pretending there is sun

It's rainy here. But I decided to fool the dreariness by playing around with my camera settings to take these pictures. Doesn't it look like a sunny day?

A big thank you to these lovely people who have mentioned the Poppytalk house tour or my shop recently on their blogs. I hope I am not leaving anyone out! As a very small business these mentions and links are not only sweet, but truly valuable and I appreciate it so much!

Jane of Ill Seen Ill Said

Liz of Seven Poppies

Michelle of Blue Moss

Traci of Bliss

Victoria of SF Girl By Bay

Etsy

Jan of Poppytalk

weekend

Thank you for all your nice comments on the house tour, both here and on Poppytalk!

This weekend we cleaned the basement and made big breakfasts. My son made scrambled eggs all by himself for the first time. They were delicious.

We went to see Greenberg this weekend. Great movie!

Sharon gave me a nice blog award. I recommend looking at her blog, Live Your Style. She lives on the island of Mauritius and her photos will give you a slice of tropical paradise. Thank you, Sharon!

a bit of excitement

Our home is featured today as Poppytalk's "home sweet home" tour. I'm very excited and honored to be there!

By the way, the top of that dresser in the center photo doesn't usually look that clean. But nobody wants to see the pile of junk that's usually there!

More Poppytalk "home sweet home" tours here too.

call for yellow

These grey rainy days call for a bit of yellow to cheer them up. Ranuculus, meyer lemons, whatever, I'll take it!

I found some nice photo tips on Pia's blog. I love her approach. Also, I discovered by accident on Monday that if I crop my photos to square and reduce the original photo size by half the pictures appear much bigger in the blog post. Did you already know this? I'm usually the last to know!

Angela's got me hooked on twitter. I notice that Liz and Jane are also good about tweeting. I'm gonna try to tweet a bit more too. Do you tweet and if so do you have any good tips?

new in the shop!

I just added some new things to my Etsy shop over the weekend. It felt sad to not have anything in that shop, and now the space feels much more cheery!

First up: new spring tote bags made with vintage French ticking, in both olive grey and sandy beige with crisp white stripes. Bags are lined with heavy natural canvas and have cotton webbing handles. The fabric is sturdy, and gently faded to the perfect color, easily at home in town or on the beach.

Second: the last of the large grain sack pillows. There are three left, here, here and here. I won't be making this larger size for a while, so if you've always wanted one, now's the time!

Third: denim totes!

in the kitchen

Mini-kitchen tour today! I spend a good portion of my days here in this kitchen. Hope you all have a really nice weekend.

a good day

No school in Cambridge today because of St. Patrick's Day. We celebrated with homemade scones in the morning. Then spent the rest of the day outside in the warm sunshine. My Fog Linen books came in the mail today. A good day indeed.

sunny again

Three days of torrential rain. Now there's sun, and lots of work to do! Photos are from my cousin's sunny Brooklyn apartments. More here and here.

And thank you, Poppytalk, for including my photo in the spring color week last Friday! How thrilling to see it included!

early spring

It doesn't look or feel a lot like spring here today. But then, early spring is about cold, and grey and brown isn't it? And somehow, this brown is a prelude to green!

Making me think of early spring today are:

A wonderful little surprise package which arrived in the mail yesterday from Liz. A trio of clothespegs, a beautiful note, and two lovely vintage button magnets. Liz's shop is here, and is filled with photos, handmade goodies, and vintage treats.

Earth toned birds from Little Byrd Vintage Shop. These are mine, but you can find more in Rebekah's shop.

Khaki French ticking totes. These will go in my shop soon.

Lemon tart from the May 2008 issue of Gourmet. I just baked the crust. Now I'm off to make the lemon filling. Recipe available here.

Have a wonderful early spring weekend!

dark denim totes

Working on more of these denim totes for the spring. Some will go to Pod, some to my shop. These are the dark wash denim. Now I'm going to start on some chambray denim totes. My personal favorite. My outfit today was inspired by the bags: navy and white, ha!

I just started reading Paris to the Moon. I read it ten years ago, and have wanted to re-read it ever since. I'm excited to be swept away in a Parisian dream for awhile.

sturbridge, again

We visited Sturbridge Village again this weekend. The 19th century houses make me feel nostalgic for the town and the house I grew up in. I like these little trips into the past.

The light has changed now: it's brighter, sunnier, warmer. Of course we'll get some more cold and grey days, but for now, I'll take all I can get.

berries

I was browsing my old photos while I was uploading stuff onto flickr and found these berries. I'm looking forward to berry season.

And speaking of flickr, I'm curious to know how many of you use it for your own photos and how often? I'm terrible about updating mine and find that I'm just uploading photos that I put on my blog anyway. Any advice on how to make the most of flickr?

Happy weekend!

sewing again

Back to sewing today, working with some denim and canvas again. I've been knitting for the past few weeks. Finally finished my vest. It's a bit homely and I love it anyway. I added the grey stripes because I didn't have enough of the blue yarn to make it one solid color.

I ordered the new Around Fog Linen book yesterday, now I just can't wait for it to get here!

elbow patches

I found this guy in my studio this morning ironing elbow patches onto his sweaters. I'm awfully glad I'm married to someone who knows how to patch his own sweaters! It means he's thrifty too, which is also a plus.

It's bright and sunny today and I'm feeling uplifted.

I'm totally inspired by the colors Camilla Engman and Sandra Juto are using in their work. Aren't these lovely?

birthday weekend

My daughter's 10th birthday was this weekend. Lots of fun! I made the banners from my vintage fabric stash and doilies from the grocery store. Pretty green polka dot wrapping paper is from Angela's shop.