18 Nov 2012
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in color, Creativity, Design, handmade, Paris, Photography, Sewing, Travel
Tags: creativity, design, Exploring, fabric, fabric mushrooms, paris, Paris Shop, Petit Pan Paris, Porte de Vanves flea market, sewing, sewing ideas, textiles, travel, Walking
Early September, my last day in Paris. I was tired and pledged not to overdo it. Take photographs. Write notes. Draw sketches.
But Paris has a habit of luring me up streets and around corners.
In the end I walked about 1o miles.
The weather was good—the morning rain turning to sunshine, warm, no wind.
So walk I did.
First I wandered all over the Marais—one of my favorite areas in Paris, with its narrow streets, beautiful squares, and eclectic shops. Then I took the Metro north to the top of Montmartre. I had been here in April in dismal weather and wanted to explore it more. The area around Sacré Coeur was overrun so I started down the steps from the hilltop.
I missed a turn for a Metro stop, and since Montmartre is on a steep hillside, I chose to keep walking downhill instead of climbing hundreds of steps.
If I hadn’t made that mistake I wouldn’t have stumbled upon Petit Pan, a tiny shop of enchantments. A mobile of handsewn dotted mushrooms (I love mushrooms!) in the window drew me in to a narrow shop lined with bolts of ditzy print fabrics, patterned paper boxes and journals, silk butterflies hanging down from the ceiling. Further in there were inventive children’s clothes and bedding. And that’s what I can remember. There was so much more.
The unusual color combinations and pattern mixes the designers used raised my blood pressure. My head was buzzing with ideas. I bought a few small things with my dwindling cache of euros, and bid farewell to the friendly women at the counter.
A short distance away I settled into a bench in the square near the Abbesses Metro. A jazz guitarist played a familiar tune. The late summer sun slanted through the tree tops and glimmered on the carousel nearby. Page after page in my little notebook filled with sewing ideas, art sketches and things to tell friends. All percolating from my visit to that little shop.
Petit Pan
9 Rue Yvonne le Tac
Paris
There are several more locations in Paris. Perhaps you will stumble on one my design or by chance!
The photos above include items from Petit Pan, with a few from other places.
They are clockwise from top:
1. Haute Nouveauté vintage fabric sample, Porte de Vanves flea market
2. Patterned bias tape, Petit Pan
3. Vintage 35 ribbon, Porte de Vanves flea market
4. Soft aqua pink floral fabric, Liberty of London
5. Three rolls of patterned fabric, Petit Pan
6. Vintage button card, Porte de Vanves flea market
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23 Oct 2012
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in Art Portfolios, Artists, Creativity, Design, Fashion, Interior Design, Photography
Cattywumpus is a good word. I don’t know how it is spelled.
It’s the word that came to mind when I rounded the bend near the dressing rooms at Liberty of London back in September. There I came face to face with one of Deborah Bowness’ dress images. It was green.
Only I didn’t know it was by Deborah Bowness, and I didn’t know that it was wallpaper, handmade in England. I just knew that I loved it.
As luck would have it, a similarly wonky layered photograph of a lamp popped up in one of the many design websites I troll. It seemed like the creative hand behind the lamp matched my memory of that layered dress. The source was discovered!
Like David Hockney paintings, that I came to love back in the early 1980s, Bowness layers images up against each other in ways I can only call cattywumpus.
Ordinary becomes extraordinary.
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29 Jun 2012
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in color, Creativity, Design, Friendship, In the Studio, Photography, Summer, Travel
Tags: Adirondacks, blue, IKEA, Maine, Peaks Island, peaks island maine, pink, Poppytalk, red, Saranac Lake, sparklers, Summer Colour Week, summer house, vacation, yellow
It is Summer Colour Week at Poppytalk (our Canadian friends spell color the British way) and I’ve been browsing my collection and shooting some images with color in mind. Today this favorite from last summer’s weekend in the Adirondacks made the cut for Red Day and was shown here. Get out your magnifying glass and look for it.
A cabin cup. Red. This photo always reminds me of the smell of the coffee percolating in the mornings while we hung out with Alicia, Dennis and Lucas near Saranac Lake. One night the kids lit jumbo sparklers by the dock and swirled them for me in the twilight. Yellow.
Peaks Island, Maine. Just across the bay from Portland, we rented a tandem bike and cycled the entire island. The summer cottages of Peaks Island look like overgrown doll’s houses and this is one of many that I snapped that day. Yellow.
My friend Brenda sewed this pillow last summer. It has such a gypsy vibe I couldn’t wait to take its photo. {As if it were someone asking for a portrait.} My battered red chair seemed a good stage to complete the Romany picture. Pink.
Today is Blue day and here are two that I submitted. The studio cupboard is brimming with blue fabric, and this stack includes a few favorites: the top one is from IKEA, the indigo and white pattern toward the bottom is yards of vintage cotton I scored at my local thrift store. Blue.
An Anna Folkard geranium snipped this morning and tucked in glass. Blue.
Color, no matter how you spell it, kindles up stories. Reminds us of certain people. Soothes. Shocks. Comforts.
We’re off to float the river. Happy weekend one and all.
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13 May 2012
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in Chickens, color, Eating and Cooking, Family, Garden, Natural world, Photography, Seasons, Spring, Vermont
Tags: al fresco dining, bees, blossoms, breakfast, chickens, crabapple trees, garden, home, mother's day, motherhood, nature, outdoors
I don’t ask for much on Mother’s Day. I often share it with my husband’s birthday, and so I’ve spent the day at a few ballparks over the years, and that’s okay with me.
But this morning Mother’s Day dawned with a bit of overcast that began to clear. Birdsong through our open windows was the alarm clock we hadn’t set. It was chilly, but not so much that we didn’t take our tea and breakfast out to the table on the patio. Above us crabapple blossoms drifted down like lazy benevolent snowflakes and the buzzing of bees hummed over our heads. R let out the lambs and the chickens who gamboled about (lambs) and waddled through the gardens in search of grubs and seeds (hens). Really nothing could have made me happier—hanging out with my family and the critters under the sky eating breakfast.
It brought to mind the morning 10 years ago and my very first Mother’s Day as an, um, mother.
Mother’s Day was not on my radar at all because it was the exact day of my husband’s birthday. My parents watched the wee baby and I went with R on an hour’s jaunt south to watch him play baseball with a southern Vermont league. Back then he was a stay-at-home dad, and playing ball on the weekend was his escape from diapers and repeated readings of Goodnight Moon.
That day we got to the ball field early for warmups. I dropped him off and went to Brattleboro in search of coffee and The New York Times Sunday edition. At game time it began to sprinkle. I left the bleachers for the comfort of the car, faced the field, and worked on the crossword while keeping track of the game. The rain got heavier, but they played to the 9th inning.
Afterward, we planned to go to brunch at a favorite cafe and chocolate shop—Burdicks— in nearby Walpole, New Hampshire. The birthday boy was soaked through but found something dry to change into in the back of the car. We were on our own without the responsibility of a baby (though we were crazy ’bout that baby!) and were giddy as we heading up route 5 north. Rain or no rain, we had a birthday to celebrate!!
The parking lot at Burdicks was packed. Huh? Sunday, we guessed.
In the doorway we had our first aha moment when we saw the room packed with families in all manner of Sunday finery. We were in our damp and disheveled ballgame closes. Eek. Not a free table in site. Right, it’s Mother’s Day.
Burdick’s waitstaff could have easily turned us away with an upturned nose, but instead—to their credit, which has earned them our lifelong devotion—they invented a new seating area at the counter near the cash register, locating stools in the back kitchen, and proceeded to serve us as though we had booked a table weeks in advance.
Happy birthday. Happy Mother’s Day. And all that.
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30 Apr 2012
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in Natural world, Paris, Photography, Spring, Travel, Vermont
Tags: Butter, Croissants, Eiffel Tower, paris, River Seine, travel, Vermont, violets
It is the day after a longest day. A day of traversing timezones and crossing continents and oceans. So here I am in my own timezone feeling a little like I’ve been run over by a car. Nothing another cup of tea won’t cure. And a few more nights of sleep.
My body could also be going through butter withdrawal. Or cured meat overload. Or post-paté panic.
Only a few days ago the skies of Paris shone kindly on us after days of rain. We wandered from the top of the city at Sacre Coeur to the river banks of the Seine.
It’s a world away, but still fresh in mind (and belly). But it’s good to be home with the grass greening, leaves unfurling, and the fresh bloom of violets sprinkled through the lawn.
I didn’t expect the violets.
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27 Feb 2012
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in Design, Garden, Interior Design, Photography, Scandinavia, Seasons
Tags: Daffodils, Elle Interior, Idha Lindhag, Irish Daffodils, Magnus Anesund, Petra Bindel, Scandinavian interiors, Skanska Nya Hem, Swedish photographers, Swedish stylist, Tina Hellberg
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to lounge in this green space for the next few hours. For Elle Interior, Photography by Idha Lindhag, Styling by Tina Hellberg
Always in February I think about greenhouses. The smell of a greenhouse in particular—all moist and peat-moss scented. And anything that is remotely green piques my interest. That last comment isn’t special to February, though. I’m like a hound dog, always sniffing out green, my favorite color, hands-down.
Last week the first bunches of Irish daffodils arrived in my local market. Their buds were still closed, all except for one. I was meeting a friend for lunch, and took the bunch of daffodils to her. My car smelled briefly of spring as I made my way across town to her frame shop, where we ate surrounded by wood, and mat board, and artwork awaiting new glass and molding. And—I might add—the scent of daffodils.
When I came home to browse my photos from last spring, I saw that I took this photo of daffodils on May 2. *Sigh*— must be patient.
The latest green photos to catch my eye came from another place where people are hungry to see green in February—Sweden. I came across the first photo on Pinterest and it led me through that rabbit’s warren (the web) to find the source, which in this case is the creative combination of Swedish stylist Tina Hellberg and photographer (I believe also Swedish) Idha Lindhag. This image graced the cover of the Swedish magazine Elle Interior.
More styling work of Tina Hellberg to follow……
Photography Petra Bindel, Styling Tina Hellberg, for Elle Interior.
See more Petra Bindel photography.
Photography Magnus Anesund, Styling Tina Hellberg, for Elle Interiors.
Photography by Magnus Anesund, Styling by Tina Hellberg, for Skanska Nya Hem
See more photography by Magnus Anesund here.
Skanska Nya Hem magazine.
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09 Dec 2011
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in England, Creativity, Artisanal Living, Artists, Travel, Design, Photography, Housewares, handmade, winter
Tags: Artist, handmade, Ditte Isager, Andrea Brugi, Samina Langholz, Carved wood, Wood spoon, Italian woodworker, Cote Sud, bodging
Rustic wood is so beautiful, especially in the light of early winter. Whether gray with exposure and age, bleached by the sun, or mellow and golden in patina, I never tire of looking at the many ways wood reveals its beauty in rustic or finished designs.
Years ago, on a trip to the English Cotswolds, we bought a book about building and designing with green wood. The technique is called bodging, and those who practice are bodgers. We grasped onto that word and flung it around in sentences whenever we could. Let’s bodger this. We could bodger that.
More than 10 years later we still use the word in our daily lexicon, though our wood working is primarily played out in creating piles of firewood by the studio for seasoning through the year, and by the door where we can easily reach it for our daily fires. Even the triangle and round ends of the stacked woodpile are beautiful as the pieces show off their age rings and slowly crack as they dry.
These tools, cutting boards and decorations are handmade by Italian artist Andrea Brugi and Danish artist Samina Langholz in their Tuscan workshop and illustrate all that I love about rustic wood.
All photographs by Ditte Isager. See her magical photos of beds in trees here.
Found in Coté Sud, Dec 2011/Jan 2012.
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16 Sep 2011
by Sue Schlabach 129twigandvine
in Art Portfolios, Design, In the Studio, Natural world, Photography, Summer, Vermont
Tags: Adirondacks, collage, dock, dreamy, lake, photography, sailboat, sue schlabach, Vermont, wild apple
I seem to be acquiring cameras. The big SLR, the little one that travels in my purse. The large format film camera with square negatives. And now the phone camera that I sometimes forget about.
I love cropping away the larger world into the viewfinder to see what I can see. Cooked down to fewer ingredients than the whole wide panoramic world, a photograph conveys the real thing in a way that is surreal. And I like that.
I just finished two photo collages from photographs I took on Lake Champlain while crossing on the ferry and near Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. They were just published by Wild Apple (but are too new to hit the website yet). Both blur the lines of reality quite a bit.
See more from my photography portfolio here.
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