Wee Wonderfuls

birding

spotted a couple of birdies in the magnolia tree this morning

thanks for all the nice comments on these new designs. I'm going to work on the patterns for them and put them up for sale in the shop. I was hoping to really kick butt this week and maybe have something together on them to submit for fred flare's call for new designers by the end of the week. but of course the fates had other ideas and I've been down and dizzy with an inner ear infection. hopefully it's on its way out. I'm actually able to sit upright today which is a huge improvement. of course this lost hat almost had me tumbling over the porch railing.

easter in a box

Easter decorating is new to me. Every year I think this is the year I'll really get on board. I eyeball the egg trees and plaster bunnies in outfits and can never quite pull the trigger. I'd love to do a whole vintage Easter Cody Foster, Jennifer Murphy Spring extravaganza but I haven't started any collecting so this year is a bust. I did search in earnest for an Easter egg tree. I wanted something wooden and chunky and Danish and white. Maybe a candelabra? Couldn't find anything. This weekend at Ikea I had my eyes peeled for something that might work and found the varmeljushallare.

I love this box so much I would have bought anything that came in this box. Luckily for me it was something that looked like eggs would fit in it.

Oscar and I dyed up some super bright blown out eggs to put in each of these candle holders. Didn't really like how it looked though. Too much like big fat Christmas bulbs or something. Maybe just too much color. So I'm easing into Easter. I put together this little set up with our new favorite Playmobil bunny playsets, a branch from the backyard with some origami paper blossoms (blossoms idea from this month's martha stewart) and some cut up thrifted placemat (more on this over at thriftcraft). Don't worry Easter bunny -- a few of the eggs are still hanging around.

creeping along

holy hotdogs! (one of the new toddler friendly swears we're trying out) thanks so much for all the HILARIOUS comments on the butterfly. some of the best comments ever! sorry I'm so pokey in posting a big fat thank you but I've been working at, well, a snail's pace over here.

metamorphosis

larva

pupa

butterfly

naked as a jay bird

shelterrific

After the sad news of Budget Living magazine folding, there is some good news  -- an awesome new blog from some of the editors over at BL, Shelterrific.

from their about me page...

"Shelterrific is…
About all things you do in your home, including decorating, eating, cooking, web shopping, crafting and fixer-upping.

A filter to help you find the best voices, shops, products and on-line services for your home.

A community, where you can ask questions of fellow homebodies, and share your own tips and ideas.

An extreme work in progress. We’re self-taught bloggers, so please bear with us as we explore all of our tech capabilities."

Sounds good to me! Already I'm hooked. Cheap, easy, Ikea - those are all my requirements. I have to do this great mirror trick. And look they're crafty too. I'm always in awe of beaded knitting.

and best yet, my easter decorating dilemna solved - the eggling!

stay where you are sky

Things have been a little bit up in the air around here lately. I've been trying to make some tough decisions and I think, with the help of Alicia's goldilocks theory, I've finally got things settled in my mind. (speaking of goldilocks - cute!) Trying to decide what's the right size/fit for me right now is super tough. Hopefully the decisions I've made are truly 'right fit' decisions and not 'ruin your life and regret it forever decisions'. I think I'm on the right track though because the immediate result of these tough calls is that I had a free unfettered weekend to work on stuff I've been wanting to work on for quite some time and that just felt wonderful. Tim is, I'm sure, cringing at that unfettered bit because he spent the weekend doing our horrible painful taxes while I just threw out little encouragements from the craft room. ("you'll figure it out honey", "we can always move in with my parents if we had to", "why don't you take a break and go get us coffees")  Hopefully this little gal will cheer him up. He got quite a giggle out of her nekkid-except-for-pointy-hat stage last night.

I was able to dig back into all my inspiration books and revisit things I've been dying to work on for months. This little chicky was inspired by a bit of a japanese childrens book illustration I've had on my boards forever. I also started to make a dent in the work for the first volume of pattern booklets.

Hopefully chicken licken is indeed wrong and the sky isn't actually falling.

that's about all they're good for

I let Oscar play with my plastic set of crochet hooks while I tried to work on a project from my new Happy Hooker book. Clever boy set them up as track for his train which is about the most productive use for a crochet hook this house is going to see. I'm at best a novice crocheter but of course I jumped right into the deep end and tried to make one of Camilla's wonderful creatures from the book. I thought it was going well at first but it just kept getting smaller and smaller and tighter and tighter. Is it supposed to take about 30 seconds per stitch? And are you supposed to be struggling and jamming to get the hook under the right loop? I don't think crochet is for me. I am very proud of myself though, the book wasn't hurled across the room but rather tucked away in a closed bookcase where it can't ridicule me for a while. I think I may have my crafters rage syndrome under control.

want to settle a little bet?

** update: alright! enough! I'm wrong. stop rubbing it in. and wow. I didn't realize there were that many October blog babies. My theory was backtack 2. That was so huge and I thought maybe everyone started their blog so they could post their stuff. Tim's at work doing his happy dance. It is all one big damn coincidence after all. **

ok, I was noticing last night that a lot of the newer crafty blogs all started in October. or around there, September, November. what's up? Tim and I were debating this. He thinks there is no reason just the boom in blog popularity. I think it's got to be more than a coincidence and I have a theory. If you're out there and have a crafty blog started around this time can you leave a comment as to why you started blogging when you did? and if you know of someone who did can you please send them over?

I've got my fingers crossed that I'm right and can do my ha ha happy dance all over Tim when he gets home. I'm hoping this turns the tide around here. I've been way more wrong than right these days. Who knew there were two fancy fondue restaurants in Chicago. geesh.

ruffle that!

I'm loving my to-do list today. It's all nice and scratched out. My list has been a formidable challenge for me lately. I've been very fortunate and was asked to contribute projects to three different books - a modern quilt design book, a softies book and a general craft book. I've been working on these projects on and off for months and today I'm a few photographs shy of being All Done! All Done! In reality this just gives me a brief moment to breathe in before I jump on to the rest of my list but I'm very happy to have that moment. I thought I'd take the opportunity to ruffle it up. I made a ruffled carrysmall from some of my newly thrifted fabric. I'm happy with it but it still needs a lining and maybe a ruffle on the back too. And I need one of those rufflers. Manual ruffling is for the birds.