OH MY

These roofs and houses are amazing. Loving Feldmen Architecture.

SOCK MONKEY

Holy cow this is cute! Someone make this for me STAT. Oh, and one for Casey too. Vintage Umbrella even posted the pattern she made.

PATTERN DONE!

And it took me less than a year and a half to write it. Oh well.


You can find it in my Etsy shop.

I WISH I WAS A BETTER TREE HUGGER

(I need to justify owning this van. I will hug more trees.)

Mike and I had a quick trip down to Montana and a couple of nights we got takeout or we had a leftovers from a restaurant. We don't do this very often now that we live out of town, but it's incredible to see the amount of waste produced from eating out. The tiny little garbage cans in the hotel room were beyond full and I automatically thought, "They need bigger garbage cans in here." Wait...what?

Last year I was all determined to decrease the amount of waste I created. I love making these big bold commitments and setting myself up for failure because all I have done is move out to Mike's farm where we burn our garbage. That is a reduction because it isn't going to a landfill, but we are still burning it, and that has it's own problems. I barely used the cloth diapers I got. Big failure.

Then, Mike tells me last week that the fleece from our clothing is sloughing off in the wash and contaminating the oceans. You can't even safely recycle plastic into fleece. Sometimes you just can't win in life.

This morning I was again inspired by the Zero Waste Home. Not only have they cut their waste, but supposedly 40% of their costs as well.

First resolution of the year, start cutting back on waste. Again.

QUILTS

I've been writing directions for my quilt over the past few days and in the midst of it have been admiring and been inspired by other quilts designed by amazing people. One thing I miss about being in a work environment filled with creative people is seeing their work. Creativity feeds off of creativity.

Katy Jones is not only a very cool looking tattooed artist that I would like to be friends with, sewed this amazingly beautiful quilt which colors keep me coming back for one more look.


She had it quilted by Angela Walters. Um...wow.


I've been watching Kellie Wulfsohn for a while. She does amazing raw edge applique and her quilts are artistically exciting to me and the colors jump. She recently finished this Animal Alphabet quilt that I wish I had created. Those yaks are killing me.

This is the quilt that inspired me to design a quilt. I saw this hanging on the wall in a great quilt shop in Utah and couldn't get over how rich it was. Sue Spargo uses her own hand-dyed wool on her quilts. My next quilt I want to do as separate blocks like this seems to be. I also really want to use wool. Could be fun!


And her embroidery completely inspires me. I love this extra element on quilts, which is why I used it too.


I have recently discovered Denyse Schmidt. The simplicity of her designs are very current and I love that. There are many, many, many country quilt designs out there and it gets a little tiresome. It's just great to see fresh beautiful design.




I really admire Lori Holt's design. I love how her quilts tell a story and the different elements she uses in the appliquéd top. There is a real 50's vibe to me. I'm going to aim for a quilt that tells a story next I think.


These images were found at Diary of a Quilter.


And there you have it, inspirations for the night to keep me inspired and hopefully you too. And now to bed.

KINDLE SHMINDLE

I've said it before and I'll say it again, nothing beats a real book. Love this bookstore's logo and signage too.

TINY HOMES

This has been on my mind a lot lately. Well, houses are always on my mind, but lately it's tiny houses. Mike and I have been dreaming of relaxing by a lake somewhere and I would love to do it in a small cottage. No need for a sprawling McMansion to take up beautiful outdoor space.


I love this house from Creative Cottages, LLC. Most tiny homes are just a plain rectangle, but this rectangle has such great style. It's amazing what can be designed with just a little more thought.



I can just imagine walking into the light interior with it's whitewashed exposed beams and gray fireplace. The perfect getaway.



I think it is immoral how developers, banks, cities, whomever, pretty much forbid you to build anything smaller than 1200 sf anymore. And we are brainwashed too! I often sat in my 1000 square foot house, (huge compared to what I have been looking at lately) thinking I needed a second bathroom for when company came. WHY?? Company came two or three times a year and then it was just me and my dog and he didn't require another bathroom. In fact, he insisted on being in my tiny bathroom at the same time as me.


To bad Southern Alberta has a real shortage on lakes.