Wee Wonderfuls

helena

all night flea market

good times, but next year we need to remember to go before it gets dark! oh, and bring more than $20.

Kit, Chloe & Louise pattern testers - thank you!

**updated**

Okay, I think I'm all set! I've got about 30 emails from volunteers to go through. I'm going to chose 6 people, two for each doll. My computer time is up for now so I'm going to have to email everyone later this afternoon or this evening. If you volunteered, thanks so much!! I really really appreciate it!

I'm beginning to think if I ever finish this pattern for Kit, Chloe and Louise it will be a miracle. It's got the pokey project dragging on disease. But I am getting close! I'm at the looking for my guinea pigs stage. Anyone game? If so...

Please email me (don't leave a comment) at hillarylang at gmail.com and let me know
- your availability
- your sewing experience level
- if you've sewn a w.w. pattern before
- which doll you'd like to make
- and lastly, if you have supplies for this first stage -- doll bodies and hair -- on hand. supplies are quilters cotton in the doll body color you like and yarn for the hair... preferably the suggested yarn Brown Sheep's Lambs Pride worsted weight.

thanks dudes!

what the flock is flitter

We're a tactile family. Oscar's a smacker and a squeezer. Phoebe's a hugger and a slobberer. Tim and I are hardly any better. None of us can walk through a store without touching everything. It's a wonder we're not sick more often. Phoebe's favorite books are her ones with fuzzy bunnies you can pet or crusty glittered princess dresses that can be picked at. So when I had a gaggle of girl birthdays this Summer I thought it would be fun to make box purses with furry flocked designs on them. I hunted down Amy's post on the Enid Collins-esque bag she made and then went to Michaels in search of the same supplies. After googling flocking I found this great online shop, Hobby & Craft Flocking, where you can buy the adhesive paint (just acrylic paint I discovered after ordering), flocking fibers and the supplies you need to flock something. How about that!

Since this was a new experimental craft medium for me so of course I bungled 2 of the beautifully sanded & stained boxes Tim prepped for me. But 2 survived, my niece Maggie's which I don't think I even snapped a photo of and Phoebe's.

I'm not so sure the box bag was the right medium for flocking. I struggled with finding colors that worked against the wood background and also with the scale of the design. But I love the actual flocking. I'm very excited to flock all sorts of projects. I have paint your own matroyska dolls that would be amazing flocked. And I'm dying to try flocked doll hair on a cloth doll! And all the holiday flocking possibilities make my head spin.

The flocking itself went pretty smoothly I thought, especially for a first time flocker like myself. The how-to's on the site were pretty straightforward. I bought this mini flocker and it worked out really well. But definitely get the masks because it kinda goes everywhere. You wouldn't want to do it with your kids around or if you had any problems with teeny tiny dusty particles everywhere.

Oh and flitter, flocking fibers and glitter mixed together! I tried that but wasn't too keen on it against the wood. I'm sure it'd be great for other projects though.

ribboned dolls

I managed to tear myself off ravelry last night long enough to finish up this little gal. I want to add some dolls to the shop this Fall and have been working on some ideas. I'd had this ribbon bordered doll idea brewing for a long while. Started back when I was making these pincushions and then I gave it a go trying to make these appliques into dolls with black velvet ribbon around the edges but it didn't really work out. This gal was tricky too, and slow going, but I love how she turned out. Not sure if she's the shop doll though.

I've got big plans folks, big big plans. And what's making me even entertain the thought of big plans? School is on! It's just few hours a day preschool so it's not all life-changing bittersweet but just... SWEET!!

last days of summer

collecting rocks at peck farm

hanging out in a quiet corner of the arboretum

signing up for ravelry and getting ready to knit! So far I've knit 24 rows of the thinking dress, frogged 14 rows, reknit 11 rows. I'm still pretty rusty at chart following. If I ever finish up this jumper I want to make some hats for Phoebe. Any good toddler hat recommendations? Can I collect those in ravelry? I still haven't quite figured out what's going on over there.

soccer and sci fi

That's all we've been up to this week. Be back after the weekend with something crafty-ish :)

I think Tim thinks I'm nuts

but I was sketching and it just sort of appeared in my notebook and I had to drop everything and make it. I love it! a nerdy little patchwork pillow with a surprise smile.

makes me and the sofa happy.

'cation

Tim took a few days off from work last week to work on some Wee Wonderfuls stuff. Sort of a workcation. Isn't that sad. But the up side is there's lots of fun new stuff in the works. Fun to me at least, a new site design, a new shop, another new site, some new product(s), etc. yay! Of course none of the cations, va, stay or work really are too effective with two small kids. Every day is basically the same. Feeding, cleaning, playing, cleaning, errands, park, and brief moments of trying to keep them happily distracted long enough to complete a thought. It's in these moments I realize we're at a serious handicap... trying to run a small business with no real business sense. When things are quiet and we work on the w.w. to-do lists I realize all the doh! moments. Things we should have done, should be doing, things I see others doing, etc. It stresses me out. I can see why people go to consultants and life coaches and the like. Knowing what to do and when is so tricky. Guess that's why I choose, more often than not, to just push it out of my mind and keep focusing on the making. And why, instead of emailing pattern distributors like my to-do list says, I've spent the past two days making a funny little pillow guy. But hey, that's important too. If the sun comes out today I'll snap a pic of him. You'll see.. it was definitely an essential activity.

Camp WeWonKee

Kit, Chloe and Louise just got back from a month at Camp WeWonKee. They had a blast, made lifelong friends and have many stories to tell.

There was lots of swimming

Stories and smores by the campfire

And the earning of merit badges... Archery for Kit, Basketry for Louise and Orienteering for Chloe.

You can find this free Kit, Chloe and Louise Paper Dolls outfits download here.