...coming soon to my etsy shop...
I've had SUCH a good response to my handmade dolls. It's making me really squishy happy that people are appreciating the work I do and love my wee girls as much as I do. Now if only I could find more hours in the day, as I seem to be selling them as fast as I can make them - except for the lonely redheaded girl who just can't seem to find someone to love. I have a few requests for more Asian dolls and lots of interest in boy dolls, so that's what's up next!
In my Etsy shop...
My photo-shoot assistant is in a lot of the pictures...mostly just as a blur as she grabs dollies and tries to run off with them. Adeline is always so excited when new dolls appear and then she absolutely doesn't get why I want the dolls to sit still and have their picture taken. Adeline knows that dolls are for PLAYING.
...with fleece as white as snow.
And everywhere that Adeline went...
...that lamb was sure to go
Which means that this little lamb had better pack his bags for his big trip across the ocean and around the world, because he will be getting some cuddling from Adeline NEXT WEEK when we make our long journey to bring her home!
Yes, FINALLY!!!
I know some of you are still digging out from winter storms, but I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds without even a sweater a few days ago, so I can no longer deny that winter is on it's way out. As well as gardening I've also been spending a lot of time in my studio and have several projects on the go all at once. I'm having a lot of trouble focusing lately as my mind is far, far away, but I dropped everything a couple of days ago to make this little lamb and I worked on it like I had a MISSION until it was done. Once I had it in my mind I just couldn't rest until I had made a lamb for Adeline. I think I'll put this softie away for our girl's first Easter basket.
Now I think I need to modify the pattern to make a kitty...and a bunny...and maybe a bear and a puppy too.
I've been away from the computer taking care of my poor sweet husband who has been hit with a virus of epic proportions. David never gets sick and this one knocked him down and dragged him around the block a few times. He's finally back to work, just in time for me to start feeling pretty iffy... Hopefully I'll be able to use the power of positive thought to kick this bug to the curb, but at least if I get sick I know that David is the BEST at taking care of sick folk.
So although I planned all sorts of projects for this week, I really did very little but keep David company on the sofa, listen to him complain his complex feelings about being sick, and bring him crackers and tea. I did gussy up this crazy haired dolly to make her both sweeter and baby friendlier by taking off her button eyes and embroidering them instead and adding a couple of different textures of lace to add to the tactile experience. I've also been doing some knitting and will have a project to show you by the end of the week. Yes, it's another small-person sized hat. I just can't stop!!! No baby shall ever have a chilly head as long as I have a box of scrap yarn to use up.
Yikes! Only 8 more sleeps until we're on our way. I'm not freaking out yet, but I reserve the right to freak out at any time. There's no way you're getting a coherent post from me today, so what you're in for is a fairly random list of things I'm doing, things I'm obsessing thinking about and a few photos.
1) The Vietnamese Embassy is awesome! We got our passports back with visa's attached in an amazingly short period of time. That's one less thing to worry about. We also have airline tickets and a hotel booked. On the way over we have a 7 hour layover in the Hong Kong airport and I don't even want to count up the total travel time, but I know we leave on the 17th and we don't arrive in Hanoi until the 19th.
2) I've been filling the big freezer downstairs with food so that hopefully I won't have to really cook for a month when we get home. Lasagna and spaghetti sauce. Won tons and pot stickers. Meat pies. Knaedles (a German gnocchi-ish dumpling). Cookie dough (new dads need cookies). Soup. Homemade waffles. Tasty, comforting, easy dinners.
3) So the other morning I woke up obsessing thinking about Christmas. We always dreamed of having our girl home for her first Christmas, but didn't really expect it to happen. We really expected a sad and lonely Christmas this year while we missed our girl who was a world away. But we'll be home - and it will be her FIRST Christmas. And of course, I want it to be PERFECT. But David reminded me that it doesn't have to BE perfect, it just has to LOOK perfect in the pictures, because she won't remember it anyway. So as long as we have a tree to pose in front of, new pajamas and a Christmas dress, a picture with Santa, a stocking and a few presents we're just fine. The whole house doesn't have to be decorated, I don't need to do a bunch of baking or make a lot of food because she'll still just be on the bottle and the most important thing is to spend the day as a family, remembering how lucky we are to have each other for this Christmas and all the special days to come.
3) My packing piles are getting HUGE. I'm putting everything I want to take into the piles and then I will edit as I put things in the suitcase. I'm willing to spend the entire 3 weeks in the same outfit if it means I can cram in more small cute clothes for the small cute person...
4) Her room is very close to being finished. David is just finishing painting the new shelves and then I can put things on them. We have no art work/mobile/mirror, but that can wait until we get back.
5) We do have bedding though. I made the duvet cover last night in record time. I was looking through my fabric and found what I wanted to use, but it was mostly vintage tablecloths which all have stains, which means I would have to strategically cut them and make the cover patchwork style. It didn't take me more than a few minutes of thinking before I knew now wasn't the time. After we're back I'll work on that one, but last night I just took out the Alexander Henry Calico Cats and their matching backing fabric, cut 2 lengths (luck was with me and the width I needed was exactly the width of the fabric), seamed them up and added velcro. Voila! A puffy happy colourful duvet. I don't know if she'll even sleep under it for awhile though as she has some cozy sleep sacks which are safer and will stay on, but I do look forward to cuddling up with it while we rock in the rocking chair.
6) I don't think I obsess about safety enough sometimes. Then I obsess about not thinking about it. Then I obsess about thinking about not thinking about it when I should be thinking about other things. I mean we've got the basics - a rocking awesome car seat, a gate at the top of the stairs, locked up poisons, etc, but some people get so INTO the safety and baby proofing. Am I a bad Mom because I think everything will be okay and I don't think of the world as out to get my baby?
7) I've found a little time to make a few small things for the small person, including some small softies, soother clips and a wrist rattle. With the wrist rattle I did make sure that those bells weren't going anywhere. They are in their own triple stitched bag inside of the triple stitched outer part. And the bells are small enough anyway that they wouldn't cause choking and would likely be swallowed and passed.
With the soother clips I know they are possibly (only a very small possibility though as I made them very short) a choking hazard so she'll only have them when she is awake and supervised. I don't know if Lam will want or need a soother, but she is going to be going through so much of an upheaval in her world and everything is going to be strange and possibly frightening for her, so if she will take comfort in a soother I certainly wouldn't deny her that.
8) It's not too late to get the log-in information for our private travel blog - just send an email using the link below tea-drinking Lisa over in the left sidebar.
9) Did I mention it was only 8 more sleeps? Last night I had the first of those dreams - the one where I've forgotten I have a baby until I hear her crying and then I can't find her, then I can't find a bottle to feed her, etc. I know it's a very typical new Mom dream. The funny part - in the dream I realized that the baby could talk in full sentences (she told me when she grows some hair she wants it long with layers) and I thought "Well at least now we can ask her what name she wants!". David and I have a list of 5 that we're taking to Vietnam with us to see which one suits her, but it WOULD be easier if we could just ask her what she wants.
10) My list is as long as my arm today, so I'd better get busy, but I thought you all deserved an update!
Hide and seek?
Come out, come out wherever you are!
That's a great hiding place!
Now that I've found you, we can smell the roses together and then we'll share some crackers and cheese, tell each other stories and take a nap in the shade.
This little forest spirit of undetermined animal origin is a gift for Angus, my brand new...cousin once removed? Second cousin to the small person? I'm not exactly sure of the relation, but he's the handsome new baby boy of my cousin and soon he'll be snuggling this wee softie.
Fern (named by David, as most of the softies are) is enjoying a wintery walk, bundled up in her wooly coat recycled from a lightly felted thrift store suit jacket (my new favourite fabric).
David and I hauled our weary christmas-shopping-until-after-midnight selves out of bed early-ish this morning to face the cold and drop my handmade softie as part of the Toy Society Christmas drop. I've uploaded the images and info to the flickr group and hopefully I'll see my softie on the blog soon. Since my softie is made of mostly recycled materials, I thought it was just right to drop her on the cob bench which is in my neighbourhood community garden.
She can be seen from the main road and the bench is on the path to the park and the areas best sledding hill, so I'm sure she'll be found before frostbite sets in. It's sooooo tempting to set up surveillance and see who picks up your toy and the look on their face, or to see how many walk by without even stopping to look, but we got out of there fast so we wouldn't see. I do hope whoever finds her contacts The Toy Society so that I know that's she's found her home. But I'm okay never knowing what happened to her. That's part of the magic - to just make something and put it out there in the world without expecting anything in return.
Safe journey little softie.
I've been obsessed with softies in wooly coats lately, and Henrietta was the most recent one to make her appearance. The main fabric is from the sports coat that David wore to graduation, which I rescued out of the box that was headed to the thrift store. David didn't feel sentimental about it and was fine letting it go to the thrift store, but somehow David is now feeling rather attached to these dollies that are keeping warm with the coat he wore I-won't-even-mention-how-many years ago. I think that's sweet.
Chloe just can't wait to be a part of the Toy Society Christmas Drop! She's already wearing her coat and has her scarf knotted tightly - just before Christmas is known to be pretty damp and chilly in these parts. Hopefully she won't need her umbrella while she waits to be taken to her new home. Haven't heard of The Toy Society? Head over to their blog to read all about it! There's still time for you to make a handmade toy and spread the love by taking part in the worldwide drop on the weekend before Christmas.
Two new skills went into this girl. I finally found instructions for yarn hair that made sense to me and after many, many tries I made a pattern for an item of softie clothing besides bloomers or a sack dress that actually fits. Yay! Adding shoulders to my softie pattern really helped the dress fit better and it just took trial and error (and error and error and error) and looking at some patterns for both human and doll sized clothes to help me figure out how things go together. I think both these new skills definitely have some potential.
I've always been into monkeys. I suppose I probably had a sweet teddy bear or two as a girl, but my true companions were Curious George, a banana eating primate called Monkey or Bad Monkey depending on the day, a Basset Hound named Duffer and Whitey, the world's rudest rabbit puppet. Not a really cute bunch, but they had a lot of personality. I'll have to take some photos of the surviving members of the gang some day soon.The monkeys were always in trouble, Duffer was a melancholy sort and that obnoxious rabbit said all the things that a quiet and polite child like me never could. I still love monkeys - the cheekier the better - so it's a natural that I would try a softie monkey sooner or later. This one was inspired by the fabric I found at the thrift store which is a soft, almost flannel-like brown plaid that when paired with some corduroy just said "monkey" to me. The pattern is my own and I'm mostly pretty pleased with it. Unlike some of my earlier softies, this monkey can sit independently, which I like and he's quite pose-able. I think I'll tweak the pattern a bit and then put a couple of monkeys up on etsy. I'm thinking of adding snaps or some velcro so that he can hold a banana (which I'll also have to make a pattern for) or so that he can hang. The ability to hang is important to my concept of what makes a good monkey companion. One of my most vivid early childhood memories is of the weekend I left my monkeys with my Nanny so that she could babysit them. When I returned, she was very frazzled and told me that my bad monkeys had been nothing but trouble the whole time and she had a hilarious list of mischief that the monkeys had been up to. She said that she didn't even know where they were or what they were up to and that I should go look for them. After a search I finally found them hanging from the light fixture in the bedroom and I really believed that they had made it up there by themselves and I gave them a good talking-to. So hanging is an important skill for my monkeys to have so that maybe some grown-up will make a little magic for a child like my Nanny made for me.
September is one of the best times of the year to be in my studio. It's bright and sunny and it looks out over the back garden, but it's not too hot. This is the first softie to be made in there in a long time! She's just a simple dolly in a matching bag.
...you still have time to enter to win a fabulous prize! Just leave a comment over here before 5pm pacific time tomorrow and you're entered to win the Softies Kit!
Here she is, right side out! Just a prototype as there are a few things I want to tweak (arm placement, less of a bowling pin neck, etc), but I think she's pretty sweet. She's just a smidge over 12" and as with most of my projects she's made with mostly found/recycled fabrics. The pattern is my own, but I always fear that I've been overly influenced by all the other great softies out there and want to do something with my own unique stamp on it. There won't be the same crazy hair on many more dollies as I'm running out of that weird but fabulous fabric. It's obviously some sort of creepy plastic-y stuff as it doesn't fray a bit, but it's super soft and sproingy and has the texture of really thick velvet or very short fake fur. It doesn't even fuzz when you cut it. Space age technologies at work there, I'm sure! I'm also working on a dress up dolly and she's cute but currently naked, as I don't seem to be able to get past the sack-dress-with-elastic-neckband stage.
My studio is nice and cool today, so I've been working on some softie prototypes. Patternmaking is a skill I'm still working on, so I'm pleased with how smoothly it's going. Often (okay, usually) at this stage there's muttering and threats, but today things have flowed pretty well. I'll just give you a little inside-out peek today, but maybe tomorrow or thursday there will be some new girls to introduce.
Remember there's still time to enter the giveaway! Just leave a comment on this post to be entered!
The mousies are so excited they can hardly sit still. There is a LOT of giggling and good natured arguing over how to spell "Schenectady". They are extremely happy that they caught someone's eye on Etsy and now they're going on a big trip south of the border to their new home.
Goodbye little ones, you'll be missed.
Now I need to get to work. My shop is looking pretty bare.
Thanks so much to everyone who voted and for leaving me such positive comments! I really do appreciate it!
Now I'm going to put on my party hat and join in the celebrating. Those mice sure know how to party!
The mice have been whooping it up all afternoon, since they found out they're finalists in the Softies Awards! There have been many mousie high-fives, lots of squeaky hip-hip-hooraying and vast quantities of cake have been consumed since they moved the party to the fridge. I'm sure the celebration will go long into the night, but hopefully the oompah band won't keep us awake for too long.
Of course, the mice wanted to make sure you cast your vote. Mice believe in democracy. And snacks. They definitely believe in snacks.
Uh oh. Now they're trying to convince me to give them twenty dollars so they can order a triple-extra-cheese pizza. I'll probably give it to them, even though I'm pretty doubtful that I'll ever be paid back...
So I've had an urge to embroider a french angelfish lately. Don't ask me why. I just get things in my head and I won't rest until I see them out. I had a "moment" with an amazingly beautiful french angelfish while snorkeling off Puerto Morelos, Mexico, and since then I think about that angelfish a lot. And now here she is in softie form! She's been entered in the embroidered category in the Softie Awards. Why not?
Thanks for all the softie love you guys! I'm mostly just darned proud of myself for entering. Last year I was just starting to make softies when the first Softie Awards came around. I didn't feel confident enough to enter either of the softies that I'd made up to that point, but I promised myself that next year I would absolutely positively enter, and now I have! I don't expect to win and I don't even need to be a finalist to be happy with myself. You see, I have a tendency to think that nothing I do is good enough, and I spend a lot of time shushing the critic in my head that tells me that I'm not good enough, not creative enough, not unique enough, not special enough, not hardworking enough, just plain NOT ENOUGH. But I've had enough of you, critic! I think my softie mouse picnic rocks and I'm proud to have it be in the company of such fabulous softies! And when the Holiday Softie Awards come around again you can bet I'm going to make something for that as well!
I was doing the photo shoot for my Softie Awards entry this afternoon in between hail storms and rain squalls. Yes, I was laying flat on my belly in the wet grass to try and get the perfect shot. No one can say I'm not dedicated to my softies! I think I've got the full group shot I'm going to enter for the contest, but I'm going to wait to show you that one, so you'll just have to be content with these close up shots until the big reveal!
My entry for the Softie Awards is going to feature mice, which have captured my imagination since I was tiny. Now to get back to work. It's a busy time for me in other areas of my life, so I'm trying to get my entry done this week. The concept of designing 3D softies should not be learned while working on nearly life sized mousies, but I will prevail!
(not my sketch)
That's Bunny In Progress, of course! 
Yes, you guessed it...this is Greta's before picture.
Greta wishes you all a sweet easter day and a spring full of happy surprises!
Studio time has been much more productive lately. I've been focusing on some super simple softies like the bears and these dollies, designed to be hugged by chubby baby arms. I have a real problem with perfectionism and being self-critical and I know that it only hinders me in my creative work, so I've really been working on letting go of some of that drive to get everything exactly perfectly perfect and just play.
The panda was the prototype for the brown bear I made for the baby gift. He's a little wonky, but I adore him. The thing I like best about the panda is that he finally gave me an opportunity to cut into those black corduroy pants that I've been wearing for years even though they make me look like I'm wearing a full diaper... Here's to sweet softy pandas and new pants that make my rear look fabulous!
A simple softie teddy and an embroidered baby bear bib for a brand new boy. Now to make something girly for the new big sister...
Today felt like a stay-warm-and-handsew-on-the-sofa kind of day, so I finished up my sock dog (my first, but I'm sure not last) and did some embroidery. I'll showandtell the embroidery tomorrow, but for now here's a sweet pink polka dotted puppy with her handknit scarf!
