Thursday, December 31

Happy New Year!

Have you all made any resolutions?
I have dubbed 2010 my "year of change" and cannot wait to see what this new year holds.
Anything has to be better than 2009.
See you all on the other side!


Champagne - kept cold Telluride style. Cheers!

[image: Andy Macdonald]

Wednesday, December 30

Bisbee Bound

We are off to Bisbee - one of our favorite towns in Arizona - for the New Year.
Happy 2010 to y'all! Love you!

Monday, December 28

Wicked Crafty

Found this at Yikes Toys - and thought of y'all. A virtual award for you for being wicked crafty!


I want...

Question...

Because, where else would I go? Since I got my lovely Frye boots for Christmas I am now on the hunt for more "winter" skirts - ones I can wear with tall socks &/or tights. I have loads of "summer" skirts, but any "winter" skirt ideas would be greatly appreciated. I am stylistically challenged, but trying to get hip in 2010. Thanks!

The boots in question here. I love that I own these.

So, a look like this - but with boots. I own one jean skirt.
Other ideas? Thank you in advance for your help!

Everyday Amazing


Have you seen these yet? I absolutely love anything that makes everyday mundane tasks beautiful. I would love to pour milk over my morning cereal with one of these fancy numbers.

A peek in to the last few weeks...

I have emerged from 2 weeks of feeling sick and an unexpected visit from my mother-in-law. Our plan for a lazy Christmas for us did not really work out, but overall the holidays were just fine. Finally feeling like I have the ability and a chance to breathe! Missed y'all!

The highlight of my Christmas day was visiting the Reeds after Christmas dinner and singing this song around the fire while drinking a shot of whiskey (for my throat...of course).

Many Xmas parties = many cheese trays
Packing up my office to move to a new space
Drugs and hot water with lemons. Sick of being sick!
This is what we made for Creamers for Xmas! A happy cat.
Annual gift exchange with friends
Winter Mannequin in a phone booth in Michelle's yard

A visit to Pima Air & Space Museum. More photos here

The Loot

I didn't realize that I was SUCH a good girl this year. I totally raked it in this Christmas. I am such a lucky lucky girl. I hope you all had amazing holidays too!

Mechanic's Beacon Light from Anthropologie

NYC in a Bag from MoMA Store


Frye Campus Boots


Paris: Made By Hand Book


Happy Tape

Nesting Bowls from The Conran Shop


Pig Plate by Rae Dunn


Two framed prints by Ben Knight (from Ben Knight) - a total surprise & totally awesome. They are like the one above, but much much better. Sa-weet.


Smartwool Socks (of course - this is a Christmas staple - Justin got some too)


In - Motion Clock from Anthropologie


Patagonia Vest in Bitter Chocolate


Salt Bowl (brown) from Rae Dunn


This was actually a gift I bought Justin, but I am also a beneficiary.
This cozy is amazing & keeps our coffee warm while steeping.
We got rid of our other coffee maker because of
this (image 3).



I am proud to admit I am a "Glee-k."
Justin got sick of Christmas music, so I got to download
this.



And - a Dyson Vacuum. Let's hope this picks up pet hair like a charm.

Thursday, December 24

Christmas Favorites

What are your Christmas favorites? A few of ours...from Sonchia & Justin. Happy Holidays!

Sonchia:

Christmas Cookies - love them & will be spending today
(Christmas Eve) making some of my favorites.

[image: Look at my photos]


It's a Wonderful Life - I love, love, love this movie during the holidays.
I could watch it over and over...and I do!


Christmas Cards - I love seeing how everyone has grown over the year.
My favorite this year courtesy of our friends The Janours (Ellis is amazing - here & here).
Tiny Prints seem to be the most popular cards to send this year.


Snow & Twinkle lights - doesn't feel like Christmas without them.
[image: My Favorite and My Best]


Justin:

Family - from the Clifton's visit this Fourth of July.

Presents - He loves them all & spent a good long time this
morning intensely focused on the gifts under the tree.

[image: Design*Sponge]

Decorating - Justin said he really liked cutting out the snowflakes together for our tree this year.
He said it was also a lot of fun cutting down our own tree this year.
He also bought poinsettias this year (on his own) to make our house more "festive."

Monday, December 21

Hatchet Job

If you are friends with me on the old Facebook, then you have seen most of these. We spent our weekend murdering trees. We headed out to the historic Schmid Ranch right outside of Telluride where we were allowed to pick out & chop down our own Christmas Tree. I have never done this before, so it was a treat & we even put in a little face time with Santa. We hadn't really planned on getting a tree this year & I still don't own ornaments - so we improvised. I shook a few trees down for their pine cones while out at the ranch for decorative purposes. So let's review the numbers here - I killed a living tree, stole the seeds for future trees, and decorated using paper made from other murdered trees. Wow - tree karma is going to be a doozie for me this year.

Killin' it.
Photo courtsey of Ben Knight - also from here and here.

Our sad little tree. With paper snowflakes & pinecones.

My camera takes crappy "dark" photos. Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 20

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Christmas cards are done. Finally. I am mailing out this week. I hope you crafty girls like them - I made them using stamps that I had growing up and some new ones to give it an Arizona feel.

I wanted to add a photo but I was tired of the wedding pictures. All our others photos from traveling did not have our cat in them...so we set up a place to take a picture using PhotoBooth on the computer. Just like a photo booth, the computer takes 4 pictures all together. Here are some of the takes to make sure it would work. You will have to wait for your Christmas cards to see which one we picked.




Thursday, December 17

Crafty Creations

Sorry, I am on a total science kick today - but I could not help myself with this one. I found "The Bizarre and Brilliant World of Knitted Science" accidently today and just had to post about this. The idea of meshing science with knitting seems a little nuts to me, but some of the creations featured in the slide show are simply amazing. What better way to learn the Periodic Table of Elements than to knit one? Hilarious.

Space Science

Since starting my job at Pinhead I have become a total science geek. It is actually amazing to see the connections that arise between the art world & the science world. Anyway, in case you didn't know, 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. Actually, 2009 is a big "science year" between the anniversary of Darwin's 200th birthday, celebrating 150 years since the publication of "On the Origin of Species" and the celebration of 400 years since Galileo first used a telescope to study the heavens. These posters give a retro vibe to celebrating science - they are amazing. Each one is now available for purchase right here. (Also: if you're interested in buying 3 or more, just contact artists Simon Page through the site and he'll give you a 25% off Christmas discount!)

Design Inspiration

While on a recent hunt for old IRS files (yes, I recently had some crap go down - so frustrating), I came across some of my old "design binders." Back in the day - loooong before our blog (like college) - I used to rip out my favorite design ideas from magazines and organize them in binders. Upon rediscovering these binders I realized that some of the things I loved back then remain classics and I love them still. With so many design magazines going under (sigh), it is nice to have blogs to reference & peruse for ideas. I bookmark blogs, follow rss feeds, and have many committed to memory that I just type in the url myself. How do you all find & keep design inspiration?