Waiting for Ruby

Inspiration Galore!

I always have enough of my own ideas,but reading all of my favorite weblogs certainly gives me even more! This Christmas,our celebration was inspired by many!

Isn't Hillary Lang a lot more than a wee bit wonderful? Thanks to her adorable patterns, I created these wonderful gifts while listening to the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Sufjan(recommended by Soulemama-it is lovely)Christmas CDS. Using organic pillowcases purchased from Target, I embroidered all of the cute little guys from her Peppermint Fairy series on each band,three on each. The Target organic sheets collection is wonderful and inexpensive,and the cases come in a little drawstring bag-perfect for gift-giving.

I sewed Hillary's snail for someone who feels a little down,and included a little poem with it:

When you're feeling slow and sluggish,

Maybe a little bit blue.

Take a look at this cute lil' guy,

He may bring some cheer to you.

Our Christmas was quite lovely. We made our very favorite breakfast-English muffin egg apple-bakes, and baked red velvet cupcakes(after Soulemama mentioned these in one of her blogs I had to make them!)but we made them the old-fashioned way using two cups of beets rather than evil red food dye.

Out of all the inspirational ideas out there on weblogs for Christmas,my favorite idea by far was from Bella Dia. It is such a simple idea,but oh so wonderful. To make a garland of treats to hang outside for wild-life as a Christmas gift. We made ours with popcorn,cranberries and dried figs,and hung them on our trees, and at my mother's house. We were lucky enough to spot a squirrel enjoying the "fruits" of our labor on my mother's deck.

Otis the little Owl

Although this tiny owl was a hoot lot of fun to make,he took the better part of a day to complete. I was under the false impression that I would be able to whip him up in a few hours! He is a lot tinier than I imagined,so turning the pieces inside out was a challenge!

He is a Japanese craft pattern made by Olympus, purchased from my favorite fabric store,that comes with directions in English! I so wish someone would translate the Zakka craft books into English-they would make a small fortune!

I also sewed wool pillow-covers for our bed to go with our wool mattress pad. I used a lone pillowcase (it's match is now a rag!)for the back and natural sherpa for the front,purchased here. The covers are at least $30 each at shops, I saved a lot of money by making my own. By the way-I have had the best sleep of my life (and my husband has too) on the wool mattress cover, I highly recommend it!

I have been painting for at least five hours each day(and practicing on the sewing machine and the violin!)so I will have paintings in my shop in January.

Worn Yesterday

I was lucky to receive a whole wardrobe of adorable clothing for Ruby, from our wonderful cousins who have two beautiful daughters. The clothes are lovely the way they are,but I decided to add some personal touches to some of the clothing. I sewed this horse applique onto this pink gingham dress,using felt and material from vintage pillowcases. The gorgeous heart quilt it is laying on was made by my very talented mother-in-law! And in case you're wondering-No-I don't believe in ironing!

Home-FamilyLifeStyle

Did you ever read a book and think "this book was written just for me" because practically every word,every picture, is something you love or are in agreement with? I read about  the book, Home-FamilyLife Style, by Anita Kaushal,on the blog Posy, after seeing the picture she posted of a little girl's bedroom that I fell in love with:

I ordered the book locally and used through Half.com,and anxiously awaited it's arrival,it arrived yesterday. As I poured over it,I kept having the strange and wonderful experience of thinking-I was just saying the same thing-or-I have been wanting to do that. For example, the side pieces on the bed in the little girl's room,I have been wanting to scroll cut pieces to attach to the sides of Ruby's bed,like a Swedish daybed(and we will soon)because I think toddler beds are a waste of money and I am not too crazy about those side-rails. She has a rose garden on her walls,Ruby has one on her floor. The painted white floors,the pink (Ruby also has brown)with red and white polka dot accents.The vintage shelf displaying treasures.The name on the headboard is even Ruby!Ruby wasn't a common name at all over three years ago when we chose it(two + years in the process plus one year of waiting for me to turn 29.5)but I see it a lot more lately.So many more things about that room resonate with me.

Anita Kaushal writes about spending more on comfy bedding,we just did! She devotes an entire page to my favorite,and not well known,UK children's label, Caramel Baby. I saved the picture from Caramel's website of the metallic-linen shoes that she has in her book,because not only are they too expensive to buy,but they are too far away to qualify as "locally made",and the shipping is also too costly. So now I have a really large photo of them!She shows a portrait of a little girl done in a unique style,a style that I have had a picture of that I have saved for years!It is realistic,with one dimensional accents. I intend to either try to paint one like it,or have one painted,of Ruby. She has an entire spread about plastic toys,basically saying,okay they're not the greatest but we all loved them as children and we are okay. Even though I prefer natural,wooden toys,some plastic toys are great; legos, Playmobil toys. If children are mature enough that they don't put their toys in their mouth,then I think it's okay for them to have some plastic. She has a picture of a chandelier made of branches and white Christmas lights,something similar to what I have been wanting to do in our living room for a while. There are so many more things! I love this book, I am glad to have finally found a book that is just my style.

Christkindlmarkt

We had such a lovely weekend with Ron's parents and my Mom. Bethlehem,PA is so festive this time of the year, after all, it is a Christmas town. But the best part of visiting during the holidays is, of course,the German-style Christmas market. The market features aisles of handmade works by fine artisans, live holiday music, German and Austrian food,and much more. I was polite enough to ask if I could take pictures,but everyone said "No",except for the cuckoo clock man(because I didn't ask him!). He was even dressed to coordinate with what he was selling!

My favorite vendor is Kathe Wohlfahrt(no comment on her last name!). She has beautiful wooden nutcrackers,ornaments,music boxes. It is our tradition to buy one ornament there each year. This year,Ron picked out a Gingerbread house with an amanita muscaria mushroom in the front. Look at this picture from the brochure of one of her shops in Germany!

As soon as it gets dark in Bethlehem,they light atleast a miles worth of candles,they look so beautiful lighting the sidewalk. I tried to capture it with a picture,but I wasn't so successful.

Gingerbad Cookie

Sweet and innocent little Christmas cookies?

Don't be so sure.....

My Mom said that his bum looked like a "W", how appropriate if you know what I mean!

Deck the Halls Forget the Malls

I am so excited about our new wool bedding! We're supposed to put the sheet on top of the wool,and we will,but for now it feels so good to run our fingers through! Besides,I love how it looks uncovered! I need practice with photography,that's for sure. Our pillowcases are red gingham,not pink! The walls aren't pale blue,but robin's egg. I painted the swan painting hanging above our bed. In the movie "You've Got Mail" she has this painting above her bed, I put the movie on pause and tried to copy it! I love her apartment in that movie,and her little shop. But of course,the fact that it stresses buying from small shops,is the best part. Speaking of that,I won't step foot into a mall this year. Walking around looking in little shops is so much better.

Yesterday, while searching through baskets at a second-hand store I found these adorable ornies(2 look as though they were once part of a crib mobile) and hankies. I am actually using hankies right now,so it was great to find some under $2! I even found one to start Ruby's collection.I love the picture of the ornaments on the wool because it looks like they are in deep snow!

The butterfly shadow boxes were copied from one I bought from Anthropologie,but go figure,the butterfly fell from it's spot from the purchased one-and the ones I made are fine!

Our tree doesn't look perfectly decorated like the ones I see on other blogs,our ornaments are like "The Best Loved Doll" (one of my favorite books as a child) worn and loved.

Babette! Hair-clips

Babette! has a new listing on ebay for these gorgeous aqua and silver leather hair-clips. Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220182651694&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

They would make a wonderful stocking stuffer for little girls and little-girls-at-heart.

NYC

 

                                        

Waiting and Waiting

Ron and I received bad news last night that only one week's worth,instead of the usual month's worth,of log-in-dates received their referrals this month. If this continues,it will be 24 more months instead of 6 more months. We have been so very patient, but this latest news is hard to take.

We will have to wait even longer to have tea parties with this clever handmade tea set, from Mahar Drygoods, a Christmas present for Ruby. http://www.mahardrygoods.com/index.php . I can just see the children of the forest peeking out from underneath the sugar bowl. Every year I must buy her a Christmas gift to help my heart. Unfortunately, the only attachment I have to her right now is to buy her something.

We are going into NYC tomorrow so that will definitely lift our spirits a bit! There is nothing like NYC at Christmas time! We will see the Radio City Christmas spectacular with the Rockettes,and we'll take in the sights of the season there.