…craftydabbler
Congrats, you are the winner of The Pillow Book!
For the record, I have five pillows: two sets of standard pillows and one cute little decorative one.

Last weekend, Mr. Loveforever and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary by getting out of town for a little weekend trip to Rhode Island. We spent 2 days in the lovely city of Providence (totally number one on our list of places to move when we get out of New York) and one last wonderful afternoon driving down the coast.

I spent most of my childhood summers on the various beaches of Rhode Island. Most of us Nutmeggers (yes, that’s what we call people from Connecticut, don’t laugh), even ones like me who grew up on the coast, like to leave the Sound for the real ocean in the summer. It was so fun to take Mr. Loveforever to my coast (he’s from the west one) and show him parts of my childhood: the beach where I wiped out on an inner-tube and broke one of my teeth, the hippie stores in Charleston where I bought incense and cheap jewelry and the tacky mini-golf place that we begged to go to each year. We gorged ourselves on clam cakes and chowder and walked down the beach, picking up impossibly round rocks and dodging the tide. It was absolutely perfect.

Hello there!

I’ve been wanting to try out a new design for a while so here it is. Mr. Loveforever and I are working out a few kinks still but I hope you like it.

Nathalie Lété is an artist and designer who has lent her creative hand to everything from hand-tufted rugs to chocolates. I love the collaged, painterly quality that runs through all of her work regardless of the medium.

Lete’s most recent collaboration with Anthropologie yields bedding covered in birds and branches and ceramic knobs chaped like flowers. She is also showing some of her work in the gallery at the Rockefeller Center store.

Two great new books have recently landed in my mailbox and I wanted to share them with you.

Apartment Therapy Presents is the new book by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, the man behind the ever-popular AT blog. It’s a compendium of fantastic homes and design solutions for people who don’t have millions of dollars to drop on decor. Part glossy coffee table book, part how-to tome, each home profile includes floor plans, resource lists and candid interviews with the inhabitants on “how they did it”.

A few of my favorites were:

The modern and slightly kitchy woodsy decor of Jane and Darko’s “Cozy Thicket”

The colorful, industrial chic of Shannon and Emmet’s “From Factory to Family”

Yoktan’s clever use of salvaged materials (like the vintage freezer door “wall art” on the right!) in his “Tenement of the Found”

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has more creativity than cash and is looking to do a little (or big) redecorating project.

The second book is The Pillow Book by Shannon Okey. Speaking of more creativity than cash, pillows are a really easy way to change the look of a room or add some color.

The Pillow Book features 25 patterns for all sorts of pillows from bolsters to chair pads to ottomans and shows you how to add a flange, ruffles or trim to a basic throw pillow.

So, here’s the fun part: Just tell me how many pillows you think should be on a perfectly made bed in the comments by Friday at 8 pm est and I will randomly pick a person to receive this great book!

I’ve been making and sewing and cutting and prepping in every spare moment, just getting myself ready for the Bust Craftacular. These leaves are destined to adorn my pear pincushions. I am going to selling a few things at the Treehouse table this year. Stop by if you’re around!

Also a few other things:

My dear Mr. LoveForever was featured as a “man who crafts” on the latest episode of Craftypod. I am so thankful to live with a person who understands my need to make things although, between the two of us, we are up to our ears in craft supplies!
I just recently joined the {New New} Etsy Team and I am so excited! They are a very active and dynamic group and I am looking forward to being a part of their team.

This week on Threadbanger, my friend Cal Patch teaches you how to crochet a neckline onto a shirt kinda like this beauty.

Linda was in town this week and we got a chance to see the Hyberbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the World Financial Center on Tuesday. Isn’t it nice to have visitors? You get to do all the fun things in your city that you never make time to do for yourself.
Here are a few pictures of the reef. Linda commented that it was too bad we couldn’t go in: the whole scene looked like a giant Muppet playground.

The bottom two pictures are of the Rubbish Vortex by the ever-talented Hella Jorgensen. It was hard to get pictures due to the glare but it was really beautiful.

Oh, Adorn, how I will miss you. I know they say that all good things must come to an end but we could have had so many more issues together.
I know there’s been speculation for a while but it’s true: Adorn is no more. All I can hope for is that someone else will launch a totally beautiful craft magazine and ask me to be their stylist/crafter/blogger. Anyone hiring?

Well, Here are some of the fruits of my labor. I will be selling these at the Bust Craftacular at the Treehouse table on April 27th and shortly after on my Etsy site.

Amanda, the lifestyle editor at Parents magazine, told me about this fantastic opportunity to get your work seen in their magazine.
Here’s your chance to impress us with your outstanding crafting abilities! We are looking for the best, coolest, and most clever homemade birth announcements by you, our oh-so talented, crafty readers. We’re seeking submissions of any sort, from photo cards to personalized water bottles to handmade chocolates (hint hint). Our ten faves will not only be published in the magazine, but they will also win $100.

For more information about where to send your entry, check out their blog post here.