Choi to the World

Halloween Menagerie

For years now I have been making my niece's annual Halloween costume desires come true. She and I are Halloween kindred spirits. We love to dress up! I love to make the costumes. Now I spend all my time making hers I end up going costume-less. That is a wee bit sad for me but it is so much fun getting her all gussied up.

I thought I'd do a retrospective of the costumes thus far and then I'll update tomorrow with this years creation.

I don't know if I can put typed words to the enchanting nature of my niece. At 2 years old she wanted to be a giraffe. We don't know how she came up with that but she didn't change her mind for weeks. A 2 year old with focus, weird. Every year she makes up her mind about what she wants to be around Christmas or so. I'll ask her every once in a while what do you want to be for Halloween? The response is always, "I told you I want to be a __________." or "I still want to be a _________."  When she spoke with the animated voice of a sweet miniature person she declared she was to be a giraffe, after that it was a flying any, a bat and now a penguin. The same story at 3,4 and now she is 5. She already has the next 2 years ideas.

The giraffe pictures are on my old semi dead computer, I'll have to dig those up.

Do you know how hard it is to get a toddler to sit still for pictures. I am hoping this year she will sit still for better pictures.

Here is a little flying ant

Last year's purple bat.

 

And coming so so soon, 2008 purple penguin...

hand cut pop up explosions

Paper bouquets pop with ease. I am always thrilled when new ideas work out so well.

  

Mums!

Poinsettias!

Sakuras, Oh my! They are starting to appear in the shop!

an autumnal day reflected in a pie

Steven and I took in Letchworth State Park this weekend. Autumn is the time to go.

Smiling through bated-out-of-breath on a train trestle high above the gorge. We hiked hard and high to get here, after reaching our destination I didn't much want to be there.

The view looking up.

The view looking down.

A perfect view.

Below, our lovely fall day as a quiche.

Leanne Marshall's Waves Lap Her to the Top of the Project Runway Heap

I picked her out from the field of designers on day one of Project Runway, I love this talented woman's point of view which just speaks to me. Her organic yet architecturally pleated waves were just phenomenal and I just hope that I'll be able to afford one of her pieces. I just think she rocks! Her inspiration was extremely palpable and I loved how she translated her inspiration to fashion. Her use of sustainable fabrics was is a beautiful and respectful tribute to her nature inspiration: ocean waves. Oh and the color...beautiful aquas keep haunting me. I adore this simple color pallete.

Congratulations to Leanne Marshall who incidentally is (or was) an etsy member. She is an inspiration.

Studio haunts

Take a look at some of the little spooks who emerged from my studio and are haunting my intertwingle handmade shop.

More to come...

Serendipitous Inspirations

Isn't that how most inspiration happens? Happy chance. My darling husband and I went on  a weekend trip with an inspiration destination. I knew the ideas would fly when we visited the Rogers Chinese Lantern Festival in Toronto. That is why we went. We also went to have a little connection to China the home of the daughter we hope to someday adopt. We have meant to go for the past three years. The shear volume of the lanterns all electrically illuminated was staggering. I can't imagine the size of the team and the time it took to create. It harkens of a modern terra cotta army. Ideas swirled, inspiration illuminated. Now all this was our plan but, something very wonderful and unplanned happened as well. As we were roaming the streets of Toronto by day biding our time until the sun fell for optimum lantern viewing we came upon an ivy covered building that was home to stories of artist studios and shopes. The building was a surprise at every turn, the biggest surprise was that we wandered into town on the day of Artisits' New Year, Nuit Blanche. We had no idea it was happening or what it was. The city stays up for art exhibits scattered all over the city. The haunt begins at sundown and continues to sunrise the next day. So we made it to 3:30AM. We only got to see a small fraction of the offerings but it was a fun unexpected event. We are planning on doing it all again next year.  Note: bring several changes of shoes for next year!

Check out images from our night out in Toronto.