Sunday, February 28, 2010

back from the beach

For most of last week I was at the Oregon Coast. It was sublime. I was with a couple friends in a neat historic house built in 1912. My time there mostly consisted of staring at the ocean. You would think a few days would be enough of that, but it wasn't. Here are some pics for you:


stone

porch

fire

house

kittyatdoor

sunset2

sunrise3

sunsetvertical

Sunday, February 21, 2010

little things

My life is not very exciting. But, I like it. I find beauty and comfort in everyday things, domestic pursuits, good tv shows, music, the way the bare tree branches look against the blue sky and making things.

I have not been doing too much of the latter, but like I have said before, I am percolating lots of ideas. I hope that I can do a few of them. I have a really hard time focusing lately. I blame the internet and the concept of multi-tasking, which I know is often not beneficial, but I do anyway, because there is only so much time in the day.

I am heading out to the coast for a few days. I will be in a house with a couple of friends and there will be now internet access and no TV. I am a little nervous about having some sort of internet withdrawals, but I am mostly looking forward to it. I need some time to unplug and read and watch the ocean.

Before I leave I wanted to leave a couple images for you. Just a little document of the last week:


Above is a Valentine I made for the best guy ever. I used vintage wallpaper, did a simple stitch on it to bind it and hand wrote the entries. This is the closest to a craft I have done in a while. I borrowed the idea from someone on Etsy who was selling them. I am sorry, but I can't recall where I saw it.


It is that weird time of between winter and spring around here. It is even stranger because it is pretty early this year. Our winter, unlike most of the country has been mild.

This unflattering picture of my garden box shows that in between state. Most of the box is winter, including the hanging pots down because of the high winds we had for a few weeks. But, then there are pretty little bulbs coming up and my strawberry plant is starting to come back to life.


Right now I'm listening to a British pop rock group from 1970 that I have never heard of before. The name is Barclay James Harvest and it's that mystical Brit style music from that time. I heard them on the UK show Life on Mars. Here is a nice song to sum up this entry. The refrain is: "When we are sitting on the banks of the sunshine". It will be soon.

Hope you all have a great week!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

beautiful free backgrounds


















Here are some gorgeous backgrounds for you from Totally Severe. I found these via one of my favorite blogs, How About Orange.

I used one for my twitter account. I have now finally graduated from the twitter templates. You could also use them for your blog. Just make sure you have the tile repeat option on if you are uploading the image.

I really liked some of the desktopwallpapers, too, but I need more blank space than those. I find it hard to find what I'm looking for when the wallpaper is too busy. Yeah, I am one of those people who shortcuts everything.

Okay, just a pop in let you in on that great website. Now it is back to the Olympics and Men's Figure Skating. I am really enjoying the Olympics this year. What's your favorite Winter Olympic sport to watch?

Monday, February 15, 2010

i am very fond of this



by Amy Karol. She has prints for sale in her shop.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

february is a great month for

I forgot to post this at the beginning of the month. Here are some thoughts about your February from 1977. Not sure what this is? Past posts here.

february is a good month for

valentines day is around the corner

I really like Valentines Day. I think one of the reasons I like it so much is because the focus is on cards more than gifts and handmade is encouraged.

So, now it is a week away and it is time to get started on your project/card if you haven't already. Here are some ideas to inspire you.



I'll begin with the Valentine Match Boxes I made last year. You can always make your own version. The exact size is in the original post or you can use the free download from that post.

Printables are great, especially for people who put things off.


Valentines Labels Free Printable (above) from Mer Mag
Valentines Card Printables from Valentina Design
Valentine Printable Freebie from The Black Apple
Valentines Card Printables from Three Wheels Design



Printable Valentine Wheel (above) from Martha Stewart



If you wanna put a little extra time in there are 2 awesome looking paper cut Squirrel Valentines (above) on the Little Acorn blog. The tutorials are listed on the side.

If decorating the house is something you wanna do, a Valentine banner is a fun idea. I made one last year. You can find lots of ideas on Etsy for banners.

Another fun idea would be to place Valentines all over the house, in drawers and cars. If you want some sweet vintage valentine images for that, you can find some here and on a vintage Valentines Flickr page or on this page here.

There are also some interesting Valentines projects on this Flickr group. And of course, there is always Martha.

Okay, now I need to get to my Valentines project. Have fun!

Monday, February 1, 2010

on my mind

groundhog hat print by amberalexander

Sorry about the quietness on the blog the last couple of weeks. Ironically, I am feeling very creative lately and have lots of ideas. But, everything is in the thought stage and I haven't had time for action. So, even though I feel like I have more I would post on here, there is nothing to post yet....

A lot of it is thought, isn't it? Hemingway said something like 90% of writing is thinking about it and I think that is true for many things. I just have a problem having the free time to do all the things I think about. Well, at least I am never bored.

Tomorrow is Groundhogs Day. I like this "holiday". I watched the movie a couple weeks ago, but other than that I have no way to observe it. It makes me want to print more of my Groundhog pillowcases and napkins. It reminds me of this wonderful picture I was sent a couple years ago from a woman in Canada who bought my pillowcases and who has a pet Woodchuck (another name for Groundhog)!


Isn't she so sweet sleeping in the pillowcase I made? I hope you have a nice Groundhogs Day.

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