Marimekko

New Fall 2009 Marimekko fabrics at Textile Arts. Love the colors.

Happy Halloween

If you have cable check out Robert Bess on the travel channel tonight. I believe he will be catching ghosts Live around 10:00. I have had the pleasure of seeing his Parabot in person, very impressive. You can see more about Bobby on Richmond.com and learn more about tonight's show at the insane asylum on the travel channel's website.

Stark Carpets

I always notice that the design mags feature a lot of beautiful Stark carpets. I have been meaning to find out more info and pics of them on the web but of course they are for the trade only. They are nice enough to have a Facebook page for us average folks.

Sundance Channel

Wow lots of new stuff on the Sundance channel. New Green Pornos, Man Shops Globe, and all kinds a stuff in their Full Frontal Fashion site. Unfortunately I just checked my on demand listing and they had taken off the episodes of The Day Before but keep your eye out for these shows on super big name designers and all the behind the scenes drama and talent that goes into designer clothes. I found this beautiful sketch by Danny Roberts in the gallery section of the Full Frontal Fashion site.

Schumacher

Sharing some of my favorite patterns from Schumacher.

Sarah Morris

The Firm [Los Angeles]

1952 [Rings]

Wolf via Mocoloco

Saw this artist Sarah Morris in Elle Decor and loved the geometry and repetition in her paintings. Very patterny. It's sad that my exposure to art is only through design mags. I really need to broaden my horizons.

Craft In America

Check out PBS's new series on fine art craft Craft in America. I saw last week's episode about artists turn craft into a career. The segment on students at Kansas City Art Institute reminded me of my days as a craft student at VCU. Its is a strange process learning a new craft in a university setting. It can be so daunting when learning a craft technique that will take you many many years to master when you only have four years in school to develop your skills. Of course many people end up making a living doing something different from what they thought they would be doing when they were in school. I believe being a craft major is a great foundation for any artist because you are exposed to so many techniques. I don't think I would be as good a painter today if I had majored in painting.

Goodbye Garden

My veggie garden was as always a learning experience. I try to learn what works and what doesn't and make adjustments as I plan out the garden each year. This year I tryed using compost from Ukrops and planting everything lumped together in a smaller space. Some veggies were ok with commingling and some were not. I thought my cherry tomatoes would never ripen they waited till September and turned out sorta tasteless. The green beans were a new one for me and they were a success. Next year I want to try little ornamental pumpkins. I also think I will ask Santa for Mason Bees to help pollinate. I used to have carpenter bees in a falling down shed. Now I have a beautiful new shed and no bees. I will share more info about Mason Bees in a future post.

Floor Doilies

Namolio

Skinny LaMinx

I finally got a chance to spend some time on the design blogs again. My computer at home was acting up and we were in the middle of a big deadline rush at work. I was surprised to notice crochet doilies used as rugs on two blogs. What a great idea. I crochet but I always have dreams of learning to knit. Crochet is fun because it is so organic but the big downside is the lumpiness. I found a post about Namolio on Tea for Joy.The description of Namolio's large wool Doilies says that they may be a little thick for use as a blanket but would make a great hard wearing rug. Crocheting rugs is such a great idea I would love to make one for my bedroom.

Crafty Bastards 2009 Road Trip

Well we made it! Thanks to Becky for driving. We even got the most amazing parking spots. Sorry I didn't get any pictures. It was all I could do just to concentrate on moving thru the giant crowds. Luckily other folks got some good images. You can see some on threads and snippets. Some of those booths I didn't even get close to so it is nice to see what they would have looked like with out the mobs surrounding them.
I got to Candy Thief's booth around 3:30 and it was cleaned out! Of course if you didn't make it or are tormented by the regret of not buying something you saw you can always find what you missed on the website.