Decorating With Quilts

I love seeing quilts draped over furniture... they just make a home that much homier :)

Pictures courtesy of Rachel Whiting Photography.

Three

Happy anniversary honey! Thanks for making me laugh so hard every day, for putting up with me and loving me despite wanting to tear your hair out.

We're just spending the day together, probably scouring bookstores. The picture is from our wedding reception in Singapore... it's tradition for the bride and groom to give a speech, and there he is, pissing himself while I'm giggling away. It's been like that ever since :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're going to the hub's parents' for dinner and I'll be wearing some loose pants :) Well, leggings, but those are loose and stretchy! I'm bringing apple pie and Irish soda bread (admittedly it's not meant for Thanksgiving but the MIL is a huge fan of it despite her dislike of raisins).

Anyway I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving with family and dear friends. And to those who are going to Black Friday sales... are ya nuts? :)

Why Bother

The hubs singing to Weezer's Why Bother? It was too funny not to share.

And don't mind the laughing in the background. Obviously someone let a hyena in the car...

Christmas Come Early

Literally.

My little sister decided early November would be perfect timing for Christmas pressies. I don't hear anyone complaining :) Well, except my other sister who now believes in order to win this inane and imaginary competition, she must present me with next year's birthday pressie post-haste. Weirdo.

Anyway, here's the hub's pressie! A turntable! I can't tell you how thrilled he was when he came home to find it waiting for him :)

Of course now I have to thank my sister for the hubs dragging me to every record store within a 50 mile radius... *grumble* But last weekend, found a bunch of Vampire Weekend records so yay!!

As for my pressie, she got me a gift card to Urban Outfitters! It's like she knows me so well!

I have to admit that I used it the very day I received it. I have no self-control. Zero. Zip. Nada.

I put the gift card toward these Frye oxfords. Looooove them, although I initially debated returning them. See, the way the shoe's designed, it adds an extra inch to the length of my feet... like mini clown shoes! But they're cute and super comfy, plus I have pretty idiotic feet and there's only a small handful of brands that don't make my feet all owwie. Frye is one of them, so I'll got over the clown shoe thing pretty quickly :)

Aurelia, we love our pressies and we love you like you love your LV SC bag. Which is to say, a buttload :) *MUAK* In gratitude, I may send you one of the cats. Maybe not. We'll see if they keep puking on the carpet.

LOL Cam Fun

Averil & Aurelia

Averil & Aurelia

Me & Aurelia

Me, Averil & Aurelia

I gave my little sister a LOL disposable camera and here are some pictures she took with it. I may need to send her another because they're pretty funny.

He Was An English Major...

Standing in the middle of a department store...

Hubs: "Let me look at my list" (He has this little notebook with his to-do list in it.)

Me: *Looking at pretty, pretty shoes*

Hubs: "Tanning."

Me: "Beg pardon?! Tanning? WHAT? Since when!?!"

Hubs: "It says 'tanning'."

Me: "Before or after I kick you in the head? Tanning?!"

Hubs: "Oh wait... It says 'tea'."

Me: "Honey, 'tea' and 'tanning' are rather different."

Hubs: *Pretending he's not a super dork and looks for the exit*

Me: *Face palm* "Good grief."

You can go ahead and feel bad for me. I know I do :)

Please Hold...

While my computer has a massive brainfart. It'll go online but it won't open websites. I don't get it *weep*

So in the meantime, here's something cute :)

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

I Met Denyse Schmidt!

I went to Denyse Schmidt's Sample Sale 2010 today and Denyse herself was there!

I was looking at some things on a shelf not realising she was right next to me. "I like your bag", she says to me.

(This bag.)

Instead of taking that as an conversation opener, I muttered my thanks and scurried off to hide under a rock. *Hangs head*

So I continued poking around and looking at the quilts with my husband. We picked up a few things and when I went to pay, he went up to Denyse and asked if she'd take a picture with me.

She obliged and we chatted for a while. I'm pretty sure I made sounds that resembled words but the only thing going through my mind was "FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, DON'T GEEK OUT! BE NORMAL!".

I'm so glad I went, and I'm so glad Denyse was so great. She even suggested we go over to this quilt for another picture since the lighting for the first one was not so great. This is probably one of my favourite quilts of hers, and I'm thrilled I got to look at it up close.

And I'd also like to thank my hair for choosing today to be retarded. Awesome.

This Is What Happens...

When I get up to get a glass of water.

Double Standards

Me: "So this guy came in and bought a gift certificate for $58 today. Isn't that strange? I told him that was rather odd and specific."

Hubs: "What? He's an ass."

Me: "Noooo it's probably for his mum or aunt who's turning 58 or something!"

Hubs: "Oh! That makes sense! He's not an ass then."

Me: "He was good looking too. Like really good looking."

Hubs: "Yup, he's an ass."

Heehee.

Baby Patchwork

After I made the patchwork quilt for our bed, I couldn't help but make a wee little baby one :)

I used quite a few of the same fabrics as our patchwork quilt, and then added a few more I'd found since its completion. Most of them came from where I work, which proves it's dangerous to work in a quilt shop if you're afflicted with a quilting addiction!

I quilted it the same way since I really loved how it turned out on our quilt. Soooo soft and cosy :)

The back is a Kona aqua, one of my favourite colours in the Kona rainbow :)

And the binding is a dotty fabric from Northcott (I think?). So cute!

I think it's just so precious and sweet. It ended up being 40" by 51" and is currently listed in the shop SOLD.

Hair Envy

I'm drenched in hair envy. Especially of the chick on the right.

Le sigh.

Picture courtesy of Garance Dore.

Clearing Up The Romantic Air

My poor hubs. He got a wee bit lambasted after the last conversation post, didn't he? It really was meant as a joke because we're funny like that.

To be clear, Steve tells me every day that he loves me. He gives me a kiss before he leaves for work and when he gets home. He holds me in bed every night because he knows it's easier for me to fall asleep when he does. He does this even though his right arm is completely crushed and he starts to get pins and needles.

I have a confession to make. In our relationship, I'm the one who's not romantic. If he told me I'm beautiful everyday, I'd punch him in the throat. It just sounds too damn weird and corny to me.

I don't care for flowers or to be whisked away on a romantic weekend or taken to an expensive restaurant. (Chocolates I like, only because I'm a die hard fan.) I don't need him to buy me things or spoil me. All those things don't mean love... they just mean you have money to burn or like incurring debt.

I was brought up in a home where "I love you" wasn't bandied about. It didn't mean that we didn't know we were loved and that our parents would've given their right arms for us to have everything we wanted or needed. My paternal grandmother has probably never told me she loves me but I have no doubt that she does. She knows my favourite foods and cooked them for me whenever she could. I now do the same for my loved ones.

I have dinner ready every night, I do the laundry, press his shirts... now that's love, baby :)

Filling In The Blanks

Remember this Nicey Jane quilt I finished a little while ago?

Well, I was thinking about it a few days ago, and wondering if it'd be possible for me to add more quilting to it because I felt like I'd placed the daisies a little too far apart. And as usual, the thought popped out of my head as soon as it popped in. ADD is a biatch, ya'll.

Anyway, I got an email over the weekend asking if I'd do exactly that to the Nicey Jane quilt. Curiosity got the better of me, so I agreed.

I wash all my quilts as soon as I'm done with them so they'll attain optimum puckeriness. (It's a word. I checked.) So quilting what had already shrunken and puckered was a little odd. So very, very odd.

It turns out, I could. I tried out a couple of quilting patterns, and found that a loose loopy pattern would work best. It went surprisingly well, although I suspect it won't turn out well for all quilts. I had a lot of blank space to work with, and the loops were really loose so I avoided any oopsies.

Here's a couple pictures of the front.

And here's one of the back.

Right now, it's off to its new owner, and I'm really thrilled that it worked out well because she tells me it's her very first quilt :) Gotta love it!

Romance Fail

While watching Bruno Mars singing the lyrics "She's so beautiful / And I tell her everyday" on Saturday Night Live...

Me: "Hey! Why don't you tell me everyday?!?!"

Hubs: "Nobody does that." Me: "HE DOES!!!"

Hubs: "Well he's full of shit."

Mario Badescu Awesomeness

I've never really suffered from skin problems and have never been one to experiment with lotions and potions. My skincare routines have mostly been due to my sisters' insistence that I just shut up and do it. Like applying night cream since I was in my mid-twenties. I'm still averse to using toner for some stupid reason. I don't know why I don't like it. I just don't.

Anyway, while my sisters were here, they went a little nutty with the Mario Badescu love. I didn't give it much thought until one of my sisters gave me a little sample size of the enzyme cleansing gel to try.

I've been using it for a little over a week now, and all I have to say is HOLY CRAP I WANT TO MARRY THIS STUFF. Plus it smells so lovely.

Like I said before, my skin's just fine. I get the occasional spot, but nothing to worry about. But my skin now feels super soft, and I feel like my pores are teenier. Maybe it's just in my head, but I really like what this cleanser's doing for me.

I'll be getting the giant 16 oz bottle soon. Oh yes I will.

* FYI, I'm not being bribed by Mario Badescu to say any of this :)

Fairytale Quilt

Hey, remember when I used to make quilts? Yeah, me neither.

Buuuuut I finally got back into the sewing room after my sisters left, and finished this custom quilt a friend commissioned. (It's all super wrinkly and weird because I just pulled it out of the dryer. Whoopsie doodles.)

She just asked for a baby girl quilt, and immediately I thought of the Once Upon A Time panel by Alexander Henry that I've had in my stash for quite a while.

I used scraps (you may recognise a bunch of them from my patchwork quilt!) around the border to add some prints since I'd used all solid fabrics for the rest of the quilt.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and hopefully she'll like it too :)

I did some straight line quilting instead of my usual meandering. I just thought the straight lines would look nice on this quilt, and I'm glad I did it.

The back is also an Alexander Henry print (I can't remember the name of it now) which I thought was perfectly girlie without being all pink. I used the solids I'd used on the front to make a cute strip down the back to tie it together.

All washed and ready to be delivered :)

Return Of The McRib

Apparently the McRib is back. And from the looks of the McRib Watch Twitter page, people are rather excited.

I've never had one. I'm afraid to try it because I have a strong suspicion that I'll like it. And nothing good can come of that.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We got home late last night from the city and I'm already missing it! It was really great catching up with friends, finding new places to eat, and most importantly, finding great coffee.

The eggs benedict at Blue Ribbon Bakery in the West Village. So very good :)

Stumptown had AMAZING coffee. And the best part is that you can take your coffee and go sit in the lobby of Ace Hotel. Which we didn't get to because it was Saturday and therefore packed.

I heart coffee.

My friend in the window.

Just below the sign sat this Italian guy who thought I was taking his picture.

Him: *Smiling like a moron* "Oh you making me feel like a celebrity, taking my picture!"

Me: "I'm taking a picture of my friend. I am NOT taking a picture of you. You're not even in the shot."

Ass.

My husband's reaction to "STOP looking at the camera!!!".

At Murray's Cheese on Bleecker St. He was so happy I thought his head would pop off. He bought some cheese, then promptly left it at my friend's place. I hope she likes stinky cheese.

Another head-popping moment... thousands upon thousands of records at Bleecker Street Records. I could feel the want radiating off him.

Love that sign.

At Other Music in NoHo... We'd chanced upon this store a few years ago, totally forgot the name of it and found it again yesterday :)

Here the hubs is with one of his favourites, My Bloody Valentine. Music dork.

I found this wall of music picked by the staff, and it's like the hubs could've picked it himself... Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Cat Power, The Magnetic Fields, Interpol and The New Pornographers. Mind blown.

The two record shops and cheese shop were enough to make the hubs mumble to himself repeatedly "We need to move to the city... we need to move to the city...". Project Concrete Jungle is in full swing, people!