Nate Berkus Show

It's all about small spaces on small budgets! 
This Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 the latest Nate Berkus Show will be aired at NBC at 2pm New York time. Check your listings.
For this episode Nate teamed up with the popular design magazine, DWELL, for their annual small space issue and helps them solve America's toughest small space dilemmas.
A few selected pieces will be used to create little space miracles.
Among the items will be:

   A Rug (unifies small space to create illusion of size) --From FLOR tiles.

  Two occasional tables (they serve double duty) --  from IKEA 

   Marimekko pillows (pattern draws eye into room) - MARIMEKKO from Crate &   Barrel.


And of course there will be more, the studio audience, as always, will have many surprises and give aways awaiting them!

Click image to enlarge: 

I am a fan of his show and his affordable and clean lines! Go, have a look! It looks like super fun!



PS: And don't forget to look at my children's book recommendations here! The holidays are just around the corner....





Image through Nate Berkus Show, items above via websites.

Cricut Paper Dolls Dress Ups Halloween

Card Recipe

Card Blank - 14.5cm x 14.5cm Twisted Easel Card.

Peachy Keen Stamps - Halloween Doll Faces.

Echo Park Design Papers - Apothecary Emporium.

Cricut Cartridge - Paper Dolls Dress Ups.

Martha Stewart Border Punch - Grass.

Woodware Punch - Leaf.

Embellishments from own stash.

Dracula was coloured in using Copic markers.

Hints and Tips

I die cut the dolls body and clothes out of white card and then coloured them in.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenges: Challenge #43 Anything Goes.

The Sister Hood of Crafters: Trick Or Treat It's Halloween.

Fab'n'Funky Challenges: Challenge #96 Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble.

Love Linda xxx

Winter?

Reading the forecast there was snow mentioned.... End of October, are you kidding?!

I think I will need something  for the season!

What do you think? And the place to go with it...

Or this?

And I love this!

From the Milli Collection. And the equally incredible timeless Stephen Gambrel! You can find it here and here!

To see some of the winter weather around here check out my other site! It's rather hard to believe!

All images via Milli collection and Stephen Gambrel websites.

New treasures

I scored two lovely treasures. I found a beautiful tea pot and a lovely silver tray for the holidays!  My source for many hunts is Etsy and you can easily follow me there. 
From Falcon and Finch came both: The tea pot looked like nothing much upon first seeing it, but I loved the shape.


This is what I'd gotten:

And the result after some really hard polishing: On the bottom it reads 1883 
B. Rogers Comp. silver on copper 1200. And silver shiny it is now. The two dark parts on the handle seem to be bakelite.

The Reed and Barton silver tray was already beautiful, I just gave it a once over and voila! Perfectly ready for coming parties!

A little green next to it....

Right at my window!
And here one more look at the tray and tea pot!

I just love it!

PS: Don't forget to check out my House and Living part, where my latest post is all about recommendations for children's and teen books! Think holidays!

Have a wonderful last October weekend! Halloween is coming too! 


: )







First image FalconandFinch, last four by V.Zlotkowski

Holiday Cheer Winter Wonderland DT Card

The challenge for this week at Winter Wonderland was set by Denise she has chosen a Clean and Simple theme.  We want to see a Christmas Card or Project with a Clean and Simple theme.

We are sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.

The prize is a $15 gift certificate to spend in their on line store.

Here is my card for this weeks challenge.

Card Recipe

Card Blank - 15cm x 10.5cm.

Sizzix and Hero Arts Stamp and Die Cut - Holiday Cheer.

Embellishments from own stash.

The deer was coloured in using Copic markers.

Hints and Tips

These new die and stamp sets are the perfect way to mass produce your Christmas cards they are so quick and easy to use.  I used green card and ink for the Christmas trees. The deer was stamped in brown ink onto white card.  The strip of glitter was added using double sided tape.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

One Stop Craft Challenge: Week 154 No Designer Paper.

 Bah! Humbug! Challenge: Challenge 43 Die Cuts

Love Linda xxx

Reading, writing and living

I can't say that fall lends itself more to reading then any other season for me. Although the notion sounds romantic, with days shortening and the fireplace beckoning.
There is not more time than on long summer days, beach side. Or snow covered winter afternoons, when others go skiing. Reading has been for decades on top of my priorities. It's what I do. My family will attest to it. And the dirt under the sofa as well.
I am also a survivor through reading. For books have always helped me cope. And imagine.

I have begun writing too, which now takes the other half of my time, after I care for my family. And read. I have become more reclusive, turn away from much entertainment and hole myself up, happily.
It's a strange state of affairs. I still can't fully think of myself as a writer.
But writing I do.

Image

I picked up a writer's magazine yesterday, showing a sad and painfully thin Joan Didion on it's cover.
I have read her haunting account of her husband's death in  'The Year Of Magical Thinking'. A book which filled me likewise with sadness and hope.

Joan Didion

She has an extraordinary eye for reality. Her essays have interested me more then her other writing, telling me of an America from the 6o's and 70's I never knew.
Now she has written a new memoir, about loosing her daughter. The book is called 'Blue Nights'. It will be out this November.
So many of my own fears and feelings, I imagine, will be touched.

Image


It reminded me also of the writer Isabelle Allende's daughter Paula and her untimely  death at age 28 and Allende's subsequent book with the same name.
I always fear the loss of any of my four children, a fear, parents experience at many given challenges to let go. And yet, mercifully, we rarely experience the death of a child in our days, thanks to the advances in medicine and our daily awareness of luring danger. (I am aware that it is not so in many parts of the world until today)
When it happens, it seems, we are struck harder. Although I think of it as a misconception, since neither the mass death of children through epidemics or common childhood deceases could surely have had anyone getting used to it. Nor the death of a single child. Maybe hardened. I can see why mothers hardly smiled in pictures of long ago. How many of them experienced terrible losses?
Of course there are other ways of loosing children. Through divorce or alcohol, drugs or neglect.
Having experienced it myself I know what millions of divorced parents feel. Also as a child, coming from a family where divorce would have been a better choice for so many reasons.
So much is touched and broken open again.
Yet there is hope for me, all my children are well and my husband sitting next to me.
I am writing and filling in the pains of years past with my own magical thinking, my
writing and memories. I capture them and make them obey to the demands of my soul.

I

Image
There are other books which have given me a chance to think back to experiences I tried to come to terms with, the oddness I felt as a child, the not belonging, my teen years living with an abusive, alcoholic father and a weak, depressed mother.
Just a few days ago I finished reading Jennifer Haigh's novel 'Faith'. A book about keeping or loosing faith in people, a family under extraordinary circumstances. A book through our book club, which I liked against my previous thoughts.


A few days ago a 20 year old boy from our neighborhood was found dead on the street.  A suicidal overdose after a short career of alcohol and drug abuse, a young mind criminalized through his habits, coming from a 'dysfunctional' family and what must have been unimaginable hopelessness and loneliness. I did not know the boy, nor his family, but it did not let me sleep. I kept thinking about him and his missed life.


And again I am pushing myself to think positive, stay optimistic and hopeful. Against doubt and the dark walls, which sometimes build themselves up around me.
These are the moments, when I feel the most connected to life, when I feel my soul intact and guiding me towards the future, my dreams and the one's of my husband and children. Where I see what's possible and what I still can do!
I am a reader.
I am a writer.
I am alive.

Bonfire Party Nutcrafters DT Card

This weeks challenge over at Nutcrafters is Bonfire Party.  We would love to see a card or project with a Bonfire theme.  Remember you card must have a Nutcrafters image on it to qualify for the prize. To help you along with this we have a freebie digi for everyone.

How cute is this image? Just pop on over to Nutcrafters Challenge blog to claim your free digi image. The prize for the challenge winner will be a £10 gift voucher for the Nutcrafters on line shop.

Here is my card for this weeks challenge.

Card Recipe

Card Blank - 14.5cm x 14.5cm.

Nutcrafters Challenge Blog - Free Bonfire Digi.

Anita's Stamp - Invitation.

Butterfly Kisses Stamp - Firework Frenzy.

Sizzix Medium Sizzlits Die - Star #4.

Embellishments from own stash.

This image was coloured in using Copic markers.

Hints and Tips

I decorated the red ribbon using a firework stamp and Stazon Jet Black ink.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

Inky Impressions Challenges: Challenge #30 Anything Goes.

Love Linda xxx

Autumn

This autumn has literally fallen over me, too fast, too unexpected. I know, I know, you might say, how is this possible? Halloween is just around the corner? School has began two month ago, summer far behind!
But it's all good and true, yet the summer had been lingering in my mind and mood. 

Looking every morning out of my breakfast/lunch/dining/room window, seeing the sun I have ignored the dropping temperatures. But now I begin to feel the season. We had to bring our oleanders and ficus tree inside, the hibiscus is still holding out, but it's days are numbered too.

There are fat pumpkins reminding me every day that we are at the end of October. I shudder. Still, I walk in shoes without socks...
I haven't decorated for fall, as I usually do, and so far Halloween just looks from the outside in.

Today, walking through the garden on a somewhat blustery morning, I rescued the last fallen Dahlias, glorious yellow and pink tipped beauties, together with some reddish blue Hydrangeas they now brighten my spirits and smile at me: 

Look at the glory of autumn!


We have been out for long walks with the dog, numerous 'last' sittings on our deck with hands around hot tea and still I had not felt fall.

Now suddenly I see the turning leaves, some trees almost bare. There are mountains of leaves on every corner in our neighborhood and I can smell the occasional firewood burning.
Oh, summer....my old friend!
Autumn has sneaked up on me, just as the years have. Perhaps I am holding on to that feeling of summer, realizing that my hair grows more gray under that layer of color.
Unlike fall, I do not become more colorful as I move into my next season.... 
But it is also time for bringing in the harvest.

I am slowly falling in love. I just need to change my mind set a little. Embrace the cooler air, the light falling golden through transparent trees. The mist in the morning and the high, star filled skies at night.
The promise of an golden autumn!








All pictures by V.Zlotkowski

Autumn Breeze

Card Recipe

Card Blank - 14.5cm x 14.5cm.

Nutcrafters Stamp - Autumn Breeze.

Doodlebug Designs Inc Paper - Autumn Assortment.

Spellbinders Nestabilities Die - Labels Seventeen.

X-Cut Border Punch - Scallop.

X-Cut Botanicals Embossing Punch - Leaf.

Embellishments from own stash.

This image was coloured using Copic markers.

Hints and Tips

If the pearl stick on gems are not the colour you want you can colour them using permanent markers.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

Totally Papercrafts: Challenge #89 Layer Upon Layer.

C.R.A.F.T Challenge: Challenge 125 Autumn.

Love Linda xxx

It's Friday

Sometimes I need a little boost on Fridays, when I feel I want to hang loose but I can't....

So I collect some sunshine and preserve for later!


Happy weekend!










Picture my own window ledge.

Christmas Cheer Winter Wonderland DT Card

The challenge for this week at Winter Wonderland was set by Kate she has chosen a Vintage Christmas. We want to see a Christmas Card or Project with a vintage theme.

We are sponsored by the very Talented Teri from Delicious Doodles

Teri is offering the winner of this challenge 3 of her amazing digital images, wow what a prize.

Here is my card for this weeks challenge:

Card Recipe

Card Blank - 15cm x 17cm.

Papermania Stamp - Christmas Cheer.

Embellishments from own stash.

Hints and Tips

I don't really like making vintage themed cards so I used a stamp with vintage baubles on it.  I thought this card would make a great man's card so I kept it to a simple theme of red and black.  To add interest I decoupaged three of the baubles.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

Moving Along With The Times: Challenge 119 Vintage.

Love Linda xxx

Connected

I have a longing interest for all things past. History, ranging from literature to art and architecture, from
grand homes to cottages, from antiques and vintage items to private treasures. The list is endless.

I am drawn to old china, transfer ware, blue and white Meissen or Delft, old silver, cutlery, dishes, old photographs and letters, books of course and many pieces, which do not always fit easy description.
Just look at the beautiful clock my husband brought back many years ago from Amsterdam. Somebody made it it, had it sold to a Dutch family, it was sitting on a mantle, chiming their times high above the canals....and finally it found its way to America! A small house in New York.
Although unknown to me, I think of all of them.

All these things hold beauty and collective memories. When I gaze at an old picture I am moved towards these times, try to imagine the lives and circumstances. It fills me with compassion and melancholy of sorts.
I love the stories I hear. I feel like a collector of worlds. Its looking into mirrors.

When I touch the handle of the wonderful silver coated coffee pot, I bought on eBay a few months ago, I think not only of the friendly woman who sold it and turned out to be of German decent and her mother, whom the pot belong to, but also the times it has been used. It is an elegant piece, used perhaps at weddings or birthday parties?

Now it sits heavy and pretty on my window ledge and gets used again at parties and just recently was a centerpiece at my birthday.
If these pieces only could talk...

I particularly love old silver. The knowledge of how many hands have held on to the knives and forks, the circumstances under they were acquired, the places they have been...
I bought vintage silver from Connecticut and the Midwest, china from Florida and photographs and letters from Brooklyn. 

I have old roll clothes, used for pressing bedding and tablecloths from Germany and France, wooden candle holders from Belgium and vintage chandeliers found on City Island in the Bronx, NY.

And the books....well, this is another story!

There are also new things from our times, well made and precious to me. They also will be things of the past one day. I am keenly aware of this. 
For that reason I try to look for lasting things, well made furniture, fewer but better.
I am less interested to collect as much as possible anymore. Though I used to...
Now I look for the quality and our needs. What sense does it make to have a cupboard filled with china I never use?
I am a collector of things, but I have learned to be selective.

I am also a caretaker, a keeper of things close to me and I will pass them on. There will be again some one to take them from me, when I am gone and just my touch and memory will remain. There will be a story added. This connects me and I love the thought of being a part of the long chain of time.







All pictures by V.Zlotkowski