Getting back into crochet with my best rectangle yet! I made a color-blocked winter cowl. In an attempt to get a better handle on the basics, I made this entire cowl using single-crochet stitch, with an emphasis on consistent tension and as straight an edge as I could manage. I’m… Read More »Winter Crochet Cowl
What’s an ear-saver? It’s a strap that goes around the back of your next when you’re wearing a mask. You hook the ear-loops of the mask onto the buttons, which sit behind your ears, instead of on your ears. This makes the mask fit better, tighter, and it takes all… Read More »Crochet Ear-savers
This may be the last wedding post that I subject you to on this platform. Mostly because the bulk of wedding photos have more to do with the people than design, and I do try to keep this blog somewhat in line with the theme of creation. If you want… Read More »Wedding Decor Sweetheart Table
This post is not for the faint of heart. I do not recommend washing your wedding dress at home if it is made of silk, or if you would suffer great emotional distress if your dress becomes damaged by your own hand. If, however, the $200 to $400 price tag… Read More »How to Wash a Wedding Dress at Home
Happy New Year! May 2023 bring you exactly what you need. I’m still digesting 2022, and the big wedding reception that consumed most of the year, but looking forward to the changes brought about by the new year. Today I’m posting a few photos of wedding décor details, like the… Read More »Wedding Décor: Details
Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season! Back now with another wedding highlight; this time, tablescapes that are just screaming to be added to Pinterest, but I’m busy. We chose this venue with its refinished rustic barn because the whole scene looks complete with minimal décor. Wedding décor is… Read More »Wedding Decor: Tablescapes
We got professional photos back!! Courtesy of Red Letter Photography, I shall tease you first with what I imagine was the most difficult part of the day to photograph, our big entertainment surprise of a live dancer! Jake and I knew pretty much from day-one of planning that we didn’t… Read More »Surprise Wedding Belly-Dancer
The garden is expanding!! After two summers and two winters supporting our local farms by buying farm-shares, trying tons of new vegetables, learning the growing seasons and what thrives in our area, we have decided that next year, we will try to grow a much larger percentage of our own food. Farm… Read More »Vegetables in the Front Yard
Another year of plague, another Family Plague Faire. Our annual backyard Renaissance Faire turned three this year and continues to expand in attendance becoming a staple pre-holiday potluck. This year we moved to the third week in November, ever searching for that weather sweet-spot. This year we came pretty close… Read More »Family Plague Faire 2022
Last week I detailed the long process of finding and purchasing the bulk of my rustic, medieval-inspired fall wedding reception. This week, I have a few preview photos of how the décor all came together. These pictures were taken during rehearsal set-up where I directed a small army to put… Read More »Wedding Décor, an Overview
This is a post about shopping for wedding decorations, because I can’t make everything. Especially not the organic items; I need farmers and tanners for that bit. Starting in the spring of 2021 I started my long and particular hunt for the more elaborate wedding decoration elements. The ones that… Read More »Sourcing Wedding Décor
Here it is! The big reveal: complete wedding looks and a preview of professional wedding photography by Red Letter Photography. My fall jewel-toned color scheme came together just as I envisioned (and carefully planned) it. It can be a challenge to plan a collection of looks when the focal point,… Read More »What We Wore: Professional Wedding Photography Sneak Peak
Now that the date has passed, I can show you, strangers on the internet, the wedding invitation suite that I designed for my vow-renewal and wedding reception. Forgive the weird color-variation that occurs between different browsers. Themed weddings can be a bit tricky to do well. A theme can easily… Read More »Wedding Invitations Design
We did it! The vows are renewed, the wedding is celebrated with friends and family. The day has past. I have not even begun to process the day and all its details. Events moved so fast it seems that every moment deserves dissection, but we’ve barely slowed down enough to… Read More »We Had a Party!
Happy Halloween, everyone! Somehow after a vow-renewal and a mini-moon to Florida we still managed to have a spooky costumed Halloween-weekend. This holiday is a priority. So what did we wear? Saturday we sponsored a hole at a spooky Disc-golf tournament where we won the costume contest in our raiders-from-the-north… Read More »Halloween 2022
I have not taken very many commissions in this very busy year, but here is one that I have recently finished and can share with you now that it has been delivered to the client. A watercolor portrait of a family home, framed by snow in the owner’s favorite way.… Read More »Portrait of a Home Commission
I have finished all seven doilies which are to be the base of a certain type of centerpiece for my upcoming wedding reception. I enjoy crocheting, but not stitches or patterns that require me to count very high, because I like to crochet while I’m doing other things, like watching… Read More »Seven Textured Doilies
Last week I learned of the passing of everyone’s favorite professor and mentor at the University of Hartford Art School, Dennis Nolan. Before he went, his daughter secretly organized one last assignment to his former students and colleagues, which was to draw and submit a small ear. Dennis was very… Read More »Legacy Ear
Oh my, have I ever written a negative faire review before? I don’t think so, but here we go, Lords and Ladies. The Massachusetts Renaissance Faire was not what we were looking for this year. I don’t know if it was the heat causing last minute cancellations or if the… Read More »The Massachusetts Renaissance Faire 2022
Well I just took all of July off from posting, didn’t I? I did come back August 1st with a finished garment; A bridal jacket, no less. Even though it’s summer, I’ve been very busy with wedding design, gardening, commissions, work, and volunteering. This drought has my lawn looking awful,… Read More »Summer Colors
The bridal jacket is finished! For now… I started this project well over a year ago when I decided that having a jacket option for an October wedding would be a safe plan. I wanted to have the jacket finished over New Years, but supply-chain issues made getting fabric and… Read More »Bridal Jacket
The latest addition to the doggie obstacle course growing in the side yard is a giant A-frame that Jake built. The dogs LOVE it. He found instructions online and built the whole thing by hand out of the garage. Jake spent a whole day sanding to make sure we don’t… Read More »K-9 Obstacle Course A-Frame
At the beginning of June Jake, myself, and several friends had a beautiful day at the Robinhood’s Medieval Faire in Harwinton, CT. We made a whole day of it, stopping for breakfast before the faire while the dogs were at their doggie resort. Starting the day well nourished, we had… Read More »Robin Hood’s Medieval Faire 2022
On May Day, my mother, and dear friends and bride’s matrons threw me the most beautiful Beltane Bridal Shower. I have been walking on air for days reading over everyone’s heartfelt cards, and unpacking a generous mountain of gifts. We had a perfect day of sunny warm weather after a… Read More »Beltane Bridal Shower
Now that the event has passed, presumably without a hitch, I don’t know, I wrote this blog post ahead of time, I can show you, the internet, my Bridal shower invitation design. The theme was Beltane, as the party fell on Beltane, and I love a good feast about gardening… Read More »Bridal Shower Stationary Design
Jake has been very slowly working on an obstacle course for the dogs. While progress has stalled on the ramp, two weeks ago during a dedicated home-improvement weekend, he finished the hurdles. Made from PVC with adjustable cradles, the bars come off very easily if a dog were to bump them… Read More »K-9 Obstacles
Our neighbors are moving and sold us two solid-pine bookshelves for the dining room. This room has always echoed, and the addition of some new many-sided furniture has helped tremendously. The plan was to paint the shelves white to match the baseboards, so last weekend as temperatures warmed up I… Read More »Painting Bookshelves
I did not make these bird houses, but I like to think that I facilitated their construction by fostering a creative environment. When we bought our house four years ago, there were some old and heavily-used bird houses mounted to the side of the old shed. Over the years I… Read More »Guest Project: Bird Houses
I want to share some more photos with you from our shoot at Purgatory Chasm because I am so in love with them all. Today I have a small presentation of the black and white images from the collection. Black and white photos change the way I experience time. Personally,… Read More »Quiet Photographs
Doilies. I’m very happy crocheting my less-than-perfect doilies. Like coloring in a mandala, round and round in meditative fashion.
My next design campaign for Artworks Westfield is for a Queer Pride show this June. Fairly self-explanatory, this show is meant to highlight LGBTQIA+ artists and LGBTQIA+ causes. I got to use our new logo, fonts, and color pallet but applied in a completely different style from the last show… Read More »Art With Pride
Another homemade detail for my upcoming bridal shower: a Welcome Sign. Made of decoupage flowers, herbs, and paint on MDF board, this sign saw several revisions as I experimented with medium and color. I collected herbs and flowers from my garden before the hard frost last year and arranged them… Read More »Shower Décor: Welcome Sign
My first design campaign for Artworks Westfield is for their Spring exhibition ‘ArtiCulture.’ My top priority as a new board member of this local non-profit is to achieve a cohesive visual brand identity. As such I have designed these promotional materials pro-bono to promote the experience of the arts within… Read More »ArtiCulture Campaign
This weekend I completed an ongoing piece of party décor that I’ve been chipping away at in my spare time. A crocheted bunting made with free yarn, the best kind of yarn. My learning-how-to-crochet journey has really stalled out at doilies, tassels, and garlands because for the most part I… Read More »Crafty Crochet Bunting
If you want something for your community, sometimes you have to do it yourself. That’s why I’m donating my time and professional expertise as a recent appointee to the board of Artworks of Westfield, Inc. Artworks is a non-profit organization who’s mission is to bring arts and culture to the… Read More »ArtWorks of Westfield
This week on weird things my husband asks me to sew for him, a foraging vest. Specifically, a mushroom foraging vest. Last fall, in the expansive opportunity of a ‘don’t-socialize-inside’ mentality, Jake started researching how to identify and forage for edible native fungi. After months of research and starting with… Read More »Foraging Vest
Commission alert! Last year (? maybe, what is time?) I was commissioned to sew a custom A/C cover to keep the draft out of a mountain resort condo unit with a permanent A/C unit installed. I now have photos back of the cover in it’s new home. The cover is… Read More »Air Conditioning Unit Custom Cover
I take my leisure-wear very seriously. Considering I don’t leave the house much working from home and navigating a pandemic, it makes sense that more and more of my wardrobe is becoming house-clothes. This January I’m focusing on wrapping up unfinished projects around the house before making way for the… Read More »Silk Nightgown with Train
Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you for joining me in 2022. I had a little time off over the holidays and my biggest project was to construct myself a bridal jacket to wear at our wedding celebration later this year. The project is going great; the pattern that I chose… Read More »Bridal Jacket Work in Progress
Happy Winter Solstice. The changing of the year is a wonderful time for reflection. Especially useful in this prolonged time of great uncertainty, change, and fear. I’ve been reading a lot more than I’ve been making, and that’s been a part of my personal reflection. Spending time with topics that… Read More »Purgatory Chasm
Welcome to the family, Nimbus, who just turned six months old. His first Christmas approaching, I sewed him a stocking to match the rest of the family from scraps leftover from two years past. He’s been with us since August, but with every monogramed accessory or matching training aid, it… Read More »A Stocking for Nimbus
On the second weekend of November, Jake and I hosted the second annual Family Plague Faire in our side-yard. Inspired last year by pandemic lockdowns and the closures of all our annual renaissance faires, the event’s inaugural year was a covid-compliant tiny event with only eight guests in attendance and… Read More »Second Annual Family Plague Faire
When it’s hard to take on big projects, we take on small ones. This year has slipped through my fingers like sand; Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so too, another birthday. When I look back on the last 11 months and think of what went right, one of the… Read More »Blue Cotton Apron, Ahead of Thanksgiving
In the fall we harvest. We pickle, we can, we freeze. All winter, it’s baking. What garment helps with all that more than any other? An apron, of course. I’m in an apron-making mood. They are all my favorite sewing projects in one: utilitarian, good for scraps, all rectangles. If… Read More »Apron-Making Mood
Still working my way through a box of yarn, this time, making ‘rustic’ doilies. I started out with a pattern or two, but found that my gauge and the author’s were not matching up, which results of course in a not-very-flat doily. I therefore abandoned the patterns and struck out… Read More »Crochet Crazy Doilies
Crochet is extremely addictive, and I am falling down the rabbit hole. My second practice project, as I learn this new art, was a chunky triangle scarf in two colors. I learned a new stitch: a scallop, (ooo) and I employed a treble crochet to make the scallops tall and… Read More »Chunky Orange Triangle Scarf, Crochet
First actual project of my learn-how-to-crochet journey complete! I made a draw-string produce bag out of some low-quality medium weight yarn, not suitable for garments or anything I really want to last. The yarn broke a lot while stitching, so I have a lot of random knots tied into this… Read More »Ugly Crochet Produce Bag
Small, local, outdoors; our second Renaissance faire of 2021. Still deeply impacted by the pandemic, but fun and comforting nonetheless. Garb made by me, but nothing specifically made for this event. It was a hot one. I don’t know why more fair don’t run in November…beat the snow, but pass… Read More »Massachusetts Renaissance Faire 2021
Boy, what a summer it’s been, right? Heat waves, flooding, thunderstorms, wind and cold? Not exactly the summer we were all hoping for in the United States after over a year in lockdown. In between raindrops, we did manage to spend a few hours on the beach. Ok, sometimes we… Read More »Beachy Kaftan Robe
I am planning a trip to the beach for the first time in years. Having just thrown out a decade’s old beach tote that was collecting a smell, there was a hole in my arsenal of bags waiting to be filled. I’d been saving a yard of gorgeous printed cotton… Read More »Giant Beach Bag