desimms clips 4u

:: my sweet boy is slumbering under the "sixth time's the charm" quilt that I made for him (and the book ) a few months before we ever saw his sweet new face. I am glad. And you might have guessed this already, but I'm going to tell you why I'm glad. I have found myself somewhere between writing a book and not writing a book. And even though the writingabook part finished up a while ago I am just now settling in to the relief of notwritingabook. I take a lot of joy in designing and putting together ideas in a book format, but I am feeling very glad right now that I am at a place where I can just await the fruits of my labor and enjoy the items that I made during the whole process of it. When I was very pregnant, I spent hours piecing this quilt and hours writing the instructions and then we photographed a 3-week-old Roman on the quilt between the very frequent newborn nursings. And that was way back when nursing still hurt so badly that my eyes would well up ...

I love an excuse to buy fresh flowers.... not that I need one. An excuse to buy a few bowls of treats to brighten conversation and sweeten the day.... lovely. And tidying up the studio so that even my bolts are on their best behavior? This is a rare and wonderful occasion. I even plumped up my stock of straight pins that seem to disappear like socks in the laundry. Why such ado? Ms. Alabama herself came to spend the day with me. We sewed. We talked. We laughed. We ate. And we also took pictures. More about our very wonderful time together on March 3rd as I share more about her fascinating design process and beautiful new book . hooray. AM

Juliana completed the last of her art school applications today. In addition to sending in her portfolio, essays and applications, each school has additional projects required. For Parsons, the challenge was to find one thing in your environment that you've overlooked or taken for granted and share it from three perspectives, then write about each. When she read this project aloud to me, I insisted she takes me for granted more than anything in her environment. But I was kidding. But she got that look in her eye. But I wasn't wearing any make-up. But she always waits till the last minute and didn't have time to think of anything else. But I was really tired and hadn't even brushed my teeth yet that day or washed my face or brushed my hair. But I got her a new camera for her 18th bday and she was feeling really snappy. But. But. Okayuhh. These are just the photos that she used as a basis for her drawings that I am too nervous to share here until after she get...

Sometimes what I think is the most obvious or simple thing to do with a new fabric ends up being my favorite project. These little receiving blankets are a perfect example of that sweet simplicity and a lovely way to let the fine little prints of Little Folks and Folksy Flannels shine alongside each other. And a thoughtful baby gift in not too much time. The combination of supple cotton voile on one side and the cozy cotton flannel on the other side is the absolute prefect weight for a receiving blanket. Not to mention these wrap, tuck & swaddle so beautifully without any of the starchiness of a standard quilting cotton (which is better for heavier stroller blankets & quilts). Making nice smooth curves is easy, just use the curve of a salad plate or some such traceable item to trim the corners from your rectangles. The edging is bias cut from the solid voile collection which is sewn on after the two blanket layers are basted around the edges with wrong sides together. And...

How could I forget the mushrooms?! Please do add one cup of sliced white button mushrooms to the 2nd section of yesterday's recipe. You will be glad you did. I'll go fix the post here in a sec to add it. Mmm. Just as yummy today warmed up for lunch as it was last night. This morning I was figuring with the kids how old they'll be once Roman starts school. Which led to further discussion about how long they'll go to school, college etc. I remember that time frame sounding endless when I was little. Joseph then asked if you go to college for 12 years too once you're done with the rest of school. I chuckled and said- well most people don't and that - I just went to college for four years to learn how to be a designer . Eleni said- four years!? Were you just drawing that whole time? I told her -yup pretty much. Then she seemed to have a look of realization on her little bubbly face and said- oooohhh! you kept drawing and erasing and drawing and erasing and ...

We were so honored to have Eleni and Roman depicted by artist, Ellen Heck . Her work is thoughtful, provocative and just plan pretty. She can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this print is an example of a multiple-plate combination of drypoint and aquatint on copper over woodcut. Here are others made in a similar fashion as part of an ongoing series. In addition to her prints, and works on paper, I particularly love her canvas collection called Sleepers . The way she depicts the blankets and quilts over the figures makes the paintings become more than portrait but also very modern and abstract-but no less tender. Love. Anyway- I was particularly thrilled (not as thrilled as Eleni) to receive the first edition of 10 prints as a gift from the artist. Thank you Ellen! Since we have yet another snowday today I'm in the mood for soup again. So I thought I would share my Creamy Tomato Chicken Chowder recipe with you! Sorry no pictures of the process because its not qu...

Today was book character day for the elementary among us. Isabela spent about a whole one zillionth of a second deciding who to be. The love of Laura started a ways back but hasn't gone anywhere yet (we even bought some seasons of the tv series on dvd for her at Christmas which she lurves ). We knew we needed a prarie-ish style dress of a small scale print and an apron. Since we had about 30 minutes before bed to pull three kid characters together last night, we borrowed this flannel nightie that my mom made for Juliana ( mom, pipe up in the comments if you remember the pattern ). Its a little big but fit the bill perfectly. Then I literally took about 10 seconds to cut a width of muslin into an apron shape, no sewing, hemming, nothin' and tied it around her. She looked in the mirror and had the kind of smile that makes her top cheek dimple join the other lower dimples and all was right with the world. Last year she was the Giving Tree , and we took a lot of time to ma...

Would you get any work done with these two at your feet? You can hear our printer running in the background as well as Lemon the canary singing his morning song. These two are a constant comedy routine, with Roman playing the lead role as the faithful pet and Leo playing the supporting role as the impatient unappreciative pet owner. Right after our 3 kid birthdays wrapped up we were hit with a slew of snowdays here which sent me right back into being, well, snowed over. Only more fun and wintery like than the other kind of snowed over. We were quite literally stuck here and I didn't even get in a car for about 5 days. This made me a little crazy and hugely happy. And productive. During our stuckinthesnow days I made: : spinach chicken lasagna : popovers : two pairs of little girl leggings : two little girl shirts : prolly about 20 cups of cocoa : one little japanese print skirt : creamy chicken tomato chowder : butterscotch cookies : a snowman and a half : homemade popcorn b...