Happy Birthday, Aunt Shirley!

My dad's Aunt Shirley is the only person left in her generation in my family. All of my amazing grandparents passed away a number of years ago... but Aunt Shirley, my paternal grandfather (Papa Lew)'s eldest sister is the remaining matriarch of the family.  We don't see her much as my dad relocated to LA before I was born and the rest of the family is on the East Coast... (Brooklyn and Boca!)... but we did fly out 2 years ago for her 100th birthday celebration. Aunt Shirley turned 102 this week!

Dad flew out to be with her on her birthday, which was really special, but wasting away here in pneumonia-ville - we were even a little late with her gift and card. 

Which left me with the question, "What do you give to a 102 year old for her birthday?" And as I thought about it... and packed the box, otherwise filled with drawings of balloons and cousins from the Design Director, a homemade lavender eye pillow, and a card... I decided.... Aunt Shirley gets a new bag. I mean every girl - age 2 or 102 likes a new bag, right?

So here is the bag that I made for my Great Aunt Shirley. (tutorial in the works tonight!)  I thought about ease and springtime and hoped that perhaps she could use it to carry a nice book or letters to some windows to read... Though I know you won't be reading this blog, Aunt Shirley, I hope you love the bag and I hope you know it was made with love for you and all you are.

Today's inspiration: Fresh Air

I love fresh air. I love 60 degrees and partly cloudy (big lofty clouds!) I love sun and shade shadows dancing over my day. Thank you, Lord, for fresh air. It does a million things to me, both inside and out... All of which I need right about now.

New vintage pants for Mimi

The Design Director got these pants when she woke up this morning. Tori is moving across country and downsizing her vintage fabric stash, so we've been gifted with yards and yards of new inspiration... The Design Director loves yellow, and claimed this fabric instantly, so I was happy to oblige-complete with ric-rac trim. I love seeing her in this style.

Home Tour

I love seeing into the lives of blog-writers. It's fun seeing people's homes anyway, but when you get a glimpse into someone's home - especially someone whom you feel a creative connection with, well - that's really great. so in that interest... here is a little glimpse into the life we live here in our little 1922 Los Angeles bungalow. We live in an historic neighborhood, which is undoubtably "edgy" - this is no suburban cul-de-sac - but we love it here and are so happy.
Studio shots will have to come later - considering I still need to wrap my head around what to do with all my scraps! (they're not easy to organize)

Living room. (Before the new chair! I'm also working on finishing the loveseat's cushions this week... will post a photo when I am done) I think I have written before about how much I love the Bachelder tile on the fireplace - it's one of my very favorite parts of the house.

Dining Room. When we moved in, people asked, did you buy the house to go with your furniture? It felt like we did. The closed door is the door you see on the blog daily - where I photograph my projects. My studio lies behind.

Kitchen. It's funky. Open shelves, no dishwasher, few cabinets, original drawers (auckward!) but it's bright and cheerful with a view of the back yard. Someday we hope to update it.... not yet.

Mimi's room. Plenty of light and lots of room to dance. Lots of repurposed and repainted furniture.Master Bedroom. What a lie this photo is. We never make our bed. We used to, but it's no longer worth it with the monkeys around.And there you have it. Our home. Happy. Loud. Crayola. and like the sign over the entry to our dining room says, "all because two people fell in love"

New chair

J and I had promised to buy ourselves a chair for valentines day instead of spending money on random objects... And we finally found it, this weekend at a local upholstery shop that was getting rid of samples...
Hooray!

Pneumonia makes a purse from placemats

I bought these placemats a while ago, with the intention of making myself a tote from them, but when I started the bag today, I got a new idea... The one strap goes through two buttonholes and causes it to self fold... Kind of fresh, I guess... Like the warm air I have been coaxing into the house today.

Pneumonia gets creative - 34 hairclips

Sitting around, sick, tired, with not enough energy even to sew, I decided to make some new hairclips. About 5 years ago, when I was pregnant with the Design Director, I envisioned her coming out like my sister's little one had, looking like our side of the family - with a head of dark, straight hair... as I dreamt of that - I made sweet little hair-clips from ribbon and glue. I imagined sticking them in her downy brown hair and people never having to ask if it was a boy or girl because of the sweet bows and ribbons.
ahem. well, the Design Director came out, bald and as fair as I'd ever seen - with nothing but a tiny tiny bit of fuzz for about 2.5 years. (I'm NOT joking). And the barrettes were given to friends and tucked away until recently... I figured out the other day that a little bit of velcro (the prickly half) on the inside of these makes them stick really well in hair, and now that my hair is shorter, I'm always looking for fun clips...
so ... here's something I can do while feeling awfully weak... using up scraps of ribbon, yoyos, old buttons galore... The funniest part to me was thinking back to when I made the first batch. I remember them taking forever to make - days. And I only made about 10. But this batch was made last night and this morning, while home sick from church... and I whipped them out.
I guess years of crafting can make you faster even at the little things.

New doorstops

Here are a few new doorstops I've made recently...

Onesies tutorial - over at Designing Moms

check out my tutorial at Designing Moms for how to make these easy baby onesies.

Happy Birthday, Z.

We've been sick around here. Last night, I spent most of the night up in Z's high bed, trying to help him calm down from all the coughing - and it occured to me at 3am - that 3 years ago at that minute, Z was entering the world - fast and reckless already - so fast, that we were up in the middle of the night, concerned with his lungs not making the transition from fluid to air. The baby nurse was a man and as he did his best to get Z to breathe, he kept saying, "c'mon, BIG Z" and the first of many nicknames was born.
3 years later. Not easy years. Not comfortable years. 3 very loud and challenging years later, we have a boy of many names... a brilliant, charming MR. MAN who speaks, spells, writes and reads more words than we comprehend a 3 year old knowing.ZE ARTISTE, as I sometimes call him... singing in perfect tune, and dancing amazing renditions of things he's seen only 4x on tv - especially if it's High School Musical numbers with involving "Troy" and a form of sport.We have a MONKEY who cannot be tamed, climbs everything and hangs on momma and daddy in spite of his 40lb structure.
We have a LOVEY. Who snuggles best from 6am-7am - or as demonstrated last night while sick - even while sick, by kissing and hugging mommy and daddy each time he notices we're still there.
We have the DINOSAUR. Continually demonstrating the very foreign art of being a toddler boy - mixing aggression, hitting, growling and very sincere apologies within the span of a minute.
there are so many more... and yet they all fail to encapsulate the fullness of heart that we have when we look at our little boy.

Thank you, God, for the blessing, the challenge, the one who keeps us on our knees... our sweet Z.

(as you read this, picture me having had to get up with him multiple times to deal with coughing bouts - i.e. the reason for our cancelled birthday party last weekend... and say a prayer for some healthy days returning around here... we could use the rest)