Made me smile - this e-mail from a happy customer. She bought a mrr design picture frame in beautiful Sis Boom fabric last year and says:

".... the one in my office makes me happy even on the gloomiest, most stressful day at work!"

summertime

the livin' is easy

enjoy your memorial day weekend

stars and stripes

parades

and

hot dogs

and

ice cream cones

Imagine my surprise when I opened the wrapper of the latest

World Of Interiors

Right there, smack dab in the middle is a "mood board"

chock full of images.

Just like the boards created by mrr design (aka marnie)

except that this collage is pinned on top of all the ribbons.

This photo is called Trinity collage:

"a couture mood board" by Christian Lacroix

in his 1980's studio.

Lacroix wanted to "produce out of nowhere something that not been seen for a long time: a new haute-couture house...Lacroix adopted his usual manner: graphically, 'graphomaniacally' you might say, issuing ideas, cuttings, torn-out pages and suggestions, which all contributed to a gigantic collage that summed up his idea of the place."

Why not put your ideas out there too.

Fill a gigantic "mood board"

Let the images inspire and motivate you.

Stylebeat proclaimed on May 20th

"Stylish trends:

it's all about mini florals"

Looks like I hit the mark on this one.

These wonderful reproduction 18th and 19th century fabrics,

reproduced by Liberty and V&A, London

for the current Quilt Exhibition,

are perfect for the mini floral design trend.

Everyone loves these pretty blue frames.

A few ladies coveted the fabric for a dress or flowing skirt

Don't forget if you are in the Boston area

there is a great show at

Church of the Redeemer

on Sat and Sun, May 22 & 23.

15% of all my profits will go to the mission fund project

click here for more info

Spring Fair

Mission Fundraiser

Saturday, May 22^nd

from 10-3

and Sunday May 23^rd

from 12-3

Redeemer Undercroft

at

CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER

379 HAMMOND STREET

CHESTNUT HILL, MASSACHUSETTS

Canonica Verde (Italian olive oil & honey)

Capriccio Arts (visual art)
Circa Design (gemstone jewelry)
Dean’s Sweets (chocolate)
Dede Cadieux (beaded and pearl necklaces)
Giardini di Sole (Italian ceramics)
Janet Egan Design (silk jackets)

Miatela Studio (scarves and textiles)

MRR Design

(padded picture frames and noteboards)
MY Design (decoupage)
Nest Gift Shop of Dedham, MA

Margaret Remensnyder Illustration
Sumner P. Bennett (Shaker Style boxes)

Simply Made (quilts and handmade cards)
Tina Lang Creations (custom jewelry)

Whimsey Books (children's books)
Whitney Prints (framed antique prints)

Come see me at the fair!

15% of all my sales

goes to the mission projects.

A project associated with the Church Service League, our annual Spring Fair raises money to support Redeemer mission projects, particularly summer mission trips to the Gulf Coast to help rehabilitate individual homes post-Hurricane Katrina. The spring fundraiser is in its third year.

Over fifteen vendors offer everything from gourmet foodstuffs to toys to women’s apparel, with spring-themed merchandise and an eye towards graduations and Father's Day.

The Spring Market is open to the public at the above posted hours. Everyone is warmly welcome to attend.

To carry on with the Children's Book Week theme....

Have you ever read the Inchmark Journal by Brooke Reynolds?

It is wonderful...

Periodically, there is post on library books

Here are some sample pictures from a recent post.

I love to follow the small hands

and imagine these sweet children reading their library books.

Takes me back to the library visits with Miss Is.

Our public library is a terrific resource.

library book photos from Inchmark Journal

Last season, I made these terrific frames and memento boards...

piles of books with titles like Good Night Moon

and

the wonderful zzzzzzzzz

I have lots of this fabric left

and

I have a great idea

I am going to make library book bags

a great way to tote all those great picture books home

and

a great way to keep them organized at home so they do not go missing...

more to come...

a summer project.

Finally, to end Children's Book Week, I toast my Hermione!

WELL DONE!!!

WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU.

Amusing, clever and so beautiful

Who ever guessed that samplers could be so cool and witty.

Click A Bloomsbury Life

to see all the samplers.

You will enjoy the pithy verse.

"Stitching up the Noughties"

Exhibit in LA

at the ACME Gallery

here is the loom

with sampler in process

Fun alphabet font I spotted on swissmiss

a few months ago.

So I did little cutting and pasting today

in honor of Children's Book Week

which I learned about via the Tattered Cover.

Then I saw this advertisement and

did a double-take

a new kind of story hour on the ipad?

I prefer reading the actual book...

I read to Miss Is every night.

We started with Mother Goose;

10 pages of rhymes a night

because rhymes help develop language skills.

Miss Is became quite a talker

and then a voracious reader...

another favorite...

it was especially fun to touch and feel the sculpture

of the ducklings in the Boston Public Garden

How wonderful is this photo?

Miss Is at Squam Lake.

We have books crammed into bookshelves all over the house.

It is still fun to pull out the old picture books.

Blogs have taken over a lot of my reading time.

It is nice to remember all the time I read to Miss Is when she was a little girl.

I just finished a very good book: Little Bee

Compelling and hard to forget.

I highly recommend it.

Each year I cull the shelves and donate to the library.

Got to make room for more books.

So many books, so little time.

Read and read and read to your children.

A gift that keeps giving...

We have a tradition in our house

hand-made cards

with poetry

either poems we write

or

famous poems copied out

Today I received the most beautiful card

from miss is

with this poem

along with beautiful prose from miss is

Afternoon on a Hill

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass

And the grass rise.

And when the lights begin to show

Up from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,

And then start down!

Delicious Mother's Day pie

made by moi.

the secret: orange zest

And look at all the rhubarb I have left.

The rhubarb was picked on Sunday at the farm up the road

a bargain @ $5 for a huge bunch -

I have all this left over for a crumble later this week.

rhubarb and asparagus -

my spring-time favorites

delicious

This is a great show.

Some of my frames and boards will be there

plus all sorts of goodies from Sis Boom

Beautiful, happy, colorful fabrics

and you get to meet the beautiful, happy, and colorful Jennifer

and beautiful, happy and colorful quilts etc

from Go Make Your Bed

get directions here

Just shipped this 31" x 31" out to Colorado

and received this e-mail from the decorator:

"delivered it to my client this weekend...she loved it, and so do I, it looks perfect."

...made my day

Back from the Azalea Festival at The Landon School

in Bethesda, Maryland

and all tuckered out

great success with the monogram frames

ACK frames - sure to be a hit this summer

Here I am in the studio in the wee hours before departure,

while I still had energy.

Back soon after I rest up.

Perfect image for today

muggy, rainy and Monday.

Back from my marathon trip to DC area.

Great show at Landon School

Exhausted though.

Found this image at True Up

"Melimba & Beccabury are Melissa Snyder Wood and Rebecca Snyder, a two-sister design team whose debut fabric collection Rainy Days and Mondays was recently released by Riley Blake Designs."