A clear blue sky, three hot air balloons in that sky, a palomino mare with her leggy colt, prickly pear in bloom, a hummingbird zooming up into the air and back down again.
. . . with a little redesign. I found a new illustration from a vintage textbook for budding librarians, so I just had to reissue them. Gocco printed in the same tones as those old books in the library: rich burgundy, forest green, and (poop) brown.
A few days ago I posted a sunprint tutorial (so easy it was unnecessary, really) and promised to post the final results here. Here are a few scans of the dried sunprints, unedited and uncropped. It's not a perfect craft, and there are some splotches here and there.
Now I'm debating what I should do with these. I thought some Gocco printing inside the "frame" the leaves created might be interesting.
Or I could always make some pinback buttons with a little sunprint detail.
What do you think? Any ideas?
The sun is brutal here. As someone with a fair complexion who hit her 30s this year, I need to do more to protect my skin. I'm also someone with a bit of time on my hands lately, so I decided to make one with some fabric I had on hand and a pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing
. This was my second project since picking up sewing again, and aside from a few imperfections, the process was pretty simple.
The hat, however, looks a bit goofy. I had read other reviews of the pattern (including Julia's) stating that the sizing was off and the hat was huge. Once I cut the patttern out it didn't look so big, and I figured I have a huge head anyway . . . wrong. It's still big, even after trimming 1/2" off the crown.
because it was a low-maintenance project I could play with a little. I thought I'd post a tutorial here, since it's a little project with a lot of possibilities.
Next, you want to remove a sheet of sunprint paper and make your arrangement. You need to work fairly quickly, even indoors, in order to avoid overexposing the paper. Place the acrylic sheet on top and expose in the sun for one to five minutes (in sunny Albuquerque it took about 30 seconds).
Then, remove the acrylic and arrangement, and rinse the paper in water for about one minute. A large baking pan is the perfect size. Remove the paper and dry flat.
I made a total of six prints in all today, which are still drying. I'll share the final results later and possible plans for what I'm going to do with them.
I spent the morning savoring a lavender cupcake, coffee, and flipping through a magazine. It sounds lovely, and it was. But I was doing this because I am officially unemployed and have become a little unmoored without a schedule to stick to.
I do, do promise there will be new designs soon. But I just missed this sweet little deer design too much.
So I am an aunt today. The best part was that I got to play with my darling two-year old niece while her mom and dad were at the hospital, and I had an excuse to buy some local sunflowers and delphinium.
I recently decided to offer the popular "Why hello, my deer" cards in a sweet little stationery set. They're printed in chocolate brown ink on super-luxe, 100% cotton paper in aqua.
Just a few more shots from yesterday's Lavender Festival in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. I can still smell the lavender on the purple cotton sundress I wore yesterday (yes, I've become that sort of dork)!
I've been doing some printing this morning, little stationery sets on luscious cotton paper. Look for a shop update and pictures later today. I'm also planning on making some sweet free gifts for orders, and other new items are in the works.
As disorienting as the move has been, I wasn't sure if I was in New Mexico or Provence today . . . my mother and I attended the annual Lavender in the Village in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. The grounds of the Los Poblanos Inn were beautiful, as were the luscious figs on sale.
I have resolved to make crustless quiche from now on (which is technically a frittata, I suppose). I always burn the crust anyway.
It's only a little after 9:00 in the morning here and shaping up to be a lovely day already. There were hot air balloons in the bigblue sky on the way to the farmers' market in the village of Los Ranchos. The nice folks from Fair Field Farmers were kind enough to let me take some pictures of their gorgeous array of flowers, and the breakfast burritos were amazing--- just the right amount of egg, crusty potatoes, and smoky green chile.
I spent today printing up an order of custom thank you notes for an August wedding in California. The client liked the popular "Thank you, my deer" cards in my Etsy shop, so we just added a bit of personalization to them.
While we still haven't found permanent housing in Albuquerque (and are relying on the very generous hospitality and dog-friendliness of family), I'm dreaming of nesting and starting some long-longed-for projects. I posted about terrariums here and here previously.
Since this, I've noticed cute little terrariums with, shall we say, accessories. I think I'm partial to these vintage cupcake toppers from ableemporium's Etsy shop. Wouldn't some little deer or gnomes be a great mix among some moss and ferns? You could just insert them right into the soil.
We have finally arrived in Albuquerque! Our trip from Boston was smooth and uneventful (save for the foolish idea of pulling off the highway in a torrential downpour in Colorado--- downpours in Colorado create mud pits). We stopped at a big family event in Boulder along the way, and celebrated our arrival by satisfying a craving for margaritas and tamales at El Pinto, a favorite Mexican restaurant.
