Studio Cozy

My friend Karen went to London on her own for a long weekend, and brought me back a TEA COZY. This is the perfect addition to my room at the top of the house; and it gives me the perfect excuse to carry a teapot upstairs with me.

I feel that it is ALSO the perfect excuse to plan my own trip to London. One of these days. Maybe Autumn. We'll see...the airfares are temptingly low.

In the meantime, I'm drinking Ostfriesan Tea out of a Japanese Teapot under a British Tea Cozy.

:-)

That little room upstairs has been getting a lot of use lately. Lars has a desk now, in the corner, by the window. I thought I'd had a BRILLIANT idea in the two of us sharing the desk, (because let's face it: I need somewhere to put the pens/pencils/paper cutter/tape....) Lars agreed, but I noticed he put out a nametag for himself. See that there??? With the volcano, below?

Eliza's desk is quite a sight. I'm not ready to share it publicly. For Christmas she got one of those page-a-day calendars called "The Rule of Cuteness" with photos of every kind of baby animal, and she has what seems to be 200 of them taped up like wallpaper around her little table.

But back at the MAIN table with the sewing machine, I've been "stitching myself together" over the last several weeks. I have the best pin cushion ever -- another gift from sweet friends. The kids can't keep away from this -- it has a secret compartment in the base. :-)

I bought Heather Ross' book Weekend Sewing and was so over-the-moon that I ordered some of her suggested music to play while sewing: The Be Good Tanyas. How in the world could I resist, after all? I'm sorry to tell you, however, that it's not nearly as uplifting as one would hope. It feels like listening to Sylvia Plath set to music.

So, I switched out to happier music and felt ready to move up a notch in my projects. It was time to try one of the patterns out of the pattern magazine, Ottobre. You can see my translation pages there, into English from FINNISH; (I know...what was I thinking?? Well. I remember what I was thinking: how hard can this be? It sounds easy enough...just one step after another. ha.ha.)

Here is a detail. It's the best part of the dress....which on Eliza is more like a tunic. It's wide and short. But, we have the stripey-pink capris, so I am fantasizing that will make it all okay.

Ottobre is going back on the shelf, and I am moving onward with lots and lots of baby gifts. In English. ;-)