Holiday Garland

One of my favorite things around this time of year is receiving holiday cards and seeing how all of my friends and family are doing. Kids grow so fast. In years past I have put them in a pile to go through them maybe once or twice, but this year I decided to get crafty. I decided to hang them garland style around my living room so that I could sit and stare at all the cards when I wanted to veg out. I've meditated much on these cards throughout this December.

All I did was hang them on fishing wire with small binder clips to make them stay. I used my picture frame molding so that I wouldn't have to put holes in the walls and voila! Far off people who I rarely see have been with me on a daily basis this December.

Gingerbread Cookies

About four years ago I tore a Michael Mina gingerbread recipe out of a Food & Wine magazine and waited 2 years to make it. Yes, I have about 500 recipes in a box that look REALLY good, but I have yet to cook/bake the darn things. Well I dug the gingerbread recipe out last year and made it- 3 times! I am already baking my second double recipe of it this year! These cookies are DELICIOUS, fun and so easy to make. I usually bake the cookies and then ice and decorate them later with the kids. (I stress too much if I let the kids use the cookie cutters because rolling out the dough and getting it into the oven takes some finessing without the kids...with the kids it's a deathwish.)

Vita Collage

I've mentioned this store before, but I had no images, so I feel compelled to create a post with pictures. Vita Collage is "a thoughtful assemblage of extraordinary items" and very difficult to find online, therefore I thought I'd do the world a service by creating a little visual teaser. This place is like no other. It is full of magical inspiration that sucks me in every time. On my last visit I found a wreath for my door, and this time I found a house for my house (more on that later). There are very few places that make my heart hum and this is one of them. I'll let these photos speak for themselves. The only comparable place as divine is John Derian in New York City (where I just bought 2 Moroccan poufs over the weekend-more on that later too;)

I've considered opening a small studio space where I would paint and teach art classes. If this idea ever crystalizes, the space will be put together with this piece of heaven in mind.

2010 Year of the Tiger

The highly-anticipated 2010 Patricia Kaegi Weiss Calendar is finished and ready for sale. The 2010 calendar is inspired by the Year of the Tiger and I am so pleased with all of the images. The painting for each month is posted below, so don't look if you want to be surprised.

You can purchase the calendar by check or paypal, via this blog or my shop at Etsy. I will also have a limited number that you can purchase directly from me. It will be available in two sizes, a large size that is 13.5"x19" and a small size that is 11"x17" when hanging on the wall. The large size is printed on a thicker linen paper and costs $35 plus shipping, and the small size is printed on a glossy standard paper at a price of $20 plus shipping. I am offering a bulk rate for small calenders- $175 for ten calendars which includes tax and delivery. If you would like to order the large calendars in bulk, contact me personally and we can work something out.

I will also be offering the above Tiger image in throw pillows. More information on that soon.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

IF- I Feel Unbalanced...

...somebody stole something from me.

Milk Thistle Farm & Magnolia Bakery are What my Dreams are Made Of

Last Sunday my family went into the city for a morning at the farmer's market. This is one of the top five things I miss from living in the Upper West Side. At the weekly market we would by delicious half & half from Milk Thistle Farm, tricolor pasta from the Hudson Valley Farmhouse (while trying to find their website I came upon this incredible one which has nothing to do with this post, I just thought it was my obligation to share it because it is so cool), and yummy pastries from Not Just Rugelah. If you have the opportunity to buy fresh half & half, don't pass it up...it makes coffee SUPER SUPER delicious. I dream about it. In addition we would buy fresh produce from a number of different stands. And our extra special treat was a box of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery...yes I am addicted and I dream about them too.

A Dog in the Form of a Duck

The kids were home from school today so we decided to go on a hike with our neighbors. It was a short hike in honor of the kids, but it was full of action. Within the first five minutes we had a tag-a-long duck who thought he was a dog. We saw him swimming in the pond and within two minutes he had joined us on our hike. We were worried at first because his beak is at the same height as the children's eyes, but he had no interest in attacking- he was ready to walk with his tail wagging. After my initial fear, it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen and the kids sure got a kick out of it.

Welcome

A front door greets all guests arriving to a person's home, therefore one of the first things I did when I moved to my new house is paint the door red. In Feng Shui a red door is believed to bring good luck, which is something I value.

I hung a metal wreath (auspicious because it won't die on me!) that I had found in a fabulous store in Olema, CA called Vita Collage. It is a wonder of inspiration and I knew the wreath on their door had to be the wreath on mine. When I asked the saleslady if it was for sale she said, "Of course" and I said, "I'll take it".

It makes me so happy when I enter my house to see my pretty wreath and bright red door. Hopefully everyone else feels the same!

the before door

May in Fall

Its been so long, but I needed a blogging break. Sooo. Here is part of a larger painting that will be in my 2010 calendar. All's well. I've moved into a new house (yes, in suburbia, so I will have to change the name of my blog....maybe small town livin?). I have been trolling Craigslist and antique stores for items to furnish my home. In the process I have learned about wheeling and dealing- so much fun! Anyways I'll post some pictures of aquired items and things I've learned about a new house (there is SOOO much as all homeowners know).

Sisters

Besides the house, I've been busy with my little girls.

Happy Tuesday

Okay, Spring hit and I went AWOL...I've been really busy looking for one of these...

As well as finishing up student classes for the year...

The above is by one of my amazing students, L. This is something she whipped up in January, but I still love it.

I am also trying to reanalyze my online diary and I think I might start posting my drawings with not many words like Emma Adbage. Love her work.

I Dream of Spring

SPRING!
Flowers
Warmness
Please come NOW!!!
Maison Reve, one of my favorite stores in Mill Valley for inspiration. Spring has hit there, but it seems to have eluded New York. It snowed yesterday.

Yellow All Around

Yellow has never been a favorite color of mine, but in the last couple of years since my oldest daughter has declared her affinity for it, I have come to appreciate it. Especially after the long NYC winter. My favorite part of spring is seeing the yellow daffodils pop up all over the park. Above we had a lemon taste test. It was a very sour experience. My favorite was lemon four (the one on the far right) because it was the sweetest:)

Farmers Market Finds

I am such a fan of the farmers market. Any farmers market. I love to explore the vendors wares and look at the ripe colors of all the produce. Recently I have been buying fresh half and half at my local greenmarket in NYC and it makes my morning cup of coffee divine. It is so good that my husband (who rarely shops without being asked) went to the market this morning and bought a bottle. (I am out of town, so he knew that he had to motivate if he wanted it for the week ahead.) I am already looking forward to my Tuesday cup of coffee.

Intricate

One intricate head dress.

My Newest Amy Ruppel - A California Quail

I haven't been buying anything lately...well besides An Awesome Book by Dallas Clayton. I couldn't resist Amy Ruppel's newest bird series based on state birds. I was missing California (a daily occurrence) and decided that I had to have this little quail creation. I emailed Amy and minutes later it was mine. There are still a few states left and the next sale for the second half of the states is Friday. I'm already thinking of investing in New York...

Wine Cork Board- Another Project Completed!

For the past year I have been saving up corks to finish this wine cork bulletin board. It is about four hundred corks, and even if you are a lush- it is still A LOT of drinking. I had my parents help out, so whenever I visited them they had a plastic bag full of corks for me to take home. Adam and I took a wine class and the teacher sent me home with a large bag of corks. Pretty soon I had a ton of corks lying around the apartment, taking up space, and an unfinished board that I was too busy to finish. Shocker. The story of my life. So one day I thought, I have to get rid of these corks! I pulled out the unfinished board and just motored through it. I find that once I start up a project again, it re inspires me and is so much easier to complete. The most difficult step is taking it out of the closet (or other dark hole) I've stuck it in. Well I began going through corks and it was very easy to finish the second half and I was SSSOOOO proud of myself when it was done. It is now hanging by my front door and I love looking at it every time I open or close my door. It is really great to try to remember where all the corks are from. The Nickel & Nickel cork (towards the middle) is from our 5th year anniversary dinner in Big Sur.

If you are feeling green and would like to recycle your corks, it is super easy. What I did was go to an art supply store and bought a simple wooden frame (remember, the larger the frame the more corks you need, and the longer it takes to finish). Make sure the frame is about 1.25" deep so that it can hold the corks. Once I had the frame I cut out a piece of foam core that fit into the frame exactly. In order to make sure the corks fit, I placed the foam core into the frame and then fit the corks in from there. You can do lots of different designs- mine is fairly straightforward, but it is like a puzzle, I would piece in about eight corks and then glue them onto the foam core. I did row by row, width wise. I used tacky glue- I went to a craft store and asked the salesperson what would work best (any strong craft glue will work). When I had pieced together a good amount, I would pick up the corks and just put a line of glue on the bottom and then press it down, hold it for a moment and move on to the next one. The only difficult part was the end of the rows. Sometimes a cork wouldn't fit into the last space, so I would just cut it up with a knife to a size that would fit. (Special note: I didn't use any plastic corks). Once all the corks were glued in place (about a year after starting the project), I turned over the form core and placed it in the frame corks first. Voila- after hammering a couple of framing tacks to keep it in place, I wired it and hung it up on the wall and now have a beautiful self-made showpiece!

Embroidery with Heather Ross

During November of last year I took a couple of different crafty classes because I wanted most of my Christmas gifts to be handmade. The only successful gift that came out of the process was these (former) napkins. These are the fruit of my labor from an embroidery class with Heather Ross at Purl Patchwork. My goal was to embroider four napkins with designs that my mother would cherish enough to use. I decided to find/create images of my two daughters. Heather showed me a book of embroidery by Piu Sudo, an illustrator whose work I immediately fell in love with, and I used the bottom two designs which were originally from her book, Delightful Creations with Embroidery and Applique (I tweaked them a little bit). The top two are all mine.

Now let me preface this story. I have been a huge fan of Heather's fabric prints forever, so much so that at times I probably wish I were her. So how do you act when you take a class with a person who is an idol? Yeah, I didn't want to seem like a drooling puppy or a stalker, but it is somewhat awkward. Well, when I am nervous I talk a lot, so needless to say I was quite a chatty patty. I told everyone about how my mother was very particular so I needed to make the napkins just "SO" so that they wouldn't end up in the closet never to be seen again.

I think they thought I was a little nutty- why wouldn't my mother love anything I made?

"No" I said, "She's a Virgo, so the napkins have to be a certain way or else she won't use them. It is really difficult to explain."

They just gave me "whatever" looks and then changed the conversation to the rules of defriending on Facebook.

Well I finally finished the napkins for my mother and she loved them. I went home to New York (she lives outside SF) and she calls me a couple of weeks later and says,"Oh Patricia, I made the most adorable coasters out of your napkins." Figures.

I just want to say to my class (who will never read this) "I TOLD YOU SO".

Does anyone else have parents who always put gifts in the closet never to be seen again?

Another gift that my parents received this past Christmas was a wine holder that they had been given last year from my bother and his wife. My brother's wife had been so insulted to find it in their garage that she took it and rewrapped it for this year. Maybe she thought the timing was better the second go around.

Anyways, I wanted to write about how much I really loved Heather's class and she just came out with a new book Weekend Sewing that we were able to sneak peak in class. I think it is great and I highly recommend it if you would like some fun sewing projects.

Welcome Back Maira!

I was following my morning ritual blog-hopping and happened upon one of my favorites by Heather Ross and via her blog, found an even more favorite (sorry Heather) MAIRA KALMAN. Yes, finally after waiting two years...okay, maybe more like one and a half (but it felt like ten) she's back blogging In the Pursuit of Happiness and I couldn't be happier (I'm hanging all over her coat tails). I cried immediately when I read it. Thanks Maira. I missed you.

Today is the Luckiest Day of the Year

Tonight the Sun will meet with Jupiter making this the "luckiest day of the year" (quoting Susan Miller) therefore use it wisely. I was searching through old work and found this piece that I had done for a past January 23, and thought it very apropos to post it for today. Daffodils- I always feel so lucky when I spot them in the Spring. Unfortunately we have little while before these beauties reveal themselves, but until then, this will do.

Change has Come

The 44th President of the United States is not pale. He is vibrant.

Heaven on Earth

Over new year I was able to go to an amazing place that felt as close to heaven on earth as you can get. My husband and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, so we wanted to do something really special. We stayed at a very small inn in Big Sur, California and it was divine (And that is an understatement). Within the first five minutes of arriving, I had a glass of champagne in my hands...I knew immediately that I was in the right place. If that doesn't convince you, look at the photos. It is very eco friendly to boot. The infinity pool hangs over the ocean and some of the rooms have grass roofs. I have some beautiful paintings from here, but they aren't finished. Yikes. The story of my life.

Happy New Year!

I'm back after my extended vacation. Last month was jam packed with gift-making, traveling, painting, and many other events, so not much happened on my little blog, other than showing off my calendar, which it did pretty well. A huge thank you to everyone who bought a calendar! I am so excited by the rave reviews;) I have one New Years resolution this year, but I am not telling yet, because it is a pretty big one. I will drop hints here and there, but for now it is secret. I try to post about all of the crafty things I have been doing, like dollmaking, embroidery, and crocheting. Until then enjoy 2009! Oh and be sure to read your January horoscope by Susan Miller. She is absolutely fabulous.