Welcome to the Weekend

   Peonies have arrived at the farmer's market! 

                                                 And it finally feels like Spring.

I felt compelled to whip out the springy linens, the prosecco and Lambec, bake some banana walnut bread, poach some eggs, wilt some kale and just enjoy the morning before the day gets away from me.

Recipe for Banana Walnut Bread [HERE]

Butterfly Effect

We found a beautiful dead butterfly on our weekly hike with friends. It'd been sitting on the kitchen window sill the last few weeks until I decided to finally do something with it this morning.

I made a simple Terra-scape with some things that were around the house and put it in my bathroom.  {Think I might tinker with it a little more when I get another free moment.}

INGREDIENTS:
  * Bell jar
  * Driftwood
  * Lichen branch
  * Butterfly

Celebrating Color and Fashion | Pantone

Today a fun little link celebrating the Fashion of the last 50 Years in Pantone Palettes.

Happy Birthday, Josef Albers

Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century. Best known for his homage to the square.

Today a visual tribute to the man and his work on his 124th Birthday!

SF MoMa's Albers Cheese and Crackers. Now available at the Cafe.


Peace Industries Felted Wool Rugs


Costume National Fall 2011 Collection

 
Michelle Prazak's Painting: Vertical Transparency 1

Vintage '60s Industrial Metal Pop Art Cube Geometric Sculptures

Les Ailes Noires (Hanging Rack) by +tongtong

Sources 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 :: 6 :: 7

The Blush of Spring

Spring in the Cumberbatch step.
Love that touch of brilliant pink.

While searching the intertubes for the 

return of Sherlock Holmes this season, 

it seems the blush of spring has made an appearance. 

Sources: 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 ::  6 :: 7

Bringing a Bit of the Outdoors In

Indoor Succulents!

My daughter picked out the
little pink flowered one. 

I always thought succulents were only bright sun outdoor plants, but on a visit last week to my favorite nursery, Flora Grubb, I found out there are such things as indoor succulents (or at least ones that don't require as much sun to thrive). They were having a sale so I couldn't resist bringing back a few goodies, especially since I found a sweet little ceramic pot at a discount chain store and the perfect spot in the sun for it in my daughter's room.

Due to rain I put off potting them until today. I had a little pocket of time and once finished, snuck it into her room without so much as a peep during naptime.

10 minutes later. . .

A quick pick-me-up of creative energy and greenery to add to my day.  

When Art and Food come out to Play

The SF MoMA introduces some splashy new edible works.

Images via SFMoMA Facebook

: : : :

Mark Rothko Apricot Butter
and Blueberry Jam on Toast

Recipe for Tomato Soup

Donald Judd Tomato Soup + Saffron Buttermilk Cracker

The making of Damian Hirst Lemon Velvet Cake

Isn't it great when Art and Food come out and Play!

Hobby: Horsing Around

The little one's really into carousels and horses, so I thought I'd make a pair of hobby horses (one for my toddler + playmate = no fighting) as a surprise gift for this coming saturday. It was also the perfect project for utilizing some nice broomstick handles I'd found and had been saving for just the right rainy day craft.

Here's my tutorial for a sweet hobby horse of your own:

Ingredients 

• 1 Sock (mine: homeless socks roaming the house for one reason or another)
• 1 Wooden Dowel (mine: weather-worn broom handles found on the street)
• 2 Buttons (1 large Felt pattern button, 1 smaller button, matching holes)
• Super Thick Yarn (Lion brand Thick and Quick)
• Poly Fill
• 2 Different Colors of Felt (for ears)
• 2 (1")D rings
• 2' of Grosgrain Ribbon 1" width, (mine: Pottery Barn gift box ribbon)
• 1 Embroidery Needle
• Needle and Thread
• Scissors
• Drill 

Step 1 Stack the 2 buttons and sew onto either side of your sock. Then stuff the sock tightly with poly fill up to the heel so it's firm and not floppy.  I like to stuff a little extra in the cheeks to make it look more true to life.

Step 2  Using the embroidery needle, thread the extra thick yarn. Do not cut the string. Pull it through the top of the "neck". I allowed for approx 4-5" lengths after knotting. Cut. Repeat in a single line down the neck until you're satisfied with the plushness of your mane. 

I added a random, wider spread of yarn up front to cover the threadbare nature of my sock.

Step 3 Cut out a bigger and slightly smaller "tall" triangle out of the felt sheets for a bit of ear detailing. The big triangle is approx 4"h x 3"w. Nest one inside the other, then take the two bottom corners of the triangle and overlap them "fortune cookie style" and sew onto either side of your sock.

Step 4 Place the sock over the wood dowel. Mark where it ends.  Remove sock. Drill a hole approx. 1" up from the mark. Place sock back over the dowel and stuff poly fill around the stick so it's centered. 

Step 5 Now thread more yarn. Run it from one side of the sock, through the hole, and out the other side. Then wrap tightly and tie off.

Step 6  Thread the ribbon through the D rings as shown below. Wrap around the noseband. Cut to size, centering the two ends under the chin. Then sew together, attaching it to the sock. 

Step 7  Now sew a little seam under the flat of the D, attaching the the ribbon to the sock. This will keep the ring in place. Loop and sew one end of the remaining ribbon through a D ring. Then with the loose end of the ribbon go around the outside of the pole to the other side. Loop and sew around the other D ring.

HAPPY TRAILS!

Stop to Smell the Frozen Pizza

I recently read an article, Frozen Pizza: How Instagram And Vine Are Fuelling The Frivolous, by Eric Leaman that had me mulling over the possible hidden importance of "oversharing ego ad nauseum" and its future.

Remember when "Surfing the Net", just surfing in and of itself, was so amazing and any and all flash animations were worth waiting for? That is, until . . . a whole nation yawned, and we finally graduated to the "Give It to Me Quick" website format. Well, like its predecessor,  "Oversharing" is already starting to separate the wheat (vital) from the chaff (vapid) in greater numbers, thankfully. Even on my more morose days when I feel the societal IQ is plummeting to new depths, I believe there is a limit to the number of proverbial regretsys on the internet that a human being with a finite 24hrs/day attention span is willing to endure. (I mean....even the fabulous regretsy.com has archived itself).

Internet Puberty, it's just plain awkward.

For a quick second Instagram, with its seductive shades of overexposed nostalgia, made every mundane picture you took look **special* *memorable**. What's important to note is that for that quick instant, it did/does make us stop in our tracks, just long enough to look and smell the "frozen pizza" (roses). 

Being able to take the time to stop and notice things in the peripheral wake of your daily doings - that is a very important lesson to learn, revisit, and investigate more deeply. Like learning to think before you speak (post).

Vintage-y Gift Tags

I love the holiday season with all its yummy smells, fine eats and good cheer.  Since it's been a year of simplifying, organizing and getting back to basics for me, what better way to celebrate than downsizing on the store-bought consumerism and preparing a sprinkling of heartfelt homemade gifts.

Click to enlarge and see more clearly

I've been "elfing" around town gathering my supplies over the past two weeks and gotten most of 

my baking, making, assembling done, but realized today that Christmas is just around the corner and I've got festive meals to plan for(!), so I've got to get cracking with the gift wrapping.

In line with the whole handmade aesthetic of this season I've recycled old ribbon, tissue papers and even made my own vintage looking gift tags. Here's a simple recipe to make your own:

Vintage-y Gift Tags

Ingredients:

• 1 Color inkjet printer
• 1 Computer with word doc application
• Lots and lots of fonts (or download some from Dafont.com)
• Parchment colored (or other vintage looking) paper 
• Pair of scissors
• Hole Punch
• 1-3 Glasses of mulled wine (optional)

1. Type out what you want in the font style and color of your choice (no Comic Sans please), leaving a few return keys worth of space between each set of card text for cutting purposes. I used 12 and 9 font sizes, basic fonts (Rosewood Std, Engravers MT, and Book Antiqua) in shades of grey and brown. I made 10 cards worth on a 8.5 x 10" piece of paper.

2. Cut cards to a happy size. Take your scissors and cut the corners off one side of each card.

3. Punch hole on the same side and you're ready to attach them to your newly minted gifts.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Kjerag or Kiragg is a Norwegian mountain,
located in Lysefjorden, Ryfylke, Rogaland.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Seems to me that being between a rock and a hard place is quite great...compared to say, some sand and a soft place. At least you can use the rock and/or hard place for a bit of leverage to get yourself out of a jam.

On the Ball and Getting to the Point

Leave it to the Canadians for their wonderful sense of humor (Another reason to love Toronto!). Today's post is inspired by this succinct Ball Point Pen Scribble wallpaper I came across by Rollout.ca, and is dedicated to simplicity in form and thought (with a dash of the playful).

A 1967 oldie, but goodie from Eero Aarnio.
The Pastil Chair.

Mini Honeycomb ornaments from PomPomandTwiddle.com

Click to Enlarge. Translation: Those that come rarely know. There are things in life, they say, that are by chance.

Big fan of Spanish illustrator, Paloma Valdivia's, childrens books. Charming drawings +  philosophy.

Artist, Gabriel Orozco, on ping pong, games and 

the beginning of the universe in just over a minute. 

The 30% Off Plan

Nothing like losing an organ to inspire a purging and cleaning action and a post on that progress. 2 weeks ago I had an entirely unexpected gall bladder "issue", which after two surgical procedures I promptly lost, for the better, the use of an organ. I was joking around in the hospital about feeling lighter - 30% less organ meats. Not statistically accurate, of course, but the number sort of stuck.

1. Liver produces bile, which helps you digest fats
2. Gall Bladder a reservoir organ that stores bile
[Mine was inflamed 4x its normal size
and filled with hundreds of small stones]
3. Bile Duct
4. Small Intestine

Coming home from the hospital, I was again struck by the need to purge. If you don't start out as a minimalist, funny how bedrest has a way of making you notice all the "stuffs" that pile up for no good reason. 

So began the brainchild for the week. I decided to carry on getting rid of 30% of clutter in each room during my recovery. It's a great number because it doesn't sound intimidating. It's not ALL the clutter.  It's not even half. We're just talking about A room maybe, not THE entire house. And the best part is you can subdivide. Example: it can be as small as 30% of junk off your side table. TaDa. A small victory already.

My 30% OFF DIET PLAN So Far . . .

Monday's Victory:

30%+ of shelter magazines redistributed to friends or tossed out for recycling.

Tuesday's Conquest: 

30% of hallway clutter = 5 bags of donations packed up and sent to charity.

Today's Challenge: 

Cleaning up 30% of the fridge, whether that's the wipe down, gobble up, pour on, or toss out variety.

So far today, I've managed to wipe down the shelves and bins, bake (2 overripe) banana bread, prep (3) beet salad for tonight, and throw out some old sauce and spinach.

Recovering Beauty

A Lost & Found Object Lesson 

in 4 parts

(If Wishes were Bones)

Ugh. Dirty dishes left in the studio sink after a gathering. But [double take] . . . . do my eyes spy a chicken bone?? Hmmmmmmm

BEFORE

 Some things should be left to the imagination. 

LIKE THIS BELOW

(geared for the laymen in all of us)

Ingredients:

1 Wishbone

2 Small brushes

Any Reddish Brown latex paint will do

Gold Size (Glue)

Imitation Silver Leaf (or Aluminum leaf) 

Imitation Gold Leaf

Clear Wax (optional)

 1. Wash and clean off wishbone. Sand down any rough parts if needed. Using the red latex, paint 2/3rds of the bone. Normally an ox-blood red, clay based pigment called Bole is used. Let dry.

Click to Enlarge

 2. Once the paint is dry (few minutes), apply a thin layer of glue, also known as gold leaf sizing, to the same 2/3rds with the other brush. Let dry 20-30 minutes. It should be ever so slightly tacky to the touch. Clean brush immediately so it doesn't get gummy for the 2nd round later.  

 3. Now gingerly take a section of gold leaf and gently press to the surface of the bone. If flakey bits fall off and the 'bole' shows through, it's ok. It looks better when it's not perfect. (Hooray!) Technically, it may mean the glue was too thin and has dried out completely. You need that tack to get the leaf to adhere. Normally I would lay it on the surface, pressing gently using a beaver hair (very fine haired) brush.

AFTER

 4. Now apply the glue to the remainder of the wishbone. And repeat application with the silver leaf. OPTIONAL: You can brush on a thin layer of clear wax, wait 20-30 mins., and buff to a shine. This takes down the brassiness of the gold/silver and leaves your new wishbone charm with a luxurious lustre.

Viola! And that . . . is Alchemy.