Wee Wonderfuls

crazy = cool

man I'm predictable. every year I go through a scour-ebay-for-crazy-vintage-ornaments phase. the next phase will be the I-need-every-wooden-german-christmas-ornament-ever-made phase. I'm enjoying phase 1 immensely this year.

and Sarah is suffering from a similar affliction too it seems! check out her egg carton ornaments. awesome! can't wait to see what she does next. maybe pinecone elves? wishful thinking.

I'm setting aside 2 "sugarplums" jingle wee ornaments for trade. if anyone has any crazy/cute vintage ornaments they'd like to swap shoot me an email (hillarylang at gmail).

and speaking of vintage ornaments,  Alexia's put up some shiny brites for sale!  I got mine :)

glitter

The decking of the halls has begun and once again I'm suffering from a Christmas identity crisis. I'm torn between my two christmas selves - the clean, simple, modern, scandinavian, folky christmas and the glittery, vintage, bottle brush, shiny brite, powderpuff christmas. Tim has put in a request for more glitter and sparkle this year so I think that side may win out. Last year was lacking with our fabric garland, no ornaments and not enough lights on the tree so this year everything is getting a dusting of glitter. I went to Michaels yesterday and bought up all the sparkle, glitter and flocking I could find.

I've already started up with the glitter glue. I popped popcorn to string for the kitchen tree and then started bedazzled batches of it in glitter glue. I didn't get too far before I realized I wasn't really feeling it. It looks cool but I want to come up with something more fun for the kitchen tree garland.

I stocked up on these odd but extremely appealing glittery plastic stems.

and on the flip side (no glitter): another Michaels find... birch trees!

and a little more folky, the ski lift has been installed in the bedroom

now to hang streamers and balloons. a little bit of christmas then a little bit of birthday.

update on for sale stuff: ornaments and cards are up in the store, I was promising patchwork robots but I think I'll cut myself a break by taking those out of the picture. The patchwork set dolls and their quilts will be up for sale later this week.

Jingle Wee Ornaments for sale

The jingle wee ornaments are done! Original hand stamped fabrics, embroidered faces, jingle bells on top and scented in festive holiday smells. Three styles to choose from:

"sledding party" stamped with skis, sleds, skates, mittens, hats and hot cocoa and they smell like chocolate

"sugarplums" stamped with gingerbread fellows, gumdrops and hard candies and smells like orange cinnamon

"starry night" stamped with all manner of dots and stars and smells like winter pine

They're all for sale for $15 each at the Wee Wonderfuls store.

gearing up

Just two days away from Thanksgiving being over and Christmas officially beginning in our house. Already Christmas bells are ringing...in my head. in a manic ding! don't forget this! ... ding! who's going to do that?... ding! what about those? sort of way. I'm a few online orders away from being a much calmer person. It's so hard with Oscar's birthday right before Christmas. I feel like I'm just doing everything half assed. The most I've done for Oscar's birthday, which is only a week away, is buy paper plates. Oh well, I'm thinking keep it low-key as long as I can get away with it. Doesn't take much to make a 2 year old's day. As it is I think our goals will be met -- by December 26th every single toddler toy every made should be living in our house. On a more chipper, less buy-it-all, Christmas note I've already started decorating. Like Amy (so pretty!), I've dug out the glittery fake snow and am setting up scenes. What I'm really excited about this year is my new kitchen Christmas tree. Yes, I realize I'm taking a step down the slippery slope that leads to a house full of theme trees. I am a few short years away from being featured on Extreme Homes the Christmas edition (oops link fixed) and when they ask what started it all, I can point blame at these extremely painfully cute kitchen ornaments by Midwest of Canon Falls.

Really I had no choice.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I'll be working on wee ornaments between courses so hopefully they'll be up for sale next week. Also in time for Christmas present buying, patchwork robots and the Patchwork Set dolls and quilts will be for sale in the wee wonderfuls shop!

gobble gobble

chip chip

I've been chipping away at a tedious list today (call about car insurance, figure out health insurance bills, call amvets, you get the idea) and really all I want to do is play with clay...

moon clock

and set up christmas stuff. I have lots of things to show and tell and chit chat about but it's 4:30 and dark, I forgot to take any pics and my tedious list is calling. tomorrow hopefully...

Christmasbot cards for sale!

Santa came early this year. Ok, it was the printer actually who was early, but here they are...the Christmasbot cards! I'm so excited about them. They turned out great! I'm a sucker for a retro Christmas and these are retro fantastic! They're 5" x 7" postcards on recycled matte cardstock. I like to imagine they're actual cardboard covers off of old 50s tin robot boxes. On the flip side, a very modern holiday message.

8 postcards + 8 red envelopes will set you back $12 ($14 international). Head over to the shop (now with new international buttons!) to snap them up.

I miss the leaves

It's just been a week or so since they all blew away but I'm already feeling the sting. This unused photo from one of Suki's photo shoots cheers me up a bit. She's collecting leaves.

Thanks for all the super nice comments about the Snowbabies. And especially thanks for even thinking I could knit those tights! I still feel like I have unfinished business with these girls. I was literally snapping photos of them and them packing them up in the box for Australia. They need a photo shoot of their own. Show off all their skills at Winter sports. Maybe taking in some holiday splendor. I'm going to opt out of having them for sale at Morphe so they can come home to me and I can play with them a while longer.

And while I'm thanking I've really wanted to thank everyone who has bought Patchwork Set cards. Everyone is being so nice and cool and I am really really touched by the warm response. Thank you!!

So, ok, no more leaves but at least that means it's ok now to be thinking Christmas. I had to dig through the ornament boxes to find that fake cotton snow stuff I used yesterday in the pics and now I'm really excited. Day after O's birthday (actually Tim is vetoing this as I type - may be sooner) it's hall decking time around here. A few people may have been pointing out how I went a little crazy last year. Well I say... crazy like a fox! Now that I have all those snowflakes cut out all I have to do is untangle and hang up right. Easy as pie. yeah, right. Maybe we'll be a little less ambitious this year.

The Snowbabies

(l-r) Tatiana, Sasha, Katia and Natasha

These are the dolls that are headed to Adelaide Australia for the Morphe show. I suspect they'll be a little overdressed but they're excited to head south. Well at least I'm excited. I can't believe I finally finished them. It was all the knitting that was killing me. I knit in one speed only, pokey.  4 little sweaters and 4 little hats later I'm pooped. I'm trying to think of cute funny things to write but all I can think about are celebratory brownies and a messy messy house to pick up. So here are one million pictures to show what trouble I've been up to lately.

impatient

I don't know what it is about present-buying month, as December is referred to around here, that makes me so impatient. Oscar's birthday and Christmas are right around the corner and we've started buying up every toy in town but we(I) can never wait for present opening days. I need to stash the presents in the basement or the trunk of the car to keep myself from them. Same impulse control I had when I was 10 years old secretly unwrapping hidden xmas presents in my mom's closet. We discovered Oscar likes to pour tea after he latched on to the props for Henny's card and so we had to jump at this tea set at Land of Nod, the only non-girly tea set I've been able to find. Kanga couldn't wait til O's birthday for his cuppa.

ok, time to pick up my knitting and make Oscar's breakfast. You'd be amazed at what I'm now able to do while knitting. in deadline news -- I'm one sweater sleeve, three sweater assemblies, one pom pom, half a head of hair, 3 faces and 3 pairs of shoes away from being a very happy person.

delusions of grandeur

Well, we've sent the Christmasbot cards off to the printer! They'll be available (if all goes well) for sale  the day after Thanksgiving. I'm really excited about them, 5 x 7 postcards on recycled cardstock with "re-entry red" envelopes. This will be a much shorter run than the Patchwork Set cards. We're crazy but not that crazy. Actually what makes us order cards to sell right after we've put up cards for sale the week before? I think it's the lure of the assundries. We get all geeked out by plastic sleeves and mailers and labels. Just another excuse to go to the office supply warehouse. woo! Or maybe it's just more of the premature Christmas mania!

Here's a sneak peek at the back...