Strawberry Lemonade

Today's the last day of school! Yahoo! I'm feeling a bit sad too because it was a good year and I don't really want it to end. There will be a "moving on" ceremony and a school picnic today. Crazy me decided to stay up and cut three 1/2 yard pieces of fabric as gifts for each kid in the class. Only difficulty, Big A is in a multiage class and there are 42 kids in the class. It was done and I'm a bit tired but I know they'll love it. I donated some leftovers and remnants this year and the kids had a ball with the stack. They made these funky headbands with beads and they cut up the fabric to make other goodies. How cool is that?

Fabric Trends [Summer 2008]did a wonderful job of showcasing my Gardenia fabric [www.henryglassfabrics.com]. I designed and made this quilt a while back but when I look at the quilt now makes me smile. It's so happy and vibrant. Perfect for a picnic I think. xo, L

My Inspiration Wall

Here's another addiction of mine ... wallpaper! I love Graham and Brown, Nama Rococo and Walnut Paper. I love patterns and textures. Oh, and the colors are so glorious. There's just so much wallpaper out there right now. It's not the old fuddy duddy stuff that we used to see.

I've had a mental block about wallpaper because dh and my dad would always tell me how awful wallpaper is to take down later. Since we rented for a long time, putting the stuff up just never happened.When we did finally buy our own place, it still took a while to convince the free help around here that it would look great on the wall. Well, my parents always said that I'm a persistent person. So a while back, I just ordered some and let's just simply say that I have a beautiful wall now.

I have loved this wallpaper from the day that I saw it. I think that I saw it on NBC morning news about six years ago. It doesn't have color but that's the beauty of it. You just add the pics to make it fun and funky. I just stick my fave photos [here's a pic of a design of mine from my book, iKnit] onto the paper whenever and remove it whenever. It's on the wall going down to my basement. I adore it.

I also wanted to put a cool piece of wallpaper on the wall behind my headboard and frame it with molding and to do cutouts for the kiddos' room. Not successful at convincing the help of that yet. I see that Pottery Barn is doing something similar. At least I got the chocolate powder room and the funky green bathroom that I wanted. That was only 4.5 years in the making.

Remembering ...

Jo Pau.

I miss you.

xo, L

So much to do yet so little time

I do have a confession. I have SIX posts in draft mode awaiting publication but life has gotten the better of me so I will have to re-write my posts so that they are more time appropriate.

I just returned from Portland. It was a fun and inspiring trip. Portland is such a terrific city. I didn't take a lot of photos this time around but I will post a couple of pics of some goodies that I did bring home later this week. I got a couple of cool patterns from my friend, Amy Butler and some cute kits from Olympus [Japanese softies].

I caught a cold on the flight back and have been battling that for the last little while. I have been doing some behind the scenes design work that I can't post at this time. I can, however, introduce you to my latest book, Home Stuff. I am so in love with the styling and look of this one. Let me know what you think.

I'll be back later this week. xo, L