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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

Oh Laundry…

April 3, 2013

...how you overwhelm me. I can't keep up and I need a better system. Do you do laundry every day? Are you keeping up? How do you do it?? I think I would be a lot more motivated to do laundry if my utility room looked like this or this or this instead of like Gollum's natural habitat (a terrifying place, our basement). I have a friend who lived in Manhattan for a spell and she sent out her clothes to a laundry service regularly. "What about your underwear??!" I asked, scandalized. She shrugged ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, illustration, life • by sanae • 8 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

March 29, 2013

Happy Friday! I may be jinxing things to write this, but the server mayhem may be resolved! M tells me that in terms of server space, I've basically gone from hovel/shanty to palatial digs. Nice. Small things: the other day I was browsing through the Elliot Bay Book Company and discovered their little cafe where I decided to hunker down with a cup of au lait and a warm mini-loaf of potato bread. I was feeling a bit blue and under the weather, as it happens in life sometimes, and I wanted to ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, illustration, life • by sanae • 8 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

March 22, 2013

Happy Friday! The other day, as I walked K and her friend S to school in drizzly weather, I listened to their conversation. S: What if it rained food instead of water? K: I would want it to rain ice cream. S: I'd want sushi. What followed was an impassioned discussion about the merits and demerits of the two. I heard words like "sticky", "yummy", "smelly", "melty" and -- inexplicably -- "itchy". ******************************************************************************* The ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, illustration • by sanae • 6 Comments

Have you heard? It’s officially spring…

March 21, 2013

...but I'm not sure if Seattle got the memo. Maybe it's been blown away by the gales of 40mph winds? I would like to wear a kelly green dress and carry a gigantic bouquet of flowers like my watercolor illustration, if weather will permit some day. Yesterday, I had to run some errands in downtown and a little boy about the age of three or four came up to me and handed me a daffodil. A creamy white one with a lemon yellow center. A celebration of the first day of spring. I'd forgotten about ... Read more

Filed in: illustration, life, watercolor • by sanae • 8 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

March 15, 2013

  Happy Friday! Every day, K makes me laugh. I can't possibly record every single utterance, but these were my faves this week: K: I'm so into bugs right now. Me: Oh yeah? K: Yeah, I love books with pictures of bugs with information and all that stuff. Chapter books are so last season ago. ******************************************************************************** K: Mommy, I really want an asteroid. A fluffy one shaped like a ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, illustration, ink, watercolor • by sanae • 4 Comments

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I just realized that this week marks 10 years sinc I just realized that this week marks 10 years since my first craft book Sewing Happiness was published. I’ve sewn literally thousands of garments and other textile projects in the last decade! I included a Sashiko primer in the book, and I’m delighted that this humble Japanese embroidery practice has stood the test of time - if anything, I’ve noticed that there’s an ever growing enthusiasm for hand stitching. Fun news: I’ll be teaching a virtual Sashiko workshop for @tatterbluelibrary on Thursday, April 30th at noon ET. Link in profile! Would love to see you there! 💙💙💙💙💙
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