Valentine's Day Collabrative Gift Set With Long Winter Soap Co

I am very excited to announce this special collaborative offer from Rebecca Haas Jewelry and Long Winter Soap Co of Maine.  This is an adorable limited edition gift set in honor of the day of love.

This romantic gift set comes attractively packaged in a little gift box, and is all ready to present to yourself or your honey!  This collaboration is being offered at the special price of $65 from now until Valentine's Day, so head on over to the shop here to get more details.  

Rebecca Haas Jewelry Valentines Day Sample Sale!

Going on now until it is all gone.  There is only one of everything though, so if you see something you like don't wait!  All pieces priced below wholesale at $20-$35, click here to see available samples!

Saturday Cuteness

Look who just arrived from HandyMaiden

I thought maybe she needed a habitat.

There we go.

Inspiration Strikes!

My shipment of new papers has just arrived.  I absolutely cant wait to make some new designs with these beauties.  Now to just get through the stack of current orders. . .

Upcoming Event: Buyers Market of American Craft

I do one wholesale show a year these days, and it is coming up in mid-February.  The Buyers Market of American Craft is a place where artisans from North America can display their work for buyers from stores and galleries from all around the country and abroad. A lot of preparation is required for these big shows, and show season always seems to find me scrambling to get everything done in time.  Yesterday was the day to put together a postcard for a pre-show mailing.  Here are some images from the shoot, along with the final selection.

I was pretty sure that I wanted to feature my new Deco Cuff and Ring set, because they are new, and pretty photogenic because of their great depth and dimensionality. So I tried lots of settings and lighting, and the one below ended up being the winner.

Is there a store or gallery in your area that you think would be a good fit for Rebecca Haas Jewelry?  If so, please forward them this post, or put the name and location in the comments and I will get in touch with them! And thanks!

Wintery Studio and New Work

So remember back when all I was posting about was food, and I promised you some photos of the new work I have been working on?  Well here it is, and a little peek around the wintery studio.  It is snowing here in earnest today, and everything is hushed and white.  It's a good day to hunker down in the studio.

 See the drawing in the photo below?  And see the necklace it became above?

 

All of a sudden The Philadelphia Buyers Market is just around the corner!  So it looks like my post holiday downtime has sadly come to an end, at least for a little while.  But I love the process of putting together a new line, so I'm not complaining.  Not much anyway ;)

If you are interested in additional information about any of the new pieces you see here I will be posting them in my various online shops as the day goes on.  As they go up I will add a direct link to each image in this post, so if your image isn't live yet please check back in a little bit later!

Our Bedroom in the Barn: Before and After

You know how when you move into a new place, you only have so much time, money and energy to fix it up exactly the way you want?  And then you get the the point where one or all of those things run out, and you're done?  Well that happened to us with our bedroom.  I've been wanting to do a bedroom before and after post for, well, 4 years, but we only just got to the "after" part!  Here's a decent "before" picture.

 We moved into this barn about 4 years ago, and we refinished the floor, painted the walls Iron Mountain (Benjamin Moore), framed and hung some art we really love, repainted a great bed frame from Ikea. . . and then we ran out of money and motivation.  We got really stuck finding a 9x12 rug we liked and could also afford.  So we borrowed an old oriental rug from my parents attic that was the right size, if not the right style and colors, had a baby, and now it is 4 years later.

A confluence of two things got me motivated again.

 

One: Recently my good friend Cara bought a house in Brooklyn and asked me and a couple of other friends to put together a couple of decorating inspiration boards on Pinterest, and that really got me going again.  Looking at all of the beautiful homes and great creative decor styles made me really start to look at our space again, and get the jump start I needed to tackle the final details.  I decided that what our super modern, minimalist bedroom really needed to make it more cozy was a little bit of boho pattern and texture.

Two: Our bedroom is really drafty, and the one heat vent in the ceiling blows right on TH's side of the bed and drives him crazy.  So you know what is cheaper, and awesomer, than moving a heating vent?  Bed curtains.  I have always harbored a secret desire for a super princess-y bed, and this idea really jived with that.  How often can you find a really practical reason to give yourself a super romantic princess bed?  Just the once, in my life so far.  So here it is! Our finished bedroom:

Ok, so of course it's not totally finished.  I still need to get that little loveseat recovered in a fun boho fabric, which is still TBD.

 I tied the curtains on with pieces of white grosgrain ribbon, which was very inexpensive, and won't fray.

We found this great 9x12 rug for very little money at West Elm, along with the curtains, actually.  They are having a great sale. Thanks West Elm!

I also have plans to make some throw pillows of various sizes from block printed Indian fabrics in rich and slightly clashy colors and patterns.  But when? Hopefully soon.

The cozy cave the the bed curtains make has proven to be a much approved of place to read books by the three year old set.  And TH wakes up in the morning with no more muttering about why the heat system insists on blowing cold air on him all night.  And I have my princess bed, and can pretend I am a character in a Jane Austen novel, which for some reason makes me feel right at home ;)

Win, win, win.  Three thumbs up from the family.

Beautiful Spaces: The Otto's Barn

Some friends of ours are in the middle of shoring up their beautiful old barn, so TH went over to take a look around and take some pictures.  This farm used to be what was called "the town farm" where vagrants, or people down on their luck could get room and board in return for working on the farm.

 I love the wall in the photo above.  Look at how all of those boards are hammered onto it in a seemingly willy-nilly crazy quilt of repairs.

See those little stones and concrete pyramids under the floor beams?  Those little things are holding up that whole barn. (!)

All photos in this post by Tom Hutten.

Lo Mein at Home

I know it must be the dead of winter because all I want to think about is food.  I mean, look at the last three posts!  Oh well, I'm going to go with it.  I am also working on a new line of jewelry for the Buyers Market of American Craft in February, so I'll have some new jewelry pics soon.  But for now, food.  

 One of the things about living in the boonies is that it is hard to get any kind of decent ethnic food.  We have to drive a good 45 minutes to get decent Chinese food, and that makes takeout kind of impossible.  So we make it, and with neither of us having a Chinese grandmother to pose questions to, sometimes it comes out better than others.  This recipe for lo mein was actually quite delicious, and I think tasted pretty close to the real thing (at least NYC Chinese takeout real thing, so take that for whatever it is worth).  I substituted tiny slivers of pork tenderloin in place of chicken, which I thought was very yummy. It was also pretty quick and easy, so if you live in the sticks like me, you should try it!

Spicy Egg and Avocado On Toast

I'm all about avocado for breakfast right now.  This quick and easy breakfast combines a rich farm egg cooked over easy on whole wheat toast, topped with fresh avocado slices, tomatillo salsa, and tobasco sauce.  It had a great balance between the richness of the egg and avocado, the tart spiciness of the salsas, and the crunchiness of the toast. It was yummy, and now it's gone.

This is My Jam

Actually it's Patty's Jam.  Patty's bacon jam.  You heard me.  Bacon Jam.  Bacon, onion, maple syrup and coffee cooked for hours in the slow cooker until it is the consistency of, well, jam.  Unreal.  We have only just begun to explore the many applications.  Here it is below on a grilled ham and swiss with spinach and roasted red peppers.

Sorry this photo is partly blurry.  I couldn't back away from the sandwich long enough to take a decent picture. I'm not positive that this is the recipe she used, but here is a recipe to check out.

Happy New Year everyone!  I wish you all a beautiful 2013 full of love and inspiration!