cherry tomato

the next level

i have been in a painting frenzy for the past few days. And I have at least three different colors of paint on my hands to prove it. i've dropped paint in my hair, on my glasses, and, of course, my clothing. fortunately i'm smart enough to wear a smock.

Yesterday I focused on painting our mudroom. it was this terrible, dingy, peachy-looking color. We have a windowed door leading from the kitchen into the mudroom, so I really wanted to paint it a warm, sunny color that i would be happy to gaze at from the kitchen. since i seem to be obsessed with yellow these days, i went with yellow.

the sky is gray, but the mudroom is sunny, and i couldn't be more pleased. the shelf in the foreground was a green color, but i felt it would fit in much better if i just slathered on some white. I'm going to put some sort of printed paper on the back of the shelves to give it a splash of color.

there is still much to do, but i'm really happy with it so far.

for lunch i had yellow food.

warm chickpea salad from Orangette and butternut squash soup with walnuts. it's normal to match your food color to the colors you're painting, right?

drumroll please...

last week i promised to show you a glimpse of my studio. the weather has been gray and dreary, so i haven't had an opportunity to take any decent photos until today. even these photos are less than desirable, but they'll have to do for now.

and there you have it. it's nothing spectacular, but it works for me. of course, the room, as with everything else, is always a work in progress.

and speaking of works in progress: i still haven't finished the baby quilt, but i'm still plugging away at it. eric and i are doing a lot of work on the house right now, including getting the outside all prepped for a new paint job. that's been taking up most of my time these days. today i'm working on the bathroom. eric and i make a great team because he's great at the carpentry, and i do the painting (however, i won't claim to be "great" at it). eric put in some new trim and spackled the walls over the weekend, so now it's my to turn to go in with my brush and get the job done. i know most people hate painting, but i actually really enjoy it. i think i love it because it's quick, easy and takes so little effort and expense to make a dramatic difference.

anyway, i should get back to the painting. i'll leave you with one more photo from the studio. this one is of sophia and vedo basking in the sun. vedo pretty much lives on top of that cabinet these days.

i think they like it here too...

someday it will all come together...

Since moving into our house, my studio has been the last room to really get organized. The truth is, I'm still working on it, but I finally have things put together well enough to work on some projects in there. Everything is still awkward though because I have a hard time remembering where I've put things. It's sort of like when you start a new job, and you have to figure out how everything works and get into a groove. This is a shot of my little sewing corner. I haven't updated my bulletin board for awhile, so that's at the top of my to-do list. To the left is where I do my cutting, piecing and ironing, but I'm not going to show it to you now because it's a bit messy at the moment. However, I will show you another little peek.

This is an art quilt I made that I have up in the window that is too high for the kitties to reach. It's nice to have a spot to place things and not worry about them getting knocked off.

I've been taking my camera with me everywhere, but my handbag was way too small. This week, I designed and made a new one that works nicely. I do have handbags that are large enough to hold it, but they either tote bag-style or messenger bag style. I wanted something what was large enough to hold the camera and my other stuff, but not so deep that it seemed cavernous. This is what I came up with:

One of the benefits of making your own handbag is the ability to customize it for the things you carry. I made pockets inside to hold my phone, moleskine and lipstick (an essential for me). It's nice to have everything so accessible.

Of course as soon as I finished this, I found an Orla Kiely handbag I fell in love with and is now on my wishlist for my birthday. When I saw it the other day, it made my heart hurt. So darling...

wip friday::bunny

Here's my work in progress for today:

One of Hillary's bunnies for my little sister's birthday.

While walking home from work today, I passed by the local independent fabric store stitches, and couldn't resist popping in.

I was most excited about the orange burlap. I've had an idea for a project using burlap, and I was pleasantly surprised to see there were so many colors available. The project will have to be a surprise though. I'm sure these will be represented in future work in progress posts.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm going out of town for a couple of days to enjoy some sun and swimming. Hooray for summer!