clouds on the horizon

i've been trying to get myself in the habit of doing one or two cloud pieces a day, as i rebuild my collection.
yesterday, the sky was bright and blue,


and the pieces on my work-table seemed to reflect that:


today, on the other hand, the sky was grey and dark,


and i found myself drawn to darker color fabrics:


i'm really excited about this growing collection of clouds... i still want to do several more, so i won't have any finished work for a couple weeks, probably, but i look forward to creating some new groupings for my etsy shop and to take with me to the spring fairs.

in other news, my house is mildly infested with lady bugs; it has been for the past month or so. but i don't mind, i kind of like it just fine and leave them be.
ladybugs seem to like silver-lined cloud pieces, too:


and my plants (which is good for them!):


and this one seems to like my milkglass vase collection. "she" just kept going round and round the rim of this one:


cute, eh? (we've also got stink-bugs, though - and those, i do mind. they've not been getting the kind treatment that the ladybugs have gotten. i get great satisfaction from lifting each stinkbug i find onto a piece of paper and then flinging it out the door or window, all the while muttering to it how it's just lived its last moments in luxury. "you're not welcome here -- goodbye!" i like to sternly say to them as i kick them out. i haven't seen one all day though - maybe i got rid of them all!)

and lastly, so that i leave you on a sweet note and not a stinky one, here's a recipe i highly recommend:


home made cinnamon raisin bread from the "martha stewart baking handbook." (this recipe here is a teeny bit different - but probably just as easy and delicious- i halved the recipe to just make one loaf.) man oh mighty, this stuff is good! if you're looking for weekend baking project, here's one to try!
have a good one, friends. and remember, if you're in los angeles, go to the opening party of "these friends three" at THIS tonight! (see below) ciao!

these friends three

if you happen to be in the los angeles area on friday night, here's an event for you to attend:


my friends over at THIS gallery in L.A. are going into their third year running and they're marking the event with the third annual friends show. The collective that runs THIS is a very well-connected (as well as amazing, and talented, and wonderful) group of individuals and their/our friends do some pretty awesome work. this is a great opportunity to see a whole lotta talent all in one place. and the opening receptions sure are one heck of a party; i was there last year and very much enjoyed. it's a great group of people that THIS gallery attracts. so -- go see it if you can. i wish i could....
(and if you can't make the opening, check the flyer for times when the gallery is open and go see the show then!)
oh yeah -- the piece that you'll see of mine is the recently completed "dreaming is free" piece.

a sea of possibility

because i have no new work or projects to show, i'm leaving you with this sweet mermaid drawing by 5 year old niece bella; she's obsessed with drawing mermaids at the moment, and i think it's rather adorable.
new things are in the works for chez-sucre-chez, though! i'm working on a pattern and doing experiments with ladies' aprons. (i've been doing the kids aprons for a while now, and always, at my craft fair events, am asked if i do aprons for women. this year, the answer will be yes?)
i'm also working on some PRINTS. oooooh, this both scares and excites me.
more on these later. have a great weekend!

dreaming....

finally, i've done a new piece!


this line from the blondie song "dreaming" crept into my head a couple of weeks ago and i couldn't let it go -- the more i thought about the words, and the more the line went 'round and 'round in my head, i knew it was something i wanted to put into stitches.

when i design a new piece, i usually start with the lettering -- finding a letter style that i like is the first challenge. then, there's creating the pattern for the letters - which, when i'm working from a book or a blurry image of an old pattern on my computer screen, makes my eyes want to kill me. then i come up with a border style or ornamentation to flank the letters, and then i go about getting everything spaced and centered. color choice is almost always the last step. for this one, i think i knew i wanted blue stitching on the platinum aida cloth.

i got this far with the stitching -- about 3/4 of the way finished, when i figured out my color inspiration:


a-ha! i had been in flemington, nj the days or week before, helping my sister to pick out paint colors and ideas for her new restaurant. (she and her husband own the blue fish grill -- they're moving into a bright shiny new space in a refurbished pottery factory.) seems the colors we picked out stuck in my brain just as the words to the blondie song did!


once the piece was finished and framed, i had just a day to snap some photos before sending it off to los angeles, where it'll be a part of the upcoming "these friends 3" show at THIS.

luckily, there was snow, because i also had this image in my head of me holding the piece in the snow, captured from above.

b is a great sport in helping me with my chez-sucre-chez projects. he had just gotten home from the gym when i said, "baby, would you please help me and take some photos outside for me?" and then i kept him standing outside waiting for me while i looked all over the house for any one matching pair of gloves. i couldn't find one...


we took a couple dozen shots and then came upstairs and i looked at them and said, i love this one, but.... i really wish i had gloves on. so we went back down for another round. (i found the gloves that i was looking for -- they were in my car.) i'm glad we did. even though i like the sunshine and the shadows in this first shot, i'm even more pleased with this one for the second round. i think the colors are perfect.


see what i mean about the difference a small detail like gloves makes on an image?!

(thank you, b, for being my photographer. xo.)

snowy white

if you've read my last few posts, you'll know that i was very happy to wake up to soft white flakes floating past the window and covering the ground. snow! finally! (even if it is just a dusting....)

two shots from my morning:


yesterday afternoon i made this cake, after seeing it via tastespotting. it's a grapefruit olive oil cake --- very *very* zingy. try it!

and last week, i bought myself an instant collection of milk glass vases:


they're all lined up on one of the window frames of the studio. (the rest of the studio is such a mess, i couldn't put any more of it in this photo.) i love seeing these milky white glasses sitting there, especially on sunny mornings, when the light shining through them casts blue on one or two (especially the third one from the right).

i hope you all enjoy your saturday. i'll be toiling away in the studio making some last-minute valentine goods for a mini craft fair/sale/event on sunday at tattooed mom in philadelphia. here's the flyer:


if you're local enough, please stop by! even if you've already done your valentine shopping (if you're into that sort of thing...), you can stop by for a drink and a hello, right?! (a craft event in a bar? genius!)

hanky panky -- a whole lot more of it!

i'm trying to get out the door to start my weekend with a walk at one of the local nature preserves -- and a trip to terrain (their pop-overs make for such a delicious breakfast!), but before i do, here's a quick post to show you all of the newest hankie kits.

a while back i mentioned the new bestie kits - kits meant for you to embroider and give to your best girl friends - well, they're up! (they've been up for a little while, actually.)


i have to give huge thanks to the chez-sucre-chez facebook followers who gave me such super fantastic suggestions for the words you'd use for your best friends -- i was stuck for ideas and their ideas made it much easier for me to create the template.


how beautiful are these hankies?!?!



these kits are available in the shop here and here (with hoop).



and then, there are these ones, which i just listed this morning, also for your best gals:


i have been positively swooning over the style of these hankies since i got them. so far, i've only been able to snag two of each color of these, and i used one of my favourites to stitch up the sample. i'm not yet sure if i can get more of these, so i suggest you snatch one up quick if you like them!


acorns - yes, they're ACORNS!



and, in time for valentine's day, i was able to get more white hankies for the valentine-edition boyfriend hankie kits.





and i've restocked on all the other regular boyfriend hankie kits -- blue is now back in stock!



gotta run! see them all here. bye!

one day, three ways

well, three photos, anyway.
the latest custom job stitched up and being sent on its way across the sea:




and, i finally got around to taking a photo of a "home is..." piece in black and white done in the new 8 x 10 format:


this one's getting packed up and sent away, too -- but not across the sea... just to seattle.

ho-hum

oh my it is a grey and dreary morning here in south eastern PA. it's too dark to take any new photos for the blog, so i'm posting a snapshot i took last saturday, after breakfast:


i wish all this rain was snow! the snow from last weekend stuck around for maybe two days and then it was gone. i've been feeling really cheated by the winter so far this year; more snow days, please!

my friend jill brought me these beautiful tulips:



i love the little lines of red on them.

now back to stitching for me... several custom orders in the works and another couple of sets of L.O.V.E. letters for terrain.
have a good weekend, all!

while speaking of love...

here are a couple of pieces that i did a few months ago for one of my favourite client couples:


last year, donna contacted me and we worked to create this piece (my first 8 x 10) for her husband as an anniversary gift.
well, this year, wasn't i pleased as punch (and swooning over the sweetness) when her husband contacted me about doing a piece for donna this year. (how sweet, right?!)


(jason's gift to donna - lyrics from "you've made me so very happy" - the lou rawls version.)

just wait -- it gets even sweeter. while jason (husband) and i were working out the design and details of the piece to be made for donna, donna contacted me about getting another (surprise) piece for jason. HOW STINKIN' RAD IS THAT?


(donna's gift to jason - lyrics from "you're the the best thing" by the style council.)

and that both pieces feature such totally awesome lyrics makes me wish that donna and jason lived closer so that we could be friends.


i love getting to do projects like this!

a lot like love

my l.o.v.e. letters have hit the (virtual) shelves of terrain!


i like how, on a very stark white background, they show/suggest how they can be arranged on a wall stacked, or horizontally.


(they're actually stitched on linen, not canvas...)

here they were stitched up and ready to be trimmed:


trimmed, labels getting affixed:


and here's how i had them bundled for shipping:



do you love them? i'm not sure if they're being sold in the store -- this might be an item that's only available through terrain online. i'll check today -- the store is only a couple of miles away (yes, i'm lucky) and i've got errands to run in the shopping center nearby anyway. so perhaps there'll be an update here?

candygram

what a lovely sweet endorsement from daily candy for chez-sucre-chez cross-stitch kits! (see here.) i'm tickled pink with the short little description --- happy to see that others like what I do.
this week I'll be doing lots of kit-making --- chez-sucre-chez has some new retailers, meaning you'll be able to find my kits at shops across the US. i hope to be adding to my list of retailers this year - if you've got any suggestions for shops where you think my kits would fit, please let me know!
happy tuesday!

a sunrise, a walk, a fire, and a preview

just some random things for you today...

first, this sunrise:


b gets credit for the photo. at that hour, he's awake and up and taking real photos out the window (lifting the screen), while i just take camera shots out the window from my pillow. (you may have seen some of those on my twitter over the past couple months.)

second, two snapshots from our saturday walk - through woods and fields:



close to where we live is a really wonderful collection of nature preserves. we've been picking different ones to walk on weekend days when the weather's nice. (this one was cheslen preserve.)

third, saturday night backyard bonfire:


(goodbye, chrismas tree. and goodbye, old chez-sucre-chez display boards!)

and last (and more relevant to usual blog posts here), little hints of what i've been working on. you'll be seeing more of both of these projects soon!

beautiful ladies' hankies:


(oh my goodness, i'm so excited to show you what i've got up my sleeve with these! they're done - i just need to take the listing/post photos! soon?!!!?!!)

and lots of love letters coming off the hoop:


(you've seen these from me before, but you'll hear more about where these ones are headed soon!)

i hope you all had a delightful weekend!