Home Sweet Home

We are back in Chicago! I am so so happy to be home. I can't wait to pick up Woody Guthrie from my parent's house tomorrow and get back to sewing and regular life. It was a nice get away, but home sure is feeling sweet. I have so much to do before the Chicago Renegade Craft Fair which is exactly one week away!
Here are the last few photos from our trip.

These are from our short hiking trip we took in Big Sur which ended at the ocean with a beautiful view of a waterfall.



These wild turkeys were RIGHT outside our hotel room! There were tons of them, which was sort of funny since it was the day before Thanksgiving.


David making me laugh and blurry.

Our last stops included Santa Barbara, and then Thanksgiving dinner in San Diego with David's entire family. He has 4 siblings so it was a big group. I got to see my one niece and five nephews. I've always wanted to be an aunt, and marrying David made me an instant aunt to 6!

BLACK FRIDAY SALE

I am offering 15% off ALL items in my etsy shop between now and Sunday to kick off the holiday shopping season! Check out my shop and start getting those holiday gifts!


photo courtesy of www.poetichome.com

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

For as much as I curse the midwest's weather, as I sit here in California, my first Thanksgiving away from my family, I must say, I'm missing it, and missing you Mom, Dad, Mike, Tony, Adam, Woody and Ethyl. I love you guys. Happy Thanksgiving.

I got this photo from drx.typepad.com They didn't credit it so I don't know who to thank for such a wonderful photo!

Big Sur

Still in Big Sur.
We leave for Santa Barbara today.
I do NOT want to leave this hotel.
It is AMAZING...
Check out the Ventanta Inn!

Amazing views of the ocean


Sweet room!


I had a lavender scrub and massage at the spa. I am so appreciative of moments like these.


Lavender is everywhere. It's like heaven.

I'm going for a run now on the trail around the property.

All photos are courtesy of www.ventanainn.com

On the Road

Views from the road trip.
I fell in love with Carmel.
Now I'm off to dinner with my handsome man.
xo

I'll Cut You

Check out these interesting cut paper cards by Crafterall. I have a mini obsession with layered cut paper like this. They make lovely Christmas Cards!



I especially love these topographic cards. Beautiful.

I'm going to California with an aching, in my heart...

(Ok, not really. Those are just lyrics to a good Led Zeppelin song)

I'm on VACATION! We left yesterday for sunny California and are now in the process of a road trip down the coast. We landed in San Francisco yesterday and will end up in San Diego for Thanksgiving to be with David's family. We literally got off the plan, got our rental car and drove to Red's Java House for some greasy burgers and fries. We love Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations, and when he was in San Fran he came here for some hangover food so we thought we would give it a shot.

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It's right on the water, under the Bay Bridge.

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Here I am waiting for my burger and cheese fries



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This was what we came all this way for, and my it was delicious!


After we ate we went downtown to SF Moma to see the Richard Avedon show, but there was a long line and we didn't have much time so we just went to the museum shop and then walked around the city a bit. Then we spent the night in Berkeley. David's sister and brother and his family live across the street from each other so we all had dinner together. It was cool to see my cute nephews. They are ADORABLE! Next stop: Monterey!

Heavy Hearts

I love hearts. I always have. I'm really loving these ceramic hearts by Bridgeman Studios. Makes me think of one of my favorite Bright Eyes songs (Lua):

And I know you have a heavy heart,
I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger than me
have thrown their backs out
trying to lift
it



I bet these hearts are nice and heavy

Brasseries and Boots

Last night we had a great dinner at the Old Town Brasserie. Mmmmm creamy potato soup, beef tenderloin, braised kale, frites and bread pudding. Yes please .


I finally found the perfect pair of black over the knee boots with the perfect heel!!! I wore them last night with a white mini, black vest and striped blouse. I'm loving them.

photo courtesy of www.bestofthebestdiningchicago.com

Aie Aie, Captain

Nautical Navy Clutch $28


I stuffed the front of this clutch to give it a cool pillow effect. If you get sleepy, just take a cat nap on your purse.

Pizza, cut fabric and live music

Just ordered my favorite pizza from Lou Malnotis. My youngest brother Adam is playing some tunes on the keyboard while I cut fabric for some new purses I'm working on. David is on his way home...gonna be a good night.


I'm really into orangey photos right now. No flash please.

A few new ones

Here are a few of the newest clutches I have been working on. I have a ton more ideas just waiting to get out of my head!

Best Saturday ever.

David brought some breakfast home for us (my brother and sister-in-law were here!) from Rick Bayless's new delight XOCO. Chorizo egg tortas is the right way to start off the day.

Then we went shopping around Michigan Ave. The highlight for me was visiting Ikram, the boutique Michelle Obama gets some of her clothing from. Most of the items are wearable works of art. I got to touch this Givenchy shirt:

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At Barneys my favorites were:
Marc Jacobs bag:


I saw the coolest Comme des Garcons sweater which I cannot find an image for. I love this shot from their A/W 2009 RTW runway show.


The highlight was quite possibly holding these Balenciaga shoes which I have been tearing out of every magazine I've seen them in. I like the ones with the green tie, but these are just as incredible.


It felt really good to be there because I did not want anything. I just was high on inspiration. It felt amazing to be able to see and touch all these wonderful fabrics and see different types of stitching and to be standing in front of the manifestation of such creativity. It was a gift to me.
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Lunch at Big Bowl (yum tofu curry)

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We stopped at Intelligentisa in Lakeview for afternoon coffee...

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Walking around Oak St.


Then dinner with family and friends. I will never forget that wonderful day.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

We have family in town this weekend so we have lots of fun dinners planned so we can celebrate life! Last night we went to Blackbird and it was fabulous. It was technically the first time I had eaten there. I came close to it in 2001 when I went with a group of friends for a special night out. It was the first fancy restaurant I had ever been to. We sat down and got an appetizer, and I suddenly wasn't feeling so great. I went in the bathroom and sure enough was stricken with the flu big time. Had to leave the restaurant and my friends and never got to taste the wonderful food...until last night that is.

I started with the Alaskan king crab tail with ricotta mayo, sunchokes, smoked paprika and pickled parsley. (yes please) For my entree I choose the Abalone mushroom 'schnitzel' with brown butter yogurt, snow peas, apricots, crispy maitakes and oregano to take me back to my time in Austria over the summer when I was inhaling weiner schnitzel like there was no tomorrow. Oh my, so good.
For dinner we all shared the chocolate-pistashio cremeux with chocolate sorbet and red verjus. Another yes please, please.

I don't have any photos from our special night, but I just went to get some images off of Blackbird's website and was blown away by how beautiful their restaurant photo gallery is. I was looking for who to credit these photos below with, and it turns out my husband and I know this photographer and own one of his pieces! His name is Doug Fogelson. It's so ironic to run into these photos of Doug's because we seem to run into this guy all the time. We met on an airplane on the way to Santa Fe while he was shooting these incredible photos from the window of the plane.

Then we went to a concert to see a friend play and ran into him because he happens to be friends with the same person. The next time we ran into him was at this friend's wedding, and then just last Saturday we ran into him and his family in Michigan. I think the universe it trying to tell us we need to be friends with Doug. Please check out his artwork and buy his book The Time After. He's a super talented artist and really nice guy.



photos courtesy of Doug Fogelson