more summer pies!

(to be exact: key lime with graham cracker macademia nut crust, blueberry pie, and not pictured: peach/nectarine galettes and another blueberry/lemon verbena pie) 

and a window cat 

and macademia nut chi chi drinks at forbidden island 

grateful

summer peaches

the best

dose of pinky leon

outside | inside

indigo dye day

over in jen and bob's lovely back yard. fresh outdoor made eggs and coffee and chiminea cocktail times too.

check out how the indigo oxidizes from yellow to green to blue. 

all the photos

cardboard times

when your sweetheart is somewhat cardboard obsessed and crazy imaginative/playful, this kind of thing happens—a board game that may be morphing into a puppet theater. 

the kinky stringy piece (aka louis) is by marilyn. the top pair are a bit roboty. more pieces. ++#==>>>///•••

strikeaway

it's been so fun to see the amazing and clever entries to courtney and alicia's strikeaway show. 

i sorted through jars and jars of matchbooks/boxes at the alameda antique stores. found some gems (above). (couple of closeups.) unfortunately i saved working on mine until the last minute and didn't have time to execute the one i had in mind. instead it became a simple one: note to self. 

some of my favorites from the ones i've seen:
 
hey yonder shop's whale
lindsay anne watson's burning house
sonya philip's
ian mclellan davis' zine
vase and flowers by molly hatch
nottene's

happy valentines day ❤

it's been a ridiculously beautiful few days here in the bay area. 72 degrees and everything blooming. too early for spring, but it sure feels good.

i did some mindless heart drawing and stamping for valentines. been a long time since i got lost in a project. i miss that.

everyone talks about how our brains are changing with our addictions to our phones/constantly checking them. i feel it (in numerous ways). i am considering taking a year off from FB and IG. or maybe i'll IG only on the weekends.

my plan is to each day try start at least one conversation with a stranger or acquaintance or have a longer conversation with a friend. this will be a HUGE challenge for me as i'm quite introverted, and i enjoy, for example, listening to music or reading and not talking with anyone on my daily bus commutes. but, i also would like more in-person interaction with people, and i may need to make this kind of commitment in order to make it happen. funnily enough, the day i came up with this idea—a couple of days ago—i had more conversations with strangers and acquaintances than i normally have in a week.

going to try this for a month to start, starting tuesday. we'll see how it goes/if i sense that my brain is acting any differently/if i can handle not checking my phone all the time.

❤ ❤ ❤

lots of PL

paper doll pinky leon (bday suit; debonaire; super PL!; cowboy; strummin;) i forgot to photograph frenchie PL with his beret)

paper doll PL created for my 2014 holiday card (from the annual PL holiday card series).

PL year in review (video)

cookie monster

the scoreboard from our very complicated work dessert contest judging. yours truly won for the second year! (i, of course, did not score my own dessert.) we even had a monitor to make sure our scoring was fair. serious business.

(just realized after titling this post that i may have been channeling cookie monster with that blue outfit.)
 

stars and lights and powdered sugar

 

i'm feeling very festive and cozy these days. looking forward to sharing glögg, cookies and games with some friends this weekend.

recently i read the book stoner (name of main character, not about about an mj smoker) by john williams. stoner's responses to events/people in his life are frustrating, but the often sad story is beautifully succinctly written. somehow this excerpt, and thinking about willingness in particular, helped me in my seemingly never ending (or my gradual and recurring) letting go:

In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of being in which, if one were lucky, one might find access. In his maturity he had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to gaze with an amused disbelief, a greatly familiar contempt, and an embarrassed nostalgia. Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the intelligence and the heart.

hey sweet thing

pb and chocolate cookies 
ebelskiver with apricot jam inside 
chocolate macaron (not homemade, from feel good bakery—they were out of pistachio)

me wanting you (extra slow version compared to album) 
get rhythm (young and slight johnny)

bits

in the peaceful back yard at julie's tea 
lime pie 
DIY pride flair

back yard refuge

 
above from jen and bob's thrifted-gifted-traded-scavenged-pilfered-hand-built yard. a magical ever-changing piece of sf bayview heaven, complete with chickens, cats, ol' dixieloo dog, a night warming chiminea, heart shaped stone collection, driftwood reminders, and succulent color bursts. and soon to sport a handmade pizza oven (built with clay gleaned from a friend's land). 

we were there for jen's ceramic bead class. we shaped, jen fired, we glazed, and jen will fire. can't wait to see what the finished beads look like.

mati and heather and i rode our bikes to/from class along the embarcadero. (we realized that we were a bicycle-beading gang and hooted/rang our bike bells accordingly!) we passed this urban beauty and topped the day off with some ice cream from mr. and mrs. miscellaneous. mmm.

thx jen and bead gang for a fun day. 

more spring

and more jasmine stealing
and peanut butter chocolate cookies

math

 
one pear cider (drunk from a diana fayt-made little chartreuse lined cup) + one second-hand wild patterned dress (traded for books at rocket reuse) = one zippered pouch, one tote, two curtain ties and scraps for quilting.

a new year

bigger
 
this may be my last pinky leon holiday card, given the state of PL's health. i just looked through my old PL holiday cards and got choked up thinking about the years we've spent together. this has been happening a lot lately! 

i have been enduring all sorts of uncomfortable sleeping positions—or, more accurately not sleeping positions—as pinky has become very snuggly and particular about where he wants to sleep—under the covers and resting his head on my arm, or sharing my pillow and spooning my head—and i want to accommodate/spoil/appreciate him these days. little old kitty.

anyhow, i hope you have a happy 2014! 

colors

 
such good grey-blue-pink-coral-lavenders and jaw-dropping skies lately.

hopefully this skirt will turn an interesting shade of blue-lavender-grey too. i just tried the 3191 black bean dye technique, sans mordant.

two in one

reversible

a new pattern

 
sewed my first top from a pattern yesterday. the lovely jennifer serr helped me make a pattern from another top i brought to class. (normally she doesn't teach pattern-making in this class, but because the top was pretty simple—and she seemed to like it—she made an exception.) i am so pleased with the result. i had briefly forgotten how satisfying it is to make something that turns out pretty close to how you had envisioned that thing. excited to try more designs. i am trying to only purchase thrift store clothing or clothing that is not made by companies that exploit people/nature. unfortunately, fabric itself is also made by such companies. it's very hard to find fabric that is made in the US and made using sustainable (or even just non-toxic) practices.

some inspiring sewing ladies: jen hewett, christine haynes and jenny of wiksten made. 

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