Wee Wonderfuls

Yes we are!

So we did make it to Ikea yesterday after all. We even had energy to stop into Blick which we never do. I found a little doggie tag there in with the scrapbooking items I'll have to finish that fellow up tonight. At Ikea I found this tiny little squirrel. He wanted to come home and live with us. As did a new duvet cover, a blanket, some curtains, some towels, a woven basket... All this new stuff has got me inspired to do some Autumnal redecorating. I've set a course for recovering every fabric surface in here - pillows, ottoman, wallhangings and this old ikea chair that is way too blue.

But now it's time to get ready to go to Renegade. woohoo!

what's the story morning glory

The ribbons I ordered arrived yesterday. With these and the new fabric & buttons I bought last night, projects are swirling in my head. I finished up a little stuffed dog but he needs a collar still. Maybe if I figure it out today I'll post this afternoon. I started Bobbi Bear last night with some thick and quick. I really wanted to start a felted llama but my lys let me down. That place was a mad house too! Knitters coming out of the woodwork. I fondled the new Rowan book a bit and many beautiful fall yarns but was a good girl and left empty handed.

Here's an interesting article in the New City about DIY culture. (but btw, refinishing hardwood floors is not easy!) Here are some cool graffiti-tag needlepoint pillows from this month's Elle. A new show I want to check out but am I ever going to catch it? Is it even any good? And lastly, a little George Lakoff. This I know is good!

We're contemplating a trip to Ikea today. Such a pilgrimage. Are we up for it?

Fowl Bag

Guess I'm stuck in a quilted bag rut. I made another one. I bought some scraps of kimono fabric off ebay a while ago, geez, come to think of it, 4 years ago. The aughts are just flying by! So I finally found a project for one of the scraps. I cut around the flower design and appliqued it to front of the bag. This funny fowl print was unearthed from a thrifted top in the basement. Turkeys, quails, pheasants, ducks? Not sure what all is going on here. My birder parents would be disappointed in me. The fowl shirt was a small sleeveless buttondown shirt so I wasn't able to get enough fabric from it to make a shoulder bag so this is more of a handbag. Just the right size for a book and smokes. Perfect if I still read novels or smoked cigs. I like making these bags so much because they use a variety of fabrics and as items from my stash get sewn up I feel justified searching for more more more! I've got another stack of fabrics set for my next bag project, but no quilting this time. I'm going to try something reversible. I hope it turns out as cute as I'm imagining it.

Turn up the AC!

Time for a Fall sweater photo shoot. I finally finished George last night! Of course I was sewing up the final edge as Tim was putting Oscar to bed so I had to wait til this morning to see how it fit. It was worth the wait, he's adorable in it! Oh where is this Fall they've been talking about? Time to sweater up the boy!

I was so excited to knit this sweater because it was out of my new favorite baby knits book by Jaeger. I used Jo Sharp Soho Summer in Umber which was a great yarn to work with. The pattern was easy to follow it just took forever. Most likely because I've been so distracted by other projects but also it was one of those patterns that never ends. Those huge raglan sleeves and then when you think you're done because the major portions are finished there's seaming the whole thing and that collar in the cable and rib and then the pockets! And then sewing on the pockets! And then, well then it's done! Hooray!

Happy Happy Japan!

Can anyone in Japan ever get depressed? Not with pastries like this chocolate filled panda! I was super down on myself yesterday after seeing these adorable creatures that Rosa linked to. They are so perfect! The exact little animals that I was aspiring to create. And there they are better and cuter than I will ever make. After boohoo'ing all morning that "I give up!" Tim decided to cheer me up by taking me to our newest discovery, the Mitsuwa Market. Mitsuwa is a cool indoor Japanese mall complete with grocery store, foodcourt and bookstore. I got the tip on craftster. I went last week to see what kind of craft books were to be found. The selection was no Kitty's Oriental Craft Shop but there were a few Ondori books and others that were calling to me. A lot of them were beautiful but just too complicated to be followed by diagram alone, knitting with beads, making macrame bags, etc. I was specifically looking for books on making stuffed toys so I could get some practice following 3D patterns and then hopefully I could create my own eventually. I found 2 that were pretty good. They really didn't have much to choose from for stuffed toys. I guess I'll just have to keep checking back for new stock. And in the meantime I can fill my basket with all sorts of goodies!

These are the stuffed toy books...

And these are the Ondori books, the flower one my Mom bought me from Kitty's Shop, the Sashiko one I found at Mitsuwa...

A bunny notebook to keep track of crafty to-dos, some pretty stationary and these sticks.. one with fuzzy and one with a little something. what are these?!

A cutie lunch box and bag and a book for Oscar on an egg's hunt for the perfect outfit! We love an egg in clothes (eggpants).

Bamboo knitting needles for $1.50 each! amazing! I'm not sure if they're nice quality like the Clover ones but for that cheap I couldn't pass.

The trip did the trick and cheered me right up. Now I'm all better and ready to continue on my quest for cute stuffed animals. I'm also feeling very nostalgic. When Tim and I first lived together, our apartment in Chicago was very close to a large Vietnamese neighborhood and we used to dine on delicious pho and shop the asian grocery shops for yummy candy and treats and I'd get my fill on san-x at the giftshops. It was so good to see cubyrop and puffy kitty stickers again.

ok, back to my knitting.. I've got that damn George sweater up against the ropes and begging for mercy.

Weekend Sales: Part Two

The second sale I went to this past weekend was the "Crack of Damn Dawn Baby Sale." I'm not sure that that's the official title but it's how I like to refer to it. It's a big, organized by group, garage sale/flea market/consignment kind of sale of all baby/kids stuff. Toys, clothes, equipment, books, media. You name it. I went this time last year carrying a huge, probably already 8lb Oscar in my belly. It was so hot and crowded and all the women bring laundry baskets to carry their haul around. So cumbersome. But I hit the motherlode. I came home with garbage bags full of onesies, overalls, sweaters, all sorts of cutie baby clothes. So I resigned myself to getting all the way out to Dupage County Fairgrounds by 8am again this year. Again, my friend Karen was my partner in crime. Thank God she loves a sale!

This year the clothes were a bust. The 12/18 month old cast off boys clothes are not so cute. We did find about 5 pairs of good overalls including some excellent kelly green oshkosh cord ones that I think are from the 70s. So I found those, some great big plastic toys on the cheap, a few pairs of shoes I think he's too big for already (how hard should it be to get a baby's foot in a shoe?!).. but the real score were the books! So many great finds!! Including another Gyo Fujikawa book, a board book entitled Babies. So cute! Also Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses Illustrated by Alice & Martin Provenson, a bunch of old Goldenbooks including 2 illustrated by Eloise Wilkins(!) and an awesome Jingle Bells that Tim remembers having as a kid illustrated by Kathleen Daly, Mike Mulligan and his Steamshovel, another Eric Carle book and a copy of Where the Wild Things Are, a neat book I'd never seen before, Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox and A tree is nice illustrated by Janice May Udry

I can't wait til Oscar wants to actually look at books instead of being this Fujikawa baby...

Here are his cute new shoes...

Weekend Sales: Part One

Friday night we headed downtown to this cool crafty sale Depart-Ment..."All things handcrafted. No brand-names. No foreign-assembly. No questionable-ethics." It was a lot of fun. Smaller than I expected but neat stuff. A lot of the same kind of things I've been seeing on crafty sites. There were some cutie sock doggies & monkies, a few monster dolls, unique jewelry, handknits, and very cool purses. My party was very impressed with one vendor, Wilma handmade bags. She made messengers, handbags and wallets out of pretty fabrics and vinyl.

I made one small purchase. I bought this beautiful little felt flower from nFelt. I originally had my eye on one of these but the one I wanted was snapped up so I bought the above flower instead and now I'm so happy with it. So simple and modern and beautiful!

I've been very intrigued by making felt lately. Not the knitting and washing kind of felting but the buying of wool rovings and sharp instruments and doing something to them to create beautiful handmade felt. The results are so cool! It seems like a very difficult project to undertake and definitely one that can't be picked up and put down on a moment's notice. In other words, not Oscar approved. Handmade felt will have to go in the "after kindergarten starts" folder. So until then I'm content to admire other's wonderful felt designs.

The sale definitely whet my appetite for Renegade this weekend. And guess who's going to be there..both nFelt and Supermaggie! :)

If yarn were edible

This would be raspberry mocha almond pancakes with butterscotch sauce and I'd be having them for breakfast. I'd eat them all and lick the plate clean! Yum!

In other knitting news, the yarn for Oscar's George arrived in the mail Friday and it's time to finish that sweater! This is the worst part, the seaming. I always hate that part. So painful. It seems worse on a raglan sweater too. The seams need to be so nice and neat because they're running across the chest for everyone to see! And you can't get the nice even mattress stitch going on an angle. If I was one of those celebrity knitters, like Julia Roberts, this is where I'd call in my assistant.

New Fall Design!

Check out the beautiful new Fall design for the site that my talented husband Tim made for me. So handy having an artist in the family!

Tea Party

Last night I finished up three more of the little round gals I was working on. They are so much fun to make. I love picking out trims to match the fabrics and coming up with embroidery designs for around their faces. Here they are having their morning tea. um.. Esther might have a little cupcake on her face.. no snacking while crafting!