this:


(it looks so sweetly picture-perfect, as though she had just harvested the lavender from her garden, huh? well, she does happen to have an AMAZING garden but this lavender didnt grow there -- it came from the craft-store... but let's pretend it DID come from her garden... cause that just sounds better.)

well with that lavender, i made these:


and i returned the basket to her looking like this:


they're nowhere near as naughty as my risque-sachets, but hey -- these are for a baby shower - we don't want to get anyone too hot and bothered there.
i was really happy with the color and texture thing going on in these:


emil makes a great photo assistant:

& and the ampersand

i got a request to do an ampersand --
hooray! a challenge! i hadnt done one before and i didnt have a pattern -- so i made it up.


me likey.
here's the completed order:


(i dont know what order she intended for the letters -- but they look pretty cool grouped together.)
now i want to create ampersands for my other fonts!

gathering clouds

i just saw another lovely post done about my work:


knack studios posted about me here.
(thank you, thank you!)

that photo she included in the post was one i took a few months ago. i recently started back on the clouds and have been building building building my collection/inventory of those pieces.




it's getting rather cloudy in my bedroom! i kinda love it...

and here are the blue and the black ones as the collection stands now:


see that one little grey one in the middle? i had done a few in grey before, and they sold right away when i listed them as a grouping on etsy. so i was planning on making more, but not quite yet.
well, i hung up all of the black ones and blue ones that i completed up to this point and then i stepped back and looked at them all together, like this:


and then, my brain did its normal thinking kinda stuff. i looked at the wall and knew right away that i was far far far from finished with these pieces. "dammit," i said out loud, "oh, kj, why do you DO these things to yourself?!!? oh no no no NO NO!" i thought that i was going to be content with building up a collection of black ones and a collection of blue ones. nope. i cant be so easily satisfied with my work. i look at them like this and i think -- oh, no -- i see what i have to do -- now i need a gradation -- at least two other colors between the blue and the black, and i will transition from the one color to the next.. ugh. it'll take me a while to get to that, though, if i ever do. if i do, you'll see what i mean...

(want some of these clouds for your home? send me an email -- or check out my etsy shop. i'm trying to put together some groupings and then i will be listing them.)

Ag

bizarre update

boston bazaar bizarre put the vendor list up on their site -- and here's part of that third-person bio that i had to write:


click on over to the site to see the full vendor list and get more info about the event. (it isn't until december, but you should make your plans to attend if you are in the boston/new england area!)

this is how we do, and why i do

yesterday i got eggs from these chickens:



they live behind the country store where i bought the eggs. for breakfast, i scrambled those eggs with some thyme from the garden.

and i made this ice cream from that raw milk that my friend mike brought to me the other day:



today my friend ron came to visit and we went apple-picking in this organic orchard:




this was the dessert that we cooked up tonight:


this is why i am where i am. i left nyc -- my friends, constant culture, good food, and cocktails, and bars and boys to flirt with, steady jobs and healthcare -- in favor of living in the middle of nowhere -- few friends, no good restaurants (unless you count subway eat fresh), no cocktail joints, no good coffee, no work, no healthcare...
somehow, it feels like a fair trade.

happy as a pig in ....

check out this post that jena, at modish, put up today!!!


this is so cute! i am so happy that she continued my piggy word play in her post.
so awesome!! i love the little collages that she did..
aw... that is great. hooray.
thank you, jena!
click on over to modish to see the whole thing (and the rest of her lovely blog).

milkmaid

what is this that i cradle in my arms?


raw milk, baby.


my friend mike came to my door at nine this morning calling, "is anyone home? milkman, here!" and dropped this in my arms.
it was still warm; as in, fresh from the cow.
this was breakfast:


holy cow, this makes me happy.
in case you don't know me, let me just tell you; milk is in my top three most favourite beverages.
i. love. milk.
and this stuff has me seriously excited. --- what am i going to make? i gotta make something with it... corn ice cream? butter? or any number of other amazing treats... oh my goodness...

wishing well

look at how great this is:


my friend megan, who is a fantastic artist, sent me this get-well card!


how sweet is that?
(hand is looking and feeling sooo much better!)

i have been meaning and wanting to do a little post about megan. she and i went to grade school and high school together, where we were in the same art classes. i always looked up to and admired megan's talent so much -- the girl was, and still is, way good.
(for my birthday one year, i think it was my twelfth birthday, she and my friend amy threw a surprise pool-party for me. megan gave me a mug on which there was a zebra, whose stripes were all vibrant colors, and it said, "have the courage to be a little crazy." i swear to you i still have that mug and i still think of and feel inspired by that saying quite often!!)
we lost touch after high school but recently reconnected and since then, we've been sending emails and encouragement back-and-forth. i am thrilled to see that she is getting back into her art - it is so good.

see more of megan's recent work on her flickr site.
thank you so much, megan!!

hand made life

there's a shark in my bath! and, a hand-knit, hand-embroidered washcloth.


i made this many moons ago, but just rediscovered it and decided it was time to put it to use, instead of leaving it stashed away in the Past Projects suitcase.

on my application for the bazaar bizarre craft fair, i was asked to write a bio, in third person. (sheesh, that was nerve-wracking. i feel so pretentious writing about myself in third person!) anyways, in some part of it i wrote about how i often daydream of being a sort-of pioneer girl, making my own clothes and soap and cheese and linens and just about everything else i could need.
and then i looked around me and realized that i at least have a good start on that -- i've got the linens started; you just saw my washcloth, which lives in the bathroom. also in the bathroom is my hand-sewn, hand-embroidered feather hand towel. then, in the kitchen, i have one of my hand-towels and my knit dishcloths. this stuff makes me happy.

(an update on the hand -- it is feeling much better now -- i'm just about back to normal usage. my thumb and the webbing between it and my first finger are completely numb, but the doc says that this is normal and that i'll get feeling back, someday. i'd post a picture, but that would be way too gross. so, i'm back to work now!)

as fate would have it

with the hand being damaged (i had no idea i was going to be in so much pain, for so long) i can't really do too much crafting, or typing, or many of the other things i like to do.
but i can show off my most recent purchase:



oooh! aren't they special? i had seen these at a local second (third, fourth...) hand book store a couple of weeks ago and definitely wanted them, but was feeling a little too poor to justify the purchase. so i played the little game i have for situations like this, i passed on the purchase the first time around. but then, days (which turned into over a week) later, i found myself still thinking of them. so i went back thinking, "if they are still there, they are mine, if not, it wasnt meant to be."



i'm really glad that they were still there, because i fell rather in love with this here pig:

see you in december, boston

i've been informed that my application was accepted and i am to be a participating vendor in this year's boston bazaar bizarre. hooray! the event will be held at the castle, near the arlington t-stop, on sunday december 7th. it's gonna be a good time. i'm gonna bring along my pal dana b and we are going to dance, and drink tons of coffee, and eat at our favorite boston thai place, and do high-fives, and, and, and...

dealt a bad hand

i have got to stop injuring my hands.


i got in the middle of a cat/dog fight yesterday and emil gave me one hell of a bite on the hand.
i'm not going to be doing much stitching or typing for the next few days. it hurts. a lot.

hopes that pigs do fly

the new piggy market totes are now in my etsy shop!





(they hold A LOT of groceries!)



i'm still only half-satisfied with the photos i was able to take of these, but i can't hold off any longer. i'm eager to see how they do in the shop.
personally, i am thrilled with the way these came out and the response i have gotten so far has been pretty darn sweet.
click on over and get one of your very own here.

also --
i've got a couple of these in the shop:





heeheehee! i love them.
remember when i made those pig cookies? this was the very same thing -- i did the pigs as they were, and then i just had to take it further. so far, these are seriously limited edition -- i made the first of the batch especially for the certain someone who inspired this whole pig-style tote line, and then i made one for me, and now i only have two of these kinds of totes left. as soon as i can get more of this style tote, i'll make up some more.