rachel.simonsen

home for the holidays...

Taking a break looks like this...

 

trips to the city, and baking cookies and watching the snow fall in the back yard and holding brand new babies born conveniently on the day I arrived home...

 

Nothing beats being home. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this week! I know I will spending many hours parked in front of this little beauty of a tree next to the fireplace...

 

Oh and have you seen this little polaroid maker application - poladroid? It's been sitting on my desktop for months since I downloaded it and have had no time to play with it..but oh boy! is it fun! Click here to download it and have fun polaroid-ing everything. I'll try to resist turing every photo into a polaroid...but it will be difficult...

   

christmas is almost here!...

and this month is almost gone. Um, woah, how did that happen?! The level of busy over here is out. of. control. I have had this blog post started for days now... finishing it is apparently quite the challenge.

Ahh, but it's such a fun crazy busy. For example - Christmas wrapping. Love it. Have spent WAY too much time doing this though...

 

fabric ribbon and cd sleeves as gift tags...

 

more time consuming than I anticipated?...perhaps. But it's fun, so I don't care. And now they are tucked away in my suitcase, along with what is sure to be an excessive amount of clothes, ready to be unveiled when we reach the snow...

 

...oh please let there be snow...

paper cutting and stop motion animation...

Together! Yes! This has been all over the blogs lately, but if you haven't seen it yet - you should.

It's all sorts of crazy busy over here, so forgive my absence.  How do the weeks of December fly by so fast?!! I have many plans for the weekend, probably more than 2 days can contain...I'll be sure to share on Monday...

I'm ahead of schedule...

Which I almost never condone when it comes to Christmas decorating.  In fact, I'm not really sure what has come over me. But I did some Christmas shopping this past weekend and it got me thinking about how many projects I want to do for gifts and decorating and the lists started getting overwhelming.  So I figured I better get a head start. Forgive me for my over eagerness - I do really love this whole Thanksgiving into Christmas season. 

This weekend it was a paper garland to decorate our little built-in area. Which is so very very easy to make. 

I used this papers from this Christmas Paper pad (found in Michael's stores now!) and some solid red and gold papers.  I used three different sized punches to punch out way more circles than I needed.

 

And then I just sewed the circles together with my sewing machine - feeding the garland around a paper towel tube (because thats what I had) to keep it from getting tangled after it was sewn. It really took no time at all, but I'm glad I did it early because this way it is actually done and can enjoy it for more than two days.  

 

Ahh, I love it....but, I think I will wait a little while before I pull out the Christmas movies and cookie recipes.   

(more) tape love...

I know I've shared my tape obsession here before - but in case anyone was wondering, it is not a passing sort of fad. I think this is a love that is here to stay. 

I've been thinking about Christmas presents a lot lately (hence the lack of sharing projects around these parts...they are top secret!) and I'm gathering ideas for wrapping.  I must say the use of packing tape is a strong contender. 

 (three on the left, and the top right one : Kate's Paperie, the bottom right: RetroNaNa Etsy Shop)

Since Christmas wrapping is weeks away, for now I will just be overusing my tapes in completely unnecessary ways ... like instead of drawing a line in my notebook list, I put tape.

 

And now back to work.  My office needs some desperate organizing attention - in the craze of inspiration and designing new projects, tidiness has slipped to the bottom of my list...oops. 

can i rewind...

 

and do this past weekend all over again? Because if I could, I totally would. Trips up north make me so very, very happy. Even incredibly quick ones. Being able to soak in actual fall with leaves, and colors and harvesting...yes, please, I will take some more of that.

 

California is a big state. It has a lot of wonderful, beautiful, exciting places and it may be impossible to pick a favorite place in this state (because I also just stink at picking definitive favorites of anything), but Napa Valley easily makes my top three. I think I may have fallen in love with vineyards and Napa at the young age of 12 when I saw the new version of Parent Trap in the theaters. But the love has been completely engrained after many trips visiting one of my best friend's family vineyard.  The above picture is more or less their backyard.

The whole area though, t's just so beautiful. And I am so lucky to have the benefit of expert tour guides each and every visit. Which is great, because there are so many incredible things to do and experience there.  For example...this is not Europe below. This is a castle...in napa. (I may have pretended I was in Europe for a bit...but I stayed very solidly on US soil.) 

Spotted through out the weekend... patterns and lettering...

 

Let me just take a moment : the fig cafe - we decided money would became no object at lunch. The food was too incredible to order sensible amounts. bread basket and spreads? yes. full lunch? yes. fries or salad? both. dessert? absolutely, are you kidding...when it is pear and ginger cheesecake? I only regret not ordering two. 

 

Don't you just love that old school pattern? The style is so weird and whimsical. And sometimes, I can't help myself with the flooring-feet pictures.  This one was from the Bouchon Bakery in Yountville where I had my very first macaroon. I now completely understand what the hype surrounding these little beautiful cookie treats is all about- they are incredible. I also totally loved the Bouchon Bakery logo and packaging (and potato chips). 

Perfect combination for a weekend: inspiration, beauty, extremely tasty food, and time spent with the best of friends. 

 

inspired by...

Okay, so let me be clear from the beginning, I'm not completely satisfied with this little experiment project. 

But I saw these hairstyles that were part of the Carolina Herrera 2009 fall runway collection and really loved the overuse of pins. And since I have these weird bang-like things that are at a strange length, I myself have been using copious amounts of bobby pins. So I wanted to find some similar bobby pins with metal details...but didn't really see anything I liked that much (granted I am impatient and didn't really look that hard). So I had this bright idea to use these gold buttons I've had sitting around for forever and some gold bobby pins and the only kind of powerful glue I own...

Now, really, gorilla glue is a great substance, but not ideal for metal or extremely small delicate things like this. But I made it work (due to being the impatient person I am, as aforementioned). 

But this is the result...

 

Which honestly, doesn't look anything like what I wanted it to and still looks like buttons on bobby pins unfortunately. But oh well, it was easy and is a little quirky looking in a sweet sort of way. And I'll continue my hunt for more sophisticated bobby pins...

weekend report...

Another weekend has gone by too quickly, however, with the help of a little list making, I did get a good amount accomplished. This was just my personal little fun to do list. The work one was kept separate. 

 

With 90 degree temperatures, I refuse to say it was a lovely fall weekend. Despite not being the season it should, it was beautifully sunny and cheerful. 

 

On Sunday the sister and I strolled around a flea market with coffee in our hands and tried to resist from spending all the money we own. (which I'm quite certain we could have done) 

  

I did buy a few little gems, but haven't taken pictures of them (will do that soon and share). 

perfume packaging...

I think because I'm about to run out of my current perfume, I've been rather drawn to perfume packaging and thinking about what I will purchase next. I'm such a sucker for packaging...it could easily entice me to buy something I don't need...

these may be my favorite (from skeem)

 

Of course I love the type on these and the little jars they are in, but I'm also a really big fan of how they include the scent and story descriptions.  Although I wouldn't want just one... I would want five lined up on my dresser (from CB i hate perfume) 

 

I've had my eye on these Tokyo Milk perfumes for a while...I like the little surprise illustration on the inside of the bottle. (found here)

And from an Etsy seller - Portland General Store. I like the simplicity of the label - clean, clear and direct. 

 

I'll let you know if I ever make a decision and purchase one of these lovelies!

snap shots...

Weekends have been busy as of late...

  

Fall! I see fall!!...

 

a trip up to griffith observatory...

hello pretty scrapbook stickers and pretty sister...

I will take many more weekends please....