penny and her peacocks...

may have to come live with me. isn't she fabulous? found here.

john derian in the house

ok, well, not really him in person.

from here

cuz if he was really here in person, i certainly wouldn't be typing to you. i'm sure you understand.

more like john derian products in the house. i took advantage of gilt group's john derian sale last week. now i don't have to rush to target on sept 5th when his stuff debuts there.

here's what i got. picture frame.
love the packaging too. nice box.
my assistant helped me sniff everything.
i bought these plates also. i like them. they're actually kinda heavy for melamine. salad plate size. nice colors. they'll be nice for on the patio. no glass to break.
thanks gilt! and john. i'm pleased.

stuff

as of last evening and following a trip to the hairdresser, i'm now sporting a do similar to this.

i wasn't too far from it anyway. just went a little bit shorter. love it. now if i just had her skin, her lips, her....

carlee over at deliciously organized posted this this week.see it? see it? no, try squinting. it's one of my chevron calling cards that i made for carlee. it's hanging in babycakes vegan bakery in ny. it's the first time i've seen one of my cards out in the real world. kinda cool.

one of my favorite events is this weekend. right in our neighborhood. the boeing classic. mens champion golf. i love golf.
tpc at snoqualmie ridge is a beautiful course.steve and i are quite familiar with the course. our first summer in seattle (2008) we were part of the groundskeeping crew. yep. we were the divot fillers. we worked about 8-10 hours a week each, in the wee hours of the morning. before steve went to his full time job. and before i sat down to make stationery for the day. we had visions of free golf since we were employees. playing every evening. this was our motivation. too bad we ended up being too tired to play much golf. it's not very glamorous getting up at 5 am to fill buckets with sand and seed and scoop them into divots on each fairway at sunrise. plus, it's really cold at that time of the morning here in seattle.

hope y'all have a great weekend!

(photos of golf taken from boeing classic facebook page)

tiny heiney

i step over this tiny heiney to get to the printer.
right after i took this, she left. maybe she feels exploited.

framed fabric

i adore framed fabric. this is my all-time favorite. emily walker. beautiful, vibrant artwork.

lauren of pure style home framed fabric recently for a client's dining room. fantastic! love it.

this room, featuring framed antique fabric, was in the latest issue of elle decor.

and this was once an elle decor cover. framed antique ikat.

here's my version in my office. on top is a marblized fabric. and on bottom, this fabric. i'd show more of the bottom fabric but there's a lovely portable air conditioning tube running across the frame. (seattle... remember?? no central a/c in the homes.)

the last time i saw my sister, we picked out fabric for her to frame at her calico corners outlet. yes, there are outlets. and it was wonderful. great prices. i wish i had a before of the artwork that was hanging above her fireplace. the frame was a mottled pale color that blended into the wall and the art, well, it was a mass produced piece purchased many years ago. didn't go with her current living room at all. she sent me photos last night of the finished piece.

she painted the frame a dark grey. and covered the art with the fabric we chose. she said it was a bear getting everything centered.

but i think it looks awesome! much better than the previous art. now if i could just get her to take a straight photo. next visit...

now i've done it

i've bitten off more than i can chew. way more.

remember this fabric? well, i want to make it in to a roman shade. and i have more fabric coming to make euro shams for our bed. and another fabric to make another roman shade. and company coming in 4 weeks.

i haven't sewn since 8th grade home ec. i won't bring up how many years ago that was. it'll depress me. i bought a sewing machine earlier this year. i have yet to take it out of the box. soon. very soon.

i went to my local joann fabrics, with list in hand of everything i'd need. my first stop was the thread aisle. isn't it pretty? pretty, yet daunting. did i need the 30m, 100m, 250m, cotton, polyester?
i looked around. no clerks to help me. in fact, in the almost 2 hours (yes 2 hours) i was there, there was not one clerk to help me. and i needed help. thanks julie! my sister-in-law who was a phone call away came to my rescue. several times. sorry julie.

then it was on to bobbins. class 15? class 66? get both and return one.

needles. universal? heavy? what #? get a little heavier than middle of the road. i guess.

scissors. little easier to choose.

pinker shears. simple. although why have i always thought they were called pinkING shears.

roman shade rings? cord lock? cord condenser? i fell apart in this aisle. they didn't have what i needed.

i'm now home with my new supplies. now if i can just muster up the courage to take the sewing machine out of the box.

salmon cakes

head over to my friend sarah's blog to get my salmon cake recipe. ok, fine, it's not MY recipe. it's actually a recipe i found in house beautiful, from dawn welch. easy peasy to make. in fact, i think i'll make them tonight.

pressure

steve wants to have another baby.

here's our first...
she's grown up to be quite the stunner.and sweet and loyal and funny and the light of our life.now he wants another puppy, a brother or sister for pixel. it's not a recent development. he's been talking about it since pixel was, oh, maybe 9 weeks old. so that's 2 years and 5 months.

i'm not so sure. a puppy is a lot of work. a dog is a lot of work. 2 dogs are double the work.

this just showed up in my inbox. followed by a text message telling me to check my email. wouldn't want me to miss the email. it was a link. this link.

i found these guys staring at me. a new litter of boykin spaniels. a breed steve's considering for our next child. yes, dear, they're cute.
seriously cute.
they grow up to be this.
we even have a possible name picked out for the puppy. (i've gone along with naming the dog, just not quite agreeing to adopting the dog yet. i'm still having trouble believing i have THIS dog, pixel.... remember, she's my first.)

oh, yea, the name....digit. yes, ...digit. it can change. but we kinda like it. of course nothing will top pixel for a name.

pixel's even in on the game. the game of wear mommy down slowly until we get another puppy, another brother or sister for her. pixel typed this as my screensaver.

those 2. they're laying it on thick. real thick.

caddy cards

i get a lot of requests for custom work... especially calling cards and business cards. this one came from my sister. her husband needed business cards for his side job.... caddying. i came up with these. my initial thoughts were tidy grass, green and bold. i think i succeeded.... and he likes them!

road trip

ok, fine, so it was just down to the post office. a few miles round trip. i took pixel yesterday. she cracks me up in the car. not that she does anything. just her stature, her facial expressions, ya know. so i thought i'd share.

prettiness

today i'm linking up to lauren's pure projects found on her blog, pure style home. aren't her zinnias beautiful? i love them against her black and white wallpaper. steve cut this stargazer lily last night from our backyard garden. the good news... this one was the first to bloom. there's a bunch more!

more progress

why is it so hard to find stylish, budget-friendly outdoor pillows? at least for me, it is. (if you have a great source, fill me in please.) anyway, when the patio is completed (almost there!) steve and i moving our old west elm futon-like sofa (that we'd been using in a guest bedroom) out there. it's actually more like a low daybed. it has a white tufted mattress like the day bed below, metal framing, and tufted back cushions. perfect for reading on the patio!
i searched high and low for outdoor pillows for it and our adirondacks. after returning the latest batch i had ordered online (colors were duller than shown online), i popped into pottery barn the other day. wa-la. the perfect pillow. martinique map pillow. 24" square. pb features it on an outdoor sofa, although i don't think it actually is. but since out patio is now covered, i'm going for it. if it fades from the sun, so be it. it'll just look a little vintage. and it was on sale. even better. what do you think?

beautiful!

earlier today i was running some errands at one of seattle's outdoor shopping villages, university village. i stopped dead in my tracks when i saw this. the outdoor flower displays were gorgeous! click on photos to enlarge. railings of stunning flower boxes outside the starbucks. my camera phone doesn't do it justice. the boxes were spilling with every kind of plant.
i called the village's office and asked who did their flowers. ravenna gardens. i should have known.
they have a small shop located in the village. i always make it a point to stop in and ogle their beautiful displays. here's a few images from their website. their shop front.
beautiful container pots. we seem to have the same philosophy with container pot gardening. more is more!
just beautiful!