It's Freckles.

Sydney’s 4th birthday was a few days ago, and she’d been asking for a T-shirt with a horse on it (sometimes it was a horse, sometimes it was a unicorn). So I took the opportunity to make the T-shirt I would happily have given an arm for when I was her       

OMG! A unicorn! With purple, flowery hair!!! 

It wasn’t the easiest one in the world, what it 7 separate pieces that required placement and stitching separately, so that they all overlapped properly and several extra thread lines, but it came out pretty well. She was a big fan :)

Sydney’s mom then commissioned a onesie for her preschool teacher who is due to have a baby boy any day now. Her only requests were that it be for a boy, 6-9mos, and that I decide what went on it. Which isn’t always easy, especially when you don’t know the recipient very well. I went with a dinosaur. Cute, boyish, simple.

     
It’s a boy!

I’ve been trolling (not troll-ing) Jennifer Ward’s blog Minor Details. She’s essentially an interior designer for children’s rooms (swoon!). Very wealthy children’s rooms…

Anyway, she enlightened me to the existence of the vintage children’s Casalino chair. 

                  
How beautiful is that?!

It seems that Ms. Ward uses the Casalino in every other room she designs. -And why wouldn’t you? Colorful, durable, stylish, and capable of being turned over and used as whatever your kid wants to pretend it is. That’s a good product.

She’s also fond of the Cosco booster seat shown here

                                                                        

They come in different colors, some have prettily patterned seat cushions, some have none. I happen to own one just like this green one :) I found it at an antique/junk store one Girl’s Weekend in Leavenworth, buried under an army helmet and a wreath with silk flowers. It looked like an old lady turtle (if one is given to anthropomorphizing turtles. Or junk piles).  What do I use it for? Um… decor? A prop for pictures of onesies? Nothing really. I just love it. Much like I’m going to adore that Casalino when I finally lay my hands on one…

Update:
Just bought a white Casalino (cute, but not as cute as yellow) on eBay for dirt cheap! Will post when it arrives :)

I don’t know if it’s because it’s March and weather has been epically crappy and I need something to counteract the grey, or just because it’s time has come, but I am in love with yellow. I bought yellow shoes and yellow flowers, and out of a page of 30 dresses the one that jumps out at me has yellow in it. All of a sudden I’m seeing a lot of yellow cars and pretty yellow things for my office…  I. Want. Yellow. 

      
Pretty pretty pretty!

I’ve never used polyvore before, but I know people *ahem* who adore it. I thought I’d try it out to see if it would sate my lust for sunny, bright, friendly yellow, but I think I may have made it worse. Now I want a yellow Glassybaby (more than ever) and that $335 Lanvin flower brooch. 

Sigh….

My newest purchase makes my heart go pitty-pat.

      
Yeah, that’s wallpaper. But it has birds on it!

It’s called Daydream, by Hygge & West, though I got it much cheaper through One Kings Lane* and I intend to put birds on lots of things. Like lining a nice serving tray, making one of these, or scanning it, printing it on transfer paper and making some nice fabric based things… 

Man, I can’t wait until it comes.

*You need an invitation to see their pretty things. Please accept mine: https://www.onekingslane.com/invite/ChelanK

Most recent onesie order. A bear, for parents from Kodiak, AK. 

      

http://bibigreycat.blogspot.com/

Best site ever for an emphemeraphile (that has to be a word, right?) like me.

Marvelous scans of everything from alphabets,

  

to matchbox labels, 

                       

cigarette trading cards,

                 

    

costume patterns,

     

and, well… Stuff.

           

I could kill hours at a time looking through all of this. What can I make with it?!

My not-so-local fabric store was having a sale and so I went a wee bit overboard. Not on sale at all, but something I’ve been wanting for a long time, was Effie and Ollie, a beautiful little pattern by Heather Bailey.

     
So cute!

I’ve never really had a good reason to buy it before, but then my sister informed me that when she has a kid, she wants the nursery to be elephanty. Considering I would spare no expense/effort on my sister’s behalf, it rather goes without saying that her child will be ridiculously beloved and will have the cutest handmade everything. What’s the point of having an aunt who makes cute things if she isn’t going to make the cutest ones for you? No point, really. I figure that by the time the kid is actually born, I’ll be fairly decent at making them. Anyone want a wonky starter elephant?

(I also really want the Pear pattern, but I need a good excuse.)

Valentine’s day gets a bad rap. I mean come on. We have a day celebrating trees. And presidents, though no one can remember which ones (and how many of them really deserve to be celebrated anyway?). And freakin’ Columbus, that syph-spreading phony. We devote the entire month of February to celebrating bird feeding!
Who on earth is going to come out and say that a day celebrating love is a bad thing? Lots of people, it turns out. I think they weren’t hugged enough as children. They probably kick puppies… Sickos.

-And I’m not saying you can be a jerk all year long and make up for it with a box of chocolates or a Brazilian wax once a year. Heck no. 
I love a great many of the people in my life, and I think they should know that. I’m not just talking about my boyfriend (though he is money), or the cute kids I work with (-though ultimately they’re who this post focuses on). I mean a lot of you. Family (yes, really) and friends. You’re all awesome and my life is richer for having you in it. So I made a little something to tell you so:
         
XO! 
Really. You’re the best. No you are!

     
Sweet Valentine.

Syd’s Valentine was a cardi I bought at Target, embellished with rosette flowers I made of various ribbons I had, in coordinating colors. I put a brooch backing on them, so they can be removed when the cardi’s washed. -Or switched out for another color if I so choose. (I also bought her a cute plate with a pink, heart nosed bear on it, but that’s beside the handmade point).

     
Chewie goodness.

H.B.’s valentine was a T.shirt I got at Target (I love Target, too…) and embellished it with a Lego Chewbacca. A little freezer paper stenciling, some fabric paint and a brown sharpie and Voila! Instant kindergarten street cred. 
(He got a plate, too, but again…) 

     
Let it never be said that I don’t love those kids.

Mike and I got a new kitten recently. After about 2 weeks we named him Bode (pronounced Bo-dee). He’s redonkulously cute, but kind of like a dirty, stinky, starving teenage son. You love them, but you wish they’d bathe once in a while and maybe eat with their mouth closed.                                                                                                               
Post bath. Because apparently he can’t do it himself… 

He and our older cat Chloe seem to get along pretty well, which is awesome because we really got him to keep her company while we’re not around. Our plan didn’t backfire on us and we’re reasonably pleased with ourselves.

Now if only he’d stop getting his lunch all over his entire face…

We went away to Mexico for the wedding of two of our good friends in the beginning of December. It was a lovely wedding and over a week of nothing but sunshine, eating and reading. 
As a result though, when we came home, it was straight into the thick of Christmas prep.

I love making people things as gifts. In fact, the Christmas I remember best was a “Handmade Christmas”. I’m certain it was because my parents couldn’t afford the kind of Christmas that we’re all too familiar with. Piles of gifts stretching for yards from under the tree. Gifts that required batteries and were impossibly twist-tied into their packaging. -And while we would have loved that, I’m positive that I wouldn’t have remembered one thing that was under that tree. (The tree was epic, by the way. We lived in the woods, so we went out one day and found a 12 footer. Awesome.) I remember every single gift given that year, though. 
My dad and big brother made us younger kids a lovely table and our own chairs. Mine had a heart carved in each side. We made my mom a sewing machine box. Everyone made something and everything was beautiful. 

So this year was kind of a whirl, from making and sending 50+ cards, to hosting Christmas dinner for family and friends at our house. By the time it was all done, I was kind of sad that I hadn’t made more things and taken more pictures of them. This, in particular, made me gnash my teeth and wail.
But then I remembered! 

     
This!

That’s my sister’s ornament. I made it with my new cricut and a boatload of glitter. It’s her dog Butters :)

     
 And this!

The boy I look after is craaaazy into Star Wars. -And desperately needed a bigger backpack for school. It turned out pretty cool, but man, it was a bitch to make. From trying to draw (R2D2, no less!) on fabric, with pens that leaked, to trying to get the whole damned thing fitted into my sewing machine in just the right way, and then having the tension completely screw with me the whole time. Gaah! He loves it, though, so all is well.

        
One of Mike’s gifts adorned with a vintage marquee letter.

I didn’t have a lot of stocking stuffers this year, so they didn’t really warrant a full stocking. I’d been wanting to make these for a long time, so I put my goodies inside and rolled them up like old fashioned candies.

-I’ll post pictures the second I find the camera…