Daisy Janie

a study in stiff peaks

Egg-white icing for cutout cookies - I am easily entertained. I had to cut myself off when crowds gathered and wanderers-by started gawking at the weird lady playing with the icing. But isn't it pretty and irresistable - you know what I'm talking about!

belated holiday wishes

Hope things were/are merry and bright for you wherever you are and whatever you're doing! We had a homebound, quiet trio this year - and it was nice for a change. Peanut Man and I made these ornaments out of old gift bags we had. He cut out the 20 circles required for each using my 2" circle cutter, and he included one Santa face for each. The one on the bottom makes me laugh b/c he looks like a peeping tom in a window pane! tsk. tsk. More tomorrow...

happy day

When I saved this image above, it suddenly struck me as very familiar. I tracked down the brain nugget to this PBS logo that we see in our area. Visual memory triggers - try out this logo quiz. My score was 137,480 - whatever that means!

This post isn't really about logos...it's about my birthday, silly! I like the sound of 39 a lot!!! I favor odd numbers and especially love prime numbers - followed closely by numbers divisible by 3. So 39 is tres goodly with me! We enjoyed dinner at one of my favorite local pubs, where you can throw the peanut shells on the ground, where white lights are entwined in branches on the ceiling all year-round, where tin-tile walls are the decor du jour, and the Guinness is poured properly. I'm in the birthday club, and they take your pic every year as part of the celebration. Beer never changes, but we sure do!

handmade credits: tremundo bag, haute goat scarf, branch handmade bike shirt 

I've been busy shipping calendars and hawking them from my trenchcoat on the corner. I added a listing on my main website, where you can pay by CC instead of paypal. I ordered 100 and I'm about halfway through the lot. Thank you to Jen at Indie Fixx and Jan at Poppytalk for the delightful bit of press. I know there are 2 more mentions coming, but beyond that, my fingers & toes are fiercely crossed!

I've gotten some thoughtful & encouraging feedback:
from Lauren: Thanks for the calendar! I'd been looking for a super big one to keep everything on, and this is perfect- because it's cute too!

from Chad: There are so many awesome calendars on Etsy, but hardly any have space to notate appointments, etc which is the whole point of a wall calendar for me. Thanks!

I spotted an etsy front page created by an etsy staffer this past weekend. That was unexpectedly cool!

I must retire now - I have a wine bag tutorial coming in the next few days...made from paper...hmm.
Night night.

festivus for the rest of us

These cute little ornaments are from my grandma's decorations. I remember being so excited to get to her house to see if they were there! I was fixated on them not only b/c they're adorable, but also b/c I was absolutely, 100%, without-a-doubt certain these were miniatures of my sister and I (she's a blondie and I'm a redhead). I would look at the blondie (Little Miss Muffet) and think, "she's so pretty, she's wearing such a pretty dress, her eyelashes are so long..." but then I felt badly for the blondie that she had a funny yellow record player on her lap (duh jan, that would be porridge) (never noticed the pipe cleaner spider til I was much older). I felt lucky that the redhead had real yarn hair as opposed to plastic, that she had a pretty pattern on her dress (!), that she didn't have anything on her lap encumbering her and that she had somewhere to sit! After all those heavy social comparisons, I decided it was definitely best to be the yarn-haired girl! Sometimes I was bewildered why there weren't miniatures of my brothers, too. It would bother me in a 'life's not in balance' kind of way (for about a split-second). Maybe one of them was the trickster elf behind the redhead...

Do you remember categorizing the world like this? Trying to explain and justify things in your head that don't have anything to do with anything (other than the development of reasoning skills)? The bizarre things you would think to make sense of it? Isn't it amazing to watch this unfold in your own children???

I am so glad my mom passed these onto me - they are my favorites to hang every year!

the calendar is here, the calendar is here!

Available now. Available here.

I listened for the rumble of the UPS truck all morning - fortunately, my four-legged sonar alarms know the rumble like the back of their paws. They alerted me within a block of The Arrival! Good doggies!! I had myself gathered and ready to receive on the front porch - 3 boxes, 35 lbs each. The swarthy, regular UPS man managed the entire stack, and 2 flights of steps w/out so much as a heavy sigh, scanning them as he simultaneously eased them down. Meanwhile, his elfin helper carried a plastic pouch with a soccer shirt and another box with a tin of nuts - I was so enamored with the calendar boxes and the scanning that I almost missed the elfin helper trip UP the steps and scatter his meager packages across my front lawn! I thought back to the bus stop this morning, and the story Old Man DeLong told about sidewalks and treeroots and insurance and accidents! No tree root was near, but it flustered me nonetheless b/c it was the cool irony of it all. Here's my unfiltered stream-of-consciousness as I watched this unfold, "What the....? Why the.....? Did you do that on purpose? If he doesn't get up...  Is that guy alright? Who trips UP the steps? Did he trip on the freaking air? Oh good, he's getting up. F-bomb - F-bomb - F-bomb - these calendars had better freaking sell!!"

Now back to maintaining professional composure on this blog!

The front cover has a thumbnail image of each pattern found within the calendar. Each 11" by 17" page includes an original illustration. It's printed on FSC & Ecologo Certified, 100% post-consumer, processed chlorine free recycled paper (manufactured using biogas energy) and using non-toxic toners.

All designs are black & white - simple, versatile, mod, clean! The pages are heavy cardstock, and feel so sumptuous under my fine-point Sharpie!!!

$20 per calendar - they will ship immediately via USPS Priority Mail Service. They weigh 1.3 lbs and are oversized, so shipping is slightly more than flat rate. Buy one here.

June 11th will be our 15th anniversary... 

I took about 500 pics this afternoon between 1-2pm - I had a very hard time narrowing them down! See more on my flickr page.  

A balancing act on my dining room table that includes rainbow socks and frankenstein pants. This is totally normal.  

article links

copyright 2008 pointclickhome.com - photographer Gordon Beall

If you're interested, enjoy interior design and/or are just plain nosy, here are some links to the article I mentioned yesterday about my brother's D.C. apartment. This might have been where my desperate need to rid my walls of citrus colors began.

The article is here. The slide show is here.

oh yeah...

My brother's D.C. condo is featured in the January issue of Metropolitan Home - of course, neither the B&N nor the Border's near us has the latest issue out yet! This is only the pic I have of his place, from last Christmas. Doesn't my brother look like he's saying, "I could have had a V-8!" Gotta love candid shots.

Does anyone know if I'd be permitted to post those pics on here, if I credit the photographer and source?

reptile rampage in quaint Christmas village

Jack thought it would be good exercise for Mr. Wonderful to run around in the Christmas town we have set-up. He/she headed straight for the Natural History Museum, walked right the heck up the steps and peeked in the glowing window - not kidding! I thought Jack was going to lose his lunch from laughing so hard! I was right behind him - why didn't Mr. Wonderful choose the malt shop or the garden nursery? Too funny!!

(This one is a set-up.) 

sneaky, extra-special, bonus giveaway on Scoutie Girl!

Renee from wolfie & the sneak was kindly kind enough to donate one of her beauteous 2009 calendars for a giveaway on Scoutie Girl. She is taking an indefinite business break after Jan 1st, so consider this calendar and all of her work sooper-dooper-looper limited edition - they are worth every penny!

A good friend of Renee's was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and when I asked her if she'd like to do a "donation giveaway," she opted for a breast cancer foundation. We found the Young Survival Coalition, which is a grassroots, breast cancer advocacy group dedicated to women diagnosed under the age of 40.

Give yourself a chance to win this gorgeous calendar & give Scoutie Girl a chance to give, period.

Enter here.

a first for everything

My first holiday gift from a Daisy Janie vendor - my printer. How do they know I am a candy-aholic? This is aces with me!

As soon as I receive my calendars (tomorrow or Wed), I'll be sending out a few client gifts from Daisy Janie. Very excited to do this!

See's Candies is pretty well-known in the western US (as I just read on their website). Products range from chocolate assortments, brittles, toffees, truffles, pops and more. Mmmmmmm. They are headquartered in San Fran, and everything is made in LA or San Fran.