Friday Featured Art: Japanese Kimono

One of the Art Institute's current exhibitions is on the Japanese Kimono. It's clear down in the basement, but I was glad that I found it - it is a fascinating exhibit. The kimonos are so beautiful. It was interesting to learn about the purposes and patterns.

Thursday Tunes: Fantasia on Dives and Lazarus

We heard a song on our classical radio station the other night, and it was so pretty. It was Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Dives and Lazarus. It was a beautiful string version, but it reminded me of the version by the 5 Browns. Sample it here.

Henri Bendel Candles

There's a C.O. Bigelow shop at Water Tower Place in Chicago, and it has lots of fabulous stuff. One thing that I thought was pretty ingenious was this travel candle by Henri Bendel. The scents are really fabulous, and they seem like a handy idea.

Adjustable Curtain

Our TV room upstairs is on the southwest corner of the house and has no shade. So it gets really hot in the sunny afternoons. So I made a curtain to keep out some of the hot sun. Since we're renting I couldn't fasten the curtain permanently to the wall, so I used 3M hooks. I bought some upholstery fabric and backed it with muslin. I sewed twill tape hooks along the top and bottom edges of the curtain and then sewed buttons along the middle of the back. So I can hook it up in half like this or button it only part way up or leave it all the way down.

Hotel Frederick

A couple of weeks ago we spent some time in mid-Missouri. We stayed at the Hotel Frederick in Boonville. It's a lovely early 1900s hotel that's been renovated. They did a great job. I really loved these light fixtures in the lobby. They came from a hotel in Kansas City.

Friday Featured Etsy Seller: Cowgirl Snaps

Today's featured Etsy shop is Cowgirl Snaps. Sara told me about this one. I really love pearl snaps, and this is even more exciting because they come in so many fabulous colors. Time to sew something that calls for snaps!

Thursday Text: Jane Austen

I signed up to take a class this fall called "Jane Austen's World in Film and Literature." I'm really excited. These are our two textbooks. The second one is a collection of short stories from a Jane Austen competition. I'll let you know how it goes...

Handcrafted at Wit's End

I'm going to feature two Etsy shops this week. I read about this one in a newspaper that my husband gets from Missouri. These are cute bags made from old feed sacks. The store is called Handcrafted at Wit's End, and you can find it at ginnymae.etsy.com.

Silver Laced Wyandotte

It's state fair time again, and I've been thinking about agriculture. I think if I kept chickens I would have silver laced Wyandottes. They are pretty.

{photo from Inside Storey}

Coasters

My last set of coasters was from IKEA, and they were very thin cork that ended up getting soaked all the way through. So I found some thicker ones that I had lying around and stamped them with a cute doily stamp. These should do the trick!