Nest Decorating & Designs by Tamar

Giant snow bunnies

Saturday morning is always a good day to look back at the passing week. Thanksgiving came and went, we were on our own this year with all of our friends hosting families or away, so I decided not to get a turkey since one of my sons is vegetarian, one hates chicken (weird right....) which leaves us 3 with a giant bird....instead we thanked with an Indian meal complete with home made Chapati, Ginger sweet potato and Coconut milk soup, Curried chicken Masala and separate curried tofu dish and rice with chestnuts.
Was yummy!
and then it snowed! finally! is there anyhting more beautiful then waking up to a snowy day?
The boys climbed up Bolton valley and did a little snowboarding and massive fun.

When I look at these giant kids it's hard to believe how  much they grew this year! Daniel is 6'!!...

I also did more sewing, especially more pouches, they are so fun to make! I am very proud of this one, I used two different velvets I have

and the biggest meditation of all for me is making jewelry, I love it and never seem to have time to actually sit down and make some, also the beads are so expensive....!
Here is one I made last night, I really like the little pearl and smokey Czech bead on the ends,which I  love to wear on the bottom. This necklace is long, about 15" it hangs right between the breasts.

both necklace and pouch are in my shop ,the photos didn't come out so well, too much sun today in my favorite photographing corners, maybe I'll try new ones later, but for now I'll just curl up and read my book...:)
Have a fantastic week!

Busy weekend

Well remember the snow prediction last week? It didn't happen,not here anyway, it snowed all around us,in the mountains in other towns, but not here, Cars were coming in from everywhere with huge piles of snow on their roofs, everyone was talking about the first snow....we were so jealous!!!

I had a super busy weekend, sold more then 20 items and had 3 wholesale orders!! yey!! It felt so good to have things move along this way, I was fulfilling orders and was busy at my work table the whole weekend,poor kids, I didn't even have time to cook! but they happily ate frozen pizza... then on Sunday I sat down to make some new pouches and came up with some I really like. I have a beautiful piece of Kenzo velvet, I first bought it to make a pillow but decided yesterday to make pouches out of it,this way I am spreading the cheer....:)

then I experimanted with using ribbons on the pouches and came up with this:

and this:

and finally something completely different,a few pouches with some great Ikea canvas fabric I just bought lately, personally I love these the most...

I posted them all in the shop, I hope they sell well.

Snow?

We are all expecting snow tonight, the boys are thrilled because that means they can hike up the mountain and snowboard this weekend, I am thrilled because I just love getting up in the morning to a snowy white scene, it also means I can retake lots of photos with a snowy background, the dog is thrilled because she ADORES the snow! So it's all good or "happy days" as they say in the UK, I just watched the movie "The Holiday" again, I love that movie, read the next paragraph you'll totally get why I wish I was in England these days....!

So,I listened to dearest Yvonne who writes one of my favorite blogs and splurged...I ordered the new Jamie Oliver dvd and book from England! The passion he has for everything that he does is so inspiring and the dvd is beautifully made, it's a collection of easy peasy recipes  based on the different vegetables growing in his fantastic garden, I love gardening and I love cooking so really it's the perfect combination! If you do order it you MUST have a multi system dvd player since the dvd is European .

I have been working on some new ornaments, love making them ,I was thinking they really are not just for Christmas, they can hang anywhere! I even have one hanging from the mirror in my car....here is a new photo I took yesterday.

The chair

This week was very quiet, not too many sales, not too many clients, maybe it's the quiet before the storm? I am trying to make as much stock as I can before the holidays I hope things will pick up soon, the only things that are selling really well are the totes and pouches, they seem to fly out of the shop just as soon as I post them :) it makes me so happy! I think I'll be ordering more fabric soon, I love those juicy colors!

We got the linen color twill slipcover I ordered today for our very old vintage wing chair, the chair is probably about 50-60 years old, I got it from a dear friend of my mother's, it was her mother's!!! I love this chair,it moved with us 3-4 times already, It's the perfect chair to curl up in, read a book, fall asleep or just look out the window at the changing seasons. We first upholstered it in white, that was 12 years ago when we just got it, the boys where tiny then and that proved to be a BIG mistake, then we re-upholstered it in a lovely green and white ticking fabric which lasted nicely until we got our puppy, she ate through it down to the foam and down filling and half of the cushion...  but we flipped it over and lived with it for 7 more years practicing the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi, (check out this book if you want to read more about it)...
I did want to redo it in a gorgeous fabric I found ,but, between the fabric and the upholstery price I figured it will cost around $500....!!!  We really don't feel like spending so much money right now, so in the meantime we got this slipcover at surefilt and voila $50 and a new chair! It doesn't fit perfectly ,the chair is very wide and big but I managed to push and pull and tuck it under, so here is the result,I hope it doesn't look too bad. I think I like it. Now that the kids are grown and the dog is 7 maybe this time it will last a little while...or until I can really invest in it.

xox
have a great weekend!

Sunday

Here in Vermont once Halloween is over you begin to feel winter in the air. We woke up this morning to a chilly 32F (oC), clear blue skies and piles and piles of leaves to rake,we did some yesterday and today thanks to my sweet son Jonathan who cleared the whole back
lawn making these little Andy Goldsworthy piles

we are now leaf free...

I made him a super special Jonathan sandwich:
Whole grain bread
Dijon mustard
Cabot cheddar cheese (Hunter's favorite)
Tomato (the last from the garden turning red in a brown paper bag...)
Alfalfa sprouts
Thin 2 egg omelet
Chili peppers

it was gone in 2 seconds...

one of my favorite scenes of all times is the whole neighborhood out raking their lawns. With snow just around the corner I changed all the bed linens to flannel, we switched the screen windows to glass and rearranged the wood pile bringing a few logs in for the fire place, Ah the sweet smell of a fire burning...Can you tell I love winter???

Here in my studio things are cooking up for the holiday season, I made a new Dreamcatcher with lovely holiday colors but I kept it simple so it can be used all year round

And a little cuteness, a tiny 3" dreamcatcher ornament, it's a actually a mini wreath and I'm in love....I'll be making more of these little babies these next few days:

in the meantime you can find them here in my shop

A great week to all

xoxo