pretty in pink

(i'm pretty sure i've used that title before. sorry. trivia tidbit: that's also the title of my maybe all-time-favourite song.)

in preparation for clover market this sunday and renegade brooklyn later this month, i made up some new bowl covers today, including this pinky pink set:

my mom got me the pink kitchenaid mixer years ago when i was really into pink. she had it shipped to my greenpoint apartment (where i had painted my bedroom walls pink). as it was a surprise, i had no idea what was in the heavy heavy box i had just carried upstairs. oh boy, did i ever cry of happiness and gratitude when i opened that box! i may have moved out of my pink phase, but i still absolutely adore this mixer. it sees A LOT of use; like last night, when i made these cookies. (thanks to my friend jill for turning me on to that recipe!)

the smaller of the two in the set fits the kitchenaid artisan mixer (as well as medium-sized regular bowls, up to about 9 inch diameter) and the larger size fits the bowl of the larger professional series kitchen aids. it fits up to a 10.5 inch diameter bowl, which is about the size of the largest of the old pyrex nesting bowl sets.

my kitchen is wonderful to work in, but it's stink-ola for photo taking -- all dark and full of weird wall space.
it's really too bad i live so far from my sister; her kitchen has pink walls, white swiss-dot curtains, and 1950's era boomerang print countertops in pink and grey! it would have made for a perfect photo shoot; oh well!
this has been my third post today; phew!

throwback thursday - pompeii

in my quest for new podcast series to keep me entertained/engaged while stitching, i discovered "stuff you missed in history class" by how-stuff-works. i've been going through these for the past few days and today, listened to the one about pompeii (#274).

this prompted me to check my old hard-drive to see if i had any photos from my trip to pompeii many years ago; the above shot is the only one i seemed to take, or that seems to have survived transfer from seven years and three computer upgrades...
do you have any other podcasts or podcast series to recommend? i've gone through most of the radiolab ones, and i know that the npr site is always ripe for exploring, but are there others i should know about? please share!

instagramming

i know i'm a little late to the party, but i finally got myself into instagramming, and now i get what all the buzz was all about; it's pretty fun and it makes just about anything look like a great photo.

looking at my first month of captures, i probably come off as an alcoholic cat lady; i'm not really either, i swear! (i just happen to have a very handsome cat and a thirst for delicious cocktails.)

i linked the instagram account to my website (http://chezsucrechez.com/instagram), so you can go there to view them all, or, if you're in on it, go on ahead and follow along!

seasons greetings

memorial day is the unofficial start of summer here in the US and this past weekend was full of perfect weather for that. we had a little backyard party, gathering friends and family for a wiffle ball game and some relaxing.

later in the evening, we had a big bonfire and cooked veggie hot dogs on sticks. there were also s'mores and cupcakes and home-made ice cream.
(i like how, in this next photo, you can see the glow of the fire as well as a hand grabbing one of the cupcakes.)

and now i'm jumping into a short work-week before the last of the clover markets for this spring season. i am expecting to do lots of shop updates -- new listings and new photos, it's well past time for that! i also intend to spend some time working on designs for new kits - fingers crossed that the inspiration strikes!

here's a sneaky peek of a job i did this past week:

ooooh gold. you'll get to see the rest soon, i hope! as soon as i have photos to post, i'll put them up.

and here's a shot i took last week of one of the simple embroidered hearts i did recently. sometimes i really love super simple pieces.

have a great week, friends!

bringing back the love

the l.o.v.e. letters are back! this time in a slightly larger size (framed in 5.25" diameter hoops now) and done with red stitching on natural color linen.

these over-cast days are surprisingly great for impromptu photo shoots! i kind of love the green light that everything seems to get....

(they're in the shop here.)

mischievous grin

a couple of weeks ago, i did a custom job for a most delightful customer.
i was told that the quote was from troll 2, which i also hear is considered to be the worst movie ever made:

i believe that this was the very first time i ever used green floss on one of my pieces; i think it works beautifully with this piece. here was the work right before it came off the hoop:

the colors, the quote, and the layout concept were all the client's idea. i certainly enjoyed our back-and-forth emails; it's great working with a brilliant, witty woman with a quirky sense of humor.
she ordered a set of towels for her bathroom, too:

now you get the title of the post, right?
have a beautiful day! xo.

three down, two to go

it has been a busy spring with art/craft shows/sales/events! a couple of weekends ago, i did the may clover market with my friend tiffany. here's a shot looking into our little booth:

that's cute tiffany sitting there, and here's her set up (you got a preview of this a few posts back...):

to our left, booth neighbor veronica, who's sweet as can be and uses the greatest vintage fabrics for her fun dresses:

(she's working on getting her etsy shop up and running, check back for the link!)

and then, to our right, was pal karen stanford of skylark studio.

i don't know why i didn't get more photos of karen's booth -- her jewelry and presentation is looking amazing. (i'm wearing her distelfink necklace in the photos from my last post.)

then, this past weekend was the art star craft bazaar in philly and melanie (of spread-the-love) and i figured out that this was the first of our four years sharing a booth at art star that we didn't have any rain, or wind, or impending thunderstorm. it was delightful!
here's the view looking into our booth early in the day soon after set-up:

and here's the view we had from inside looking out:

we said that it felt like we were on a beach vacation - complete with the smell of sunscreen, passing boats, and the kind of exhaustion that comes from sun glare.

after two other spring shows, one sharing a booth and one filling it on my own, i think by art star weekend, i finally started to figure out my ideal set-up. this shot was taken on the first day, and it changed a little on the second day, but overall, i was happy with the set-up.

it's come a long way since my very first craft fair! take a look at bazaar bizarre 2005 - this was a few years before i was chez-sucre-chez and had any idea of what i was wanting to do with my work or style or medium:

so much pink! so much knitting! (i do love those totes that i did with the oster kitchen fairy... i still have one of the prints tucked away in one of those suitcases i used for the show!) and those postcards -- they were made from books i had salvaged from the library of the school where i taught. i cut up a charley harper golden book of biology before i realized the importance/amazingness of it... i later had to search ebay and pay a lot more to buy myself another copy of that book. and then the charley harper coffee table book that todd oldham did came out. i had to get that, too.

anyways --- art star was good and the big sellers were the kits (as usual), and the bowl covers.

i definitely got a kick out of how many people would walk towards the display of the bowl covers from yards away -- i am most certain that they thought they were a rack of bonnets. seriously, it happened so many times that i kind of think maybe i should make bonnets - people seemed drawn to them! but then, i was glad to see that once people figured out what they were, that they were as stoked on the idea as i am. i now just need to work on creating cute descriptive tags for them and taking better photos and doing some marketing...

oh, and i got caught on camera for the style blog urbanfieldnotes.... see it here. (i was nervous...)

the next show is june 3rd, and that's the last clover market of the season. and then, i'm headed to brooklyn june 23 & 24th for renegade! very much looking forward to it....

life is....

beautiful

these were my favourites from last evening's spontaneous photo shoot. b and i went out in the yard to check on the garden (the peas, spinach, carrots, arugula and lettuces are coming up in the downstairs beds!) and i was totally enchanted by the long grass and clover. i'd been imagining this photo scenario for the past week, and although last night it was darker out, and the grass more wet than perhaps ideal, i think they turned out even cooler than i expected. that b, he's good. (remember this one and this one and this one?)

here are a few shots of the work in progress:

i got to the very end of the border, connecting up with where i began, and realized that i had made a mistake somewhere along the way -- the ends weren't meeting up where they were supposed to. boy, was i frustrated. after looking and looking and counting and counting, i found the mistake, and thanked heavens that it was only two scallops over from the end. phew! ripping out stitches is way more painful and time-consuming than making stitches... i've gotten to understand that when this happens, it's usually time for me to put the project down for a bit. in this case, it was well past my bedtime and though i couldn't find the mistake when i was looking for it that night, i found it right away in the morning after a good sleep.

here it is among other pieces for my display at art star:

(this was the day before, as i was planning my display. i later opted to switch the frame.)

and here are two more.

i'm so enjoying working on these larger pieces (all of my current designs have been 11 x 17.) they take a heck of a lot longer, but i think this is where i need to be going, in terms of challenging myself....
in the coming weeks, however, i'm going to be spending some serious brainstorming/doodling/design time trying to come up with some new kit designs --- i know some of you have been waiting for them! (and i very much appreciate the emails asking me about them - it keeps me motivated, so thank you!)
et voila. i hope you're having a beautiful day/night wherever you are. xo.

like a wild thing

in celebration of the maurice sendak, and all the genius and inspiration that he bestowed upon us, i've put a new piece in the shop. i had stitched one of these up a couple of years ago, as a custom request from some friends for their new baby girl's nursery.

with news of mister sendak's passing the other day, i thought it might be a good time to bring this one back.

one thing i did with this one that i'm really happy about is that i stained the hoop a dark walnut color. oh, i like so much the way it looks --- i can't believe i'd never done this before! (interested in one of this pieces for your little one's nest? the listing is here.)

and now -- i'm off to prep for a meeting about another custom nursery project! woohoo!

don't forget, philadelphia people, that the art star bazaar is this weekend. i'll be there sharing tent-space with melanie linder of spread the love again, come find us!

first friday philly

hey eastern PA/NJ/DE people -- the weather's looking a little iffy for tonight's first friday festivities, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that it'll stay cloudy but not rainy. the lovely ladies of art-star have put together a little art-star-bazaar preview night over on the race street pier - and i'm gonna be there as part of it.

i'm not bringing the WHOLE chez-sucre-chez set-up, but i will have plenty of kits and some prints (!!!) and some original cross-stitch pieces for sale/view. i'll also be stitching and offering on-the-spot x-stitch lessons, so if you're up for it, come on over and stop by! i'll have a couple of extra chairs, you're welcome to stick around and stitch! more info here: http://www.artstarphilly.com/blog/ the art star bazaar is NEXT weekend -- may 12th & 13th. and don't forget that clover market is happening THIS sunday, may 6th. hope to see you at one of these events. (oh, and nyc people, i'll be seeing you at the end of june for renegade brooklyn. woohoo!)

introducing, tiny marie

hello friends -- today i'm giving you just a teeny little sneak peek at the work of my friend tiffany, whose little company is called tiny marie. she and i will be sharing a booth this sunday at the clover market in ardmore, PA.

tiffany and i have been getting together for tuesday morning productivity sessions for the past couple of months; we spend the mornings together working on individual projects and offering advice and motivation to keep on task. i could use a work-date schedule like that every day of the week! tiff is a little nervous because this is the first show she's done in a long time, but as you can see from these photos that i took yesterday, the girl is ready.

come see tiffany's beautiful bags, wall art pieces, and jewelry (her craftsmanship is outta-control amazing) and my usual chez-sucre-chez set-up on this sunday.

(ps- don't forget that mother's day is coming up here in the US. if you're close enough to make it, the clover market will be a terrific spot to find all kinds of loveliness for all kinds of moms!)