Spring Flowery, Yarn-y, Cookie, Pretty Monday

Today was a gorgeous day in New York City, sunny, warm and very pink for me.  This week's flower arrangement is with ranunculus.  I've gotten a few bunches of ranunculus recently and I'm in love with them, but they're quite delicate so I'm hoping this bunch lasts through the week.

The stems are kind of wild actually, almost like parsley or celery, and there were a few stray unopened buds that I put in water too, maybe they'll bloom?  I tried the arrangement in a fishbowl first, but then went with just a simple upright vase as above.

It was a beautiful weekend and we walked around the city for a lot of it, feeling like bears coming out of hibernation.  We happened upon Gotham Fine Yarn and my boyfriend snapped this pic of the storefront while I went in and browsed around.

There was a cute, little table of ladies knitting and chatting and showing off their projects and I fell for this Organic Merino Wool DK from Sublime.

I looked online for a pattern from Sublime and wished I had some of their books or leaflets because I wanted to start something while we watched the Oscars.  I'm usually very bad about testing gauge, but I did a swatch for this Candle Flame Cowl and even though it's written for a bulkier yarn I loved the way it was knitting up.  This yarn is so soft and gentle, it just flows, so I'm going to go with it. 

Tonight my boyfriend was testing some cookie recipes so we got some more side-by-side kitchen time like on Valentine's Day.  While my project grew, the cookies appeared and yes, a few disappeared as well....a nice way to end the day.

Tutus, Ballet Shoes and Another March Plan

[From the Mood Fabrics Sewciety Blog]

I'm in love with this puppy and his pink tutu.  I have to get over to Mood Fabrics on 37th Street where they go on Project Runway to get started on a sewing project as I vowed to do this month.  Doing some research on a famous photographer today I found out that he had been married to a celebrated ballerina of the New York City Ballet. 

[from Wikimedia Commons]

It's been so many years since I stepped onto a stage, but I've been thinking about trying a class again.  When learning ballet you start with soft, flat slippers and eventually build up your strength for the holy grail of girly, pink, wonderment: your first pair of pointe shoes.  The creation and preparation of these harder shoes is a highly skilled, handmade craft.  There is much that a pointe shoe must go through before it's ever put on: the hard sole and toe box must be cut, sewn, shaped, pleated, baked, cured and bound in a very individualized process so it's no wonder that professional dancers become very attached to their specific shoe artisan's work.  

You would think that such a perfect, smooth satin shoe would then be cherished and protected carefully, but once shoes are in hand, the dancer sews on her own elastic and ribbons, positioning them at exactly the right place for her foot, breaks them in by pounding them on the floor, bending them in half, ripping off the satin from the toe to make a more stable platform, then binds her toes with foam, bandaids, paper towel, tape or lambswool and is finally ready to create the floating illusion of weightless, effortless grace.  A pointe shoe may only last a few hours, a few days, maybe, and then the breaking-in process has to be started again with a new pair, so many dancers keep several handy.   

I'm not sure if I'll ever be up on my toes in pointe shoes again, but I'm going to check out a class at Peridance Capezio Center near Union Square, so I was thrillled today to buy a pair of the soft pink slippers from On Stage Dancewear at Madison and 34th Street.  These are just made from canvas, no hardware inside, so now I just have to sew on the straps and definitely do a little more stretching first.  It's been a while...

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

Sitting in the office today at 5:34 p.m. we excitedly realized that the sun had not yet gone down.  The days are finally getting longer and brighter!  I think I've mentioned that I'm ready for spring.  I've decided that a) I'm going to do a flower arrangement each week, so this week's is made from freesia: the citrusy, almost peppery fragrance is my friend at work right now.  The florist told me to keep the stems long and I'm glad he did; they worked in this long beaker vase.

And b) I'm going to tackle my sewing machine this month for sure.  I've pre-ordered Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts from Amazon and it comes out at the end of the month so I want to be ready. 

I'm looking forward to March!

Last Pink Post in February

Of course there will be pink in other months too...but I started this month of love with a pink post and will end it with one too: this from my boyfriend's perspective.  We both like to take pics and compare so we can see the day from both of our viewpoints: so this was his take on my Valentine's Day Heart Soap project. 

Enjoy and onward to March!

Post Postscript

I finished my flower post and got back to work, only to find this gorgeous handbag campaign by Loewe from Spain, so just a quick PS:

The flowers are in Turquoise, Pantone's Color of the Year for 2010 and I love, love these shots...

The dreamy, languid imagery reminds me of The Fountain, a film by Darren Aronofsky, also director of Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler.  Also set partly in Spain, I fell in love with The Fountain and its themes about life, creativity and fighting for everlasting love, highly recommended.  I'm also incredibly excited about Aronofsky's next venture: Black Swan with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, 2 of my favorite actresses in a ballet battle, can't wait!  OK, one more shot:

And to continue the flower theme today, I saw my friend Koru Kate's post for her Koru Wedding Style blog.  Now she's a wedding planner planning her own wedding and I wish I could make her this Flowerette Sash from J. Crew, pretty!

Damn Groundhog...

Really, Punxsutawney Phil, you had to see your shadow and run away for weeks and weeks?  I was loving this amigurumi groundhog from Planet June, so cute and innocent, and then you doomed us to 6 more weeks of winter?  You may be the most famous ever, but the other groundhogs don't even agree with you!

It's raining in NYC today and supposed to change to sleet, ice, snow... and then a NOR'EASTER by Thursday??  Well, I'm thinking about spring anyway and these flowers were crafted out of sugar by the amazing Sylvia Weinstock.  Here are some closeups (don't mind the traces of icing from the cake they adorned).  I'm SO into these...

My Valentine's Eve arrangement reminded me to surround myself with flowers until spring comes (ok, well, *always* would be nice too), so this is my desk at work right now: a white phalaenopsis orchid and orange ranunculus:

I wasn't familiar with the ranunculus until I saw this beautiful arrangement on A Little Sussy and now I'm definitely obsessed with them.  On my way home last night I got some tulips because I agree with Suburban Zen about buying some for yourself instead of waiting for someone else to send you some.

I also walked by Carlo's Bakeshop, the bakery from the show Cake Boss on TLC.  I wrote about the long lines that are now outside on the weekends, making it impossible to get in there for a cannoli, but the cakes sure are pretty.

P.S. the animal-directed sarcasm at the top of this post is done waaay better by the author of FU Penguin: Telling Cute Animals What's What.  I'd go into further detail, but my Mom is reading this, so expletives will be left out for now.

Here's hoping that spring gets here soon, it will definitely improve my mood, but for now, flowers will have to do.

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.