Golden Coast

The little-girl me had the good fortune to be a travel diarist every now and then on long train trips from California to the eastern seaboard. I love unraveling the memories in those old journals, exploring their artifacts layer by layer - a printed itinerary from the Southwest Chief, envelopes taped to the pages, museum badges and folded up maps spilling from them.
Last month Alice and I took a day trip to San Diego for some shopping downtown. For lunch we decided to try a diner on Coronado Island and spent the rest of the afternoon there, wandering about the Hotel Del and the beachfront. I took a few photos along the way and made them into a "travel guide" that's hopefully as fun to look through as a real old travel memento. At the end of the guide you can opt to download a "Cut-N-Mail" postcard set with two views of Coronado. See it all by clicking the button below (please enable pop-ups).

Brides Magazine

If you've been following for a while you might remember the butterfly escort cards I did for Project Wedding last September. I'm so pleased to share that the project has been published in the August issue of Brides Magazine with calligraphy by Nan DeLuca and photography by Wendell T. Webber.

Pink Parasols

On the southern California coast, it's been a reluctant summer. Mornings dawn gray and cool, and colorless skies linger until afternoon. The hallmarks of summer have yet to occur - though I'm longing for beach trips, bike rides, and picnics. And while the sun has only just started to break through this week, I know before long we'll have the kind of weather that can only be abated by tall, cool drinks in the shade.I recently made these cocktail umbrellas for Papermash and photographed them in a picnic style setting. They come together simply with mini doilies, wooden skewers and a few other supplies - a softer more delicate twist on the ubiquitous tropical version. You can find all the details on the free project sheet available for download at Papermash.

July Fourth in Review

As I've written each year, I particularly like the Fourth of July. Usually it's a day lazily confronted; we barbecue and eat out of doors on an old floral-lattice sheet turned tablecloth. And most years we make it to the fireworks at Terrace Park or drive to a high point in town and watch them in the distance. This year I decided to enjoy the holiday a little less passively and plan ahead for a barbecue with my family and Brett's.I created a set of paper goods in Illustrator that included food trays, two banners, ice cream cone wrappers, sandwich pick flags, and a few other things.
I also broke out the sewing machine to make fabric bunting in shades to match.The paper trays were the starting point for everything, I printed them on heavy paper, and lined them with red and white wax paper (from Martha Stewart Crafts Holiday, found at a bargain store recently).
A coordinating "Happy July Fourth" banner hung from three tiers of red ribbon above the gate in the backyard.Sparklers were placed in a sand-filled pail along with a sign that includes a favorite quote I encountered in one of my readings for school last year: "It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with ...Bonfire and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more." John Adams to Abigail, July 3, 1776Store bought cups were embellished with stars - also made in Illustrator, printed, cut out and adhered.I filled a metal tub with ice and classic bottled Coca-Cola ; two dowels with eye hooks support a banner. Ice cream cone wrappers read "Sweet land of liberty" - taken from the song "My County, 'Tis of Thee." Lastly, additional details included striped straws left over from this project, simple white paper lanterns and red cutlery.

Old Fashioned Fourth

The anticipation I feel for the Fourth of July I owe to my father, who raised me with his zeal for early American history. Because of him I have memories of looking down on Lake Champlain from the ramparts of Fort Ticonderoga, of hiking through Saratoga battlefields, of standing on the banks of the York River, and of walking through Independence Hall in the heat of a Philadelphia summer. But as much as Independence Day is history, it's also hometown and fireworks, summertime and night skies. It's red, white and blue bunting over the front porch, crickets in the back field.

For the July/August issue of Victoria magazine I took cues from these influences. My favorite projects to make and photograph were the vintage berry basket favors (with tags to download and print here), and mix and match cocktail napkins sewn from ticking, plain cottons and reproduction feedsack. Timeworn and country simple.

Slide Projector: L'Aube

Two weeks ago my last set of exams came to an end, and the following weekend I graduated from UCLA. It is somewhat bittersweet to leave behind the lecture hall, admittedly a place that was sometimes a duty rather than a desire. But watching the lights on that world dim as it moves into the past, I can only feel grateful. Grateful for what I've come to know of empires and masterpieces, grateful most of all, for what I've seen. I started the Slide Projector Series as a way to catalog paintings I encountered in school, and while I have a list of those yet to be shared I hope to continue it beyond. L'Aube (At Dawn) (see detail) was only shown in class briefly, supporting a lecture on the 19th century city and social class. In it, grandeur fades to ruin in the growing dawn and the wretchedness of poverty and excess is somehow made beautiful.

Doilies & Notions

I wanted to post a photo from my article in the May/June issue of Victoria which has been out for a while now. The series of four projects for this were a tribute to my mother, grandmothers, and the things they made in their sewing rooms. It seems crochet hooks, embroidery hoops, calico and colored thread are the trifles that stitch together generations.

From the article: "As a girl, I followed my mother down aisles lined with bolts of fabric and listened to the calm clatter of her sewing machine in the evenings. I cross-stitched alongside my grandmother, who would unfold her intricate needlework each time she visited. And I remember standing patiently still, early one summer, while Nana pinned the hem of a calico sundress. It was red and white with the tiniest loops of crocheted trim edging the neckline...."

Where the West Begins

Sunday we drove out east of Los Angeles to the Cal Poly campus in the Pomona Valley. Along the university's central drive horses graze in paddocks, their chestnut coats gleaming in the inland sun. Sheep gather in woolly clusters, enjoying the breeze down by the road. Trellises heavy with vines, break over the crest of a hill. And up near the dormitories, roses bloom and wither in an ornamental garden. You may know that I like to view things through the lens of a romanticized history. When it comes to the valleys that surround the city of Los Angeles, now overtaken by suburban sprawl, I linger on surviving pockets of the rural past, imagining the way the land once was - the ranches, the citrus groves. A western paradise out "California way" as Bing Crosby sings in a cowboy's tune about the San Fernando Valley.

Merrie May

Since last Saturday was May Day, I thought I'd delve into its history a little. "Chapter IV: May Day" in The Original Girls Handy Book (a reprint of a book published in 1887), had a few things to say about "a very pretty custom observed in Merrie England of fastening bunches of flowering shrubs and branches upon the doors of neighbors." The author writes of the (then) surviving tradition in New England, of "hanging upon the door-knobs of friends spring-offerings in the shape of small baskets filled with flowers." The historical influences end there since my "May Day basket" is a paper cone with a fun, scrapbook-inspired look. Usually I carefully plan the supplies I'll use for a project in advance, but for this I tried to use any and every supply I had on hand. I started with a kraft paper base and added from there.The colorful printed papers are various designs from K & Company, except for the tiny pink heart print which I posted here. Other elements include; spun cotton mushroom, velvet millinery leaf, paper flowers, vintage buttons, Blumchen butterflies, white paper doily, ruffle sewn from crepe paper, colored brads, iridescent glitter, beaded trim and ribbon.The top of the cone is finished off with pink tinsel trim and a ruffle made from old sheet music. The inside is lined with light blue paper, finished with scallop edge scissors.Once it was finished I treated myself to some pink ranunculus, which always remind me of this place near home.

Crepe Bouquet

Nearby there's a faded yellow apartment house, the one on the corner trimmed with white fluted pilasters and creeping dark ivy. A small tree grows in the side yard, casting a spray of spindly branches up over the tall hedge that hems it in against the street. I've measured nearly two years by those branches, passing under them en route to campus. Looking up to see their barren silhouette against the gray chill of December. Watching them alight with five-petaled buds in the cloudless blue of late spring.Now, those branches are dusted with petals in the slightest shade of pink and the season is fully fledged. Today I bring you an appropriately springtime craft that I created for Janie's wonderful site The Bride's Cafe. I hope you'll head on over to see more photos and complete instructions for making your own crepe paper bouquet.

Chiffon, Tulle & Satin

Last week I finished up this tutorial for Project Wedding -a flower hair pin made from tulle, chiffon and a tiny cluster of old glass beads. Click over to get the how-to.Cutting the half yard of muted pink chiffon, I was reminded so much of after-school-ballet. Of those enviable and airy wrap around skirts some of the girls wore. For weeks I anticipated the start of those classes, donning ballet slippers daily, wearing holes in them running down the rough asphalt street to the mailbox. The luster sort of vanished in a crowded little dressing room, right off the dance floor, where the hot air of California autumn stagnantly cycled through two awning windows near the ceiling. To my second grade self there and then, nothing seemed worse than an itchy pair of pale pink tights and an ill-fitted leotard in faded black. Needless to say I never became a ballerina, but I came to learn a few things. That life's not always pink satin pointe shoes, smooth and perfect. Not always gathered tulle, fanciful and featherlight. And that true passions, those most loved and cherished, require determination and sustain disappointment.

Very Victorian

Brett's birthday was a few weeks ago, and since the wallet he really wanted was back ordered, I wanted to make him a little something unexpected to open in the meantime. But what? I decided to make a later-19th-century style ascot tie and matching packaging suite. Perhaps I've been watching too many costume dramas lately? In any case, Brett will be well equipped if time travel is ever invented.{Click photo to see it larger}
(1) I sewed the tie itself from brown dupioni silk (found in the remnant bin last fall) and some interfacing. It's presented with a cream colored paper band with "Livy's of Regent St., Haberdashers" printed on it.
(2) I made a label for the front of the envelope (a large image is at the top of this post), using the frame from this vintage sheet music page. I referenced images of old 19th century broadsides to get a sense of what the type should look like, and hunted for Victorian looking fonts here.
(3) The envelope is made from dark brown textured card stock, and lined with a beautiful William Morris wallpaper print, in keeping with the 19th century theme.
(4) A mini accordion book provides instructions on how to tie an ascot tie. Each illustrated step is presented within a golden daguerreotype frame.
Before tossing the book in the envelope I sewed it in between squares of vellum so that it would lie flat.
(5) I cut a circular gift tag out of the William Morris print, and printed a branded rectangular tag. I added antiqued metal eyelets to both and tied them around the finished package.

In the Easter Basket

I hope everyone enjoyed this glorious Sunday. Here's a parade of pretty sweets from today!
Click here to see more!

Strawberry Picking

Whenever I think of strawberries I think of a particular red and white stand, not far from home. It sits on a dusty shoulder on East Street, just before the sign for Strawberry Hill Lane. A gradual slope rises beyond it, un-planted, overgrown with the wild grasses that are green in the spring and gold in the summer. On the opposite side of the road, furrowed land reaches up toward distant hilltop greenhouses.
Last weekend's outing took us to another stand. This one, by the coast and open for "U-Pick" in March and April. Its fields extend over acres of hillside high above a lagoon. If you drive toward it from the east, you can briefly catch the prettiest vista of field and water. It's particularly lovely with with a coastal haze and that warm light that comes just before sunset. But Saturday's trip was as clear and bright as spring break's closing weekend should be. Brett and I pulled up to quite a bustling stand, bought one giant bucket and headed to the designated patch right by the road.Sunny day, muddy shoes and the juiciest strawberries. Most delicious.

It Might as Well Be Spring

Life and quickness come as winter fades, sunshine is newly minted and light lingers into evening. The early days of a restless spring are here, inching toward the anxious heat of distant summer. I finish my senior thesis this week and graduation is in June. The time has come to sit still, pick up that novel and determine precisely what its next chapter holds. But some days I'd rather reread the familiar words on preceding pages. I should embrace change, but there's something to be said for savoring the past. Such longings make for pleasant attics, filled with the objects that keep our memories. Like those folksy little egg ornaments I unpack from their box each Easter. They were the inspiration for the larger wooden eggs and coordinating egg cups I painted for Victoria. You can find this project (and a few others as well) in the March/April issue.

Gilded Garland

I've been busy the last few weeks with projects, schoolwork, and celebrating my 22nd birthday! I'm just amazed that it's already March. We've had plenty of lovely, rainstorms this year, along with a few warm, sun-washed days that felt just like late spring. I've been starting my seedlings for a windowsill garden, admiring a bouquet of daisies and drawing flowers in my sketchbook - like this floral frame I created for a set of table numbers for Project Wedding.