Curious Bird

tea time

Hello and Happy Friday to you,

Today has been full and it's only the early afternoon.
I'm a big fan of days like today -- lots to do and lots being accomplished. A nice way to end the week if you ask me. Oh, before I forget, all Built By Wendy patterns (actually all Simplicity patterns) here are 99 cents. Yep, 99 pennies. *do call before you head out the door because I can't promise every store is running the same sale, I mean, heck, I go to one in Jersey, it could be doing its own thing, who knows?*

On a different subject entirely, I can't resist posting a photo of our new tea set that arrived yesterday -- a lovely handmade wedding gift from our talented friend, Ariel. We love it. The little tea cups are so perfect, I'm positive they will be put to almost daily use.

Hope you have a great weekend.
I'm going to sew and drink tea and make a big salad with pesto toast on the side.
At least those are a few things I hope to do.

Be Well,
Leya

show and tell

Hello there,

Look how spoiled I've been lately when it comes to one of my favorite things:  Mail.  The other day my friend Ellen sent me this groovy plate and several vintage patterns, all of which I'm really excited about trying to make sometime. Jumpers and dresses and funky seventies accessories, oh my!
And then I started receiving lots of gocco swap goodness-- check out all the sweet creations {and there's more on the way}. People really went all out with this swap.  I'm so glad I participated.


The magic doily notecards are made by Erin
Birdcage sweetness is from Traci.
The lovely notebook that came wrapped in beautifully printed linen is from Emily.
The rocking chair print is from Alice.   **Ladies, if I got anything confused, please let me know.

Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was very mellow, but no complaints.
I started a new project with my friend Aimee yesterday. We're just beginning, and we have a loooong way to go, but I'm excited.  Let's just say there's going to be lots of sunday afternoon cutting and piecing around here.

Hope your week is off to a great start.

More soon,

l.

one dozen

Hello.

I finished up my prints for the Mid-Winter Gocco Swap and they're on the way to the post office. It was down to the wire, but I managed to get them out by today's deadline. Can't wait to see what I find in my mailbox in the next few days. I'll show and tell once things start arriving.

The week is off to a good start. I woke up to a freezing eleven degree morning, but after putting on several layers and having a cup of green tea, I settled in for my day. So far, so good.

Have a good monday,
L.

I've crossed the line...

I am now an official pet portrait collector. This development is probably no surprise to you because it's no secret around here how I feel about my catties-- they've been in my life (our lives) for over eleven years now, and they're an utterly sweet and snuggly part of our family.  After finding susiesosad on Etsy, I had to place an order (talk about affordable) and both little drawings just arrived. They turned out great. You might recognize them from here and here.

Have a Super Tuesday,
l.

a bit quiet.

hi there. I've been very sporadic with the posts lately...feeling a bit quiet,  I guess.
I have been hard at work on creating several new mixed media pieces. it has been nothing but fun and mess-making in the studio {it's not so quiet in there either...thanks to bands like this and this}.
I've managed to finish three shadowboxes this week and with a weekend forecast of nothing but cold rain and maybe even snow, I'm hoping to motor right along.

you have probably noticed the vintage owl linen above...we'll, I couldn't resist snapping a photo and showing it off. some days are good mail days and some days are great mail days. today happened to be a great one,  thanks to tiffany who sent me the sweetest belated birthday package full of owl goodness. thanks, sweet lady. you certainly made my day.

have a nice weekend.
l.

loot

There's nothing quite like arriving home after a cold and slushy day to find an unexpected package of treats waiting. Whatever I did before I entered the world of blogs and blog friends, it most certainly didn't involve as many surprise packages. Thanks for all the loot, Kathy!

Um...what else is going on around here...well, I've been sitting at the sewing machine a bit lately. Spring appears to be closing in, which I'm quite happy about, so I'm trying to work on several Spring projects I've had on the drawing board for a while. I also finally found the time to finish a couple of reconstruction projects for myself {please tell me why really satisfying projects are always the last to be tackled}. I can barely wait for warm weather so I can wear one of the dresses I modified. 

February is out the door. March is really a pretty spectacular month. I look forward to it.

Back to work. More soon...
leya

spreadin' the news...

From what I can tell, everyone has received the surprise piece of mail Dustin and I recently sent out, making it safe to do a little show and tell here on the blog.
Here's the skinny...when our lovely engagement adventure began{geesh, that was almost two months ago}, Dustin and I discovered a little something about ourselves. We discovered pretty quickly that we're not the type of people who feel all that comfortable calling everyone we know...ya know, announcing.  Don't get me wrong, we are extremely happy about being engaged, it's just that, well, I guess you could say we like to fly below the radar and making big announcements isn't really that easy for us. We knew we could depend on our families to spread the news to other family members and family friends, but what about all our friends scattered around the country? And who is going to get word all the way to India? After some time mulling it over, we decided a nice card would work best.
Below is what we created to do the job for us.{I'm certain Dustin will be just fine if he never sees another glue stick or tube of gocco ink}

{always a fan of the photo strip...we used it to tell the story}



{can you tell we're tired of moving? we are.}

I printed some text on the bottom portion of the card using my trusty gocco.  After a bit of teamwork, off they went...India is officially privy to our plans.

The weekend is finally here, too. I'm pretty happy about that, aren't you?

have yourself some fun,
l.

from the mailbox to the sofa...

the fabrics arrive...

new pillows are made for "Jasper" our new sofa.

keeping it short and sweet today -- off to brave the cold. I believe freezing rain and snow is on the way. ouch!

{thanks for all the kindness regarding the Imago Series. each piece has sold, which sends me over the moon!}

warm wishes to you,
l.

tak, Sabine

I know it might sound silly, but there is nothing quite like coming home to a surprise package filled with amazing goodies from the flea markets of Denmark. I mean really, the packaging alone is amazing, but opening the sticker covered, beautiful Danish stamp laden package to find such lovely secondhand treasures is indescribable. The placemat and cup pretty much sent me over the moon.  I'm still wondering around my house trying to find the perfect place to display each and every item the lovely Sabine gifted me.

In other news, I've been really busy lately. I've spread myself sorta thin and am reserving the weekend to get some serious crafting time in. This post has kept me very busy, let me tell ya. The pattern I cut from a Whole Foods brown paper bag is starting to come apart...perhaps I need to get my friend and pattern-making extraordinare to help me create a real pattern that can be graded to various sizes and eliminate some of the crazy-making guesswork I've found myself dealing with. C'mon, Aimee, you're a pro. Help a lady out.
Besides making hats and spilling tea on my Ipod (its dead and gone as of this morning --bah!),
I've gotten more in the holiday spirit these last few days. I have yet to pull the decorations out, but I'm starting to get a game plan on how to go about creating the handmade gifts I have planned for friends and family. I have a feeling the first day of December will kick me in high gear. That's my hope anyway...

More rambles soon.
Be well, 
L.

plush-o-rama

After almost a year of waiting for it, my Plush-O-Rama book arrived today!  I'm very proud to have gotten the chance to be part of such a great project and equally excited about how  freakin' cool the completed book turned out. It's wonderful and filled with creatures by amazing and inspiring artists like Rosa Pomar and Jenny Harada, if I may throw a couple of names out there.

For those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about, I'll fill you in. Two Halloweens ago I created three plush creatures I fondly named Mr. Skelly. I created them just for fun and mainly because I was going through a serious softie admiration phase and wanted to try creating a creature of my own. I kept one Skelly for myself and gave the other two away as gifts. After posting on my blog (an old one, no link), I was contacted by Lark Books about participating in a new book they were set to publish completely dedicated to wacky handmade creatures. The fun part was sending Mr. Skelly out for a photoshoot and creating directions telling others how to make a Skelly of their own.   
Another example of why blogging never ceases to amaze me... I've made great friends all over the world and now one of my projects is published in a neat book. How cool is that.