{ tara frey }:: typing out loud

hand art...

Love the many ways people show their hand art over at flickr.  And it's a little eye candy to say thank you for giving your time, reading my blog, following me on twitter, participating in my silly polls {which are still open!} and being such nice, gracious and giving people.  I value your thoughts, comments and opinions and grateful you stop by here once in a while, never knowing what I'll be blabbering about.  

New Year Wishes...

 
Different words pop into my mind for the new year while trying to find the right images to correspond on flickr

Wishes for 2010::   love.   peace.  safe.  comfort.  home.  family.  a different path.  fresh start.  light.  create.  warmth.  cozy.  dream.  sweet.  new beginnings.  inspire.  believe.  determination.  reach.  accomplish.  

Hoping all your "words" come true in the new year.  xo- T 

In the Spirit of Giving...Part 2

Shopping in jammies today, I am inspired by  
     
 

come and twirl these vibrant parasols with me

 

keep records organized (and pretty) in a vintage inspired patchwork file folder
  

visit Carrie Sommer and her whimsical aprons, (plus her tweets make me laugh)

 

everyone will feel jolly with these festive glasses (especially the person drinking from "Completely Lit")

 

oh, garbage never looked so chic

  

and finally, a talented crafter who makes all of my handmade rag quilts (which can be seen here). My mice have each of their own, and so does mama.  Visit alamodefabric 
    

In the Spirit of Giving...part 1

  
My goal this Christmas is to shop for all gifts online and never leave my house.  I hate the malls more than I hate men in flip flops (more on that weird subject in a future post) So, in this spirit of giving (and staying in jammies while searching for the perfect gifts), I thought I would share with you some unique creations I come across made by awesome independent crafters and stores I adore..(and don't mind getting dressed and making the drive) in a few posts spread out during December.

If you know of anyone with a passion for hair accessories, you have to stop at Cultivar

 

combined with these gloves from Free People and it's sure to make a girl swoon

 

Cravings...

Folding Mr. Frey's laundry, I noticed something...

  
and I started to crave something

 

yeah, I totally know what I'm asking for Christmas now

 

Where the Chubby Cheeks Are

 
Gone but not forgotten.  Oh how I miss those chunky smiles. 

Memo to my mice: do mama a favor and just slow down a bit, please?

Sights of Fall...

right now :: loving the sights of fall, so I snapped some photos... 

fabulous table setting
 

spooky cool salvage graveyard

pumpkin alley

can't resist that sign, I'm going to have to go~ xo

 

Dress up your neck with a knitlace©...

 
I've knitted up some "knitlaces©" just in time for Fall.  These are skinny scarves, sweet and tiny and long enough to make a statement.  They are handmade by me (and usually knitted while laying in bed late at night with ear plugs in my ears next to a giant snoring beast...but that's another story)

I love them because they jazz up anything.  Instead of a necklace, wear a knitlace© (or why not both?!) Fun, whimsical and chic. 

 
 
Please vist my Etsy shop {click here} to see the yummy's.  See you there and thank you. Happy Fall !- xo  

UPDATED 10/7/09:: SOLD OUT :: THANK YOU!  MORE LISTING COMING SOON!

Walk a mile...

I'm a huge fan of Saturday Night Live [SNL]  Who wouldn't love Jimmy Fallon dressed as Barry Gibb doing a talk show (one of my favorite sketches EVER) or how about this video of a street war between a bar bell and plastic implant OMG. Justin Timberlake, I can't stop laughing. I mean, who writes this stuff? It's just insanely funny.  I guess my sense of humor is probably a bit acerbic. I love to laugh, but who doesn't?

I always pay attention to the "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" quotes on SNL.  The quirky, supposedly inspirational little sayings that are so twisted but make perfect sense.

This one is my all time favorite.  

Before you criticize someone

you should walk a mile in their shoes.

That way, when you criticize them,

you are a mile away from them 

and you have their shoes.

you gotta love that. 

Almost...

It's coming soon. I can feel it and smell it.  FALL is arriving.  My most favorite time of year. There is nothing like the change of season in Bucks County, PA. Nothing!  I love the months of October and November and our annual trips here and here.

We married in October and I always, always wanted a pumpkin baby.  But things were never timed correctly and we received a winter and a summer baby. (I'm not complaining!) But never that little pumpkin baby, (unless you count the giant pumpkin shaped belly that I carried with each one).  and it was BIG.  all in front and round. I'll have to dig and scan some pregger photos.  I guess I craved a fall baby for the chance to have spooky birthday parties, or just because I can't get enough of all the colors and smell of burning leaves.  I'm really not sure, but I'm in love with it all.

Tell me, do you have any pumpkin babies? fall weddings? autumn rituals? decorating tips? I would love to hear what fall is like where you call home.

Why do you {heart} Anthropologie?

AA, the new definition= Anthro Addict. 

Are you an Anthropologie girl? If so, I'd love to hear what it is that makes you swoon. 

For me, personally it's so many things.  Starting from the 5 minutes I spend soaking in their window display before entering, to walking in the store and seeing something different each time.  The chic urban feel meets french flea market vibe {blending seamlessly} which makes me feel right at home for some reason. (I guess it helps that I'm right at their target median age )  I love their personal attention (right down to my name written in chalk on the dressing room door).

I was lucky enough to visit the new Rockefeller Center store in New York when we went into the city.  Oh my. 

 

While visiting their website online, I always first click on the "Outfit" button.  I love when things are pulled together for me.  Who has time to sit and think anymore?  Also, my other favorite button is "Sale".  I'm sure you would agree.

 

So what is "it" for you?  Their jaw dropping window displays? Is it their creative store atmosphere and vintage french market vibe? 

Shoes?

  

Jewelry?

Bedding?

Home Collection?

 

I found out recently that they are building a store FIVE minutes from me, in my hometown.  I literally could ride my bike there...make that my french blue vintage bike, the one that pedaled the winding hills in Italy, with an antique horn and basket to boot (one can dream?)  

More importantly, with the new store location so close, will I come out alive and can my wallet handle the 15 year lease they signed?  Do you have a store near you? If so, where?  Come on, tell us Anthro Addict, we are all friends here, why are you hooked? Stand up and state your name for the group...

sideways...

Remember the search for this? 

Well, my 'new must' have was this necklace seen on Taylor, the assistant to Ms. Rachel Zoe.  It's a simple cross that lays sideways.  It struck me as so different and chic. 

As the queen of giant sunglasses would say, "I died. It's bananas"

  

So, once again, I enlisted the help of jewelry designer, Theresa Mink, and I now have the perfect everyday necklace. The allure of this necklace is that throughout my day, while I'm moving around, so does it and the cross appears floating from the middle of my neck to the side of my chest.  Just like I noticed it did on the quirky assistant to diva Zoe while watching the show.  I can't tell you how many people have stopped me and said "omg that's so cool!" 

See how it moves?

Just perfect.  And you can have one too!  Theresa has set up this custom piece in her shop, here, over at Etsy. Mine is gold filled and she also has silver as well.  A perfect everyday piece for any outfit or occasion.  It's "bananas" ladies!  xo - T

my Public Service Announcement

 

Since summer is here, I feel the need to do my own PSA.  Yes.  I was a TANorexic.  The sun was my drug of choice in my teens, 20's, and entering 30's.  I found myself trying to get the beast anyway I could.  Baby oil on blacktop, tin foil on a lawn chair, tanning beds, sticking my head out the sunroof.  SPF?  What was that?

The photo below was taken a few years ago at our vacation house at the beach.  At this point, I was so strung out on the sun...

  

I would usually get a very dark tan (for being *ahem* a natural blonde...you have seen this photo of me when I was 3 to prove my *natural* blondlieness?).  Anyway, I'm Italian and Irish.  Are these two blood lines even suppose to mix?  The Italian side of me gets dark.   However the Irish in me comes out in FRECKLES.  Lots of them.  And then my hair turns a bright white in the summer.  It's an odd combination.  Like a George Hamilton albino?  I've had many terrible sunburns.  Once so badly on a trip home from Disney that I needed airport security and a tram car, with lights and sirens, my feet had swollen up with sun blisters, I couldn't get off the plane. SO embarrassing.

So what snapped me out of it?  Of course it wasn't the threat of skin cancer.  No.  It wasn't the sirens and mini ambulance and humiliation at the airport.  Nope.  It was much deeper than that. 

I woke up one morning and looked into the mirror.  Closely.  It hit me.  Oh my god, I'm a walking, talking raisin face. An irish potato neck.  A sicilian pepper steak.  The wrinkles and sun spots that have wreaked havoc on my skin for years...magically all appeared at once, it seemed.  That was it for me.  I was scared straight.  By my own face.

Today, it's all lotions and potions to try and reverse and stop. (and we all know that's like stopping a speeding train)  I'm happy to say that I've been out of the sun for 2 years now, clean and sober.  My kids tan easily because of their daddy's olive skin.  But I won't let them make the same mistakes I did with the beastly sun.  They are lathered up with sunblock like buttered turkeys before they can leave the house, whether the sun is out or not, doesn't matter.  They whine at me now, but will thank me later.

So my new drug of choice?

Spray tanning myself to death.  I swear by this stuff ladies.  It smells good (most self tanners smell bad) and it gives a nice natural looking tan, not orange.  Best of all, it doesn't cause wrinkles!  Find it here at Sephora.  Happy Summer and don't forget your sunblock! xo ~ T

armed and dangerous

If I see something I like on TV (or anywhere for that matter) I will hunt it down and find it like Dog the Bounty Hunter capturing a fugitive. Busting down doors. Armed and dangerous, screaming into walkie talkies.

So I saw this subtle gold necklace on Bethenny Frankel, queen of the one liners, from Real Houswives of NYC.  I know what you are thinking...how can she watch that crap?  But I already divulged in a post here, which was sort of a mini essay of things I learned on my summer vacation (which included that I'm a Bravo junkie and that my mom will eat paper)  My our secret is out.

Searching high and low and not finding quite what I wanted, I thought.. let me try the greatest place on earth...Etsy.  A quick search and low and behold, a beautiful delicate gold disc necklace popped up from this talented designer.  The necklace is perfect, and handmade beautifully. I really love the size of the gold disc because it's so tiny and fits into the little hollow area of the neck.  Best of all, I didn't need to have a gun, walkie talkies or hair like the lion from the Wizard of Oz to get it.  (all of which are on stand by for future use, just in case)

                      {Extreme close up of almost every freckle the sun has bestowed upon me, courtesy of the laptop killer}

your mama's moo moo

    Do you have a favorite robe or sweater you wear around the house?  Back in the day, they were called "housecoats".  I remember my grandmother's, it was a strange looking moo - moo thing.  Sorry mom, but I think yours was too.  I wonder if my kids will look back and remember mine and think it was hideous?  Regardless, I love it more than oreos and wear it all the time.  And you caught me...because, look... it's gray.  But in my lame self defense, I bought it at Victoria Secret way before the intervention.

 

really old stuff in the clutter room

 

    My love of "really old stuff" {as my kids call it} is on display in the studio.  Limoges, Bavaria, delicate plates, platters and the like sit on a rescued buffet table or a vintage shelf.  My favorite in the "clutter room" {as the laptop killer calls it} is this vintage apron.

 

    I picked it up for a song at an outdoor flea market.  The man who sold it to me said it was old and from France.  Was he just telling me something I wanted to hear to make the sale? Maybe the shirt I was wearing that day was a dead giveaway which said "I buy old french things".  I guess I'll never know

 

    What I do know is that the really old stuff in the clutter room is getting packed away to make room for the most repulsive thing you can imagine:: furniture.  yes.  a couch, chairs, an armoire for a tv and books.  Technically the clutter room is supposed to be a parlor/living room (I say "technically" because that's what it says on the blueprints when we originally built the house..and blueprints are technical I guess)  We have a cozy family room where we gather, why do we need a 2nd?  I'm really not sure myself and what is a parlor anyway?

there's something about mini's

    First up, thank you for the birthday well wishes and personal emails on Friday!  I called the Blog Rag Mag and told them I survived and was no longer in crisis, I'm hoping they print my statement.....

Off to the land of mini's and all things adorable (or ATA for short) ...

    Just like my daughter wanting to be small enough to live at this place... My tiny wish is to meander through this little village and shop for a bit, sit on the bench..eat ice cream and people watch.  I started collecting these little handpainted houses in the early 90's.  As you can see, I didn't get very far with only 3 stores and a lamppost but I'm happy to find after I googled the signed name on the back that they are still being sold on eBay.  If you are interested, the name is "The Dresden Village Collection by Gail Duke".  They are so sweet in person with all the tiny details and adorable 3 dimensional quality, perhaps you love mini's like me and will join me on the tiny bench?  The only thing missing is a little pub for cocktails! 

 

 

the pieces are smaller than a postcard.  perfect!

the quiet, cozy week...

    I love the week between Christmas and New Year's.  In the Frey home, it's a week filled with eating left overs, having cookies for breakfast, leaving toys strewn about, tree lights stay on all day and night.  Those new jammies are worn 24/7 {and the slipper socks too} A lazy week. A "cozy go nowhere" week, as we say in Frey speak.  It's a week when it's okay if people pop in on us and I'm not horrified if they see the mess and debris, because, well, there's been an explosion and everyone knows it. No need to explain.  The same explosion happened in their homes too.

    Ok, wow! I'm so excited about the little Knitlaces.  You guys rock.  Seriously.  Thank you so much. If you ordered one, it was shipped on Saturday.  I had little helpers {my own personal elves}. I'll be busy knitting during this quiet week, to fill up the shop again, and thinking of you.  I wish you all peace and happiness in the new year and hope all your dreams come true.  ~xo

A few of my favorite things right now {while wearing the jammies above} during this quiet cozy week:

:: listening to music made by little fingers exploring a new guitar ::

 

:: the glow of the village at night  :: 

:: loving the winter light in our backyard ::

 

:: and of course, knitting out loud ::

ps:  Santa was very good to me and must read my blog...these photos were taken with my very own Nikon D80 .  More on that in another post!

Canon vs. Nikon...

    

    Yesterday I had a bunch of photos to take for the book's chapter openers.  Ah yes the book.  I haven't talked about it for a while, but I hope to spill all of the beans soon.  I can't tell you how hard it is to have something be SUCH a part of your life for so many months, countless days and hours, and not being able to share with you, my friends.  ugh!  I want to tell you about the super cool working title, the content that we will all enjoy {and learn from}, doing the photography, and write about my fabulous team and "editoress" extraordinare, etc...  Some of you already know the details, but it's still hard keeping this all in. soon. soon. I hope to share with all of you rock star bloggers.  I can only take so much of this...  I'm not a good secret keeper. 

    So I was staging and propping all day.  I really love taking photos and this was a great challenge and opportunity.  I had a chance to experiment with a Nikon D80 during the shoot.  I think I'm in love.  Or maybe it's just a crush? Either way, I would love to know your thoughts on Canon vs. Nikon.  I am currently a Canon SLR girl, but using the Nikon made me just gush with excitement and really act , well.,..giddy.  He's such a strong sturdy lad, handsome too and very friendly.  So which do you have?  Canon or Nikon?  feel free to brag about your own crush and why you love him.

    help...since Christmas is around the corner and this lovestruck puppy could still write it on her list.

come stay at our Christmas village...

    My husband has a collection of a Christmas village town that has grown over the years. {possibly into a city with it's own zip code?}  Our daughter and him set it up every year on the cozy dining room sill. 

    It's so cute to hear her say every year without fail,  "I wish I was tiny enough to go inside one of these"  I hope it's a memory she carries into adulthood..remembering setting up the magical Christmas village with her daddy. Special time, just her and him.

Come visit us for a while in this lovely Christmas town...

   

First check in at the Oxford Hotel...

  

Hungry?  Yes.  You must be starving.  Let's grab some Italian:

   

I know we all love to read, so let's hit the library!

 

How about a movie at the local theater...

 

Fresh flowers would be nice in your hotel room, my treat...

 

 

Antiques anyone?

   

It's time for some sweets, let's stop in at the bakery...

 

hold on to your pastries, the village raccoons are on the loose!...

  

Let's try our luck at the slot machines in the casino...

   

here is the house I would live in if I were small enough...

 

Drinks are on me at the local pub, you must be tired by now...

 

Hope you enjoyed your visit to our Christmas village, come back and stay anytime~xo