It's Freckles.

Is there anything better than getting personal mail? I don’t mean stuff from your bank, or your doctor. That’s personal, but decidedly un-fun. 

The other day I came home and checked the mail and what did I find? Not one, but four pieces of pretty, individual, sweet mail addressed to me! Four! 

    

Three Thank You’s and Postcard from my parents in Morocco. Happy mail day to me!

So this week I made not one, but two whole blankies. One for my dear friends Amie and Carl who are finally going to get to bring home their adopted baby sometime around Thanksgiving. How’s that for something to be truly thankful for?

I found the fabric over a year ago when they were still in the nascent stages of the adoption process. They were in no way guaranteed a baby anytime soon, but there I was, falling in love with a fabric that I just had to get to make a blanket for their baby-to-be.

I was right back then. It really is perfect. The nursery ended up being aqua, red and brown, with white furniture with an emphasis on sock monkeys. 

    
Sock monkeys pillow-fighting on bunkbeds. It doesn’t get any better.

     
Look at those happy little monkeys! Tying in the red, and everything…

I should fire my photographer. It’s a lot nicer than the pictures look. I used a basic cotton quilting material (sock monkeys) on one side, deep brown, swirled minky for the opposite side, and a pale aqua satin ruffle. A red ribbon tag for hanging, hooking to the stroller so it doesn’t get dragged off and rolled over, or simply for rubbing on your top lip as you’re falling asleep. -All you thumbsuckers out there know what I’m talking about…

The second blankie was a commission from a friend, who single-handedly keeps me in business (if that’s what we’re calling this). She needed a boy blankie and let me decide the rest. We, at BabyButters deeply appreciate customers like that…

     
Michael Miller’s Zoology in flannel, with brown, swirled minky and a baby blue satin ruffle. -Again with the photography… Oy!

This next blanket wasn’t made this week (what am I? A Chinese sweatshop?), but I thought I’d include it anyway, while we’re on the subject of Baby Blankets I Have Known.

     
Monkey Fleece, swirled, brown minky, and a cream satin ruffle. 

This one was commissioned by my friend Mike in Chicago. He and his wife weren’t finding out the sex, preferred a monkey theme to go with their jungle nursery and didn’t want yellow. 
Soo… Monkeys, but no yellow (do you know how many fabric designers love yellow with monkeys?!) unisex, but no yellow. What’s a girl to do?! I only deliberated for about a week at the fabric store, before pulling the trigger. To add to my distress, the fabric was a bitch to work with and I had to keep recutting. Then I sent the damn thing, and it didn’t arrive for several weeks (sent to Chicago, not the Congo!), which caused me to go out and buy all new fabric to make a second one to send, only to be told at the last minute that it had finally arrived. Chicago USPS, I hate thee.

     
Here’s baby Dex on the finished item. He doesn’t care about cat slobber. 

I was worried they might not like it, or that it wouldn’t be big enough, or a thousand other things, but that baby (cute then, adorable now) is wrapped in that blanket in a full half of his pictures. I think they like it…

One of the first ones I made was for my friend Lara’s sweet baby Z.

    
Baby Z. coming home from the hospital in my blanket! Anna Maria Horner’s Fortune in flannel, pale yellow minky and a pink satin ruffle.

Baby Z. had a tough time joining us on the outside and after all of that, I was glad she had something warm and soft to be wrapped in. Sometimes you just need a break…

I’ve made a lot more blankets, but those are the only ones I seem to have pictures for. Baby J.’s  seems to have gone pretty much completely undocumented, except in a cursory manner in some of his shower pictures. Alas! It was cute and tigery.

      
What a darling boy! -And wouldn’t you know his father’s an artist?

My new “nephew” and the new holder of the title Most Photographed Child on Earth. Also, Most Awesomely Hallowe’en Costumed Child on Earth. 
This little bundle of warm breath and funny noises was the cause of all that tiger-themed fuss a few weeks ago.

Congratulations, Jamee and Johann!

Hip hip Hooray!

I’m a huge fan of ephemera. Stamps, vintage postcards, matchbox labels. Especially matchbox labels. I have a small collection of them going and intend to do a post on my very favorites soon. My intention is to scan them and use the copies to make cards (they’re the perfect size!) but I never get around to it and I’m constantly making cards at the last minute. -And it hurts a little to actually use something so fine and rare. It’s like tearing a page from an old book to use for some other purpose. I understand this is perfectly acceptable, and certain things are best off salvaged and reused, but the scene in movies where ancient artifacts get smashed or burned causes me more anxiety than the hero being shot. I get unreasonably mad while watching Indiana Jones movies.
I like to keep things in a set. I like to keep them flat and uncreased. I once lent a book to someone and watched in silent horror as they bent the front cover all the way back until it touched the back cover! In my mind I was recreating Edvard Munch’s Scream.

But Lo! A miracle is born! Reproductions of hundreds of little matchbox labels turned into stickers.

                        

Perfect for making a quick card, enhancing a wrapped gift, or well, whatever you do with stickers. I tend to keep them… 

Ok, that’s misleading. I didn’t actually make any puppets and I wouldn’t say I mastered anything either…

A couple months ago, my old and dear friend Brigetta, mother to my Goddaughters, asked me if I would make a doorway puppet theater for the older one’s 6th birthday. “I want a butterfly, tea party, puppet birthday party!” was the child’s request. 

I looked up a couple examples online, but mostly just flew by the seat of my pants. It’s just a bunch of straight lines, right? Suuure…

     
Puppet theater closed…

I’m entirely incapable of just doing the minimum when it comes to most projects.
-How about a ruffle at the bottom? And a valance with bobbles! And a pocket at the back, under the window, to put puppets in! I should definitely put rickrack at the bottom of the curtains…

     
Puppet theater open ( I should have taken that one in better light. And maybe ironed it…)

The ribbon tie-backs are actually fixed bows with velcro loops behind them, so there’s no “Mom!!! I need you to tie the curtains back again!!!” 

The top bar is a tension rod for hanging curtains, so it can be adjusted to fit in any doorway and removed when it’s time to clean up. I also made a matching bag for it, so that it could all be rolled up, put inside and hung in the closet. Somehow missed getting a picture of that.

It took a lot of work, but everyone loved it (in fact, someone at the party commissioned one, but at the level at which I would make it, it would be at least $75 and I’m pretty sure said person wasn’t counting on that). Brigetta says the girls play with it all of the time, which I consider a job well done.

      
The card I made to go with the gift.

The birthday girl as a puppet at a butterfly tea party. The whole thing (though it’s hard to tell from poor lighting) matched the theater in color scheme and measured all of 3.5”x5”. Those butterflies were tiny.

So this past month or so has been swallowed by planning the co-ed baby shower for my dear friends Jamee and Johann. Jamee was born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger and their baby will also be, so naturally the shower was tiger themed. 

     

Every child in both Jamee and Johann’s family (brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews) has J as their first initial and they’ve decided to carry on the tradition. So though we don’t know whether it will be a boy or a girl, we know it will be baby J. I made the bunting from several different patterns of orangey fabric and strung them together with double fold bias tape. The letters are ironed on and by far the most difficult part of the whole process. The iron was hot enough to scorch the ironing board, but would they stick on? No. 

I wish I’d taken more pictures (or any pictures) of their gifts before I wrapped them all up, but alas, I was busy and didn’t get around to it. I’ll have to rely on the generosity of friends.

     

     

The basket I put together, lined with the tiger print, minky and cream ruffled blanket I made, matching burp cloths and tiger onesie I made, a tiger bib, awesome Not Neutral  blocks, tiger toothbrush, tiger cat picture by my new favorite artist MatteArt, a card and some other doodads, including a (thematic, of course) parental survival kit consisting of some instant coffee and chocolate for when you need quick buzz to get you through the next hour, and some tiger mints, because you know you’re not going to be able to brush your teeth every morning… (And a tiger lily, of course.)

     

The tiger lanterns I made. (I like how the little white one looks like he’s winking.)

     

 The dark chocolate (Jamee’s favorite) and orange cupcakes, with orange buttercream frosting and orangette ears my awesome friend (and photographer of these images) Kerissa helped me make. They tasted as insanely good as they looked. Computers should come with a scratch and sniff option.

Johann’s awesome sister in law Agnes helped out so much when it came to planning details, making the invitations and putting together the take out box favors. 

    

     

Tiger’s Milk bars (hey, it’s all about the theme, ok. I don’t care how they taste), orange and peach candies, and later, Tiger Balm. 

All sealed up with a silver ribbon and adorable Agnes-made tiger face stickers (note that they’re the same face as the tiger lanterns. We don’t mess around).

    

All in all, I think it was a pretty great evening. There were no doofy “sniff the candy bar smooshed into the diaper” games, no tasting baby food and certainly no one stealing diaper pins when someone else slipped up and said “baby”. People, please. This party had men, alcohol and great music. -And food. I thought I made a ton of food (about 50 chicken mole and cotija cheese empanadas and another 20 or so vegetarian and vegan ones, along with a cheese platter, fruit plate, and a bunch of other things. It was held at 4pm and people don’t usually need a lot of feeding at that hour, but the food disappeared like I’ve seldom seen before. Next time I make more, I guess…

Raaawwwr!

Update!

     
Adorable Jaggar in the onesie. Thanks for the photo J+J!

I may have a problem. -But you know what they say, the first step toward overcoming your problem is admitting you have one. 

I like paper. I like it a lot. It’s crisp and pretty and comes in so many beautiful colors and patterns. It’s kind of like being in the necktie department of Nordstrom. I have no use for ties though, as they’re impossible to wrap gifts with. On the other hand, I have a lot of delicious paper. Striped paper, flowered paper, geometrically patterned paper. Paper for birthdays, for babies, for weddings and holidays. 

I give a lot of gifts and it’s important to me that they be presented nicely, but I could probably give one a day for the rest of the year, and depending on size, I might still have some paper left over. So clearly, it’s not about utility, but about making my heart go pitty-pat. -Which it does, so I keep buying it… 

      

I have a similar problem with ribbon, but that’s a post for another day.