design/spring's second annual gingerbread competition

I missed out on participating again this year, but next year I'm totally entering some type of crazy gingerbread construction into Design/Spring's 3rd Annual Gingerbread Competition. The architecture runs the gamut from traditional to avant garde. Here are a few samples from the early hours of the competition this year, as the entries began to arrive.

Hershey bar solar array! Rice cake water cistern!

A trio from the family competition.

Nice piping on this one, from the dangling icicles to the trees and wreaths.

Fully iced lighthouse, complete with a photo of the inspiration structure.

Another lighthouse with gingerbread tourists and marine life.

There's even a gingerbread boy buried in the sugar sand in the lower right hand corner.

Graham crackers with licorice roof.

Love this gingerbread multi-story building with sugar glass shards on the roof and the dyed coconut/gumdrop flower/cookie stepping stone landscaping.

And to contrast it, a traditional village of tiny houses.

Despite missing the competition, I did sit down with my kiddo to decorate a gingerbread house of our own. We used a kit from Wilton so we could get right to the fun part (bonus: some stores start putting their Christmas items on clearance right before the holiday; we picked up this kit for $5).

If we do one of these next year, I'll try to remember that there are two colors of icing included, but only one decorating bag. We ended up with an interesting combination of "snow" and "grass", kinda like after the snow from that storm started to melt a few weeks back.

So, did your family get in on the gingerbread fun this year? Anyone have a preschooler who actually uses more candy to decorate than to eat? Tell me all about it.

Thanks for reading!

out in the yard

We've been planting up a bunch of succulents in a collection of random planters out back. I like their drought tolerance, although the no-rain season here in the Northwest always comes kinda late. When it hits, I always lose plants, especially when I plant in planters. Hopefully, planting these guys will cure that problem.

The grass is a little long here; I photographed this area before the first mow of the season (I don't like to mow when the grass is wet because it dulls the blade more quickly and clogs the underside of the mower). Also, a lot of the grass isn't grass anymore; we seeded a bunch of clover and, as happens every year, the dandelions just volunteer.

You can spy a little of our next planting project in this one; the little nursery pots in the background are seeded with grey stripe sunflower seeds and rouge vif d'etampes pumpkins (the Cinderella-looking ones found here).

And, because we've had a spate of decent weather lately, we actually got out and resumed our siding project on the studio walls. I doubt you'll remember this entry from 2008, when we did the cedar shingles at the peak. Yeah, so the studio's just been sitting there in all its tar-papered glory, looking more and more stupid as we've sided and painted the house, and put in the patio, and built the garden beds . . .  I'm super-excited to have gotten this side, plus the entire back and most of the other side done in one weekend. Since this time, we've also finished more than half of the front. Just a little more work to do, and it'll finally match the house and the shed! I'm pretty happy to be able to get this crossed off our list. It's been a long time coming.

Again, the lawn hadn't been mowed yet, and the raised beds hadn't been weeded, but I'm going to wait to show you those updates when I show you more of this in a couple of days . . . 

Because by some luck, I built the whole thing in a couple of afternoons in the backyard, just in time for the spring Pinterest Challenge over at Young House Love and Bower Power. And I'm looking forward to sharing it with you.

This spring is a strange one. Outside, so many things are just beginning, springing to new life. Yesterday, though, a friend and adviser passed away suddenly. It feels out of sync, and unreal in such a green season. He's already so missed from this world.

Thanks for reading. 

how does your garden grow?

Back when I published this post about our backyard patio project last summer, I mentioned the new garden bed. We built the bed by piling up the dirt excavated from the patio area, and outlining the area with cement landscaping blocks.

I hadn't taken any photos of the area because I considered it to be unfinished; luckily, the mister decided to take some photos of his own, because in retrospect, the new garden beds are pretty attractive, I think. Even unfinished. (All of these photos are from last summer.)

Of course, now they could use a good weeding, but last year's plants are coming back, which makes me incredibly happy. I bought most of them as end-of-summer clearance last September. Cannas, dahlias, foxgloves, heather, etc. . . . I don't think I paid more than six bucks for any of them. And I'm pretty sure the three heather plants cost under a dollar each. (I wish I could remember the name of the bright red stems there . . . )

The chair is part of a matching set of cedar Adirondack chairs I painted pool blue last summer. The birdhouses (also cedar) were painted to match. Black Russian tomatoes fill that pot in the foreground. This summer, it'll be garlic and beans instead.

So that's the beginning! There are about $150 worth of cement landscape blocks in this project, another $100 in plants. The little path was made using pavers from the old patio, so those were free this time around, as was what mulch you can see in the photos (branches and clippings chopped up in a wood chipper). Not a bad deal for something so transformative.

I'll post some more photos this spring and summer as things progress; a major weeding is in order, and some mulch for sure, but I'll wait and see whether any plants need to be added, moved, or replaced. So . . . what's going on in your yard this spring?


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

daffodil treasury

And now, for a palette cleanser, here's a bright, cheery little Etsy Treasury list featuring daffodils. Please enjoy!




Link here.


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

tabula rasa

I'll be posting more pictures of this soon, but this photo here represents about a hundred hours of work spread out over a month. More if you count the time I spent a few years back stripping the paint off that door and patching and sanding it. That was back when we'd intended to use it for a door.





So the reason for all the hours, for such a "before" looking image? This room, a few weeks ago, was packed to the brim with bins of art and craft supplies, childhood mementos, display items from my former bookstore, and theater leftovers. It's taken a monumental effort to get to this photograph: a clean slate, painted a soft, silvery gray, with the beginnings of a door-turned-headboard on the wall.

I've lost count of the trips to the charity store's donation drop-off. I've given a few things to friends. We held a one-day yard sale that paid for the bed frame and paint. And there's plenty stashed in the studio, and some stuff on my kitchen table ready to get the boot. The recycle and trash bins fill faster than Sanipac can haul it all away, so a friendly neighbor called the city to report us a couple of weeks ago. I frequently feel overwhelmed by the task at hand, which is essentially sifting through and getting rid of so much of my old self in order to have a clean, quiet space. One that we're intending for a guest room, but which the cats are pretty sure is really just for them.

Anyway, I'll go into more detail about the process later. That's all for tonight!

desert photography, part one

Not to be confused with dessert photography . . . 

good news!

I won!  Thank you to everyone who voted for my design. You can read Spoonflower's blog entry about my win here. You can also find a link for ordering the fabric from Spoonflower's Etsy site! Last time I checked, they'd already sold 37 yards of my dandyflat design! I'm not sure I can express how cool it is to think of all those people using my design in their projects . . . 

i'm finally in the spoonflower fabric of the week contest!

Once a week, Spoonflower (a new company that prints made-to-order fabric from your designs!) sponsors a Fabric of the Week contest for independent designers. Winners get free fabric, and their designs are put up for sale by Spoonflower to the general public. Vote for my dandylion pattern HERE!

meet your maker

Guess where I'll be with a table full of crafty goodness on May 1?

what if: you're a beastie and your ears get cold?

Ooh look! A Hobgoblin Chapeau!

spring-y goodness!

First, a picture of Multnomah Falls, courtesy of my talented sister-in-law:

In real-life, it's a colossal, roaring beast. In photographs, it's still lovely, but not as overwhelming. 

And some flowers are finally blooming here in Oregon:

We've actually had a ton of daffodils for awhile now, too; the yellow is gorgeous, but I've been longing for blue.

Now all I need is more sunshine!

out like a lamb

In the beautiful weather yesterday (rare for Oregon in March) a large troupe of family (and a couple of friends) spent some time at Salem's waterfront carousel and Multnomah Falls near Portland. It'd been a really long time since I'd been on a hike with my family, but the extra effort to get to the top of the falls paid off with a dangerously lovely view. I'll add a few pictures soon of the 600 ft+ drop. It was a very good day.

almost ready . . .

Thought I'd go ahead and post a couple of early photos of some of the hand-bound books I'll be listing for sale soon, along with a bunch of other goodies!

The publishing company I work for specializes in reprints of out-of-print theological books. To get from original book to new book, a lot of old book bindings are discarded, so I asked for a few to be set aside for me. I'm using them to make these neat, coptic-bound blank books. I'm really happy with how they're turning out!

These red book boards are complemented with the copper-colored book cloth, which nicely matches the twine used for the coptic binding:

This set of old, leather-covered book boards came from a book published in the 1800s. I cleaned them up and added copper-colored book cloth, antique-looking end papers, and more than 100 pages (fronts and backs) of really heavy sketch paper.

I'll make sure to have everything up by the 21st, and I'll keep you posted with a couple more teaser shots in the meantime. I'm also working on completely revamping my website!

p.s. Speaking of books, my friend Skylaar has a beautiful little number here. It pushes the definition of "book" a bit; your life will be richer for seeing it!

spring collection up march 21st!

Wands, anyone?

I plan to have the first few items in the spring collection up on the site and on Etsy by March 21st, the first day of spring. Look for new card designs, jewelry, and handbound books. A couple of weeks later, be on the lookout for hats, robot t-shirts, and other goodies.

The daffodils are up, the cherry blossoms are starting to peek out, and things have that electric spring hum . . . So much to look forward to! I've been digging through many, many bins of fabric and supplies, downsizing and clearing room for new treasures, all in the spirit of my New Year's resolution: making life simpler and less cluttered.