Wee Wonderfuls

one in ten

Amazingly I've been able to squeeze in some doll making lately. I've got the craft room set up with the baby amusements (bouncy chair, activity mat, swing, etc) and enough projects for Oscar that we can all hang out together happily for a few moments a day. Making some new dolls has been high on my post-move list for quite a while now and after seeing Teresa's brilliant fruit and ice cream dolls I got all itchy and had to jump in on some perfectly round head action.

Ivy here is part of a trio. Imogene, Ivy and Ingrid are going to help me with some Hand Sewing For Fun promotional materials. When Ivy's finished with her duties she'll be off to the winner of the one in ten auction which will take place August 19-24 on ebay. 

closer still

The patterncards are now all set to be sent to the printer! Imogene is very excited. She's picking colors and gathering her supplies... needle, scissors, wool felt (some sources: 1, 2, 3) and embroidery floss.

Hand Sewing For Fun!

Maybe some of you remember me forecasting (back in March) hand sewing patterncards for Spring/Summer? We took photos, wrote out instructions, Tim laid out the patterns, we rustled up an amazing group of testers and got 99% of the way finished and then new house and baby took over. We hadn't had a chance to look at them since. Until today... thanks to Grandma's help with the kiddos we are now 99.9% finished. Butterflies, turtles, birdies and snails are on the horizon!

If you'd like to be notified when they're in the shop you can sign up on the mailing list here.

optimistic

every weekend I think this is the weekend we'll be back on our game and be able to go out garage saling once again. the summer is speeding by and I don't want to miss my favorite part - picking through other people's junk. pre-phoebe we made it out to just a few. so far I've only added one christmas ornament and these beaded trivets to my summer secondhand stash.

working on my correspondence

the hair

the first thing out of anyone's mouth when they meet phoebe is 'the hair!' then they look at me (gray masquerading as blond), then tim (reddish brown), then oscar (blondie) and try to figure it out. our best guess is it's my baby hair. I had dark spikey hair for about 4 months my mom says. then it was all pushed out by light brown curls. it's so hard to imagine phoebe without this dark hair. I just love it so much. there's an outside chance it's my mom's dark hair or tim's grandpa's dark hair but most likely she'll be looking a lot more like part of the family by around 4 months.

phoebe's wooden wonder vanity

and just when I thought I couldn't love phoebe's room any more...this amazing wooden wonder vanity shows up in the mail. it's perfect! thank you sarah! phoebe sends kisses xx

bend-the-rules sewing

Oh how I wish I had the brain power right now to properly gush over Amy's brilliant new book Bend-the-Rules Sewing. It has made me so happy to read glowing book reviews all over blogland and I've been dying for a few quiet minutes to add my praises to the mix and all I can come up with is holy crap it's good! and then I have to get off the computer. How about this... the patterns are so easy to follow that even the parent of a newborn can make a super cute project in one night.

Here's my Swing Swing Smock. I know it's for toddlers but I couldn't resist it so I scanned the pattern and resized it to Phoebe size. The fabric is a thrifted pillowcase and I had no binding on hand so I zig-zag'd under the edges and then added some pink rick rack. It was so easy and turned out so cute!

read all about it: soulemama, not martha, craftzine, purl bee, adorn mag

the flickr group: the flickr group

vw love

Oscar's new favorite shirt that he loves so much he'll wear long sleeves in 95 degrees. by lollopard from Jack + Astrid.

things babies like to look at