Necklace Holder...Finally

I have been meaning to make a simple necklace holder for about 5 years. Just something simple, a piece of nice wood with hooks, and something in the back to mount it.

How funny that when I did finally got around to making this, it only took about 2 hours.

I found a gorgeous piece of wood that was 12 x 18", sanded it with our orbital sander (one of our favorite wedding gifts!), beveled the edges, drilled the holes, varnished it, and Mike hung it up for me one day while rearranging all the artwork in the house.



I would have painted it, but there were 3 different colored lines in the wood that were so pretty, almost greenish gold, that I kept it plain. I'm becoming more of a neutral gal lately, or as my crazy color twin and I like to joke, our tastes are maturing!



Sweet and easy if you have a few minutes and some patience. I highly recommend measuring twice to get the alignment correct on your hooks. It made a difference, and I'm glad I was not lazy this time.



P.S. Enjoy the cast of my teeth. That's what you get when you are sweet to the nice dude at the orthodontist!

Fried Chicken Ornaments

Last year, Mike and I started an annual tradition of creating handmade ornaments for each other for Christmas. This year, I started early by ordering a sixty color mini bundle of felt from Lupin Handmade.



We started off normally. Mike made a Christmas tree ornament for our Christmas tree. I made something that I fondly remember. My yellow Popple stuffed animal from 1985. Andrew and I both had one, and they were the best toy. The Popple ornament has a seam on the back (for it's head to pop out), and a miniature pom-pom that I made with tufts of yarn in my stash. Though small, it was a mighty effort! Ha.



Then things just got silly. The big stash of felt started to beckon us. "What is ridiculous that needs to be made out of felt? I have your perfect color right here!"

Uh, obviously a pink Snuggie ornament had to be made. Mike bought one for me as a joke for my birthday. It is not perfect for an outdoor sporting event, by the way, because my butt would freeze! That is why I will be developing the "Snoncho" in 2010. That's right, it will be a poncho with sleeves, and perhaps a beer cozy. I cannot wait to act in my own infomercial.



Mike crafted a Frankenstein-looking fried chicken leg. I love it.



We've also decided to make up for the past 8 Christmases where we did not partake in this tradition. Hilarity to surely ensue... Our new fake tree loves us.

A Studio of My Own!

Mike had his studio in the back of our apartment for the past three years. His friend Meghan asked him to share a studio with her, which has a great view of downtown, and is quite affordable. This means that we moved all of his supplies out of the studio in our apartment, and my things right in!



The room has windows facing south and west, so it gets amazing light at the end of the day. We relocated a small sofa into the room, which creates a cozy little reading nook. (This also improves the layout in our living room drastically!)



My bike fits right underneath the mountain of books. This meant that we could get rid of the wall rack that was getting to be an eyesore, and the kitchen is less crowded.



There huge graphite drawing is Mike's, which is a view from the opposite side of the room. The pretty Florida scarf is from Shona, and has certainly inspired our wedding palette and Save the Date cards. (I'll show them soon).



This wall was a mess from the start, so it's practically a bulletin board by now. We will fix it up quite nicely when it's time to move out. It is so wonderful to have an actual room for myself. I can listen to music or podcasts and work on whatever my heart desires!

If you were thinking of carving out a space for yourself, I highly recommend it. Whether it's an entire room or a desk in your kitchen, it's great to have a place that inspires you to create.

I'll have lots of things to show you soon!

Finnegan's Wake of Excuses

Yeah, yeah, yeah...took a "quick" 25 day break here. I missed you guys, if you're still around (wink). Me, quiet?! I know. But it happens each August, what can I do?

Without further ado, here are my excuses for not writing. Oh, and it's going to be long.

1. I've been attending green design events and tours in Philly after work and on weekends. I've been seeing such amazing things, and may (fingers crossed) be able to do some rooftop gardening. We shall see. The place that I originally wanted to help out with does not really need my type of expertise right now, but I'm still meeting some great people and enjoying myself. I'll just keep trying, persevering and keep learning.



2. I blocked my huge Pi Shawl and got to wear it to a wedding in Indianpolis! The groom is the little brother of one of my best friends. I adore her family, and it was so good to see them. We laughed and talked and had a wonderful time. To my delight, my favorite type of cake was served at the reception. It's Carvel ice cream cake with the wonderful chocolate crunchies, I know you were wondering.



There was an instance my friend's aunt and I raced to the dance floor and started an enthusiastic rendition of the Chicken Dance, only to realize that it was a traditional Polka song. We stared at each other sadly, half attempted to try the Polka dance, and walked away to our table full of folks laughing. It was one of the best moments!



3. I found myself visiting KJ in Brooklyn when she told me one Friday morning that due to some fluke, she had a free weekend from her busy restaurant schedule! This rarely happens, so I hopped in my truck to hang out. What a relaxing weekend of having nothing to do but walk around, talk and eat with one of my favorite people.

We watched the roller skaters in Central Park balancing water bottles on their heads and pirouette in hot pink spandex (jealously from the sides), saw turtles, witnessed the good deed of a fighting couple help a stranded canoer whose paddle had fallen into the lake, and ate like kings at the Shake Shack where KJ's friend is the manager. I mean do you see these ice cream sundaes that were brought out for us? It pays off being a hanger on to the foodies.

Coincidentally, we were sharing our table with a man visiting his daughter in NYC so that he could cross things off of his Bucket List. The new Yankee Stadium was on the agenda that day. Isn't that cool? In addition to being awesome, he works for our health insurance provider. His daughter works for Fitness magazine. So they were there on hand in case we had a heart attack due to ice cream overload. What are the odds? Although they were the lucky ones, since we shared our table and desserts with them!



4. I went to a super sweet baby shower for my friend Alice. I had an excuse to buy teeny clothes with little footie pajamas in the shape of dinosaur paws or featuring an adorable monkey that was incognito as a bandit. A bandit of bananas I guess. What else do monkeys steal? I won a blue ribbon for pinning the "baby" on the "bump" which I proudly attached to my new dress. We also enjoyed delicious cupcakes from Flying Monkey bakery. Mmm!



5. I took my cousin Cara to Key West for a few days. This means I can cross something off of my own Bucket List if you will. It makes up for the cruise that I promised I'd take her on when she was 16 and I was 24. In my 24 year old mind, that by the time she was 21 and I 30, I'd have enough money saved to take her on a little special trip. Ha! It's been the family joke for six years, but it was really fun to hang out and have this time together. Cue some cheesy music and a video montage of our trip...

I didn't have my camera, but the entire drive from the tip of Florida to Key West is breathtaking. It's a one way highway which has you travelling over miles of various bridges, including the famous Seven Mile Bridge, or small pieces of land that have water on either side. They had a heat index of about 105 degrees. It was brutal. So we alternated between the pools and the ocean, rode on scooters, attended a drag show, drank icy beverages, went on a sunset reggae snorkeling outing with people so hilarious that I wrote down things that they said so I wouldn't forget, and conducted our own Key Lime Pie tour complete with a 50 point scale. Our final winner was the Blond Giraffe's delectable pie featuring a cookie crust, tart filling and a lovely meringue. We even saw an endangered Key Deer on our drive home, and made sure to alert other drivers so they would not hit the cute little guy.

6. After the hullabaloo of the Key West trip, I headed home to Plantation, Florida for a week with my parents and to get down on some serious wedding planning. Thanks again Mom for letting me borrow your car. I know you don't think it's a big deal, but I really appreciated it!



7. On August 1st I got to wear a pretty party dress (not this one, but something similarly cute) because I was asked to be my nephew's Godmother! What an honor! I love that little guy so incredibly much. And although I'm slightly biased, he is the brightest, cutest, funniest, most mischevious, charming and flirty little bilingual boy that I know. No. Seriously.

Are you really still reading?! I adore you guys.

8. I haven't really talked about my wedding yet, but that's because I didn't want to do anything until I went down to Florida, picked a place and set a date. We knew we wanted it to be June or July of next year, to make it easier for many of our family members (and the groom) who are either in school or teach and work for schools. Also, this would allow enough time for my mom's sisters to possibly come all the way from the Philippines! So, we found a place that we are all really excited and happy about. And set a date (07.17.10). This was the second place that we visited, and all because of a chance conversation with one of my mom's incredible friends. Who is owed a thank you note immediately!



9. On Thursday of last week, my Mom, Aunt Marty and best friend, Brooke went dress shopping. At the second store, I wasn't going to try anything on, but Brooke insisted I try on a fun mini-dress made of crinoline that I was eyeing. While I was changing, she brought out a fun 1980s style dress that didn't make the cut, and then just one more. "Just try it on!" exclaimed Little Miss Bossy. She laced up this dress (I thought I hated a bit of lacing) which took about 10 minutes. After she was done, we knew! And the four of us were just discussing (over a huge lunch and more dessert!) how maybe we weren't the type of people to get that gut feeling over the dress, since we also weren't in the mood to cry... But then I came out and we all got excited. There was a bit of crinoline to kick around, but not huge, and I felt like myself! It was on sale, in my budget, and may be crossed off the list. Oh, and it's so pretty! Hee hee!

10. I am 99.87% sure that I've found the soldier in the Gulf War who was my pen pal for two years thanks to Facebook. We were asked to write to a soldiers in Mrs. Gelman's sixth grade class. Well, mine was a writer, the nicest guy, and wordier than yours truly (if that's possible). He wrote and typed these amazing letters that my mom and I would read. He'd send postcards from all over Europe, and actually made a big impact on what I would end up reading for fun in high school. Mainly long novels based in Russia and a love of anything Camelot related. Anyway, he was a really nice person who had an impact, and it will be nice to see where his life ended up, and which of those girls he ended up with. Ha!



So there you have it, my Finnegan's Wake length post of excuses. I'll leave you with a small photo of my journal which shows the edge of the Earth, and me falling off of it. It is also documenting a strange man that we saw advertising a new Laundromat, in the most outrageous three-dimensional get up, that we thought he was a Pro-Life person wearing a shirt showing the insides of a pregnant belly. But no, it's a washing machine. Bless his heart. It makes you love your job, doesn't it?

Glad to be back, Mariss

P.S. I have not resorted to writing emoticons on my blog, I just don't want to. However, please insert winks, smiley faces and big squealing noises in the appropriate places.

P.P.S. This post is dedicated to my friend Nicole. You happy now?! Ha ha ha.

Louis Sofa

My dream sofa, the one I think of a few times a day, is the Louis Sofa from Elite Leather. Our next big purchase one day will be a sofa. For now, we're working on the emergency fund. This sofa wouldn't be in the running anyway, for one, Mike is vehemently against leather, and it's quite pricey for us. In this little picture though, it is mine.



A girl can dream, can't she? That's what my Make, Bake or Buy project was about, after all. A collection of all the silly things that I would like to have, but realize I don't need.



What ridiculous materialistic items are you guys dreaming about these days?

Peruvian Handiwork

When we went to Maryland Sheep and Wool last month, my objective was to only purchase something that really spoke to me. I found it between the funnel cake stand and the ribbon fries.

Turning a corner, I was assaulted by stunning imagery and craft work at the Ayni booth. Peruvian handcrafted textiles of the Ayacucho tradition, which is a tradition that is passed down through families. The families raise the alpaca, process and spin the fleece, dye it with natural plant dyes, and create beautiful art by weaving and crewel type embroidery.



Ayni is a non-profit organization founded by three American woman, a botanist, an anthropologist, and an educator / artist. To quote their mission,"Ayni aims to preserve the cultural patrimony of Peru and promote social welfare in Andean communities through sponsorship of cultural programs, and through sales of Peruvian handicrafts."

The one with the black background reminds me of one of my favorite Josef Frank textiles. It's the black background and the swirls of pattern and color that draw your eye every which way.



I was enamored with this piece, but it was just not in my budget at the time. I took three or five walks around before coming back and seeing it looking at me. The last time I came back, a woman was holding it up in amazement. We started talking and I told her I was so pleased that she was going to have it in her home. She especially loved the bobbles, just so you know.



Although I had my heart set on the one piece, this salmon colored piece also caught my eye. It was in my budget, and was made by the woman in the photograph. Sales of the work help support Los Gorriones Orphanage, ANFASEP, which helps survivors of a violent conflict in the area, and University of Huamanga, which works with a grant to protect irreplaceable artifacts in the region.



I carefully sewed a dowel rod on the back of the top and bottom, with 2 eyehooks screwed into the top rod to mount it.



Isn't it lovely? Even though it doesn't have the chains of bobbles like it's more elaborate sister, it suits my taste just fine.

Pink + Orange

In the last apartment we lived in, we repainted every room. The ceilings were around 16 feet high, so this was no easy task. There was cobalt teal, purple, green, and a bathroom called "Oriental Orange" which was realistically Glow in the Dark Pylon Orange. (It looked slightly better than it sounds...) After repainting it all white when we moved out, I decided that I would not paint until I had my own home. I got burnt out on making it mine, and leaving it.



After almost 3 years in my current apartment, I've been slowly getting over this. I'm not repainting the place or buying a couch or anything, but I'm beginning to care again. Like my favorite style guru's Stacy and Clinton, it's time to invest in myself. That means enjoying my surroundings, and ironing my clothes like a grown up!



Mike was in Indiana this week, so I took some time to do my quarterly cleaning out of the closet to donate and trash. I organized, I repotted the houseplants, and even bought a flat file at Ikea for my studio area. It's a simple start, but is making me really happy.

I bought these magazine holders in plain white, and thought I'd enhance them a bit. I painted with acrylic paints for the first time in nearly 11 years. 11 years. Watercolor and inks are not the same. There's that meditative quality of making these marks with paint. I think I need to raid Mike's oil paints afterall...



I mixed some different pinks and oranges that would go well together, and created a pattern on the one side to make them go together. I love lots of shades of similar colors. When we do get hitched (probably next summer), I'm telling the gals to wear different shades like this. Because isn't one color just boring? (wink)



If it hadn't been for the gorgeous weather, the Art Star craft fair, bike rides and an invitation to my friend's pool, I don't think I would have left my house!