in the pink

Pinking shears from GingherWorking on my new fabric line (working, working, working—will post results soon!!), my pinking shears are invaluable.  Pinking shears are those scissors that have sawtoothed blades, instead of straight ones. When you use them to cut fabric, the fabric won’t fray nearly as much with the sawtooth pattern on the edges.

(You can’t cut paper with these because the paper dulls them—echoes of my mother in my head trying to ingrain this rule in my head after I had stolen hers for a craft project!)  So the fabric swatches I create will have “pinked” edges.  In the office, we were collectively wondering why they are called “pinking” shears. (Yes, a bit of procrastinating!) Thanks to Wikipedia, we know:

Carnation from Oak Valley“The cut produced by pinking shears may have given its name to (or be derived from) the plant name "pink", a flowering plant in the genus Dianthus (commonly called a carnation). The colour pink may have been named after these flowers, although the origins of the name are not definitively known. As the carnation has scalloped, or "pinked", edges to its petals, pinking shears can be thought to produce an edge similar to the flower.”

I think they might be making this one up but it does have some caché so I am going to keep that fun definition in my head to go along with one of my favorite things—those awesome scissors. Coming in the future: swatches of fab fabric with "carnation" edges. 

kitchen cabinets

I started carrying Studio Marler cabinetry.  Going along with the "colorful" theme of the last few posts, this line is great because they will do custom colors off the Benjamin Moore color deck.  And that is in addition to being a super eco-friendly line, meeting the requirements for LEED® credits, made locally, with lots of style and convenient features. 

colorful

The New Traditionalists was launched earlier this year by DucDuc in New York and has great furniture made in the U.S. (Connecticut, actually). But the best part of this new furniture line is the yummy colors and finishes. AND, for a small upcharge, if you need a different color, they will match any Benjamin Moore color you want.  Choice is wonderful!

image from thenewtraditionalists.com

little pockets of green

Green Pockets by Maruja Fuentes "are ceramic tiles which fuse nature with the interior space, improving both air quality and health. They attach to the wall to create the illusion as if they were actually growing from them. The tiles, made from recycled materials, serve as planters and their unique shape allows tehm to interlock, thereby creating different patterns depending on the vegetation planted. " 

I think these would make an amazing herb garden backsplash in the kitchen!  Green is the new black, you know.

image from www.marujafuentes.com

do-it-yourself

image from tastebook.comI love to cook but have trouble finding cookbooks that I like.  I have cooking attention-deficit disorder and if the recipe has more than 3-4 ingredients, I lose focus.  Taste Book enables one to create unique, taste-specific cookbooks, kind of like itunes lets us create our own music library.  So, once you have created your dream cookbook, then just order 20 of them and hand them out to friends and family at the holidays. Gift-giving DONE well!!