Animals and Rides and Carny Food, oh My!!

So, we're going to the State Fair today! Woo! I've never been to a state or county fair in my grown-up life, so I'm really excited. I'll have lots of pictures and exciting tales :)

Also, I had a bad morning. I went into work to get my coffee, E's Vivanno and a sandwich. I had a bad experience with one of my customers and it's really bothering me. I'll tell you more later, because we have to go. I'm sad.

But, I'm going to the Fair! So, I can't let that get me down. Sheepies and cows and chickens and horses and everyone else, here I come!!

Keep Goin

I never really realized what a powerful speaker Hilary Clinton is. I thought her speech tonight was really well written and, for me, was pretty inspirational. Especially her Harriet Tubman quote:

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they're shouting after you, keep going.

Don't ever stop. Keep going.

If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

Brittany

There is a Cupcake World

So... I watch Martha Stewart. OK, I really like her. Anyway, this last week was Cupcake Week on her show! Hooray! I did a bit of research (Amazon, a couple blogs and websites) and found out that there is a whole wide world of cupcakes and cupcake lovers! And I'm turning into one of the latter. My sister loves baking, so I think we'll be making some in the next few weeks. Here's some inspiration for all of us!

Hello Cupcake is a new cupcake bakery in Washington, D.C. By new, I mean brand new; Penny Karas just opened her doors this Monday, August 25th. Her website is really easy to use and I drool just looking at all of her lovely cupcake creations! If I could get any one cupcake from her, it would definitely be the Maya Favorite Cupcake. I just love spicy and chocolate!

Swirlz is in Lincoln Park outside of Chicago. Their store looks pretty cute. On Martha's website (this shop wasn't featured on the show), the featured cupcake from Swirlz was the Chocolate Passion Cupcake. I can see why. Here's Martha.com's description: "the rich chocolate cake, bittersweet ganache, homemade passion-fruit curd, and passion-fruit buttercream are topped with delicious candied sunflower seeds." Yum.


I'll be posting more cupcakes as we get closer to making them and picking our recipes!

P.S. Sorry about the lack of posts recently. I was sick/had bad allergies this weekend, but I'm feeling mostly better now. Hooray! Also, I just realized I hadn't posted pictures of my loot from the fiber festival (for shame), so I'll be doing that tomorrow. Have lovely dreams of cupcakes tonight!

Ruth Cross

Ruth Cross is a knitwear designer in the UK. I found her through the Selvedge website, which always has lovely products in gorgeous photos! I like the neutrals in her design, it's so soothing. Her stitches are luxurious and textural. I really wish I could touch everything in her collection. Please go visit her site, it's amazing! Here's a link to Selvedge, too. I'm really lucky in that the CCS library gets subscriptions to magazines, including this one, so that we students don't have to. She makes me want to knit!

I think I must have one of these for my french press! It will encourage me to use it a bit more... I've been slacking.

I like the idea and the texture of this necklace. I think I would be more inclined to make one that was larger so it was more like a necklace/scarf/cowl.

I love that stitch on the top. I would like to know what it is. Anyone know??

I've always liked mug and to-go cup cozies, but here's some new, sophisticated inspiration. I've always thought that texture and yarn quality is crucial. At least with me, I would be tempted to use my cozy (instead of the paper ones) more often if it feels amazing. It's a little reward for doing well.

A neutral, grown-up monster case! Love it!

This sachet has inspired me to become expert at cables! I did the ring cable last night. It's a really simple cable, but doing it gives me the rhythm and I don't need a pattern to do it now. Yay.

Oh yeah.

My jewelry won't be in Bohemian Home. I'm sad, but oh well I guess. Keep calm and carry on, right?

The 2008 Michigan Fiber Festival

This past weekend I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, MI. I've gone the past two years with Eric, but this year I went it alone. Sad. But, it was still a fun trip!

This guy was selling his beautiful handmade spinning wheels. Want one!

This is Oscar the lovely angora rabbit. He is a grand champion.

Mama alpaca with her two babies. Little one is from this July, big brown one is from last year. They're both from the same papa. Love mama's hairdo :)

Love this llama's hair! She was nice and soft. And nervous.

This guy was selling raw llama fiber. I bought some brown. Yum.

Can't remember what kind of sheep this was... I like this picture a lot, though.

This lady's name was Carol. I don't know the sheepie's name... She's was nervous, though.

This guy has bangs! Love it!

Cute little Shetland sheep. These are the kind that I want. Look at the beautiful multi-colored fleeces! I didn't see any Shetland wool for sale. Shame...

Lincoln sheep have the coolest fleece. Dense and curly. It's hard. Weird. But such a cool texture!

This angora goat is so hardcore.

This one was really curious. He liked my camera.

Second place angora goat fleece. It was soft and curly.

Sheep contest! I think this was for the winner of all the breeds, because these are all different breeds. I was sad that there were no Romneys this year. They're so big. You just don't know until you see one in real life. They're huge.


Enjoy!

Reunited Again

I've been busy... More than that, I got out of the habit of posting. Shame on me. Not again. Though, my posts will probably be more infrequent than normal in a couple weeks, with school. I'm doing work study for the Fiber Dept. at school. Last time I was there, a took a couple pictures so you guys could see where I will be all the time!

The oval. I like the circles the trees are in.

Looms everywhere! I love them in their rows. The light is so nice in that room.

In progress. I will be weaving this fall. Can't wait.

The girls. They all stand in a row. During critiques, we shove them to the side.

The basic silkscreens. I like the repetition of them all stacked there.

The Future

I think I'll start a couple of themes for some posts... I would like to showcase some local Plymouth shops, and probably some from other cities as they come up also. I would also like to talk a little about my customers at Starbucks. We get some interesting people (in a good way) and the relationship that you develop with them is pretty unique. And once school starts, I'll be talking about that a lot, of course!

What do you think? What would be interesting? Huh?

Happy News

A wonderful new shop called Bohemian Home in downtown Plymouth is going to be carrying my jewelry starting in September! I'm so excited. I feel like the owners and the shop and their style and everything couldn't be a better fit! Every time I go in there, I get so excited that my jewelry is going to be in there. People are going to be seeing it in person and (hopefully) falling in love enough to buy it and (hopefully) at least be taking a business card. Of all the shops in dt Plymouth, Bohemian Home is best fit. It's new, there are always people in there, and they have a Newfie! I heart big dogs. I'll be designing this week so that when I go home this weekend, I can make lots of jewelry for them. Hooray!

Oh, unfortunately they don't have a nice website (i.e. it doesn't have photos), so I'll be taking some pictures on Tuesday so you guys can see what a nice shop it is. Why Tuesday? Because, like an idiot, I left my camera at school on Friday still plugged into the wall. So sad. It's ok though, security has it :)

For the sake of some visual stimulation, here are a few things I've really loved from my favorite blogs this week. Enjoy!

Suann at SimpleSong has made her current love/lust for wire baskets a contagious one. When she takes such nice pictures, who can help but want a few (hundred!) of them?

I absolutely love this pillow! The colors, the graphic quality, the fact that it's woven, love it all! I can't find where I saw it, though. If anyone recognizes it, please tell me. I hate to not credit such a lively find.

This linen bootie is awesome. I want a kid just so I can buy them a different pair for every day of the week! Not for a long time, though. Patricia over at A Little Hut designed and made it herself. Plus, linen is my favorite. If it's linen, I'll probably like it.

These lovely linen lined baskets are from the ever impressive Martha. She has a little tutorial on how to line them yourself, and I've been wanting to do just that with some of my new produce crates! I'll show you guys the finished product sometime :)

These gorgeous curtains (yes, they're a curtain!) are from Ravi Design Company. I didn't like much of their other stuff (it's a bit too dark grey for me) but these curtains are beautiful!

I love wood. I really do. Especially when it's showcased to nicely. Often, I find all white or off-white rooms a bit too cold. Not this one. The mix of tones and richness of all the texture makes this space so relaxing. I would love to have a room like that. Plus, the wood bowl is lovely. From Marie Claire Idees via the wonderful Poppytalk.

Hope you enjoyed these! I'll keep you updated with Bohemiam Home!

Brittany

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Maybe my Sunday isn't bloody, but my morning has been pretty unpleasant so far. To make it short: our cat hairballed ON my shoe and I didn't see it, so I tracked hairball all over the apartment and then all over my car and into Starbucks when I went in there. Ew.

Then, we're going to the air show "Thunder Over Michigan" with E's parents and they were supposed to be here at 8:45. I know you could look at the post time, but I'll tell you that right now it's 9:05. Whatevs. They're always late. I'm not really upset over that.

I am drinking a yummy caramel cappuccino.

I've been slacking/actually busy still the past couple days, but today I will post my new stuff on Etsy. I also have an announcement to make later that I'm really excited about! Hint: I'm not engaged... yet.

Etsy Sneak Peak

I didn't include two new necklaces, but I'm not happy with my pictures of them yet. Sorry! I'm not 100% happy with these yet, either, but they're better. I'm not sure how I feel about the sheepfur. It adds a neutral texture contrast... What do you think? Any suggestions?

Shhhh... I'm hunting for tweasures.

OK, lame title. I know. Anyway, I'm going to the Knightsbridge Antique Mall in Northville today. Woo! I will be looking for a few things, among them:

Any kind of wire basket. They're beautiful, they're useful, what more could I want? Lovely image from SimpleSong.

And maybe a nice fisherman's basket to keep some goodies in next to my desk. Image and great idea from Martha Stewart. I can't find the exact link, but I'm quite certain that's where these came from.

I am also going to be shopping (elsewhere) for the Fiber Department at CCS. Wish me luck!

I've always loved these...

I did before then, but especially since I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida, I've loved Buddhist prayer flags. The setup for the Mt. Everest ride was so well done, that I was actually inspired and felt really calm (but excited for the ride, too!) and since then, I've wanted prayer flags to give me that feeling again. Granted, it was also the stones and the whole atmosphere of the Tibetan inspired walk to the coaster. Looking at the Pedlars online store (found from Cafe Cartolina, thanks!) I was reinspired to look for prayer flags. I think I'll buy some (eBay maybe? or somewhere else...) but I want something authentic. Not something that's been made and packaged especially for sale to a Western audience. I want something that has human energy in it. Hopefully, I'll find it.

Etsy Preview

Here are a few new things destined for Etsy in the next couple days...



Sorry about the bad compilation, I didn't really want to post each individually... Please forgive me!

Or, just check out my flickr!

Grand Haven!

Hooray for going home! Here are my adventures :)

On Thursday, I went thrifting with my Daddy! He knows all of them. I think we hit around 10 stores, plus this awesome antique sale, where I got...

...THIS! My new favorite necklace! I really like owls lately, and this guy is such a show stopper.

E and M got into town on Friday and on Saturday we went to the beach. I went swimming in the lake and got a wee bit of sunbathing in. E was bored, but cute.

The river was full of boats before the Coast Guard fireworks. That guy smiled for my picture. Thanks, guy!

M read an article at mlive.com about the new green bathrooms at the State Park. They were pretty neat, but we kind of expected more. Here's us being all cute in front of them :)

I have more on Flickr!

Beautiful Cards

I love this card from Hello! Lucky studio. They print on antique letterpresses and make pretty cards like this one. I was going to do a weekend post today, but I'm so tired and had to stay after class (nothing bad!) and have to wake up early tomorrow to go to the garden, so I think I'll just show you the snail.