Needle Felting is fun!

Laura and I went to a needle felting class on Thursday at the Knit Cafe on Queen.  It was so much fun!  The instructor Edie Kim was super easy-going and after a brief introduction left us to do our own thing.  After poking at my orange fluff for a bit with the needle, I decided it kind of looked like a mushroom and so decided to make a couple of toadstools.  I really like how they turned out - and they even stand up!

They have been seriously man-handled kid-handled since arriving home and have held up pretty well.  I also made this stone-like thing, figuring it might make a nice brooch or button or something.  Edie showed me how to wet felt it a bit too, which gave it its nice shape, but seems to have made the wool pill a bit.  Maybe I will attack it with my sweater shaver...

It was so nice to have a night out, and spend it crafting!  Thanks to Laura for being a game partner.  Anyone else interested in a follow-up craft night?

Curated Style




I love that design now seems to be more about ‘curating’ a space.  Rather than going for a certain Look (and getting all new things to fit it) the spaces being featured now have such individual personality, defined by the objects and furniture the owner chooses to showcase.  It is like seeing an exhibit on the homeowner, where every artwork, vase, and table has a story to tell and represents a piece of his or her life.  It is a comfortable and authentic way to live.  I personally love looking around the room in the evening, book on my lap and wine in hand, and remembering which objects I picked up on travels, which ones are cherished gifts, and which have been handed down from our families.


This one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, featured in the New York Times, is an excellent example of this style.  The owners, architects (of course) Robert Highsmith and Stefanie Brechbuehler, said they wanted the apartment to be "neutral vessel to contain these things we love.”


“The studio was an exercise in collecting only what really matters,” Mr. Highsmith said, but this apartment is also a carefully edited “collection of things inherited, gathered and assembled.”


Click here to read the full article, but here are my favourite photos:

Oh that light fixture!!!!  Droooool.....

Gorgeous floors...

Interesting scale in the artwork.

Can't go wrong with fresh, yellow flowers!

All photos are by Leigh Davis for the New York Times.  

I found this great apartment and article on SeeSaw Design. 

Oh JOE...

After a lovely morning with Kendra, I stopped by Superstore on the way home to check in with my good buddy, Joe Fresh.  My restraint was EPIC.  Seriously, the boys stuff in there now is the cutest I have seen.  For once it rivals the girls stuff.  These screen shots from their website do NOT do it justice, the cutest things are for some reason not pictured here!

They have some great stuff for Mumma too...

Has a very Gap vibe, no?  But cheaper... in every way.

Getting hitched?

If you know anyone getting married, point them to this amazing downloadable invitation package from e.m.papers.  This black and white printable Wedding Invitation Kit contains an editable PDF template for every piece of stationery you will need for your wedding: a wedding invitation, a save the date card, a response card, a wedding program, a menu, place cards/escort cards, table numbers, a seating list and a thank you card.  I love the vintage looking illustrations, fonts and, oh by the way - it's FREE!

You can find it here.  


Via How About Orange?

Perfect Kids Room

I have had this shared bedroom in my bookmarks for a while - I just love looking at it!  I love:
1) the two-toned walls
2) the huge bright red letters
3) the gorgeous quilts
4) the garland
5) the colour scheme
6) the simplicity and calm of the room

Don't worry, I am under no illusion that a Will/Cam room could ever be this clutter-free, but the colour scheme alone is worth keeping in mind!  And those LETTERS... love them.

Awesome.  Check out the whole blog, it will inspire you I am sure!!  Cluck cluck Sew.

Spring Bedding

Although it is FREEZING out there today, at least the sun is shining, and if you stay indoors, it is easy to convince yourself that it is spring.  Although my white duvet cover wasn't exactly wintery, I saw this (cheap!) green polka dot cover at Ikea the other day and thought it was just the thing I needed!  I also got a frame for Gran's old print and thought it might look nice up here too.  Nice when you can change things up just by moving art rather than anything drastic!

Blissful White

To soothe my tortured soul [insert tortured sigh] I am losing myself in gorgeous images from Emma's Design Blog of this perfectly organized, perfectly styled, and perfectly white house in Denmark.  And making peanut butter cookies.

Styling by Katrine Martensen-Larsen, Photograph: Mikkel Adsbøl.

Well... CRAP.

I am just having the worst day.  I had no idea that when you uploaded photos to Flickr from iPhoto, that they stayed synchronized.  So when I deleted my Flickr folders from iPhoto (in the interest of 'cleaning up' files), it deleted all of them from Flickr.  As in everything I uploaded since I got this computer last summer. WAHHHHH....  I am sure all of you out there are smarter than I, but in just in case - don't do what I did!

Now I know how these guys felt... ( Is it wrong to love the photos of your kids crying?)

A collection a day

I don't know if any of you have been following Lisa Congdon's A Collection a Day blog, but it is FASCINATING.  I love collections, but cannot imagine where I would keep any, let alone 365 of them.  Lisa's are so varied and creative (of course, she is an artist...) and the way she has photographed them is quite stunning.  She also includes "imagined" collections that she draws or paints, and they are equally interesting.  Here are a few of my favourites, either by subject or just the arrangement of them.  You should sign up for her feeds!  And Chris - aren't you happy you married THIS Lisa?  :)

Growth Chart

I was looking for quite a while for a growth chart for the boys.  Although there are lots of cool decals out there, I really wanted one that was removable and moveable, in case we moved or, you know, I redecorated...  In the end I was going to just paint a plank of wood white and stencil on the numbers like a ruler.  What I didn't realize I actually wanted was this ruler from Yanko Design, with its awesome fonts and graphics.  So it is a darn good thing Diana made that gorgeous chart from her boys old chart (which I love even more than this), so I didn't have to do all that work and then see these and feel sad...

I found this via Seesaw Designs blog.

Here is my awesome chart that my mother-in-law made for both boys:

The giraffe, C and W are cut from Chris and Dave's old chart and Diana stitched a tape measure on the front.  The second photo is Chris and Dave's original measurements sewn on to the back, which I love to look at!  It is so neat to see how compared to each other knowing how tall they are now, and how they compare to our boys.  Thank you so much Diana!

Poetic Rugs

I had to post these lovely rugs I saw on The Haystack Needle.  They are quotes in French from Aesop's Fables, and I love the handwritten feel of the font.  The are actually outdoor rugs, but they would be nice in our sun room, or even a nursery!  They can be found at Home Infatuation, which has all kinds of treats for outdoor living.  The readers at Haystack Needle are quite observant - they noticed the rug on Apartment Therapy in this photo:

 from Apartment Therapy

and that it is probably derived from this great (and $$$) rug from Design Within Reach:

I tell ya, it can all be found on the blogs! :)