Cross-stitch valentine card!

We're big Valentine's Day fans in our house; not only is it my birthday, but it was my mom's birthday too! I really enjoy having a birthday on a day when so many other people are in a sweet, loving, generous mood.


Steven is a graphic designer, and that means he appreciates nice paper goods more than the average Valentine. So I wanted to make sure that I deliver something really special for him this year. I started out by stitching up the sweet redwork and cross-stitch heart above. (I found this pattern here.)


I stitched the red cross-stitch border directly onto my cardstock by hand, and then I finished the edge with a little machine zig-zag stitch. This came out a little less even than I would have liked, but I thought it wasn't a bad result for my first time stitching on paper. Mom always taught me to keep the back of my work neat, and I actually succeeded on this piece:

I'm very excited to give this to Steven today! Happy Valentine's Day, sweethearts!

Valentine's Day is coming!

Valentine's day is nearly here! I baked some yummy heart-shaped cut-out cookies last weekend, and I spent some time in the craft room today making a valentine for my sweet husband. I can't wait to share it on 2/14!

"Made in France" work in progress

My mother-in-law started stitching this project many years ago. I was very excited when she handed it off to me at some point in the last year or so. 


I recently pulled this out and started working on it in the evening in front of the television -- unlike counted cross-stitch, a printed piece like this requires little concentration and is ideal when you've got four seasons of Mad Men to re-watch before the season 5 premiere on March 25! 


When finished, this will be the largest work of embroidery that I've ever done. Wish me luck plugging away at this pretty, colorful project!

Leafy cross-stitch quartet, part 4: the ginkgo leaf!

Finally! The fourth installment in the leafy cross-stitch quartet: the ginkgo leaf!


The first three installments can be found here (maple), here (oak), and here (birch).


I'm really happy with all four of these pieces, but I think the ginkgo is my favorite, because of its significance to me and Steven. When we lived on the upper west side of Manhattan, we always admired the ginkgo trees in the neighborhood. Ginkgo trees are the oldest trees in the world and they are renowned for their resilience. They're able to survive harsh weather, urban pollution and in the case of Hiroshima, even exposure to the atom bomb. Their fan-shaped leaves are unique, and they possess both medicinal and culinary uses. 


(Lest you think these beautiful trees are perfect, you should try not smell them when they start dropping their seeds on the ground.)


We've collected a few other ginkgo-related items over the years. When he isn't wearing it, Steven stows his wedding band in this pretty dish that I picked up at Crate & Barrel:

(Note that the dish is layered on top of one of
our chic agate coasters from Zhush.com!)

I bought this ginkgo leaf necklace from Etsy shop Ginkgo and wore it on our wedding day:

Last year, Steven surprised me with this beautiful ginkgo leaf ring from the very talented Etsy seller tiderdesign:

And we still need to germinate the seeds from this ginkgo tree-to-be kit and find a nice spot to plant it in our yard:

So here's the final leaf again, this time in its little frame:

It took me nearly a year to get these designed, stitched, framed, hung, photographed, and blogged! Would you like to see how they look on the wall in our master bath?

Ta-da! I'm rather chuffed with the final result. I really enjoy bringing accents into our home that hint to the world outdoors, and it's especially nice to have a reminder of leaves during these cold, grey winter months!


I've actually been home on staycation for the last two weeks, and I made time to work on a TON of home improvement & craft projects. I'll make an effort to highlight some of them here in the coming weeks!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

We're doing double-duty at our house tonight, celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah. We've had a lovely holiday season, and I'm happy to say that Santa both gave and received some darling handmade gifts this year. I'll be sure to snap some pics and share them here soon. Happy Holidays!