DECORATE

Sorry for the delay first the Canon goes all fuzzy then someone ;) accidental spills water all over the keyboard and the H and D don't work (funny how often you use certain letters and don't realize). Anyway where back in business and I have a couple of fun posts starting with this one here! I went to a fun book signing for decorate (decor8) at the Anthropologie in Soho. Decor 8 is a blog on my daily roster, so I was super pumped. I even gave her one of my patented felties as a gift. I feel that if someone inspires you they need to know it, right?! She was so super sweet and seemed to really love the gift. This felty (as pictured) was inspired by her mentioning in a post how she missed chipmunks after moving to Germany from Boston. Growing up in another country myself , I can identify with the weird things you miss. I missed Oreo's and peperoni pizza (I was 8 when we left), and American TV! I was stuck with German and British MTV! Now some of it was good, but considering I liked Nirvana and The Red Hot Chili peppers (still do) the Aqua songs, and Take That just where not cutting it! I guess I am showing my age how many people recall Take That? Iam pretty sure most people try not to ;)! I wouldn't trade my childhood as a third culture kid growing up overseas for anything thought! In fact given the chance I would jump on a plane right now and move almost anywhere!

BONBONS

Just a little sweet treat to get you through the day! I painted these Bon Bons on a couple of weeks ago! They are the tiniest canvases, the actual size of real Bon Bons so they are extra adorable.

LOVIN OVEN AND TWO BUTTONS

I forgot to mention that last weekend we went to Frenchtown, a cute little town along the New Jersey side of the Delaware river. While there we went to brunch at this beautiful and delicious restaurant called Lovin Oven (cute name right) they have a really cool artsy vibe with a fun paintings and furniture, and the dessert was soooooo out of this world. I split the chocolate salted caramel pie with my beloved and it was AMAZING. Salty and sweet, chocolate how can you lose! Right next door is a Southeast Asian imported goods store where I bought these wonder afghan carved wood stamps. It just so happens that the store is own by the Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert and her husband.

LAVENDER DREAM

There is a beautiful spot in bucks county where lavender grows. From the winding rural road you can see rolling hills of lavender, the scent floating on the wind into your car calling you to come and idle in this purple and green, peaceful paradise.

So we gave in and on Saturday, busted foot and all we walk through hills of fresh lavender, took too many photos and had a wonderful time. Each bush of lavender was filled with butterflies and bees of different varieties. Of course there is a shop with lavender products including lavender honey and dried lavender, which I purchased, but there are also animals. There are llamas and roosters, chickens and horses and as you can see donkeys.

I never thought I would think that donkeys are cute, but they are with there disproportionate body to leg ratios and their big eye lashed eyes. Plus they where being feed donkey cookies (no idea whats in 'em) but they of course put on the charm for that reason!
If you are in the neighborhood on a Saturday (only day they are open to the public.) checkout Carousel Farms.

JULY 4th

Hope all you had a great fourth of July! For me fourth of July is all about the fireworks! I love fireworks, whats not to love about be loud pops of exploding light and color in the sky! the photos above and below are from a mix of past Fourth of July's , spent in PA, Hoboken and Upper East Side.

Of course you cant forget the BBQ on the fourth and this year my job was a dessert. I was inspired by Creamsicles (my moms favorite) so I made a patriotic version with homemade raspberry ice on top, vanilla ice cream in the middle and homemade blueberry on the bottom frozen layer by layer in a cup mold. Simple, no bake and super delicious!

THE JEWISH MUSEUM

The Jewish Museum has some wonderful exhibits going on right now. I was having brunch at Sarabeths and decided to take a stroll and noticed that its free to enter the Museum on Saturdays, So I popped in and to my utter delight the Maira Kalman exhibit (here) I had missed in Philly, which I have mentioned before on this blog, and the Coen sisters art collection (here). The collection included wonderful textiles and post impressionist and impressionist work that was wonderful! Oh to be a rich art collector strolling around paris in the times of Van Gogh and Monet.

ANTHROPOLOGIE AND KEITH JOHNSON

I went to event on May 6th, Sorry for the late post, its been crazy getting the kid-o's to the end of the year for Project Fashion, to see Keith Johnson talk at the Anthropologie in Chelsea Market and it was so wonderful. His life must be so amazing, traveling the world in search of amazing art, artists, designs and finds. I always have had a bad case of wanderlust, so I am super jealous. Turns out he was super sweet and friendly too, a lot of the times when you meet someone you admire, there jerks, but he seemed like a truly nice guy to hangout with. He told us wonderful travel stories and about his father being an antiques dealer and bring home a carousel, which I thought must have been so magical, living amongst theses storied things.

I also got there fully intending not to speak, I got really self conscious since originally I was going with someone and now would be there alone, But I mustered the courage and even made a comment about going to Budapest on his next adventure for the show Man Shops Globe ( I love that show). Then my courage waned and when he asked for suggestions after the talk of place to go in BP I choked and me and my beau hustled to a late dinner, I blame my hunger on my lack of follow thru. Anyway above and below are pics of the beautiful store in which he gave a guided tour of all the objects after the talk.

I love these blue tiles with the hot pink flowers.

SPRING soon plz.

This week has been on and off rainy and I am starting to long for a proper spring. The flowers blooming around the reservoir and parks, it is such a beautiful time in the city. I don't look forward to summer in the city, hot and sweaty subways where people stick to one another and the air is barely breathable. Oh well at least there is always air condition and activities in the parks.

These are headbands I made last spring and forgot to post. They are a ribbon headband project I did with the girls from our Imagine Parties, Project Fashion classes.

POODLE BIRTHDAYS

I am sure you may think I am not the sort who dresses her dogs ;) and throws them parties, but for all its craziness I totally em! I love my poodles more then anything and thought what is better then seeing a couple of adorable puppies dressed in there birthday finest!

A Little animation

A friend of mine animated my squirrel collage and here is the link! Hope it cheers you up!

CINCO DE MAYO

Margarita cupcakes for Cinco De Mayo and why not decorate them with mustaches and sombreros just cause.

EASTER

Happy belated Easter to you all! These are just a few of the pom pom bunnies I made for easter this year. How cute is the little lady above in her rain gear! Hope the goof eyes on the next two cheer you up on this crazy rainy day!

Also check my flickr for a few more shots of these bunnies and new post as well.

Spoonflower

I received a package from Spoonflower yesterday! I had test samples printed of some of my designs. There will be a few tweaks on some but the others will be available for sale as fabric in my Spoonflower shop or as products in my Etsy store soon.(sorry that the pictures are abit dark it was a gray day)


also more images were posted to my Flickr site

New Flickr

I Finally loaded pics Up to my Flickr account. check it out!

MY FATHER

My father passed away on February 24th and I have been miserable ever since. No person taught me more about pursuing my dreams, than my father. I get my entrepreneurial spirit from him, and my love of animals. Most of the time I feel like it is a nightmare I haven't woken from yet! Each day waking up to the reality of him not being there makes me sink into a pit of despair. I miss him terribly, but one of the ways I know best to honor him, is to live well, chase my dreams and make him proud. He always wanted me to be more active in sharing my work and getting the word out, and fear and self doubt have kept me from pounding the pavement, but for him I will do it, for him I will live strong and true, NO EXCUSES! I will ramp it up daddy, I will get out there and JUST DO IT!
I love you always and forever,
Carla Pia

textiles

I haven't mentioned it yet, but for the past few months I have been diligently working on some textile design for a wonderful site Spooflower. In the coming months I hope to turn these designs into products and get my etsy site up and running again. In the meantime I will continue to make my designs public as I make them so check here often for my current designs! also id love to know what you think! Feedback is always welcome! If you happen to already have Spoonflower account Vote for my breakfast pattern, which is the image above!

I forgot to mention dear blog but I am in Seattle for the rest of Feb! So the posting maybe on and off! Above is a painting in water soluble oils I painted before we left.

Sketchbook

As I have mentioned in a previous post I signed up for the Art House Co op Sketchbook Project this year. My theme was " a record year for rainfall". This sketchbook traveled with me to Seattle and back but mostly I used this book for testing out collage ideas and playing with pattern. These images above and below are a selection of some of the pages.

The sketchbooks will go on a tour and I think that that is the coolest part of the whole project. The fact that my sketchbook gets to see places and meet people I may never get the chance to see or meet!

Pee Wee HERMAN

Growing up I was so in love with Pee Wee's Playhouse. I had the toy Playhouse, the talking Pee Wee doll and even today I still love the show and all the characters. So when my Man got tickets to the musical I was super excited to go. I was not disappointed, it was hilarious and so imaginative! Don't worry if you missed it though, rumor is there making it into a TV special! It is a definite must see!

EARMUFFS

A friend and I made these cute animal earmuffs, which is such a fun and easy project to do and is perfect for this time of year! I decided to do the flamingo because I was inspired by the Hot pink color ear muffs I found (my niece loves pink).

The Supplies:
Fuzzy ear muffs (there is a wide range of price, variety and color and any fuzz ones will do)
Fabric glue
Kids craft foam sheets
Felt (all colors)
Googly eyes
An assortment of ribbons, jewels, pom poms, feathers (whatever you might want to use to decorate your creature)

The Process:
It's really as simple as deciding what creature/animal you would like to do, cutting out the various features in foam or felt, gluing it on and decorating with googly eyes, ribbons, etc.
My flamingo is a very simple design. I cut a beak and eye shapes out of craft foam sheets. Then I glued a googly eyes on top of each of the eye shaped foam pieces,and glued my beak pieces together. Then all the pieces were glued on each ear muff and voila, the cutest tropical earmuffs ever!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Above are photos of our (newly painted) chalkboard bathroom walls done up in a festive New Year's Eve theme me and my beau came up with! I still have some touch ups to do seeing as I hastily painted the walls the night before a family Christmas get together. Nothing like having family come over to get you to finish jobs you have been putting off ;). I am so looking forward to using these walls, decking them out for every future event!