love forever

Our Little Corner of the World

 

This weekend, my mom and Aunt Bean descended upon our new home like two very active fairy godmothers and helped us unpack the kitchen, buy lots of stuff at IKEA and most exciting, set up our new garden! They are both expert gardeners so it was a real treat!

First things first, we pruned the very pretty Rose of Sharon tree that hangs over my neighbors yard into ours. The branches were hanging so low that our tiny yard was basically cut in half. Good thing my mom is a junior tree warden (no, I'm not kidding)! She is an expert pruner and quickly achieved the perfect balance of just enough tree to frame our kitchen window but not so much that we can't use the yard!

Then we did lots and lots of container planting! We now have pots of herbs and lettuce plus lots of flowers, succulents and ferns. The herbs have changed my life- we've been making agua fresca with mint, lemon and cucumbers all week to battle the heat.

The next part is my favorite and something I can't wait to dig into: decorating! My goal is to make the little yard into a little french-y paradise with bistro chairs, striped linens (like this scene, below, at Terrain) and some sort of hanging luminaries or chandelier.

Too bad these chairs cost a fortune! Anyone know of a cheaper alternative?

I'll have more pictures soon as things start to shape up!

Guest Post: Pip from Meet Me at Mike's

Hello!  It's not Kayte! It's me! Pip!  Kayte is letting me post over here today, and I thought I'd show you a really simple 5 minute project for Valentine's day!

You can make these with things you have hanging about your craft room, and you can totally impress someone you LOVE with your crafty know-how!  It's true!  I give you... Doily Hearts! 

      

And thank you for having me!

 

xx Pip

Thanks Pip for this amazing tutorial! This is totally adorable! And a perfect project for all of those out there like me who are totally snowed in! 

Map Totes

It's snowing like crazy here in Philadelphia (again!) and it looks like I am going to be snowed in for a day or two. It reminds me of my old college days in the Berkshires, when the snow was often knee high and I used to struggle though the drifts in incredible inappropriate 4 inch platform shoes. Oh those were the days.

These ultra-cute totes from Map Totes are more my speed now.

Brook Farm General Store

As I get older, I seem to be gravitating more and more to timeless classics in natural materials, utilitarian pieces that are designed to last. Things like canvas bags with leather handles, metal funnels, spools of jute twine, wool blankets with subtle stripes. I was so excited to get to visit Brook Farm General Store yesterday while walking around Williamsburg. I had to seriously restrain myself from yelling, "I'll take one of everything" when I walked in the store.

And the Winner is...

The winner of Betz White's Book Sewing Green is Rowena!

Rowena wrote, "i'm a long-time reader but this is my first time to leave a comment, this subject is near and dear and brought me out of lurkdom! we have replaced most of our paper with cloth: cloth napkins, cloth towels in the kitchen, cloth sanitary pads, etc. not only is it green, it's frugal too! one roll of paper now lasts us at least a month (have to keep some paper around like wiping the toilet). we also use microfiber towels on both our wet and dry swiffers."

Congrats Rowena and what a lucky way to venture out of lurkdom!

As you know, this is a random selection but I think it's fun to post the winner's comment anyway. 

Betz White Sewing Green Giveaway!

Spring giveaway madness continues! A couple of weeks ago, Betz White taught us how to wrap gifts with furoshiki and other recycled materials. Now, you get a chance to win her book, Sewing Green.

All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me one thing you have done to be more green in your daily life. I'll pick one randomly and STC Craft will send you a copy of Betz White's book!

Comments close on Monday, May 4th at 5 pm.

Building a Booth

I've been at CHA, the Craft and Hobby Association show, spreading the word about Craft Stylish for the past few days, which (sort of) explains my lack of posting this week. It's been a really interesting week and I have a lot to process. There were some cool things (lots of new great craft products) and some ridiculous things (Paris Hilton's scrapbooking line) and I have learned a lot about a side of the industry that we crafters don't usually get to see.
One of my favorite parts of the show was concepting and building the Craft Stylish booth. A bunch of put our heads together and came up with an idea that was impactful and inexpensive: we folded up hundreds of magazine back issues (you can see a pile of them above) and created an installation the booth wall. People really loved it and it made an interesting statement about old versus new media! To see more about the installation, check out the article here.

Credit Card Mosaic

Here's a new recycled craft tutorial I made over at Craft Stylish: a mosaic made from old credit cards!

This has been a really awesome month so far: check out these other fantastic recycled craft projects.

Happy Holidays!

I'm in Connecticut for the rest of the year hanging with my family and reconnecting with friends (I had lunch with a friend I went to grade school with yesterday!) so I might be a little scarce around these parts for a few days.

I hope all of you have a really wonderful, restful and joyful holiday!

PS- If you're looking for a cheap and crafty way to wrap up your gifts this year, try this potato printing gift wrap tutorial I have up on Craft Stylish.

Good Things

It's been quite a hectic week around here and I have been an all-out grump today so I thought it would be nice to remind myself of a few wonderful and happy things in my life.

*These flowers from my CSA that I picked up last night. I am so excited to have fresh flowers every couple of weeks!

*Lots of other delicious things from the CSA- asparagus, arugula, mixed greens and strawberries. We made the perfect salad last nights with fresh greens that tasted like they had just been picked from the ground. The great thing is, they actually were.

*I got a copy of my book yesterday in the mail! It's actually a real-live thing.

*I won a big bunch of quilt squares of Marimekko fabric on ebay. Looking forward to making some pretty things with these.

*Renegade NY is this weekend and I actually get to walk around and enjoy it.

What great things are happening with you?