I was just looking through House Tours on Apartment Therapy and noticed these Scrabble pillows. What a brilliant idea!! (Don’t read this if you are a relative of mine as there’s a good chance you’ll be getting one of these for Christmas this year).
See “Suzann’s Lovely London Maisonette” on apartmenttherapy.com.
Photo: Eleanor Busing
Since my bike was stolen a few weeks ago, I’ve been eyeing every single cruiser, fixie, road bike, and mountain bike I see. There are a lot of nice looking bikes out there, but one brand has me drooling. Linus bikes are so pretty! There’s a beautiful baby blue one I keep seeing parked on the University of California campus, and yesterday in San Francisco I saw a gorgeous cream one. They start at around $300, and since you really can’t get a decent used bike in the Bay Area for much less than $200, I’d consider them an option. But since I don’t have a nice safe spot to keep it, I wouldn’t dream of getting one yet. Those bastards broke a tree to get to my last bike, a really great Trek hybrid that I owned for less than two months. Let’s just hope it was resold quickly to someone who loves it as much as I did. What kind of bike do you have? Did you buy it new, or on Craigslist?
How fantastic are these colorful, ruffled party streamers? Made’s step-by-step instructions look easy enough. I just saw some rolls of crepe paper streamers at the dollar store up the street. Definitely going to have to get myself back there, and pull out my sewing machine. Somebody‘s got a birthday coming up after all. Her very first one!
[via Babble.com]
Last December, I won a raffle at Jered’s Pottery‘s holiday open house. The prize was $100 worth of pottery. Deciding from among all those lovely dinner plates and espresso cups was tough, but there was only one thing I really needed – pots for some plants. I took a long time, carefully considering each vessel in Jered’s Berkeley studio before picking up this black beauty (pictured above) and a sweet little jade green container.
On Sunday, Jered’s is hosting a May Day Open Studio Party. If you live in the Bay Area, go and pick up some of Jered’s hand-thrown clay vessels. Maybe you’ll win the raffle this time.
ps – This is the first post in my new “Local Loves” series where I’ll be featuring the things I love in the place where I live. (Right now, that’s the San Francisco Bay).
After driving by a gazillion times on my way home from wherever, I finally made it to Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles in Berkeley, yesterday. Had I known how fantastomatically extraordinaire this place is, I would have made it there a lot sooner. Hoop skirts hang from the ceiling. Remnants of exquisite antique lace is carefully organized and displayed within these archival looking plastic sleeves. Vintage clothing (including the cutest aprons) hangs on racks. I picked up an adorable white linen dress for Elodie. It has lace edging and tiny pink rosebuds embroidered down the front. She’s going to wear it as a Christening gown next month when we go to Rhode Island.
For all your textile art needs, go to Laci’s. Wow, this place is fantastic! Yarn, embroidery hoops, lots of crafting books, I was only barely able to skim the surface on my visit, but I plan to go back soon, and often. And did I mention the bridal boutique? Oh to be a bride again…
Check out Mary Corbet’s post on Lacis to see some great shots of the space, and have a wonderful weekend!
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a spring soiree hosted by The Whole Cake and Olive-Route, a pair of local East Bay businesses after my own heart. The Whole Cake is run by my new friend Kelsey Robinson, who makes the most gorgeous wedding cakes. And they taste really really delicious too (I had about 10 samples). For the event, Kelsey created wedding cakes inspired by the designs of Olivia San Mateo’s letterpress wedding invitations. I thought it was such a fantastic idea. It reminded me of a flower show, where the different arrangements are based on a theme. There were several different displays set up among the pretty antique printing presses at Olivia’s design studio, each included a cake, an invitation, and a little flower or accessory that went with the motif, like a little potted succulent for the desert resort wedding theme, and a conch shell for the beach wedding theme. Check out the exquisite details of the festive Mexican fiesta themed cake below. Makes me want to plan a wedding…
p.s. We all got to take home these adorable original letterpress prints that say “Eat Cake and Print.” So cute!
Among the myriad wonderful details of a Jewish wedding, the marriage contract is one of the most important. An exhibition at The Jewish Museum in New York features 30 ketubbot dating from the 12th through 21st centuries. I love the pretty simplicity of this one belonging to a bride and groom from Thessaloniki, Greece. Can anyone read the Hebrew writing? I’d love to know their names.
One of the projects keeping me busy between diaper changes and readings of “I Am A Bunny” is writing features on “Green Homes” for Apartment Therapy: Re-Nest. I’ve met so many wonderful people and peeked inside so many gorgeous homes this year. From California Craftsman bungalows to New England farmhouses, each of them inspires me to keep my own home clean and beautiful. Thank you to everyone who has shared their home with me so far! See them all here.
Nicola Kiss makes the cutest stuffed animals ever! Order “Monkey Charles,” “Tanto the Elephant,” and “Honey Bunny” at Nikoki Shop.
