beautiful mess

here's the latest fresh off the hoop. i went shopping for a frame for it today, but no dice. will post photos of it all framed up when that happens!

seeing red, and blue, and white

these are the colors i come back to - over and over and over.


red. blue. white -- and sometimes i see it as total americana, the same inspiration of ralph lauren, and other-times it's all frenchy-french to me - like the colors of a godard film (i know - i reference this all the time...). sometimes it's nautical in feeling, sometimes homespun and rustic. always, it looks and feels so right to me. sigh.


this is a new stitching color option that i just came up with - and can't believe i hadn't done it before. i've been stitching up monogram tea towels for my upcoming spring craft fair events, and the ones i've done this week have been all variations of blue, red, white and off-white. this one happened yesterday and my heart kind of quickened.
i like when that happens.
i hope you all have a super-duper weekend. i know i'm most looking forward to time spent stitching -- i'm currently two-thirds of the way through my most ambitious stitching project yet - and i'm so eager to see it finished! hopefully, i'll be sharing pics soon. xo!

cloverture

this past sunday was my first experience with the clover market, in ardmore, PA. it was wonderful - excellent weather, great crowds, and a terrific booth-neighbor.
as usual, i brought my camera but forgot to take photos, so all i've got are these poor quick phone shots of my set-up. unfortunately, i didn't get to walk around to check out the other vendors, but from what i could see around me and from my short runs to the bathroom and the food place, there were a lot of really impressive items for sale. you can check out the clover market facebook page to see more photos of what you missed.





lucky for me, some really wonderful people stopped by my booth to say hello. it was great to meet fellow vendors stacy from meadowsweet vintage and jenny from two paper dolls. i also got to meet two lovely ladies who have been such sweet chez-sucre-chez customers for the past year or so. (hello kelly and hello hope!) i love craft fairs for this reason - it's always a pleasure to meet and talk to the wonderful people who support what i do. jamie, from general merriment, stopped by, too, and i finally got to see the hankie that she embroidered for her husband from a kit she purchased from me at art star two years ago. hooray!
the big sellers at the clover market this past sunday were the kits (both x-stitch and hankie), monogram towels and bowl covers (so happy to see them well received!); so i'll be working on making up new batches of all of those items for the next clover market, which is sunday may 6th. i'll be sharing boothspace with my friend tiffany, of tiny marie, on that date. if you're local, put the date on your calendar and stop by to say hello!

tokyo-a-go-go

i viewed a lot of cherry blossoms:










visited a lot of shrines and temples:











i reveled in the views from the hotel rooms:






marveled at the sights, and the lights, and the sounds, and the smells that are tokyo:









and old kyoto:






i drank much sake:



and nibbled many treats:






(despite the fact that the menus looked like this:)




i did peruse fabric, and craft, and stationary shops, too. it was a lovely trip. a wonderful break. (i only did about four hours of stitching on my entire trip -- including the long plane rides!)
and now that i think i'm over the jet-lag, i'm so happily jumping back into work - with only four days to prepare for the first date of clover market! (ardmore, PA - sunday, april 15th - make it if you can! more info here.)
oh, and this weather and the full-on spring bloom that i've returned to -- amazing!