Thrift Score: Washington State Mug

Washington State Mug, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

I moved to Washington back in 1994 when I was twenty-two. But I first heard of Seattle when my dad used to fly there from Western New York for work.

When I was about seven (I think) he brought me little portable sewing kit made of bright orange vinyl (the same color as this mug) that folded closed, and said Seattle in gold lettering. I remember a plane illustration on the front. 

I guess it was my destiny to make my living sewing in Seattle.

Does Three Make a Collection?

Vintage Cookie Jar, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

I've coveted this mushroom cookie jar of my mother's for several years. Last year I mentioned to her that I would like to have it if she ever thought of getting rid of it.

Last Christmas she sent it as an unexpected gift! I'm afraid she's created a mushroom cookie jar monster. Early this spring I bought a harvest gold model up in Bellingham.

Recently, I scored a crazy bright version at Goodwill. I think I officially have a collection.

I still like the one my Mom gave me best. To see more pictures, visit my Flickr page here.

One of My Mom's Paintings

Image copyright Sharon Dwyer Buzard

My mother is a fine artist who specializes in acrylic and watercolor painting. She does portraits, botanical images, and decorative fine arts. My favorites have always been her building paintings, particularly the storefronts.

Recently, she sent me this photo of one of her circa 1980s images to scan and put on a custom checkbook cover. I love the image so much, I thought I'd share it with you here. You can click on the painting to see more detail of the brushwork and fine detail.

The buildings are in Rochester, NY, my hometown.

More Pictures of Dorothy Parker Penguin

Jeff and I dropped off the penguin this afternoon, and it felt great to have the project complete and the send her into the world. Please excuse the rough quality of these pictures. I took them in a hurry at Jeff's shop before delivering the black and white bird.

Although the design I came up with is simple and clean, it took quite a long time to accomplish the effect.

Of course, I had to make her a little patent leather purse to complete the look. (Here's a pic I found on Flickr that shows a bunch of penguins - see if you can find my bird.)

Since I'm a fabric girl, I had to figure out a way to use cloth, while making it rain, sun, and wind-proof. (The penguins will be outside for about a month. The white chest of the penguin is layered in ivory lace, while the body is black polka dot chiffon.

Jeff built a maple base which I decoupaged with sewing pattern paper. You can't quite see the pearlized finish on the pink base in the photo, but it shimmers in person.

Thank you Jeff for helping me with priming, finishing, and designing this penguin. I am a lucky girl to be married to a guy who thinks it's perfectly normal to pull a near all-nighter adhering squares of bias cut chiffon to a plastic toy.

Purple Birthday Bag

My sister chooses a color theme for her annual birthday and the shade this year is purple. She asked for a ruched bag, so I made her a modified Miranda purse.

I cut the wild print from a 1960's era Hawaiian mumu, and added a locket zipper pull (shown above).

Happy Birthday Sister Susannah!

Have a great celebration out there on the other coast. xoxo, Big Sis Laura Bee

They Help the Hounds

Late last year, we made these checkbook covers for Barbara Karant, a Chicago photographer. These majestic dog images are from her book, "Greyhounds."


Karant is selling this book as a fundraiser to help rescued greyhounds in her region. Coincidentally, my sister Susannah worked on the successful campaign to ban greyhound racing in Massachusetts last November. Thanks to both of these women for working to help dogs in need to have better lives.

My Mom's Interior Design

Children's Sculptures, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

These sweet little clay projects are on display in a special nook in a space designed by my mom for a client. The child who made the sculptures is all grown up, but the whimsical pieces will always remain young.

Greek Revival Nook, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Earlier this summer I visited my mom in Rochester, NY. We dropped by several of her interior design clients' homes so that I could take pictures of the spaces she's designed. I've never taken shots like these, so this project was a learning experience.

Vintage Mirror, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Some of my favorite images are shots like this picture of a mirror. I like small detail photos that show the colors and style of the room, but are also quietly mysterious.

Handmade Rug, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

My mom works with several craftspeople who have old world specialties. One of these vendors hand wove this custom rug for a Greek Revival house.

White Curtain, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Since I took all of the pictures using natural light, metering correctly was a real challenge for a novice like me. If I had the correct exposure for the windows, then everything else became dark. So for most of the pictures I overexposed the windows to get detail in the room.

This picture is one exception. I wanted to capture the creamy shadows of this curtain so I let the hallway fade to near black.

Crafty Kids

Photos by Beth Russo

When I was a little kid I was truly lucky to have several wonderful crafters in my life who taught me the joy of making things by hand. From creative babysitters (thanks Heidi!), to weaving teachers at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY I was taught by some wonderful people.

My grandmother and family friend Christine first sat me down in front of a sewing machine, and for that gift I am eternally grateful. I don't know who I'd be today without these formative experience in crafts.

My mother is a fine artist and I'm certain that she emphasized the creative arts in my life because she always found satisfaction and peace when holding a paint brush. Because of these influences, I'm always happy to see others teaching kids to explore making things.

Photos by Beth Russo

A couple of weeks ago Sarah Damianick (above in purple) emailed information about a free beading workshop she led in Ballard on August 9th. The picture above is from the event and I swear, you can see the excitement on those kids faces. The children were from First Place School, and Space to Create donated their studio for the class.

Thanks Sarah for giving these kids the chance to make something beautiful from scratch! Who knows where this experience will take them.

And She's Off

Otis is in love with his Auntie Susannah, my sister. Each morning she stayed with us he'd sniff outside her door until she came out to play with him.

While she was in town, Susannah modeled some bags for our first professional fashion shoot. That's Sandi Heinrich on the right taking pictures at all of the Ballard hot spots. We had quite an adventure faking autumn on a hot August day.

Sandi sent me a quick peek at several of the shots from the photo session. Check out how great this looks! Susannah brought the yellow jacket with her from Boston. Both my sister and the coat are quite photogenic.

Here's another fun image taken by Sandi. Good-bye Susannah. Thanks for visiting!

SuzyBuzz is in the House

My sister is in town from Boston and we're having fun taking pictures and playing with Photoshop.

Wood Road Trip

Fir Log Ends, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Jeff and I took a little one day road trip out to Cle Elum, Washington to look at wood. We visited a small sawmill and learned about the whole process of turning felled trees into lumber. This mill specializes in local trees that have been responsibly cut down.

Forklift Drops Off Slab, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Once we drove over the mountain pass, the climate was very different than the Seattle atmosphere - dry and hot. This is the perfect place to cure wood outside to prepare it for production. The slab of Doug Fir that Jeff bought was four inches thick and so heavy it required a forklift to be loaded onto his van.

Fir Slabs - 4 Inches Thick, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Jeff's loves wood the same way that I love fabric. We have a great time sharing our obsessions and dreaming about all of the things we want to make with our favorite materials.

Happy Independence Day

Blue Pyrex, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

We're off to a potluck cook-out at a friend's house tonight. I hope you're having fun with friends and family today.

Childhood Toys

Back in May when I visited my folks in Rochester, NY, my Dad and I took a little side trip to the Fisher Price Toy Museum in East Aurora, NY. This wooden horse is an example of their earliest toys, which were handmade during the Great Depression. The images were paper lithographs that workers carefully glued to wood shapes.

The company grew despite the grim economy. During WWII, they stopped all manufacture of toys and made supplies for the war effort. In the postwar 1950s, they kick-started toy-making again with made popular gems such as the "Nifty Station Wagon" above. Most of the toys were made in East Aurora till the 1980s when production sadly moved overseas.

This school-house was a 1970s favorite of mine. I can remember playing with all of the little people inside the building as well as on the playground equipment. I loved drawing on the slate door with chalk too and fiddling with the magnetic letters on the roof.

I recognized many of the classic toys in the museum such as the red record player with plastic albums. But my Holy Grail of vintage toys, the Fisher Price Cash Register, was sadly absent from the display.

Happy Father's Day

I'm across the country from my Dad this Father's day, so I thought I'd share some pictures of us here. Above, my dad and me circa 1971. Nice specs Dad!

Family Portrait: We had this picture taken at a fair back when I was in college I think. I'm on the left as Lisa, and my little sis is on the right as Bart. If you know the Buzard clan, you know how perfect these roles are for each of us.

My Dad, as Homer, is definitely an ironic casting. I'm sure Vince Buzard likes donuts, but the similarities stop there.

Throughout my childhood my dad ran his own business, and I'm sure that's what gave me the entrepreneurial bug. His father, Allen Buzard, owned Buzard Brother's Furniture in Sullivan, Indiana for decades, so shopkeeping is in our blood.

Have a great day Dad, and have fun playing golf. I'll be thinking about you.

Better Late Than Never

My sister's birthday is long gone, but I've finally finished her gift. She wanted a new Veronica for summer. (Thanks for your patience Susannah. This bag is shipping out today.)

She requested a print that had all of the colors she wears - pink, red, green, teal, white, yellow. Easy right? Not so. I wanted to find the perfect fabric so I looked through my collection, visited several stores and came up empty-handed. Finally though, a lucky trip to Goodwill a few weeks back yielded this crazy paisley shirt.

Top quality and beautifully made, this shirt was also too wild to wear. I think it works perfectly paired with lime green microsuede and glossy white trim. I can just see my sis tooling around Boston on her bike with this bag.

Since Susannah has an extra-special auntie relationship with Otis, I took this picture of her new bag with the pug.

The Adventures of Grandma Doris

The year before I was born, my Grandma Doris and Grandpa Arthur visited St. Lucia. Above is a photo that Grandma sent me last month when I emailed to ask her a little more about the history of this dress. Always one to pare down and stay organized (I didn't inherit this gene), Grandma sent me the dress a few years back thinking that I could do something with the material.

Doris and Arthur Dwyer circa 1970. Aren't they a dapper couple?

As Mother's Day is close by, I've been thinking about those summer visits to grandma's place in Indiana. On those trips we visited the Children's Museum, attended the Pan Am games, and played with neighbor kids in the back yard. Once Grandma Doris helped me make an elastic-waist skirt with kelly green whales scattered all over the navy fabric. That was one of my first sewing projects.

Here's another custom bag made from the St. Lucia dress from Grandma's trip. I hope that this bag accompanies its owner on surprising, romantic adventures.

Happy Mother's Day week to everyone!

Every Bag Tells a Story: Part Two

Back in 1970 my maternal grandmother traveled to the Caribbean with my grandfather on a romantic adventure. She returned with this hand silkscreened floorlength dress.

More on the adventures of Grandma Doris and the bag we made from this dress later...

Happy Birthday SuzyBuzz

It's my little sister's birthday today. She lives in Boston so I won't be able to attend her yellow-themed birthday shindig. I'm sure it will be loads of banana-colored fun.

Macro Photo Challenge: Image Nineteen

Hammock, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

We hung up our hammock for the first time this year last Saturday because temperatures came close to 80 degrees. Today we had record snow in Seattle. Go figure.