croque-choux

Frivolous eBay purchases #2

Yeah, I know I know... "what are you going to do with that? Okay, so I don't know yet, but I like the idea of altered dominos for jewelry like these here, and Stef Francis' idea I saw in Quilting Arts magazine for making lovely things with silk cocoons. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be buying empty silk cocoons on eBay, I probably would've told them that they were batcrap crazy... But maybe I'm the one who's crazy?

Goodies!

My brother brought me these great magazines from back home! This is the first copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors I've ever had in hand, and it's every bit as interesting as Quilting Arts magazine (their sister publication). Oh dear, now I want to subscribe to this too... So much inspiration in these babies!

Line up if you like Anne-Claire Petit

This one is for all of you crochet/ softie/ zakka fans out there... Aren't these cute? Wanna see more? Then check out the website of Dutch designer Anne-Claire Petit. She also designs pretty bags, incredibly cute children's clothes, and accessories for the home too! I saw some of her soft toys in one of these little shops in Paris, nice places to find special toys and baby gifts if you ever come here for a visit.

Another frivolous eBay purchase

"Hey honey, your sumo wrestler fabric came in the mail..."
I am too worn out right now to post anything other than my latest eBay purchase. I hope it will bring a smile to someone's face somewhere :o)

Things I tried not to buy

Not much new here... Friday was the last day of my InDesign class and we've been having weird up & down temperatures here, which probably explains why I have another headache... I am writing this between two doses of Zomig. Since class is over for now, I won't be running around blvd de l'Opéra for awhile trying not to spend any money! Here are the last 2 things that I bought: a Japanese craft magazine called "Couturier", which has a few cute ideas that I'd like to try. The first two on my list are a pea pod purse and a macramé bracelet. I also picked up this Vogue pattern. It's so very embarrassing to spend nearly 17€ on a pattern when you're an ex fashion design graduate. Le moment de honte est vite passé. It will only be more embarrassing if I mention this pattern on my blog, and then never make it. Say tuned.

Robot Jewelry

Ohmygosh, I am just SO wanting some of this adorable Japanese robot jewelry! Four Season has really cute jewelry, original buttons, and hair accessories. Oh yeah, and how about these earrings if you're not into robots, hmmm? I thought so...

"Maman, je t'aime"

Mother's Day was Sunday here. This is what I got:

- an adorable handmade card from my son
- a lovely exotic bromelia plant from my daughter
- a cool book off my wishlist from the DH
- a migraine headache

Well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad...
I even managed to drag myself into class Monday morning (this week: InDesign). More on the Embroidered Purse book later. I didn't even get a chance to go through it yet because my head was imploding on Sunday.

Feeding the stash

It's been awhile since I've bought any fabric... I promised myself I would only look at the kimono fabric for sale on eBay, until I found a deal I couldn't pass up that is. They're just small scraps, but pretty and cheerful. Something to brighten up my stash. Luckily, the one on the left turned out to be chirimen silk.

Waiting to create

These are recent crafty purchases that have been waiting around on my sewing machine the past few days. Only ONE of these reasons for not creating anything lately is NOT TRUE:

a) My daughter had a slumber party and took over the house, and I had to stop her little brother from constant gate crashing.
b) I had to clean up the entire house from top to bottom in preparation for the afore-mentioned party.
c) I had another migraine, due to drastic temperature changes here and due to all that un-natural domestic activity.
d) I had to quickly find another graphic design training class, and fill out a zillion forms to sign up for it.
e) I was way too busy entertaining George Clooney to even think about art, or blogging for that matter.

A tough guess, I know.

In fact, the last crafty thing I did was finish that mosaic birdhouse on Friday. I'll post a picture in awhile. Anyway, getting back to my purchases, I am particularly intrigued to find out what the Setacolor fabric paints will look like. I bought Oriental Red "transparent", which can be used for sun printing among other things, and Shimmer Jet Black "opaque" paint, which is black with deep blue highlights and is supposed to have a moiré finish.

Cocoon bling-blings!

Many thanks to Sandy in the U.K. for pointing me in the right direction! I can order the silk cocoons here and they even have that awesome cocoon necklace I was marvelling over in the latest issue of Quilting Arts (no. 17). Apparently it's sold in a kit and is called the Harlequin necklace. I can't thank Sandy enough because the site she directed me to has more cool fibers and threads than I could possibly imagine. I can feel my credit card burning a hole in my back pocket, a la Raiders of the Lost Ark (you remember that scene, don'tcha?). Okay okay, I'll stop raving if you go and check out Sandy's blog now!