Craft Fair Time

I've been hard at work knitting and sewing this past month and I have a lot of really great things for sale this year. Hope you can come by and check it out! 

More Ryans Dress

I got a few more photos from Ryan and Garrett's wedding of her in her dress.  She just looked so beautiful that day, I love sharing these photos.

Katie's Dress

My most beautiful bride Katie got married two weekends ago and was so kind to already send me some photos from her wonderful wedding day. She looks so happy in her custom made wedding dress. The dress is a very pale pink lace with a silk lining underneath. It has a simple silhouette with a crew neck, three quarter sleeves, and a seam at the waist, but yet looks so elegant on her. I am so happy with the way this dress turned out and I really think she was as well.

Ryan's Dress

One dress down, two to go.  Here is the beautiful bride, Ryan, walking down the aisle with her mother, in her custom made, Stayer Designs, gown. I've decided to use "Stayer Designs" as my brand for my high end garments, such as wedding and evening gowns. Ryan's dress is a strapless, sweetheart neckline, gathered skirt, silk chiffon dress with an Alençon lace overlay. She looks so stunning in it and I am really happy with the end product. 

Baby Accessories

This weekend I'm headed east to Chicago for my sister in laws baby shower. I'm very excited for many reasons, but mainly because I can't wait to be the number one aunt. So I'm starting off my auntie duties by making sure my brothers baby is the slickest one in the play group. I made some sweet baby bibs and burp clothes.  The black and red ones are hand screen printed fabric, here from SF. The other two prints are fabrics from Japan.  All the pieces are then backed with cotton chenille, so it's extra soft on the babies skin. Oh and don't worry, I'll be sure to make some more to sell on Etsy.

A Little Lace

Here is a little sneak park of a dress I've been working on. I am hand sewing this alencon lace to silk chiffon. It takes a long time, but it is definitely worth it. It's so pretty and I'm very happy with the way it is turning out. I snapped this pic of working while I was watching Project Runway. Such a fun way to spend a Thursday evening. 

Chickens are IN!

I was sent to the hardware store this last weekend to get hooks for our pantry where we can hang grocery bags and aprons. Of course you can't expect me to just get the boring white or plain silver ones. They had these awesome chickens and I just couldn't resist. Plus, we have plenty of pig figurines, paintings, napkin holders...I thought it would be a nice change of animal. Also, I painted the pantry this lovely blue, I'm quite proud of it.  AND, if you happen to notice the beautiful bag hanging on my new hook and wondering where you might be able to pick one up for yourself, check out Paper Whales on Etsy, she makes some pretty spectacular stuff. 

Pillow Fight

So I know I haven't been the best at posting and keeping up with this blog, so I'm going to try to get back into it.  My boyfriend and I recently moved into a new apartment and have been working really hard to make it our home. About a month ago I went to visit my sister in Portland, OR and found this printed fabric at a cute little fabric shop on Alberta St. Our couch was arriving that week and I just thought they would make the perfect pillows. And they did!  So now we have some great pillows to go with our new couch. Im pretty proud of them. 

New Stitch

Herringbone stitch. I learned how to do this earlier this morning, I'm pretty excited; once I had repeat the pattern about 3 times, my fingers got the hang of it and started moving like I like them to. Stayed tuned to see what pretty things I make with this guy. I think it will be a great stitch for cowls or bags. 

Sunday Sketching

So I was doing some Sunday sketching yesterday. These are a few of the dress, and I have a few coats  I want to be working on as well. I've got a collection in mind, which will be fun to make one again, seems like lately I've been doing just single pieces for specific occasions. People aren't really my strong suit, so I go for the more alien looking figures, as a friend of mine pointed out to me. I do really care what my sketches look like as long as I understand what I'm trying to say.

Wedding Bells

So I finally got some photos of a wedding dress I had made this past summer! This is a friend of mine who got married this last August and I made her dress for her. I think she is looking pretty fabulous if you ask me. Are you looking for a dress for something special? Feel free to contact me and I can help you out. 

Clutch-tastic

I know I've been MIA for a bit, but I have been keeping myself busy and working on this little guy. This is my newest creation and there will be more to come. The front is alpaca felt, that I made myself, then I took that felt and quilted it with metallic gold embroidery thread. The back and flap over is a super soft leather and I choose a bright silky lining for the inside. It has a simple snap closure and I think this will be the perfect accessory for going out on the town. Let me know what you think, I'm eager to get some feedback on these. And as usual you will be able to find it up on my Etsy shop at Needle in the Fog.

Pig of the Month

This little fellow is my pig cutting board. I got him at an antique fair over at Candlestick Park here in SF about 2 years ago.  It was my first antique fair, and I had the time of my life, I mean a pig shaped cutting board, how could I resist? I generally use him as a charcuterie board when I have guests.  Its only right to be serving delicious salty pig parts on top of pig :)

Ari Fest 2013

This weekend was a fun-filled, lady-filled, silly fest with some of the best gals ever, to send the lady of honor off to a new adventure out in upstate New York.  

It started off with the most delicious brunch at the Dome. We decorated it with paper whales and twinkle lights. Starting with Bloody Mary's, baked french toast and lots of fruit.

We really lucked out with the weather, 70 degrees and sunny in SF is a rare occurrence, so we walked over to Delores Park and enjoyed mimosas and life. 

Our third stop on this train was my house, where we had some snacks and of course more drinks. I provided us with Tito's Vodka, because,  in case you didn't know, I am originally from Texas, as is Titos. I felt it only natural to have a little southern flavor. I was so pleased we got to use my backyard, I rarely spend time out there.

At my house, things started getting pretty silly, so of course at that time we played the best game ever. No really, that's the name of the game. It starts with a sentence, then the next person draws a picture depicting that sentence, and folds the sentence back. Then the next person writes a sentence describing the picture and so forth. The best part is at the end when you unfold the paper and get see how the original has changed into something completely different.

We finished our night with Dark and Stormy's and Chinese food at Bonview, my home away from home. We painted our nails (which had to be redone the next morning) and watched Easy A and Newsies, before passing out.  But the night did not end our fest, because the next morning consisted of more champagne and a bagel brunch!

And brunch was followed by the second best game ever called Cards Against Humanity.  If you haven't played it I highly suggest you check it out. A must play by everyone! This was definitely one of the best weekends I've had in SF. I'm so sad to see Ari go, but am looking forward to future visits to see her and for her to see us. 

Ice Cream

Well I gave in today and had my first scoop of Bi-Rite ice cream.  It's a beautiful sunny day and there was no line outside. It was fate, I had to walk in. After tasting a multitude of flavors (salted caramel, earl grey, cookies 'n cream, and one with snickerdoodles in it) I settled on honey lavender. Lightly whipped with hints of both flavors, it was the perfect afternoon treat.  Now I guess I understand why people are waiting in line around the block for hours to get a little scoop.

Bidnes Cards

I stayed in last night and went on a stamping rampage! Now I have some new  business cards to match all the rest of my branding. I made about 60 last night, it didn't take too long and I had a pretty good time while doing it. Let me know what you think of the new design.

Home Accessories

I had made some napkins for Christmas presents this past year and got a lot of positive feedback about them. So this past week I've been working on these. I plan to bundle them in sets of four and sell them on Etsy. They are all double sided and are 12.5 in x 12.5 in. They make great house-warming gifts and are much better for the environment then paper napkins! Stop by Needle in the Fog to check them out.

Spring has Sprung

Yesterday I met up with my boyfriend for lunch at the ever so delicious Pizzeria Delfina. While I was waiting for him I got to witness this man and his dog sharing a plate of meatballs. I thought it was the cutest thing, and as soon as I get a puppy, we will be doing this daily.

After lunch I went on a walk with the adorable dog Cody and we spotted spring! Flowers are starting to bloom and hopefully things will start warming up. At least we can look forward to peonies coming back in season (my favorite flower). 

Superbowl Weekend

Well the weekend started out celebrating this lovely lady, Alexandra, for her birthday. A great way for us to get pumped up for our niners playing on Sunday. We went to Dear Mom. It's a great bar in the mission, does an awesome $8 special of a tall boy PBR and a shot of Four Roses Bourbon. It also has delicious food. I ended up having a siracha buffalo chicken sandwich.  It just started off my weekend of healthy eating. It's a great bar for big groups, lots of open space!

Then Saturday I headed on over to east bay to hang out with my friends Megan and Kile. They've got an awesome little spot over in Berkeley. We ended up making some home made caramel sauce, surprisingly easy, and then dipping apples into it and pouring it on ice cream. Oh, and this was after eating a giant burrito.

Then came Sunday. An epic day of eating and drinking. Starting at 9:30 am, I met up with a couple of friends and started cooking these delicious critters.

We had forty pounds of craw fish! Along with three homemade pizzas, hush puppies, twice baked potato skins, spare ribs, buffalo dip, guacamole, multiple flavors of chips, cupcakes and I'm sure I am leaving out some things. And that was just food.

We also had multiple coolers of beer. and "niners punch" (that was deadly) and plenty of props to go around. 

For those of you who watched the game, you know we had a rough first half. So of course during halftime (after Beyonce) shotgunning beers was the only way to lift our spirits and get ready for the rest of the game.

Then the first play of the second half had the ravens scoring again, so we had to rally and wear turbans on our heads. Anything we could do to help. It seemed like it was working, we started making a comeback, but unfortunately it just wasn't enough.

So we drowned our sorrows. And this was the aftermath. Monday was a day of recovery.  I'm pretty sure the whole city was hungover. But we are picking ourselves back up and getting pumped for baseball season to start again! Go Giants!

Hats off to more Hats

After last weeks sale I was down to only one hat in my stock, so I spent a few nights this week re-stocking. The top two are some new yarns that I picked up. It is 50% cotton and 50% wool. I think it will be great for a more light weight hat. The bottom two are my favorite hat yarns which are mostly baby alpaca with some wool. Of course these are up for sale on Etsy, so don't forget to keep those heads warm! Don't worry the hats do fit normal heads, I just only have this child sized head at my studio at the moment for photos.  I'll get some a actual human beings wearing my hats soon!

Sunny Days

This was the color of the sky today, so naturally I spent a good amount of the day outside. 66 degrees and sunny was the forecast. I started off inside, cutting some fabric. I am working on making some napkins to sell, but you will see more of those later.  Around noon I was asked if I wanted to hang in Delores Park, so I grabbed my knitting and Frida and headed down the hill. 

So we spent about two hours knitting and chatting in the park and then headed back over to his apartment. This particular friend of mine has a very nice shirt collection and I had brought my bowties with me.  He was the prefect model for them. I'm working on putting together a little "look-book" or "leave-behind" for clients that I am trying to sell to. One of my goals for this year is to get my products into actual stores.  I have a few in mind that I feel have a similar aesthetic to mine, so hopefully in the next week I will have everything ready and put together to make appointments with some of these stores and show them my stuff. This is one of my favorite shirt/bowtie combinations of the day. I just love the two different floral prints contrasting, yet complimenting each other at the same time.