Short but (very) Sweet

I thought you should know about this post at Craftsanity right away! Go forth and be nosey!!! Now if my bolts of Drawing Room would just clear customs we'd be all set. I had a fancier post in mind for this fabric giveaway announcement, but my bolts are not here for their closeups. Shouldn't be long now, but I didn't want to wait on letting you know how to enter this one!

xoxox, AM

Bubbliness

Have I said yet that finishing the book is really just the beginning of the book? It's true. It is. You are not yet free from reading about the process, and mostly because I'm fortunate enough to be playing several roles in this adventure story. So the projects are drafted and made, the instructions and techniques have all their illustrations, the text is written, the cover photos are taken, but I am now working on the majority of the interior photography. I have never considered myself a photographer. (I hope my publisher isn't reading this.) I think I get lucky every now and then, and sorta know what I'm doing. I do think that when something good happens in my photographs its a little of both, luck and knowing only a little. I think above all else, I am an image maker and photography, just another medium. My favorite scheduled photo day so far has been the day spent with a fun project and that precious little Cece up there. I had to stop and nibble her toes every now and then which made the shoot take at least an extra hour. I absolutely cannot stand how cute this baby is. On the very day we did this shoot, my brother in New York called me in the midst of it to tell me that my new niece Grace Kalliope was born. What a joy! There really is nothing like a new baby. Only a few days previous my oldest friend Jennie gave birth to twins. So poor Cece suffered through all the affection I had built up for these long distance babies. Ahh! Beautiful bubbly babies!



In addition to scheduled shoots with highly paid (in kisses) models, I have been stricken with an odd desire to photograph random objects around the house. I'll see light hitting something a certain way when passing through a room or like the photo above just see pretty colors. Oooooh pretty colors. I'm really so easy to please. I find that tinkering with the camera in controlled situations like these is a great way to get to know your camera and experiment. Its like any new relationship I guess, you have to spend some time with your new friend to understand them a little better.



Interacting with your subject matter is highly recommended as well. Totally safe when its just a kissable baby or a non-alcoholic drink. But speaking of, I need to say that this Izze business is SO yummy! I am not a fancy fruity drink drinker by any means. I'm basically a milk, oj, coffee, water kinda girl. But I have some news. This stuff is like midday wine! SO good and naturally sweet but not too sweet and definitely wine like but doesn't make you sleepy or want to eat a plate of gouda and crackers. I have only tried the pomegranate at Juliana's request. She loves it. Wait a minute. Fruit drink tastes like wine. Juliana likes fruit drink. Why does she like it so much?

hmmm.
xoAM

Winter Woods (or Talking to Trees)

So we went to the woods. All seven of us left the house with various degrees of excitement. Yet upon entering this forest everyone of us leveled out to the same fullness of joy. No one said so. I just knew it. I felt it. Eleni's steps were quick. Juliana chatted more than normal and not about shopping. Nicolas, Joseph and Isabela just took off. Jeff didn't stop me from hovering behind the pack to take some pictures here and there. He just let me be knowing how happy it made me. We were all incredibly content to be. Even if this particular togetherness was stretched across several yards of leafy forest ground only connected sometimes by a family "caw-caw" location sound. That was fun. And it worked.



So looking for less typical shapes and colors of course, I found a few scenes that jumped out at me. I am otherwise overwhelmed by the endless brown and gray of winter which is soothing and lovely. Still, I'm always looking for something that stands out a bit and says something in a voice that isn't quite as monotonous as tree after tree after tree after tree.



Like this fallen log. She said she's made of velvet, and I replied, you certainly are.



As we neared a bend in the trail that jutted out into the lake the sunlight raced across these taller than tall trees sending all the vertical lines into horizontal shadows across the cinnamon ground. I was smitten, I tell you. How playful the light makes all that stillness. Nicolas could not resist the temptation to run as far up the hill as he could. (Name translation: Nicolas = conquerer.) There he went, blue and white, rustling through those sticks of light and sticks of dark.



The sticks reminded me of Isabela's straw-like strands.



She heard the click and turned. Then realized that being left at the bottom of the hill would mean nothing but closeups. So she chased Juliana who was already chasing Joseph who was already chasing Nicolas who was slowing down just a bit.



This one was more than happy to sit on a split rail with her daddy. So was I. We noticed a ranger-y looking fellow eyeing the kids as they reached the summit. I knew what was coming next so I sent Jeff up the hill to collect them. Ooops. Oh well. Nicolas came down panting and telling me over and over and over again how fun it was to go all the way up there. He asked why it was against the rules and I told him its because its way too fun, and no one is allowed to have that much fun. Its quite amusing to answer questions that they already know the answer to, you can be more creative. So we continued, all together then. One after the other. Some chatting. Some just looking. A few of us with locked hands.



Well, who do we have here? She was soooo close to us I think we were more startled. She seemed to be expecting us, but we were quite surprised to see her.

Doe to children: "you guys good?"
Children to Doe: "wow, yes, we're good, carry on, we'll just watch okay?"



So she felt safe enough to turn her back on us, invited some friends and kept eating the fresh bright green clover that was creeping up from under fallen logs.



As other hikers rounded the corner, these two they froze and made like lawn ornaments. Very good, girls!



We crossed this little stream on the way back and that was our day. Together, apart, hunting, calling, collecting, walking, watching, learning. Just perfect family time. Just what we all needed.

xoAM

Diagnosis: Amplitudinous Domestic Denial-osis

Good Morning! Well what took you so long to get up? I'm just working away here at the laundry just like I do (very diligently) every other morning.

What?



Oh that?

It's just part of the laundry, so I'm a-workin' on it. I need to pick up that little orange thing on the floor over there too. Goodness knows when something needs doing, I do it, by gosh.



Whadya say?

Looking for matching socks almost made the kids miss the bus this morning?

Well, as soon as I fold this little thingy here, I am on those socks!



An' right after that I'm gonna crochet, errhh-uh, wash those dishes.

Man nothing like waking up early and getting everything done.

Hope your day is just as productive.

xo,AM

Under Cover

I had the pleasure of hosting a team of folks here at the house on Friday to work on some photos for the book. The very talented and gracious Becky Stayner was on hand for the shoot. She is wonderful in every way. The biggest chore of the day was the cover shot, which after two months of persuading my publishers' marketing team finally convinced me to be part of. Notice I called it a chore. I was not especially excited at this prospect and insisted on some hard core convincing for several weeks. Short story is I had to go and name the book Seams To ME and, therefore it was agreed all the way around that the cover should feel as friendly to look at as it hopefully is to read. And for some reason they think I'm friendly. Hmm. I tried to start acting mean, make ugly faces and stuff so they would think I wasn't friendly but no one bought it for a second.



It took weeks of back and forth phone calls and emails with attachments like the one above to nail down just the right setting for the shoot. It takes a lot of work for things to look natural sometimes, as strange as that sounds. Not just natural, thats not really what I mean, but for the cover image to feel as though it belongs with the way the book is written. Trying to represent months and months of text, instructions, thoughts, opinions, photos, design, advice and so forth all in one cover image is quite challenging. After about 3 hours of test shots, different angles, various elements and different clothes we were on to what we all felt good about. After shopping 178 different times for something to wear, and trying on and testing several items in front of the camera, I ended up wearing one of my favorite items that's been in my closet for more than a year already. As soon as it was on, I felt comfortable and we started getting what we were all hoping for on film. No one was happier than me about that, and I can't wait to share the cover of the book with you once its all together. It was really stressful. It sounds glamorous, I imagine, but it felt nothing close to glamorous. It felt like I was risking messing up a lot of hard work with the possibility of a stupid look on my face. But guess what? I wasn't alone. I was surrounded by talented, honest people who told me when I had a stupid look on my face (quite often, actually), so you can all relax now.



Okay, well this was glamorous. I usually don't have fresh flowers in vases this time of year so it was nice to have a few beautiful props around the house. (Thanks Amy!) I managed to get some shots of them while Becky was messing with some little fabric stack still lifes in the studio. After everyone left in the late afternoon I fell to the floor and did nothing for about 36 hours straight. However the pack of wild animals here dragged me out to the woods this balmy afternoon for a nice windy walk through some beautiful wintry trails.

As we embarked Jeff said, 'hey kids, this is the first time mom has been out of the house in about a year'.

Juliana followed with 'yea mom, like the only place you've been in two months is Anthropologie and the grocery store'.

Slight exaggeration perhaps, but it sure felt like they were both right. The air outside felt great. Actually it felt foreign and amazing. I like working away at all the colorful bits of things here in the house and studio, but I have to admit being smitten with the quiet nothingness of the trees in February. Reminds me of cleansing my palette at the beach last summer. I'll share our hike with you soon. I might have left the house but not without the camera.

xo,AM

At Last

If you live in a part of the country where you're ready to bid farewell to snow, I apologize for the following flaky excitement. Here in Nashville, winters can be either sunny and 55 or gray and below 0. We have waited and waited and I am so happy you are really here Winter! I do love the first snow. Sometimes the first can be the last so it is to be savored for certain. The rooms in the house are slowly growing to glow brighter as the dusting on the grass becomes a thin cotton batting.



While we're nested indoors anyway it reminds me to make some movie recommendations. If you want to curl up on the couch and laugh and cry on Valentines day, please do so with these movies: Eagle vs. Shark and After the Wedding. They are equally amazing films but totally different. Both about love though. One awkward, one complex. And we've all been talking like New Zealanders (or trying to) for more than week now after watching Eagle vs. Shark twice. We rented the dvd the first time. Then a few days later we couldn't stand it anymore and rented again from itunes. Jeff, Juliana and I huddled around the laptop on the couch in the dark with Smarties and blankets. Absolutely love this film. We went around the dinner table last night taking turns at quoting the film, competing for the best accent and inflection. I am the very best at it, without a doubt. If Jeff or Juliana should comment on this and say otherwise, just ignore them.

Going to make coffee (again) and stare out the windows. Love from here xoAM

Photography on the fly

Remember Sun-In for your hair? Man I wanted to use that stuff but my mom would never let me. I was thinking of that as I was painting a wall in the living room this weekend (in a color called Sparkler, which I think is a Glidden color but I had it made with a Behr paint, cause I don't like Glidden paint, but sometimes I choose a random color that's not Behr, but anyway). The color reminds me of sunlight. And very, very light for a girl like me who likes deeper colors, but I dunno, you know, I can do something different. On one wall, anyway. Oh and I'm getting a vintage sofa covered in that swatch thats hanging on the ladder up there.



As we do about every month, we hosted an uninvited and very terrified bird for a while yesterday (wasn't I just rambling about birds? Is the inspiration more clear to you now?) These little wrens get into the house a lot, I never know how. We had a mother on the patio last spring who the kids affectionately called Tweety. We watched her bring worms for the new babies and I even got some really good photos of the tiny little ugly things. But you never saw those cause, well, they were really ugly. Cute ugly, I guess. Five of them. We watched them learn to fly in the patio, the littlest one always gripping the screens and falling. The biggest challenge was keeping Leo away from them. He means well with his playful curiosity but that can get ugly real fast, especially when the kids are watching. Everyone is sure this is one of her spawn. Look at her up there, I totally tricked her with the leaf silhouette in this painting. Thats close little birdie, but not quite.



Oh you are a smart little birdie! Very good! But those are fake. Stay there for just a sec though you look perfect on those branches. How much does it cost to stuff a wren? (I am totally kidding I couldn't kill a bird. That's Leo's job.)



Yes, follow the light! Good thinking!



No not the closet!! Especially that closet, man I've been lost in their for days myself just trying to find one shoe. Come on, whistle whistle whistle, come on little birdie!



Quick Juliana! You take the screen off the window while I overexpose the photo! Okay, everyone! Whistle! (Eleni's lips trip on one another as she tries to whistle and she resorts to high-pitched "hoo-hoo" ing.)



I'm here, whadya need? Whadya need?
No Leo! Not you! Isabela go secure the dog, he looks hungry!



The other window birdie!

The above photo looks more cruel than it is. It was really a gentle nudge with the broom and not a whack, I promise. She was a smart bird (possible?). Once the dog was out of the way she found the other window after only a few low fly-overs that made us all scream and giggle.

And no one even got bird poop in their hair. Which would have been just as pretty as Sun-In.

That was a fun five minutes.

have a good monday, xoAM

Shall we withdraw?

(Reposting note! I fiddled with this original post to make the images smaller, and I think you can see the overall palettes better from here, you can click on the images to see the prints a bit larger...thank you SO much for all the kind words....really means a lot! You people are lovely.)

Welcome to the DRAWING ROOM. How romantic, the notion of a room in the house that is mostly used just for guests and entertaining. This is where one withdraws to...which is how the term drawing room developed. What's in there? What is talked about? I imagine there to be books about faraway places and exotic lands. I picture maybe a stuffed pheasant on the mantle and also a pesky bird tweetering outside the window early every morning. I think there are flowers pressed between glass hanging on the wall. I think that there are relics of travels that are accompanied by stories about foods eaten and sights seen. I think the conversations are light and colorful. I think that there is a chair by the window looking over the garden to allow for some comfortable observations made by way of a pencil and sketchbook. Perfect. Drawing in the drawing room.

My ideas about designing fabrics specifically for the home (though clothing and accessories are invited to the party as well) were affected by notions of an era that we don't know well, a time when parts of the home were off limits to allow for some untouched sophistication. But also what does it mean to settle a home in the midst of nature, forcing some architecture into an overgrown natural setting? What forms happen inside the home that marry these two notions beautifully? What parts of nature and what parts of architecture do we keep? Where do we begin to notice the inherent architecture that exists in natural forms and how does architecture become influenced by the natural world? These are all questions I asked myself and answered as I saw fit throughout the forms and images in this collection.

Setting aside the snobbery of a room that is off limits, I injected some truly saturated and clear colors in the Eccentric palette of Drawing Room that would invite anyone inside for a sit. And the Nostalgic palette is just as rich but has a few earthier tones for balance. There are many conversations to be had between both palettes, so play at will. Welcome!

Eccentric Palette

Sketchbook/eccentric cool Shadow/eccentric cool

Volumes / eccentric cool Plumes / eccentric cool

Trellis / eccentric cool Pressed Flowers / eccentric cool

Branching Out / eccentric cool Nouveau Bouquet / eccentric cool

Sketchbook / eccentric warm Shadow /eccentric warm

Volumes / eccentric warm Plumes / eccentric warm

Trellis / eccentric warm Pressed Flowers / eccentric warm

Branching Out / eccentric warm Nouveau Bouquet / eccentric warm

Nostalgic Palette

Sketchbook / nostalgic cool Shadow / nostalgic cool

Volumes / nostalgic cool Plumes / nostalgic cool

Trellis / nostalgic cool Pressed Flowers / nostalgic cool

Branching Out / nostalgic cool Nouveau Bouquet / nostalgic cool

Sketchbook / nostalgic warm Shadow / nostalgic warm

Volumes / nostalgic warm Plumes / nostalgic warm

Trellis / nostalgic warm Pressed Flowers / nostalgic warm

Branching Out / nostalgic warm Nouveau Bouquet / nostalgic warm

Thanks for having a look! Not every color is exactly perfectly represented and as always, they look the very best when held in your hot little hands. They should be available for purchase in March. I'll continue to share as I begin the great sew up, which will give you some good clues about scale and so forth. Have a good weekend! xo,Anna Maria

Prayer

Dear Lord, Thank You for all four corners of this home intact and for allowing us to be just shy of the storm's path. Thank You for Juliana's wise mind and nurturing heart that nested all the little ones in the basement until we rushed home from our dinner. Be with those who have lost and comfort them. And most of all thank You for Hope in times of sadness.

Stash Management

Well! That was fun. I tidied the fabric shelves today. Again. I started this over the weekend, but some of the little pumpkins were watching and the folding and stacking quickly turned to sewing and crafting and painting. I had a lot of energy after 7 slices of toast and cocoa. This place has been an honest-to-goodness mess for weeks and weeks, but I found myself nearly everyday with a no-sense-in-stopping-to-clean-now attitude. But after today I think I may actually have a little room in those shelves. What to do?!

I do have some guests to prepare for....can you guess who'll be BOLTING into the studio this week??? Yup! My Drawing Room fabrics are coming this week! Make way people! Make way scraps! Move over Chocolate Lollipop! Tuck your self in tighter Bohemian! Meet me here on Friday (barring all comical catastrophes, which would be just as fun to share, provided they really are, in fact, comical) to see the latest and greatest! I have been close to busting with both hands over my mouth, jumping up and down inside your monitors (right behind your browser window!) to show you this new group! That'll be good. Check. Hopefully the fabric will ship in March, and you know you will be made aware of these things, so no fretting.



And speaking of shipping, I wanted to take this chance (because I may never get another, its not like I'm here bugging you everyday or anything) to thank so many of you for ordering stacks from my shop! I have shipped A LOT of fabric and art (several went out today!) and I really appreciate all the comments you leave with your orders and for just placing those orders with me to begin with! Its been so fun to play store and has provided a nice distraction to some of of the other more intense bits of work here in the studio. Oh, and I've added a new little scrap bag section which was fun to put together and makes me want to keep all of those bags now instead of selling them. The scraps look so much more enticing all stuffed into bags for some reason. But I titled this post stash management, so there ya go. Managing the stash then. Anyway, thanks for supporting the shop and I'm looking forward to lots more fun things soon! And I promise the painted and sewn galleries will not be sparse forever. Really looking forward to pumping them with fresh new goodies. I could use freestyle creative time after so many days on technical stuff.

Okay, there is a gorgeous nearly 36 year-old man somewhere around here who needs to be given a proper dinner to celebrate the last night of 35. So the kids are getting macaroni and cheese and we'll be finding that proper dinner elsewhere. have a good night, xo,A