CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO

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...

 

 

Heather Ross prints on my gifts

Through a friend I found myself with a copy of the new Heather Ross book. It's really charming of course but more crucially very useful with even the most provincial of printers. Another parcel of gifts is leaving tomorrow and it will be wrapped in personal attention and velum.

 

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.

 

{thrift/transformed}

 

The 'copines' are demanding pictures of my recent thrift-to-treasures endeavors and I aim to please...

{1}

Two terracotta urns from Goodwill drilled by the pottery specialist at Cactus and Tropicals and fitted with angel vine topiary. Apparently if they get plenty of light and water I should have them for years. To be continued...

 

{2}

This clock, also from Goodwill had seen better days. Scratched mod flowers, crooked metal hands... all covered and disposed of. This one took three coats of primer and two coats of chalkboard spray paint. We are using it to teach Finn to tell the time before the new mechanism comes. After that it's off to the cabin it goes.

So voila! nothing else is new but it sure feels good to get anything done (even though the clock is not technically done it's out of my hands).

My MIL, E. gave me a large metal bowl yesterday, it was sitting outside full of garden pots and very dirty... I liked it at first sight though, ready to give it a chance. Well well, a large blister later I am almost completely convinced the piece is made of copper. Firstly there was a ring of green crud that could be verdigris, secondly it's not magnetic, thirdly I scrubbed like my life depended on it for the better part of one hour and there is no plating loss (if the metal was merely plated) and fourthly the pot is now shiny as a penny as if strait from the shelves of William Sonoma, cough, cough... I just hope E doesn't ask for it back!

Imagine the possibilities, filled with ice and libations at parties, pinecones in the winter, magazines and emergency clutter collection (lego anyone?).

And now for something completely different:

Did you notice my new banner and buttons? if you reading this with a feed you might be missing out, wink.

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?

 

Ristra (aspirational)

I love ristras, covet them in fact. Here in Salt Lake City there is a fabulous little épicerie that offers strands and wreaths each year. I have never invested, but someday I will. I just like delayed gratification and a perfect place to hang it first.

Instead I made this tiny distant cousin out of the hottest peppers ever grown at this address, felted and wood  beads and heavy duty cotton thread. It hangs by the front door and its spicy powers surely repel anything evil, plus it makes we smile when I see it spin.

I may have a problem here

Sometimes I get on kicks where I start collecting things, obsessively checking ebay or etsy for treasures. Lately it's been Martex Dry-Me-Dry towels.

The towels are usually hand printed on a blend of rayon-linen-cotton that prevents them from wrinkling much. The first one (mustard) was found at our local Thriftown a few years ago and I have been delighted with it ever since.Then last month I looked into getting more and this is when it all started. I know I will stop, eventually, but still I think these are the kind of things that should be counted in dozen, no?

 

a new girl

Two month or so ago I started collecting Kokeshi dolls for my living room shelves. That meant obsessively checking the internet and staring at ebay auctions into the night. I do not care much about their 'collectability' and go for a good face, this collection is all about feel and nothing to do with reason. I had accumulated three generic dolls that way when one evening my eyes fell upon an exquisite doll not like any other I had seen before. Thomas must have seen the look of sheer envy on my face because he simply turned around and said: "you should get it". REALLY!

'

It required a great deal of self control not to immediately put in a bid, but I just cannot resist a little bargaining, so it took a little while to get her here from Japan but it was worth the wait. The package itself was a treat, covered in golden stamps and stuffed with newspaper pages featuring sumo wrestling.

Just now I discovered that the seller had placed a small origami crane at the bottom. For safe keeping maybe?

Links: Ebay store in Japan. My favorite so far.

          US store with lots of cute example in their inventory.