baby romaine

so young and tender, your salad days are here
but remember, sweet is always mixed with bitter
and April only leads to December

well, in the case of my updates, April leads to July. oops.

All my friends are having babies. Baby girls. If you're pregnant with a son, you kid is going to have his choice of the ladies.



I used leftovers from another quilt in the works to makes this green and blue quilt for my friend's soon to be born daughter. Actually, I had enough leftovers to make three copies. While the "mass production" makes me feel a bit like Baby Gap, I kind of love it at the same time. Also! I was strangely pleased at how efficiently the leftovers got used up.

Also! if I'm really happy with the final product, as I am with this one, I want to spread the love.



Kind of like how I feel about the bomo-bags, whose salad days are over... still I remain, baby romaine.

untidy towns

first things first, I have a happy secret
the next bit’s worse, I intend to keep it that way
















I've been up all last night and this morning making something new. I'm stupid excited about it. The first batch are designated gifts to some friends so I'm keeping it a secret. Though, I've already told about seven people. I promise, I know how to keep secrets. Just not my own.

the monkey wrench

Once upon a time.

Once upon a time we had dreams and fantasies about what our lives would be like. We would have great jobs and meet great men. We would get married and have families and still be the best of friends. We would live happily ever after.

One day she met a great man and got married. I made them this quilt using the pattern she had picked out seven years earlier when he was just a dream. For some reason it makes me stupid happy to see this picture of it finished. Happy to think that you could wish for something and have it. Happy to have had such a constant friend over the years. Happy that dreams can come true.

And we lived happily ever after.

paper vs. plastic

About a month or so ago, there was this article in the New York Times about the rumored plastic bag fee/tax. To reduce the negative impact of plastic bags on the environment, cities have been proposing plastic bag bans or fees for use.

Wanting to learn more about it I came across www.reusablebags.com. There is a wealth of information on there! It's kind of overwhelming, actually. The most interesting to me was their article, Paper Bags Are Better Than Plastic, Right? Shockingly, the answer is "not really".

But this is all a non-issue because why use paper or plastic when you can use a Bomo-Bag?!

the bomo-bag debut

The Bomo-Bags first went on sale on March 14, 2009 at the Artists & Fleas market during the grand opening of 303Grand.




I was really stressed out and anxious about it for weeks but I had great friends who helped and supported me throughout the day, making it a success. I am a lucky girl.

the bomo-bag

the origin of the bomo-bag

I have at least five grocery stores within a 3 block radius of my apartment. The one right off the subway is open 24 hours. I'm always stopping in on my way home to pick up some forgotten ingredient or just a snack. It's so convenient. But the spontaneity this allows always leaves me unprepared to carry my new purchase home. Oftentimes I'll walk the few blocks to my apartment with a carton of soy milk or a bag of produce in my hand, but sometimes I buy more than I'll be able to carry without having to reluctantly take a plastic bag from the cashier.

I am also a sucker for a sale. I don't know how many times I'll be walking along and enter a shop to just browse before meeting a friend or going home or while passing the time and exit with a lighter wallet and a shopping bag in hand.

It makes me cringe every time. Just do a google image search of "plastic bag pollution" and your heart will break.

In January I went to Ikea with a friend. When we got to the check out we discovered that we would have to buy a reusable tote bag to carry our new Swedish household items home in. They were no longer providing plastic bags.

That was what did it because I am also a cheap bastard. I decided to make a tote bag that I could roll up and put in my regular hand bag so that I would always be armed.






This was the first one I tried. I sketched it out then used what remained of an old bed sheet for fabric.















I liked the idea of an elastic to quickly roll it up, but unrolled it hung off the side like an ugly hair scrunchie.











I did some tweaking, received some feedback from my friends and coworkers, and the Bomo-Bag (named by my coworkers) was the final result. I have to say, it's the best thing I've ever made for myself. Every time I use it, it makes me happy.