A handmade Christmas.

I'm making close to all of my gifts this year and did make all of my cards. Here they are drying after I block printed them all.
Have a wonderful holiday everyone! I haven't had time for much posting and don't think I will for the next week or so. I'm still working on some of those gifts and getting ready to travel.

Enjoy the season!

Happy Winter!

Happy New Year!

Favorite Christmas Covers.

Prince Charles

Did anyone happen to see Harmony, A New Way of Looking at our World on NBC Friday? Prince Charles is a great spokesman for green issues and has been for years. I remember him speaking out on the environment when I lived over there in the early 90's. Many people thought he was a bit kooky, not me. I'm so glad more people are listening!

Also, back in the 90's he was selling cards of his watercolours. I bought them and used them all except for one of each. Of course I still have them. (See why I find it so hard to purge....I have so many things I don't want to part with.)

Duvet cover for my son.

My son recently moved into his own apartment in Seattle. It's a gorgeous old house divided into three apartments, built around 1910 with hardwood floors, lots of charm and floor to ceiling single pane windows! This week the temperature will be dropping down into the 20's. I finished this duvet cover for him just in time. I had some "manly" fabrics and without making it too cute, patchworked the cover. I like the way it turned out.

Stay warm everybody here in the Pacific NW!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom would have been 74 today. I think I've posted this picture before, but I just love it.

Celebrity sightings.

And, no, I was not stalking. On Monday in Trader Joe's I kept seeing this girl on different aisles wondering where I knew her from. I was sure it was from somewhere on the Island, but I couldn't place her. When she got in line behind me and spoke I instantly recognized her and that very distinct voice from 500 Days of Summer. Of course my kids had to tell me that the guy with her was her husband and lead singer for Death Cab for Cutie.

Then on Thursday, it was Tom Skerritt a few rows in front of me...

when I went to hear Nora Ephron...

talk about her new book.

Anthropologie.

The Anthropologie catalogue arriving is almost as good as one of my favorite magazines coming in the mail. This month is no exception...the collage and assemblage in the November issue is fabulous. Here are just a few images...

Yes! Giants win the World Series in five.

Happy November.

I love the rain.

I love the rain.

I love the rain.

I love the rain.

I love the rain.

I love the rain.

I love the rain.

I hate the rain! It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday, a crisp, sunny fall day and I was wondering how anyone could live anywhere else. Today I'm wondering how anyone could live here a whole winter! The rain has been pounding on our metal roof since about 9 p.m. (how nice for the trick-or-treaters that it waited) and we're suppose to get a few inches today!

Photo via http://littlejez.blogspot.com/. I still have not replaced my camera.

Books.

I love these paintings from Holly Farrell, found via this blog.

Headboard.

As seen in the LA Times....the home of Lucinda and David Schiff in Pacific Palisades. The headboard is covered in Opera, a Schumacher fabric print by the famed, late New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg. I love it! I need my own room, my husband would never go for this.

Block Printing Class.

I took a fabulous two-day workshop at Pratt this weekend. I'm much more comfortable working with collage or letterpress, where I don't have to draw (never learned how), but I managed to come up with some simple images. It was amazing what intricate cuts the others were doing. Here are a few of my prints in black and in color. I like the idea of doing a lot more of the quilt blocks and sewing them altogether!

Happy Friday!

pumpkins from my garden

Working on a quilt....

...made from my scraps. I still have the outside border, back, quilting and binding to do. More to come!

Happy Birthday Sally!

Found the perfect card for her...she very pretty and turning 50!

Card by Offensive and Delightful.

Vintage cookbooks.

While I'm on the subject of vintage, thought I'd share these old cookbooks. They were published in 1940 for the "Culinary Art Institute, One of America's foremost organizations devoted to the science of Better Cookery."

I love all the pie recipes like two-tone pie, Sharkey custard pie, eggnog pie, honey pie and of course, surprise pie. Makes me think of all the pie names in the movie "Waitress." I don't want Earl's baby pie, kick in the pants pie, I hate my husband pie, marshmallow mermaid pie, fallin' in love chocolate mousse pie, Earl murders me because I'm having an affair pie and naughty pumpkin pie....just to name a few. I just watched that movie again and loved it just as much as the first time.

Notions.

A friend gave me an old box of sewing supplies and I found these inside. These first three have a copyright date of 1940. Couldn't find dates on the others, but judging by the prices, they're old. I'm going to try using the tracing paper. The paper you buy today just isn't as good as the old stuff. Buttonholes, on the other hand, are much easier on my machine today!

Movies, movies, movies.

Catching up on some movies while home nursing my knee after surgery on Thursday. I'm doing quite well, but still need to ice and elevate. It seems I never have time to sit down and watch an entire movie, but I just watched five of them over the last three days. And loved them all! I had to pass on my thumbs up recommendations for all five of these...