April 16, 2008

Today's design*sponge DIY

**it appears that our diy wednesday post over at design*sponge isn't loading up correctly at the moment, so until it gets fixed, we're posting it here...**

vintage fabric potholders
as you might have guessed, our apartment is quickly becoming somewhat of a diy wednesday showroom. it’s been so fun filling our home with our little crafty projects, but one room that we’ve unintentionally neglected has been the kitchen. so we were really excited when we stumbled upon some vintage fabric in the craft bin perfect for making a set of pot holders to brighten up the kitchen.

happy crafting!
-derek & lauren


here’s what you’ll need:
two 8” squares of thick fabric, such as canvas or bark cloth. (no flammable synthetics!)
8” square piece of cotton batting (which you can double for extra thickness)
36” piece of extra-wide double fold seam binding
matching thread
scissors
steam iron
pins
sewing machine

1. cut out fabric and batting, and sandwich them together with the batting in the middle.
2. pin your seam binding around the raw edges of the fabric, easing the corners into shape with the steam iron (this takes a little patience, but the corners will eventually lie flat when pressed.) the tail end of the seam binding will be 4” longer than the perimeter of the potholder.
3. stitch around the potholder close to the edge of the seam binding, making sure to catch the bottom layer. stitch all the way up the tail.
4. fold under the raw edge of the tail end of the seam binding 1/2” and press. fold the tail down to create a loop. pin and stitch into place.


the ingredients


step 2: pinning in place


finished potholders!

March 27, 2008

Love this picture

From a Japanese magazine purchased at Kinokuniya a couple months ago. I pretty much bought the magazine because of this picture. I'm off to day 3 of jury duty selection... fingers crossed that I don't get chosen!

March 24, 2008

Crafty Kid

I found these great pictures while sifting through boxes of old photos at my parents' house yesterday. Looks like my love for DIY and crafting started at an early age!

Here I am at age 2 doing paper crafts...


...working in the garden


...and painting! (Love that pose with my hand on my hip.)

March 14, 2008

Rugs




I'm crazy about these textured rugs by a Norwegian company called Permafrost Designstudio.
Top photos are of an area rug called "Silence", which I first spotted in the new issue of dwell. Although I have loved spending the last couple winters in California, I do miss the snow a little, and this rug with its little critter prints made me smile. Bottom rug is called "John Deere- Grass". How great is that?

March 13, 2008

Magic Garden

Just had to share these photos of the Magic Garden we "planted" in the shoppe this weekend. It's pretty incredible.

March 09, 2008

Art Scavenger Hunt

Boy do we love art. And scavenger hunts? Heck Yes!! So we were more than thrilled to be involved in the "Hare and the Hounds" interactive art experience this weekend. The show is part of the Blue Space gallery just around the corner from us and involves artists making maps that lead buyers on an art hunt around the Mission. We had three wonderful artists hide clues and artwork in the Shoppe: Jonn Herschend, Kristina Lewis, and David Kasprzak. Check out some pictures of the artwork and the lucky hunters on our flickr. So fun!!!

Artist Jonn Herschend hands off his clue to Derek...

...and a few hours later, the lucky owner of Jonn's piece shows off the clues he's been collecting throughout the day.

March 08, 2008

Felt Guns & Tons 'o Fun!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to celebrate our opening last night for Sarah Applebaum's 21 Gun Salute! We had such a wonderful time and the installation looks AMAZING! We'll be posting the artwork for sale at the Shoppe soon, so keep an eye out for that. For those of you who couldn't make it to the opening, here are some fun pictures.

Chicks!


Now available in the shoppe, 25¢ each!
These little guys will be hanging out in one of our card catalog drawers at the shoppe until Easter. We can't get enough of them.

March 06, 2008

Art opening tomorrow night!



We are so excited about the new show going up in the shoppe gallery- "21 Gun Salute," by our friend and amazingly talented artist Sarah Applebaum. Sarah has created a rainbow arsenal of felt guns for this show that you absolutely have to see.

Please join us at the opening tomorrow (Friday) night from 6-9pm at the Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia Street in SF. In the meantime, you can click here for a mini sneak preview of the installation. More photos coming soon!

March 05, 2008

Faux Get It!

I spotted this awesome faux-brick planter yesterday evening on a stroll through Berkeley. It reminded me of the wonderful wood bricks we just got in the shoppe made by our new friend Ben. Dang, can't get enough of that faux!

March 01, 2008

Fun with food!


Our friend Ellen was in Dusseldorf last week for the Euroshop retail trade show, and she sent us this image from a company's booth that specializes in deli lighting. Not only are the meat people one of the best things we've laid eyes on, but I also love the shrink wrapped cold cuts with hard boiled egg flowers. This picture, coupled with some that I saw when flipping through my copy of Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls the other day is really tempting me to start getting more creative with my food presentation....

February 29, 2008

Rückblende



A customer came in the other day who was visiting from Denmark, and we got to chatting. Turns out he was in town for the independent games festival, and had developed an interactive animated film, which you MUST check out here. It's called "Rückblende", which he said translates to "Flashback". It is a huge download (400MB), but it's the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time. Or you can check out some previews here, on YouTube.

February 27, 2008

Favorite post this morning

I love having my Google reader feed on my homepage. Why didn't I ever set that up before? On this morning's perusal of all my favorite blogs, these felt pens were the first thing that caught my eye. So simple and smart, and you know I'm a sucker for anything made out of felt.

via Swiss Miss

February 26, 2008

Miles and miles of yarn!

Merino wool in rainbow colors

My yarn stash!

This weekend I made my way down to the Santa Clara convention center with my mom to attend Stitches West, a yarn convention and marketplace that is a dream for knitters and fiber lovers. We didn't have time to attend any of the workshops or classes, but did spend a few hours winding our way around the booths full of yarn and trimmings. There were skeins and balls and bags full of hand-dyed wool, natural alpacas, space-dyed cottons... there was more yarn in that building than I've ever seen! While we were at first drawn to all the beautiful vibrant colors of the hand dyed yarns, we both ended up buying earthy, natural colored yarns (mostly alpaca blends), and picked up a pattern book to share.

February 21, 2008

Lovin' the Arts

Oooh....Look what came in the mail today! Our 2nd issue of The Thing!!! I helped out at the packing party last week so I already know what's inside, but I'm still thrilled it's here. While I was at my post at the "stamping station" I met Andy Vogt. Super nice guy, super talented artist. I'm especially in love with these wood pieces he makes.
Which reminds me how excited I am for Southern Exposure's Monster Drawing Rally tomorrow night. So many friends and awesome artists are going to be at the Verdi Club drawing and selling from 6-11pm. Can't wait!

February 20, 2008

That is a GREAT question!

Yes! 41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments. Via the fine folks at Coudal.

National Park Blankets

Grand Canyon National Park Blanket

Rainier National Park Blanket

Pendleton has been making these National Park blankets since the early 1900's. Since we have a little obsession with National Parks and a little obsession with Pendleton Blankets, these are now officially our new obsession.

February 19, 2008

Paper stop-motion


Saw this Su Blackwell stop motion commercial not long ago and I can't get it out of my mind.


Then I saw this piece on swissmiss this morning and have been thinking about the endless possibilities of stop motion paper shorts all day. So amazing!

February 15, 2008

We Dance


I can home last night to find this painting hanging above our bed! We have both been obsessing over it since we saw it on display at Tartine Bakery a little while back, and then boom, here it is... my Valentine's day gift from the best husband ever. (The painting is entitled "We Dance", by the lovely Katie Vida.)

February 13, 2008

Roast-a-rama!

Last year I caught the coffee roasting bug while working on this fun story for ReadyMade. I got myself a popcorn popper, a bunch of beans from Sweet Maria's and haven't looked back. We recently upgraded to a Fresh Roast Plus (I kinda melted the popper) and have been roasting up a storm around here. So delicious, so fun!