Hi Jul-Y

at our downtown Lancaster library- Max loves Corduroy, so he couldn't believe we found the Corduroy DVD.
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at Cherry Hill Orchards...before we filled our cooler full of fruit and veg...

downtown again for First Friday with the lovely Opal:-)

Max, waiting for his friends to arrive at First Friday, in the Art Garden...doing an iCarly move....

June Buds

sweet play dates this summer, a busier boy...coloring, painting, cutting, chalking, swimming, talking, swinging, eating, singing, tea partying, reading, movie going, biking Max:-)

Crafts in the Park

Last weekend, I vended at Crafts in the Park in nearby Lititz, showing my new summertime hair things and pins made from British Wensleydale wool. It was the largest show I've done, with so many vendors set up amongst the trees. I borrowed a tent from my friend Jody, and my family helped me set up, and even took me to breakfast (sit down restaurant- how luxurious!) after getting my booth ready.

I just had to create a new sign for summer, reflective of the color of things cooking up in my kitchen studio. Using the rest of the felt, I made the banner. It's put together with glue! and it lasted! couldn't believe it. I reused my store display for the Lancaster Yarn Shop - the shutter with little torquise shutters on the sides, the top of my pot rack table (seen in the book, "1000 Ideas for Creative ReUse" published 2009) became my upper tabletop display, and the little magnet house I created for the Square One Coffee Indie Arts show turned into a brooch holder. I loved how everything came together and reunited at least a little of my old painting with my new accessories.

Here's my little famous hair clips, bigger now and all dolled up with felty balls in the centers, some with beads.

As my tradition now before shows, I went around the park looking for my favorite vendors- selling the things I think are coolest. I easily spotted the booth of Michelle McGinn from across the way, and fell in love with her wood paintings, all hung on a vintage door. Everything was in similar colors to my work...it would have been fun to be set up closer together.

I ended up taking home a precious painting of hers, a mother bird feeding her two babies.

SWOON! A new headband Monsoon!

I can't believe it's June...so much has been going on here, and the time is flying. I finished a month of freelance work for my old company, working while Max was still in school.
Now he's out and I'm done, but I realized that I have the Lititz Craft Show coming up on Saturday June 12. It's been very busy for me personally on the home front(stop by my booth and you'll see why!)...and so this past week I dived into some new pieces.
I am so happy with these new headbands, and having so much fun with them. But like always, I just get arty and obsessed and can't stop cooking them up.
I've been back and forth to Flying Fibers this week, buying my Wensleydale wool and other bits and pieces.
Low and behold I've already sold one...and just hours after it was purchased, it went off to a wedding paired with...



this gorgeous dress from Monsoon! (photos by Irina Lawrence)
Yes, yes, it's true. This sweet girl here in Pennsylvania just combined my 100% British Wensleydale wool headband with her own fantastic dress from the British retailer! Naturally:-) It makes me want to swoon!

Get your bold headband fix next Saturday in Lititz Springs Park. See you then! XO

Best of May

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

to celebrate the end of school we took Max to the circus today.
Here he is with Sergey Makarov, Leader of the Makarov high wire troupe from Russia. He signed Max's sword:-)

Landis Valley Garden Show

Hi everyone,
I can't believe that it's nearly mid May! I feel like I have so many things I'd like to do around the house, etc. And the calendar continues to fill up with little dates for this and that. How time flies.
This past Saturday marked our now yearly tradition of attending the Garden Show at Landis Valley Museum. The grounds are gorgeous, and it's a lovely way to spend the day before Mother's Day with my Mom.
It's also a fantastic place to stock up on Heirloom plants, veggies, etc, for your spring and summer garden.

Here is my Mom. She always helps me pick out my plants as I always having trouble knowing what's what.

We watched a little demo on natural dying. Of course I stuck around for that one, she had wool on the table:-)

I turned around and saw these yarns and fabrics hanging on a line along a stone wall. So pretty...

Notes from the show...

Good morning little Grange building, where the show was held today.

Here's me and my little buddy.

These announcements and Pennsylvania cards are wonderful. I want one! From Melanie Linder.

These linens by Sara Medley were a fantastic modern spin on Dutchiness!

I really loved talking with Rose Ann from Sheeps in the Meadow.

here are her wonderful scarves

and to wrap up my post about the market, here's a fantastic sandwich wrapper and placemat by Kimberly Scola.

Max had lots of fun running around town with Matt, and ended the day playing with his new buddies. This was a unique Indie show and it was fun to chat with artists from around Pennsylvania. I was surprised to learn that Rose Ann has a Cotswolds sheep, and I just loved the Pennsylvania inspired art.

Join me tomorrow!

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, and being at this fantastic Indie show. It's my first show of the year, and I am packing my bags tonight.

I am excited to meet other artists and to display my new spring flowers. Here's a sneak peak at what I'm bringing. You're the first to get a glimpse!

My childhood home in San Antonio, Texas

When I was about 2 years old, we were living in Fairbanks, Alaska. My father was working at the army hospital there, and he was working with an architect from San Antonio on a new hospital design. During the architects stay, he told my Dad that he also had three children, and had built a neat house for his family of five in Texas. The house had a children's wing with a playroom, bathroom, and three bedrooms. My Dad told him that if we were ever transferred there, he'd look into buying his home.
well, as luck would have it, we ended up in San Antonio when I was 3 years old, and my parents bought the architects home.

The home had unusual and fantastic details like stained glass crosses laid between the cinder blocks that would like up when the sun hit them, and create rainbows of crosses on the mexican tile floors.
It was not only a great home, with a nice layout, but it featured a gorgeous patio, and fantastic landscaping, including room for a big garden, a greenhouse, a fort, a wooded area, and a long driveway.
The trees were interesting and jungle like. Whenever a relative visited from far away, we could literally "go find them a tarantula." we loved to do that to freak them out.
And here is the patio where I ate my share of watermelon, dripping down my shirt, and where my sister and I would practice disco dancing!
This was also the house where my sister was bitten by a scorpion while we were being watched by a babysitter!


(this is the nook of the driveway where you could park your car. It was also where I pretended on my bike to "go to Pittsburgh!")

And here is the greenhouse where I learned how to mix cement at the tender age of 5!

I really enjoyed living there until I was 7, when he moved to Massachusetts to a splendid 1880's Victorian.

Recently my parents visited Texas (they met up with friends from Alaska). They walked up to the old house, no one was home. they managed a few photos. and I thought I'd share them on my blog with you.

The stone wall that surrounds the front of the property was built by my Dad and Grandfather. They did an amazing job, and it looks as nice as the day it was finished. (Even the deer think so!)

"Backwoods Design and the Art of a Doo Nanny' " inspirational New York Times article

found this fantastic New York Times article with photos by Robert Rausch. As some of you know, my Godfather, built three houses outside of Johnstown, PA using found materials, and decorated the rooms with log furniture, and things he had made.

I love how artist Butch Anthony and his wife, use raw materializes so creatively, but they also arrange them in such a stylized way. Not only is the total look unexpected, but it's elegant too.

Happy Easter Weekend...

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend.
This year I remembered to put newspaper down on Peg's vintage pink table before dying our Easter eggs:-)

Here's Max and Opal laughing over the bathroom fixture planters outside of Building Character, on First Friday April (this past Friday night) here in Lancaster.

I love this shot of Max and Opal, "on their own" walking out to Queen Street along the alley next to Onions restaurant. I hope that Max gets to enjoy lots of cities with quirky alleys and passageways throughout his lifetime:-)

and later at the ice cream shop...

and here's a shot from Easter afternoon, my sweet boy being his charismatic self:-)

I feel like I've truly been in a home cocoon over the last three months. However, I've been hard at work every day and Wonderful felted Wensleydale wool flowers (wool from Yorkshire England) are popping up everyday in my home studio-so bright and full... to be unveiled at my May 1 show (The FROM Scratch INDIEpendent Handmade Market outside of Allentown).
The other day I laid out all I have made and I was overwhelmed. Max popped into the room and said, "Mom, that's a big collection of flowers!"

I look forward to the coming months, the start of show season, the changes happening with me and everyone, and seeing everything beginning to bloom!~