PinkLemonadeBoutique

Oh yes he did.

It's mine! Really, it was meant to be. The painting also shows my beautiful diamond engagement ring, which I lost a couple of weeks ago, right in the middle of Julie painting it. Sigh. But it makes me happy everytime I look up on my wall and see the painting. I am so touched by it, and love my sweet husband for buying it for me. Thank you honey!

My friend Felicia is having her first baby, and I sewed up these cute little bibs. They are made from natural linen, and hand appliqued.  

It's never too young to start good eating habits!
   

I really wanna quilt.

  I've been so intensly occupied with my purse making business that I can't remember the last time I made a quilt start to finish. I'm beginning to feel nostalgic. Lately I've been reading blogs and gazing at Flikr photos of quilts and quilting vicariously through these. This post would be endless if I mentioned all the quilters i really admire, so I'll just share a few with you, that lately I've been especially fond of.

First is Laurie Taylor who  makes these gorgeous, luscious, color saturated quilts. I love her wild abandon approach to color and pattern. 

Allissa makes these wonderful, eye-catching beauties. I love her use of white to frame the great fabrics. i recognize so many of them as some of my favorites. Squares are something she also uses alot of, which is my favorite patchwork shape.

 Ok, i could stare endlessly at Malka's   quilts.  And i think I have in the past week or so.  She combines her handdyed fabric in ways that will amaze you. They are an alchemy of vintage, stripy, dotty, floral goodness. A mix of tradition and innovation that is fresh and modern. I covet. 

So, armed with such inspiration, I stole a few indulgent hours yesterday and fashioned myself a wonky log cabin pillow, adorned with my first attempt at stipple quilting. I think I like it. Ok, I love it. 

      

So I'm thinking..."Pinklemonadeboutique at home", what do you think? Boy that's a mouthfull, I would need to shorten that I think. These are some  purses that I've made recently for the shop. 

  

 

   

Anyone need a party dress?

I have this luscious dress from Ann Taylor Loft hanging in my closet, and would love for someone, to be to be able to wear it. I've only worn it once, it's in minty-fresh condition, and gorgeous as all get out. It just doesn't fit anymore, I won't say which way, lest I admit to either gaining weight, or bragging about losing. It's a black lace overlay, the underslip is a soft beige/fawn/nude shade. If you would like a more detailed picture, let me know, I'd be glad to send one. If you are familiar with the Loft, you know the exceptional quality and style. I don't remember what I paid, but it was considerable.  Anyway, all best offers will be considered. Oh, and the size is 6P, but i would say it fits more like a 4P.

I also have 2 new bags listed in the shop.

I adore these prints, they are a nice heavy home dec. weight, and I love the over the top femininity of the prints, and style, the last one is a gorgeous Laura Ashley print...recognize it?

The final reveal!

That's right. I'm done. The walls were painted. The ceiling was painted. The trim was painted. The furniture was painted. New nightstands, lamps and curtains and linens. We went to IKEA for the nightstands and lamps. Bed, bath and beyond for the linens. (I could live there) I made the curtains, not exactly what I had in mind, but I couldn't turn down a 60% off going out of business sale at the Fabric Place. Laura Ashley home dec fabric for $2.36/yard.  It's quite pretty, very vintagy and soft. You can't really tell from the pics, but the furniture is painted a soft oyster color, with a pearlescent glaze over it. I love it! I want to glaze everything in my house with that stuff, it gives a really soft, subtle sheen, almost like it's glowing. Didn't get my chandelier, maybe in the future. Just need a few accessories.

I love this picture, Liv drew it when she was 3. It's a portrait of her father.

The only problem with the room is that it makes the rest of the house look like doo-doo. I feel another redecorating project coming on...

   

Le Papillon, bon idees, et Chez Panisse

Bonjour Mes Amis! What's with Le Francais you say? Well recent serendipitous events have converged in very French way, bringing out my inner Francophile. Here you have Le Papillon, my most recent scarf, which lately has been my le addiction:

You can't really see the butterfly, but she is there. Said scarf is now listed in le shoppe.

I've mentioned it before, and i'll say it again, Marie Claire idees is a wonder to behold.

It's my absolute favorite craft magazine, and I've recently allowed my subscription to run out, because I enjoy the excitement of visiting the newstand, buying it, and sitting in le cafe with a cup o' joe, visions of craft projects dancing in my head. I know, i need to get out more often. And I will I declare. Ok, I am just giddy with excitement, we are going to California! A friend of ours is getting married in Sacramento, and we are flying and staying in San Francisco for 4 days, i can hardly contain my excitement. I know 4 days is too short but since this is our first time away from l'enfant, I didn't want to push it. And truly, I am not lacking a measure of ambivalence. I will miss and worry about her! But Jeff and I really need this trip away by ourselves. It's been 6 years good grief. I have 2 things there that I must do. First, i want to go to a Japanese bookstore and have my fill of looking and no doubt buying some craft books, we don't have any around here, and I have to order them all online, I would love to just browse to my hearts content. Secondly, and I don't have a life list, but if I did this would be under the category of PLACES i NEED TO EAT AT BEFORE i DIE. I'm going to Chez Panisse, of the legendary Alice Waters.  In the 1960's she was a foremost advocate of local, seasonal, sustainable agriculture in Berkley.

Excuse moi, I must now go make le reservation, avoir.

EDIT: For you Les Miserables that cannot get your hands on a copy of Idees, I will be having a give-a-way, just leave a comment by Friday PM, and I'll randomly pick a post and the winner will be sent the most recent!

Some new stuff.

Sorry about the un-inspired title to this post. I'm not feeling un-inspired in general, as you can see from the new scarf and bag design just newly listed on etsy.

My current facination with this particular autumnal color scheme continues, but I thought it a nice refreshing break to get up close and personal with some soft and yummy pinks, again from the Grand Revival Barefoot roses collection. They merged seamlessly with some other fabrics in my stash. I like the pop of the vibrant pinks and greens against the softer tones. Now that it's finally become seasonally cooler 'round here, I'm in the mood for such a yummy scarf of my own...

 

I want to quilt.

But I have such a short attention span these days, i can't trust myself to begin a large project and see it through to completion. Perhaps it's all these purses I've been sewing that has ruined me. I want to make a queen size quilt for our bed, but the task seems entirely too overwhelming. Perhaps it's because it's October 4th, and it's over 80 degrees. Yes. In the Northeast. What the? So I content myself with manageable patchwork activities, like this scarf, made with my favorite fabrics from my stash, along with decadent dupioni silk accents:

I am sitting here with this loopy grin on my face because I am simply so pleased with the way it turned out. It's the first one I've made, but I don't think it'll be my last. I've been just drooling over the patchwork scarves out there, thank you Denyse Schmidt, and just had to try my hand. It took me all stinkin' day, but I don't mind, it was so much stinkin' fun. Of course, the colors have to be in the brown, blue, peachy pink family. That is my current color fixation. Until I tire of it, and move on to another color fixation. That seems to be the cycle. I have listed it on ETSY today. Alrighty, i may have to take a short break from designing to work on some customs that are on board...till then.   

   

Magazine overload!

Some of my favorite magazines for this weeks reading pleasure: My favorite? Marie Claire idees...too bad I can't read French, but plenty of yummy inspiration. If you love embroidery, this magazine showcases some of the most beautiful needlecraft around. Second runner up is probably Bon Appetit, this issue features some mouth watering Korean barbecue recipes, super simple too. Garlic, sesame, ginger...what's not to love?

And of course a new bag...well not so new, but I haven't gotten around to blogging it yet.

 

I just love this bird fabric!

And something for the  Doll Quilt Crazy flikr group I made this little quilt for my daughters room.

I got the pattern from this book 

which is a part of a much larger quilt, with different shaped pots and flowers, but i just did one panel, because after hand appliqueing and quilting, it took forever. I'm not good with projects that take forever. Remember the grandmas flower garden quilt saga? 

Patchwork goodness...

A new wristlet/clutch design on ebay tonight...

and a skirt for Liv:

I used Heather Bailey's freshcut for the top tier, natural linen for the middle, and patchwork from my scraps for the bottom. I splurged on some nice white Egyptian cotton for the alternating strips, I had some white broadcloth in my stash, but that was looking pretty cheesy and sorta see through. I do not sew clothing frequently due to my lack of confidence and lack of a serger. I had to zig zag the quarter inch seams on the 51 pieces of patchwork so the fraying wouldn't drive me nuts. I was unsure of how that would look, but I ended up liking the extra little detail, it adds some visual interest and stability to the patches too. I used this fantastic tutorial from Kuky Ideas. The instructions were very clear and accurate. I love the result. I may make one for myself. And lastly, I leave your with another couple of pictures of my new silly kitty.    

One of these things is not like the others....la la la...