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!

and now back to mushrooms...

the first boxed mushroom sachet sent out in the world arrived safely, so now i'm feeling a lot better about having them in the shop.
i took new photos of them this morning, and i'm happy with them:




also recently, chez-sucre-chez sachets, both mushrooms and strawberries, got a little write up on french blog "mots d'amour."


pretty cool, no?
(see it here)

shrooming

last week, i discovered the LA funghi stand at the south pasadena farmers market and since then, i've been mushroom obsessed. until about ten years ago, i wouldnt touch a mushroom. now, however, i want to try every single variety in these photos:

the first ones i brought home with me were the chanterelles. oooooh lala. i sauteed them with half of a shallot in a mix of butter and olive oil, and then, once they were about finished, stirred in a touch of cream and a shaving of parmesan cheese until it thickened a little. then i tossed in some cooked orecchiette pasta and a crack of salt and pepper and just a touch of freshly grated nutmeg. mmmmm. it was delicious.

in celebration of my discovery of the mushroom man, i listed my mushroom boxes and mushroom sachets in my etsy shop. previously, i wasnt sure of how i'd package and ship them in a way where the boxes wouldnt get crushed. but, i figured it out, so now they're up! see them here.

mushrooms springing up overnight

last night, like a crazy woman, i stayed up into the wee hours making mushrooms.
i'm happy i did.
first i started with the sachets:


i had a bunch of "mess ups" from the batch that i did for terrain, so i simply fixed them to make them right and then put them in the little boxes. i was so thrilled with that that i couldnt stop. i had it in my head that i was going to make the mushrooms like i originally intended them when i first started playing with the patterns and colors and shapes (way back here).
and here's what happened!


hooray! i love them! love love love them! i wish i had time to make even MORE!
last night there were a half a dozen things that i had on my list that really really should have been done before i did these. i was going to finish stitching up a "listen to your heart and follow it, even if it takes you all the way to california," and i was going to try to do a "...to hollywood" version, too. i wanted to stitch up a set of l.o.v.e. letters, and then there were tags, and labels and business cards to make... but instead, i did something that i just really really WANTED to do. something that wasnt a part of my usual line; something that wasnt for an order..... hot dang, it felt good! this is what i love love love doing -- making - playing with patterns, making pieces that are unique and not all uniform and them putting them into a pretty little package. oooh, makes me happy. of course this morning i feel a little panicked about what i still really should get done before the opening tonight at THIS (because let's be honest, i know i'm not going to be in a state to do anything productive afterwards....) but oh well --- what's done is done and what isn't isnt. wow, how's that for a great attitude?!

anyways, i even thought of a way to gift-wrap these little boxes:

and now here's my fruit crate, all loaded up and ready to go to renegade:


i hope to see you there -- saturday and sunday 10 - 5 - downtown historic park (also known as the cornfields) - i'll be at booth 106 -- right near the food, atm, and bar - wooo-hooo! and, i'm sharing my booth with my old dear friend from boston, jes anthonis, and her line - mosey handmade. the weather forecast is looking great - sunny and 72 - 82 degrees for both days. it's gonna be great. (more info here if you need it.)
and remember -- come out to THIS tonight - 6 - 10 (more info here) to see/buy my limited edition and one of a kind cross-stitch pieces. it's a cash and carry event, so get there early, because things are coming off the wall as they sell. the other artists involved in the show are amazing - i feel so fortunate to be involved in this show. (and there are the free tote bags! and good free beer!)
i hope to see you at one of these events! xo!

foraging for mushrooms...

... at terrain.


after the success of our collaboration on my strawberry sachets, my contacts at terrain proposed that i develop a mushroom sachet for the fall season. the site on which terrain, the shop (and cafe, and landscaping services) sits was once an old mushroom farm/house. pretty cool, eh? see photos of the beautiful site here and, if you're in the area, you really should visit. if you're not in the area, you can see my mushrooms in the shop here (but i think they look a lot better in person...).

mushaboom

you may remember a hint of this project a way several months back; it's been a long time in the making but today, i sent 36 pretty pink mushrooms out in the mail on their way to terrain.


making them was kinda fun - as it was an item that i had never done before. i enjoyed the challenge of figuring out a pattern, and then putting the idea together and playing with fabrics in different prints and colors. (this post here has the original prototypes)
fulfilling the order was a bit more labor-intensive than i had anticipated, but i enjoyed working out the process and systems to make the job easier. (i felt like a chemist using my specially purchased funnel to fill the stalks with a lavender (for scent) and rice (for weight) mixture.


the idea was theirs, the design, construction, and labeling mine, and they are orchestrating the beautiful packaging.


i can't wait to see how these look in the shop! i just sent them out, so it may still take a couple of weeks, but if you happen to stop in sometime after that, keep an eye out for these little guys and let me know what you think!

fun guys

my sewing desk is growing mushrooms.

mushrooms - sylvia plath and meringues.

-Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
-Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
-Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
-Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
-Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
-Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
-Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
-Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
-We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
-Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
-We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door

That's my favorite Sylvia Plath poem.

The mushrooms pictured above aren't real mushrooms! They're cookies! Made out of meringue! HAHAHAHAHA!
Yup -- that's how I spent my Friday-night-after-Thanksgiving... making meringue mushrooms. What a nerd.