enchante!

this is a simply lovely commercial! all the pastels and the enchanting child-like world; balloons, flowers, sweets. if paris was really like this for everyone i would be on a plane tomorrow.

decadent brownies

oh yeah, try adding orange zest to dark chocolate chewy brownies along with a pinch of vietnamese cinnamon. yummy yumminess!

a sketchbook of my very own

when you say "artist", your brain sees "sketchbook". or at least it should. well, anyway, i have always had a difficult time keeping sketchbooks. the idea of applying pencil to such clean pristine snowy white pages freaks me out. what if i mess up? am i stuck with a permanent reminder of something ugly? this is suppose to be an inspiration and idea book. and i know that at times you get really good ideas from something that could be classified as a "mistake". but come on. really?
a long time ago in my student days i purchased a mini portfolio for postcards. it has been occupying a space on my bookshelf for um, let's see, 5 years? yeah. one day while chopping up scrap paper to keep on hand for idea noting, i had a brain storm. what if i made a sketchbook but kept the pages loose? that way if i draw something i hate, i can simply throw it away without destroying the spine of my precious book. also there's something unethical to me about ripping pages out of books. ouch, it hurts my literary soul.

getting back to the mini portfolio comment, from this i drew great inspiration (i.e. i copied my general idea from). so dusting off my bookbinding skills, i set out to create my sketchbook. i am in absolute love with natural undyed linen. all those varying shifts in value, that texture, the smell! i need to get more of this stuff. then chose a lovely green paper that reminds me of weeping willow trees. then to keep it all nice and tidy, a lovely blue edged elastic detailed with a bone button from my ever-growing collection. et voila! my sketchbook!

wigs are fun

awhile ago i had purchased a bag of dyed wool wefts at my local knitting store. at the time i had a half-formed idea of using them for a doll wig, but eh, i never got around to it.
while going through the plethora of stuff in my newly cleaned closet i came across the baggie and put it to the side. well, the time came to use some of those brilliantly dyed pieces, and scrounging around till i found a nylon stocking, use them i did. pulling, stitching, and forming as i went this weft of wool became hair. it's reminiscent of a finger wave styled 'do from the twenties; and i especially like the random green section.

dolly couture

i was going through my narae's wardrobe last night and wanted to change her outfit. one of the few (two) items that i bought rather than made is a white 3/4 sleeve top. it doesn't really go with anything else, as the majority of pieces are super girly. so i decided to make a bottom to go with it.
at first i really wanted to make shorts that are ballooned, but i struggled with them for too long. taking a look at what fabric bits were available from my left over shirt project, i thought about doing a high-waisted skirt; something that was gathered. i created a circle and then started to sew a ruffled edge to it, then sewed on a waistband and connected it to a back. it came out rather well and only took a few hours from conception to hand sewing.
the outfit ends up looking mature, and somewhat funky business-like.

a painting and an obsession

i've never been one to like mushrooms. oh, they're pretty enough, sure. but eat one? ugh. slimy. but then a weird thing happened. i watched a program devoted to fungi on some educational channel. and suddenly i wanted to eat them. it's very strange, but you know, they're very tasty sauted with butter and garlic.
and then i wanted to paint them, and so i did. they're even better to paint!

at the same time, i came across a picture of a dumbo octopus in national geographic. i really think they're a very adorable and cute creature. the ocean is full of such inhabitants. i've always been drawn to things that are so ugly they're cute.
so, onto researching my new subjects. for images a scroll through flickr would be my best shot. there are surprisingly few photos of the dumbo octopus, also known as Grimpoteuthis. they're a little deep in the ocean, places where we (homo sapien) don't get to a whole lot (which is a good thing, imho). i found around 12 or 13 on the whole. mushrooms are a little easier, there are entire groups devoted to this subject.

oh, and i like to work small (kinda obvious huh?). the above painting is 5" x 7".

a kitty bed!

on a recent visit, my sister made a suggestion for the master bedroom; that it needed something that was low to the ground to fill a space by the fireplace. she suggested a dog bed or cat tree. as there aren't any dogs in this house, a kitty bed would be nice. a chance to get those little hairballs off of the main bed.
i had a scrap of nani iro fabric that was too big to toss, and the color scheme worked well enough; little pink roses on a white background. so with some thread, a couple of cotton balls and a little bow, i made a nifty little bed. i like it, i think kitty does too. now if she only had a ball of yarn or a mouse toy.

pillows

the living room needed more orange in the pillow accents, there was a little bit too much pink going on. a floor cushion would work nice, and fill an area that was looking empty. using needlepoint on linen, i stitched out two different patterns on either side of the pillow; one side mostly a soft pink, and the other cubes. i also sewed together a simple orange silk pillow for the couch to replace a magenta one.

pouf

a little detail from the skirts covering the derriere of my narae. she's got such a nice pouf to her skirts.