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I've completely dismantled my entire craftroom in hopes of a bionic rebuild but it's too hard. I've made the difficult decision to toss it all over to pursue my DDR career.
for those of you naysayers who think I don't have what it takes. do you know how hard it is to get a perfect through the viewfinder of a camera?!
Thanks so much to those of you who left comments on my last post! I'm excited but also terrified of this undertaking and it was really bolstering to read through the suggestions and encouragements. I'm feeling very ready to start tackling all the decisions that need to be made. Time to get organized and dig in! Which of course means first I need to completely overhaul my craft room and redo my site design. Right? My craft room is a scary pit of disorganization & chaos and is in desperate need of a facelift. I want to feel happy and peaceful and creative in there instead of completed stressed and freaked out the second I step over the baby gate. (which of course the "baby" can just tear down whenever he wants. false sense of security.) To this end I snapped up one of Alicia's ethereal cagelets last week. Miss Lemoncello is the picture of serenity and cute and she's going to guide me through this messy process of reorganization. Or maybe I'll just add her to the mess and call it a day. We'll see how my quest for new perfect shelves goes. Anyway, here she is hanging out in her temporary home, the kitchen.
and even though I photoshopped it rosy it still doesn't do it justice - here's alicia's photo.
As far as site redesign, I'm campaigning for a giant kitty head but I don't think Tim is on board with my vision.
I've decided to go ahead and make up a pattern book of my original stuffed toy & doll designs. I've always been hesitant to take this on because it means so much work. But sometimes big ambitious projects are the best things to keep you going. And besides it will be fun work! This will give me the chance to work on some new designs that have been floating around in my head as well as make new versions of some of my old favorites. And I get very excited dreaming about all the fun new photo shoots! I was thinking it'd be super cool to print up a set of cards for sale from the toys in the book. Delusions of grandeur? maybe* I'm hoping saying it aloud here will keep me on task. I can post about my progress and exhibit the new toys as they emerge and maybe piss and moan a little. That's what this blog has always been about - self motivation. Now I just need to decide which patterns to include.
*This week was Oscar's first week at this magical thing called 'playschool'. You drop off your kid in this room full of every toy imaginable with warm friendly teachers and a pile of cute kids and then you leave. go home. all by yourself. and then you pick them up an hour and a half later. we're doing this twice a week so it's really (with travel time) only an extra 2 hours of Oscar-free time a week but man, I can get a lot done in an hour!
The past few evenings have been spent sitting on the sofa watching netflix and playing with my new Christmas presents. Thanks Tim for the mastercarve blocks and the spring colored stamp pads.
It's a little canvas bag/dish for stuff.
I couldn't take it any longer. I had to put aside my must-do-now projects and take some time to make myself a stuffed. I finally got back to the big footed bunny design I've been wanting for over a year to redo. I'm very happy with this bunny girl. She's huggable and floppy. And look she has poms! (thanks Patricia!) Peekaboo -- Tim named her and I think his Olympic fever is showing -- came together very easily but her outfit was another story. There's a very pretty handsewn and embroidered dress that just didn't quite fit/work sitting in the garbage. I was too worn out to start over so I took a short cut and cut a dress from my felted sweater stash. no hems, no finishing and very warm - perfect for January.
here she is sledding in our new sticky snow
inside warming up with some tea
and here she is taking a snooze and all bundled up.
We picked up this dollhouse and all the contents at a rummage sale for 9 bones. Now I need to figure out what to do with it. Oscar likes it ok. He'll plop down in front of it and jam all the furniture into one room or drive a car through the windows and doors but I don't know if his lukewarm interest warrants keeping it out for him. I think maybe instead I should refurnish to my liking and build a little shelf for it in my room. It came with quite a hodgepodge of stuff. I don't think any of it is original to the house. Did anybody have this dollhouse as a kid? Any ideas how to proceed? It's by Lundby of Sweden and a quick ebay search makes me think 1970s decor is in order.
it came with a lot of this plastic molded 40s/50s furniture. more here.
and some fisher price furniture
and quite a bit of lawn furniture. I put this chaise in my craft room for relaxing.
and these are the only 2 people it came with... giant 50s newpaper holding? man and teeny tiny bowl holding peasant woman.
I've been holding out on you. I've been waiting for just the right amount of sun (sunny but not too sunny) to take this picture. And well, that day isn't coming so it's just going to have to be today. I wanted to share one of the most wonderful presents I've ever received, a small quilt from Angry Amy Chicken. I love it so much I can't even say. It warms my cockles. It's so good I want to unframe it and eat it. I may divorce Tim and marry it. Well, no I guess I'll keep him around because to me those chickens are Daddy and little Oscar. That's why I hung it in Oscar's room. Plus it looks so good against the gossamer blue wall I can't even take it.
I could wax on and on about how dear and wonderful and important Amy is to me but I'll spare you our secret love and just say thank you. Thank You Amy !!
More of my birthday loot, another Chiri & Chiriri book. Yesasia says the title is chiri to chiriri machi no ohanashi. (ISBN4-7520-0318-X) This one is just as beautiful as before and is even more exciting because it involves trips to the craft shop to pick out yarn, the weavers studio to have scarves made and then they finally end up at some magical secret garden full of beautiful bird friends!
I gave that quilted necklace idea another try and I'm really happy with this one. I used some of my new favorite fabric that Stephanie sent me. It lays nice and flat and is sort of weighted down by the corduroy layers. The only problem is when I bend over (which I do ever 2 minutes to pick up some toy or another) it flops into my face. Maybe if I had a more straight up and down sort of life.
closer here
