Tinuviel Kruse

Flower Brooches

I will be festooning my Christmas gifts with these:

 
 

Will be experimenting soon with these:

 
My birthday pressie to myself this year:

 
and they're flippin' sweet!

Gift Tags

Frittering away my time making gift tags for the Holidays.

Loving my MS paper edgers. Easy-peasy and so cute.

Slicing & dicing my Elle Decor, domino and assorted magazines for the tags:

 

 

 

 

New Acquisitions/Borrows

Some new Inspiration--like I need any more...

And in addition to the great pictures & photos in the book,
it comes with a (ta-da!) CD-Rom.

I haven't even pulled it off the back cover.
My printer is down & it would just torture me.

In other news, my dishwasher came a week ago. I now have a fully functional kitchen.
I was strangely enjoying the handwashing. I think I stayed more on-top of the dishes
when I had to hand wash them. Now, the teenager is in charge of the dishes again and
I feel like I'm constantly harping on her to load/empty the washer.
But, it's great to have somewhere to put the dirties while I'm cooking.
It stinks to need the tongs and realize in the middle of dinner preparations
that it's in the machine covered in boiling, soapy water.

Geez, what a whiner
 

It is sooo quiet. I don't have to shout above the din.

Also, the washer/dryer is free of clothes. They were blocking the light from the window.
It didn't stop the cat from climbing to the top and knocking half of it behind the dryer.
I had to pull them out from the wall and rescue the laundry.

Evidence:

Pierre Paulin Chair

Originally uploaded by ATLITW

Super, Extra, Mega Late Christmas Present

For my Mom.

I bought a bunch of zippers in strange colours on close-out at the Jo-Ann's a few months ago. One I picked up particularly because it sort of matched a wool that I had lingering at home in my stash. I thought it might come in handy. Then they went out into the maelstrom that is my fabric stash in the garage. You know what happened next. Yep, I forgot allll about them. So, I made this great pillow for my Mom & it sat reproaching me mostly done. Mostly. What was it waiting for? Oh, a zipper, of course! Could I find a zipper that matched even remotely? Anywhere? No, silly! So off our fearless seamstress goes to the fabric store for an invisible zipper. She settles on beige. The zipper's on the bottom of the pillow for Pete's sake. Who will even see it...Okay, pillow done.

Scene II, 3 days later: Our seamstress goes out to dig through the fabric avalanche & pops out of the pile with a mystery plastic bag. What treasures therein does she find? Oh, my! It's a treasure trove of magical, discounted zippers in obscure colours. Oh, goody. Does she replace the beige with the coral? She cannot decide. So sits the Mom-Pillow in a box. Completed but doubly reproachful. She imagines that the pillow thinks she is a pitiful creature. The pillow had disdain for anyone who spends 6 hours on a project and then lets it sit well past the time when it should have been opened, let alone sent in the mail!

Now you know my shame.

Yummy Share

Wanted to share this great etsy site. Off-beat and cheerful embroidery patterns.

that is all...

San Francisco, I Love You!

There are no words to describe my love-affair with San Francisco. In Sonoma County, she's just 'The City'.

It's funny that I was feeling sorry for myself the other day and sighing over sfgirlbybay's blog and yesterday morning my husband said, 'What do you want to do today?'

'I don't know.'

'I think we should get dim sum.'

'Oh, really?'

'Yep.'

So that's what we did. Got bundled up & headed south. It was grey and fairly cold. Dim Sum warmed us right up. I ate tripe. I think it was pork tripe, much easier to chew and deal with than the usual honeycomb weirdness that I've experienced in, say, menudo. That tripe is wholly inedible as far as I'm concerned. And I doubt you could change my opinion. But I digress, this tripe was nice and it came with a nice marinade. I think next time we'll order it right off the bat & let the marinade soak it. I also ate teeny, tiny octopus. They were red. I don't know if they were born that way or if it's something that happens in the cooking process.

After that we wandered around in the car trying to decide what to do. Well, wouldn't you know it? We ended up on Haight. The thing I've always loved about that neighbourhood is how many little subcultures exist there. I always have so much fun looking at dogs, shoes & hair on Haight. Yesterday, unlike any other visit, I had my new camera. I asked if I could photograph people and their dogs etc. One guy wanted, like, five bucks to take a picture of his dog. I have to say it really wasn't a very cute dog, it just seemed like it had a good personality. Naturally, I declined his very generous offer!

Parked here, no meters. Sweet!

Funny little mopeds. My husband swears they have Kona bicycle pedals.

Cute, young shopper on Haight. And legs!

 

Sweet dog. His dad was on the phone. I motioned to my camera
and then to the dog. He smiled, nodded yes and told me the dog's
name which I did not catch. The dog was utterly uninterested in me...
 

The shoes of a cute and very sweet young punk rocker.
 

My daughter loves this scene on Steiner (?). Too bad it was so grey.
 

Katie the dog. Wouldn't take her eyes off her mom until she
handed me the baggie of treats. Lovely dog. I think pits are wonderful.

Dog walker who said, "HURRY!" when I asked if I could snap her pic.
Then, she was gone...

Despite the delightful array of colourful hair & tattoos one of things that I noticed was how many of the women-very eclectically styled and fashionable women- had utterly uncoloured hair. And you know what? They looked so beautiful. I've been struggling with what to do with my hair. I had a wonderful hairdresser, but no more...  So, I've gone to other stylists and it turned out great, but to be honest I have a hard time justifying the expense & upkeep. I was reading Artful Blogging and looking at the photos of  Andrea Lampman's blog Scout I have fallen in love with her hair. It's pretty much the exact same colour and texture as my own. Light brown/dark blonde with sun streaks. I began thinking that it was too boring because I'd grown up with such light blonde hair. But, you know what?, I spent so many years bleaching and dying my hair that I didn't really appreciate it. I'm totally into appreciating myself these days. Including my grey streak. 

After our lovely visit on Haight we puttered via auto for a while longer trying to decide whether to stay or go..

After a 411 call looking for an ice cream parlour (Fenton's--my husband swore it was in SF. It's not, it's in Oakland) we called his sister at work for suggestions. One of her coworkers suggested Saint Francis Fountain. 24th & York. We drove from Steiner & 24th a long, long way into the Mission and almost to Potrero. Now, I used to live on 22nd and Bryant and never even ventured into this part of the Mission. The 'usual' part of the Mission was so scuzzy and smelly that I didn't go very often. Mostly to Rainbow Grocery, and I went up to Bryant & 20th to a little Mexican grocery for cheese, beans, tortillas etc. I don't know if the  Saint Francis Fountain part of the Mission has always been cool or what, but dang! it was cool. Now I have a new favourite part of the City to visit. We put our names on the list & got seated. Then our little one had a total & complete meltdown. No idea why or what for.  Just tears, tears, tears. We left before we got our orders taken or anything. I craved ice cream for the rest of the day. Needless to say it was a very quiet & tense ride home.

Post Holiday Stroll Through Blogland

So I was taking my post-Christmas stroll through my favourite blogs this morning. I wanted to see what people did/got/ate for Christmas. I checked out sfgirlbybay as I often do. I live in Sonoma County and do not get to the city nearly as often as I'd like. When I do, I go with husband & girls. We always have a lot of fun but we have a more-or-less set routine. Dim Sum @ Lucky Fortune, Wasteland on Haight and maybe some messing around in North Beach or the Mission. Sometimes a burrito @ El Castillito or La Cumbre. All in all wonderful stuff, but not so much time or patience to check out the places that are featured in sfgirlbybay's blog. Her blog is a feast for the eyes and I'm sure I wasn't the only one to be gratified to see that she was listed on the London Times' 50 of the world's best design blogs. Nice job!

If you love San Francisco as much as I do then spend some quality time on her blog. If you have a visit planned to the great city or live there, then jot down some destinations for art, design and general inspirationiness.

Boxing Day Walk Around the House & 'Hood

 
1. My Neighbour's St. Francis, 2. One of my Favourite Oaks, 3. Have a Very Merry...Stop!, 4. Phormium Tenax, 5. Azalea Macro, 6. Our Lady of Tooth Brushing, 7. Liquid Ambar, 8. Phormium, 9. Alysum in Macro, 10. Carved Wooden Dustpan, 11. Pointy Pointy, 12. My Truck, 13. Liquid Ambar, 14. Not Quite a Profile, 15. Mum

New Fave Flickr Pool

How do you not love a flickr pool titled, "Anti-Depressive Living" ? So great!

sweetjessie via flickr

karen m andersen via flickr

Her Royal Majesty via flickr