Ina Grau

I'm practically speechless, but I think I can muster a few words about the most beautiful new handmade shoes a girl could ever ask for. Crystal Quinn and Luisa Fernanda Garcia Gomez started making shoes together last year under the name Ina Grau. It's pretty remarkable to realize how much they learned during that time and I loved being able to see their progress during their open house earlier this summer. It was at the open house that I spotted a sample pair of the shoes pictured here (in gold), and also how I came to be their first customer.

These beauties have a custom laser-cut leather sole, just the right amount of character in just the right place. The interior and heels are red with a tiny peek of black stars, and the tassels pay tribute to the original gold pair that I fell in love with. Every detail is considered and the craftsmanship is beautiful. The shape is so sophisticated, I love how high they come up and the slightly pointed toe. Haven't you always wanted to know someone that can make you a custom pair of shoes?

Stocking Up

I was working on some new hat designs over the weekend when I remembered that I needed to find a home for this hot pink pom pom. My design process is pretty unofficial when it comes to these things, I usually just take a few minutes to think as hard as I can and try to visualize the hat I want to make. In this instance, I could only imagine this pom pom with yellow and black, and so that's what I did.

Cheeto Composition

I've been working on a series of special sweaters to send to Julia's store, Dagmar Rousset, in Australia. This is one of the styles, very back-to-school, don't you think? The series consists of six different styles and will only be available through her shop. If you live in Melbourne, your day is coming soon. I'll be sure to make a post when everything is available!

Hanging On

The last few weeks have been hot and stressful. Our non-AC studio is basically as hot inside as it is outside, and during a special time in the early evening it feels even hotter in here than out there. I have been very grumbly during this time. It's just too hot. I want to abandon my work and go to the movie theater but I can't, there's too much to do. Yesterday, I shipped off 23 sweaters and today I will ship off 5 more. I really like this pom pom though, it reminds me of Oscar the Grouch, just like me.

Sweater Barricade

I went to a psychic reading over lunch today and Judith seemed to know that a big change is coming. All of my cards seemed to revolve around this big thing happening in October. And there is in fact something happening, which is that we are moving to New York. Yes, it's true, we put our notice in on our apartment yesterday and are planning to move by October 1st. I will continue to fill this place up with sweaters while I still have the room (and this awesome BluDot table) and then get rid of everything when fall comes on. There will definitely be another sale, and this time everything really must go! I feel like I can't take my foot off the gas and everything is great.

New Glasses

I started out the summer determined to wear contact lenses every day. Even after diligent daily wear, I still couldn't get down with them and was a little too happy to find out that my old tortoise frames had not made it through a lens upgrade at my regular glasses shop (they snapped right in half). Because of the mishap, I had to pick out a new pair of frames right away to at least be able to wear at night after I take my contacts out. I was open to the idea of finding something just to hold me over and reserved hope that I would find something I loved as much as my last pair. After searching through all of the vintage options a number of times, I finally settled on these, a delicate wire frame with a thin, black, plastic casing around the lenses. I was uncertain right away but am very happy now that I've gotten used to them over the past few weeks. They are very light-weight and almost function like goggles which is especially useful while I'm knitting. I said good-bye to my contact lenses.

Waves of Joy

I was so inspired when I rode my bike up to this wall last week. Eric and Aaron were finishing up after a few days of work and I felt so happy just staring at it. It's located on the west wall of my favorite coffee shop, the place where I nurtured relationships with many of my closest friends and spent hours reading books and playing Scrabble during college. The colors, texture, and scale are so much more impressive in real life, and coming around a corner to see these colors entering your field of vision is pretty magical. I learned what the "golden hour" is over the weekend and am already planning a photo-shoot in front of this wall for later this summer. If you live in Minneapolis, stop off to see it sometime (it's at Caffetto), you will love it too.