shoes and ships...

easy projects are best

tonight i am going to a reception the swedish-american chamber of commerce is throwing for its newer members - like me.  i printed up new business cards to make sure i had a whole bunch (how's that for optimism?) and in a sudden fit of inspiration decided that my pretty business cards deserve a pretty little leather case just for them.

a million years ago i wrote about a pile of leather sofa swatches i came across and enthusiastically bought every single one - having no plan for them but knowing that they were way too good to pass up.  i have used these swatches in so many things, and they are the perfect size for a little card case.  yay!  can you see the color well?  it is a really beautiful beautiful shade of a cross between brown and grey and darky taupey.  what color do you call that?  it is rich and lush and gorgy!

off to the ambassador's residence dahlings!

good books

i am a sucker for lists like these. 

i like seeing what other people consider all-time great ("the corrections"??  you have to be kidding) and comparing it with what i like (at least we agree on "the heart is a lonely hunter").  and the source of the list doesn't much matter to me.  it can be time magazine's list, granta's, or the guy next door's.   from time's list, i have read 15 of the 100.  not that that means anything in particular.

how many of these books have you read?

(ps - they did one for movies too.)

mahvelous mahtha

has anyone been watching martha's apprentice?  i haven't heard a word about it so maybe it isn't popular or not very good?  i was lamenting the fact that swedish tv doesn't carry it (yet?), but i'm still mighty curious. 

are you watching it?  is it good?

best laid plans

i am forever obsessing over a project in my mind - planning it, choosing the right materials, gearing up to make it - and then once ½-way completed i decide it looked much better in my mind's eye and end up either ripping it out and starting the obsession anew or just abandoning it altogether. 

i bought this really cute denim coat a while back and it is cute enough on its own, but i thought a little embellishment would really make it special.  something discreet on the cuffs (since the arms are too long!).  but once i finally got around to doing it (i have absolutely no explanation as to why it took me so long to put this together - it isn't exactly advanced but it took me ages) it just didn¨t look right.  a little too... country or something.  and a bit too indiscreet.  suddenly i was all cuff.  riiip. 

maybe some dark blue and dark green hardly visible embroidery is in my future. 

sweets for the sweet

my sister withheld from making her baby's 2nd birthday cake and very generously allowed all 3 of her darling daughter's doting aunts to combine forces and bake The Cake.  ellen made the cookies, i baked the cake (the most delicious chocolate cake recipe EVER with buttermilk is in the spring MS Kids magazine - make it!) and marlene and i decorated it together.  there is such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen, but this time i would say there was just the right amount.