Connecting: Making Signs & Friends

I'm leading this post with my finished project, a stenciled sign I made at a Coffee Convo Craft event held at the Church on the Ridge. One of my new neighbors invited a bunch of us to come to this event and meet more people in the area. I think this type of evening is a terrific way to reach women in the community and based on the turnout, I'm sure they counted this as a success.

 

When we arrived, we checked in, received name tags and our table assignment and were encouraged to make a plate of snacks. Yes, please.

My favorite part of the beautiful snack table was that they had floral print straws to go into the beautiful cans of LaCroix sparkling water.

We had pre-selected and pre-paid for the sign we wanted to make. The choices ranged anywhere from custom signs with your last name, to bible quotes and fun slogans about coffee. I chose a sign with arrows.

The first step is to chose a stain, don your plastic gloves and rub the stain onto your wood sign using paper towel. I had always wanted to try staining wood, so this step alone was great (and easy). After the stain drys (20 min?), a coffee convo craft representative helps you to adhere your stencil onto the wood. I chose to tape off the silhouette of Washington state on my sign. I wanted to add stripes of colored "thread" to my arrows and I wanted to display my arrows flying horizontally. The Washington silhouette required it to be shown vertically. So I changed it. Always feel free to change a design to suit you.

I used painters tape to help delineate the lines for the colored thread. I dabbed on khaki paint to form the arrows first. Then I added color and filled things in. I love it! And look how many people were happily entranced with their project! There were at lease 60 women there. I was thoroughly impressed.

I met some women that live in my area; I explored a new craft; I started to feel at home. Thank you to Church on the Ridge, CoffeeConvoCraft and especially Valerie for asking me to join in on this fun night. I loved it.

#community #craft #girlsnightout #coffeeconvocraft #wotr

High Praise: Happy Comments About Paris: Delight in the City of Light

(Gazing out the enormous clock at the Musee D'Orsay)

Ooh la la! I ship a lot of my books out inscribed as gifts but I don't always hear back about what my readers thought. Today I received the nicest feedback on Amazon for my book Paris: Delight in the City of Light. My book is a soft-cover modern coffee table book devoted to PARIS. Enjoy 120 pages of full-color photographs on every page, including addresses & websites of my favorite places in Paris.

Anne Reeves is just as delightful as her book. The book, Paris - Delight in the City was a nice pick me up for the February blahs, and it came wrapped in beautiful pink tissue accompanied by a Paris themed personal note which I plan to save because it was so pretty. 

(a puff of pastry at Laduree)

Thank you Mary!

Felted Wool Art by Kristy Kun

I was impressed and mesmerized by Kristy Kun's art when I walked into her booth. I couldn't stop looking at this piece and feel completely taken in by the depth and shadows created in wool. 

I met Kristy at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival this year and I knew that I had to put her work in the spotlight. She gave me permission to take these photographs and I'm so happy that her subtle use of color comes through in my photo below. Her wool creations are 3-D and often spill out of the frame that houses them.  

Bravo, Kristy. I hope your artistic journey is satisfying and successful. You are a real talent.

#northwestflowerandgardenfestival #NWFGS #2018 #woolart #feltedwool #artist #seattleshow 

Shopping the 2018 Northwest Flower and Garden Festival

I want to spotlight some great items I found for sale at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. I combed the show and picked out some unusual items that might strike your fancy.

I consider these hats part of the "Eat Your Vegetables" series. They are handmade and just darling and made by Art by Namaste (above).

The artist at Rusty Birds made this sweet combination of what I think is a gold finch perched on an echinacea. I don't normally go for garden art, but I think this guy is charming.

I love that University Bookstore (the sponsor of the televised book club through Seattle Refined that I've been attending lately) brought stacks and stacks of beautiful garden books. Their booth was humming with customers shopping for self-help guides to growing plants, flowers, trees and shrubs.

#NWFGS #shoptillyoudrop #momentsofdelight #finddelight #NWFGS #seattle

I Love Daffodils and Easter is Coming

And since you know me, you realize that these declarations will change week by week as the weather warms up. I love flowers sums things up better, but it is not how I feel today.

My head and heart need bright yellow and the daffodil delivers. I took this photo at Pike Place market on April 6, 2014. The grocery stores have already started selling bunches of daffodils and I am working on a triumphant centerpiece for my kitchen island for Easter week. 

So far I have some tulips and narcissus, but I'm planning on 2 crates (from #Michaels!) with lots of bulbs blooming through the moss. I love this time of year! 

*Note: See March 16 post for final product!

#easter #floweringbulbs #finddelight #makingahome #easterflowers #decorating

Northwest Flower & Garden Show: GH Horticulture Creates Wonderful City Living Display Garden

I am so proud of my friend, Grace Hensley and her company GH Horticulture. She specializes in small space garden and container design (she is also an exceptional photographer) and this year she was chosen to design a City Living garden for the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival. Go Grace!

I swear that I had chosen her 6' x 12' display as my favorite long before I realized that it was hers. The soothing grays punctuated with black and softened with pink won me over. The City Living spaces are intended to give apartment dwellers inspiration and show them that small spaces can still boast big design ideas.

In order to trumpet the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival's 30th Anniversary, Grace designed around the word and color pearl. It is the Pearl Anniversary, you see. This camellia is Nuccio's Pearl. It was pale pink and gorgeous. If you'd like to read about Grace's process, check out her blog post about preparing for the show.

Three of my favorite elements from her display are in this photograph (above). Grace hung a magnificent natural shell wreath (I want!) on the front door and don't miss the Amazon package on the front mat just waiting for the busy Seattlite to come home from work.

She also added a fairy door to her vignette, complete with tiny beautiful containers. Sooo sweet!  Great job.

Northwest Flower and Garden Show: 2018 in Seattle

Hey, kindred spirit! It's time! The Northwest Flower and Garden Show opens tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb 7 - 10 from 9am- 8pm, and Sunday, Feb 11 from 9 am - 6 pm. 

I was so happy to have a chance to attend the Press Tour this morning and get a first look at the magnificent show gardens before they are judged and awarded Gold/Silver/Bronze. I wish them all luck...their hard work was on display and every garden was worthy.

All of the gardens gave a nod to this year's theme "Garden Party" because 2018 is the 30th anniversary of this incredible garden show in Seattle. If ever there was a "girl's trip" worthy event, this is it. Art, plants, antiques, landscaping ideas, local knowledge. Their cup runneth over. 

#NWFGS #gardenparty #seattle #garden #imsogladilivehere #gardenerdream

Super Bowl Party: Brownies for a Crowd

Our new neighbors hosted a few of us for the Super Bowl tonight. I knew that I wanted to bring dessert! What do you think? Cute, eh?

Dan bent one of my tin cookie cutters into the shape of a football. I baked a batch of brownies in a 13 x 9 pan and when it was cool, I popped it out of the pan in one piece and placed the sheet of brownies on a wood cutting board. Then I carefully used the cookie cutter to cut out footballs. I then used Wilton white cookie icing to pipe on the laces. 

I placed the brownie footballs on my favorite tray, a replica of a football stadium! I found a similar one online if you want to order one for yourself. Remember, cute is forever. I've been using my tray for years and it is a hit every time.

Go Team!

#superbowlsnacks #superbowl #footballbrownies #entertaining #footballstadium