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wanna take one for the team?

It’s that time… time for me to start begging for help. I’m looking for some testers for the patterns from the book. Do you have some free time? Fabric in your stash dying to be made into a toy? Want to help out your fellow sewers by being the first to discover that whopping mistake that is inevitably there in every pattern?

This isn’t like our normal pattern testing so it may not sound as appealing to some. First thing, time. I’m looking for people who can start right away and finish in a timely fashion. Unlike my own self-publishing that tends to drag its feet, this is on someone else’s timetable. And second, it has to be top secret, hush hush, on the down low. The projects can’t be blogged or flickr’d or fb’d. I know that’ll be a bummer to those of you who like to blog the craftiness, sorry!

But when you’re done you’ll have a new friend to play with and I’ve also got some cute thank you treats in mind. If anyone’s interested leave me a comment and also maybe what sort of project you might be up for… simple, more complicated, for a girl, for a boy, baby, embroidery, hand-sewing, etc.

Thank you!

Oh geez! Thanks everyone! I feel bad I didn’t close comments sooner, I went out to run errands. I’ll go through the list and hope to get back to everyone soon. If you volunteered thank you so much for offering to help!!

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dolls in the shop


Aww, look at them all in a row. I can almost hear them singing it’s a hard knock life. These gals and their teddies are looking for new homes. You know, when they’re all together like that a few seem more cheerful than others. If you’d like one I’ve put them on up etsy. Maybe you’ll get an almost smiling one 🙂

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screen printed folkster dolls

I’ve been wanting to make silk screened printed dolls for the longest time now. I bought all the supplies and picked out the spot in the basement to set it up. I watched dvds and read online tutorials. And never did anything about it, for years. Now I’ve finally figured out how to do it. I found myself a willing high school art student to do it for me! Thanks Tess 🙂

We’ve been thinking about printed dolls for a while now. We were thinking Spoonflower and I’ve been playing around with designs, but I just couldn’t get too excited about it. The digital printing wasn’t doing it for me and I thought we’d print our own through the printer and had lackluster results. I’m so happy with the screen printing. I knew I’d love it. I love the imperfections and how no one is the same. They each have their own little personalities, just like their 3D versions. This gal turned out a little grumpy which I think is so cute. And her expression totally matches her body language, in fact, I think some little might be looking at me exactly like that right now. Better go!

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gotta love a library that never weeds

Oscar and I are reading this book.

We’re loving it! Oscar thinks it’s hilarious and I’m just so glad to be getting a break from the magic tree house books he loves.

On deck for us, more hi-jinks

And these are for me. These are the books, probably the exact books, I read as a tween… in the 80s. Nothing like heading into high school armed with vital morality tales like the Luckiest Girl who realizes of course how lucky she is to have a pink raincoat with black velveteen buttons and how mother always knows best.

And some Lois Lenski because I can never pass up Lois Lenski.

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our big box!

Ok, here’s the big gardening project we’ve been working on… our very first vegetable garden!


We figured it was finally time, we’re growing two kids we could probably handle a few vegetables. Last year we figured out our best spot and left it bare so it was ready to go this Spring. Tim did all his research and then built us this beautiful 8′ x 4′ cedar box. We love it so. It was so satisfying just to have a big tidy box of new dirt, that we sat and pondered it for a while. Yesterday we went ahead and took the plunge and bought our seeds and plants.

We’ve got tomatoes (celebrity and roma), peppers (hot and bell), lettuce (red leaf and romaine), arugula, swiss chard, zucchini, basil, cilantro, chives radishes, green beans and a melon. We’ve got the box and a patch going on the ground too. We’re all so excited. Oscar’s super into it, especially planting from seeds. Phoebe’s thrilled that we’re outside working on projects. Tim is pleased at our first baby step off the grid. And me, I just keep thinking about salsa. By the time this garden is ready to harvest I’ll be mostly, if not all the way done with the book. I have big plans to fritter away my days, margarita in hand, making salsa from my garden.