Softies Central

Laundry Day

Laundry day, clotheslines in a summer breeze, and washing up all evoke memories of a simpler time.

Clothesline by CowBird

Clothespin dolls by samandviolet

 

Lingerie laundry bag from sewthatsit

 

Twine keeper clothespin doll by myfriendamy

 

Dryer balls by thebashefulsheep

 

Clothespin doll from The Small Object

The Restorative Nature of Crochet

Did you see this news story about the Italian earthquake? A 98 year old woman was trapped for 30 hours and when rescued, said she had passed the time crocheting!

The 98-year-old villager, from Tempera, near L'Aquila, yesterday became one of the latest survivors to be dragged from the rubble left by Monday's devastating earthquake in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. For 30 interminable hours, she lay below the ruins of her house, a few miles from the epicentre.

So what did she do to while away the time, not knowing whether she would live or die as rescue workers dug towards her? The answer, it seems, was "crochet". (via The Guardian)

At Random

Random images that I can't stop looking at...

Leftover crocheted bits from one of my favorite artists, Gooseflesh

The most amazing papercut by the most amazing artist, Elsita.

This is not my Barbie but I had this doll and this outfit when I was a kid - it was my favorite dress of all times and I've *never* forgotten it - it holds such magic for me. Thanks to spanish moss for sharing this photo on her flickr here.

Another memory of a sort - this is of a building in Damascus, Syria. The photo was taken by pixellent. I grew up in the Middle East and though I've not been to Damascus, I love this image and wish I could go tomorrow.

Replicating the Candy Land board game with 100,000 seed beads. by Peggy Dembicer

Starbucks never looked so good

Via NYT

Makes me smile!

Reform School Craft Classes

Reform School in LA is one of my favorite places filled with handmade things from people I know and people I'd like to know who sell on Etsy, on their blogs, etc. And now they're having craft classes! I just signed up for one.

Quote Lovers Unite!

Thanks to everyone who left me a quote in the comments! I guess I'm not alone in this obsession uh, collecting.

The quotes were ALL so great - everything from Shakespeare to Helen Keller to PePe Le Pew and Grocho Marx!

I've picked three random winners instead of just one cause there were so many people who participated. Winners - I'll email you directly to get your address and choice of either Zakka Sewing or The Softies Kit. Click on the book images on the left nav which will take you through to Amazon if you want to read more about each book.

But then I picked a few more winners cause there were TOO many that touched me. Everyone whose quote is listed below gets a free book! Yeh!

The first three were chosen randomly to win and are great! The bottom group are my extra picks.

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From a Jimmy Stewart film:

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" -- she always called me Elwood -- "In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me." Elwood P. Dowd (Harvey)

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"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times." -Aeschylus

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From Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks Movie) - "It could be worse, it could be raining!" [Sharlene - please email me with our contact info :-)]

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And then these are my favorites. I was in a particularly pensive mood last week as it was my last at my day job - my contract ended and I was a little sad.

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us." Helen Keller

"Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love." --Wally Lamb

"When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun." Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare

The next two made me laugh!

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx

The woman who commented wrote: "When I was a little girl, my father and I loved watching PePe Le Pew mainly b/c of his adorable quotes. To this day (and I'm 35) my dad will send me a quote from time to time via e-mail. It brightens my day. So although these couple of quotes aren't earth moving perhaps they will put a smile on your face. To get the full effect, you have to read it with a fake French accent."
"You know, most men would get discouraged but now fortunately for you, I am not most men!"
“Where are you, my little object of art? I am here to collect you.”

And this one is a great original quote!

"In your mouth or in the bin!" Not from a famous person, but from the woman who left the comment. She said, "A quote I say daily as the kids fiddle with their chewing gum! Many times I've had to reach for the scissors to remedy a gum in hair problem......"

Dirty Little Secrets

I have a confession.

I'm a quote collector. Not like Bartlett.

Letters for sale on Etsy by custompapercuts

I memorize quotes. I write them in a journal.  I bookmark, I highlight, I tape scraps of paper to the fridge. I repeat my favorites to myself as if they could explain the world to me.

When I shop for books, I look first to see if the author has a included a quote after the title page. Here's one I saw at Borders today although I forget what book it was in - "Everything you can imagine is real." -- Picasso. That's cool.

It's a little like this quote from Walt Disney - "If you can dream it, you can do it." I used that in a ppt. presentation at work once. It totally worked.

My all time favorite quote is the first line in Daniel Martin by John Fowles, "Whole sight; or all the rest is desolation." 

And a 2nd fav, "They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered." This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Romantic in the doomed kind of way that he loved Zelda.

And..."Curiouser and curiouser!", "No room, no room". The second one is said by the Dormouse when Alice arrives at the Mad Hatter's tea party. I love every sentence in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I must re-read it again soon.

I'm always looking for new great quotes, so please leave your favorite quote in the comments by midnight Friday Jan. 30th, I'll pick someone at random and send you a copy of Zakka Sewing or The Softies Kit - your choice. :-)

Beautiful/Kawaii Things

There is a bit of pink and orange in the items below -- not intentional - but it shows what catches my eye.  No theme here - just things I like that I don't usually show here.

Casserole dish and lunch box

Shinzi Katoh

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Mushroom house by Bella Dia

Discovered on Julia Rothman's Book by It's Cover blog

Butterfly bracelet by Grainne Morton and some of her brooches below. Here's a video of her talking about her work.

A house made of sweets by rus in urbus.

Papier mache dolls by Holli

A little of this and that

Today was Felt Club in Los Angeles. I'm so sorry to say I wasn't able to go! I've been looking forward to it for months! I hope it was a great event for all my crafty girlfriends who had booths and shopped there!

And a little catch up - I went to visit Kelly at Super Buzzy last weekend in Ventura! SO much fun! Here's Kelly with some cute Japanese fabric and then a photo of trim and stuff I had to bring home. :-)

And finally, little Luna, my sweet little kitty. She's a platinum Tonkinese with a little greyish nose, ears and tail/paws. She has aqua eyes. Isn't she lovely? She's a whirlwind of energy and mostly when I try and take her photo, I end up with a blur or she's out of the frame entirely. 5 months old.