This Heart's On Fire

Flaming Heart {Right Side, Test Print}

Spent a lovely afternoon crafting with the girls in the studio. Between the four of us we completed: *one knit hat (CS's first, congrats!), three origami and one kiragami lessons (thank you, LA!), numerous paper boxes, balloons and hearts, one amazing Banana Bread (this needs capital treatment) courtesy the KimKitch and blogged here, Mamacat's famous cheddar and bacon dip with veggies and chips, one bag of heart gel candies and one complete (well, nearly) carving from yours truly:

Heart On Fire Rough Cut

This is an amalgamation of a couple of different doily cuts from various sizes and a bit of imagination. I'm thinking about carving a keyhole in it but I might leave it as is and clean up the flames and the center heart. Ooooh I love it, though. These photos misrepresent its size--it's about eight inches across, 6 inches high:

I've learned that during the gray-snowy-slushy-back-side-of-winter, my brain craves red. Good thing Valentine's Day is right there in the middle of the home stretch to spring!

XO Terez

My First Vera (Bradley)

Whoopsie Daisy!

 When I visited Boston for the first time in 2002 I couldn't figure out the quilted bag craze. It was October, and cold, and many very fashionable women on the T were clutching quilted cotton bags to their shoulders. To me they looked like bandanas and very 80s. Gasp!

But time marched on, I move here, and the patterns evolved. My favorite roommate of all time, KV, moved in and brought with her some beautiful lunch bags, purses and wallets. "What are  those?" I asked. "Vera Bradley!" she replied.

Vera Bradley Folkloric Pattern (pardon my whitebalance!)

 Vera B. (not to be confused with the amazing textile designer from the 50s-70s, Vera Neumann, creator of the first "signature scarf," a few of which I own) is an American company that creates handbags, accessories and home pieces. Founded in 1983 by Patricia Miller and Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, they named the company Vera Bradley after Baekgarrd's mother, Vera.

Me and VB

 Now that I sew and am enamoured of fabric, I can't help but admire the Vera Bradley line even more. Mamacat and HH bestowed a Barnes and Noble gift card upon me this Christmas and when I saw this print in the store and was assured I could use the gift card toward it, destiny came calling:

Bag, Hat, Scarf, Gloves

Anyone who really knows me knows that I love: *pink *orange *green *cream *mandalas *hearts *Scandinavian inspired prints *handbags. As you can see from my Crafty-Valentining post, mandalas, especially heart ones, are my current inspirational fire.

Warding Away the Cold

Obviously this bag and I are a match made in design heaven. Even if it is a bit spring/summery and it is 26 degrees out with 3-5' snow drifts!

XO Terez

Walk to Work Thursday

Turbo Charge

Red Iron Walk

Turquoise Eave

Here Comes the Sol

 

 

Yesterday's News Today

Terez Through the Looking Glass

Emergency Mail

Cathedral Concrete

Transcontinental Collaboration II

Teresa's Balloons by Mamacat 1/24/11

Normally I'd be doing a Walk to Wednesday post but this weather has got even me down. The skies are gray, the snow is already piled up knee-to-waist high on the streets and it's snowing again and we're expecting another 6-10 inches tonight. Everything is covered with gray and grime and ice and cold and the Red Sox Home Opener (the official start of spring around these parts) is still 2+ months away.

Instead I bring you an even more amazing collaboration with: Mamacat, painter extraordinaire!

When she saw my post from earlier this week regarding my Up-Lifting Experience she fell in love with my balloons. HH photographed them this afternoon and there they are!

Amazing. Transparency in watercolor is an art in and of itself.

Here's the original photo:

Happiness on a String 1/22/11

That's Mamacat and HH for you. The sunshine that always bursts apart a cloudy day.

XO Terez

Transcontinental Collaboration

Mamacat's Fine Feathered Friend

Remember My Fine Feathered Friends post from 12/13/10 ? (Hint: click here if it sounds familiar but you can't quite put your finger on it.)

This might help you:

And Then There Was One (taken 12/13/10)

Mamacat decided to paint the little guy and mail him to me as a surprise!

Mamacat's Friend painted Jan. 2011

What a delightful surprise to find in my mailbox! Hurrah for blogging and artistic colloboration with Mamacat, across an entire continent!

XO Terez

Crafty Valentine-ing

Valentine Mandala

The Norwegian Knitter joined me for a spot of Valentine Crafting before the windchill became to unbearable to make visiting impossible (or at least highly undesirable). We settled in at Chez Terez  and let ourselves become one with the chaotic-craft-plosion that is the back room. After a delightful brunch of chocolate and apricot croissants from Clear Flour (one upside about the cold weather: no line at the bakery!) we got to work.

Star/Heart

I finished doodling on the the 12" block of SafetyKut rubber and came of up with a few variations on hearts, points, bursts and stars. I love the Valentine Mandala (first photo)--it was taken from a section of a large doily I picked up yesterday. I also love the tiny Heartburst, from a different area on that same giant doily:

Heartburst

The Queen of Hearts wasn't such a bad task master:

Queen of Hearts tea towel by the Other Mother

And Alice was encouraging us to drink lots of warm liquids to keep up our energy, including an amazing elixir the Norwegian Knitter concocted from lemon, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger and honey to help kick the last of Super Head Cold 2011.

Drink Me

My carvings aren't quite all-the-way-finished but I couldn't wait to press out some test prints. Don't they look full of passion and heat in the afternoon sun on my hissing radiator?

Through the Looking Glass

Now the Chez Terez State of Affairs is in a much more Valentine State of Mind. I love it.

Chez Terez State of Affairs Valentine Style

Stay tuned I've got plenty of more love-ly tricks up my sleeve.

XO Terez

Up, Up and Away!

Happiness on a String

Today I ran some errands before it got too cold out {tomorrow: 19F, Monday, 13F, not counting the windchill, brrrr!} and enjoyed some winter New England sunshine. I loaded up on ingredients to make my first from-scratch chicken chili, thank you Giada! Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have kicked the dregs of Super Head Cold 2011.

I stopped in Party Favors to ogle the cupcake case and when I came out I saw this tied to the meter:

Uplifting Color

It was enough to put a spring in my step and motivate me to power walk home, where I collapsed on the couch for a few hours. However, the giaganitc doilies I picked up at Party Favors were too irresistable to leave in the sleeve, so out they came. Note the Scotch Tape roll for scale:

Pondering the Heart

Which led me to this Chez Terez State of Affairs:

Chez Terez State of Affairs

Come back tomorrow and see what I end up with.

XOXO Terez

The Norwegian Knitter in Full Color

Norwegian Knitter in full color:
Double Basket Weave Scarf by the Norwegian Knitter.
Norwegian tea cups flea marketed and gifted from Chez Terez.
Nails by Salon d'elegance in OPI's "ate berries in the canaries".
Card by A&P.
Photo by the Norwegian Knitter.

 

 

Works in Progress: Feb. 21 self imposed deadline!

I <3 Yarn

Those of you who have visited Chez Terez lately have seen my baskets and totes spilling over with yarn, glorious yarn. Since I moved to Boston eight years ago I've been magpie-like at just about every yarn store I've stopped in, seduced by the colors and collecting a couple of a skeins at a time.   Now my couch looks like this:

State of Affairs

But after a Saturday out on the town with the Norwegian Knitter, I have this to add to my stash:

Red, White and Blue: Chez Terez Style

Two Reynold's Blizzard Teal, four Lion's Brand Homespun Candy Apple Red, one Lamb's Pride Bulky Spruce (discontinued! Gasp!) and Lamb's Pride Bulky Red Hot Passion and one Lamb's Pride Burly Spun Aztec Turquoise.

This will make: one scarf, two hats, one prayer shawl and one as of yet unidentified object.

While organizing my yarn last night I realized I have six intense Works In Progress:

1. Double Basket Weave Scarf (1/4 of the way done)
2. Sunset Scarf (1/3 of the way done)
3. Matt's Christmas Scarf (1/2 of the way done)
4. Candy Apple Red watch hat (1/5 of the way done)
5. Seawaves scarf (1/3+ of the way done)
6. Basket Weave Scarf (4/5 of the way done)

Plus I really, really, really want to start on my hand painted Misti Alpaca that I have been hoarding for a year. But that's going to be cabled so it can wait until I am not too intimidated by those needles.

Goal: Finish the above six pieces by the end of President's Day weekend, Feb. 21st. Do you think I can do it?

I have to! Because I'm not allowed to crack into this until I do:

Lamb's Pride Burly Spun

And I really, really, really want to try it out.

I'm also not allowed to go back to the amazing Windsor Button until I do bind a few of those projects off, although Stan and Susan are the nicest proprietors and their shop is my favorite yarn shop in the greater-Boston area, and their selection of Lamb's Pride Bulky and Burly and Malabrigo (I think) is the best in the state:

Waiting For Me

So wish me luck and I'll keep you posted. Knitting with the girls today got me off to a pretty good start.

XO Terez

Be Mine Valentine

Can you, could you, might you, should you--want to be mine, Valentine?

Walk to Work Thursday: Blizzard Mega Edition II

Open For Business

Transportation

Icy Wires

Here Comes the Sun

Frosted

Loveseat

Closing Time

Snow Hill

Brrrr it was slippery and treacherous walking to work today--but gorgeous watching the sun play off of the snow and ice. The last photo is the pile of snow in our parking lot at work--literally 10 feet high.

Stay safe! Stay warm!

XO Terez

Walk to Work Wednesday: Blizzard Mega Edition

Hooky?

Mamacat's Hot Cider

We Deliver for You

Cold Heart

 

 

 

Winter Grafitti

After School Snack

"Doesn't it look like a wonderland?"--Snow Shovel Man

Snow Feathers

Alternate Means of Transportation

Hi to the Little Guys Back Home from Aunt Sissy