welcome

My friend Christine is coming to visit today!

K and I became friends with Christine when we were all living in Japan. We visited her in Minneapolis last year, so this year it's her turn to come see us.

She keeps telling me how excited she is for her first trip to the South. She grew up in Minnesota, so she has always considered Kentucky a southern state. I, on the other hand, have grown up in Louisville and traveled farther south through Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. And I have to say, Louisville isn't really the South. It feels very mid-western to me. We'll see what Christine, a true mid-westerner, has to say.

To welcome Christine, I put together a nook vignette in her favorite color--purple. I think I used every purple item that I have, and it still looks a little sparse. I also made her a sandwich bag for when we pack picnics this week. I didn't have any purple fabric, but I did find some with purple flowers. I embroidered a few of the flowers to make the purple stand out more.

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No menu or CSA post this week. Our vegetable share was pretty small this week due to bad weather in the region last week. We had flooding and four tornadoes touch down in the city. Amazingly, there were no serious injuries. The small vegetable share this week is actually fine for us because we plan to take Christine to all of our favorite restaurants.

hello, sunshine.

It's no secret that I love yellow. Canary, lemon, goldenrod, mustard, and butter are all shades that make me smile. So, I wanted to celebrate the sunshine and upcoming summer with a series of yellow vignettes around my apartment. 

The first vignette I created is on one of my living room end tables. It features a bowl of yarn, initial blocks, a mustard tin, a memory jar, a glove mold that is just the size of my hands (extra small), and Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The memory jar, in case you're wondering, is the jar that I chuck all of my event tickets into--tickets from movies, plays, concerts, ballgames, etc. I'm a saver, but not a scrapbooker. This easy storage arrangement works for me because it keeps all my tickets together and on display, but requires no effort on my part. 

The second vignette is in my phone nook. Yellow books, a button jar, a crocheted stone, and scrabble letters. These are a few of my favorite things!

I couldn't resist posting another photo of the yellow yarn bowl. It holds so many wonderful possibilities...

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What's making you happy today?

daily reminder

This little phone nook vignette is a daily reminder to live this year with intent. 

I love changing this shelf up to suit my mood. (You might remember my crafty collection). I was feeling pretty contemplative and wintry when I made this, but I'm ready for more color as I look forward to spring. I think my next vignette will be joyful!

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The photo is K when he was tiny. He looks like he's pondering something, doesn't he?

Patchwork Pillow

Last week I turned on my sewing machine for the first time in months. Cold weather makes me want to curl up on the couch with a ball of yarn. The slow pace of crocheting soothes me and snuggling up with quilts and afghans is pretty nice, too. But I had forgotten that sewing has its advantages as well, such as finishing a project in a matter of hours rather than weeks. I cut out the squares for this patchwork pillow one night and sewed the pillow together the next day after work. Nearly instant satisfaction.

I had all of the materials on hand, which helped to make this project so speedy. The pillow form was already on my couch, covered with a black and white IKEA pillowcase that made my couch look a little too serious. The vintage sheets were in my fabric stash. I even got to use a couple of scraps that Jodi sent me. 

This patchwork pillow makes me so happy with all of its pink, yellow, and blue. It's the perfect place to lay my head for a little cat nap. 

I'd like to sew something else soon to keep my momentum, but haven't settled on a project. Do you have any suggestions for a small, quick, and easy sewing project?

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My home decorating skills are pretty limited. I focus on details and have a hard time thinking of the big picture. Plus, I work slowly and gradually so things always look a bit like a work in progress. This latter tendency has left K in the dark about how I plan to decorate our place.

Case in point, a recent conversation between my mom, me, and K.

Mom: So you all are starting to have a lot of yellow in the living room.

Me: Yep.

K: Not on purpose, though.

Me: Of course it's on purpose. 

It seems he thought we just kept coincidentally buying yellow chairs and fabrics and bowls! I think I've set him straight now.   

My Cold, Cold Hearts

It's December. The holiday heart bunting is up! 

The tree is decorated. I've been spending my free moments cozied up next to it crocheting. I'm trying to finish up a big project by Christmas morning. 

Stockings are hung. Hip hip hooray for the holiday season! I love this time of year.

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If you want to make some Grandma Hearts of your own (they'd be great ornaments or present toppers), the pattern is here.

If you want more details about the bunting I made, my ravelry project page is here.

The inspiration for bunting name is from the song Cold, Cold Heart. I've been enjoying the Aretha version.

Hallway Crochet Love

Our hallway has one of those spots that used to house an old-fashioned phone. You know, the kind of phone that doesn't fit in your pocket. Since we don't have an old rotary phone that needs a place to hang out, I like to use our little phone shelf to create vignettes. 

This one is an ode to crochet and vintage things. Milk glass bowl, cotton threads, crocheted stone from Ms. Margie Oomen herself, pin cushion, Matryoshka doll, doily jewelry holder with vintage brooches, beeswax candle (smells so good!). 

Each time I pass through the hallway this collection makes me breathe a bit easier. It's calming. The light colors let my eyes rest. I've thought about switching things out for Christmas decorations, but I keep waiting. I'll keep these things out just a couple days more, I think. But I like them too much to tuck them away. 

Are your holiday decorations up? We've done a little decorating in the living room, the tree and some stockings. Can you believe it's almost December? I'm so excited for the holiday season!

Pinwheel Friends

My sewing machine saw the tiniest bit of action this weekend. It's the third weekend in a row I told myself that I was going to finally finish up my second pinwheel pillow cover. The first needed a friend, you know? So there I was at 11 o'clock on Sunday night stitching this together so that I could reach my self-appointed deadline. Success!

The pinwheel covers are for my living room floor pillows. I don't know if it's from living in Japan or what, but I often find myself wanting to plop down in the middle of the floor to work on projects or just listen to records. These floor pillows make the hardwood floor a little more bearable.

These are made with vintage sheets from my growing collection. I can't get enough vintage sheets in my life! If you missed it the first time, I used this fun tutorial for making the pinwheels.

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In a happy coincidence, today is pinwheels for peace day! Thanks to Elizabeth for the heads up.

sunshine on a cloudy day

Tiny crochet motifs

At this very moment my kitchen floor is covered with flour, the counters stacked with dirty bowls and measuring cups, but there's bread in the oven. My couch is littered with hooks and yarn; the living room floor looks like it's laundry day circa 1970-something because of all the vintage linens scattered there, but I've got creative energy to burn. The skies are filled with heavy dark clouds threatening to expel a summer storm, but as the thunder rolls through, I've got a happy tune on my lips (more on that later).

So, I thought I'd share the little things that are making me happy this week. It's a good reminder to myself that life is full of sunshine if I just stop to look for it. I don't know about you, but I certainly need the reminder sometimes.

New addition to the living room

Sunshine chair and rainbow zigzag were instant best friends.

Studying for my Spanish translation exam

That's not the happy part. The happy part is that I passed! One step closer to my M.A.

Pigtails*

Because everybody needs to act like a kid now and again. 

Vintage floral sheets

Thrift store score. Cheap and bright. Woohoo!

**What's making you smile these days?**

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*I laughed my little pigtails off that night because I went to see Nunsense with my friends Julia and Lucas. The show is hilarious and if you're in town you should definitely go see it. It plays through this weekend. Lucas is the assistant director, and he did a great job!

A place to rest your head

We all need a place to stop. A place to put up our feet. A place to breathe deeply and let go of worries, if only for a moment. A place to close our eyes and dream.

K and I recently received a bed for our guest bedroom/office/sewing room (perhaps we should call it the room of requirement? it is what we need it to be). We lucked into it when my uncle sold his house in town and needed to unload some furniture. We were more than happy to take this bed off of his hands.

I've spent time making it comfortable--I added vintage floral sheets from my own childhood bedroom (they were my mom's before that), a quilt we received as a wedding present, a thrifted embroidered pillowcase, and a patchwork pillow sewn from fabric Liesl sent along with an order. Maybe you remember seeing these patches before? I started this pillow cover months ago with no idea where it would land in our house. Now it has found its home, nestled next to a quilt and embroidery.

This bed is the perfect spot to spend a few hours with a novel or even a textbook if you have a bit of summer studying to do. The room gets plenty of light, stays cool with the help of a ceiling fan, and makes me want to read just one more chapter again and again.

Ideally this spot is for overnight guests in our home, and I'm excited to say the very first one will be coming by tomorrow! I hope it's just the beginning of our overnight guests because I love friends who like to linger, and it's also the perfect excuse for a breakfast party!  

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Where are you putting up your feet these days? And are you reading anything good? After 7 years on my reading list, I'm finally reading Slaughterhouse-Five. And The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is sweeping through my family like wildfire. It looks like a fun book to curl up with this summer.

New Bedroom

There's still time to enter my giveaway! Just scroll down to the next post.

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So this is our bedroom--a little old-fashioned, a little modern, very calm. The only new thing we've gotten for the bedroom is the bedside lamps, which we picked up last time we were at Ikea. The rest is just a reconfiguration of our old things. I've had a lot of fun rearranging our stuff in a new place.  

(Please ignore the blinds...the blinds have got to go. There's a gear stripped on them, so they don't open or close at all. Plus I think curtains would look so much softer and cozier. If anyone has suggestions for curtains or curtain tutorials, send them my way. I'm thinking something simple, light and airy.)

My bedside table belonged to my great uncle. I love the simple lines of it and the natural wood finish. I've got some of Pablo Neruda's poetry for brushing up on my nearly non-existent Spanish language skills, a peony, and a Black Apple print. The girl's shirt has a quote from the Smiths on it--"There is a light that never goes out."

For now the vintage trunk that previously lived at the foot of our bed is serving as K's bedside table. We'll probably pick up a vintage table sometime, but I do like the look of the trunk as a table. I love the whimsy of the stacked books to get the right height for the lamp. We are definitely bibliophiles and have more books than we have space, so finding new ways to store books is always a good thing. I put another Black Apple print here along with a cupful of mint.

There are still boxes in the corners of rooms, but we're getting there. I'll show you more of our new apartment soon.

Hope your week is going well!