Wednesday, October 31, 2012

happy halloween!

vintage halloween art
Happy Halloween!
Obviously I'll be spending the evening perched saucily on a giant pumpkin, showing some leg and wearing a sophisticated owl headpiece.

vintage halloween
Well... that or hugging the kitties and watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Y'know.
One or the other.
We'll see.

Have a happy Halloween!

Monday, October 29, 2012

much love monday

Well, hi there!
I hope everyone in the path of the storm is staying safe!
It's drizzling here, but that's about it.
Here are a few things I love this week.

tree stump dollhouse
this mouse treehouse!   I love that there's a little mudroom at the bottom to avoid muddy little pawprints in the house.


madewell sheep sweater
this sheepy sweater

sunshine cats kitten
these kitties-- my cats totally play the tail-batting game, too.  the key seems to be for one kitty to be going crazy while the other looks totally uninterested.
beehive illustration
this sweet beehive illustration... which is also a hint at a knitting project that will be revealed later in the week.  hint hint hint. 

flowering trees
these beautiful flowering fields and trees

Jen Lobo Illustration for The Story of Pines a Fine Frenzy
this beautiful illustration for the e-book companion to A Fine Frenzy's new album-- my favorite part is the kiwi wearing carefully constructed wings so he wouldn't be left out.

I hope your week is off to a wonderful start!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

amigurumi!

Hi there!
I'm still knitting away on my Moonpie Shawl, and it's grown a lot!  But now each row is more than 700 stitches long, and it can get a little monotonous sometimes.  I like to throw in fun little projects every now and again to keep things interesting.  Lately I've been making amigurumi-- crocheted treats and creatures with happy little faces!

amigurumi cupcake

amigurumi tea coffee cup

amigurumi cupcake teacup pumpkin
they like to hang around with their mini-pumpkin pal
I'm going to keep making amigurumi and attach fishing line loops so I can put them on my Christmas tree!

I hope you're having a wonderful day!


Friday, October 26, 2012

fill-in-the-blank friday


1. The best feeling in the world is when I'm feeling especially creatively inspired and 'in the zone.'  When I get in that mindset, it truly feels like designs are just drawing themselves, or solutions to a problem are just appearing in a list.  It's so refreshing, too-- when I have to go do something else, I feel as energized as if I'd had a fantastic nap.

2. My favorite smell is the way the air smells when the seasons are changing.  The 'first real day of autumn' and the 'first day of spring without a winter coat even though it's not really warm enough yet' smells are two that I particularly like.

3. My favorite taste is warm chocolate chip cookies and milk.  Or peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam.  (Apparently I have the culinary preferences of a semi-sophisticated five-year-old.)

4. The most beautiful thing I've ever seen was the way my parents looked at each other.  They remained, as my dad would have put it, "a young couple, very much in love" for every moment of their time together on this plane of existence.

5. The best sound ever is, and I hate to be such a fangirl here, but I think it's when The Hold Steady are playing a concert and Craig Finn just has such infectious joy in his voice, like there is nothing in the world he'd rather be doing than sharing that experience with the audience.  The sounds of being in the forest and the sound of happily purring kitties are pretty great, too.

6. A smell that reminds me of my childhood is the smell of a fire in a woodstove with pear slices drying on the top.  I smelled that walking in the door after school every fall for as long as I can remember.

7. My favorite of all the senses is touch.  I think its because I'm in such a tactile field.  Obviously sight is important for fashion design, but unless someone spends the entire day looking in the mirror, the thing they'll notice most about the clothes they're wearing is how they feel.  This is part of why I love knitting and spinning so much, too, there's such an emphasis on how things feel-- the yarn, the roving, the feel of bamboo knitting needles or metal ones, or the feel of a knitted fabric.

Have a lovely weekend!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

the story of pines

Good morning, sunshines!
Today I want to share with you the sweetest, most beautiful video ever.
It's the short film made to accompany A Fine Frenzy's latest album, Pines.
you might want to gather up some tissues and a snuggly cat/dog/teddy bear/human before pressing play.


Sigh.
Isn't it wonderful?

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

snippets

just bits and pieces of what I've been doing and seeing lately...

siamese cats on couch
clearly, I've been ousted from my own loveseat.

orange mums
beautiful oranges mums

teapots
My mom and I found these matching teapots-- mine is the green one, and hers is the blue one.  They have a mesh basket in the top for putting loose tea in, so none ever escapes into the cup of tea!

cream white door pink bow cottage shabby
cream and gray and pink, oh my!

siamese cat window sunshine
Cocoa likes to enjoy the great outdoors from the comfort of his blanket.

white mums flowers sunshine
tiny pitcher of tiny mums

Have a beautiful day!

Monday, October 22, 2012

much love monday

Hi friends!
Here are a few things I found this week that are making me say...
spanky little rascals
this gif of Spanky from the Little Rascals/ Our Gang! 

pastel neutral sweaters
these beautiful neutral knits


owl and cat in tree illustration
this adorable painting (which I can't find an original source for, boooo!  If you know it, leave a note in the comments pretty please!)

lisa congdon day vintage erasers
this collection of vintage erasers

stump with tea autumn
this cozy cup of tea

ornaments branch christmas tree cottage
these beautiful Christmas twigs-- everything on that whole site is cottage-y and lovely, actually!

Have a beautiful day!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

on the needles: moonpie shawl

Today I'd like to share a knitting project with you!

citron grand shawl jill draper gradient

     This is the Citron Grand shawl pattern,  and I'm knitting it in merino lace-weight yarn that I spun up from a Jill Draper gradient roving (you can see and read about the roving in this post!).  It's a simple, easy pattern, perfect for car-knitting and taking to knitting group.  I'm calling it my Moonpie Shawl because of the silvery blue-grey color of a lot of the yarn.  I'm just moving into that color and you can see it along the edge of the shawl.  It reminds me of moonlight on the ocean and I love, love, love it.  I'm only about halfway through the pattern, so this is going to be a big shawl, and I may end up adding more sections because I want to make sure to use up all the yarn so I get all the way through the purple color at the end.  It's on a size 6 needle, though, so it's still light and airy.  

     I'm going to be spending my afternoon knitting and drinking tea and snuggling with the kitties (by which I mean, trying to keep my yarn away from their adorable but grabby little paws!).  What projects are you working on?  By the way, if you're on Ravelry, I'm JulieRoseSews on there as well-- feel free to friend me, I love seeing all of your beautiful projects!

Have a wonderful day!



Saturday, October 20, 2012

red valentino s/s 2013

Just like last season, I love so many of the looks from the Red Valentino line that I needed to make a separate post for them.
red valentino ss 2013

red valentino ss 2013

red valentino ss 2013

red valentino ss 2013

red valentino ss 2013

red valentino ss 2013

Have a beautiful day!


images via style.com

Friday, October 19, 2012

fill-in-the-blank friday


1. One thing I plan to do this weekend is sketch!  I haven't kept a non-fashion sketchbook since before I went to college, and I'm really excited to get back to it.  I find that when I'm putting time and energy into one art form, it inevitably leads to inspiration in others.  I'm also going to be seeing my wonderful brother at his college's homecoming.  Yay!

2. A big pet peeve of mine is passive-aggressive behavior, particularly via social media.  It's so unhelpful and unnecessary, yet so prevalent in youth culture today.  During my time as an RA, I saw so many conflicts escalate from a tiny disagreement to a huge debacle because one person involved decided to post about it.  Friends and friends-of-friends get involved, misinformation spreads, and it's just a mess.  No matter how technologically advanced we get, a calm face-to-face discussion will always be the best way to solve a dispute, in my opinion.  (and no, this isn't directed at anyone in particular.  ha!)

3. I am really loving the Wednesday knitting group at my local yarn shop!  What a sweet and hysterically funny group of ladies.

4. The rain is making it feel extra-cozy to be inside with yarn, kitties, music, and sketchbooks.

5. My favorite girly indulgence is little bits and bobs for around the house.  Right now I'm loving vintage tins for storing knitting and sewing notions.

6. A song I always get stuck in my head is "Asleep on a Sunbeam" by Belle and Sebastian.  It's so cute and catchy!

7. The best cure for stress is making a list of things to do, then accomplishing things and crossing them off the list.  Kitty-snuggles don't hurt, either. 

Happy Friday!
  

Thursday, October 18, 2012

rosemary bread

I mentioned in this week's Much Love Monday post that I was feeling the urge to bake some bread...
bread ingredients
gathering the ingredients
...so I did!
measuring cup of flour
I used this recipe for rosemary bread, with a few adaptations-- for instance, I omitted the corn meal because a) I don't like the texture and b) I didn't have any.  So that worked out well.
bowl of flour wooden spoon
mixing, mixing, mixing
rosemary
I also used about twice the amount of rosemary than the recipe calls for-- some for mixing into the dough, and some to sprinkle on top.
bread rising bowl red gingham
waiting for the dough to rise...
rosemary bread
I'm so pleased with how the bread turned out!  It was cold and chilly outside, and the baking bread filled the house with such a warm, comforting scent.
rosemary bread
the crust came out nice and chewy, and the inside was perfectly soft.
rosemary bread
I hope you're having a wonderful, cozy afternoon on this autumn day!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

happy birthday marissa!!!


Happy birthday to the best best friend in the world!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

the wayside inn

longfellow's wayside inn sign
     A few weekends ago, my mom and I headed up to The Wayside Inn, in Sudbury, Massachusetts-- the same Wayside Inn that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about in his famous Tales of a Wayside Inn.  We were there for the Sudbury Colonial Faire, a fife and drum muster that also has a full-blown colonial gathering with period-appropriate dancing, food, and crafts.

longfellow wayside inn bust stone statue
the man of the hour himself
revolutionary war reenactment colonial
uh-oh.
     There was also a reenactment of a Revolutionary War skirmish-- it was pretty intense.  I was standing near a little boy and his dad, and the father kept trying to explain what was happening in a historically unbiased manner, which doesn't necessarily compute with a four-year-old who's used to having clearly defined 'good guys' and 'bad guys.'  

church weathervane gold
I really like weathervanes-- there were some beautiful ones around The Wayside Inn.  This one was on top of a church.

bridge in the forest fairytale
this little pathway looked completely untouched by time, it was like something out of a fairytale.
antique barn red

revolutionary war reenactment british redcoats
did I mention that there were a lot of guys firing muskets?  well, there were a whole lot of guys firing a whole lot of muskets.

dreamy stone wall forest autumn
I love old stone walls-- I love imagining how many people in different time periods touched this one as they were out for a walk in the woods.

yellow gold berries dew
these golden berries were growing everywhere.

feather weathervane
This is one of my favorite weathervanes ever-- simple and clean and pretty.

ancient mariners walking fife and drum wayside inn longfellow
heading to the parade-- I've gotta hand it to this guy for marching barefoot, because it was not a warm day.
I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my trip to The Wayside Inn!