CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO

April 15th

 

 

Today, a crazed individual or individuals decided yet again that blowing up people is the solution to all their problems. I heard a little child is probably amongst those who perished. My heart swells and then suddenly pinches back in when I think of my own child, of the children I know and cherish. I took a moment, turning off the radio's stream of alarming news to look through pictures like the one above and cut a handful of Grape Hyacinths to arrange as a wordless prayer for one of these moments when you simply don't know what to say.

 

a potting bench

This weekend was quite productive at the house, with Finn away for a night we enjoyed a lunch of raw food and and evening at Ballet West. It's was our 12th wedding anniversary, time does fly. Today turned out less fun but no less productive. Conquering closets became a necessity when I could no longer find any for the supply needed for the coiled basket I would like to sew this week. The Bernina is gathering dust and I can't stand how guilty it makes me feel each time I look at her pretty face. One of the room getting a small makeover, the laundry room, now has a nice area of counter space set aside for potting and flower arranging. 

 

 

I planted two lilly of the valley bulbs that were already showing green shoots in their mesh bags really hoping they can be coerced into blooming indoors. I once saw them bloom inside a terrarium in a book. Sounds intriguing, maybe even worth a try it if these make something of themselves...

 

 

The tree(s) is(are) up

After visiting no less than four tree lots, after thomas and Finn quit on me I finally found the one, at the Cumming's lot. Had to talk them down on the price a bit, but I am glad for my annoying single mindedness when it comes to this matter.

 

I am not much for ornaments anymore, they weight on my mind, like visual clutter. Finn however doesn't share in this OCD tendency, and it's cruel to except a child to understand. We therefore went to Walmart this morning where $15 bought us all the joy I had never thought $15 could buy, for the both of us!

 

Advent Elf: will travel.

When on the move, the good elf always considers safety. He buckles up without fail and listens patiently to the child sited next to him. In return, during the day we often hear: "I love you Elf" and "I am going to give the elf a hug".

 

When traveling, the savvy elf remembers to bring a long nail with him. This guaranties he can be displayed to his full advantage on arrival, not too high is best for the purpose of receiving more hugs.

 

From a carefully chosen spot he can also supervise the assembly of the Herrnhut stars, a tricky business in paper (right) or plastic (left). 

 

During the move a present was lost (cue terrible anguish), but tonight the good elf drove to the post office at 10 pm to send a letter to 'his' child (see card above) and put things right. He also requested a scarf... his workshop is drafty apparently.

 

meanwhile, at the cabin...

...I am spending hours cleaning the grime out of everything. It's incredible grueling when you spend the better part of an afternoon only to complete half of a tiny kitchen... We met the neighbors though and they are wonderful. Apparently the moose ( there are about 11 of them) come by our cabin every morning as they follow the ridge. This is why the aspens there are rather top heavy. The neighbors have two small lakes that attract the wildlife. They also have fours cats and I completely understand: there is a serious mouse/mice problem... Does anyone know a way? I am vacuuming quite a few dropping right now. I read about ultrasonic repelers and peppermint oil... I cannot use traps, my vegetarian stomach won't allow it. Way to much of a coward anyway.

On the up side my dad put the table back together and we polished the chairs, take a look!

The decor is not final obviously! just taking advantage of stray nails to prop up things. The table looks properly vintage now that it's only oiled and not varnished, we are patting ourselves in the back mutually... Another view here.

Finn tries out his little chair from Vermont; it's a success. That piece is so well made, much better in fact than the Thonet chairs.

Tomorrow our first guest are coming over for diner, it will also be our first meal here, a good thing we have a table. I am glad they are bringing the food though! I will never finish putting the place together before then!

the cabin on the ridge

At last I can be completely secure in announcing my great and exciting news!

We bought a cabin in Summit County, on a ridge with views that go on and on! It's a very small, modest building but it can be accessed year round providing we choose to pay into the plowing co-op. The cabin sits on a little under 1 acre of land at 8025 ft. I think we should see snow there very very soon.

The picture above was taken on the first day I visited the property, so are all the others on this post. The place was still in use (sort-of) by the previous owner. We have since replaced the pallets on the ground in front of the back door with proper steps. The timely arrival from France of my father has been a godsend. We have had no idle moment. It's either working on fixing pressing problems on the structure before winter or driving around town to pick up furniture from the classified and thrift stores.

Speaking of which, we, my dad and I, have so far scored:

From the classified:

one Thomasville oval table in Park City for $25. We spent the entire day yesterday and load more cash taking the varnish off the thing and sanding 'till we dropped.

four Thonet chairs for $15x4. They are quite squeaky when we sit down but stable and antiquy.

From the thrift store:

one futon frame for $19 which we also completely sanded and treated with Danish oil

From a rummage sale this morning:

an adorable little chair from Vermont $10.

It's been great fun finding all those treasures with my father, I was really not in the ikea mood lately and wanted to create a unique and eclectique space. I hope it works... more pictures to come soon.

I'll leave you with a picture of our new friend Moose, he always seems to be around.

You can see more picture of the cabin, before we bought it on Flickr.

growing growing!

Finn grows and grows ever wiser and cuter or head strong and exhausting, depending how you look at it. He attempted his first true hike today with flying colors! We had such a great time marveling at the lack of complaints and the general good humour.

Still not getting any kisses though, no way Miss, girls are gross apparently.

 

All pictures taken at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.

Camp Moose Mountain

I cannot imagine a better campground than Tanner's Flats in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Then again I haven't really camped anywhere else around here. Each site is surrounded by woods and when you want a shower you just go home for a bit (!).

Finn has an habit of waking up at the crack of dawn and on his morning stroll he and his dad encountered a young moose and got charged; quite the adventure which we memorialized in a banner.

It's been decided that we will make a banner at every camp now, they are so festive and Finn likes to learn his letters that way. I will have to pre-print a bunch of triangles in advance or use stencils on site.

On a smaller scale, I was given a few hours of solitude to do as I wished; they were spent practicing for the calligraphy class. Knees are not a good place to write with the pointed pen but still I persisted. Good times.

We made it!

The birthday happened! between 35 and 40 people came, which was by far the most crowded this house has ever been... We loved it!

 

Finn turned 4, and strangely he feels completely different. I hear a lot of " now that I am 4, I am going to do this and that (tasks I refused to do only yesterday)."

I had no time to take any pictures of the house decor before the party, as even with help I was still struggling to get all the food on the tables and counters and side table and... you get my point. Two full days later the house is back to normal and I can finally look up  and really enjoy the poms:

in the kitchen

and the living room

We are keeping them up for a while, they keep us in a party mood.

Silver and Wool

Life is a blur and while the stitches have come out (ouch!) Finn birthday is still looming on the horizon. I have been lucky to receive some web and magazine work but that also mean that while I am sewing rather a lot I can't talk about it here at all! Very strange this secrecy, I need to get use to it.

This weekend I made something just for us though, a woolen cover for a set of antique silver-plate French silverware.

In France we joke about our (pretend) American Uncle, well I have an aunt like that, except she's French and I live State side. She and I have loved each other since day one, we share the same birthday and the same passion for handcrafting. She used to have really long black hair that she let me brush and braid, oh and she sewed my dolls Liberty dresses just because (sigh!)

Since I am all grown now and her hair is cut short, she sent me five kilos (!) of silver plate silverware last week with the black wool and a few other things I might discuss another day. I felt pretty great when I opened the express parcel and knew I had to get cracking on the cover if nothing else than to show my appreciation. Inside, a letter showed a few suggestions on what to look for with a little schematic:

It's nerve racking doing something, even quite simple when you have a limited amount of material (none to be ever had again) and you want, no you need to be proud of the results. After the first cut though I got lost in the fabulous wool cloth and lost the jitters.

I really appreciated the scissor function on the new Bernina 580, it saved a considerable amount of bobbin thread as I was sewing from the outside in to avoid stretching and bubbles. The over-flap was a bit short so I connected a long narrow piece butting the edges and using a decorative stitch meant for borders.

It's very pretty all laid out on the table but once you roll it up it's really a 9 lbs black lump. A bit of a let down, quickly remedied with the left over wool and a bit of machine embroidery for good measure. The monogram is blown up as large as the oval hoop will allow and I increased the stitch density. Boiled wool is really the best material I have ever seen when it come to machine embroidery, wouldn't you say?