simpletruths

Shop update

Your home is an extension of yourself - dress it accordingly; starting with coasters!

 

Tightly crocheted from 100% cotton - no moisture seepage, and no icky pooling is droplets either.  
 
 
 

coaster action shot!

 

rustic - and delicate.

All this and more is being added to the shop right now. More colors to come.  Stay tuned for catch-all bowls, coffee cup sleeves and more
  

You've got mail

The joy of online shopping is that you know a day is coming (soon) when you'll get a package in the mail.

On a friend's suggestion to an earlier post about my being on the lookout for inexpensive places to buy crochet thread, I went to ebay. yup. SCORE!

And look what just arrived in the mail

 

 

 

 

I realize that for most people this is an excessive number of pictures of what is really just a bunch of string in a box.  But I look at this and I see earrings and necklaces, bracelets...oh the possibilities. 

Plus it's all vintage thread so some of the shades of these colors are hard to come by anymore. 

covet

 

fox run retro kitchen timer
 

I know right - how adorable is this kitchen timer?  And it's a fridge magnet so it won't get lost in the depths of the misc kitchen utencils drawer. 

Officially adding it to my birthday wish list. 

 

Dinner

Lamb and chickpea Tagine w/ Couscous

 Surprisingly easy to make.  I found the recipe in a magazine. I'll add a link once I remember which magazine it was.

Suffice it to say that I had the best lunch leftovers in the office for a couple of days :)

peripheral vision

Here's a quick glimpse of something I've been working on. 

 

 

Mega Doily!

via www.ladiesandgentlemenstudio.com

How did I not know about this?!
So these awesome folks over at Ladies and Gentlemen Studio created what has been dubbed the Mega Doily. Hand knotted (because where would you begin to look for a crochet hook this size) and made from cotton rope - they took their inspiration from vintage doily patterns. Then supersized them!

 

Love
Love
Love

I'm going to need to make myself one when the weather gets nicer. There's no way I could work on something like this indoors without seriously obstructing access to major areas of our house.
Anyone know where to buy cotton rope?

While the little one naps...

mexican hot chocolate and lady fingers :)

 

Little drawers of fun

via www.designspongeonline.com

Do you see this card catalog?! No really, do you? Beautiful. I've always wanted to buy one but they are both hard to find AND quite cost prohibitive.
I used to spend HOURS in the library when I was younger - mostly at USF (University of San Francisco) because I wanted to hang out in the college library.

Yea. how cool was I?

I loved flipping through the card catalog just to see what I could find and then go track it down. I was an expert at tracking down books - I even took 'library' as an elective in Jr. High.

OH goodness, I didn't realize how much of a dork I really was until right now!
HA!
oh well, I could file, and categorize and alphabetize like the wind!

I do remember going into the USF library after a long absence and seriously feeling lost. The card catalog was gone - my bearings were totally off.

I know it sounds a little melodramatic but it was a HUGE set of drawers that basically had it's own room with little scraps of paper and golf pencils placed every few feet because you weren't allowed to remove the actual card from the drawer - heavens no. It was for reference only.

What was once the card catalog round, is now the library's art atrium. Complete with nice lighting and soft benches.  It's nice enough, I guess.

But, I do wonder what they did with that old card catalog...

etsy feature!

woo hoo!

This new piece of mine (inspired by a custom order) was featured on Etsy!

That's me - bottom right. Yay

Out on the Town

Anymore, it's rare that Mr Man and I find ourselves in a picture together - just the two of us.  And so for V-Day, this picture was just as important to us as dinner was.

 

By the way - dinner was great too :) We finished sentences and had complete thoughts over adult drinks. No crayons were involved and no double checking to make sure we didn't leave behind a sippy cup, toy truck or beloved Elmo doll ;)

We went even took a walk and went for coffee - it's the little things.
 

Happy Valentine's Day

 

My attempts at heart shaped pancakes

hmmm

But they tasted GREAT! :)

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day! 
 

Out and about in the virtual world

Some adorable things I've found online this week:

At tutorial for this tiny crocheted whale from Planet June. 

 
 

Beautiful non-rose, valentine inspired, floral arrangement at Design Sponge:

 

and how adorable is this gift idea over at This Could Take All Day:

 

WIPs

Here's some of what I've been doing:

This burgundy scarf is for the Orphan Foundation of America’s Red Scarf Project, that I'm participating in through craft hope. 

 

Each year over 25,000 students age out of the foster care system (having never been adopted). The Orphan Foundation is committed to helping them become tomorrow’s successful citizens. 

 

 

Then there are the bracelets (so excited for these).  These are three sets that I've recently put together.

  

  
 

And the coasters are coming along very nicely :)

Vintage crochet awesomeness

In anticipation of my spring Simpletruths line of home accessories I've been looking at a lot of vintage patterns.  I have some that I've purchased over the years and flea markets, but just the other day I stumbled across this site call Free Vintage Crochet.  Take a look at these pictures

A pattern for a quick crocheted casserole jacket. 

 

Take a look at these hats:

This pattern was originally published in 1913.  It's called the Tam O'Shanter, but I've been referring to it as The Big Puff. 

 
 

Take a look at that matching purse - stylish! 

 

I tried to make a baby bonnet once - I failed horribly, it should have looked like this one from a 1916 publication.

 

And then there is this awesomeness that I found over at craftypod  

 

Featured!

I was featured (Again!).  This time on Jewelry by Tara's blog.  She does a spotlight on a different etsy seller once a week.  It's such a great thing for her to do, especially considering she's a seller on Etsy as well.  Her shop is very well established (over 1000 sales on etsy alone in just one of her 3 shops).

I submitted some of my work to a request that she posted up a few weeks ago and I was chosen for a spotlight.  Here's the link to the Simpletruths Feature.

Filthy mongrel

Isla Taboga
Originally uploaded by ~julia

Have you ever gotten in a space where you feel like you’re doing EVERYTHING? Where every single exertion of effort seems magnified by the perceived injustice of life? The inequalities, the unfairness, oh the burden of it all!!

When that happens to me I find it useful to think about all of the things I don’t do. Like, for example, laundry. Since we’ve moved into the house last August I think I’ve done laundry (from the color sorting to the final folding) once…maybe twice.
Nope, once.

I am an avid participator in the folding of laundry because, if I weren't, there would just be baskets of clean, clothing sitting around.
I can almost hear the wrinkles setting in.
My husband’s solution to that of course is to either A- not care or B- iron. But ironing is a whole other step that can usually be avoided with the proper timing of dryer extraction and folding.

Yea, I talk a good laundry game but see the original statement about my laundry habits – or lack there of.

If it were left up to me, laundry wouldn’t get done until I was down to the funny looking underwear....


Another thing I don’t do – Garbage/recycling/yard waste collection. I mean, I throw everything into their proper receptacles, but the gathering of bags and the setting out of bins the night before or the morning of grabage day…nah. If I happen to be outside on Friday evening, and it’s still light outside, and I’m not already carrying several bags, and I don’t have to head off a toddler from running into the street, then I MIGHT roll the bins back into the side yard – but I might not.

What else?

Vacuum. Yea, I know, what kind of mother am I right? Well, in my defense, I do sweep. But as far as vacuuming goes, even once there is a visible layer of yarn pieces, cereal and graham cracker crumbs, and whatever else…I just start doing my pushups in the bedroom so I don't have to have it within inches of my nose. But if that does happen, I just do exercises where I'm standing :)
We only have the one rug in the living room and we don’t wear our shoes past the entry way of the house and like I said, I do sweep. So it can’t be that bad, right?

Those are the big three domestic chores I put in minimal amount of effort into. And I don't feel one twinge of guilt. Besides, I don’t want Mr. Man to feel left out.