Blog Beautification Project Underway

New year, new blog look and feel... so bear with me as I'm experimenting a bit with some blog updates.

Hopefully it will be beautiful soon!

I found the perfect photo for my new header from Litlnemo

Stay tuned.

Etsy Favs

Etsy Buy Handmade sarahlemmon

I've been drooling over some amazing creations on Etsy lately. Here's some of my favorites. Do you have any favorite Etsy artists? Do share!

Something meaningful

Around the holidays Michael and I donate to a charity that has touched our hearts during the year. Often times the charities are social services right here in Portland. Recently, I realized that as much time as we spend exploring the Oregon wilderness, we are giving very little back. This year especially, parks across the country have struggled for funding and some have had to close.

Recently, one of our friends started a non-profit called For The Next, which allows you to donate to environmental non-profits. Many of these non-profits haven't had a way to promote themselves let alone set up an online donation tool. Through For The Next, we were able to donate to several non-profits that we love and adore, including EcoTrust and Hells Canyon Preservation Council.

Photos courtesy of Michael Lemmon

Michael and I spent some time at Hells Canyon on our honeymoon. We did some hiking and found an overlook where we sat for hours picnicking, reading, talking and looking into the canyon. A canyon that is deeper than the Grand Canyon by the way. Yes, I know... it's right here in Oregon! I can't believe that we have such amazing places right here. And even more importantly that we have the power to protect these places for generations.

For The Next has a list of a dozen (and constantly growing) nonprofits from land conservancies and wildlife refuges to salmon restoration non profits.

Very cool. You should check out For The Next.

Sew Club

The only rule for sew club is... there must be wine. Or at least thats what everyone assumed.

We kicked off our first Sew Club meetup at Cool Cottons last night. We all brought different projects and munchies.

Jennifer worked on several projects- mending and adding new snaps.

Sandra and Barb (Mama Fransen) worked on Sandra's first sewn garment - a beautiful skirt.

Sandra is an expert top stitcher as she and the rest of us found out. Don't let that look disuade you!

Angela laid out some beautiful blue fabric for her holiday dress and then chatted with Anne and Jennifer as they did a little hand sewing.

As usual Pam was a gracious host!

Our next meet up is in January for potholders with Anne.

Etsy

We purchased our first item off of Etsy this month. Last Christmas I moaned and groaned about not having an advent calendar since I had one every year since I was a kid... yada yada yada. [insert poor Michael here.] So this year we started the search early. We found one on etsy that had just been posted that day.

No gross chocolate, no cheesy santa. Just a beautiful print of a scene in Amsterdam with tall skinny buildings and beautiful windows. We love it so much that it got us thinking about our trip to Europe next year and we decided to go there instead of Italy for part of our trip next spring.

We are thinking of framing it (without the glass) so it stays in tact and can be apart of our holiday traditions every year.

Art

Michael and I tend to be creative people. If we are home we are often up in our studio, me behind the sewing machine and Michael editing his photos or making music. And our home tends to reflect our creativity. Michael's photos of our trips hang on many of our walls. It's what makes our house our own, cozy even. But, for a while Michael has been wanting to get a piece of art done by someone else. An original print. Michael's parents raised him with vivid prints of Miro and Calder and that's stuck with him. (Quite a different atmosphere than my Wisconsin roots of barn prints.) So I had been a little worried about what we would find that spoke to both of us AND was affordable.

Well, as my previous post discusses, we found and fell in love with the work of a Chicago-based artist named Jenny Beorkrem who created a full line called Ork Posters City Neighborhood Maps. Each poster is a map of the city with the neighborhoods displayed in a unique typographic style.

With intentions of buying one print we ended up with two. One of a map of Portland and the other of Manhattan, one of my favorite places. It's not a Calder, but it was created by hand by an artist and almost magically, it speaks to both me and Michael.

The Portland print is the first thing you see when you come into our home. And the Manhattan print is adding light and color to our finished basement. I love looking at them. It makes my heart happy.

The Sewing Group Begins!

Courtesy Getty Images

I've been scheming up ways to start a sewing group for a while. In a way it kind of makes sewing, which is often a solo activity, more of a group sport. So, tonight I pulled a few of my girlfriends, who sew, together and we met for cocktails and discussed what a sewing group could look like. We are going to meet every 6 - 8 weeks at my favorite fabric store Cool Cottons. We can reserve the space for several hours and sew out little hearts out. We've decided to meet on Friday nights because we can rent the space till 11.

I bet we will all come home exhausted after a full day of work and a fun creative sewing session, but it will be fabulous!

Our first project is going to be a holiday dress. We will all likely be doing different dresses, but the goal is to finish it in time for New Years! How fun!!

I'm thinking of a sheath dress in honor of our fabulous first lady. Michelle is always so stylish and pulls off amazing outfits.

Here's what I'm thinking...

This dress, the black one in the middle (C) in black.