just a peek...

...of what i've been up to. i am in the middle of finishing the bathroom in the dollhouse. i was inspired by an armoire to conclude that the bathroom must have chinoiserie wallpaper. and that that wallpaper was to be lavender gray. how i came to this juncture is still somewhat a mystery to me. as you will see tomorrow, the connection from this armoire to the fanciful imaginings of chinoiserie wallpaper is peculiar.
this is a sample of the drawings that will act as guide to the later application of paint.

say it isn't so

my allergy tests came back yesterday. it's actually pretty funny. so i have absolutely 0 allergic response to gluten. but i am significantly allergic to egg whites. go figure. i guess this past year of avoiding gluten was good practice for now avoiding egg whites. i'm going to miss my non-gluten alternative desserts at restaurants; flan, flourless chocolate torte, rice pudding, creme brulee, tapioca pudding, ice cream, and macarons. i'm also going to miss quiche. i've read about a good alternative using tofu though. i'm not allergic to egg yolk, so that part of the egg can still be baked with at home.
and funnily enough i still have to avoid all of the same things when eating out; pasta, bread, baked goods, dressings, soups, egg rolls, battered fish. and a few new things; fried rice, egg in my pad thai, tamago sushi. bleh. so everything and nothing has changed.
i also have moderate allergies to pineapple, cow milk, pinto beans, kale, alfalfa, asparagus, and vanilla. the vanilla one is a bit of a kicker. i really like natural vanilla in everything i bake, but i guess if i only eat what i bake every four days i'll be ok. i hope. or i can switch to vanilin. yuck.

the briney sea

so this year for christmas i was determined to hand craft all of the gifts i would be giving. my brother had mentioned that he would like a painting for his apartment; just no "girly" colors like the last two paintings i had given him. "girly" of course being robin egg blue, baby pink, and lime green. obviously. i guess he just doesn't realize that pink was a male color, it being derived from red, and blue being a female color as it is generally more delicate, less fearsome. thus i went with yellow and blue. i choose to not see gender in color, as pink goes well with most complexions and should be worn more often. a good example being india. and giving nothing up of myself, as i quite like those two colors together, i painted him this octopus and jellyfish. i prefer to see it as a cloudy sky, the octopus coming into the picture on the diagonal; but is it friend or foe to the little jellyfish?

soft and strange

i try to not visit yarn stores. i seem to collect single skeins of lovely spun cotton, wool, and silk. which means i never seem to knit outside of the occasional scarf, there being only one ball of yarn; great for christmas time, not so much for when you see a scrumptious cardigan or a delectable pillow. i'd love to knit a tea cozy, but have yet to find a teapot with which to grace one. so, with some reticence i entered the doors of a local yarn store, wild fibre, and found myself not five minutes later walking towards the register with a ball of something soft, something colorful, and something i haven't a clue what to do with.

this is the something of which i speak.
if i were to spin it, what would happen to the delicate rivers of color? what would transpire if one were to felt with such insubstantial fluffiness? alas, i feel this one ball of silkworm essence will stay in its current form. to be admired with the eyes and patted from time to time to regal in the magic of touch.

all the color is bleaching out...

i look forward to domino every month. there was a time when i stopped their subscription; when it seemed as if every article was interrupted halfway through by an ad. i even wrote them a letter telling them to please stop this, as it was rather annoying. i was having flashbacks from my better homes and gardens days. now, it would seem that lack of those same ads is one reason it folded. yes, the last few issues were showcasing things a little out of most people's budgets, but that never bothered me. i don't actually buy much of anything i see in magazines; be they cheap or pricey. i loved domino because of the flair they had, their eye in photographing amazing homes and businesses. there were so many ideas and so much eye-candy. every issue had at least one thing i had to tag for later inspiration; most used up a major portion of the sticky tags they include.
one would think that in the depressing era we have to go through to pay for the last eight years, things that are simply beautiful to look at would be treasured and kept away from extinction. flighty, whimsical, unnecessary little jewels of fantasy are what we need to brighten our days, to take us away if even for a moment from the cares and needs and drudgery of reality. it's no wonder that the golden era of cinema was during the last great depression.
victoria magazine was revived, medium was brought back, heck even scrubs is airing new episodes. perhaps one day we will again see domino gracing the newsstands and pushing daisies on the television schedule. till then, at least i have the back issues to browse, tag, and admire.

organization...

...is key to living in a small space. i use the same two colors, various shades derived from them, and lots of white. the white acts like a resting stop for your eyes. the second thing that i find helps small spaces is organization. i'm usually drawn to organizing multiples of things in the same scale container, be it a bookcase or jars. also by arranging them in the pattern of the visible spectrum, with whites, browns, and blacks at the end.
my bookcase was getting crazy, and as it's a rather large portion of one wall something had to be done. i have a massive collection of national geographic books that are a wealth of photos that i can't bare to get rid of even though i may look at them once every ten years. luckily they're mostly white spines, and the same size. the top left square is my illustration, painting, and bookmaking reference books. the top right square is my knitting, embroidery, pattern making, general crafting, herbs, and essential oil reference books. along the bottom are books covering everything else. originally they were organized based on content, but i grew tired of that as i continued to stuff new books in any available slot, and that soon lost its function. so here's the photo of my newly organized shelves.

am also into collecting fat quarters. quarter yards of fabric that are squared rather than long rectangles. so after awhile of being stored in a tubberware, where they were mostly forgotten about until i acquired new additions, i decided they needed to be displayed. this would serve multiple purposes; so that i would be consciously aware of them, as a reminder of my sewing machine saving goal, and also hoping that this would lend itself to inspiring me to use them. i repurposed a wine shelf insert that was being tossed, spray painted it white and stacked my fat quartz by color.

some would say this organizing is neurotic, but hey, it calms the mind and the space. or that whole virgo thing i discussed earlier.

time doing what?!

well december and january have been a little busy. i think so anyway. it feels like they were. i took some time to go to las vegas to visit my 96 year old aunt. while there, i watched a whole lot of price is right, wheel of fortune, and jeopardy; of the three i would fare best at price is right even though i don't purchase 98% of what they price.

with some of the time from the last month i've been knitting my second ever sweater which i hope to actually finish, unlike the first. i came across an awesome sweater from a danish company "lolly's laundry" while visiting blogs, fell in love with it, then found out i couldn't order it. so, i began to think that "hey , i'm pretty sure i know how this thing was put together", bought some malabrigo organic cotton yarn, a size 6 circular needle, and started knitting. the front panels, back panel, and collar are about finished, and then the sleeves and pockets shouldn't take long. another month perhaps, with time taken from here and there. i'll post photos when i'm done.

another time sponge has been this awesome game i got second hand for christmas. it's called "katamari damacy". pure eye-candy, absolute fun, hilarious, and definitely good for multiple replays. the games' main character, "the king of all cosmos", is eclectic, weird, kooky, metrosexual, and every conversation is primed for the loony bin; but i love him, it's hard not to. i've finished 85% of the game, mostly i just have two presents to wrap up, some items to collect, and i want a bigger taurus. luckily for me they made a sequel, "we love katamari".
i'm saving $ for my long-term-won't-have-to-buy-another-before-i-die sewing machine, a pfaff select 3.0. dual feed, multiple hemming feet, pleating, and it handles like a dream.