H is for Holli

My friend Holli is having a baby, and since it's her third boy, she doesn't need much in terms of baby clothes and other gifts you might think of. Some friends and I decided to put together a bag for the hospital. Using a tote bag that I picked up at MUJI, I added the letter H using my favorite freezer paper trick.

We filled the bag with all sorts of her favorite things: magazines to read, favorite treats like M&M's and Clif bars, minty gum and chapstick, and a cute hospital gown (I didn't know these existed, but thinking back to the dingy blue gown I wore at the hospital for the birth of my two kids, something pretty would have been nice).

graduation gift

Two of the young girls I teach at church on Sundays are graduating high school today. In honor of this momentous occasion, I gathered a few of my favorite things from when I was in college and packed them all in a simple tote with their first initial (clearly inspired by here, which I feel badly about, but they are in England, and I needed a cute bag pronto!).

A freezer paper stencil was an easy way to transform the $3 canvas tote bag I bought at the craft store into something a little more special. And it took all of 20 minutes. I won't go into the ins and outs of freezer paper stenciling, but for this project you just need to print out one letter in a nice typeface (I used Bodoni). Trace the letter onto the papery side of your freezer paper and then cut it out carefully with an exacto knife.

Iron the freezer paper onto your bags, taking care to adhere all the edges of your stencil so the ink won't bleed. (The waxy side of the freezer paper will stick to the bag.) Lay a sheet of freezer paper inside your bag as well in case any paint bleeds through. Then paint with fabric paint and let dry overnight.

The next day, peel off your freezer paper and iron your letters to heat set the ink. Then fill with your favorite things (my list included Burt's Bee's lip balm, my favorite Uniball pens, transparent flag post-its for marking text books, thank you cards (a good habit to get into), metal binder clips, and some swedish fish for late night study sessions.

Congratulations Shelby and Ashley! Spread those little wings and fly, fly, fly!

one perfect day

One day in New York City without kids, stroller, husband, or busy agenda. What to do?

8:30 AM: Enjoy freshly made waffles and breakfast at the home of my good friends and their two sweet boys.

9:30 AM: Catch a ride to the subway station in Brooklyn. See a disoriented man fall onto the subway tracks, and be helped out by several kind New Yorkers, luckily before a train approaches (never in my 10 years in NYC did I ever see someone actually fall!)

Pop out of the subway at Canal and Broadway, start walking North. The weather just happens to be perfect, bright and sunny, but not too hot. I have to remind myself that NYC is only like this about one week out of the year.

10:00 AM: First stop: the MUJI store. I've been a fan of MUJI ever since I spent a semester abroad in London. Purchases: City in a Bag (drawstring bag full of NYC blocks, like little cabs and skyscrapers), colored pencil set, a perfect canvas tote bag, pencil sharpener.

10:45 AM: Walk up to Pearl River, a huge Chinese import store. Purchases: a small coin purse for Bee, a tin rocket for C, some pretty packages of rice candy.

11:15 AM: Continue up Broadway, almost walking right into the actor Aaron Eckhart, who I see near the corner of Spring Street. (Act nonchalant, because that's what New Yorkers do.) Stop in at Dean + Deluca to grab a raisin scone from Sarabeth's, just because I can.

11:30 AM: Walk up Sullivan Street so I can wave at Liesl, who's teaching a class at Purl Patchwork this morning. Peek through the window and see Liesl sitting at the sewing machine, right in the middle of explaining something to a big group of students. Decide against interrupting her.

Cross Houston and head towards the West Village, my favorite neighborhood in the whole city, to meet some of my oldest and dearest friends for brunch.

12:00 PM: Brunch at Tartine. We don't mind waiting for our table since there's lots to talk about and catch up on. Plus it's one of the prettiest blocks around.

1:30 PM: My friend Renee talks me into walking up to the Gagosian Gallery to see the Picasso exhibit, which closes this weekend. We wander up through the Chelsea Market, grabbing an applesauce donut from Amy's Bread (I used to live around the corner from their Hell's Kitchen location). The Picasso exhibit is worth the detour, a huge wonderful collection of paintings and etchings from his later years.

We walk over to the E train and take it north, to the 53rd Street and 5th avenue location so we can walk across the street to the MOMA.

3:00 PM: I haven't been to the MOMA since it's redesign, so I love walking through from floor to floor. Some of the paintings hanging there seem like old friends, and I'm so happy to see them once again. There's an interesting exhibit upstairs called Tangled Alphabets (on display through June 15th) featuring the works of Leon Ferrari and Mira Schendel. I love all the hand drawn type. Purchases: two small windup metal bugs for Bee and C from the museum gift shop.

5:15 PM: Walk down 5th Avenue to visit the Kinokuniya Japanese import store near Bryant Park. Wave to my old office as we walk by the Martha Stewart offices on 43rd Street. Purchases: new Japanese sewing book I haven't seen before, some beautifully packaged pastel crayons.

6:00 PM: Wander through Bryant Park (the most beautiful day!) admire the newly refinished NY Public Library and then hop on the F train to my old neighborhood in Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens. Meet up with my friend Sara who is getting a pedicure before we meet up with friends for dinner. Soon I am getting one too.

7:00 PM: Walk through my old neighborhood to the restaurant Alma, which has the most beautiful view of the city. By the time we sit down to eat (lucky us, we get the table with the best view) the sun is setting over the city, dinner is served, and I'm surrounded by my old friends.

10:00 PM: Drive back to Fort Green where I'm staying that evening by way of First Place, our old steet. Wave at my old apartment, where JR and I dated, were newlyweds, and formed our little family.

12:00 AM: Rest tired (but pretty!) feet. Fall into a sound sleep.

Things I wish I could have fit into my day: a stroll through Central Park, a visit to the paper stores down on 18th Street, some fabric shopping in the garment district, a walk down the Brooklyn promenade, and a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. But there are only so many hours in a day.

Note: I've put together a little Google Map of my day, with addresses and phone numbers for the stores and restaurants. You can easily swap out the Met for the MOMA, and then get to see some of Central Park as well.

fortune cookie favors

I needed a favor for my friend Emily's baby shower recently, and decided to make some personalized fortune cookies. I'm not a fan of the crunchy stale fortune cookies you usually get after a meal in a chinese restaurant, but these homemade fortune cookies not only look cute, they actually taste pretty delicious!

I came up with as many fortunes as I could for this new baby girl, things like "Baby Wight will never cry" or "Baby Wight will grow up to be a famous trapeze artist" or my favorite, "Baby Wight will be a boy! Surprise!". The fortunes were printed and cut into strips, mine are about 1/2" high and 7" or so wide.

The recipe I used is a traditional tuile batter, which you drop by spoonful onto a Silpat. Then using the back of your spoon, you push the batter into a 4" circle, keeping it as thin and even as you can. The cookies bake quickly, you want to watch them carefully and pull them out when the edges are just barely golden.

Once the cookies come out of the oven, you need to work quickly to add the paper fortunes and form the cookies. If the cookies cool, they will harden and be too brittle to twist and shape. Small batches work best, I started doing 4 at a time, and got up to 6 (but you've really got to work fast to get all 6 twisted and folded before they are too brittle).

It takes a few batches to get all this figured out. Just a few extra seconds in the oven can change the color of your cookie pretty quickly. The cookie at top was pulled out a bit early, the middle cookie is just right, and the bottom cookie stayed in the oven a little too long.

I packaged the cookies in little white takeout boxes, filled with some pink and white dotted glassine, and I packed a few larger boxes with some extra cookies for Emily and her family.. full of wishes and good fortunes for their new little baby.

Welcome little one.

spring in a box

When we lived in New York, this time of year was hard for me. The end of March and the beginning of April, when spring should be out in full force, were usually still cold and dreary. Winter seemed never ending. There's only so much you can do with two children under 3 when it's freezing cold outside, and for a girl born and raised in sunny Southern California, I had had enough.

I have a few friends who have had tougher winters than usual this year for various reasons. Friends who have been cooped indoors with colicky babies, or feeling down about just about everything or wondering how much longer they can stay sane in their tiny New York apartments. Oh, I remember.

So I decided to mail them a little something.. I call it "Spring in a Box". I gathered an assortment of all things yellow and orange and wrapped them up in the brightest paper I could find, including a note about how spring would definitely come.. that they had almost made it through the long cold winter. And I included these two lovely quotes:

The packages have all been received. Sunshine delivered by way of the USPS. Friends are cheered. Spring has come. Mission accomplished.

NOTE: Yes, it is because of the long, hard winter that we moved away from NYC and all its charms. Now we enjoy winter in southern California, usually wearing flip flops and making lemonade from the lemon tree in our backyard. So California has its charms too.

harvey faircloth

I try to keep this site as "commercial free" as possible. But I have to take a moment to brag for my friends Katie, Mara and Abby who have just launched their own clothing company: Harvey Faircloth.

I moved to New York City straight out of college because that's where the best design jobs were. There is perhaps no better place to be young, single, and employed! I had an amazing group of friends to run around the city with.. Saturday mornings skating in Central Park, afternoons spent getting to know the Met and the MOMA, dinners at Grange Hall (sadly now closed). We worked hard at our jobs all week, and we spent the remainder of our time getting to know the city we now called home.

Katie, Abby and Mara were all part of this group. They are lovely girls, and so very talented: Katie is designing the clothes, Mara handling the sales/business side, and Abby's over the design/branding. And did I mention the clothes are beautiful?

It takes a certain amount of courage to do the things you've always dreamed of. These girls are doing it, and I am so so proud of them.

where I'd like to be..

Hanging out with a magenta octopus and a few gnomes at Heather's book party, starting in just a few hours. Oh, I wish I still lived in Brooklyn and could just hop on the train and see so many of my favorite people.

I will have to toast Heather and John and Melanie from way out here in California. If you haven't checked out Heather's book Weekend Sewing,  I suggest you do so.. It's a lovely book, and I'm so happy to have been a part of this team.

I'll be posting some photos later this week from our Weekend Sewing photoshoots, and I'll be doing my first blog giveaway, a copy of Heather's book..  so stay tuned.

baby #4

My dear friend Emily is having a baby, her fourth, so we got to have a little shower to celebrate. I find it really hard to take photos during a party (there's so much running around right before and the light is never very good) but I managed a few shots.

I wanted to hang some hearts over the table but once I cut/punched all 50 or so, the thought of punching holes and tying them all to string seemed a bit ridiculous. Saved again by my sewing machine... much faster.

I put together a little quiz (thanks to Emily's mother) about Emily when she was younger. The best question was about her getting sent to the principal's office in second grade for throwing spitballs at the ceiling in the girl's bathroom. Heart toothpicks for some of the food (two hearts stuck together with a bit of double stick tape).

It's nice to not have to deal with cups and ice at parties, so I'm a fan of water bottles. And they always look cuter with new labels. Emily's favorite drink is IZZE (her favorite is actually the raspberry flavor, but she likes the pomegranate too and well, it matched the color palette better). I'm not above choosing drinks solely on their color.

Light blue and white sugar cookies, with a few red ones thrown in. These heart cookie cutters are from an old kit from Martha by Mail, I wish I had bought one of everything they sold while they were still in business. So well designed and so well made.

Emily's sister was kind enough to pick up some Sprinkles cupcakes, and the red and blue candies on top were perfect. Although my cupcake love is reserved for Magnolia Bakery, these are pretty good too.

My sweet sister in law ran all over town trying to find some red heart candies. I used my new favorite trick for the tags, punching out the heart shape and putting fabric behind it. I think we'll be trying something similar for Valentines day... stay tuned.

color story #5

I have always been a fan of light and bright teals paired with red. The teals can even be more on the bluer side, like the bottom right swatch, but you have to stay clear of bright blues or it starts to feel a little Fourth of July. I love this pairing so much I once did an entire identity in it for photographer Lisa Hubbard. (she's wonderful, by the way)

 

More to come on what I've been using this stack for...

anna and mason

They've been going through their archives over at Martha Stewart Weddings and have added so many beautiful weddings to the site. A recent addition is the wedding of Anna Williams and Mason Adams. Anna is one of the nicest people you will ever meet, and an amazing photographer, and I had the pleasure of working with her countless times while I worked at Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Kids. (She is also the photographer of both of Joelle's books).

I was completely thrilled when she asked me to help with her wedding invitations. Anna had assembled a gorgeous color story.. bright oranges, magentas, peaches, and soft pinks. We letterpressed the invite in three colors, with each letter a different color (which proved to be a bit of a nightmare for our printer, but the results were really beautiful!). We also letterpressed a gingham liner for the envelope. The colors in the magazine printed a bit dark, but you can see the actual colors of the invite below.

It's always a fun process to create a new wedding invitation, something unique that represents the personalities (and sometimes the quirks) of the couple getting married. I find it easier to design invitations for people I know, when I have a pretty good sense of who they are and exactly what they are hoping to see for their wedding. For Anna, I wanted her wedding to be as lovely as she is.. and I think we came close.

(photographs from the Winter 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings)