whateverest

WHATEVEREST from Kristoffer Borgli on Vimeo.

I’ve loved this short film Whateverest since I saw it at AFI Fest last year. It’s got great music and some wild antics. Love love love.

dresses

I tend to get obsessed with multiple projects at once. Right now I’m balancing painting and writing and brainstorming dresses to sew. I often fantasize about only wearing prairie dresses, even though I realize everyone would look at me funny if I did. I am in love with these dresses from Anna Allen. I’m very pleased that she says she’ll be offering sewing patterns in the future because I’d love to make my own.

I’m also thinking about entering the Laurel Sewing Contest from Colette Patterns. The prizes are crazy good. I tend to wear dresses that are a little more fitted, but I have some fabric I’ve been meaning to turn into a dress since last summer. It would be best for me to just just make some adjustments and make a dress rather than keep the fabric as nothing forever. Plus it’s a very simple dress, just the right thing to get me back in the sewing habit.

Do you have any dresses you love? Share your favorites.

photos from Anna Allen and Colette Patterns

spring brunch

Easter brunch. Not a celebration of a religious holiday in our home, but a little celebration, nonetheless. An excuse to bring out the fancy china and a new bunny table cloth given to us by Shawn’s sister.

We feasted on cheezy broccoli quiche, roasted carrots, fresh berries, red flannel hash, sausage, gravy and molasses cake. We followed up brunch with a few rounds of Carcassonne.

Afterwards, I did a bit more painting to confirm my color choice for the living room. I’m still undecided. The shade I like seems perfect in the evening but possibly too light during the day. I’ll have to think on it some more. Meanwhile, Shawn rearranged some furniture, making our living room feel much more open and streamlined. Now we just need to find a cute bar cart.

Rock Pockets

Rock Pockets from Trevor Anderson on Vimeo.

I thought I’d share this short film by my friend Trevor Anderson because I think it’s just great and it seems particularly poignant while SCOTUS is debating such nonsense (love is love is love and marriage is whatever it wants to be). I can’t bear to listen to people’s idiotic dogma about god and procreation so I’ll just watch this and feel hopeful.

weekend projects

It has been a wildly productive weekend for me. Perhaps wildly is an overstatement but I’ve tackled and completed a handful of projects and it feels great. I have finally accepted that I’m a morning person much more than anything else and if I want to accomplish things I need to use that morning energy in the morning instead of dilly dallying. It also means acting on project ideas when I get the first urge, rather than letting them sit on the back burner until I’m not interested anymore.

I’d been considering replacing our throw pillows for a long time, so when one fell victim to recent cat destruction, the faint desire became more pressing. Then I saw the new constellation fabrics from Lizzy House and I knew I had to make something from them. The pillows seemed like the perfect project for just a bit of fabric (although I think I’d still like to make a dress as well). I made the pillow covers using the envelope method, which was ridiculously simple, and now we have two new adorable, cozy pillows.

The pillow project made me even more anxious to get painting in the living room. I picked up some sample colors and painted swatches. It’s still difficult to imagine the whole room as one of these colors. Here are my options:

1. Mountain Mist / 2. Silver Cloud / 3. Silvery Blue / 4. Woodland White

I think I’ve narrowed it down to at least two of the options and of course Shawn will have to weigh in. The next big question is whether to paint both the living room and the dining room, as they’re connected. It is most likely that I’ll have to for uniformity’s sake, even though I’d rather not.

Other accomplishments include mending everything in my sewing pile (that’s been sitting there for months now). Starting a new knitting project. Other various mundane things like going to the market, vacuuming and taking out the trash. It’s really nice to feel motivated. I suppose I’ll have to do something still with the rest of my day.