Color Pencil Roll Up For Nadia

Nadia just turned 6 on Sunday. I made her this colored pencil roll for her birthday, although she won't have her party with us until we move into the new house. I saw this on Pink Chalk Studio's blog and thought it was too cute. I hope she likes it!

A Perfect Autumn Day (in the midst of chaos)

Went to Monterey Market to pick out produce for a winter vegetable soup. When I drove up, I spied a mass of giant pumpkins. It was no surprise that the front entrance is surrounded by crates of squash, a variety gourds and pumpkins in all sizes. I immediately wanted to abandon my veggie soup for something more festive (and orange), but instead I also purchased some apples an came home to make spiced apple butter...

The recipe is from epicurious, which never fails to impress. Of all the online recipe sites, I find epicurious to be consistently good. Making preserves was a nice respite to the mess and stress of endless packing. Having a very precise set of steps to follow helped clear my mind this morning. I was tired after a drive to Pt Reyes Station at 6am, but am ready for an afternoon of packing and vegetable soup!

Halloween Hi Jinx

Went to Rachel's annual fancy dress Halloween part last night. I decided to be a witch, MJ was a bat and her boy, Dusty, was a psycho killer (but his costume resembled his own sculptures more that anything else). I made these popcorn treat bags. I printed the mouth graphic on the front, and "Eat Me"on the back. I made 4 different kinds of popcorn: butter and salt, Parmesan, chocolate and orange peel, and Cajun spice. They were pretty cute!


Found these shoes at the thrift store and added the orange tissue paper bow. I was surprised how comfortable these were considering I do not wear heels. I kept them on all night without incident! I love Halloween!

New Heather Ross Mendocino Line

My fabric arrived today! Its the newest line from designer Heather Ross. Its called Mendocino and comes in many color ways, but I liked the fuchsia, curry and plum on white best. I am making two twin quilts (one for each girl) for the new house. The image above is just the fabric straight from the mail; its not the layout of the quilt. I won't have them finished by move in, but with my new studio space I should be able to make them fairly quickly! I love Ross' sketchy style and the cotton poplin has such a richness to it. Mila is 3 and we call her the Mermaid Princess (Nadia is the Forest Fairy Princess and this whole thing started after Aaron dubbed me the Pirate Princess). She will especially like the mermaids!

An Autumn Day at the Park

A perfect Autumn day spent running in the park. A favorite pastime of small children? Chasing geese of course.

This is Nadia's scary face.
This is Mila's attempt at a scary face. Nadia has always been good at making scary faces, Mila has yet to master it. It speaks to their ages, but also their moods!

Is it the 1st yet?

Pics of our new house. We move in on the 1st of November and the wait is killing me...
My tiny little apartment, which has housed me, my boyfriend and those two little girls 3 days a week for the past year is a disaster! Some things are in boxes, some things aren't, things in general, are a mess. My small space is now claustrophobic. Knowing that there is a larger space waiting for me makes things even harder. I am so excited to move, and yet this move is stressing me out! Kids, work and the dirty dishes don't pause long enough to get anything done! And once the boxes are packed, where do you place them? Currently, they're blocking the back door, barricading us in! Aaahh... I just keep thinking of what I can do in this new house! I will have a workspace, the girls will have a room, there is even a clawfoot tub! sigh... is it the first yet?

Pumpkining, a Grand Opening and a New House

A busy, busy week. The Grand Opening at Maison Reve finally happened yesterday after so much hard work and long nights from our entire staff. Aaron and I signed a lease for our new house (more pics to come) after a couple of weeks of stress and worry, and we took the girls to the pumpkin patch (which was great). I am excited and exhausted!

Pumpkining

YEA!!!! Its October and I could hardly wait for the month to start so that I could go "pumpkining" (my favorite Fall time activity). We went to a Stanly Lane Marketplace in Napa which was beautiful! They have a pyramid and a maze built from hay, as well as pigs and cows.
Although the pumpkins are not grown there, the setting is picturesque and the variety is pretty good! I can't wait to carve some of these and make pumpkin soup!

New Business Cards

front

My new business cards came today! I am pretty happy with the design, but the on screen color is much better than the printed color (no real surprise there). They'll work for a bit...or at least for the next 1000!!!!

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