hey y'all

Graphic Designer Natalie Davis and Salumi Maker Ben Runkle are married and living in Austin, Tx. As if running two small businesses weren't enough, they've joined forces and together started Canoe, a line of men's "vintage American workwear and leather goods." To debut the line, they are hosting an evening Pop-Up event. They asked me to design and make a selection of skinny ties and pocket squares to go along with the rugged, manly look of Canoe. So fun! I seriously wish I could fly to Austin for the party. If you live anywhere around there, I highly suggest attending.

new promo shots

A friend of mine, who is also a model came into town recently. For the bargain price of a custom tie, he agreed to let me photograph him wearing ties.

i'm working on...

I guess I've been pretty quiet this month in blog-land. I'm busy with a lot of exciting things that I can't tell you about quite yet. Loving the color of this collection of apron ties which are headed to Home 101 in Berkeley. If you haven't been there, it is a great shop carrying a variety of fantastic antiques and some new, handmade stuff. In particular, they have tons of work by artist Sita Rupe, someone I am a huge fan of. They also happen to carry The Heated. And momentarily, they will have toddler aprons too. Ties are headed to Austin...more about this soon.

as seen on

How exciting to see some of the ties I made in a wedding feature over at Green Wedding Shoes. So often I work with a bride and groom in great detail, but never get to see the outcome.

the occasional florist

Over the weekend, I loaned a hand to Natalie Bowen Designs so she could take a rare weekend off. These lovely little arrangements were for a baby shower and smelled absolutely divine from the narcissus and freesia. Also over the weekend, we dug the brine olives out of the basement for a taste and fresh brine. We were pretty excited how not gross they are. The 3 buckets of water cured olives have also greatly improved and are now being flavored. Anyone who lives nearby and wants olives, just let me know. In about a week I will have 10 pounds to give away.

outing

It happens to be a long weekend with glorious weather. I'm finally over the stomach flu and since we had out of town guests, and since the Palace of Fine Arts just finally re-opened, we took a little jaunt up there right at sunset. It was really incredible!

cold january morning

I think it's been about 2 months since I went to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market.  That's a long break for me, so despite the cold, I met up with some friends this morning at the market. It's pretty much dark greens and citrus only at this time of year, and that's okay by me. Mostly today was about pastries and letting the little ones run around.

January

I was hoping to feel like I closed out 2010 with a little time to turn off the brain, but instead I got all wound up with projects and ideas for this year. Lots of exciting things in the works, but none are really viewable yet. One thing you can see though, I'm sponsoring Poppytalk this month. It has been one of my favorite design blogs since I started reading them, so I love seeing my name there.

snow

Six of us spent two nights at Sierra Woods Lodge. It's just up the road from where I grew up, but the change in altitude makes it a completely different place. We managed to arrived just as a massive storm blew in and watching the snow fall from our cozy room with a glass of wine in-hand was pretty much this girl's idea of heaven. The next day was blue skies, then huge snow fall then more blue skies. I loved tromping along the pathway that a tractor had made through the woods, and our nighttime walk was glorious. Bazillions of stars! I'm not sure if it was the snow, or just being away from home, but I was totally inspired to take tons of photographs. Put on your mittens, it's going to get cold.