little doll

Although it may seem like PonyBoy Press has become some sort of Valentine blog, I assure you it has not - but, it does seem clear that I have gotten a bit swept away with the upcoming holiday. This little wooden doll is a cute valentine, especially if you were the one giving it and you were a girl with short brown hair.


In general I am in favor of the recent little wooden doll trend. I've always liked them. I also like some of the neat traditional German ones. I wish I had the skills to paint my own, but I am not that good at it.

If you have those skills, however, there are plenty of places on Etsy to get the blank wood forms, including the shop nakedpeggies who sells the Valentine Peggy shown here and also goosegrease.

It makes a unique gift. And speaking of gifts, the Valentines posts are not over. I am working on something that hopefully will work out. Stay tuned!

some of my favorite Valentines on Etsy

I always get more excited about Valentines Day then I expect I will. I just love the giving of cards and the making things pretty just for the sake of doing it. I suddenly want to make some Valentines things for my shop, but I don't know if I will get to it in time. It always comes so fast!

Here are some faves I have been visiting on Etsy. Hope you find some in here you like.

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Etsy Buy Handmade thecedarchest

inspiration

Well, looks like some great minds were thinking alike recently because Creature Comforts designed this free template for you to create a valentines tea bag wrapper and tag. Very nice!

for two

I love this idea from Martha Stewart. Such a simple and cute idea. You could send a valentine and a a favorite tea to a friend in the mail or you could have your own Valentine tea party and make these for it.

Speaking of tea, I updated my Flickr account to Pro recently and I am actually using it now. I created a set with just images of my little tea parties I like to do. You can see it here.

longing

Oh, how I would love to have a space like this. All my stuff would look like this if I had the space. Right now I feel overwhelmed with too much stuff in my craft room/office/record library, but really I have a normal amount of stuff, I just have too small a room.

This bookcase was just built by the talented duo from Something is Hiding Here.

a change will do you good

Today is a good day.

I have been looking at the new White House website (wish I had looked at it before today so I could compare). It looks great and it was neat to see that there is a White House blog now.

Enjoy this sunny day.

new blog announcement

I decided to take the plunge and do a blog just for my vintage photo and ephemera collection. It will be a blog for the Cedar Chest store as well. Please take a look and subscribe if it interests you.

I have lots of things I am excited to share.

january time

I am not sure what I have been doing, but it is nothing of note. I just now put up the new Invisible Summer calendar for 2009. I guess I am trying to get it together, but it feels difficult.




















I can tell you some things I have been doing. I have been watching a lot of British TV, including re-watching all my French and Saunders dvds. I watched one hideous movie called Mamma Mia and I have been listening to Coconut Records.

I have been listening to them on Pandora and myspace for a while and never really investigated them. Turns out it is Jason Schawartzman and boy, did I feel like a fool. But, actually, I am glad it worked out that way, because I am a fan of his, so I would have been listening to the music with a bias. The first record has the incredibly infectious song West Coast. (I know, I am really late on this one, forgive me). His new record comes out on Jan 20th and you can hear it all on myspace. A lot of it really reminds me of John Lennon's pop music, especially the later years. It is pretty different from the first one. I like the second one better over all. [edit: Oh, I just realized the other influence I hear is Emitt Rhodes. And I remember Wes Anderson saying that JS was the one who introduced him to ER]

I keep threatening the craft den that I am going to clean it up, but so far I haven't. It is nice not to have deadlines for a while.

my mother's talents

This is the Christmas tree at my Mother's house. Isn't it beautiful? I just couldn't stop gushing about it this year. She often has different themes and I am sure she has a full box of decorations for every color there is. They are always beautiful, but there is something so perfect about this red and white tree. (click here for an image of it in the light)

My mother has an amazing talent for decorating and display. This tree is more beautiful than many I have seen in department stores. I love the way she uses the ribbon. If I did that it would not look like that, trust me.


Every gift she wraps, too, is so beautiful. She uses gorgeous ribbons and knows how to make these elaborate bows that I could never do. It is a shame to unwrap them. Everything she does around the home is artfully done. I definitely got the desire to do that from her and I succeed sometimes, but her skill is so much better than not only mine, but of many people I see out there in the business of design and display.













Sometimes I feel like she missed her calling. I like to imagine her making displays in little gift shops (or large department stores), getting people to ooh and awe from outside and then come in saying they just want to move in to the store as is. I think she would have had so much fun changing the displays for the seasons and finding new ways to show off the same things.

But, she never did this. She did however use her skills for school and church functions when I was a child. She still organizes church functions and events and adds her special touch, I am sure, to all of these things. And she makes her home a lovely and inviting place. She told me once that she feels like she is successful if she can make a house a home - any house. Sometimes in her life it has been grand and sometimes it has been humble - but she has always, always made it beautiful.



Here is a Polaroid of a display she made around 1970. This was in the Southern California tract house I grew up in.



















My mother at the piano in the same house. I love the dress and hair piece with the painting. My father probably posed her this way.



She is also very talented in quilting, painting and pretty much any craft she takes up. But, that could be a whole other post. Here is an image of my favorite wool latched rug she made. You can see her display skills here as well.




I adore my mother and I find her very inspiring. I love that she is always thrilled and excited about new things.

the 2nd day of 2009

We woke up to a bit of snow this morning. A New Years snow is supposed to be lucky, but does that count if it's on the 2nd day?

My family and I celebrated Christmas on New Years Eve and New Years Day, so you are going to get some belated after Christmas posts from me.

But, first I want to share with you my after Christmas deal that I am so pleased with. I got these dessert plates half off at New Seasons (a local grocery chain that has the best gift items).

I am so smitten with them and think they could be good for year round. Although my living/dining decor is more towards brown, burgundy and rust. I am think I may need to eventually get some placemats and plates that complement these. I found them online here.