While She Naps

Another Bear

I made another bear - this time with a flowery dress. She is all wool felt.

My bears and bunnies have been leaving me to go to good homes elsewhere and that is really satisfying. Right now I'm working on an elephant, but I have grand plans to return to my owls at some point soon. I ran out of polyfill this weekend so nobody was getting any stuffing. I'm restocked now so projects can move forward.

I'm swapping some of my excess trim with Amanda and I'm excited to see what kinds of goodies will arrive from her in the mail soon.

Here's Roxy strutting her stuff like a drunken sailor:

She can walk! (and the garden is coming along)

She learned to walk! Over this long weekend, Roxanne has made some serious strides (pun intended) toward walking independently. It is amazing. This morning she was walking from the family room to the kitchen and bag bringing daddy little cars. Wow!

This weekend I put the annuals in the garden. We now have three varieties of zinnias, some calendula, cock's combs, gazania, cosmos, lantana, coleus, and a pot of trailing peonies. I got a variety of herbs, too, for a little pot by the front door. One of the three blanket flowers is also about to have two beautiful blooms. Here are some pictures of the garden now.

An overall view of the front garden. All the blooms will be orange (eventually).

Calendulas surround a little rock grouping.

Some back slope shots:

It was sunny this morning for about 15 minutes. We haven't seen sun in over two weeks, so that was nice, I guess. Roxy and I went to visit our friend Alyson from playgroup to see her new baby, Zach. I got to hold him for nearly half an hour - oh he is so cute! I forgot how they don't have eyelashes or eyebrows in the beginning. Roxy was totally oblivious to his presence. We brought Alyson a basket of goodies, including a onesie, one of my bunnies, and these cookies I made:

I was working on another froggie yesterday, but he needs a new head so in the meantime, I made this little bear:

I appliqued some brown leaves onto her dress with stem stitch - yeah for my new embroidery book! Stem stitch is cool.

I wanted to also post a picture of a new sculpture Charlie and I bought this past weekend. It is called "Kicker" and was made by local artist Paul Cooper. We have been looking for some scupltures for our collection. This one is now hanging in our stairwell which is a good spot for it because it sticks out from the wall quite a big so it needed its own space where it wouldn't be bumped.

Help, I'm drowning...

Well, I made a little froggie. He is sitting up and smiling at me as we speak. Look at those bug eyes! This guy was fun to make and there will be others - perhaps some with inside out seams? I was so inspired by Hillary at Wee Wonderfuls link to Tamar Mogendorff. Her dolls are beautifully rustic - they are clearly hand made and the seams show all over the place, but at the same time they are so sophisticated.

Right now we are in the midst of THE LONGEST spring storm - it has been in the 40s and raining for what seems like weeks. So, we're drowning in rain. I happen to also be drowning in trim right now. Trim, ric rac, ribbon, cord - you name it. A few months ago I won an ebay auction and received a huge bag of assorted trim in the mail. Then, a week or two ago, I sent in my three proofs of purchase from buying all that bias tape for my apron from Wright's and yesterday ANOTHER huge bag of assorted trim arrived in the mail.

So - anyone up for a little swap? I've put together three packages of about 15 pieces each. If you send me a little package of crafty supplies (pieces of fabric, zippers, buttons, cool paper - whatever as long as it's not trim!), I'd be happy to send you one. Just send me an email (abbyglassenberg at comcast dot net) and tell me which package you want (A, B or C).

Here is A:

And B:

And C:

Bunny #3

Okay, the newest bunny is finished! This one is also made out of a thrifted 100% wool scarf that I felted in the washing machine and wool felt for features and tunic. She also has a little flower button sewn onto her pocket with metallic thread (oooh, metallic thread is cool - it just got a spool and I love it). These guys are really fun to make and each one has its own little quirky expression.

Today is the last day of "Book Babies" story hour at the public library for about a month and a half. I take the small one to story hour (well, really it's story 20 minutes) every Tues. and Wed. morning without fail, so I'm sad that we won't be able to go for a while. The pool is supposed to open tomorrow, which is really pretty funny because we went outside this morning to see how the garden was growing and I could see my breath! I'm telling you, we live in Antarctica.

#2 Bunny

Here is my second little bunny. His body is made from a 100% wool scarf (originally from J Crew, but I found it this weekend for $2 at a thrift store) that I felted in the washing machine. It is so soft and fuzzy now! His (or is it a her? hard to say) features and tunic are made from wool felt, as usual. I bought a plaid scarf, too, so there is at least one more bunny in the works. I had never felted anything before this project - it always seemed pretty intimidating - but just running wool through the washing machine makes it shrink up and take on such a cuddly texture, I think this is my new favorite fabric. Plus, it is pretty easy to get ahold of wool scarves in thrift stores in Boston.

Bunny

Here is my little wool felt bunny. She is wearing a little A-line dress with a smart side pocket. Perhaps she needs some shoes? Hmmm.... I hope you like her. Another is soon to be in the works.

In funny baby news, whenever our now 14 month-old Roxy sees a baby, or even just a picture of a baby, she says "wah wah." There is something ironic about a baby calling other babies "wah wah," as though she realizes that she, and others of her kind, spend portions of every day just crying. "Wah wah."

Three Cards for Three Babies

I am in the midst of putting together lots of baby presents. A woman in my playgroup just had a baby boy and another is due in mid-June and I'm going to a baby shower for an old friend of ours this weekend, so I spent some time today making little t-shirt cards for everyone. I also made lined envelopes. Here they are:

Omiyage

Charlie and I are about to head out for a nice night on the town and I have to pick up the babysitter in just a minute, but I wanted to post some omiyage that I made a few weeks ago. They are both little butterfly bags and the pattern is from this book:

They are tiny and use up all your little scraps. The directions in the book are very clear. All the projects need to be handsewn. I have made others, which perhaps I'll post at some point, but I have say that the butterfly is my favorite so far. Here they are, viewed from the top and from underneath. I think they'b be great instead of ribbons to top gifts, maybe with a special something inside the bag part:

Another little birdie pouch

As usual, the second time I make something I am more satisfied with the results. This little birdie pouch is made from pink and green calicos with brown wool felt lining the pockets inside and felt wings and beak. I like the colors better than the last one, and I put little leaves on the wing.

I was thinking today that making my Erica doll took longer than it needed to because I had to reembroider the face so many times - my embroidery skills are pretty lacking and I find that I am so often disappointed after spending so much time working on putting features on a doll or details on a pouch. So, I broke down and bought a "how-to" book on embroidery today. Hopefully I'll be posting some embroidered pieces soon.

Since I learned to sew in Home Ec. in the 8th grade and have really just taught myself since then, I know that there are sewing techniques that I could learn that would improve the look of my creations. While I was at the store today, I also bought a basic sewing technique book which I hope will tell me the correct way to do things - like putting in a zipper and making a hem.