Peonies!

My favorite flower is most definitely the peony.  Aside from their unabashedly beefy beauty, I love the distinct aroma of peonies.  I just ran downstairs to smell it so I could describe the smell, but there is no way to say it except that it is just very "peony-esque".  The light pink ones in my photo smelled especially wonderful.

Every year I like to make one really nice flower arrangement from the yard when the peonies are blooming. This year I included lots of different things including iris, yarrow, anemone, Russian sage, ferns, hosta, Soloman's seal, and of course peonies.  If I have the time I find that I can totally lose myself when making an arrangement.  I love trying to find just the right balance - a little green here, a little pink here, a little yellow there.  I encourage everyone to get out there and cut some flowers for an arrangement - even if it's dandelions in a drinking cup!

Hansel Gretel Fabric

The theme of this week's Spoonflower fabric design contest is Folk Tales so of course I couldn't resist participating.  My design is based on Hansel and Gretel.  If you would like to vote click here and click on "Folk Tales" in the upper right-hand corner. 

I am thinking I might have to make them into a Christmas tablecloth, or hand towels, or both!

Guess Who?

My fellow Blogger Jill organized this blog event and I am participating.  Have fun!

 

What a diverse and beautiful mosaic of images, no?

It just so happens that each of the above images came from a different photo-blogger.

Can you pin the photo to the blogger based on their individual photographic style and/or content?

Let's have a little fun and see if anyone can guess them all correctly!

Here is the list of bloggers who contributed one of the above photos

Even if you are not familiar with a particular photographer

please take a few minutes to browse through their blog, say hi, then come back here and leave your guesses below

 On Blogger blogs, the "dynamic" view has been linked for easy browsing. 

To leave a comment on their blog, just delete /view/mosaic in the URL window to get to their homepage

Amy @ Tilting Windmills

Kamana @ Journalling Through Photos

Lissa @ A Chance of Sunshine

Beth @ Be Yourself

Barbara @ Long Hollow Photography

Gail @ Louisiana Belle

Vanessa @ Nessy Designs

Fiona @ Lady Fi 

Christine @ Creating A Life of Beauty

Jill @ Jillsy Girl Studio 

Now...off you go

and enjoy the photoblog tour while you're at it!

It's guaranteed you'll see some excellent photography!

 

Who's who will be posted tomorrow!

Folk Design Tablecloth

This is the last of the three tablecloth and hand towel designs I printed at Spoonflower this month. When the package arrived in the mail I originally thought the background color was too green-gold, but it has now grown on me.  I had been shooting for a nice tan-yellow gold but I think this color adds a layer of funkiness - so for now I am keeping it this color. The tablecloth is designed to fit a 33-34'' square card table.  Again, because you have to buy by the yard at Spoonflower, I was able to fit in two matching hand towels for a total of two yards.

If you would like to purchase this tablecloth go to Spoonflower.com and search for "Sorensen" (or click here.) Then choose "Folk Tablecloth," cotton twill, and 2 yards.  Spoonflower will mail the fabric to you and then you will have to cut the fabric, hem the edges, and add a trim if you'd like.  (Please see my previous post about washing instructions!)

I really lucked out because my poppies were blooming the day I photographed this tablecloth.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect orange flower that day.  But I had to shoot really quickly because this kind of poppy doesn't last more than about half an hour after it's cut.  Luckily it held out just long enough!  

Card Table Tablecloth

This tablecloth was also designed around Valentine's Day.  It is similar to the round tablecloth I posted yesterday, but it has a pink heart border.  I also added a nice mini white fringe around the edge.   The tablecloth is designed to fit a 33-34'' square table.  Again, because you have to buy by the yard at Spoonflower, I was able to fit in two matching hand towels for a total of two yards.

If you would like to purchase this tablecloth go to Spoonflower.com and search for "Sorensen." Then choose "Pink Tablecloth," cotton twill, and 2 yards (or click here).  Spoonflower will mail the fabric to you and then you will have to cut the fabric, hem the edges, and add a trim if you'd like.  (Please see my previous post about washing instructions!)

Check back soon for another card table design!

Tablecloth Fabric Design

I am so excited to announce that my new tablecloth designs are now available at Spoonflower.  Today I am showing you the first of three designs.  The tablecloth above is a 58'' round tablecloth with red on white folk designs composed of hearts and birds.  Because you have to buy by the yard at Spoonflower I filled the extra space with matching handtowels that you see below.  Two are red and white and two are pink.

If you would like to purchase this tablecloth just go to Spoonflower.com and search for "Sorensen." Click on the "Round Folk Tablecloth" (or click here).  You have to select the fabric type ( I recommend the cotton twill) and order 3 yards.  Your fabric will be printed by Spoonflower and will arrive at your door.  You will then have to cut the fabric and hem the edges.  This way it is handmade by you and designed by me!  So break out your sewing machines and get busy! (BTW, you don't have to be a sewing guru to do this - I learned to sew by watching the video that came with my $100 sewing machine I bought at JoAnn's).  You can also customize your tablecloth by sewing on a trim.  I chose giant red ric rac for the tablecloth, but a nice ball fringe might be nice too.  I did a mini white ball fringe on the pink hand towels.

If you can't tell I designed this for Valentines Day but for a variety of reasons it has taken me a while to get here.  I received my first round of printed fabric about a month ago.  For this design I wanted to sew ric rac around the edge so I washed and dried the fabric so that it would shrink before sewing on the trim.  Big mistake!  The fabric shrank so much it didn't fit my table anymore.  Not only did it shrink, but it shrank more in one direction so I ended up with an ellipse instead of a circle!  So I re-ordered and this time I just sewed the ric rac on right away.  So I'm sure that drying this tablecloth is not a good idea.  I'm not sure yet about hand-washing, but needless to say a little spot cleaning is the safest way to go.

I will post the other designs soon so check back!

Hooray for giant red ric rac!

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom came down yesterday and we celebrated Mother's Day.  I surprised her with the above cake from the BonBonerie. (Just look at those yummy decorations!)  We also went to the Cincinnati Preservation Society's Historic Home Tour in Pleasant Ridge and saw five beautiful houses.  I just love looking at the incredible craftsmanship in those homes.  It was such a nice day with my mum.  Happy Mother's Day Mom!

I also made my mom the banner you see below.  You may have to click on the image to see it better.  You can also get a sneak peak at my new tablecloth I printed at Spoonflower.  I have been a busy bee and can't wait to finally show all my tablecloths to you.  Hopefully I will have everything hemmed and photographed this week.

Shade Coffee is for the Birds

(Click on image to enlarge)

George recently began purchasing his coffee from a great company called Grounds for Change.  He had been looking for a company that sells shade grown coffee and almost all of this company's coffee is shade grown.  Why is shade grown important you might ask?  Well, the short answer is that shade grown coffee provides a "forest-like" environment that is great for not only birds, but the whole ecosystem.  Coffee was traditionally a shade grown crop but through the centuries we have converted it to a sun crop that is grown in large monocultures which are essentially deserts for wildlife (imagine acres and acres of corn fields - except that it is coffee).   So if everyone decided to purchase shade coffee instead of sun coffee we would have a lot more forest and a lot less monoculture desert. (Read more about it here.)

Grounds for Change is also organic and uses 100% renewable energy and composts all of their waste.  You can learn more about their sustainable business practices here.  And don't worry they sell everything from regular to decaf.  George has been buying Cafe Femenino which helps women coffee producers in Peru.  (FYI - George and I are not affiliated in any way with this company).

Whether or not you choose this company or another, I encourage every coffee drinker out there to try and choose organic, shade grown coffee.  This is such a small, easy change: just imagine if we all switched what a difference it would make!

"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi

(I made those coffee mugs for George for Christmas by using some of the Zen Birds images and uploading them to Snapfish.  It makes me happy to see him using them everyday.)