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Easter Togs

These are some of my favorite vintage kid’s clothes finds. I keep them hanging up in my craft room for inspiration. It just dawned on me that they’re all perfect Easter outfits!

The bunny and carrot smocking on this top is awesome! Wish it came with the bottoms those buttons are for.

This is my favorite little baby cardigan. Little lamb intarsia done in super fuzzy soft angora (?) or something. The lamb designs are so dense at first I thought this was a little wool sweater that had been accidentally washed and shrunk up. But I don’t think that’s the case. It must be a larger guage yarn knit on tiny needles? It is still a mystery to me. I’ve tried a few times to recreate the effect and it’s never come out quite right. Maybe because I stink at intarsia/fair isle knitting!

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yippie!

Look who came in the mail today…

Pippy! One of Claire’s fabulous little kittens. She is so wonderful. Her little expression and her bright red jumper and her soft soft fuzzy hair..I’m a smitten kitten! I’ve put her in with all of Oscar’s trucks and balls in an attempt to lure him to her. So far all attempts at introducing dolls to him have had little success. I’m glad to see Buttercup has made it there safely and is basking in the hot Australia sun. At least someone from the Lang household is enjoying some warm weather!

Pippy

And look what else… a pear!

Pear

I’ve been in love with these pears since the moment I saw them. I kept going back to them and showing them to Tim. me – look how cute. tim – yes very cute. me – but look how CUTE. look at the little o mouth. Tim – yes very cute. Now I have one in my house and I’m going to pester him all day long with her.

Thank you Claire!!

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shrinky dink pins

I was inspired by Craftlog to buy some shrinky dinks at the hobby store to play with. I was going to make some buttons to go out with my orders. Instead I got sidetracked by making fancy pinheads. After trying to melt the shrinky dink on top of a pinhead I realized, duh, you can stick a flat headed pin *through* the colored, cut out shrinky dink shapes and then put it in the oven together and voila! So fun! I’m excited to have a project to work on in the kitchen while Oscar is poking at his food. I’m going to send some out with each of the pincushion auctions that are ending today.

And here’s a new lily pad pincushion I made.

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suwappu

The japanese-english dictionary online says that suwappu = swap so I thought it was the perfect title. Jen in Tokyo and I did another fabric swap. I sent her FunQuilts fabrics and she sent me some fabrics I picked out from Cotton Bow-wow. (eek – Jen, I just clicked over there and saw that the new Nani Iro stuff is out! So pretty!)

Here are the fabrics from Cotton Bowwow…quarter meters of these…

A half meter of this neat roadway fabric. I’m thinking Oscar’s room is going to soon need a "big boy" redesign and this would look so cool hanging on the wall.

And a half meter of Lisa and Gaspard fabric!! We’re so excited about this. We have all the Lisa and Gaspard books. We just love them!

Jen also threw in this book for me because she thought I’d like it. "Palm Sized Softies" Of course I LOVE it! I’ll have to make one of these up for Emily. Although bigger than palm sized because that’s more like "snack size" to a baby.

Then she was sneaky and sent off a second package with more goodies! Sashiko thread, wood buttons, a couple of the good zippers, cute little orange butterfly appliques and two awesome tenugui (right jen?) pieces. Good thing I’ve already got your second package started…. speaking of which I have to get back to those bunnies!

Thanks for the suwappu Jen!!

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countdown to Oscar

It’s been nothing but Oscar Oscar Oscar on the tv lately. And every single time I look up.. what about my Oscar… oh that Oscar. It’s not as interesting when you haven’t been to the movies in 15 months. In crafting news I finally managed to tear myself up off the couch and get some sewing done the last couple of nights. I made this little ribbon pincushion. I think I may make some more tonight while watching the big show.

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Chiri & Chiriri

I found this gorgeous book the other day at the Japanese bookstore. I’m in love with it! I had to show some restraint not to photograph every single page and put it up here. Now I just need to figure out what the story is. And the title! It goes something like this…

We’re the cutest little twins ever. Let’s go ride bikes!

I know this cute little restaurant in the middle of the forest

Not only is it woodchuck-accessible, but bear and squirrel and bunny and…

bumblebees!

our waiter is foxy!

back on our bikes

Welcome to the Forest Hotel. How long will you be staying?

the end

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Day of Fun!

I had what my Mom would call an “outing with the ladies” this past Friday. Brandy & Cinnamon came out to Oak Park to play with me. We got to check out some places that amazingly I hadn’t yet made it to, the Buzz Cafe for lunch, a fun bead shop Bead in Hand, and the new Brown Elephant thrift store. I got some lovely beads and buttons at the bead shop and found some great trim & vintage greeting cards at the Brown Elephant. Oh and some pretty lustreware cups and saucers. Then we checked out OP’s cool new gift shop Flybird and then back to my place for some hanging out in the craft room. It was so much fun to spend the day with a couple of crafty gals. They both know all about having a small business, fabric, sewing, etc. I learned so much! Cinnamon even pointed out to me that I was using the wrong foot for zippers! Now that I have the actual zipper foot installed look out!