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Thank you, Catherine. Thank you so much for the beautiful shawl you sent to me. Seeing as how its almost 100 degrees outside, my bed and a living room chair are currently fighting over who gets to wear this beautiful creation of yours. However, the chill blowing through the vents some evenings is just enough to warrant a little snuggle with your gift as I read. Thank you so much. I have no idea what I did to deserve this, but sweet Catherine of Canada reads my blog and thought I would enjoy it. Not only that but she made it just for me, and even asked for my color choices before she started. I only accepted because its obvious she takes so much pleasure in knitting and in giving. How precious is that? A virtual stranger and so much kindness. When I look at it I think of this person in my mind sitting and knitting it for me. She gave me all that time. I wanna be kind. I made a pillow the other day for my neighbor that I've been wanting to make for a year. A year! Her d...

We've been swimming our brains out here lately and the towel dragging thing back and forth to the pool has gotten to be, well, a drag. I found a fun solution and wanted to share it with you. C'mon! Fair warning, this is kind of a quickie and not highly detailed instruction-wise, but you'll likely get the picture as soon as you see the pictures. You're so smart. Wash and dry your beach towel and your selected fabric. Measure the width of the towel from end to end. Cut two pieces of fabric in a length that is one inch longer than your towel measurement and a width that is about 7-8". Lay fabric right sides together, fold both in half lengthwise to find the center point. From the center fold measure 4 inches and pin, just through the two layers, then pin again another inch towards the fold. Do this on both sides of the center fold so the pins are the same position. Now sew with 1/2" seam allowance continuously up one of the short sides, down the length tha...

This is one of my favorite young pictures of my dad before he was my dad. He left Greece at 17 in search of a better education, he married my mother here because he found love, and he stayed here to give his children the best life possible. And it has been the best life possible. No one on this earth exceeds my dad in compassion, generosity or self-reliance. I've received too many gifts from him to name, but my most cherished gift is his artistry that showed up in my genes. He didn't choose to pursue an artistic career because he couldn't assure the well-being of our family with that. But he secured a world for me where I could choose that, or anything else. The best choice I ever made was marrying the amazing father of my children. I had never met a college guy so nuts for babies. We would be on a date and he'd point out a cute baby at the next table. He changed Juliana's diapers for the first several days before I had it all figured out. Completely differe...

I told you I would share my flea market purchase. This is so much more than a flea market purchase. This is a dream come true in a Pennsylvania Dutch plate, no? The dream goes something like this.....I wake up in my countryside home, that is situated somewhere between the green hills of Tennessee and at the foot of the mountains of Greece amongst the olive groves (which can happen in a dream, even if in real life that would put me in the Atlantic ocean)...how do I wake up you ask?? The rooster of course. Every ground floor window in the house is actually a French door, that opens up to a different garden vignette of flowers, herbs or vegetables. All the children (dressed in white or burlap-brown) are happily occupied chasing butterflies in the 12 acres that never needs mowing, and Jeff is building furniture in the wood shed (okay it gets fuzzy here, he's doing something manly). After an espresso, I put on a long white apron over my charming but not too fancy red calico dre...

I had to enlist my favorite photographer again for some new images to give to a German patchwork magazine. She had me laughing the entire time but managed to get what is likely a more accurate portrait. Yes, my hair keeps getting shorter and weirder. We can thank Juliana for that too. Above is a self-portrait of sorts that I made before I could round her up to do one in the traditional means. It was a fun experiment though to compose something of yourself without yourself. Of course I did cheat a bit including a painted self-portrait I made about 5 years ago. But that's telling too. If I got one thing pounded into my art brain in high school and college its that one can never do too many self-portraits. Juliana may have gotten the real me through snorting, giggling and tearing up, causing me to slide out of view. It's good though to imagine yourself every now and then too, I guess. Which I think I do almost daily here, as it turns out. xo,Anna

I think what I enjoy most about the flea market is the intentional and unintentional collections that happen within each booth. I love that bad art can look really provocative sitting on a dirt floor when placed next to equally bad art. Or is it the quilt that makes the paintings look good? Dunno. But I like the way it looks. Do you love this? I love this. So many of the flea market "collections" I photographed included the truck that brought them there in the background. Telling, I think. Does that Miller Lite neon work? Did that gold chandelier hanging from the mirror-less chest also once hang in a Catholic church? Sure looks like it could have. I have to believe that there is an order that is happening in the mind of the booth owners as they arrange their goods. Are they displaying it the way I'm see it? Because a lot of it is really so randomly gorgeous that I feel like they have to be doing it on purpose. Did that tired old woman see how the flowered tr...

Pull up a seat. Going through pics from a recent flea market excursion with Juliana. There were star sightings. Superstars too. Hot superstars who desperately needed snowcones to be cool. Tell me what is classier than fanning oneself in the heat? Or is it just us southerners? Or dive in and swim with these handpainted fish. Speaking of fish, I have mahi mahi in the oven oven, so I gotta run. More exploring soon, we're not done yet. xoxo,AM

I picked up the June/July issue of Ready Made and was delighted to see the inclusion of one of my prints from Chocolate Lollipop. And not an especially chocolate-y one either. It is such a cool magazine, truly. Uberhip. Isn't that the coolest two page spread ever? I want to make it. Was happy to be thrown together with other designer- pals of mine and some people I have yet to meet who are printing their own textiles. Follow some of the links listed up there in that photo. You'll find wonderful stuff to be had. Although with some of the price tags on those, I am thinking a pillow. A small one. Anyway, you've seen my one strip of fabric now in all its glory, but its worth the buy for all the other snazzy ideas in the other features. Hope you're happy today, I am. xoAM

I love the soft, furry strings that unravel and do the tango in the washer and dryer. I have a few yards washed and ready for sewing. There have been times when I've been so anxious to work on something that I don't wash the fabric first. Confessions of a cotton addict. If the un-pre-washed items happen to be a garment for me, I just give it to my sister afterwards. She is the exact cotton-shrink-up size difference from me in height and weight. It's perfect. Anyway, this fabric reminds me of a lush lawn with a few dandelions popping up and other summery things. So it'll be a summer dress with summery madras as straps and it will be worn by me, even after its been washed. But for now, I'm author -girl, and until I change out of that cape, it'll have to wait all soft and wrinkley for me. xoAM

Warning, serious home happiness is rampant throughout this post. If you're not willing to cock your head to the side and say 'awe', you should stop reading now. Jeff and I arrived just in time last Wednesday morning from NYC to get changed and ready for Isabela's last day of pre-K picnic. This is such a big deal as she is on her way to kindergarten this fall. We only wish she could bring her teacher Ms.Pam with her. The amazing Ms.Pam who has taught several of our children not to mention who prepared those scrumptious strawberry delights for her picnic parents. Such a kind heart. All the food we had in NYC was so delicious, of course. If you can believe it, I actually missed standing at my own stove and cooking a simple spaghetti dinner. I missed folding laundry (is something wrong with me?) and I actually craved a little housecleaning, sweeping, plant watering and weeding . Weird. Would not have wanted to miss the first captive of the summer. Isabela insis...