Each of the above pics is from Marie Claire Idees – a French sewing/knitting/craft magazine. I am a francophile (is that supposed to be capitalized? I don’t think so.). I love anything from/about/in/around France. I went there after my senior year in high school and had a great time but I’m wanting to go back and take my husband. He is not such a French fan but I think he’d enjoy the culture, photo ops and most definitely the food. J’adore le pays de France dans mon coeur.
This is a recursive post about a guest post. (You’ll get that if you are a TRUE geek like me, Lizabeth’s hubby.)
The guest post is up! You can see it over at www.lightrefreshmentsserved.com and it looks good.
Here is the image for the knitted bottle toppers that they didn’t post to.
The page that they live on can be found on their site by going directly here: Sundance Home Decor
Thanks for stopping by!
Post Poser Don
I like mine blank. Empty. Nothing. BUT — the realtor asked me to put some Christmas items up there. No problem, I say! Um…problem. I am a print designer and not so good with home decor. Here’s what’s up there now. I need suggestions? There are white lights. I wanted to use what I have. The corner with the baskets and trees — all those goodies came from Goodwill the same day the realtor asked me to put something up there. Gotta love Goodwill. I got some fake poinsettia plants for my front porch, too and they are gorgeous. What do you have on your kitchen cabinets? We’ve been taking lots of pictures of the house at various stages. You can see them my house pics flickr photostream if you’re so inclined. I wish I had a collection of antique scandinavian anything but…Grandma Jackson’s stoneware crock & bowl and some Christmas doodads will have to do for now. Be sure to check back as I’m announcing the winner of the Boden sunglasses either later today or tomorrow. She’s from Finland. So, if you’re not from Finland, you can be sure you didn’t win!
Fabulous Saturday morning outing to Lincoln to see a quilt museum. It is fantastic! Thank goodness they had a soft voice recording repeating “Please, do not touch the quilts!” because you could hardly stand to not touch them. Especially when we got to the Korean quilts that were silky and thin (why can’t those words describe me?) and with a rolled French hem. There was a Korean display of Pojagi – the art of wrapping gifts in fabric. Very interesting! Must. Google. Pojagi. Now. Gorgeous!
Well, three Christmas cards and a pig. He was just so cute I had to include him – I guess the pig is symbolic for the new year? Hmmmph. Learn something new every day. Anyway, they all look so easy and adorable and are by Robert Sabuda. You can check out his instructions and patterns here. My kids will love trying these this year but I won’t promise to get any actually mailed…
So we were running errands on Saturday and my sweet hubby suggested we stop by the knitting store since he knew I was hankering for a project (yes, hankering) but I didn’t know what. I needed something more advanced than scarves but I’m not ready for tiny-needle socks. Thank goodness for local yarn stores! The owner at Omaha’s String of Purls is so kind, she pointed me in the right direct — pun intended — and I picked up this book on knitting finger puppets! You can buy it here on Amazon for less than $14 (I paid $19 in the store but supporting my local yarn store is so worth it). This way, I can get used to size 1 needles – double pointed, no less – but only have to work with a few stitches instead of a whole sock. I began the Baby Monkey last night and it turned into a mouse since I was using gray yarn…a very bumpy mouse…I practiced french knots all over the body! Now that I have the techniques down, I’m going to give it another try!
Before we checked out, I saw another book lying on a table and remembered that I wanted to knit our Christmas stockings someday. I couldn’t resist this book, either. I haven’t started this one, yet – have to get the right size circular needles. Looking forward to it as well as another trip to the yarn shop (I just never seem to get there enough!).
The knit doughnuts are from Fawn & Forest. The knit elephant, leopard and zebra are from Polka Dot Patch. So cute and inspiring – great giveaways or wrapping accoutrements for Christmas!
Ummm…delicious fabric and patterns! I’d never visited Amy Butler’s site before but there is a ton of great images there for inspiration and a severe case of gotta-have-it-itis. Be sure to check out her site here (pictures are from her site) as well as the site Amy mentions called ohdeedoh (great design there!). Fun stuff and great design; being a midwestern girl myself, I especially enjoyed the Midwest Modern preview and collection.
I was waxing a bit philosophical late yesterday so, let’s have a little fun! After all, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and you might need a good cookbook. What is it about cookbooks? I love them all. I have an entire chicken-coop-turned-cabinet in my kitchen full of ’em. That is why I’m parting with this one as an online giveaway; it’s a great cookbook, I just have not had a chance to try any of the recipes and I thought someone else might really enjoy this just in time for Turkey Day (aka Thanksgiving)! This is Mary’s “Queen of the Kitchen” Cookbook and it includes biscuits, wafers, chowder, ribs, lamb, turkey, shrimp, waffles, pineapple cake. The pies alone include: Brown Sugar Pumpkin Pie, Farmhouse Walnut Pie, Apple Cinnamon Crumb Pie, Strawberry & Lemon Tart, Deep Dish Apple Cranberry Pie, Nectarine & Blueberry Cobbler, Caramel Baked Pears and Double Pear Crisp. Ooooh, there’s Peanut Brittle Fudge Sundae…oh, crud, did I really want to part with this one??? It’s up for grabs! Rules: One entry per email/person, just make a comment on THIS post. Winner will be chosen by random.org in two weeks. Last day to enter will be midnight on Wednesday, November 19th. Value of this giveaway is approximately $19.95.
I’m having a slow morning. Can’t think of anything to write or recommend — in fact, I’m kind of on an anti-shopping kick right now. I read a quote yesterday something about ‘everything I have is all I need’ and I couldn’t help but agree. Since I don’t have any good shopping to recommend, I figured I’d share with you a line from a funny article from one of my favorite writers, Pam Houston (you know, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness and Sight Hound, to name just two books), from this month’s Women’s Adventure magazine. There were a couple of passages so funny that I had to read them out loud to my husband (apparently men can also enjoy women’s adventures, well, at least I think he did!). One of my favorite lines from the article is, “What treatment naturally follows an exorcism in a health-and-wellness plan?” You simply must read Pam Houston’s past articles here. I don’t think the current one is available but probably will be after the next issue is published. I think I would really like her sidekick, Cindy. If you’re interested in the mag, you can subscribe here. Don’t forget to check out the giveaways here, too!
Love the Human Fund card (yes, we’re Seinfeld rerun fans). Some of the designs are fabulous. Some of the designs are really not my taste. There’s a huge variety at Cafe Press – and it’s because this site allows you to sell your own cards, calendars and other items and prints on demand – fabulous. It’s like nouveau Ebay or Etsy but for print! Me likey! Check the selection out here and click here if you’re interested in selling designs. I especially enjoyed browsing the political bumper stickers – wow – eye openers!
I love Lotta’s stuff…this fall isn’t as great as some in the past except I do adore this pattern on the charcoal gray bag. Lovely! Check it out here.
Love this site. Watch carefully and every cool thing on their sale section gets to eventually be another half off (at least that was the last great sale I saw!) – makes the extra shipping for furniture worth it. I’m not too frilly of a person but I just love, love, love these gray and silver duvet covers. Check out the website here and the design blog here.
I had never before seen The French Garden House. I normally like much more spare design but it is so very lovely.
I wish I spoke or read Norwegian because here are two design sites that I discovered today. I love Danish and Norwegian design because they use what they have and it is spare and somehow still is very, very pretty. Clears the mind. Check out the two sites here and here.
Photos attributed to: Big Stock Photo (see right hand column for links and info).
I designed both of these mockups for a client recently. We were feeling green. So — which cover do you think my client chose? The one with the girl or the one with the leaf? Vote for your favorite by leaving a comment and then we’ll compare those results with the one my client actually chose! Could be interesting…
