PinkLemonadeBoutique

Hello? Anyone here?

Ok. Well. So consistency isn't my strong suit. Obviously. So I'm not going to start this post with a declaration that I'm going to blog more consistently. We all know what happens with that sort of thing. But I have really missed blogging and connecting, and so here I am again. The end.

Yesterday my friend Sarah from Hanami Gallery came over yesterday and we swapped services. I was her hair model

and she helped me revamp my blog. Still working on my banner, which is why I have that pretty but generic one up there. So I'm just dipping my big toe back in the blog waters for now, but I'm looking forward to full immersion very soon! L.

Great weekend kickoff.

So a fabulous Friday it was. The highlight being able to join and attend the first meeting of the New England chapter of The Modern Quilt Guild  in Boston. Arlington to be exact, in the delightful Fabric Corner, owned by the equally delightful  Mark who was so incredibly accomodating and offered us fabric at a discount. There were milk and cookies, lots of bonding a fabric swap and of course much fabric buying. I came home with some gorgeous 1/2 price Amy Butler Love home dec fabric (which i had no idea it existed) and Love flannel (ditto) omg. The rest of Nigella Grandiflora on the bolt, which admittedly might be my favorite fabric of all time. And I bought some incredible Echino fabrics, double OMG. Oh, and some Kona cotton just to keep it sensible. 

Then this morning we were up and out the door by 8:30 (why I don't know) and went to Borders and I splurged on my beloved Maria Claire Idees and a splendiferous book on how to make stuffed animals. I never have the time to make any, and so far the books I have collected on them outnumbers the actually number of stuffed animals I've made. I just can't seem to resist them. And with the cuteness contained in this particular book, I dare anyone to put it back on the shelf and walk away. Plus I had a 30% coupon.

Let's take a peek inside shall we?

I don't know about you, but I think that is a mighty fine looking lion, and the fox is killing me with his lanky stride. Olivia has requested the sleepy beagle replete with a pink twirly skirt. I may have to take a break in "work" sewing and just do something fun like that.

As if it could get any better, last night we were watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Guy Fieri was visiting his wifes hometown of Providence RI specifically the Liberty Elm Diner. He was chowing down on the fresh roasted turkey sandwich with pea shoots tomato and mayo...mmm. So we marched right down there this afternoon and ordered us up some of that goodness and it was delish. Great diner, great staff, great food, great vibe.    

I don't know what is wrong with me that whenever it's time to make a shopping list for the week and decide the dinner menus, I draw a complete blank and cannot recall any recipe that I have ever made. Even though I LOVE to cook and do so almost every day. So in an effort to get organized and streamline this whole process I have created a recipe binder. I know this is not a revolutionary idea, but it's pretty life altering for me. Plus I have some sort of romantic notion of my progeny  some day pouring over grandma's recipes and thinking what a talented and organized lady she was. So I took a utilitarian binder, some plastic sleeves and tabs, and made a pretty little cover in this fab. retro print.

This is such an easy thing to do, and I cover every book that isn't pretty. If anyone would like a tutorial on how to do this let me know, and I'll post one.

It's been a great weekend so far, and I think I just heard my husband walk into the kitchen with fixin's for lemondrop martini's...
   

 

  

 

  

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!
   

Yes, this is a painting.

I'm still in awe over this beautiful painting by my friend Julie Beck. Her paintings are technically impressive, aesthetically unique and beautiful, and sometimes haunting. This is her first painting of 2010, and I am so honored to have played a part in it. Here is her painting:

And here is my original photo:

It's crazy amazing right?

Three...Tres...Trois

  Hello. Hola. Bonjour. Yes it's a triplicate kind of day today. Funny how that happens. First up, 3 new bags:

Visted my favorite bookstore in Providence, Cellar Stories and picked up these 3 books:

A David Sedaris (funny) book I haven't gotten around to reading yet, Ogden Nash,(funny and clever) and all six Jane Austins in one. I've been currently obsessed with the Complete Jane Austin on Masterpiece Theater and have asked everyone I know within an arms length if they've been watching. I'm sure they're like, shutup enough already, but still. Anway, I figure since I'm such a fan, I should at least read one of her novels right??? But I can't imagine my literary Mr. Darcy being quite as dreamy...

My etsy friend Suzannah surprised me by sending me these adorably, sparkly clippies! I think these will be for me! Thank you so much Suzannah!

Have a lovely weekend everyone! And remember tomorrow night, Part 2 of Sense and Sensibility...Goodbye, Adios, Au Revoir.

Kumquats are Kool...

But not too tasty. In my opinion. I made this Kumquat tagine

mainly because I was drawn in by the recipe's exotic ingredients, and I never like to pass up an opportunity to make my husband wince at the cost of specialty produce. He does the food shopping, and I usually get at least 3 calls from the market with him on the other end blathering about some food budget, the virtues of domestic over imported, Hersheys vs. Ghiradellli...yada, yada. He usually, reluctantly consents to my high fallutin food fantasies though. So the tagine. Well, I immediately squealed with delight over these diminutive citrus cuties, having never eaten them before, and really enjoyed using them as decoration on my table. The tagine broth was redolent with cumin, ginger and coriander, the chicken thighs juicy and  succulent. The thin sliced onions, sweet and familiar. The Kumquats, not so much. They have a very strong somewhat strange astringent flavor to them, that was not all all pleasing. Oh well, at least I tried them, and Jeff can breath a sigh of relief knowing I'll never ask him to buy 10 oz of produce for $6.00 again.

I've also been making bags, and I'll take this opportunity to update:

    

On an entirely different topic, as these blog subjects have been so far, so I'll just go with it, have you seen this movie yet? Well, what are you waiting for? Hop to it. The Diving bell and the Butterfly receives my  vote for the years best. Although, truth be told, I rarely see movies. After the critics are done skewering them, I am left with little desire to waste my time. This is not your "feel good" movie by any stretch, but it does put things into perspective. As far as life goes. And the particular aspect of not being satisfied with life, and feeling sorry for ourselves. As I am in the habit of doing on occasion. I loved this movie. I love the direction. I loved the perspective. I loved the atmosphere, and I loved this man's spirit. The Butterfly of his soul that was able to take wing despite the most dire of circumstances.

Ok, last up on my list of randomness are some latest etsy purchases that i'll share with you.

Love this neclace to pieces, from this etsy seller. And these earrings from this seller:

And these great baubles from this etsy seller. They are the coolest origami paper pendants, I think I paid around $4.00 each for them! Fun.

   

And these super cute clippies from my fave. clippie girl:

Ok, I gotta run, I'm going to be working on a top secret project...till then.

 

All I have are my memories...

Well I'm sure by now you've all forgotten that I actually went on a trip to California...no? Well prepare to be astounded by pictures of me gorging myself on exotic foods, waves crashing onto beaches,  and a bride walking down the aisle. Of course noone has ever seen vacation pictures like that before have they??? LOL. Well I figure I've had to look at my share of other peoples vacations pics, so now it's my turn. We did have a fantastic if short trip, it was heavy on the eating, as you will see. Although it started out as bad as you can get, short of the plane actually crashing. What should have been a very quick 30 min. flight from Providence to JFK, ended up being 2.5hrs due to a very bad storm. Which in turn caused a domino effect the likes of which causes me to become teary eyed in the recollection of it. Yes we missed our connection to San Francisco, so instead of leaving at 8:30 to SF, we couldn't get a flight till 4:30, which ended up leaving at 7:30 because of the co-pilot being MIA. (That was after we had the brilliant idea to wander around Times Square for the day, and got caught in a torrential downpour, which caused my knit pants to swell and stretch and become as soggy and filthy as you can imagine walking around the subway.) Then of course we finally got there around 3AM, and our luggage was missing. And of course we had no toiletries (I just can't be bothered putting various personal grooming products into small little bottles) or changes of clothing. I don't usually like to cry in public, but it was just too much. After that ordeal I really worked up an appetite. So the next day, we ate breakfast.

If you are ever in SF I highly recommend Dottie's True Blue Cafe, the owner really elevates breakfast fare to an art form. I will miss Dotties. Oh, another picture of me stuffing my face on Dim Sum in Chinatown (I ate so much I busted out of my dress here, yikes):

 

The entrance to Chinatown:

Jeff has been facinated with Chinese Medicine so of course we went to an herbalist while we were there. He bought some herbs, which the herbalist instructed to make a "tea" with, but let me tell you this tea must be good for you because it was vile tasting. It ended up being more like a gravy, a bitter, mushroom/wood tasting viscous yuck. Check out the scale.

And here are the requisite vacation shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and the coast. It really was so beautiful though. The coastline of the Atlantic is beautiful too, especially in Newport and the Cape, but the west coast has such a different feel and look to it. It's huge in everyway.

Here I am outside of Doe, a fabulous little boutique on Haight St.

And of course the reason we went, here is the lovely Bride Danielle.

We didn't get to everything I wanted to, because 4 days is just not enough time, plus we wasted a whole day waiting around in New York. Never got to Chez Panisse (sniff). But i did get to Kinokinuya Bookstore in Japantown. I thought my head would explode. Golden Gate State park was huge and green and wonderful, even though it was a bit battered from that terrible storm. Already thinking about my next trip out there, because I need to go back and retrieve my heart right?   

She makes cute stuff.

First of all, I've been dying to share my trip with you all, but I'm waiting to get the darn pics out of my brother in law's camera so that'll have to wait. Hopefully this week. In the meantime, how cute are these things?

they are the creation of Marlo, of Imakecutestuff. She's a member of the EtsyRain street team in Seattle. Etsy teamed Arts in RI (my group) up with EtsyRain to support and get to know each other a little better. Etsy "street teams" are groups of etsy sellers who join as a group to help the success of each member. I love Marlo's work because the items are so unconventional and original. Who wouldn't want a little cactus pincushion, turn the tables on that little cactus, right? She makes whimsical bags, jewelry, and pincusions. CUTE!

Hello 2008

Is it really January 10th already? ACK! I've really neglected my poor little blog, although I'm sure I've heard a collective sigh of relief at my not moaning and groaning about the weather! This will be a weather free post today. I promise. I am currently getting ready for my trip to San Francisco. Yes, tomorrow in the wee hours of the A.M. we fly out from Little Rhody and breeze into the west coast. Can't wait. Although truthfully I almost cancelled the trip countless times. Because despite my initial excitement, I am a homebody at heart, and we've never left Miss Olivia before. Well, she is 6, and in the excellent care of my MIL, aka Nanny. Besides, I've posted notes all over the house in my efforts to micro-manage in my absence, so she'll know enough to feed and clothe the poor child. She's surely going to hate me for that. Although, I'm sure she'll realize I've done it more for myself, to allay my anxiety more so than to suggest her ineptitude at child care. So, we will be there from Friday to Tuesday, not long, and Saturday is a friends wedding in Sacramento, which is the reason for going. We've planned a few things:

Must go visit this shop

and  Kinokuniya Bookstore

and eat Here

And of course go to Chinatown and Napa. I'm not sure if it's possible to fit this all in, but we will certainly try.

Also, just a quick update on the latest Shop offerings:

this is the same tote, but reverse:

Got this awesome fabric at IKEA:

I've been on a linen tote bender lately. Alas, I've neglected to make myself a fabulous bag for my trip, can you beleive it??? Maybe, I can squeeze one more project in today...I leave you with a shot of Olivia doing her usual, daily, off the wall routine. (She was home on vacation and harrassing the Cat to no end, so Violet kept running from her as soon as she saw Liv coming, so Liv thought she would outsmart the Cat and stroll around the house incognito, so as to sneak up on her, of course I thought the plan was hairbrained, but what did i know, apparently her plan worked)

   

Potluck Tuesday.

1. The Red Sox swept the world series...

2. The New England Patriots are still undefeated...(can Tom Brady get any cuter?)

And unless you are from New England like me, these 2 facts surely don't cause as much excitement 'round your parts.

3. I am loving this fabric:

It's from the line called "floragraphix" line by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning.

3. A new bag in the shop.

I'm calling it "Fleur Rouge". i know, again with the French. Sorry, I'm on a roll. I think if you attatch a French name to anything it automatically raises it's classy-ness. Maybe not. I'm also lacking imagination these days. I think I'm in some sort of low pressure zone. I'm certainly hating all things computer related right now. My wireless router is not working. Bought a new one. Still not working. Apparently not the router's fault. My new laptop is not working. I am tethered to the modem in my dreary yet to be finished bedroom. I haven't the foggiest notion what to do next. I hate getting on the phone for any type of technical difficulty. Causing me much discouragement. Hopefully will be fixed soon. Goodbye.