happy valentine's day

Happy valentine's day, enjoy a little love from cute overload....

what could be better than a matryoshka theramin

in between work and school and life and sleep

Somehow, probably because Rob has taken all the pics and worked a ton with me, we have managed to get our SAKI etsy shop stocked again. It has been WAY too long and I hope you all will go check it out. Of course, in the process of working on all of this new stuff, the dining room has become additional studio space :)
Here's a pile of lovely little things getting tagged.

and some more stuff...

shower

We helped host a fun little shower last night for anne and helen, it was fun and I hope miss A had a good time. I had fun with the immaculate conception theme miss dark came up with and this is the invite I drew up...

The house was warm and cozy, the cupcakes were sugary and there were plenty of butter mints!
Here is miss A with the stroller/lap quilt I made for sparky :)It is backed with lime green and white cotton chenille.

Hopefully next time we get a visit from miss A the whole family will be in tow!

flea market find

I found these great deco style dining chairs at the flea market in the fall. I had been looking for some new chairs for my work room and didn't want to spend much. Well, these beauties were $15 total and I decided to recover the seats in some Amy Butler fabric I had in my stash.
My husband helped, as it does take four hands to pull fabric, hold in place and staple to the underside of the seat!
I think they turned out really well and my total project cost was probably around $30. Not bad for two new, great looking, chairs.

long time no see

wow. It has been a really long time, long enough for the new year to have arrived...oh seven was an interesting and long year. Like every year I guess, full of highs and lows unfortunately the lows in our family were much lower this year.
Rob's step-father passed in August, succumbing to a battle with lung cancer. His family is doing well and I know they are probably all happy to have the bittersweet christmas season behind them. We shared a very keyed down celebration with them this year and I know new traditions will be formed in the coming years.
The family celebration with my family this year was also different, we celebrated at our house because my parents are in the process of renovating theirs. It was fun to play host and also was surprisingly relaxed. We made Chinese food instead of the traditional fare and it was SO delicious. Although, I don't think my sister or I will ever be undertaking home made moo shu pancakes again!
Rob and I took the logical next step after being married for amost 7 years....we got a dog. His name is Soda, hi.

Between school continually consuming more and more time and family being in the forefront my poor little blog has had no life :)
But one of my non-resolutions resolutions is to blog again because i love it.
So, Happy New Year, welcome 2008!!!!!

crafters anonymous

I have always , like most of us probably, been a sucker for Martha. The photography, the ideas...great inspiration. Well, I walked into Michael's a couple of weeks ago and lo and behold, Martha has a new craft line! I love it and can't wait to use this banner
at a party this summer.

In fact, I wish I had already purchased it before my brithday a few weeks ago!


The website has so many great products, there are some awesome letter stamps I am lusting over and thanks to a coupon might just have to splurge for!
I'll play nice and share my coupon ;)

just go here
even if it's just to drool a little :)

my school fashion show

Here's my bridal look from the end of year fashion show. I finished twelve women's cocktail/evening looks and five childrenswear pieces. The photos aren't perfect but you can view the rest of them over on flickr.

It was amazing to see proportion and color from the vantage point a runway show provides. The scale is SO different than any other moment in the creative process and I feel that I learned a great deal about what translates from design to presentation on a runway. I can't believe I have my first runway project behind me! I put so many hours into these garments and I can't wait to do some testing with them. Just need to organize another photo shoot!

um, where to begin

So, I'm still alive, if anyone had their doubts :) and have a ton (as usual) to post about.
The fashion show was great and there is an article up here about my designs! I won a serger as a "Critic's Choice" prize and can't wait to get it threaded up. I'm working on getting pics together but there are a few good ones in the Fashion Nashville article.
Summer is here, so I am out of school for a bit and trying to deal with ninety degree days. Just repeat, I love Nashville, I love Nashville, I love Nashville and eat a popsicle...most days it works. We have enjoyed some time with friends on our new-ish apartment's deck. Thankfully on those days we had some relief from the heat.
One way we have been trying to beat the heat is to eat salads for dinner. I have a couple of recipes, no glossy pics though, for some things we have enjoyed.

Tropical Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps with Spicy Broccoli Slaw

2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup diced celery
3 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts ( at our local grocer they have them in a little 1/2c bag pre-chopped)
1 clove garlic finely minced
1/2 cup diced pineapple (you can use fresh or canned-if you use canned drain the pineapple first)

Combine the ingredients above in a medium sized bowl.
Pt 2...the dressing

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light mayo
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp chili garlic sauce (comes in a jar with a green lid and a rooster on the front)
Juice of 1 lime
a pinch of...
cayenne pepper
tarragon
thyme
oregano
and salt and pepper to taste

Combine dressing and pour over chicken mixture. Combine thoroughly with a spoon.

Spicy Broccoli Slaw

One bag (12oz I think) broccoli slaw with shredded broccoli hearts, red cabbage and carrots.
1/4 cup mayo
juice of two limes
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon seasoned rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (same as used above) (this makes a medium hot slaw, if you like spicy add 1 tablespoon instead)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine dressing ingredients and pour over slaw. Let rest for about thirty min. in the fridge before serving. Or, if you are impatient like me, eat it right away :)

So serve this dish on a large platter with washed and dried leaves of bibb or boston lettuce, the chicken salad and the broccoli slaw. Pile a bit of each onto a piece of lettuce, wrap and eat. This goes really well with sweet potato fries on the side.

The next recipe is for a great, EASY, summer fruit dessert.

Fresh Peach Sauce over Vanilla Ice Cream

6 peaches, diced
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons Amaretto Liquer
A pinch of ground clove

Combine all ingredients and let rest in the refrigerator all day. Serve about 1/4 cup of peach sauce over a serving of really good vanilla ice cream.

I'll be back soon with a big update...for now enjoy your weekend!

first deadline met!

I met the first fitting deadline for the student fashion show and am glad it went as well as it did. I have twelve pieces in my womens collection and hopefully I will have 5-6 pieces in the childrens (they are having a hard time finding children for the show)
I have tons of work to post about, here's the first round of illustrations I completed for the show collection. (sorry about the horrible photos, my boards are too big for the scanner)

this is my only bridal look in my collection. This dress is almost finished.

This yellow silk draped bodice has a little less pleating in real form but it is almost done too!!
Now fitting in with my women's collection is this girls collection for ages 2-6. The little raglan sleeve dress is one I chose to actually complete and it is made of silver silk crepe back satin.

I'll have pics next week of more clothes on models and dress forms but here are two dresses I'm almost finished with. (Yes, I'm ALMOST FINISHED with all of it :) )

these two dresses are pretty different but within the collection I feel like they make more sense.


I am happy with this dress, I need to finish the sash. The bodice fabric is a silk from a vintage dress I bought maybe 8 years ago. It was meant for this project!! I ripped all the seams apart and reinforced the fabric with french fuse interfacing. (it is my favorite interfacing in the world, it is lightweight, will fuse at lower temps and always stays smooth)
Here is a pic of one of my dresses before I draped the pattern.

Anyway, I'll have more to post after I take pics on the dress form. All twelve dresses in my collection need to have zippers in by next week so I'll be sewing like crazy!