My goodness it's been awhile since I've posted...

We've been sprucing up the living room. Starting with a coat of paint. Winters are long in Chicago and we always miss the green, so we wanted to bring that into our living room. ( Little did we know how hard that would be. )

I love cafes. I love the way they smell, redolant with coffee and tea and warm milk and spices and baked goods and sometimes delicious sandwiches and soup. I love the soft couches and the scuffed up chairs and the piles of discarded newspapers and people on their laptops working on projects or just hanging out. I love the hiss of the steam the eclectic music selection the hum of conversation and laughter, the clatter of cups and plates and spoons and the sound of people sipping their lattes. I love the sense of community of vibrancy of creativity and knowledge. Debate and deep conversation poetry and silliness all seem appropriate.

Many of my favorite moments and memories involve cafes. Something about just taking that time to sit down, breathe, sip the coffee and dream or read or enjoy lovely conversation with the man I love or a friend dear to me, as Kate Bush says - these moments given are a gift from time.

I've been wanting to blog about some favorite cafes for awhile now. I thought I'd begin with some cafes in Edinburgh. ( Have a Cup )

It began with hand sewn pants, embroidered with rabbits in the moon and a moon gray chemise beaded with amazonite ( Lots of photos under the cut )

I've been trying to cut out my lunchtime cup of coffee to lower my stress levels. It's fortunate that I like tea, because giving up my midday moment of zen in the form of hot beverage and warm steam rising up from the cup would be just too hard.

We have a local tea chain I really like a lot Argo Tea. And today I had their Earl Grey Vanilla latte. It tasted like an orange creamsicle and made this gloomy rainy day much better.

Cheers,
Sonnett

My latest fairy doll is Luna, she is a fairy of the moon, of the water, of dreams, of the subconscious, of symbols and mystery.

( in progress pictures under the cut, one NSFW )

This summer has been full of creative projects.

( What I've been working on )

This morning I was thinking about how interesting the Steampunk trend is, and how very appropriate for our times.

( musings under the cut )

I know it's taken me almost two months to write this post, but I think it took that long to get back to everyday life and June is always very busy.

( Our trip to Edinburgh and London was amazing )

The Young Prince And The Young Princess As Told By Scheherazade
~ song by Renaissance
And you would cause the sun to see your light And then be shamed
You cover darkness with a thousand secret flames
With your love, oh my love, oh my love, my love

And I would cause the winds to blow a hundred different days
And bring the perfumes of the gardens of the ways
Of your love, oh my love, oh my love, my love

( photos under the cut )

I finally had a chance to try on most of the full ensemble and take some photos. Please disregard the black strap, not what I'm going to be wearing, and I will be wearing lace fleur de lys stockings with the shoes, but you get the idea ^_^

( Read more... )

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The dress is done. *big huge sigh of relief*. Thanks to everyone who helped keep me sane the last three months. Special thanks to Avril who swooped in to save the day by letting me borrow her sewing machine when mine crapped out, and who also made many delicious tea sandwiches. And most of all, thanks to David, who kept the house from falling into chaos, kept me fed, and had a ready shoulder to cry on when things weren't working ^_^.

I would love to post photos, but don't know if I'll have time before next week.

YAY!
Sonnett

I have to make these totoro creampuffs:


http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/15/howto-make-adorable.html

And her bento box blog is seriously amazing:
http://annathered.wordpress.com/

I'm so in the mood to be eating bento underneath blooming cherry trees, as it's gorgeous outside today. Finally!

Enjoy!
Sonnett

I've had this song in my head all week. The verse is pretty much lifted wholesale from Nirvana's "come as you are" (I suppose if you're going to steal, steal from the best ^_^) but the chorus. Holy crap the chorus. It's eating my brain in hooky-pop goodness. It helps that I like her voice, and that the production on this album is interesting ^_^

( The dress, is almost done! )

Ok. Trying not to crumble into a pile of quivering panic. Last week ended up turning into hell week. I was all set to finish the dress, and then Wednesday, my computer crashed due to massive virus. So instead of finishing the dress, I had to wipe the harddrive and do a complete reinstall. So much suck.

Good news, is my computer is back up and close to having everything reinstalled and updated.

Bad news is I'm a week behind on the dress, and over the weekend felt like I hit a wall of exhaustion worrying about the little pre-trip/wedding things that aren't getting done because I've been sewing for what feels like a thousand years.

Poor David, he's been a saint, trying to relieve my stress as much as possible, and taking on the majority of the day to day tasks while I've been sewing. I can't imagine how I would have done this without him ^_^

So. Almost done. Just one more week. Just one..more..weeek....
Sonnett

A little Joy Division, a little Wolf Parade, a little Morissey, a little U2...

Airborne Toxic Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2YnDlEMXiU

Yup. Pretty much done with sewing. Ever. ( Read more... )

ganked from lylan


Bwahahahah! I laugh in your regular fork user direction.

Get your own at http://cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

Ok. So I know I'm being kind of trendy here, with my cupcakes last year, and now this year...it's macarons. Everybody seems to be obsessing about macarons.


Image completely and utterly ganked from the Laduree website, the birthplace of the modern macaron.

( Read more... )

The act of sewing generally ends up making me want to stab people in the face with a seam ripper. I love to design clothing, love to hand sew and embroider and cross stitch and bead on clothes. I love to paint and dye fabric too. But the act of pattern making, cutting out fabric pieces, pinning, sewing seams, and then ripping them out because I sewed the arm in inside out and backwards fill me with emotions ranging from bored to enraged.

So why, my friends, would I want to sew my own wedding dress? ( Read more... )