sneak preview

Above is a picture of my attempt to convince Steve to work from home all week long. Hot cookies and milk at 3:00. I know- underhanded. But what can I say? He's my favorite.

However, while "snow" is apparently an acceptable excuse for working from home, "hot cookies" doesn't seem to have near as much clout.

I've had plenty of projects keeping me company though. I am super excited to be working on my first ever holiday collection (I really wanted those words to have sparkles coming out of them, but bold and pink was the best I could do). I have decided to work up a collection of items in honor of Valentine's Day and debut them in the shop on January 24th.

I have had so much fun working up prototypes this week! I think it really helps that pink is my favorite color.

The collection will have some home decor items, some accessories, and some fun gifts. You could make it easy on your husband and email him a link to the shop. Just saying.

Oh and the hand stitching! Nothing says love quite like hand stitched hearts and letters. I think that people were probably hand stitching hearts and letters long before flowers and chocolate got involved in the holiday. I like to keep it old school.

And don't worry- the items in this collection will be suitable long past February 14th, because do pink and red and cute ever go out of style? I don't think so.

So, January 24th, I will be doing a full blog reveal of all the fun stuff I've been stitching up, as well as posting everything in the shop. There will be hearts and laughter and rejoicing. And cupcakes? Yes, let's have cupcakes as well.

Wishing you a weekend full of hearts and hot cookies.

January mantle

I think that every year, one of the biggest post-holiday challenges is to make the house look just as pretty and cozy in January as it did in December. Those are some big shoes to fill. We had a live tree in the house, for goodness sake.

In our house, every season of decorating starts with the mantle. It's the focal point of our main living area. It's in the center of the room. It's a long white display shelf just begging to be gussied up.

The balance I am always trying to find, come January, is how to decorate with winter-appropriate colors and textures, without looking stark and bare. The last thing I need on a dreary day is a stark house. If the weather's not going to make the pretty, I'm going to make the pretty.

So, without further explanation, (because I'm sure you're starting to wonder just how long I can expound on my mantle decorations) I present.....

The January Mantle.

While it doesn't have a lot of color, I think that the silver surfaces and white lights keep it from looking cold. And, in case anyone is still reading this, I'll give you a quick rundown of what is up there and where it's from (if I know):

White Christmas lights (that I couldn't bear to put away) covered with white tulle (Michael's)

Two white magnolia branches (Target)

Various sizes of silver candlesticks and bowls (Ikea and TJ Maxx)

White candles (anywhere)
Silver framed flower picture (Target, long long ago)

Striped fabric covered bulletin board (not sure)

We also scored this lovely silver framed mirror from Ikea last weekend. It was destined for the mantle, but ended up being way too large. So now it is waiting to be properly mounted to the wall, once we finish discussing just how far apart the studs might be. Or until we get out the stud finder.

I usually change my mantle about every other month and it is my plan to share each new design in case anyone needs ideas.

And the snow? Well, it's still here. Now covered by a thin layer of ice. Today I will be heating up the kitchen with beef stew and cornbread and working on some more new shop projects. I'll have a sneak preview on Thursday of what I've been stitching.

I'll meet you back here. Until then- stay warm!

snow day

We woke up to a blanket of white and a phone call from Steve's office saying they were closed. What a great day! Yesterday, Steve filled the bird feeder, so we spent some time this morning enjoying all the visitors.

The snow is still falling and it is lovely. I always say that if it's going to be cold out, it needs to be snowing.

Our snow day breakfast was real hot chocolate and mini bagels with cheesecake cream cheese. Last week I made some mini cheesecakes to take to a friend's house and I had some of the cheesecake mixture left over. As it is just cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream, it is totally safe to enjoy unbaked and we have been eating it on our bagels. It is SO tasty- a lot like the flavored cream cheese at Panera.

The real hot chocolate was a treat and is so much better than the powdered kind that I have completely stopped buying the powder. I'll take the extra time to have that milky goodness.

Now that we're all sugared up from breakfast and have a nice fire going, we are settling in for a day of sewing, laundry, playing cards, and a snow walk. We've got plenty of leftover gumbo from the weekend, but I am sorry to report- no pictures. The gumbo, while quite delicious, kind of looks like gruel. It's true. Thankfully, I have earned a reputation with Steve for cooking edible meals, so when I serve him gruel-looking items, he eats them anyway. And goes back for more.

With the snow and everyone home and some vanilla candles burning it feels like Christmas all over again here. And I don't mind one bit.

office space

I love spools of thread organized by color. My thread only looks like this about 5% of the time though because, really, how could you work like this? What about when you need the bottom spool?

But today is a day of organized thread. I have been wanting to redo my workspace a bit for the new year. The January issue of Better Homes and Gardens has some amazingly appealing office spaces and I have found myself coveting them more than once.

Therefore, the productive thing to do, is to turn my workspace into something covet-worthy. So that's what I'm up to.

But today's organizing frenzy was actually inspired by something completely unrelated. The author of a blog that I am going to be featured on later this month (oh my gosh don't worry of course I'll let you know when and where) asked for a picture of my workspace. And I thought- "dang."

My sewing table and supplies really did used to be organized in a cute way. Things have just fallen apart recently. I blame the holidays.

The best thing about organizing all the supplies? Finding things I forgot I had. It's like going shopping, for free.

I'm off to start the weekend now, which will probably include a little relaxing and a little nesting and a big pot of gumbo. Gumbo pictures next week anyone? Okay. Will do.

Also coming next week and peeking at you from the above picture- news about the Valentine's Day collection that I am working on. I haven't finalized all the items yet, so if you have a request, shout it out.

Here's wishing you a weekend full of organized thread, or whatever else you fancy.

three trips to the post office, two watercolor pictures, and a drunken angel on the Christmas tree

This morning I am off to the post office again, for what will be my third trip over the past week. I always feel like, one of these times, the postal lady is going to ask me what I'm mailing. Do they train postal workers not to ask? How can she not be curious? It's a small post office, so it's the same lady every time. And she has to recognize me because, unfortunately, I am usually wearing some odd combination of disheveled hair, yoga pants, and boots, and I'm the only person in there under 60.

It must take a lot of willpower to be a postal worker. I don't think I would be able to do it.


Okay: watercolor night. Now, after reading about our rockin' new year's eve, I'm sure it won't come as a shock to anyone that we have some crazy fun around here. So the other night when we were looking for some trouble to get into, I suggested that we pull out my old watercolors. (Note: these are not fancy watercolors like "I used to be an artist", these are plastic box, Crayola, "I'm in preschool" watercolors. Just to be clear.)

I painted freehand shapes in a multitude of colors while Steve traced an elaborate damask design from the tablecloth and painted only in blue.

Then we hung our pictures on the fridge with magnets and giggled.

[Side note- look at all the sewing books that I got for Christmas. I can't wait to start making things from them. I'd ask people to stop ordering stuff so I could have more time, but that seems counterproductive to the business.]

I just had to share this picture. We took down the Christmas decorations last weekend and I happened to notice this group of angels on the coffee table waiting to be boxed up. I don't know what is going on with the middle angel, but both her lipstick and mascara appear to be smeared. The angel on her left is staring at her in blatant disbelief, while the angel on her right (probably her older sister) is looking away like "Oh dear, I can't believe Clarice has fallen off the wagon again..."

Does anyone else go a little crazy when the Christmas decorations come down?

sometimes I make things to sell and then really wish that I could keep them

Okay, this actually happens all the time. But I have been having an especially hard time letting go this week.

I received a request in December for a bulletin board. Not my usual and no sewing involved, but I have plenty of fabric and ribbons, so I decided to do it.


I think that the large print of this fabric is especially fetching when stretched over a large surface like this. And the way each flower is sort of framed by the ribbon sections? Amazing. I didn't even plan it. You just can't plan some things.

And then, as if the board needed to get any cuter, I went on a search for the perfect push pins to hold the ribbons together at the intersections. I found these at Paper Source and am completely smitten. I have had to restrain myself from sticking them into every surface in our house- walls, furniture, the kitchen cabinets... (I think that Steve really appreciates my restraint, however he hasn't come right out and thanked me yet. Maybe he doesn't know how hard it is.)

But alas, the bulletin board left home today, destined for its new home in the room of a little girl who, I've been told, loves to hang stuff on her walls. I hope they will be very happy together. Sniff.

This morning I made two more scarves for the shop because they are selling like hotcakes. Or scarfcakes. Whatever.
As luck would have it, I got to have coffee this afternoon with a beautiful scarf model and so I was saved from having to awkwardly take pictures of myself on the front porch. Bonus.

So it's been a busy week around the Plumfield Shop and I have a box of fabric that was delivered today that I haven't even opened yet. And some of the fabric is for a project that I fully intend to keep, so I don't have to go through all this parting angst. But I'll be happy to share pictures with the group.

I haven't forgotten my promise to post about watercolor night. I'll bet you haven't forgotten either- who could forget watercolor night?

in with the new

We toasted the new year with Blood Orange Sparkling Soda in martini glasses. At 7:30 pm. I'm not even going to try to pretend that we're night owls.

While I am all about celebrating the passing of an old year and the entrance of a new one, I am not so much about needing to be awake at the exact moment this change occurs. As a result, we usually opt to stay in and make our own fun and go to bed when we want to.

This year, "make our own fun" = candle recycling. I know, try to settle down. It got pretty crazy.

We have been saving the wax from the bottom of candles that are all used up. We like to buy the candles that come in glass containers and then repurpose the containers into something fun. So we found ourselves, on new year's eve, with lots of wax, many glass containers, and some wicks that I purchased earlier in the day for $1.88.

We divided the wax by smell and somewhat by color and then melted it down in the microwave. Then I poured the liquid wax into the glass containers while Steve held the wick still. We let them dry overnight and then trimmed the wicks and...

We ended up with six new candles! And with scents like fruity-apple-citrus-lemon-hibiscus and vanilla-cookie-holiday-mint-spice. Go ahead and try to find one of those at Bath and Body Works.

Making something old, new again. Not a bad theme for the new year.

Tomorrow I will be able to share some of the projects that have been keeping me busy over the past week or so. Including more scarves for the shop.

I hope your year is off to a happy start.