Gehring Road

etsy finds... gifty

Reclaimed Wood Love Sign from PBJstories Etsy Shop

I'm days away from dropping loads of money on classes for next semester and we're now days away from Christmas... stresser? A little. We try really hard to pair down the holidays and do small things for each other here in our home, though Rob's "something little" last year was my iPad... I'm spoiled. I've also given up on trying to hand make a little something for everyone, I did that a few years ago and found myself not necessarily enjoying the moments of the holiday but trying to spend every waking moment finishing too many projects. Actually I was scary... and then Rob got shingles... so this year, I'm just going with things I really love for the people I really love in my life... small things, useful things and hopefully, thoughtful things. There is no end to the window shopping though! I find myself falling in love with "sure that's useful" things on a daily basis... luckily in a few short weeks, I'll be preoccupied with school... who am I kidding, I'll still be pinning, favoriting and sharing them with you. Here are some lovelies found lately... add them to your list for Santa... 

Astrological Maps Bracelet from Anthropologie

Dandelion Flower Letterpress from Sweetharvey Etsy Shop

Vintage Sunshine Yellow Wooden Lemonade Crate from Epochco Etsy Shop

Many Mittens Garland from Anthropologie 

Set of 10 Origami Christmas Trees from Paper in the Pocket Etsy Shop

Typography Pride and Prejudice Dishtowel from Brookish Etsy Shop

 Two Vintage Metal Coffee Cans from Randy as Seller and Buyer Etsy Shop

Blue Aquamarine Earrings from Orit Naar Etsy Shop

Vintage Orange Crush Sign from Camp Hobachee Etsy Shop 

I Heart Hope Poster Print by William Dohman Etsy Shop

I Heart the United Kingdom Necklace from Truche Etsy Shop 

Rob is off to Denver for work this week and weekend, so I'll be adding to my list for Santa... via Pinterest, Amazon and Etsy respectively. The plan is also to get the Christmas tree this weekend (Saturday is looking like a balmy 44 degrees... which is about 40 degrees warmer than it was last year when we got the tree) and deck the halls... I've got some great little details up my sleeve this year. Can't wait to share. Happy Tuesday, what are you spying online? 

in the loft

That last shot is looking a lot like pie to me... possibly a sign someone has been Thanksgiving feasting a bit too much. My sewing machine and I spent some time on this quilt (which clearly by the title I gave to it when uploading the photo to Flickr its fate was sealed as a slooow WIP). I was delighted to discover after two months I was still able to sew! That quilt however has been a bit of a debacle from the get go. I waffled between two different methods of creating half-square triangles, my accuracy on these is pretty horrific and then in the midst of that cut my blocks 7.5'' square... for 5'' blocks. My new phrase will be measure twice cut once from now on... and make your sample block before you cut yards of fabric Lady! So after ironing all 244 of those half square triangles, I'll have to cut them down to size... to finally sew them together. I'm losing my mojo on this one. Plus someone (who shall remain nameless but has a name that starts with R and ends with B) mentioned in passing the stripes and coloring looked a bit like Charlie Brown and I've been unable to work on this quilt without thinking of that. Thanks R*b. I think the frustration with this quilt really boils down to HSTs themselves. I'd love to be able to quickly and accurately make half-square triangles, but I find that a bit elusive. The sewing on the bias, the line drawing... maybe I'm just a little protective of my sewing time and needing something a bit more fulfilling. I have a few projects I'd like to tackle in between working on my Moby Dick (that's not better than Charlie Brown is it?) quilt... 

* I love Jenni's drawstring bag tutorial and even have some fabric pulled for a few of these. 

* My knitting mojo which always rears its head a few times a year is back... I'm thinking I should make this sweet bag from The Sometime's Crafter. 

* Purl Bee is a dangerous place to visit, I always find myself wanting to buy skeins and skeins of yarn there, but I love those cashmere scarves with all of my limited knitting skills self. 

* And finally, Anna Maria Horner's Art Student Tote looks like it might become my Grad Student Tote come January. I might have just purchased this today to support small business Saturday, just maybe. 

I have some ironing ahead of me today or tomorrow or next week as the spirit moves (or doesn't) me. I'm loving the time I have to spend in the loft however, and I think that's really the point... enjoy that time fully and walk away from things that fluster and drain when needed. Life lessons in sewing I do believe. Happy weekend to you! 

thanks... and a winner

Happy Thanksgiving from our family (and table!) to yours... I was overwhelmed with your sweet sentiments about the giveaway, and I really wish there was a little package coming to each of you. This blogging/crafting community has been a continuous source of inspiration, strength and knowledge for me over the years, I am truly grateful and thankful for that. Your blogs, words and pictures have been keeping me very busy over the past days, what a gifted group you all are... and I'm loving the new blogs that have come into my life. On to the winner (which I chose this morning, someone should have reminded me I 8 pm is optimistic!)... 

Congratulations Natalie! I'll be in touch, and following your beautiful blog. Happy day to you all, I hope it finds your surrounded by family, friends and oh so much love. 

giving thanks... giving (away) FMF

I spent time this weekend making two bundles out of the FMF digital prints that I scored at Denyse Schmidt's Sample Sale. I decided at the last minute that the bundles looked a little sad without that beautiful grey bouquet (my favorite, you see) and added in some grey, pink and green bouquet from the original release. As a big thank you for readers old and new, I'd like to share with one of you! Leave a comment for me (make sure I can get in touch with you also!) by Wednesday 8 pm. I'll choose a winner on Wednesday night and get these lovelies to you. Remember that the digital samples are not always color-fast so careful washing them. A few of the prints are crazy colors, that didn't make it to the final printing of the re-released fabric (shipping in March!) which is kind of special. There are pictures of the interesting colorways here if you're curious. 

It felt amazing just to be back up in the loft for a few minutes playing with fabric this weekend, I wish I had more time to do so. I also proctored the SATs... that was decidedly less fun. Rob and I took a quick trip to an outdoor shopping center today to bask in the 65 degrees that has settled on our little neck of the woods. Someone spent too much time in Anthropologie...guilty. A very Anthropologie Thanksgiving for us! Happy weekend... don't forget to enter the giveaway! 

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Comments closed! Congratulations Natalie! 

anthropologie love... again

image at Anthropolgie 

If you've hung around this blog... or well, me for any amount of time, you know I love Anthropologie... alot. The past few years, I've loved them for quick little housewarming and thank you gifts and now I'm loving them for the all encompassing holiday gift. How sweet are these charms and the create your own graphic? Too fun. I successfully spent an undisclosed amount of time this morning while procrastinating (I have papers to grade you see) creating my own little charmer... 

... now I think I'll build another... and just perhaps another. I think I'm finally feeling the holiday inspiration, too bad it isn't the grading inspiration (ahem). That week we lost following the power outage felt strange as we came out of our fog into the second week of November. The fact that Thanksgiving is this week has been throwing me a bit... where the heck did November go? Lack of power is aparently disorienting to one's holiday mojo! I'm pleased that it is finally apon me... anyway, a very happy weekend to you, I hope you are enjoying these weekend hours spent exactly as you most enjoy them! 

feeling japanese... prints that is

I've been collecting prints from Japanese designers Suzuko Koseki, Kumiko Fujita (if anyone happens apon her book Patchwork Patterns 318 for a reasonable price, let me know, it's impossible to find!) and others for a while now, all in the hopes of making (of course) a quilt. I thought I might go with another version of this quilt, but I've started it in Hope Valley... oh... a year or two ago (ahem) and am thinking that probably signifies I should do more finishing and less starting. Which of course meant I've been on the prowl for a new quilt to start... so it goes. I have been completely blown away with the beautiful work done in this quilt along... especially this beauty. Amazing, no? So in all of my fabric hoarding, I think I've done well with this little stack, it is small, most of those cuts are fat quarters. In an effort to completely enable your own fabric buying/hoarding, here's my list of go-to shops for beautiful japanese prints...

* Superbuzzy (love and prepare for some japanese candies to come with your order)

* Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy (if you buy that Daiwabo alphabet fabric before I'm able to get my mitts on some, we might not be able to talk)

* Lucky Kaeru Fabrics on Etsy (fast shipping)

* Blije Olifantje (let's all say that together!) on Etsy. (I think she is brave and orders from La Clochette, often)

* La Clochette. (Something there is in me that hates buying from sites that require Google Translator, and this one does so beware my friends. Someone in a flickr group braved that experience and we ordered together to save on shipping... that's how I scored that yellow scissiors fabric, love them!)

Shop away! I love how unique the colors are in that little pile and really can't wait to see them come together. I feel a little at a loss for time lately and this will only get worse in the new year. I think carving out some sewing time is certainly in the cards this weekend, though grades are due for us on Monday... ah well, at the very least, my plan is to have those little FMF piles ready to go for next week here on the blog. Fabric cutting, listening to some tunes and sleeping in (at least until 6:30 ;)) sounds like just the thing this weekend. Hope you are enjoying this week, and looking forward to the days ahead. 

quilt feast at denyse schmidt studio sale

We headed a bit south on Saturday and found ourselves stopping by Denyse Schmidt's studio sale. Like last year, I took a ton of pictures (it is impossible to take a bad shot in that space... oh to enjoy that light everyday!) and intend on sharing them all. And like last year, I also snagged some goodies, which of course, I intend to share. More on that a bit later this week... now for the images I snapped... this first batch was just in the hallway outside of the studio, amazing...

... and inside Denyse's Studio (I tried not to snap pictures of people grabbing amazing deals on beautiful quilts, last year I got a look from a little girl that told me that was creepy)...

...and those last two are of a quilt I thought about either snatching and running off with (the eighteen flights of stairs and a criminal record prevented me from doing so) or buying it with the tuition money for the classes I am taking in the spring (that was harder to convince myself out of than it should have been!) I ended up just staring at it... for a long time, it's gorgeous, no? So what did I end up buying? This...

... a stack of digital sample yardage from the upcoming release of Flea Market Fancy... a line I love, and just missed when I first started to sew. I'm more than excited about its release. So here's how this little stack became mine. At 10:00 when the doors opened a local photographer got a little pushy and wanted to take some photos of Denyse... so the doors were opened and I took that moment to scan... I saw dots on a little cart near the kitchen (which also had amazing little cupcakes for us... the shoppers) and decided to go there first... no elbows, no sprinting, I just walked over and picked this little bundle up. I then gave it to Rob to hold, who delighted in putting it down everywhere to fake yawn, sneeze... clearly someone was there to tease. Denyse, who checked me out (so cool!) said that she had to use the digital printing to create some of the sample items as she too is down to scraps of the line. I know all about that. Anyway, though it is a digital printing, I'm excited to be using the pieces in little projects here and there. And I hope you are too... today I'm going to cut little bundles of the sample pack (some of the pieces are quite large) and give them away on the blog later this week as a little Thanksgiving for a reprint, the end of stormy weather (for the time being), the start of the holiday season and most importantly for the readers who frequent this little space here. I'm always amazed at how patient and caring you all are... so have some Flea Market Fancy before it's released... just don't wash it! Happy weekend and I'm off to cut. 

scenes from our week

I learned a few things this week...

:: trees falling down around you in the midst of a storm in the middle of the night sound like a billard hall... 

:: ear plugs are essential to sleeping through those sounds...

:: my guy is a relentless provider, I don't think his mind stopped working, planning, gathering for eight days...

:: the fates have a way of making one smile... that same generator we plugged in two months ago, only to have our power restored two hours later saved us from the cold and dark this time...

:: our neighbors and community leaders are truly giving and supportive...

:: lack of television is not a loss, lack of news and connectedness is...

:: having school cancelled for five days straight is incredibly stressful...

:: power executives sometimes hide the truth and are not always good at communicating...

:: mother nature can be exceptionally surprising and relentless and beautiful all at the same time.

 

We're basking in the glow of the lights in our home this weekend, while wondering why most of our street is still without power. Feeling lucky, loved and ready to get back to normal. I hope this weekend finds you surrounded by warmth, light and all things you love. 

let's hope for light at the end of the tunnel...

Sigh... This is the end of day six without power for us. School has been out this week also due to the storm damage and the fact that our High School is being used as a shelter serving hot meals and a bed for those in the community. This has felt long my friends. Our spirits were buoyed by the arrival of a mi-fi so Rob can work, we're just hoping for a little movement and a little good news. I've been so impressed with the way people in our communities have pulled together... Hopefully this feeling of solidarity lasts. I have pictures of our days and a little glimpse into some of the damage for you, hopefully you're not stormed out by now. Keep good thoughts coming this way,fingers and toes crossed for us? Back soon...