VDAY -2010

This weekend I got to catch up on sleep and sunshine, and good friends!
Levan & Heather had us over for a V-Day party on Saturday, and we had yummy cupcakes and kept Leo up all night by using out outdoor voices inside :) Sunday night, Agata made us dinner in her lovely dining room with red flowers, red cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries and an amazing homecooked meal. I think it's my nicest Valentine's weekend ever :)

Placed Mats

I received these beautiful floral napkins from Crate & Barrel as a wedding gift, and I set out recently to make some pretty placemats to go with them. Lo and Behold, I actually found the same fabric print online, and ordered enough to make my own super matchy mats. I selected a green for the side borders that coordinates with the print AND my newly painted dining room! I'm super delighted by this. I sewed them up, and put them out only to discover they are too large to fit our little dining table. So I'm embracing the overlappyiness here and pretending it's intentional!


Also all week, though I was stupid tired everyday, i eeked out a few felt mongram valentines for the work girls. We all wore them proudly today, in a loving Valentiney mood!

Fallen Fruit Trees

On Thrusday night, I went with the Punch Studio Art Department Ladies to an opening at Royal T Cafe - a fantasy/Alice & Wonderland themed show. The art was not much to mention, but there were free "Eat Me" cupcakes, great costumes, and free absinthe cocktails, and a fun free photo booth.
Today, I joined Agata and her niece Amber in a trek to LACMA, for free fruit trees. There is an on-going art project by a group called Fallen Fruit, who map public fruit trees and fruit overhang so you can eat through the city for free, and they kicked off 9 months of upcoming EATLACMA events with this weekend, 2 days of handing out free fruit trees. (EATLACMA, Fallen Fruit's nine-month series of events with tree adoptions, followed by lectures, tours, artist-curated gardens and food-themed art installations) Read more about them "here!" So Agata and I each got a California Cutie orange baby tree. Mine is already planted in the backyard, cozy and ready to grow!
After checking out the BCAM with some random free tickets from a nice lady outside, we headed over to Manni's Bakery for lunch. Amber got a chocolate raspberry cupcake with a heart on it, and it looked delicious! A lovely unexpected day of friends and trees! The next Fallen Fruit event at LACMA I really want to go to: bring tomatoes from your garden to the museum and make salsa, accompanied with Latin Salsa dancing lessons! Spicy!

Details, details, whale-tails

On Sunday I tagged along with Agata on a trip to 3rd street in Santa Monica as she had to check out stores for her job at Guess, and then hit Hennesy & Ingalls, Mecca of all art books. I still appreciate good store design after working there, and it really impresses me when I see a creative window display or in-store installments. I loved this floral cut out display,and this peacock sculpture all made out of rolled & folded & burnt paper. I wanted to buy it, rather than actual merchandise.

On my own crafty front, I made myself a bookcover for Moby-Dick, complete with sewn in whale-tail bookmark! I love it, it makes such a difference to me when the basic tiny details of my life get lots of love and attention and the mundane becomes charming.