holiday conifer

i'm excited to add some more of my holiday collection to the shop over the next week or so... just trying to finish up a few custom orders this weekend. i did add this new originally designed conifer to the shop... i'm just loving this gray, red, and white cotton, and have made a few more coordinating pieces, which will also be added to the shop

busily creating holiday nests, tree toppers, trees, and wreaths, and hoping my hands stay strong this week for the onslaught of ideas floating about in my head!

saturday shopping list - oops

little grey donkey, by littleloveblue

(oh how i wish i could snatch him up!)

handwoven throw in christmas red, by lindahighhandweaver

wee three gnomes, by thetinyhouse

wing dress in madras, by verypurpleperson

okay, okay, i meant to post the 'saturday shopping list' on saturday (makes more sense, right!), but i'm running about three days late in general these days with everything, so i figured why not

as you can see, i'm thoroughly excited about the holiday/winter season this year, and i'm so looking forward to adding christmas loveliness to my new home in a few weeks time. i've also been enjoying this ridiculously long autumn here in georgia... has it been a long fall elsewhere?

i'd been told that the autumn beauty made georgians forget the humid summers here (although this summer was actually pretty decent... not really so different than the normal brooklyn summers i'm used to... but perhaps that was unseasonal); but, wow, trees blooming in waves for three months? beautiful autumnal temperatures, allowing you to wear your autumn apparel without covering up with coats, scarves, and hats in november? i'm actually rarely comfortable with any temperature (my body doesn't seem capable of regulating either heat or cold!)... really, 68-72 with a soft sunshine is my ideal comfort zone; and, oh, how many lovely days we've had just like that

it all makes the long months of bundling up in layers of coats and scarves seem so much more bearable when it is actually confined to the winter season! i will admit that i'm hoping for some snow this year... especially now that i can bundle in front of the fire and watch the flakes swirling in the woods behind my house

hope everyone is enjoying their autumn... any great thanksgiving ideas? i'm always eager to hear of fun family traditions

grosgrain giveaway and eye candy lusciousness

well, it's time for another fabulous grosgrain giveaway... this time i'm hoping to win for a certain best friend of mine who is expecting her first baby next spring... you know who you are ;)

this is a guest giveaway from layla grace, for a 'little giraffe blanket in chenille dot' with a matching 'little giraffe security blanket in chenille dot'... your choice of color! looks so deliciously snuggly

to enter yourself, you can simply link to the giveaway on your own site... click here for details

and, if you haven't discovered the loveliness of grosgrain, CLICK right on over there! along with lovely guest giveaways, kathleen shares many wonderful sewing tutorials, along with giveaways of her own creations. and, i will just say it now... her garments and pictures are so absurdly beautiful! such luscious eye candy. i still giggle every time i see the lengths she went to not only in her sewing but in the staging of the photography! i had to include some pictures of her work:

*** p.s. you can vote here for a grosgrain dress in the 'dare to design' contest on shabby apple

sewing for independence

while conditions for women in the dr congo are already deplorable, women left widowed face financial ruin... left with very few options for ways to support themselves and their children. in the virunga national park, death among park rangers is very high (125 deaths in the last 10 years) as rangers continue to put their lives at risk to protect the park, the extremely endangered mountain gorillas, and other wildlife. while emergency donations for rangers widows through the iccn (you can donate on the gorilla.cd website) greatly help these families in the short term, a new program is helping these women gain financial autonomy

with help from the igcp (international gorilla conservation program), a group of 32 women are learning the skills of sewing... giving them the opportunity to learn a skill that will ultimately give them a way to support their families. upon completion of the program, each woman gets her own sewing machine to set up shop independently!

you can read more about the ranger widows, the work the rangers give their lives for, and ways you can help, over on the gorilla.cd blog

apple pickin'

well, it was that time of year again... pick your own apples (or apple pickin' as it's called here in the south!). this year, it was a drive up to ellijay (the apple capital of georgia), with a stop along the way to eat a picnic lunch by a lovely lake. thanks to my sister's in-laws for the amazing 'picnic', which included clam chowder, pasta, and bread with a variety of cheeses (my picnics usually consist of peanut butter and jelly!)... complete with jack-0'-lantern grilled cheeses for my niece and nephew. i should have captured a picture of this lovely spread, but i was too busy eating ;)

this picture reminds me of a gateway to a fairyland!

yummy rome beauty

we were there for the last week of the harvest, and enjoyed munching on the delicious rome beauty variety, which ended the season. my niece shouted 'hooray' everytime she picked an apple, while my nephew waited excitedly for his turn with an 'apple cannon.' we finished the adventure with some apple donuts and apple cider slushies (again no pictures of the food... you can see a pattern here!)

'hooray'

apple cannon

i had to include these two pictures as well... these side eyes are a flash forward to the teenage years! makes me laugh every time