(Inside A Black Apple)

A Stitchy Book + I am depressed about Movies

Hey cuties.
I bought this book a few days ago with a nice little gift card to the book store, and I really need to show off some of it, because you will love it. I know for certain that this book has been blogged before (by Ms. Furious Poultry, maybe?) but I had to do it. It's the See and Sew book, which is allegedly for children, but I think we all know that the majority of the copies will reside on grown-up girl's bookshelves. All of the vintage sewing images are what sold me...see, even the endpapers are beautiful!

 
 

Well, truthfully it was the beautiful images AND the oversized, idiot-proof embroidery stitch instructions. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. I didn't know how to do a simple chain stitch until 3 days ago. Very sad, I am no "Renaissance crafter". Anyway, this book is just wonderful, and you will love it. I would imagine a little girl or boy would, too, but who knows. All I know is it made me so excited about sewing things for the new year (including a big present that is in the works for a birthday coming up very soon). I've just ordered loads of new fabric + felt supplies to make lovely dollies, and many canvases as well. I just have to un-wreck my studio from the blitz of holiday shipping that kind of killed it temporarily...

And, the other half of my post-title. I am just so mad about movies at this second. Yesterday, both Children of Men and the-movie-I've-been-obsessively-looking-forward-to, Pan's Labyrinth were supposed to arrive in theaters. Now, I didn't expect Athens to get Pan's Labyrinth (at least not immediately) but I figured Atlanta would. Nope. Not yet, anyway. And Children of Men? Starring my HUSBAND who is very famous? Not that one either? All that is playing is the likes of We are Marshall and Night at the Museum and movies you really couldn't pay me to watch. I am so sad. Yesterday was the first day that I really, really missed New York. I forlornly punched my old zip code in..."11211" for showtimes...and sure enough. Both of those films are playing, of course. I really almost cried, which I know is ridiculous. When I said I would mainly miss the movies and H&M (aside from friends, of course) I meant it.

To console ourselves my friend Jenny and I watched some choice selections from a "50 Horror Movie" Box set that she got for Christmas from her boyfriend. Most were hilarious, and we kinda skipped through alot. One, however, which has a hilarious title (Naked Massacre aka Born for Hell) was directly based on the Richard Speck murders and was really terrifying/shocking and actually very good.  But maybe it just seemed good after the film we watched before that one, entitled Metamorphosis, in which a man pretty much turned into an honest-to-god Dinosaur with very little explanation. This is what it has come to. Good movies, please come soon. 

Post Holiday Pretty

Some pretty things around the house (attempting to replace the cheer of the now-discarded tree). I had a massive thrifting day yesterday, and later had some quality time with the new Tom Waits boxset (a beloved Christmas present from Sarah!) and my apartment. Ooh la la...skeleton keys...

My newly framed Magic Jelly prints:

A lovely Alice-y Christmas gift from my friend Jenny & a thrifted sugar bowl painted candy-pink:

 

A thrifted vintage wool sweater that I spruced up with a ramshackle group of buttons (modeled in the midst of my wreck of a studio):

Last, the coolest stocking present I bought this year (in case you don't recognize that wistful face, it's David Lynch). It's from another amazing Etsy seller, Reckon, and is being modeled by a happy recipient here:

The shop is back in business, and I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things.

At this moment, I'm baking Nigella's chocolate loaf cake from How to be a Domestic Goddess and am about to watch North by Northwest...
Just try to out-cozy me. Just you try.

On Christmas Eve-Eve...

More regular presents and many stocking presents wrapped last night...a few with Ashley's adorable tags. I love those little foxlets!

Christmas Eve-Eve was always a favorite with me when I was a little girl, for some reason. And here it is again, and I'm about to tidy the apartment so that I can go home to my mom's house for cookie making and movie watching and Christmas Eve and Christmas itself.

The blog and you lovely readers/friends are one of the best gifts I've received this year...the reservoir of support, encouragement and kindness never stops surprising and enchanting me. So thank you for the gifts of your comments, notes and impromptu gifts. Thank you for reading my blog and caring about my work and about me. I feel so very spoiled.

Merry, merry, merry my little elves! Happy Holidays & Enjoy the people that you love.
xoxoxo

All Tomorrow's Parties, Ginger Cookies, Typewriters & Lula

Since last we spoke, I dropped out of blogging society in order to host my Christmas party on Monday night, and generally play a bit of catch up. How nice and relaxing! There have been a constant stream of things that need to be done, but it has been pleasant and happily busy, which is one of the perks of this time of year, I suppose. Here are a few pictures of the food situation at the soiree:

Directly above are some improvised tiny, baked spinach/cheese tartlets with sliced cherry tomatoes. I made them with one of Nigella's amazing, buttery crusts from How to be a Domestic Goddess that I simply divied up and pressed into muffin tins. To the right, on the pink plate, are the most amazing, chewy, perfect ginger cookies. These cookies are amazing. They make me feel like all other roundy, sweet things so commonly referred to as "cookies" aren't really deserving of the title. These are cookies, my darlings. The real thing. They bake up perfectly round and with these photogenic little crevices...
Anyway, you must make some. That is, if you are still in holiday baking mode. You could obviously make them anytime, maybe in January to take some of the edge off of the Holiday jet-lag.

Ginger Cookies

Bake time: 12 minutes per  batch

4 1/2 c all purpose flour   4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp baking soda   1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves   1 1/2 shortening

2 c granulated sugar   2 eggs

1/2 c molasses  1/2 c coarse sugar or regular ol' granulated

1.) Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and a pinch of salt.

2.) In a large bowl beat shortening for 30 seconds. Add the 2 cups granulated sugar, and beat til' combined. Beat in the eggs and molasses until combined. beat in half of flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour mixture. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, measure out lumps of dough and then roll them into balls between your palms. You can then roll your dough liberally in the leftover sugar. Place the balls at least 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

3.) Bake in preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies are puffy and light brown. Make sure not to overbake! These should settle down to be soft and chewy. Cool briefly on the cookie sheet, and then transfer to wire racks or paper towels.

These can be frozen, or kept for 3-4 days in an airtight container.
So tasty!

Another thing, (besides amazing cookies) that I'm loving is my beautiful 1930's portable typewriter, recently Ebay'd:

Last, just a bit of eye candy, this beautiful British fashion magazine Lula. I snapped it up at Borders the other day, and its the closest thing to an Emily-perfect fashion magazine that contemporary publishers could hope to provide...very vintage and feminine and quirky. Here are some examples of their offerings, beautiful scrap-book style pages of inspiration, fashion spreads with the likes of the ridiculously lovely Zooey Deschanel, a tribute to saddle shoes, and mini-interviews with cute, creative girls that I would like to meet:

You guys would love this magazine. Really.

Well, tomorrow begins my string of mini-Christmases. Sarah is flying in from NY and I'm going to Atlanta to have Christmas with her and celebrate her sister/my buddy Jenny's birthday. Then it's back here, and then living it up, Christmas-style, as much as possible til' Tuesday. I'll be back before then, thuogh, at least to wish you a happy day. Enjoy it all...all these holiday days, but don't beat yourself up in the process. Thank you for being the way you are. And thank you for reading.

 

This is...A Happy House

I was thinking of the Siouxsie and the Banshees song when I woke up this morning...and I love that song, even though I know it's not really a happy house she's singing about at all, and therefore it doesn't really go with my post. Yesterday my little flat was the happiest house of them all, as my mom and sister (Amelia) drove to Athens for the serious business of making  a gingerbread house. This is the first time either of them have seen my sweet apartment, so I was also just excited for them to see where I live/what I've done with the place. They just loved it, which I knew they would, and my sister made the hilarious and cute remark "I feel like I'm in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". (My little sister is 19, not a tiny child).
I was so excited, and made up the dough, drew out my "templates",  put out my contribution to the candy-decor, and started lunch before they arrived. My dough/recipe proved to be more of a sugar cookie-ish concoction, which I think I can chalk up to lack of molasses, but it worked just fine for our purposes. We happily buzzed away like little bees, making democratic decisions about shingles and whether or not the enormous M&M doorknobs were TOO enormous:

We completed it all by making this crazy "yard", if you will, of the leftover candies and some piles of marshmallows! It was so fun...and I am going to have real problems not picking at it in the next week. I guess I can just pilfer from the yard. Maybe just the backyard.
After my lovely family left, I cleaned up a  bit and went into my studio and had this moment of domestic zen, in which the washing machine and dishwasher were chugging away, full of clothes and dishes. My house is clean and neat, finally (after those few weeks of the store's business, my whole house was starting to look like a packing station/trashbag). I was happily on the sewing machine, zipping along, altering/taking in a pile of clothes that were a bit too big or muu-muu-esque for me. And I was so happy.

I spent the evening with my friends Keith and Corie at an undisclosed "Italian" restaurant (undisclosed because...ok. It was the Olive Garden. I know. It was not my choice). Then we went to see the Pursuit of Happyness, which they both thought was long and slow, but I thought it was exactly the way I thought it would be from the trailer. Which is to say, I liked it. It was kind of invented to be liked, right?

We're getting SO CLOSE to Christmas...I still need to wrap more presents, and see if I can eek out a few handmade gifts. And, more pressing, I need to bake/cook and make lists for tomorrow's party. What costume shall the poor girl wear?  I think I'm wearing a grey dress with red tights and grey heels. I think Nico & the Velvets would be okay with that.

Charcoal Eyes and Banged up Knees...

Doing things in real life can be wonderful...

Yesterday was one of those perfectly busy, only-during-the-Holidays-fun kind of days for me. Sara and I went to Atlanta to do a bit of Christmas shopping at the Anthropologie store and have lunch, etc. This was so wonderful, because as much as I love the convenience and options of doing loads of my shopping online, it is also a little sad to not take any real life Christmas shopping trips. And, hello, I got to go to the favorite store...the store where they do (almost) everything perfectly.
As I finished checking out, the sweet counter-girl threw a slew of these adorable yarn-balls (shown above) into my shopping bag...just because. They are these beautiful, chunky mini-skeins of yarn, wrapped around a little "surprise" (a chunky, wool felt snowflake)! Things like this are why, despite the sometimes absurd prices on plain jersey tops and the potential idea theft, I cannot have anything but utter love for Anthro. With them, we all know, the magic is all in the perfect, quirky little details. I'm happy to pay a bit more for those details. More than happy.  *Sigh* Love.
This all sent me down a little trip on memory lane, to a time where my mom had this amazing stash of "suprise balls" that we might be lucky enough to get if we were sickies or just feeling blue. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? They are wrapped in kind of a crepe paper, and have little stickers, tiny toys, etc. nestled in each layer.
Anyway, so now I'm thinking I should make some little yarn suprise balls as little gifts for the little Christmas party I'm hosting on Monday night. I will let you know if this idea becomes reality.

After shopping yesterday, I drove home to help the fam decorate the tree at my Mama's house. I was so looking forward to this little tradition, and it was really fun. I love my family. At my little home, I've been steadily wrapping presents and Christmas-ifying things, in between filling orders. It occured to me that I never showed off my cute tree, and now that it isn't naked below the waist (aka has a good smattering of presents under it) I thought I might show her off.

Do you see that I indeed have a hand-knitted mitten posing a tree topper? I just couldn't find a star that wasn't tacky or an angel that struck my fancy. So, mitten it is. And the two types of hedgie ornaments? The beautiful glass one is from my aforementioned shopping buddy, and the little stuffed one is from the adorable Craftpaca (whose shop is pretty empty right now).

Before I go, I have to tell you about the turn-for-the-worst of Tuesday, when I happily blogged away about cupcakes, dresses, pink vintage slips, beautiful mail....blah blah blog. It was a mega shipping day, so I was preparing packages.  And then I went to take out a huge box of trash that I couldn't really see over, and found myself... um falling down the stairs. It was very scary, but mostly because of two things that weren't really the injuries sustained to my legs from the accident. 1.) It is scary to live alone. Nobody knows if something bad happens to you. This had never occured to me. (and) 2.) I am a bit prone to fainting/blacking out. Which I did, twice immediately after the tumble.  I know, how terribly Victorian of me...it is just perfect. (wink). So, my shins look...um...unfortunate to say the least, but I am fine. And I wear knee-socks every day, anyway, so their hideous state is hidden away. I'm a walking cautionary tale, but I was saved by the power of Holiday shopping and Christmas-tree-decorating.

Do-nothing-day & Good, good mail

Yesterday's do-nothingness could be best summed up by these facts:

1.) I stayed in my slip all day. And my vintage candy-colored slip happened to match (in a way that the photography doesn't want to show off!) the cupcake that made up the majority of my food intake yesterday.
2.) I read A Very Long Engagement all afternoon, and finally managed to snap up one of Jenn's incredible bears. Again, I had that lottery-winning-feeling.

3.) Then, amazing mail! Amazing.
This Passenger Pigeon dress (which I have been coveting ever since I saw it in the shop) came from the lovely Erin at Sodafine:

The second image is mine, the first is snatched from the Passenger Pigeon website. The dress is just perfect...beautifully made, with a chartreuse silk lining. I'm going to wear this baby alot. Alot.

Some other lovely mail from the wonderful  Mary, designer for Contrary, some of which were top-secret Christmasy things, but I also snapped up a couple of her antique spoon hooks (not just like the one shown, but similar) and also a new skeleton key necklace (again, not exactly like that one). I love Contrary. I mean, I think I'm a certifiable junkie at this point. There are not too many Etsy shops that I buy things from consistently and am really interested in, but Mary's is one of a tiny handful. Her things are just my speed.
Also in the mail, a little packet from Ms. Posie herself. And, I just have to say, the woman must be stopped! Her packaging skills put us all to shame...I mean, it's a couple (albeit, very adorable) vintage plastic deer, and take a look at this gorgeous packaging:

The woman is a freak. And I mean that in the sweetest and most loving way possible. Also, check out the little pink melamine bowl and peppermint striped mini-tray in the photo...both Target finds (!) from last night (the bowls are in that little "dollar store" section they have, and also come in mint, and the trays are from the holiday "napkin-y" area). Perfect for serving small things or for serving things to small people.

Last, I've been wanting to share this idea with you for a while, but I kept forgetting. This wee project is super easy and charming and SO useful:

 Vintage buttons, simply hot-glued to regular old plastic thumbtacks (the longer kind, not the flat disc kind). The buttons need to have flat(ish) backs so that they'll bond evenly with the tack.
Voila! Perfect little adorable hooks for your necklaces, your potholders, your stockings (I used a whole line of red ones for my sweater-stockings!) etc. Or, for your inspiration board.

Make a whole batch of them in similar colors/shapes and package them up prettily for an easy and useful little Christmas gift. If you don't trust hot glue, you can use E600 or some industrial strength stuff, but I've found the hot glue bond between thumbtack and button to be surprisingly sturdy (even through repeated moves and repositionings).

Happy Tuesday, dears!

Catching you lovelies up...

Hello all! Happy Sunday & Happy Monday, too.

The market on Thursday + Friday was very fun, and overall  a success for me and the Bandit. She already blogged about the blustery winds and the "sausage-y smell" that invaded every article of anything that was even remotely near the little market. These "fire pits" that they had going did little more than drown us in a nice "smokey aroma"...and it was so flippin' cold. Thursday was actually warmer than Friday (in the high '20's) but with the windchill (and it was VERY windy...paperweights were a must!) it was almost unbearable. Thankfully, I did get to meet some super sweet peas, including the incredibly sweet Teresa (aka MaggieGraceCreates), who has also blogged about the sale, and said some of the kindest things about me over at her blog. (Thank you, Teresa, for being so kind and warm. And thank you again for the incredible fabric...it is so beautiful!)

Here are my not-so-hot photos of our eensy tables, just before my camera died:
(Sara's things are on the Right table, except for my print-box)

 

I know it all looks very helter-skelter, but it was SO windy! And under the twinkling Christmas lights, and the cloak of the night, it all looked very sweet. And is just so fun to see people enjoy your work in person...I was especially pleased with how taken everyone seemed to be with the paper dolls, which I sold quite a few of. It just makes me happy that people still appreciate things like paper dolls.
Another photo I managed to eek out just as the camera battery bit the dust:

It is me, (doing something very silly with my mouth), and my Manech (real name: Mr. Josiah). I just think he deserves a bit of a shout-out because the man sat with us for 5 hours in the unbelievable cold and wind  and sausage-y smokiness of Thursday night and didn't complain once. And he didn't even have the lining in his jacket! And he had to work (in a city 3 hours away) at 9 a.m. the next morning. Medal? Award of some kind? Yes, I think so.

In the flurry of activity and the insane busy-streak that the last week was, I did do a wee bit of painting...more on the wood plaques. I keep making things that I'm not satisfied with on the wood, so maybe I need to retreat to my comfy canvases again. These little hedgehogs are super sweet, though, so they're about to hop over to the shop :

They are both very petite...the greeny is about 3"x5", and the blue one about 5"x7". Perfect little mini-paintings! There is also one lone pearhead girl pendant that didn't get snapped up at the market, so she's going to be up as well.

And did everyone hear Hillary's news? Ohhhh another Wee Wonderful on the way. I have a real-life friend who is also due in June, and I am....so jealous. I know that is crazy talk, but I can't help it. And all the little puppins that were at the market with their wintery duds on...it just kills me. I certainly shouldn't have a little right now.
Whew!
Enough about babies. I hope you are suitably caught up...otherwise, I will be forced to start blogging about the likes of chips, like my darling Ashley.  And my chips wouldn't even be that swanky.
A nice start to a nice week, all around. Are you with me? Say yes.

Pinsies and Wolfgirls

I'm wearing my adorable Bittersweet Genevieve top today, which makes me very happy. Isn't her drawing/screenprint the best?! I felt like I had won the lottery when I snapped it up a few months ago.
In shop  news, these little ones are listed for sale now (their cute pouches came!):

Ooooh I'm off to do another huge mailing, which I prepared last night whilst watching an embarrassing number of Law & Order SVU episodes on DVD. And then I'm going to do something even more fun: clean my house! No, really, in a sad way, I'm pretty excited to clean the house, because it has been so sorely neglected with all the hustle and bustle of the Black Apple world.
And then I think I'm going to make a few things. Because I haven't gotten to do enough of that lately.

Happy Wednesday!