color pop

please excuse a momentary break in the usual subdued color palette of chez-sucre-chez.
today is the birthday of one of the most very special girls in the whole world, my miss bella jean.
tomorrow (because i am a dum-dum, and although i made and packed it all up to be ready 3 weeks ago, i sent it out a day too late...) she'll be getting some fun in the mail.
inspired by this, i made her a little mini-garland:


the "flags" are kind of a funny shape, but i wanted to use my fancy circle cutter:


and they're strung together with baker's twine:



inside a brightly decorated box which i forgot to get a photo of, there's a set of those felt rose barrettes:


we drew roses together months ago when i last saw her and i've been told that she's had a thing for roses ever since. so cute.
happy birthday, bella.

oh will you take me as i am...

i know - i know, i know; i stitch this up just as i'm almost packing up to leave my temporary home of california to go back east to my real home. i know, my friends out here are going to give me mega-*$@! for this.
but really - it (california) is SUCH an amazing place. just three hours ago, i was tromping around in snow up in the mountains. next weekend, i'll be sipping cocktails next to a pool in palm springs. and the weekend after that, i'll be trekking through the desert in death valley -- all within three hours of here. this place is incredible! but my home is back east....


anyways, one night last week, this song (these are lyrics to joni mitchell's "california") popped up on my random ipod shuffle mix and i had that "i've got to stitch this" feeling.
so there it is.


available in these two color options, or stitched to order, in my etsy shop.
(thank you, mister jones, for reintroducing me to the music of ms. mitchell.)

tcb

my tax documents are completely in order and in an envelope on their way to my accountant. earliest ever, for me. phew.

recent mentions and free stuff!

if you are linked up to the chez-sucre-chez facebook page, you may already know this, but this week, i've teamed up with bradford (aka uncle beefy) to do a giveaway of two totes on his WONDERful blog, the bedlam of beefy.


i'd never done a giveaway before but in the interest in clearing out some of my excessive amounts of supplies and stock before packing it all up to move back east, i thought this would be a great time to give it a go. i approached bradford with the idea a few weeks ago and i'm so happy we've made it happen. look at how beautiful he made the post!


if you want the chance to score one of two free totes, get over there and enter the contest! (it's easy, i swear) if you don't want a free tote, you should check his blog out anyways - it's pretty great.

chez-sucre-chez has popped up elsewhere on the web recently, too.
yesterday i got a note from brianne, of petalpetal and modern child vintage, to let me know that she'd featured my little mushrooms in an urban/country chic round-up on petal+handmade=love:


(see the post here.)

also, i found that my little mushrooms that i sent to paris to be sold in the boutique les fleurs evidently made it there safely; they're now up on the shop's website:


hooray! i love seeing them being called champignons! see for yourself here.
now - back to stitching for me; i've got at least three different projects in the works. my goal is to finish them all today!

minding the gap

long ago, i worked at the gap. yes, yes i did. i was in college, "reality bites" was still one of my recent favourites, and i landed the position of visual coordinator. disappointingly, it was not a very creative job... it was more about making the windows look like pictures A, B, and C sent from corporate. i did, however, become an ace iron-er, and the job also probably played some role in the development of my skills in making things look nicey-nice.
aaaaanyways... once a year, and i think it was right about this time - in between winter and spring, there was a mini-season called "nautical" or "cruise" or something like that. the clothing was always navy blue and shades of white and i remember liking it quite a bit. i probably liked how classic it was. well, here's my nautical/cruise season line (er, um, item):


an absolutely simple, classic, practical yet ever-stylish tote. hand-embroidered, of course, with navy floss on canvas.



(special thanks to claire for snapping the photos for me!)
also, maybe in an attempt to round out the "line" a little, i brought back these:


i still really like them, just as much as when i first made them. (please note, however, that i'm now using a lighter blue towel than the ultra-dark navy that's in the photo.)
the nautical line can be found in my etsy shop.

lifting clouds

after quite a few weeks of s.l.o.w.n.e.s.s. for the biz, things are picking up and i'm finding myself happily humming along on a number of custom orders and fun little projects. hooray!
also filed under "hooray!" -- i received notification that i've been accepted to be a vendor at this summer's brooklyn renegade (june 11th & 12th - here's the link for more info and hey, look, that's me on that first page!) AND that melanie and i will be selling our work side by side under a tent again at art star in philadelphia (may 14 & 15 - here's that link). whoopie! see you soon, east coast!

huckleberry western

inspiration can come from anywhere - and at the most unexpected times. last weekend i went to visit my grandmother, and my aunt and uncle with whom she was staying, just a few hours drive up the coast, in lompoc. after a day of sightseeing, we settled down to watch a movie together; tombstone. i admit, it is probably not one that i would have chosen, but it's one of my uncle's favourites and my nani (grandmother) is definitely a fan of the westerns, so that's how that came to be. well, i thoroughly enjoyed it. a good story. and this quote, "i'm your huckleberry" is spoken by doc holliday (played by dashing val kilmer) so charismatically that it stuck in my head for days after. and then yesterday i thought, heck, i'm gonna stitch it. so i did.
and then i looked back on the one photo i took from my little weekend trip (the area up there past santa barbara is BEAUTiful, but it was misty/cloudy and SUPER windy - so i wasn't too inspired to stop and take photos along the way....) and found that the colors are strikingly almost similar:


interesting... (to me, at least...)

young style

i think i may have twittered or facebooked this, but i'm just now getting to posting it here...
while visiting my parents over the holiday season, i found this:


i made that barbie skirt when i was - oh, i don't know.... somewhere around 10 years old? i love it! i wish i had that exact fabric now; i'd make the same one in my size! i have a faint memory of my mom teaching me how to make and sew the super-basic elastic waist pattern. i probably did the same thing i do now; made one, but then had to make at least three more until i got the pattern and method down just right. i only specifically remember two of the others, though.... i love that my mama saved so many of the toys that my sister and i knew and loved when we were little. now my niece is discovering them and loving them all over again.
oh -- and that reminds me: do any of you remember "fashion plates?" and, more specifically, do you know where i might be able to track down a set? my sister is thinking that bella would be totally into them -- and since it was a toy from the 80's, the fashions may even be relevant now!

from the mouths of babes

this one was stitched up as a custom job for my friends beth and christian. it's a quote from their three year old daughter bella -- i think she was actually only two and a half when she said it. awesome.
wishing you all a weekend of wonder. xo, k.

life imitates art

the latest...


...is a quote from fellini's 8 and a half



i've got to be honest - it took me more than one stop-and-start to get through this movie - which is SO unlike me... maybe i was just tired... either way... it's okay. i saw this quote in the subtitles and immediately jotted it down. i like the way it looks and sounds in stitches.