the story of pines

Good morning, sunshines!

Today I want to share with you the sweetest, most beautiful video ever.

It's the short film made to accompany A Fine Frenzy's latest album, Pines.

you might want to gather up some tissues and a snuggly cat/dog/teddy bear/human before pressing play.

Sigh.

Isn't it wonderful?

♥

snippets

just bits and pieces of what I've been doing and seeing lately...

clearly, I've been ousted from my own loveseat.

beautiful oranges mums

My mom and I found these matching teapots-- mine is the green one, and hers is the blue one.  They have a mesh basket in the top for putting loose tea in, so none ever escapes into the cup of tea!

cream and gray and pink, oh my!

Cocoa likes to enjoy the great outdoors from the comfort of his blanket.

tiny pitcher of tiny mums

Have a beautiful day!

♥

much love monday

Hi friends!

Here are a few things I found this week that are making me say...

this gif of Spanky from the Little Rascals/ Our Gang! 

these beautiful neutral knits

this adorable painting (which I can't find an original source for, boooo!  If you know it, leave a note in the comments pretty please!)

this collection of vintage erasers

this cozy cup of tea

these beautiful Christmas twigs-- everything on that whole site is cottage-y and lovely, actually!

Have a beautiful day!

♥

on the needles: moonpie shawl

Today I'd like to share a knitting project with you!

     This is the Citron Grand shawl pattern,  and I'm knitting it in merino lace-weight yarn that I spun up from a Jill Draper gradient roving (you can see and read about the roving in this post!).  It's a simple, easy pattern, perfect for car-knitting and taking to knitting group.  I'm calling it my Moonpie Shawl because of the silvery blue-grey color of a lot of the yarn.  I'm just moving into that color and you can see it along the edge of the shawl.  It reminds me of moonlight on the ocean and I love, love, love it.  I'm only about halfway through the pattern, so this is going to be a big shawl, and I may end up adding more sections because I want to make sure to use up all the yarn so I get all the way through the purple color at the end.  It's on a size 6 needle, though, so it's still light and airy.  

     I'm going to be spending my afternoon knitting and drinking tea and snuggling with the kitties (by which I mean, trying to keep my yarn away from their adorable but grabby little paws!).  What projects are you working on?  By the way, if you're on Ravelry, I'm JulieRoseSews on there as well-- feel free to friend me, I love seeing all of your beautiful projects!

Have a wonderful day!

♥

red valentino s/s 2013

Just like last season, I love so many of the looks from the Red Valentino line that I needed to make a separate post for them.

Have a beautiful day!

♥

images via style.com

fill-in-the-blank friday

1. One thing I plan to do this weekend is sketch!  I haven't kept a non-fashion sketchbook since before I went to college, and I'm really excited to get back to it.  I find that when I'm putting time and energy into one art form, it inevitably leads to inspiration in others.  I'm also going to be seeing my wonderful brother at his college's homecoming.  Yay!

2. A big pet peeve of mine is passive-aggressive behavior, particularly via social media.  It's so unhelpful and unnecessary, yet so prevalent in youth culture today.  During my time as an RA, I saw so many conflicts escalate from a tiny disagreement to a huge debacle because one person involved decided to post about it.  Friends and friends-of-friends get involved, misinformation spreads, and it's just a mess.  No matter how technologically advanced we get, a calm face-to-face discussion will always be the best way to solve a dispute, in my opinion.  (and no, this isn't directed at anyone in particular.  ha!)

3. I am really loving the Wednesday knitting group at my local yarn shop!  What a sweet and hysterically funny group of ladies.

4. The rain is making it feel extra-cozy to be inside with yarn, kitties, music, and sketchbooks.

5. My favorite girly indulgence is little bits and bobs for around the house.  Right now I'm loving vintage tins for storing knitting and sewing notions.

6. A song I always get stuck in my head is "Asleep on a Sunbeam" by Belle and Sebastian.  It's so cute and catchy!

7. The best cure for stress is making a list of things to do, then accomplishing things and crossing them off the list.  Kitty-snuggles don't hurt, either. 

Happy Friday!

♥

  

rosemary bread

I mentioned in this week's Much Love Monday post that I was feeling the urge to bake some bread...

gathering the ingredients

...so I did!

I used this recipe for rosemary bread, with a few adaptations-- for instance, I omitted the corn meal because a) I don't like the texture and b) I didn't have any.  So that worked out well.

mixing, mixing, mixing

I also used about twice the amount of rosemary than the recipe calls for-- some for mixing into the dough, and some to sprinkle on top.

waiting for the dough to rise...

I'm so pleased with how the bread turned out!  It was cold and chilly outside, and the baking bread filled the house with such a warm, comforting scent.

the crust came out nice and chewy, and the inside was perfectly soft.

I hope you're having a wonderful, cozy afternoon on this autumn day!

♥