84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

I loved this book. It was so sweet and sentimental. It makes you like people a little bit more than usual.

Robot Template and More

Here's my template for my Robot Buddy I'm making for my nephew Baby Keith. The kid is freakin adorable and put me under his spell with his giant brown eyes and repeated attempts to make me fix his lego robot creation. So I'm making him this: And if it 'breaks', it'll be in Washington where his mum and dad will be responsible for fixing it. It should be done this week (maybe even tomorrow if I buckle down). He's gonna be really soft grey corduroy with lots and lots of robot buttons. After that, it'll be two more stuffed creatures for his equally adorable older twin brothers (who I believe are almost five years old). One might be a llama and another a dog if I have their current fixations down correctly.

And of course, this is another felt flower. Typical of me, I know.

Even More Felt Flowers

I promise to have something different soon. These are just so fun and easy and simple to do while watching House. Here are some pretties:

Soon though, the robot buddy stuffed creature I've been working on will be done. Plus I'm branching into (wait for it) 3D felt flowers (yes I'm obsessed, but 3D!). Oh and I have some paper crafts planned for the near future and pottery classes have started again. I promise this isn't strictly the felt flower blog.

Tree Sweater

tree sweater
Originally uploaded by Dabbler.

Ack! How cool is this? Should likely stop flickring soon if I'm to get anything done tonight, but don't things like this just make you love the internet?

Meanderings

squid garden
Originally uploaded by hobbledehoy-liz.

As a non-knitter (at least not yet!) I take way too much pleasure in looking at pretty yarns. How can you resist wonderful things like this Squid Garden (the best name ever):

Introducing Lincoln

This is my very scruffy, very adorable Lincoln Logs. He's very pleased to meet you.

Away with the Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O

My back up plan has always been to run away to Mexico (even though I've never been). Instead of just running away to drink too much tequila and bask in the sunshine, I am now considering the life of a gypsy. Its the lifestyle for me. Constant traveling in my own brightly colored caravan (periwinkle-blue?). I can dress as wildly as I like - no more business casual by day. The opportunity to collect as many bright scarves and garish jewelry as I like. I can dust off my tarot deck to make money along the way. Anytime life gets sucky, I can just move along in my gypsy wagon. I can learn wild gypsy folkdances. I'll get an immense draught horse named Snapdragon and have him pull me on my way.
Okay so maybe very little of this is real gypsy lifestyle, but I'm okay with that. I can be a romanticized version of a gypsy. Just look at the possibilities:




And this would be Snapdragon:


All pictures shamelessly borrowed from Flickr. Here, here, and here. (There must be a way to add hyperlinks to pictures, but I haven't quite figured it out yet.)

The Blind Assassin

This book was so good! All the different levels of the story were intriguing and the characters were superb. This was probably my best read in quite a long while. I think everyone should read this one - especially anyone looking to get completely drawn into a great novel.

I just finished The Devil Wears Prada thinking it would be a fun fluffy read. It was an easy read but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would. It felt a little predictable. And while fashion is fun - reading about it doesn't even come close to looking at it. It was pretty eh in my book. Next up is Memoirs of a Geisha. My sister loves it, and she and I usually share the same taste in books. (And no - I haven't seen either of the movies made out of the previously mentioned books. I hate watching a movie before I've read the book - even if it just makes me whiny about what gets left out. I like forming my own picture of the characters -= not Hollywood's versions).

More Hairpins

Here's some new ones:


And for Jen, a picture of the back (although the sewing on this one is a bitt sloppy).
Next up is a plan to make a whole garland of these to hang over my bedroom door. They're fun to make and there's no limit for how to decorate them.

More color

I like this shirt. Yet another reason for me to learn to sew...and embroider...

From Tory Burch.

Frivolity

Okay, I could usually care less about celebrities and awards shows and the like, but I am a sucker for pretty clothes. Here's my favorite dresses from the Golden Globes (not that I watched - I just looked at them this morning):

Pretty yellow dress. And cute shoes!

This actress is usually kind of painful to look at what with her twig limbs and too skinny body. But this dress camoflauges that a bit and its so well draped. I really liked it.

I love this dress! Not only does it look great on her, but the color and the fabric are marvelous. Sexy but not crazy revealing. Love it! All the rest of the dresses I'm pretty eh about, but these were too pretty not to share.

For the Love of Felt (and color)

Now I'm fiddling about with these adorable barrettes. While dying for color that's never appearing outside, I've decided to adorn myself with color. Here it is:

I really like the lil girl cutesiness of them. But the pictures are making me wonder if it isn't time to dye my hair again - hopefully something that doesn't clash with my felts.

Movie Suggestions

I recently watched two great movies that I've been reccomending to everyone I know. The fisrt is Cane Toads. It's delightfully weird. I believe I read somewhere that someone called it a Monty Python-esque documentary. Its bizarre and all about the problem with cane toads in Australia.

The second I love love love. Its called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Its all about another non-native species - this time parrots living in the Bay area as well as a man who interacts with them. Its so touching and sweet and everyone should see it. Both of these have been out for a long long time, but I just watched them in the last month or so. I'm slow.

Oooh color

As a longtime apartment dweller, I have been coping with white walls for an insane amount of time. All the colorful artwork, fabrics and odds and ends in the world just will not cut it anymore. I need paint - vibrant paint colors would cheer up my place so much. And really, that rent deposit is probably gone anyway, right?

I've been flickring and here are my inspirations:

This I envy the most. I think if let loose, I would totally go for eclectic gypsy chic. Love love love all the color and prettiness. The garland! The major problem is that I'm an absolute clutter-phobe, and I'd have to get over that to allow such lovelyness. Really, I just want to crawl into this picture and live in this room.

This color of green is striking me so much lately. Its so clean and zippy and vibrant. Doesn't this room look like the best spot for spending time with friends and serving margaritas.

Isn't this color serene and oh so pretty? It would be perfect for a bedroom. But I dream of a bedroom this color:

I've been dreaming of a lavender bedroom for the longest time. The room is a bit ehh, but the color is divine.

Those colors are insanely gorgeous. Sigh...

Baby blue and bright red is an inspired combo. Maybe for our office/craft room.

This wallpaper is great too. And I never figured myself for much of a wallpaper fan, but if its this lovely, I can convert.

Very peaceful and romantic.


Maybe this sherbert color for the crafty room. I need it somewhere - I'm sure of that.


Love this - maybe for the living room or dining room.

And if only I had huge sunny windows (and a huge sunny bathroom to go with), I could go for this. It would be the best spot for zenlike baths.

All pictures found via Rooms I Heart on flickr which I found thanks to a post on Lagomorph - a very spiffy blog I've been reading.

Necklace Tiles

I've been puttering away at a pottery class lately. Not a talent that's coming easy to me, but I am really enjoying working with clay. The wheel is still a bit intimidating though. Here's the results so far:

I've had a bit of a snail obsession lately.

This was a happy accident. I smudged colors on there that were never intended for that tile. I love the effect though.

The far right one was a gift for my sister in Texas. Thought it was cute.

And this bowl is the first piece outta my class. A little lopsided, but cute.

More Tshirt Stencils

I've been on a roll with the whole tshirt stenciling thing. Here's some that I did for myself.


I used the simple little stars to cover up some stains that I thought had ruined one of my fave comfy shirts. Now its wearable again!

Betty Page:

The graphic from the novel Virgin Suicides. This was a bit fussier and harder than some of the others.

And lastly, a stencil from the graffiti artist Banksy. If you aren't familiar with his work, look at this Flickr set.



Next project should probably be prettifying this blog. It's a little on the plain side right now.