Part of My Week...

A week to celebrate friends! Congrats Hsing (great article) & Jennifer (new website).
By rows, starting at top left...

• My fabulous friend Hsing's sweet article about the traditional Lunar New Year meal: A Fortunate Exchange
• I wonder if we'll be seeing more and more architecture like this as solar roofing becomes the norm? (via Desire to Inspire)
• I had totally forgotten about this book--but yes, it's a "yummy" one!
• Can't wait to look through Jen's photographs in her new book Simply Paris
• Jennifer's new website on styling and personal wardrobe refinement
  

SNAPS spring flowers

First sign of spring--tulips at Urban Gardener.

Part of My Week...Now Part of Me

• To make me want to drop everything and sew: Puffy Pouch Tutorial from Pink Penguin

• To help me expand my pincushion collection: Heather Bailey's Elephants

• To delight me: Shortbread Buttons from Nikole Herriott, found via Design Is Mine

• To rekindle my desire for a photo wall: John Murphy Frames from Design*Sponge

• To help me remember my resolutions (and come up with a few more!): Designer Monina Velarde's New Year's Resolutions Generator found via the SCOOP

• To make me drool: Apple's new iPad

• To remind me how much I love to knit: A peak into Dutch Designer Ingrid Jansen’s life & style from sfgirlbybay

• To help me realize my dreams: How to Enter the World of Textiles: For the Quilting Industry by Lizzy House found via Twitter

• To help me protect my new macbook: The BookBook found via everyone on the planet (so its probably old news to you by now too... but I still love it!)

• To make me whip out the CC (or this could be titled, To teach me how to tell time at last!): La Mer Collections found via Made By Girl

SNAPS birthday cake

Picking up the cake for Bob's 60th at Susie Cakes, Newport Beach.

Kilim Rugs

Last spring and summer I worked on an interior design project for Fairmont Private Schools in Orange County. The project was to restore the library of their high school campus. The campus is located on the historic Stanton Estate in Anaheim and is very beautiful, 1920's Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture. As we were working through the remodel and choosing furnishings I fell in love with kilim. I had my eyes on the patchwork kilim rug at the top left ,but it was double my budget so I ended up with a soumak (pictured top right). A Sundance catalog came in today's mail and I noticed a similar rug and thought I'd do a little kilim posting. I still need to take photos of the completed library project--the top right photo was taken the evening of the furniture installation back in August...you can see a kilim pillow (no longer available) that I scored at a Pottery Barn outlet within the photo.

Clockwise, beginning under the library shot:

• Tabari (Sundance)
• Handbag and much more (Yurdan)
• Coffee Bench (Restoration Hardware)
• Yamamak Red (The Rug Company)

CHA Winter 2010

I didn't really know what to expect when my mom called me up on Saturday and asked if I wanted to go to CHA. If I were a scrapbooker, I think I would have been in crafty heaven. But since that isn't my craft of choice, I was kind of bummed. Nonetheless, I had a great time. Check out ScrapBlog and 300dpi for some cool digital scrapbooking sites that peaked my non-scraper interest.

Don't you love the Handmade is Better shirt I bought from Craftster? Craftster is an online indie craft community--a definite must visit for any crafter. I loved making the baby onesie with polka dot tie with Cathie Filian who was delightful and promoting her new book, 101 Snappy Fashions. I thought the iron-ons from Plaid were great--what a fun and easy project for all of the new babies that are due in 2010! Another fun demo was dying yarn with kool-aid. I'm so curious! I also enjoyed meeting a lady from Sew 4 Home which features free & easy tutorials and ideas. I'm hoping to get some inspiration for the Creative Craft Sewing Class I'll be teaching this summer for Fairmont Schools.

My favorite moments of the day included a make-it-take-it activity: sewing a dog collar. Don't you just love my little boy neighbor sewing for his pup? Too cute! I was really impressed with the Janome machine I worked on... (I'm sewing machine shopping so it was timely--anyone have any recommendations?). Another highlight was meeting Debbie Stoller who was promoting her new line of yarn, Stitch Nation. I loved the Bamboo Ewe line--great colorway and price! Can't wait for that to hit Home Ec!

The take-away of the day for me was to keep crafting in whatever form that interests you. Keep making things and remember, Handmade IS Better!

Part of My Week...

Clockwise from top right--a few things that caught my attention this past week.

• Nicole Hill Gerulat announced a Mini-Art Weekend in LA for February, and Jamie and I are excited to be Photo, Illustrator and Screenprinting students
• Amanda Hesser (of NY Times and Food 52) making salted caramel milkshakes with her kids
• We missed it this year, but our fab friend Jayna hooked us up with the inside scoop - Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City (top left triptych photo is also from their website)
  
• New home tour tab on The Brick House (photo journal about restoring a California mid-century home)
  
• I'm thinking of following this new-ish quilt pattern from Denyse Schmidt called "Stacking the Odds"
• Lifework on the Herman Miller website, "where life and work meet." They happened to feature Stephanie and Mav this week which is how I discovered it--the above image is from Stephanie's home office

Gardening Advice: Practical & Inspirational

We've had a beautiful amount of water come down from the sky these past few weeks in Southern California. As spring approaches, I'm considering making some time to plant and care for a little something...something small is better than nothing at all! Last night, The Boy and I attended a "Grow Where You Are" lecture at the Road Less Traveled Store in Santa Ana. Eugene Cooke was a moving lecturer, and shared many useful tips about gardening. Below are my notes from the event, as verbatim as I can remember...

(Photo from Gebsite)

• Plant your garden in a place where you have to walk past it every day. Then make it beautiful so that you want to be there. The only thing that will make your plants grow is your presence. Plant flowers that you like, and herbs that you use all the time, so that you're constantly out there harvesting, noticing things and nurturing the plants.
• To thrive, gardens need variety. They need flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. Don't let the perception of a tree turn you away from this vision--it can be a little dwarf citrus tree or a small blueberry shrub.
• Gardens also need cross pollination. It's important to attract pollinators to your garden (bees, butterflies, humming birds, bats, etc).
• Companion planting is key for healthy gardens and for optimizing the use of garden space. The best example is Mayan milpa agriculture where you dig a hole and plant a corn seed, bean seed and squash seed. The corn stalk grows up tall, the bean vine twists around it and the squash stays low, keeping the bottom of the plants shaded and moist.
• In urban areas, plant vertically as much as possible. For example, re-using old tires, lay one horizontally on the ground and fill with dirt. Plant potato seeds. As the vines grow, tie them together and put them through a second tire. Fill the second tire with dirt and the vine will continue to produce roots (which are the potatoes). Continue stacking tires and dirt until you're ready to harvest. Pull out the vine and you'll have loads of potatoes inside the stack of tires.
• Infestation is a given. Expect about 10% of your garden to have it. If you see a plant or two that is infested--leave it alone. If you remove it, the bugs will go on to the next weakest plant. By leaving it you keep the bugs occupied. If the infestation grows to over 10% of your garden, it's a sign that you have root problems, in which case you need to take care of it...otherwise, let it be.
  
• Harvesting is essential to healthy gardens. Plants want to produce. By harvesting vegetables and fruits, you show the plant that you want what they have to offer and they'll produce more for you. Pick even the little ones you're unsure of at the beginning of the season--the plants will produce better for you after knowing that you're interested in what they're doing/offering.
• Share your harvest when it's too much for you to eat. Consider sourcing a community of local growers to form a co-op so that you don't have to grow everything yourself, and instead you trade. Whatever you do, don't let the fruits and vegetables go to waste. Don't let them rot--if they do, that karma's on you!
  

SNAPS thank you note

From my 7-year old niece--a thank you note from Christmas--full of whimsy...just like her.

My Office

I moved cubicles a couple months ago and took the opportunity to decorate as much as I feel comfortable doing so in a professional environment (you know me, I could go all out! Not necessarily the best idea). I work for a school group (in Marketing) and since I love the vintage school house look, decided to go with it mixed with some modern touches (it's a gray metal/fabric cubicle after all!) So here it is...

• Cubetic Shelving that I bought years ago and brought in from home during our last move
• Stockholm Storage Boxes & Magazine Files with labels made in SchoolScript font
• Metal Vintage School Clock from Hindsvik Esty Shop
• Unpictured Misc. Accessories from Shim+Sons Etsy Shop (take a look at the link and you'll get the picture)
• Gus Modern School Chair (Confession--I don't actually have the chair, but saw it today on Remodelista and fell in love with it. It would look fabulous, no?)
  

Favorite Travel Apps & Web Tools

Wallpaper* City Guide Apps

Select cities are now available for $3.99

Southwest Airlines App
Book travel, search flights, use Rapid Rewards. I thought Southwest was easy enough, but then I downloaded this app...

Tablet Hotels
A fabulous community of travelers and unique, boutique hotels around the world. I especially love the various ways to search for hotels (photo above).

Trip It
The easiest way to create a travel itinerary...automation!

Open Table
Also available in iPhone App format, this site/app makes booking restaurant reservations easy.

Happy New Year

To kick off 2010, Mama and I made these little acorn fairies today. Its definitely going to be a great year if today is any indication. Wishing you a wonderful 2010!

Fairy pattern via Felt Wee Folk