(Inside A Black Apple)

The Fremont Diner

On my weekend jaunt to SF, we drove out to Sonoma and paid a lunch-time visit to the Fremont Diner.

 
It was such a sweet, all-'round great little place, I think I should mostly just let the photos do the talkin'!

There were all kinds of sauces and bottled-up goodies for sale, in addition to the classic Southern-inflected American food on offer.

And there were countertop boxes of old timey candies and silly novelties!

The sensibility of the place was just perfect. Comfy, not too precious, but really elegant in its simplicity. Lots of light, fresh flowers, and green or amber glass jars everywhere.

I would love it so much if this place was just a little hop, skip, and jump away from Portland.

It would be perfect for a weekend afternoon.
And I really want to take the fella there - I think Josiah would really love it!  

Dainty Kitten Flowers

My order of this outstanding fabric from the clever Melinda Josie arrived recently, and I cannot wait to sew with it!

The printing is beautiful, and the sateen it's printed on is lovely to touch and should be very nice to work with. The first time I saw the print, I was smitten.

A kitty dress is imminent!

(The stack of dresses-to-be is getting out of control, so I suppose I need to get to stitching)

SF Weekend Gallivanting

I just got back from my long weekend in the city by the bay, and it was so nice. Francie and Co. were so good to me.

Some of the best parts were:

Bakesale Betty's chicken sandwiches in Oakland.

Playing with fur-pants Mr. Westie Dog pretty much all day, every day (there were about 40 pictures of this pup on my camera and maybe 15 of anything else from the trip).

Raspberry macarons as big as your hand from Bouchon (my little box made it home on the flight un-crushed! Hooray!)

Nerdy matching sailor sweater-coats.

Other highlights:

-Working on little projects
-Cozy tea and cozy quilts
-The Vintage Expo (we both turned up on this Modcloth post about it!)
-A funny and sweet side-of-the-road diner (so cute it deserves its own post)

Such a good visit, I could've stayed and stayed. But I have so many things to work on here, so it's happily back to my little world here with the rat Miette and my best fella.

All Ways Lead to Alice

I recently picked up what might be the prettiest addition to my Alice library - a 1930's edition illustrated by Milo Winter. It's really lovely - not completely unlike the Rackham illustrations, but much more gentle and colorful. I have about 20 different editions in my collection now - but I know ladies with more.

The new version has caused my head to be with Alice a lot lately, which is a little clue as to some of the work I'm doing behind the scenes right now!

I'm excited to be aeroplaning down to San Francisco tomorrow for a long weekend. Hopefully, unlike Ms. Alice's journey, there won't be any neurotic rabbits, catty flowers, or egomaniacal monarchs to contend with on my little trip.

Happy weekend to you!

Natural History

Slowly but surely, our living room has become our own miniature natural history museum of sorts. My biggest aquisition to date was a find at Paxton Gate, my favorite store in San Francisco.
It's this little fella here:

(My monkey lamp is looking increasingly out of place on those shelves)

I think he's a klipspringer or possibly a steenbok, definitely a small African antelope. I fell in love on the spot, so I rescued him (he was in total disrepair). We carried him all the way back to Portland with us in our little car, which was quite the spectacle. I had him restored locally and he was given a proper mount, so now he's standing up nicely and looking handsome.

At the same time as our living room gets filled with more and more specimens and illustrations and things, I'm also assembling a natural history themed present for a little gal's birthday that's coming up. I'm so excited about this big stash of Golden Guides I've squirrelled away for her:

I get so much use out of my own small collection, so I'm really excited to give her these. They're such a nice balance of not-too-dumb, but not-too-intimidating.

I also found this amazing silkworm lifecycle encased in resin at my favorite local shop, Flutter:

So that's another gem for the collection o' presents. I really hope she digs all of this...now I'm just on the  hunt for a pretty magnifying glass!

I hope your week is coming along nicely - thanks for coming along for a little science-y fun!

Lucky Teeth in the Shop

You can get your very own Lucky Tooth in the shop - I've just put them in!

Each one is as one-of-a-kind as a real tooth (but most measure about 1" tall).

I think these will be wonderful as gifts for friends for whom you wish a spot of good luck. Or, you could to slip into your own bag when you, yourself, need the spot of good luck (thinking job interviews, etc).

Of course, possibly the sweetest use for these toofs is to gift one to a little person who has lost their own (but let's hope the tooth fairy doesn't forget the other treats, too).

The little "fortune" that arrives with each tooth says:
"Wherever a lucky tooth you find, good luck won't be far behind".

Silly little things like these make me so happy!

Lucky Toofs!

I have a little something (or somethings) I wanted to show you that I've been working on for a little while now...

Little one-of-a-kind lucky teeth!

I love toofs and I love lucky charms, so I thought they'd be a nice match. Now that I've figured out one last detail of the teensy packaging, they're all set!  I will be adding them to the shop early next week, and I'll be sure to post here when they're available.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend on the way! I'm still working away at a big project, and I've got a new (smaller) project I've begun. I can't wait to share either!

Other than workin', I'm hoping to get some tea-drinking and snuggling and reading in. I started re-reading A Confederacy of Dunces last night for the first time since I first read it in college - it was one of my favorite books then, and I hope I find it just as hilarious now. I'm not pulling your leg when I tell you that last night I laughed on the third sentence, so that's a good start.

Happy weekend!

 

Libris Lunaria

Upon finding her on the ol' internets, one of the first things I noticed about Francesca was her incredible collection of beautiful vintage illustrations - both archived on her blog, and hanging up on her walls. I longed for a whole big garden of flower images from her What Genus Are You? series of posts. And now it looks like my dreams are coming true, because...

She is currently hard at work embarking on a new, beautiful print-shop dreamily called Libris Lunaria !

You can read all about it here.

  
In her words:
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"We're starting out with 5"x7" prints carefully curated from images in the public domain. Special findings for your favorite spaces - either by themselves or in a collection. The shop will have a fine selection of horticulture, botany, science, astronomy, fauna, children's illustrations, and all eye catching things in between! A little something for everyone!"
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She's accepting pre-orders at a reeeally good price here...I just placed my order for my own trio o' prints! I'm just so excited about this project, I really wanted to share it here (I'll probably ramble on about it at my other blog, too).

Oh! And thank you so much for all that dress-love. Geez, you guys are so sweet.

I hope your week is going along well.
Happy Wednesday to you!

Star Dress (or, In Which I Finally Stop Being Afraid to Sew a Darn Dress)

I have really wanted a dress printed with little stars for the past few years. It's one of those things that got into my mind, and though I've searched and searched, I still haven't found one I like.

I recently created a pattern from a simple 40's house/day dress that fits well, and I've been just so darn glad I finally got over my fear of sewing clothes for myself. I still have a weird fear of commercial patterns, but I feel so happy that I have the power to make a dress of whatever print I'd like...

like a star dress!

The fabric was a bright white cotton printed with black stars, and I dyed it a sort of peachy ecru. I added some vintage binding around the neck and on the pocket that is white with black scalloped trim - I've been saving it for something good! And then I finished the whole shebang off with a little black tie cut from an old shirt.

I love it!

And now I've got a pile of soon-to-be dresses, so I don't think it's the last you've seen of me and handmade frocks.

I hope your week is coming along nicely - see you soon!