Things I Know About My Baby

Ela is just over one week old. I don't know anything about her at all. And yet, I know everything about her. I made her and carried her and brought her into the world. She's oddly familiar and strangely foreign.

She likes to sleep with her hands up by her ears.

She's going to be strong and smart. She's trying desperately (and nearly succeeding) to hold up her head. She's found her thumb to suck.

Those dimples come from her daddy.

 
She's fairly easy-going (hopefully that sticks!).

When she wakes up she's content to look around, waggle her arms and flail her legs. 

Her smile is crooked--just like her mama's and her great-great grandpa's.

Miss Elanor, I'm looking forward to learning all about you over the next days, weeks, months, and years. You will be a lifetime of discovery. 

Spring Shoes

It's nearly spring and I'm longing for at least one of these to join my closet this year.

 Seychelles

Born

 Leifsdottir

 Diane von Furstenberg

They would make me feel better about the horrid lack of cute maternity clothes that I have. 

Holiday Shopping

Um, so, some slightly shameful self-promotion here today. I'm participating in Etsy's Cyber Monday promotion by offering 10 percent off everything in my store until midnight. To get the discount, just use the code CYBERMONDAY when you check out.

Also, because so many of the items in my shop are made-to-order in your size or special color requests they take awhile to make. In order to make sure your gifts arrive by Christmas, I need to have your order by  Sunday, Dec. 12.

Sadly, and happily, I suppose, my favorite earrings already sold today even though I just put them up for sale yesterday. I was kind of hoping no one would want them so I could keep them. But that's ok. I won't tell you what my other favorites are so you won't feel bad about buying them!

And, you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook if you want more updates about new items or holiday specials.

Some New Jewelry

I've had some recent success (and some failures) lately with my jewelry business, Mischief by Loki. I've been creating a wholesale line of more simple, replicable, affordable pieces, while continuing to reveal my favorite one-of-a-kind creations. Here are a few of the things I've made lately...

Have you joined me on Facebook? I do giveaways and sneak peeks and discounts and other random things there.

A Perfect View

The puppies love sitting out on the hot tub in the evenings. It's out on a landing outside our bedroom and looks as though it's on the roof of our house. I often find Loki laying with his head hanging over the edge of the roof, looking at... something. Lyla likes to spy on the squirrels.

Just wait puppies. Only a few more months and it will be cool enough for me to actually sit IN the hot tub. Then you'll be out of luck. 

Growin' Tomato Trees

See this tomato plant tree? I'm holding it up because it got too heavy and flopped over. See how it's taller than I am... even while two feet on the top are actually leaning over onto itself? Yeah, we are going to have a TON of tomatoes.

This weekend I plan to do nothing. Ok, so I actually plan to do a lot of things but none of them are vital and none of them require long trips or house guests or staying overnight anywhere, which will be a fabulous change from the last six weeks or so. Ahhhhhh, weekends.

Friday Flutter: Dogs

A Friday collection of some fun Etsy items I found that make me think of my puppies.

 Custom dog silhouette by Happy Thought

 Dog nose imprint by Rock My World Inc

A beautiful lapiz paw print that was cut for me by Tom at Harnessed Earth

 Adorable dachshund chasing its tail in this ring by Mooshy Gooshies

Puppy love enamel ring by Marmar (Husband once bought me the necklace that matches this)

Living in Catalog Land

I love design and decoration and renovation and painting everything I can get my hands on (ok, actually I detest painting very strongly, but I still seem to do an awful lot of it). My reader is full of design blogs and I enjoy dreaming about all the things my home will be some day when I get a few minutes free to work on it.

But still. Sometimes all the inspiration files and catalogs look a bit... ridiculous, right? If you agree you'll love Catalog Living. I just heard about this site and its wickedly funny writer who tells stories about the people who live in the overly styled photos in major catalogs.

 

Slothing About

Anna posted this on Door Sixteen today and I wanted to share. Because, you know, it's the perfect way to start a weekend.


Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

A Spring Picnic

Finally! A day warm enough for an outdoor picnic. I forgot to take pictures of the actual picnic, of course, but we joined friends up on a bluff looking over the fields and valley for yummy bread, fresh fruit and veggies. And these--which were our contribution to the lunch.

 Creamy lavender-flavored something-or-other than Husband made topped with strawberries. Ah-mazing! And yummy chocolate and mint. And the crust was super. I stole the crust and chocolate recipe from here.

HOTNESS

My friend Shawna (of the upcoming wedding I keep talking about) just posted a sneak peek of her engagement photos, taken this weekend.

Holy crap.

You have to go look. Seriously. Isn't she pretty much the hottest thing you've ever seen? And the planes! And the sexy guy! And the shoes! Ah!

Photo via Shawna, via True Love Photo.

Found: Lace Jewelry by White Owl

Normally I wouldn't have said this is my style. But oh. my. goodness. I can't even tell you how much I'm lusting after these lace necklaces on White Owl's Etsy shop. And the earrings. Oh, the earrings. (Husband, are you reading this? This is what I want for my next random gift!)

Two more things: 1) I wish I had been brilliant enough to think up something like this. 2) Am I the only one who hasn't seen or heard of this shop yet?



Photos via White Owl.

Why Can I Never Get Enough of These Baby Animals?

So you know how very much I love the baby animal prints, right? There's a new one. It's fantastic. And there's a video about it. You should watch. At the very least click through to about halfway and see this little guy:

I may have to add him to my ever-growing collection of these gorgeous prints.



Image via the ever-amazing Sharon Montrose.

Coffee Table Love

I went to this new consignment shop in my town the other day. Back behind the counter I spotted a strange and oddly intriguing mid-century coffee table that I couldn't quite figure out. It appeared to be a nesting coffee table, but that didn't see quite right. Then I saw that it had six legs, which also seemed strange. Finally, the sales girl showed me that it was a swiveling coffee table. The top and bottom were attached near one end and could rotate independently of each other.

Did you see that? I said SWIVEL.

Not sure I'd ever been so excited about something before.

They wanted $200 for the table which was more than I wanted to spend. It needed a little work so I thought about trying to talk them down, but instead sadly went home. But you know how sometimes you can't get an object, or movie, or idea out of your head? And you just know it's good and that you really, really need it? 

So I called Husband on my way home from work and told him I was stopping by to pick it up. Except, when I arrived the sales girl said they had sold it THAT DAY. Nooooo!

When I got home I saw this:

Yes, Husband was the secret purchaser. And he talked down the price. And it had been mismarked. So he brought home my new love for only $100.*

*and the price of the lovely daffodils he picked up and had sitting there. He's a good husband, yes?

Paint stripes

I'm generally not a stripe person but recently I've been loving the look of wide, painted stripes.

Photo: Design*Sponge

Photo: Design*Sponge

Photo: Young House Love

The trouble is that there really aren't any good places to paint them in our house. The two rooms where I think it would look fantastic already have lots of wainscoting... and that just seems like way too much. Our upstairs bathroom would work but I don't want to paint it since we're planning to completely rip it out and expand it into the next room over.

But this one, this I can imagine. It's my favorite. Same color, different sheens. This would even look good in a subtle white or grey tone on tone, don't you think?

Photo: Apartment Therapy

A Tale of Two Rings

I'm finally finding a little time to practice my metalwork. Today I organized my supplies, re-sanded and oiled my work bench (no more slivers--hooray!) and finished taking pictures of a couple of pieces. It felt nice to do something creative again.

This ring is a smaller version of the one I made Husband for his wedding band. Now I have one too! I'll make it custom to whatever size the customer wants, so I think I'll keep this one.

This one is just fun. My lovely friend Mindy wants it, though, so it looks like I'll be back in my studio sawing and hammering and oxidizing later this week.

For the ring people out there... what kind of ring would you like to see? Wide or narrow? Plain or decorative? Plain sterling silver or set with stones? It's hard to know which of my design ideas to start on so I'd love the advice!

 

This are our rings at the wedding.

Pictures by me.  Except the wedding photo, taken by the always-amazing Ben Blood.

A Delightful Day

I woke up early, but then lounged in bed for an hour while Husband ran to the store for bread to make french toast. He also took the puppies for a gallop by the creek and when he returned I had tired puppies to snuggle with and fresh Dutch Bros. coffee to enjoy.

Later I spray painted a bunch of random fixtures and hooks. The people he bought the house from must have LOVED gold, for it's everywhere. We're slowly changing it everything to brushed nickel, which seems small but has a huge impact--on the house and our wallets! So I spray painted a bunch of things a matte silver today and they look quite lovely. Hooray for thriftiness!

I made some changes to my Etsy shop and fashioned a few pieces of jewelry that I'm quite proud of. Trying to actually make something of this shop is time-consuming. But occasionally, like today, I make something really lovely!

And finally, I read a book and ate the homemade pizza that Husband made (and cleaned up after later!!!!).

And now, it's off to bed.

The Best Tart EVER

I'm having a super-strong craving for this tart:

I'm not a fan of wedding cake so we chose to have this fruit tart at our wedding instead. The super thing about this was that the giant tart was for us and we got equally delicious small tarts for everyone else.

We got married in Port Townsend, Wash., (six hours from where we live--a very good and very bad idea!) and a couple of months before the wedding we went over to check on a few things. We stopped at this little bakery-hole-in-the-wall and I ordered a fruit tart and coffee.

Oh. my. goodness.

I had never tasted anything so amazing in my whole life. So there it was: one easy wedding decision out of the way.

Today has been dreary and cold and this whole week and pretty much sucked. So I'm dreaming of vanilla bean custard and fresh fruits and flaky crusts.

Thank You Notes

I finally finished my wedding thank you notes! It took almost five months, which totally makes me feel like a slacker, but that's ok.

So the highlight of tonight's note-writing session was written by my husband. I quote:

"Dear _____,
Thank you for the wedding gift."

He certainly can be efficient, eh?

Retro-style Peace of Mind

I love having things put away. I love having a place for everything--especially when that "place" is a box, bin, basket or cupboard. I don't like clutter and I'd always rather go through the extra step of opening something to get what I need than just reaching for it on an already crowded countertop.

And yes, my husband is the exact opposite. Fun times.

We went to Target this weekend and as we walked passed this amazing contraption I stopped with my mouth hanging open. And apparently with wide, pleading eyes because he picked it up and put in in the basket.

Ta da! This totally retro bread box is now sitting on our counter with sourdough, banana bread and bagels inside.

I've been wanting a bread box (yeah, I know, people think I'm weird) but not only is this a bread box... it's old looking and it's turquoise. We have turquoise retro kitchen chairs*, I kid you not, so this is awesome.

I feel like I could die happy right now.

*which really is kind of weird, because although I have an eclectic decorating style it still leans more toward the Crate & Barrel aesthetic than anything else. But we love them. And they came from Ikea--on sale!