Blog Review: Patchwork Pottery

Patchwork Pottery

This is too cute. 

Hmm... no.

WAY beyond cute.

Adorable. Absolutely gorgeous. Amazing.

I was blog-hopping as usual the other night when I stumbled upon the fabric label tutorial by Laurraine. As I don't really do any fabric craft, I don't really have any idea why I would even be interested in the tutorial. Just curious, I guess. But boy, was I blown away by the site.

 Fabric label tutorial

I have limited exposure to quilts in general. I mean, living in the tropics mean that you don't really do quilts, now, right? And what limited exposure that I got did not quite give me any real appreciation of quilts. I mean, it's patchwork. So? 

It's warm, kind of plushy. Useful, I guess, I know the cushion covers are. Ahm. But that's all.

MugRug

Patchwork Pottery, however, quickly make me revise those notions.

Egad, this is a totally different ballgame we are talking about.

I guess I have never encountered before such lovely designs out of love for something so ordinary, drinking tea. 

And yet Laurraine actually manage to incorporate that very thing into the whole design of her blog.

And I. Love. Everything. about it.

Everything.

From the twist in the tittle (seriously, pottery made out of patchwork? I would never thought of that in a million years), the stitches around the background and the pictures, the colour scheme, the teacups designs on top (so cute!), and of course, all her work featured in the blog itself.

SpiderWeb quilt block

I am telling you, even if you are not into artsy craftsy, quilting, cute stuff or sewing, you should still check out her blog, and be inspired. Just look at the design she came up for Halloween.

If money were to grow on trees in my backyard, I would very much luuurrvee to commission some heirloom piece that I would treasure to pieces. Hhhh... as it is.... as you know, money does NOT grow on trees.

But in the meantime I can still drool in front of my computer screen.

And should you follow my advice to check out her blog, you might want to protect your keyboard first just in case you drool as well.

Ah, and I should mention as well, that Laurraine does have a shop on Etsy, but nowadays she's only selling her patterns as well as publications that feature her designs. Still, I had quite a great time looking through the stuff she sold in the past. One of a kind teacup pouches? Ah, they are beyond adorable.

Note: I am supposed to link the pictures back to the blog, unfortunately as a relatively new blogger, I am still not too sure how to do it. It's late now, so I will just post first and edit further later. In the meantime, please do use the text links. I believe I did leave quite a few of them throughout the post. Thanks for your understanding!

Corners of my house #6, a note

I have to admit that I enjoy doing this series on corners of my house.
Not only these are relatively short entries that I can do in almost no time,
I believe that I do benefit from trying to take good pictures of the house.
Lastly, I suppose the exercise is also a sort of wake up call to keep me working on beautifying the house.
I really should. After all, just like everything else in my life, the house is a Work In Progress.
Now as for that corner number 6....

The 'Dresser'?

I'm actually not too sure what to call this piece of furniture. I often call it 'dresser', but its position being somewhere near the front door rather than in the bedroom, I don't think it's really appropriate.
In any case, we (or rather, I) love having a piece of furniture near the door to put the mails, knick knacks, a few photos, etc. I guess this is pretty common in Western culture, but neither my parents' nor my in-laws' house actually incorporate something like this. We use one of the space for Doggie stuff. The bottom space is actually often used as the Little One's hiding place. Maybe I should take a picture of that some other time.

Birthday Card

I used to make cards when I was in secondary school. Did I tell you I made cards before? Well, anyway, I did, make cards, that is. They were simple, usually just a play of texture, not complicated at all. It's quite fun, it's not expensive, and I think is more personal. 

I now have more appreciation for handmade stuff. Must be my daily foray into various arts and crafts blogs. But, I mean, handmades ARE indeed creative, personal, unique among other things, right? 

In any case, when the Little One's best friend's birthday came up, I really don't know what to buy her. The Little One actually got a pair of clothes for her birthday, but maybe also because we have been passing them batik clothes from Indonesia as gifts. In short, I don't really feel like giving clothes. 

And so we made these, the card, and the pinwheel.

Remember my watercolors a few entries ago? I still do that once in a while. So.. I just used a watercolor for both the pinwheel and the card. I think they look kind of nice.

Maybe next time we can do some other handmade stuff. Paper origami, maybe? Haha...

Any ideas, anyone?

Corners of my house #5

The Baby Gate

The Baby Gate was intended for the staircase. 
Back in Singapore, we used it to prevent the Dog to go into the kitchen. It was useful against the Baby too.


We brought it here for the staircase, which, according to all the parenting textbooks, is supposed to be accessorized with one, minimum. Well, the staircase turned out to be too wide. Anyway Baby got a better accident prevention measure: Mama. So there.


It's current use? Demarcating adults-only-area. The Husband set up his hobby space in the room, which means fragile models, sharp objects and dangerous tools. The baby-free demarcation lasted about a day. Apparently Daddy can't resist the little girl. Nowadays, the gate is the Little Girl's swing. But at least she still hold a healthy respect for Daddy's stuff. Strictly no touching. 


How? Oh, we are dog-owning parents. So... we trained her the way we trained the Dog, with some shouts, some 'love pats', and of course, lots of hugs and explanations. It's cool.

Corners of my house #4

The Book/Everything shelf

Ah, currently the only bookshelf in the house, not even a proper one. For one, it's kind of wobbly. Two, it can't fit all of our books. Of course, we had to keep the books AWAY from the Little Hands' reach, so that might account for the lack of space. Still, some of those boxes contain more books, like that Harry Potter set right at the bottom left.

Wishing for proper bookshelves, and yet other shelves for beautifying my home. 

Treasure...

Treasure

In so many ways...

In the way my heart swells at the sight of my two 'babies'

In the way the timing gives me some time to get centered today...

And to use a phrase often used by SouleMama, be still my heart..





Updated a few minutes after the picture was taken:
The Dog moved away. Then the Baby moved too, leaving a small puddle on the floor.
Aah, I guess the Dog has more reason to move. I thought she was just bored. Kekeke....

And for the curious one out there, yeah, the Little One is still on potty training, and I am 'sacrificing' that sofa. Please refer to that corner of the house post.

Corners of my house #3

The Thermostat

I find it funny sometimes that here we are, living in the Philippines, and we have a Honeywell thermostat in the house. Not a split aircon, like what we used to have in the Apt back in Singapore, mind you, a thermostat, connected to a central air conditioning system. Well, at least we don't have a central heater. I suppose that is saying something.

Nighttime thinking...

Red Ant next to a leaf

I wonder if the ant can actually comprehend its size against the rest of the world. But then again, I wonder if even we humans are really conscious of our relative size to the universe.

Yah, the funny thoughts that come at night as you wind down, ready for your rest for the day.
I used to really love talking to my Mom at this time of the day, always trying not to be so obvious at my efforts to stretch bedtime. It's been years since I do that. But I guess I still try to do that whenever I get the chance to catch up with either of my sisters. Provided none of us are to tired for some late night talk. Somehow, I just feel that confidences just flow smoother at night, away from light, from prying eyes. We are more... mellow, more receptive to ideas, to secret exchanges...

I don't usually post here at night. Usually by this time I would be so tired that if I were to be on the computer, I would be passively reading whatever takes my fancy instead of actively writing a post. But the Little One was asleep early (ahm, she actually simply combined her nap with her night sleep, resulting in super early falling asleep. I wish she would do that more often), and I managed to get a nice sit down dinner, quite a bit of browsing, and still some energy left to write.
Life is good.

Back to the Ant, I have my own reason for having Mr. Ant here to start this post.
There are days, you know, when I just feel like that ant (debate on whether the ant has feelings or not aside),
When I feel that there are simply so many things that I want to do
When the to do list seem endless
And despair starts to creep in...

Just take this blog, for example.
It's there, it's being updated, not regularly enough, but it's just there
And yet, it's not enough.
There are still so many things to improve, so many possibilities
And I don't think I have even attracted any reader.
Hhhh.....

Maybe I should do a list. Yeah, a list would be good.
Of things that I need to do:
Pages for the blog : About me, photos, tips
Posts for the blog: blog review, self portrait, custom signature
House: more decorating please. 1 year on, the place still look pretty bare and uninspired
Kiddo: finish the dress I started for her

Hmm.... No, list is no good. I'm getting depressed.
Never mind.

In the meantime, though, thank you Mr. Ant for dropping by.

Corners of my house #2

The Little Couch

What's with all the flour? Ahm, actually it's baking soda. As to why? 2 words, my friend, potty training.
The Little One is on potty training, and it so happen that Mama forgot to put her back in her pampers when she took her nap the day before. Let's just say there was an accident, which can be smelled right from the front door. No can do. 
Oh, and if you are curious, the baking soda worked like a charm, although the potty training is still ... on going. Don't worry, I still have more baking soda in my pantry.