I'm heading out on a business trip for the next couple of days. I thought there might be some snow, but it sounds like it might end up being very cold rain instead. I'll be back this weekend, and hopefully getting down to some serious Christmas prep. Hope all the little elves out there are feeling merry in their workshops!
(Notes on the photo: I love silver charms! They make a great way to personalize a present or even a sewing project.)
Well, we’ve had a change in plans. Now, I will definitely be making the triple chocolate mousse cake as we’re going to have a small get together at my apartment on Saturday. Some extra ramekins have been purchased, and I’ve located the never before used parchment paper that’s been sitting in the back of the pantry. Wish me luck! I promise to post pictures no matter what the outcome. I’m pretty bad about editing out all of my less successful cooking/crafting endeavors, so this time I’m going to come clean.
This past weekend, it was unbearably hot in my apartment so we escaped to Ikea. [Have you seen Ikea's Dream Kitchen web-site? I’m not in the market for kitchen cabinets, but this site is really fun to look at.] Ikea never feels like real shopping to me. It's more like being inside an air conditioned adult theme park. And there inside the magic kingdom of Ikea shopping, we found these very cool napkin ring/place card holders.
I love place card holders and have absolutely no reason to own them. I've only had one dinner party in the last 4 years, I believe. And that was only a few months ago, so I will probably need to wait another 4 years to have a second one. Sometimes I'm tempted to whip them out just for me and Mr. Slippers. I've confessed my obsession to him, so I think he'd understand although we both know where to sit. Place card holders are enough to make me want to find more friends and invite them all over to dinner.
To top it all off, earlier this week I stumbled across the Papayalicious site (via Pam Garrison). Look at the amazing enclosure cards! I love these and think they would be perfect for place cards (not sure exactly how big they are). I guess they would be sort of expensive ($2/each) if you were ordering up enough for a large dinner party. I just placed a small order to start. I also love the happy place cards and place card holders at Plum Party. I’ve been slightly obsessed over the squirrel place card holders for a while now.). I'm not going over there to look right now. I can't bear it.
I am a birthday fanatic. I'm not saying I don't occasionally mess up, but typically I'm a pretty big celebrator of other people's birthdays. At least I try to be. I think really hard (perhaps too hard) about gift giving. I have certainly had presents fall flat, but it is not for lack of effort.
I really love birthday themes, and this will sometimes get me into trouble. For my friend Kristen's birthday (I showed a sneak peak of her package here), I went with a Sewing/Irish theme. (I don't recall saying that my themes MAKE SENSE, so just stay calm. "Sewing/Irish" is perfectly legit. In addition to some quilting supplies and pincushion, I sent her these Irish items as we have long been fascinated with Ireland and Irish accents. Ok, truthfully, we love ALL accents. This hilarious Irish Accent breath spray came from Patina.)
With Mr. Bunny Slippers' birthday fast approaching, I am in full scale birthday melt down. I secretly wanted to go with a Pirate theme, but then remembered that he has no real interest in pirates. (Yes, sometimes my themes are purely selfish. I just wanted to put all of the packages in a treasure chest and use treasure map wrapping paper.) He is incredibly challenging to buy for, and I have had to resort to begging for hints. Irritatingly, my dad is like this too. Even when you KNOW what you want to get him, he will undoubtedly want to choose it himself because invariably you will have purchased the wrong size or model or worse yet have gotten the thing at the wrong price.
He is also insisting that he doesn't want a cake which is a huge blow for me as I love to make desserts and really want him to feel celebrated. I had plans this year to attempt a Martha cake (the famous triple chocolate mousse – see more “real life shots” at the Year of Cakes Flickr Pool), but I don't see how I'll have time to make it in secret. And if you're going to spend all day baking an illegal and supremely complicated dessert, you better not do it when the recipient is there muttering about how he didn't want a birthday cake anyway.
And please don't get me started on how totally unfair it is that my mother's birthday coincides with Father's day weekend. Her hints are horrible. She frequently asks for completely dreadful and unselfish presents like a shoe rack or a laundry hamper. As if.
I'm heading out momentarily for a much needed vacation. Yay!
See you all next week (assuming of course that our ship is not attacked by pirates).
I just mailed off a whole batch of presents and cards for birthdays, weddings, housewarmings, and a few thrown in there just for fun. I can now vacation guilt-free. And of course, everything was generously covered in labels. I think it got a little silly at some point, but I really couldn’t stop myself.
To my friend Kristen whose package is on its way, here’s a little sneak peak. (And while you wait for your present to arrive, you should look at this. How cool are these?!)
I know I’ll get it trouble for this, but I’m also baking a cake right now. Mr. Bunny Slippers would prefer that I slow down on the dessert making, but I’ve been daydreaming about cakes ever since I saw this Chocolate Pumpkin cake recipe at My Paper Crane. I know it’s pretty impractical to go around baking cakes when you’re getting ready to leave for a trip, but once again – I couldn’t stop myself.
I also squeezed in time for a visit to the fabric store this week.
I don’t have any projects in mind for these yet, but they felt really fresh and spring-y to me (although they could all use a good ironing...)
I’ve started hording all sorts of new paints and craft supplies, so I hope to come back energized. After some hunting, I found some Delta Iridescent Glass Paints that I’m going to try out for my mirror project. (Seems a little safer than the Liquitex Glossies paint that has to be heat set in the oven.) And while roaming the craft store, I finally found one of those Pebeo Porcelaine pens that allow you to write on porcelain/china. Big plans here. I keep thinking how cool it would be to make simple designs on crisp white china. (Sort of inspired by this.)
Now really, I must stop making cakes and start packing.
This past weekend, my orders from Posie Rosy Little Things and The Small Object arrived. (Talk about speedy!) It signifies quite a change in my life that instead of ripping them open immediately, I first opened the window shades and shot a few pictures of the wrappings. Such care and attention to detail went into these packages.
I will post pictures of “Follie,” my beautiful little apron, later. The results of the apron photo shoot did not really do the apron justice. (That and I had not paid enough attention to the background for the shots – and well, let’s just say it really looked like I needed to be donning an apron and grabbing some serious cleaning supplies. I desperately need to do some spring cleaning and tossing.)
In the meantime, you can see my new apron peeking out of the top photo.
The stationary flats and stamp from The Small Object could not be more perfect. I love how quirky these are (and well made, too). Now for some letter writing! I miss the days when my friends and I could spend hours writing a letter to each other. Of course, that was in high school, and we really should have been taking notes in Biology, but still... It was always exciting to unfold that piece of paper and wonder what someone has written.
In other news, I signed up for Back-Tack III so I can now indulge in searching for black and white fabric full time. I’m a little bit scared and a little excited all at once. Making little stuffed creatures is the one sewing task I feel pretty comfortable with – small mistakes are easily written off as part of the creature’s personality. (Not so with clothing and purses...)
And if you’re wondering about the little bunny peeking out of the last post, I hope to elaborate more on him soon. You can consider that quiet little post as a note to self.
Today it rained. I managed to avoid stepping in any major puddles (a huge accomplishment for me), but I felt distracted all day by the sound of the rain. It is a big relief to be inside at home without any further expectations of productivity. And to top it all off, I have brownies in the oven. Yum.
I’ve been spending time lately thinking about why I started this blog and how I got interested in crafty blogs and web-sites to begin with…. I wanted to expand my About page and give a better explanation of what this site was supposed to be. I’ve been trying to put together a timeline (really just for myself), but it’s all pretty hazy. I remember things in patches. For example, I know that in January of 2004, I made marble magnets on a Saturday with my friend Kristen so I know I must have discovered the whole crafting community before then. But there are entire months in between that are blank in my head. I registered this domain in September 2004, so you can tell I sat on the idea of starting this for a very, very long time.
And the ideas behind this place have changed a lot too. Originally, I had wanted to have a site as a way to keep in touch with a friend who was going to be traveling the world. Unfortunately, I didn’t know anything about starting up a site, and to be honest, I got distracted by all sorts of activities and made up a lot of excuses. So www.littlehappyones.com sat lifeless for a year.
Then, this past fall, I started my annual Christmas planning and thought again about the site. I kept thinking that it would be a great idea to use littlehappyones.com as a place to give a little “behind the scenes” story about all of the presents I was making – not to mention a nice way to credit my sources of inspiration. I even made little tags to go on each present. I took pictures and got everything organized and wrote posts offline for months. My boyfriend, Mr. Bunny Slippers, encouraged me and built the site. I kept showing him the “biggies” – little birds and angry chicken and saying “can it look more like this?” More than once, I believe he questioned why in the world I hadn’t just set up a Typepad account, but I’d been holding onto this domain for awhile and sometimes, I have a knack for doing things the hard way. The earlier posts were back-dated (I know, I know, I cheated, but they were written offline on those dates). Everything, finally made its’ way online a couple of months ago. February was the “true” start date. And there are still older posts I had written that didn’t make their way up here.
I love my family and friends, but they’ve never checked this site! (At least not yet…) So, for now, I am enjoying this as a place to record some little pieces of my day. I also use it as a notebook of sorts – collecting links and images and shopping ideas. And when I get back in to making things again, I know this will be a fun place to archive some of my creations and projects. It has also been an interesting exercise in thinking about what to write and what I would be willing to let anyone see. (For now, I haven’t had to worry about that a whole lot. But there are things I would say to a stranger who loves to make shrinky-dink pins that I might not say to my mom. I might admit here to obsessing over making stuffed animals because I know there are a bunch of people out there that understand… but there are people in my life I am very close to who might think I’d lost my mind. So it’s interesting. But I still really enjoy the parts where I take pictures of things and keep an eye open for something happy to post about.)
I’ve always felt that one of the hardest parts of being an adult is that there aren’t any more semesters. When you had semesters, it was easier to remember things that happened. And, for me, semesters were a built in motivation system. Fall and Spring were times to try harder, to have a fresh slate. I think that’s the reason holidays have become so important to me. I can measure the passing of time by remembering the presents and decorations I made, the desserts I baked… And if one season is particularly hectic, I can say “hey, I’ll be sure and celebrate National Flag Day better next year.” (Or, in this case, “hey, maybe next year I’ll actually celebrate National Flag Day at all.”) Maybe this blog will become my semester system.
So today, I struggled to remember all the bits and pieces. That’s a lot of what this site is – bits and pieces. And hopefully, some of these bits and pieces will make its way onto the About page soon.
Some unexpected delights from the weekend:
• Drinking coffee and staying up too late with friends – It’s even better when they bring you birthday gifts of pink legwarmers and the New York City Ballet Workout.
• Finding these Count Von Count stickers at the Sanrio store (see below) – I’ve mentioned this Sesame Street collection before, and finally gave in and brought something home. I love looking at this stuff; most of the products are pretty witty. These stickers are quite happy and nostalgic that way. (Plus my mom would kill me if I started walking around with a Count Von Count purple vinyl purse… and who could blame her? The stickers are much safer for all involved.)
• My dad hunting down a copy of Harry Potter (thank you dad!) – This movie really is better when the weather is slightly gloomy/rainy outside, and you’re curled up in front of your parent’s rather large TV.
• This delicate Waterford tea cup – I found this lonely, little tea cup at the Robinsons-May closing sale (which was a pretty big disappointment – everything was marked way above normal prices before taking off the 60-70% discount). I think the pattern is really special (called Chrysanthemum). You can’t tell from the picture, but the little pink dots are raised. The soft colors complement another recent birthday gift from my parents - this plate from Tord Boontje’s Table Stories collection.
This plate didn’t look like what I expected to at all – it was actually much better. The pattern in the light grey is really understated. In fact, in direct sunlight, you can't see the pattern at all. I love that it has a happy deer pattern on it without screaming “hello, I’m 12 -- check out my awesome deer plate.” (Why is it that half the things I like seem to say that?) I like this plate for being so nice and quiet about it. And no, I have no idea what I’m going to do with my quickly growing collection of plates and cups. I guess I’ll have to start having people over and making dinners. (Um, right.)
There has been a serious lack of inspiration going on around here lately that I hope to correct very soon.
To be honest, I’ve been under the weather for awhile now, so it’s been hard to be focused. This last week was my birthday, and I feel like everybody remembered to celebrate it except for me. I was spoiled with balloons and decadent cupcakes and beautiful gifts, and kept wishing we could do this all again on a different day when I felt up for it.
I had hoped that I would be able to put together some goals for the year since I never really got off the ground with my New Year’s Resolutions. I know a lot of people think these things are silly or negative or whatever, but I like knowing I’m working towards something. I will have to let go of this and accept that if I make a list, it’s not going to be all neatly tied into a yearly, milestone event. It will end up being “the list I wrote on such and such day that happened to be in the middle of any such week” not “the list I wrote for myself on the eve of my birthday.” And really, why is this so hard?
In the meantime, all sorts of wonderful things have been happening all around me, and it’s about time I acknowledged them. So take that, Miss Lack of Focus and Appreciation!
• My mail service has returned! Now I have more than just jelly beans in my mailbox. This weekend I received Aranzi Aronzo Post Card vol. 20 and my lovely red envelope from mailorder. (I don’t know how she does it. Everything in this package was put together so beautifully.)
• There are some new improvements in the works around here at The Little Happy Ones. I’ve finally added an “About” page and contact info. I’m still tweaking the banner (with a lot of help from Mr. Bunny Slippers). It makes me happy that the little guys up top look like they’re in a little tree world.
• Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire is out on DVD!
I’m off for more celebrating!
To my friend Kristen who may be stopping by...
Just thought you'd like to see that your sunglasses are still quite safe here although I'm not sure that the dragon will be willing to release them. Will do my best.
I made it! Here are the finished scarves for my two best friends. They were photographed just moments before being wrapped up and carried off to our annual Christmas get together. This photo is all blurry, and I think my purple couch is trying to steal the show! Of course, I didn’t realize just how bad this picture was (for the scarves, not the couch) until after they were given away, and there were no more re-takes to be had. I wish I had had this advice or these tips then.
I think the colors were much prettier in person (which is good given the ridiculous number of hours I debated yarn choices at the store). Everyone knows what an indecisive shopper I am. I think I picked up and put back the bluish-green yarn on at least 8 separate trips to Michael’s. When Kristen put it on, it made her eyes light up. This is no credit to the scarf. Kristen’s eyes are just really cool like that.) Now there is just one more scarf to give…
And yes, I probably owe one for my grandmother. Hello, and welcome to my 2006 To Do List.
Said out loud at a party (you know, the type of party where you dress up and drink alcoholic beverages and pretend to be cool):
Him: “So, what are you doing this weekend?”
Me, Idiot: “I’m going to make an apron and some potholders.”
Feeling lame. Really. Lame.
Also: feeling extremely thankful for non-apron judging boyfriend.
I never thought knitting was my thing. The last time I tried, I was 12. I had one skein of rainbow-colored yarn and wanted to make a scarf for my grandmother. Unfortunately, the yarn and my attention span wore out fast. At Christmas, I gave my grandmother a scarf which was maybe 8 inches long and barely wrapped around her neck once. I didn’t think I would ever knit again.
Now I’m back, and I’ve set a quota of 10-15 rows a day. I think I might actually be on track to finish up 3 scarves by Christmas. They certainly aren’t fancy (no tricky patterns or alternating stitches), but I’m on a mission to find the perfect colors for my friends (and sister!).
I think Melissa will like her furry pink scarf. When I hold it up in front of the mirror, I feel a little Sparkly. I hope that’s a good sign.
I’m letting the little wooden people go. It’s hard, but I think it’s for the best.