Wake-up: Inspiration in the Blogsphere

Here is a peak at my *starred* posts from last week - Inspiration is everywhere.

Enjoyed Door Sixteen's renovation of her NYC apartment and now captivated by her round up of white-on-white (plus black) rooms - dreaming about my new apartment in black and white.

Tiny House Blog posted the most petite, yet serene, guest room ever.

As a wearer of glasses I loved Black Eiffel's Girls with Glasses Fashion photo shoot.

Oh Happy Day's birthday surprise is indeed a SuRpRiSe, wish I could pull something like that off.

I had the paloma for Cinco de Mayo (substituted gin and Trader Joe's Italia Grapefruit Soda) and am inspired by Coconut + Lime's Dark and Stormy cupcakes.

I wish that I had made my mom this dahlia flower brooch from not martha, tips for creating this felt-no-sew-pop-of-color right here.

Wake-up: Marimekko Christmas News

During an 8 hour layover in Seattle, TEB and I ventured down to Pike's Place Market. We bought some carrots from one of the veggie vendors and fresh donuts. On our way to lunch with TEB's family at SAM we quickly ran through Tuuli, a cute shop that features Marimekko textiles. In the Marimekko Christmas Newsletter I discovered these lovely illustrations of how to use fabric to wrap gifts. I might just try it for this year's Christmas presents. I was getting a little tired of my recycled paper bag + stamp combo.
Tuuli
1407 First Avenue
Seattle WA 98101
Tel: 1.206.223.1112
tuuliseattle@gmail.com

photo credit: images from marimekko christmas newsletter 2009

Craft(y): Mitered Corners

You may have noticed this napkin that was pictured with my fresh bread post a few weeks ago. It is actually a linen remnant from Lotta Jansdotter's, buy here. Thanks to help from TAB and GKC (my mama), I was able to make my own cloth napkins. Here are the step-by-step instructions.

How to: miter corners for cloth napkins and curtains
1. Carefully fold down fabric edge 1/2 inch and press with a hot iron. Fold down another 1/2 inch and press. Now your press lines look like this:2. Cut off the corner, as illustrated above. 3. See the square made by the dashed lines on the previous picture: fold the corner down at the line that bisects the bottom corner of that square, press.4. Fold your edges once and press. 5. Fold edges again, press, and pin.

6. Run a seam all the way around the hem. Double-back when you hit your starting point. All done! The actual sewing does not take much time but the pressing and folding surely does. I find it helpful to have the metal sliding ruler seen in step 4.

Tonight at craft night, I am attempting this process with heavy weight fabric for a curtain to cover one of our closets. I'll let you know how it goes - fingers-crossed that I can manage without mama's help.

photo credit: Cayenne 11.22.08

Little People: Playtime Tents

I saw this fun play tent over at DesignMom and immediately emailed my mom to see if she thought it would be hard to make. Mom said, "Sure we can make that out of stuff in my stash." This is a perfect project for the stash pile. Yay for a fun project, now all I need to do is get to Alaska!

The green-leaf fabric looks familiar...IKEA?

The flags are a great touch. Here are a some easy directions for making a fabric garland at Purl Bee.

photo credit: etsy seller Mignon who makes this neat greenhouse tent. there are a few tents available for sale now.

Marimekko Table Runner and Napkins

TEB and I received this beautiful table runner and napkin set as a present for our birthdays this year. Thanks to TAB, TEB's mother who handmade this set, our house looks cheery even though we have been barely there these last 10 days. This is a sneak peak at a forth coming "how-to" on Cayenne & Carob. After the 18th, I should be back to more regular posting.

photo credit: Cayenne 10.08.08

Obama on Etsy

Here are some of my favorite etsy creations that remind me of the Campaign for Change.

From left to right, top to bottom: Barack Obama Coin Purse by Faddy Bogart; Barack the Donkey - Democratic Election bib by Ninabina; Be the Change tiny text bowl by Palomasnest; Wooden Inlay Obama Pin by Obama Stuff; BELIEVE graffiti shirt by Artbymags; Barack Obama Barrettes by Maragreenaway found via The Scoop

SOFA Inspiration: Hable Construction Reupholster

What is the difference between a couch and a sofa? As far as I can tell couch has some psychoanalysis-therapy associations, as in "on the couch." Maybe for this reason I call it a SOFA.

I have sofas on my mind, why you might ask, because my sofa broke. I have been looking on ebay and craigslist for a mid century style that needs some work. Maybe I can get one with great bones and reupholster a few years later.

Meanwhile, I just have to share one of my favorites: the green polka dot sofa in Lena Corwin's home, see her blog O. There cannot be a more perfect sofa for me. You know of my love of green, polka dots, and anything mid century. I particularly like the contrasting blue buttons.

Design*Sponge loved it too and recovered her Room and Board Andre Sofa with the same fabric from Hable Construction, see it here.

photo credit: hable construction covered sofa by lena corwin

Fiber Arts: Pintuck Duvet

First there was the Anthropologie kissing-pleat duvet, which has a big price, and now West Elm has a much more affordable and organic pintuck duvet. But what about making your own?

I often see white comforter protectors at discount stores. They are made of soft cotton, can be zipped around whatever comforter you have, and are in my price point of ~20$. If you purchase a cover that is a little larger than your comforter then I don't see why you cannot follow MS Living's instructions on how to create a pintuck pillow on a much larger scale.

Am I crazy? See, this is what happens when I buy the MS Living mag.

photo credit: page from September 2008 MS Living mag; anthropologie kissing-pleat duvet image from the Scoop

{Cayenne is on vacation. All posts this week have been pre-scheduled and comments will be moderated after September 28th.}

Inspiration: Casch Copenhagen

Casch Copenhagen

I regret to this day not buying the funnell neck sweater when I first saw it in an Anthropologie store a few years ago. Since then I have eyed several Casch Copenhagen pieces but have yet to actually purchase one. I love the clean lines, the off-set buttons and the simplicity of the designs. The cons are winning at the moment since I live in a place where the average temperature is 70 degress year-round and I am allergic to wool. Once I move to a cooler climate where I can layer a long sleeve t-shirt underneath the sweaters, a CASCH item will be one of the first things on my list.photo credit - top: funnel neck sweater found here; middle: gray boatneck, lace-like sweather found on Zeitgeist Yarns; bottom: (left) oatmeal varigated button sweater found on ebay ends in 2 days; all other images torn from old Anthropologie catalogs

Inspiration: Little Leaf Scarf

Image from the Classic Elite Yarns website; find the pattern on Ravelry

Fabric: Lotta Jansdotter Remnant Bag

I have been admiring Lotta Jansdotter's fabrics (and her house) since Blueprint had an article on her. I love the organic, simple style that has just the right amount of homeyness.

Lotta Jansdotter is doing good for the environment by making linen remnant bags from her leftover fabric. I just ordered the 4-piece bag that is now sold out. You can still get the 36 x 24" bag of fabric pieces that are scraps of various sizes and shapes (pictured above). I plan on making napkins with my mom's surger and/or a table runner. Both of these project seem easy enough. Found via More Ways to Waste Time.

photo credit: top image from old Blueprint magazine; bottom from Jansdotter's website here.

Fabric: Marimekko Mansikka Fabric

Remember the apple print from Sara Jessica Parker's kitchen...le mela by Enzo Mari. I love it but 250$ is WaY out of my price range. Consider these two options from Marimekko: mansikka the large print strawberries or appelsiini in orange. These are slightly different than the le mela poster by mari but I think they embrace 2 similar concepts - the super large print or pattern repeat and being in the red color family. I would take a yard of the fabric and staple it to a pre-stretched canvas. The price tag, less than 50$, on this DIY option is sounding really good to me right now.photo credit: mansikka fabric picture from Always Mod; appelsiini fabric picture from Repro Depot

Wish'n and Hope'n: Gumdrop Pillow

If I knew how to sew I would whip up one of Amy Butler's gumdrop pillows in her fantastic green lotus flower fabric. Really any of Amy Butler's fabric would look great. I am just partial to green, as you very well know.

photo credit: the Amy Butler website; lotus flower fabric from Purl Soho where you can also buy the gumdrop pillow pattern

Inspiration: Spring is here!

Happy Spring!

All found on Etsy: Top - Felted Baby Birds; Bottom - Wool Felt Carrot Snack; Robbins Egg Turquoise; Peter Rabbit Journaling Tags; Briat Bunny Hat; Grass Green Spring Handbag; Blue Bunny Dress.

Inspiration: Good Fortunes & Pink Pancakes

I normally don't celebrate Valentine's Day. I like the idea that you can tell all those important people in your life that they are special any time of year. It was very unlike me to actually do something on Valentine's Day but I got inspired by two blog posts this week (see Absolutely Plum and LotusHaus). The result was me making PINK pancakes and paper fortune cookies. As you can see the paper fortune cookies turned out great and they were really easy to make. You find directions here. I was just using stuff that I had around the house last night so I had to use ric-rac to write little message using a sharpie pen.

The pink pancakes were not such a successful endeavor. You can find the recipe here. I made the beet puree and mixed all the "blender" ingredients together the night before so that I could get up in the morning and make the pancakes without making a ton of noise. In the morning, I added the liquid ingredients to Bisquick pancake mix. The first problem was that the batter was incredibly thick. I must have added 1/2 a cup of extra water to thin them out. The next problem is that our stove is a little wonky. Many of the burners have dysfunctional heat adjustment knobs so they only heat up once the dial is at 6 and the next option is "HI" after that. I burned 3 or 4 pancakes before I got the temperature right. Lets just say that this put me in a grumpy mood before I even got to taste a pancake.
I came to the conclusion that I did not like pink pancakes but TEB said they tasted good and were a neat color. I think maybe I just could not get over the fluorescent pink shade of the short stack on my plate. It is strange how such a little thing like color can change your perception of what you are eating.

This brings to mind the science of molecular gastronomy, which is about investigating how food is cooked to change taste. A restaurant that has been on my list for a few years now is Alinea in Chicago, which takes molecular gastronomy to another level that seeks to alter our perception of the foods we normally eat. For example, below is there dish caramel popcorn. Notice that it look nothing like popcorn but I bet the liquid tastes just like caramel popcorn.


photo credit: CNC 02.14.08; Alinea Gallery

Trimming the Tree: Flags

Last weekend was all about nesting. A heavy rain fell all day on Friday to kick off our holiday decorating. I have one small rubbermaid box that holds all my Christmas season trinkets. I pull it out each year and decorate my mini tree. Inspired by the tree TEB's mom, TAB, decorated last year, I suggested that we make a garland with Norwegian and Alaska flags. TEB gets all the action credit on this project. All I did was find the high resolution pictures on wikipedia. He did all the photoshop work, cutting, and actually gluing of the flags to twine. I did assist a bit with the gluing near the end. Notice the mandarin orange among the presents under the tree for perspective.

photo credit: TEB 12.02.07

Buy Nothing Day: Oops!

I have to confess I was aware of today being Buy Nothing Day. A few blogs I regularly read had mentioned it (More Ways to Waste Time and Apartment Therapy Green) and you can find a more balanced review of the idea on Treehugger's post. I completely failed to buy nothing! Though the purchase was online and had been given a lot of thought, I still purchased and consumed on Black Friday. I might as well tell you that I purchased the pear print fabric designed by Marimekko of Finland. You can find very nice retro fabric from Repro Depot. This piece is going to go in the kitchen stretched over a large canvas frame.

Knitted Recycled Plastic Bag

Today is Blog Action Day and the blogging world is joining together to post about the environment.

Coincidentally, I gave my good friend EM a homemade bag knitted from plastic bags, for her birthday today. I used a pattern from The Purl Bee for a tote that is perfect for grocery shopping when knitted up in cotton. I had a few snafus thus made some minor pattern changes and my bag looks entirely different than the cotton version. I don't think that it will fit a lot of groceries but it could make a good beach bag, as EM suggested.

Plastic bags take a lot of energy to make, see the Environmental Literary Councils article on “Paper or Plastic”. We use them once then they fill up our landfills and are not biodegradable. You are actually doing double duty when you RECYCLE the plastic bags that you have and you make a NEW bag to take on your next trip to the grocery store.

Making Recycled Plastic Bag Yarn:
1. Collect plastic bags in all colors. You need a ton of bags so collect them from friends too.

2. Lay the bags flat and cut <1>s of plastic. I suggest 3/4" for really thin plastic and 1/2" for the sturdy thick stuff.

3. Chain the loops together in a color pattern of your choice. I made dark blue out of GAP bags, forest green out of B&N and The Body Shop bags, and white from the plain ol’ grocery store bags.

4. Knit following the instructions for “Elise’s Nest Tote” on The Purl Bee.

photo credit: TEB 10.15.07