Cows gotta eat, kids gotta play

Lucky for us we can take care of both any given Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa's farm. Everyone should have the chance to do this at least once. So many giggles. How was your weekend?

xo,AM

A Portland Proposition

Four little birdies are going to market. And they need your help! I have a proposition that I thought would be fun (if nothing else) to throw out there....specifically for those of you who live in the Portland, Oregon area. And I've read my blog stats, so I know there are a bunch of you!



Cutting to the chase here it is:

I will be exhibiting at the Quilt Market May 16-18 and would really love to have this new vintage sofa I had recovered for display and naps when no one is looking. However. That would be crazy impractical to get it there (7 feet long). So I started thinking. Which typically is cause for concern. But I think I may have come up with a fun plan. Maybe I should tell you the plan now.

Here's the plan:

Do you live in the Portland area?
Do you have a vintage-ish sofa/loveseat/chair/set of chairs that needs recovering?
Would you like to cover them in Drawing Room fabrics?
Would you like the fabric for free?
Would you be so kind as to find an upholsterer to get this accomplished between now and May 16th?
Would you also be able to kindly transport the world's most beautiful sofa/couch/loveseat/chair to the Oregon Convention Center?
Would you be able to part with it for three days then come pick it up?
Would you mind if I sit on it for three days and maybe spill Starbucks on it?
(I'm kidding about that last one.)

If you said (or gasped) YES to all those questions then keep reading.



A few couch specs. I am not horribly picky (that's a lie) about the style of the couch, but I would definitely prefer something vintage-ish with wood trim, which typically translates to Victorian, Nouveau or some such thing. Just so you know. If you actually were able to answer yes to all those questions though I will entertain your piece no matter the style. I was able to swing my 40's sofa for 400$ at an antique mall, and spent 560$ to have it covered. But its big, has double piping trim and is covered on the back too. I think I actually got a pretty good deal on the covering. But anyway...just to help you know what you could be in for.



A few fabric specs. My first choice is to have it covered in this Eccentric warm Sketchbook print. If you have two pieces, we could talk about mixing..... or even if you have a good reason to choose another print, and want to write an essay (kidding) about it, I will consider something different. I realize that this is nothing near a giveaway, but probably closer to a trade. My couch took about 15 yards to cover, so that's nearly 300$ in retail value of fabric.

So what d'ya say?

Email me at amatannamariahorner.com

Whew. That made me tired for some reason. More coffee.

xoxox,AM

AND-because I imagine you've been wondering, the Drawing Room fabrics will not be hitting stores, including mine, for another few weeks. Things always take longer than you want them to..such is life. You will certainly know when they do however!

Glad

Right now I am immensely pleased with any color that is happening in the yard. I think mostly because I haven't had the chance to tend to anything, yet some things just appear, and I feel like thanking them every time I walk by. Even the weeds.



I'm always scooting by so fast, arms full of this or that, on my way to something that has nothing to do with flowers. Every year I have mixed emotions about Spring. I am so glad for it, but I always feel like it rushes on without me. I tell myself each and every winter that I will get out in the garden and be ready for it. Plan for it. Nuture it. Alas. I likely don't have to tell you that the above picture is a weed. What is wrong with me? Have I resorted to elevating weeds to picture-worthy status to compensate for my gardening guilt? Hmm.



I didn't even know I had a forsythia. I just happen to look a certain direction in the far corner of the yard. Boom. There it was. I love these things! I'm so glad I have one. Could it be that for the nearly four years we've lived here, that I just didn't walk in that part of the yard spring after spring after spring? I think so. Okay, that's pathetic.



Anyway. I'll get out there. Soon. Quitting my job and gardening full time has been a verbal threat that I've thrown around for about 10 years. It usually accompanies some sort of mini career catastrophe or frustration. But then the truth of less flower-money comes to light and I get back to work. I'm pretty sure there's a balance somewhere in the soil and toil of it all. I do get to tend other blooms, I suppose. Little human and fabric blossoms. Not so bad.

Wishing you absolution from any garden guilt you may have. xo,AM

*and thanks for all the dressy comments! sooo kind!

A dress and it's designer

I love them both.

These aren't the final ad shots, but we did get that done. In the nick of time, naturally. Designed it, she did. Now if I could just get her to not surf on my computer while I'm drafting the pattern she might learn a little more. Not complaining. I do have to say something mom-like.

Have a Bright and Beautiful Easter. Eastern Orthodox Easter is still a few weeks away for us, but I will be thinking of many of you out there cracking eggs and celebrating renewal!

love, Anna

Taking Risks

I was up late and I'm up early, feverishly finishing this dress that Juliana designed. It'll be the part of some magazine ads for Drawing Room, and I have about 24 hours to complete the whole shabang, including the sewing, final fitting, styling, photography, any photo editing and final art for production. Started at about 9:30 last night. So go ahead and ask me, should I have dropped everything and taken 7 people on a 30 hour round trip car ride for 5 days just to play with our family's newest baby? Should I have talked on the phone yesterday for two hours to a dear friend who I've missed lately? Should that coffee be sitting so close to that dress? (Should I really be drinking coffee out of a cracked mug?) I say yes to all. I can't enjoy what I'm doing unless I enjoy what I'm doing and about once or twice a year I remember that.

Besides, I could photoshop a coffee stain out. Show ya more soon. xo,AM

Babyhogging

It's been the baby hogging olympics here.  I think I'm winning, but here is Juliana, the matriarchal cousin, with the newest little cousin. Introducing grandchild number 11, Grace Kalliope.  I can barely stand to let anyone hold her, even for a minute and I even hover while she needs to nurse.  Luckily we're a close family, so no one minds.

I just noticed that Jennifer posted my interview tonight so enjoy if you can stand to hear my babbling about design, fabric, art, making....and babies........but I don't think there's any baby-making talk...can't be sure though.

g'nite from NY, anna maria

My country home

Well, okay it's not mine, exactly. But I am fortunate enough to be able to use it like it is. Here's another corner of my friend Tracy's house where I spent all day yesterday working on more book photos. Whenever we get together, we always drag each other around our houses asking the other's opinions about this and that, colors, furniture, ideas. etc. We like all the same stuff generally, but we're just different enough that we really benefit by including each other's input. We also match right up where housework and our attention to it are concerned, a relief. My very best friends are the ones I don't clean up for. (Like you!)



Anyway the photos. Eleni was with us all morning, as she modeled a few shots. She has been loosing sleep thinking about her big day with Sylvie the white horse. We've been talking about it for weeks, but had to wait for the pasture to be dried out enough, and the weather to be warm enough. Sylvie is an old girl, so sweet and gentle. Tracy was brushing her while Eleni patiently waited for her role to begin. I was taking snapshots of the scene. At one point Tracy had to remove her jealous donkey, Joseph, because he was making a spectacle of himself so she asked me to hold Sylvie's reins. The look on her face (horses do get looks on their faces) was so hysterical. She just kept looking at me out of the corner of her eye like 'you have no idea what you're doing, just stop it.' I was laughing, holding the reins under one arm and snapping pictures, Joseph ee-aaww-ing like an ass, Tracy tying him in to the pen with the goats and sheep, and Eleni standing precariously on the fence whining to come into the gate so she can ride Sylvie. I imagined this must be what its like for every sewing book author. It is, right? (I won't even mention the baby chick Tracy recently rescued from the tortures of mean pecking chickens at the feed store. Her 6 year old named it Pecker.)

It was a beautiful day. Later in the evening Tracy came over and after we did the 137th tour of rooms, questions, show and tell, and design opinion gathering we enjoyed a sit in front of the monitors viewing all the days events. Whew. Over 600 photos with the hopes of getting 5. But we got them. And it takes every morsel of strength in my being to keep them to myself and my publishers. When it was time to get back to our families, I sent her home with sample cuts of the above fabrics because she has two chairs she wants to cover and I think any of these new Drawing Room fabrics would be quite swanky in that room up there. Good, right? Right. And it pleases me with an obnoxious amount of splendor that someone else thinks orangey-gold and pale plum are perfect for the living room. I love you Tracy. And I would love you just for your palette and house but in fact you are a dear friend too.

Oh and speaking of sending off pals with prints....don't forget that this Sunday the 16th Jennifer at CraftSanity is posting our podcast in which 4 fabric winners will be announced. That was a very enjoyable interview, and I really hope that you enjoy the chat as much as I did. It actually got quite....um....personal, I guess for lack of a better word. You guys came up with some very poignant questions, and I was happy to share what I hope were actually answers to those questions. It felt a lot like just spilling myself into the phone so please forgive me if it sounds just exactly like that.

Okay so I'm headed north to NY for a few days to kiss my new niece relentlessly. I'll try to post from there but I might be too busy nibbling baby toes.

love, AnnaMaria

Here ya go, then

You have to be the sweetest bunch of blog readers. Mean it. What a soft cradle my thoughts rested in as I read all your comments and relived all your experiences with you. Some days go by without a hitch. Other days you're stopped in your tracks and question something as simple and seemingly normal as putting your child on a school bus. On a bus? Are you kidding? What I am thinking? And thats how it goes. Feeling assured and feeling horrified all together in a busy mind.

Anyway, let's concentrate on the soft, gentle and fluffy for now shall we? Oh good, thank you. I made cupcakes for a photo shoot this weekend (well okay, I dreamed up the photo shoot thing in the middle of stirring the batter to add to the why-I-HAVE-to-make-cupcakes-list) and I wanted to tell you that if you haven't tried Alicia's most wonderful Cloudburst frosting, stop what you are doing right now and do so. Soooo good. I'm pretty sure they are just about gone and I made them less than 24 hours ago. Anyway, the frosting is just yellow-y white enough that the pink that resulted from just a teeny tiny drop of red dye was the perfect shade of pale coral-pink to sit next to the new linens I was shooting (oh my goodness, have I told you yet? They're here if ya wanna see). So I was tickled pink, I tell you. Not sure one could be tickled coral.
I managed to save 3 for you as I warned the kids that these are for mommy's work. Don't let them sit there long, or I'll have to work on them.

love your pal, Anna

Landing Softly

It was sunny in the living room yesterday afternoon and I was making progress working on some book photography, hoping to accomplish just one more good one before the kids got home. Right on schedule at 3:34 I heard the scuffle for the doorknob and the usual chatter of young voices and the bus breaks releasing and accelerating down the road after dropping off my middle three. But. There were not three. The boys busted through the door just as I got to it and asked me where Isabela was? Where Isabela is!? Why are you asking ME!? Wasn't she on the bus??!!!! They didn't know. Neither of them knew. How could they not have known. Didn't matter. Got both phones out, dialed one to my neighbor, the other to school. Karen picks up. No answer at school. Karen asks her little Josh if he saw Isabela on the bus. Yes. He saw her asleep on the bus. Asleep! Gasp. I slowly transitioned from the stomach-dropping thought of wondering where on earth she was (though my hands were still shaking along with my voice) to the slightly less painful stomach-dropping thought of how scared she will be when she wakes up and realizes that she's missed her stop. I decided to save the sister's-keeper lecture for the boys for later. Then I put in another call to the school bus authority, immediately being put on hold, the other phone trying the school again.....both calls trying to find a way to reach the bus driver (who was a substitute!)....also grilling the boys about who stays on the bus after them, and scanning the school directory for some of those phone numbers....thinking perhaps I could beckon other parents to run out to the bus to tell the driver he has a sleeping girl on there. While I was doing those seven things, I was also hovering on the ridiculous thoughts of what if he doesn't realize she's back there.....
But then I stopped. I stopped when I heard an exasperated little girl bust through the door with tears all over her face and nothing coming out of her mouth but 'mommy. mommy. mommy.'



Oh what a warm long tearful hug that was. The tragedy in her little face was just so bitter and scared. We had the longest tightest hug on the big chair while I continued to assure her with pats and rubs and squeezes and warm silence and rocking. Such a big girl spilling off my lap but still so tiny in her heart. The world is still so huge. The other side of the neighborhood on the bus without her brothers must have felt like the edge of the earth.



I thought about telling her she should try to stay awake on the bus. I thought about suggesting an earlier bed time. I thought about telling her how her brothers' will be told to take better care of her. None of those thoughts quite seemed to match her needs during these moments. So I just let her know that we would find her anywhere. That the feeling she had of wanting to be home was the same as my feeling of wanting her home. And that nothing will ever take her away from me. Not even a nap. Small smile. And that I'm really glad she woke up because I didn't think she would fit in the lost and found box at school. Finally a giggle. That giggle is life.



Just on the other side of that giggle she resiliently hopped up and said "Hey ya wanna see my PE homework? It's a tripod! You have a tripod and I know how to be a tripod now too!" And then I knew that we were finally brought to what must have been the moments she was anticipating while she drifted into slumber on the bus. She must have been excited to come home and show me this. Then she pulled out all her crumbled, folded, curled and imperfect papers from her day, sharing everyone with joyful back to usual words, that slowly erased the residual little crying heaves and returned us both to our sweet afternoon.



And then it was back to the tripods. One after another her little tomato face about to burst. Falling down. Getting back up. Tumbling over. Trying again. But every time a soft place to land. And I knew that I had succeeded. I was her soft place and my hands stopped shaking.

xoAM

Studio Sprucing

That warm breeze that blew through the house over the weekend has indeed gone into hiding, leaving us with a chill again. I've been hiding out in the studio the past few days, with nothing but music, sewing and photography. Its been a gooooood few days. And somehow all that fresh air did more than clear away stale winter air, it refreshed my whole attitude and inspired a bit of sprucing. The best part is it didn't cost a dime. It just required me sitting and staring for a while, remembering some things I've been saving (i.e. previously spent dimes), and dusting off a few other items. A handful of those Dresden plates finally got the recognition they deserve (we'll save the actual quilt making from them for retirement, of course). I have this one bulletin board over the drafting table that is painted with the same color as the wall (a highly recommended tip for making the items on it feel like they're floating). I try to change the board every few months which reminds me of watching my elementary school teacher, Ms. Spitzer decorate the class bulletin board as we worked on math facts. I was entirely too distracted with day-dreaming about how I would do it myself, and how she should have left slightly more space between the laminated illustrations of apples and books. I think I must have been a unique child.



Speaking of unique, aren't these the prettiest hooks? I tend to hoard little items like this, when I see them, especially if they're on sale. Then put them away not knowing what to do with them, until finally it hits me. No need to wait for the perfect spot to hang my coat (who needs a coat when you don't go anywhere), my paint rags are certainly worthy of a print-y hook all their own.



In fact it was the act of putting up those those patch-y little prints that reminded me that I even had them. I love tracing back brain triggers. I used to do that in my head as a kid when I couldn't sleep at night. I'd make note of what I was thinking about, then trace back each thought, trying to recount the mental path that led me to that thing on which I was pondering. (Oh my goodness, I'm conducting self child therapy.)



Case in point. It only took me 3 months to remember to screw on these little sparkely knobs. I had gotten four of them intended for a different cabinet, but only 3 survived, due to them being left out in the studio for so long and Eleni having appropriated one of them for something in her doll house. Can't find it now. Since there's only 3, I used two of them for these cabinet doors. I'm reserving the 3rd as a back up which feels smarter all the time especially when I catch Eleni trying to unscrew them behind my back. Darn that sparkley temptation!



And these are what I came up with for the set of four that I needed. A little burst of fabric strippi-ness that is really fun and easy to pull off. (Yes, I intended that pun, and in fact I sat and thought for at least 1 minute trying to come up with that pun.)



These are all the ingredients you need. I tied up about 4 bundles like this, then tied each of the bundles to the loop of the screw-eye. I guess its sorta no different than a pompom. I ripped my strips instead of cutting them, because I think the frayed edges are more charming. Once you've tied on all the strips you want, just place a small piece of wood inside the drawer over the hole to screw the screw-eye into. I happen to have some random, imperfect homemade building blocks which can only be explained by saying that at one point in my motherhood I thought that real wooden building blocks were entirely too expensive so we tried to make our own. As it turns out, real wooden building blocks could perhaps be one of the most reasonably priced items on the child toy market. Also its important when building with them that they be straight, ask any general contractor. Oh and well sanded to avoid splinters, too.



Anyway, they cheerfully help me out at my little fabric wrapping station that I've organized for my shopkeeping. And no I haven't made all four of them, I was too overwhelmed with both my own geniusness and the desire to point it out to you to do all four of them at once. What am I, a factory? Why no, I am not. Please see homemade wooden blocks.

xoxox, AM

This changes everything

Did you feel that?
It feels as though life itself just blew in here. I believe its commonly referred to as sun and wind.

Be back soon, xo, AnnaMaria