like candy.

This one is for you, friendy.

I finally went onto the Linda Farrow Vintage website this

morning and it is full of amazing.

Linda Farrow is back in action producing her beautiful

sunglasses that she first made famous in the seventies.

We all know her from the slatted glasses image

of Kanye that overstayed its welcome over the

last two years, but she is so much more and

doing some very impressive collaborations with

some wonderful brands and designers.

Linda Farrow sunglasses are like, well, candy.

Above fabulousness from the Linda Farrow Luxe line.

The more important question is.. where can we get these

beautifully wacky designer collaborations?

for Bernhard Willhelm.

For Charles Anastase.

For Jeremy Scott.

For Sophia Kokosalaki.

And LF uses her projects collaborations to pair with some of our

faves.. Rodarte(above), House of Holland, and Opening Ceremony.

And, if you need more diamonds in your life(i do), there are always

these hot mamas.

from Linda Farrow Fine Jewelry Collection.

I am loving my new sunglasses.

Success!

Embroidered success!

Good work team.

See you in January for some new craftiness.

I will update the blog link when the new craft class

details come out.

The 'i've still got 20 minutes at the end of class' pencil case.

Sorry buddy. But the homemade tie dye looked amazing!

home grown holiday

Let's jog our memories back to April,

when I made clear my obsession for the

miniature Fungi farms from

Far West Fungi.

My fascination with the mini fungi garden is a long running

one that started about 8 years ago with trips to

the Ferry building in S.F.

How pretty are these mushrooms?

See their mushroom forest in the forefront?

Gorgeous! Effortless! Like a terrarium, but better.

So much better.

Thanks to Melvin, I received my very own Fungi farm over the summer.

In hindsight, perhaps I should have named him. Would that have

made him feel more nurtured?

At any rate, I ran out and purchased a large glass cloche,

the only one I could find was from Pottery Barn,

and gave him a nice, comfy and trés chic home.

And of course, I haven't mentioned him since.

Shattered dreams.

Halloween came and still nothing.

He did appear to be some groovy science experiment,

which helped the spooky decor some.

Our main problem here, so we think, was that it was still

80 degrees in October in Southern California.

Like the lagomorphs, shroomy likes a nice crisp 60

degrees. Lucky for him, the month of November has created

a buns-chilling atmosphere in our guest bathroom.

And that is where we moved him. The rabbits are so jealous.

And, wouldn't you know it, he responded.

Growth and more growth.

Shroomy checking himself out in the mirror..

(he's so vain)

New larger growth..

Original mini growth from the great hot spell of 2009.

New large growth next to old whimpy growth.. see the difference?

Even a few shroomy heads.

Well, I have been butt dragging on this post and this was a shot

of the shroomy heads on Friday..

This was shroomy head MADNESS on Sunday..

Finger high!

Shroomy reaching for the sky on Monday..

And mondo Alice in Wonderland shroomy status this morning.

I am totally a mushroom farmer. So my three shroom heads don't

really resemble the beauty of the Far West Fungi sample.

That's ok.

I have a strong desire to incorporate them into my

Thanksgiving cooking. Yet, somehow, I am not sure I have the

confidence to serve guest a fungus that I have grown in my

guest bathroom, that has been witness to lord knows what.

But, maybe I do.

Finishing up.

And now for the last step of this darned embroidery.

The last stitch is the 'spiderweb' stitch and what is so

great about it is that it actually involves very little stitching.

Here is where we were at the last time we were

doing this.. one weekend and 6 glasses of wine ago.

You can use whatever colors you want for this stitch.

The pattern calls out for your stem color, dark green,

and the middle knot color.. medium purple.

Start with your dark green color for the base of the web.

So, Bring your needle through the middle of the little star drawing;

you want to be at one of the inside ends of one of the little lines.

Working outward, stitch in each of the lines. Try to make them as

even as possible. The more even the lines are, the easier

things are for you later.

one stitch.

two.

Eventually, you have a whole wheel.. the bones of the web.

Knot off your first color and cut.

Sorry, mine looks a little wonky because I fixed one of my sides

that was too short. Try to disregard the wonkiness.

Now we switch to our Purple thread.

Start by bringing your needle up between two of the stitch lines,

as close to the top as you can get them.

see..

Then, you take your needle and run it under the stitch lines

to the right and the left of your thread, wrapping the right stitch line

with the new thread. If you ever did camp, think God's eye. yumm.

Continue this process by wrapping the needle around the stitch line

to the right of your new loose thread and putting your needle

under that stitch line and the next.

You have just wrapped

another line. Brilliant.

Keep up this process, running the needle under the stitch line

to the right and left of your floss...

Continually push the already wrapped floss up toward the middle

so it is nice and tight together.

In mere minutes, you will have gone all the way around the wheel.

What do you do now? Oh yes, keep wrapping.

And, wrapping.

Eventually, this mother will be the most beautiful God's eye you

have ever seen.

No, you are not done. See that little knot in the upper left corner?

It needs two friends. If you thought you were done knotting,

you were wrong.

Take your trio of purples and get going. Just like the first knots,

you need 4 threads and your bow tying finger.

You will make one knot in each color.

Ok, now you are done. Nice work!

Don't be afraid to hand wash your work when you are done to

get rid of pencil marks. Use a small dab of detergent.

I dry with a warm iron.

Holiday gift time! Make it happen!