Travel > amy a la mode

Breakfast Still Lifes with Color Palettes

Posted by Amy on March 22nd, 2012

We had breakfast two mornings at a place in Kapa’a called Kountry Kitchen. Delicious pancakes, and even more fun decor.

And a beautiful bowl of fresh, local papaya, banana, and pineapple.

Pineapple Teaser

Posted by Amy on March 21st, 2012

My friends, we had a FABULOUS time in Kauai. We hiked, we ate, we snorkeled, we ate, we browsed, we ate, I knit (but just a little), we ate.

While I’m parsing through all the photos from the trip, I wanted to go ahead and post something for you to whet your appetite, so to speak.

I have never seen fabric pineapples like these before. They were being sold in a gallery in Koloa called The Koa Store. They look like a bunch of little prairie points assembled together.

This one caught my eye — it’s made from one of my favorite Fresh Cut fabrics from Heather Bailey!

And there were life-size versions as well that I nearly missed!

I did have permission to photograph these from the woman working there. Aren’t they stunning? Click on the photos to go over to Flickr where you can see super enlarged versions.

Coming up…stunning scenery, fun details, gorgeous color, and shop tours!!

My husband and I just took a very long weekend and spent three nights in Cambria, on California’s central coast. We rented a house all to ourselves, relaxed, went for long walks along the bluffs and beaches, did some Christmas shopping, ate some fabulous food, and did some antique shopping.

We managed to find four new additions to our vintage McCoy pottery collection. We had never seen three of these before (the ones on the right). We have a pot just like the bulb bowl on the left, but it’s taller. We had no idea this short version even existed!

It was really unbelievable that we found this many. A bit much on the pocketbook to buy them all in one weekend, but I just couldn’t bear to pass them up! We collect any pattern of McCoy, as long as it is this color (okay, we do have a few pieces in other colors, when the mood strikes!).

But I was so busy relaxing most of the weekend that I failed to take any photos of us or the beach or the town. Though I did find some beautiful quilts that I photographed and hope to show you soon!

Too Hot to Sew

Posted by Amy on July 4th, 2011

Since last you heard from me I have been either 1) working at the shop or 2) too hot to sew. This is when I really appreciate air conditioning. When I’m hot and sweating I just do not have any patience for things like screwed up tension on my machine.

I did manage to cut out two skirts last week, and I have started sewing the Lisette one — the one I did the muslin for last week. But that’s it. It has otherwise been too damn hot.

And the heat reminds me of the trips to India I made back in 2005, so I thought I’d leave you with a photo from that trip, having recently retrieved all my old photos from my backup drive and put them on my new souped-up hard drive.

This was from the third trip, when my husband went along and we took a vacation to Kerala after my business trip was done. We stayed at the Coconut Lagoon. The photo is from a motorized canoe trip on the backwaters of Lake Vembanad. So beautiful.

Oh, and Happy 4th of July to everyone in the United States!

Provincetown, Massachusetts

Posted by Amy on July 1st, 2011

I had a fabulous time in Provincetown, MA, this past weekend with some of my dear college friends. There are eight of us that have been trying to get together annually from all over the country. This year only three of us made it for the entire event, and a fourth who made it for the first two days. But we’ll take what we can get!

It poured rain for two days, but the sun did eventually come out. Our back deck led directly onto the beach.

I immediately thought of all of you when I saw the inside of our beach house. Every nook and cranny held a treasure.

When the sun finally came out we decided for a long walk out to a lighthouse. Not until we got back and looked it up did we realize that we had gone over 6 miles, including 2.25 miles over a huge rock dike that we didn’t know was part of the plan we had in mind. We didn’t make it to the lighthouse, but we did great considering I was wearing a dress and sandals and one of my friends was in flip-flops. We had no idea about the dike!