A Lovely Package Exchange

This is the first year I'm participating in the {lovely} PACKAGE EXCHANGE graciously hosted by Danni from oh, hello friend.

Nearly 200 lovely bloggers signed up to exchange pretty presents by mail and I was matched with Carrie Koehmstedt from Carrie Loves and Sweet Faerie Designs. And oh happy day, her thoughtful gift was one of my favorites from Etsy: a Gourmet Sea Salt Kit from Cook Outside the Box.  

My offering was a bracelet from Wish by Felicity and little Moleskine notebook set since Carrie's favorite colors are turquoise and pink and she put the most adorable photo up on her blog:

[photo by Carrie Koehmstedt]

Thanks, Carrie and Danni for the holiday cheer!

11 Craft-O-Lutions for 2011

"For last year's words belong to last year's language 

and next year's words await another voice." -- T.S. Eliot

I'm loving the New Year's Resolution Reviews popping up, from Heart Handmade, Sandy A La Mode and others, so I've made a few changes around here: a Facebook fan page, Tweets and more event listings.  Let me know if you hear about any more!  Here's what I want to do in 2011:

1) Ballet classes, took the 2nd one in 6 years last week at Peridance, very inspired by Black Swan!

2) Cello lessons again, it's been about 11 years now! also very inspired by this Korean horror movie

3) Jewelry class, maybe at Make Workshop or 3rd Ward

4) Sell something at a craft fair, so many to think about, now what to make??

5) Cake decorating, been years since I've done this too, so I got my last bday cake at Magnolia 

6) Get another flower arranging job, cause the first was lots of work, but really fun

7) Visit event vendors: like a baker, florist, stationer, designer...and a few others I have in mind...

8) Get another tattoo: already chose the place, thinking about the design

9) Sew a dress

10) Keep cooking, cause starting this year off with Korean dumplings was pretty tasty

11) And do a better job of keeping in touch cause, well, it just all around makes me happy

Good luck with your resolutions, crafty or otherwise!

Sparkly

I went to a very pretty event last night: Swarovski held a charity auction at Phillips de Pury of 22 specially commissioned little black designer dresses with 100% of the proceeds benefiting two cancer societies (in America and in France).  The view from the event space looked out over the High Line park and the Hudson River.

My favorites were the starburst embroidered mini-dress (Azzaro), asymmetrically draped strapless with beaded flower (Giorgio Armani Prive) and pleated silk chiffon strewn with hundreds of Swarovski crystals (Alberta Ferretti).  So, today I walked by the Swarovski Crystallized boutique on Broadway in Soho where you can design your own jewelry using their crystals in every color of the rainbow (I like those pink cell phone cases):

And I liked their window display uptown on 5th Ave earlier this year for the 2nd Sex and the City movie:

When I was little my grandmother gave me Swarovski figurines for special occasions (birthdays, graduations, piano recitals) and I wish I could go to my parents' attic and find them right now.  I definitely had this swan:

[from Swarovski]

and a little duck that I loved.  The dear model that I had long ago has since been discontinued, but here's one of their newer designs:

[from Swarovski]

Funny how your childhood treasures can bring back such feelings.  This was really key in the movie Never Let Me Go that I mentioned last month, finally saw it last night.  And a new mom friend of mine was so excited when her husband bought her this re-released Fisher-Price toy television just like she had when she was little. 

[from Amazon]

Did you ever have one?  Or maybe one of these?  I think I had both!

[from Amazon]

And one last glitzy note: last week we celebrated the soon-to-be-opening pizza restaurant from Donatella Arpaia and saw her golden oven!

 

Built by hand in Chelsea from the ground up with materials and builders all the way from Naples (where Ms. Arpaia also received pizza training), it turned out puffy-crusted pies that were beautiful and delicious.  Now that's crafty!

2nd Christmas, Late Valentine's and Other Celebrations

It was almost like 2nd Christmas yesterday as we celebrated 3 birthdays, an anniversary and I brought some late Valentine's Day gifts too.  And this after the start of the Olympics, President's Day, Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras!

I had to wrap up the heart soaps I made, so I made a few miniature gift bags from a Martha Stewart pattern. 

And I wanted to be purple for the day, so I wore this beaded tank from Forever 21

and some light purple jewelry: this beautiful beaded necklace from Cameo Sisters Designs and ring from a trip to Chicago

My Dad had bought my Mom some little purple glasses

and I brought purple wine (and yea, my grandfather likes the box stuff )

And of course there were presents!

I got this gorgeous lilac Le Creuset casserole dish for my Aunt Liz.

[from Yummery]

On the Yummery site, Erin from Erin Cooks explains that this color was only recently made available in the US and right now Sur La Table has the exclusive on the lilac and the darker purple cassis colors, fab!

The other day I mentioned a gift that made me think of pink, pearl and ribbon and that was this Lion Brand knit flapper cloche for my grandfathers wife, Ruth.

Instead of the Landscapes Yarn in the pattern a very helpful woman in the shop recommended the yarn on sale this month: Wool-Ease Thick and Quick.  It's a lamb' s wool/acrylic blend, also a Super Bulky weight and surprisingly soft: it knit up in about 5 hours, so yes (relatively), quickly!  

I say pearl because at some point the shape reminded me of Pearl, the pink octopus in Finding Nemo.  It was even able to stand up on its own!  Let's compare:

[from freewebs.com]

Actually, this would probably make a pretty good amigurumi.  Eventually I got to the end of the knitting part and was all proud, until I realized that I hadn't joined the round.  Oops...

It was sewn up quickly, just ironic since I was already using circular needles, so why didn't I think of that before?  But it turned out fine and then I added this cool 2-tone pink/blue ribbon from Paper Presentation.

It was a good, relaxing day.  And I love that my Mom always has flowers around the house.  Maybe someday i'll learn how to keep a plant alive.