mermaids and moss

a special pillow for him

My little guy has been under the weather this week... it's been a rough few days and a real disappointment because he's missing his last days of school. But he's been excited by all the sewing taking place in my studio, ummm... I mean the dining room.

My tiny tomato pin cushion [originally my mother's] has been transformed into a little spider with most of the pins being moved to the bottom to act as feet and several google eyes glued to the front. He says it's a baby toy. A bit dangerous, but a very sweet baby toy. He has big love for google eyes, big love. This attraction is actually how his how his artistic career began, some of you may remember his Valentine's Day project which was all thought up by him. Since then he's been drawing dozens and dozens of one-eyed and multi-eyed monsters, spiders, snowmen, creatures, mommies with many legs and and at least one google eye.

He's been requesting a special pillow for himself and so we whipped one up two days ago. I used the same envelope pillow pattern from Maya Donenfeld's Reinvention. It's a really easy pattern because of the well-written instructions. I love it. I chose to paint a many-legged critter, part spider, part spirit similar to the ones found in Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

I think he really likes his new pillow even though he refused to be photographed with it. Klaus didn't mind modeling in his place. During the photo shoot, the boy decided to glue a google eye to a blueberry... anything and everything seems to wear a google eye in our house these days.

He also asked for a tiny pillow for his pet hedgehog. He helped with the stuffing, suggesting that we should use snow and clouds. And then, of course, I still need to make a tiny tent for the hedgehog, too. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow.

pillow love

I'm so happy to finally have my copy of Reinvention by Maya Donenfeld of maya*made. Maya is so crafty and creative. I've been inspired by her work for a very long time. I mentioned her last November when I made these holiday cards. Her book is filled with so many fabulous projects like the Little Forager Skirt and the Toadstool Cottage. I'm plotting a date night with a friend so that we can make some Burlap Bins... hopefully soon.

I used her Arithmetic Pillows as an inspiration for these raincloud pillows. I love, love the arithmetic idea, too, and plan to make some soon. I just felt an urgent desire to make rainclouds, maybe because of the torrential downpours this spring has delivered. 

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't re-purpose any linen, but instead used some quilting weight cotton that I already had. I still had leftover metallic gold fabric paint from the star cape escapade. And I was so happy to finally use the naked IKEA pillow inserts that have been causing chaos and taking up space in the closet for months.

a special delivery

As I mentioned a couple days ago, my son has found a pretty good use for his big sister's princess and the pea mattress set... he pretends that each mattress is a piece of mail. Probably since around the time he started walking, he's been delivering these mattresses all over the house. And he's loved it. And I've loved it. They're soft and safe, and usually don't involve climbing or danger. Really, they're fantastic toys, these mattresses.

And so I decided to make him his very own postal bag with mail and packages. I've tumbled this idea around in my head for a long, long time. I feel guilty that he's almost four and may be outgrowing this mail delivery game. But with the nudge of an impending birthday for a little friend, I decided to whip up some prototypes.

After some technical difficulties, I put together a little postal bag with four letters and one package tied up with pretty pink and white twine. The first bag I made didn't have a long enough flap, and the fabric was too stiff and thick for what I wanted. The second bag isn't perfect, it's outer fabric is a bit too thin, but I think it turned out pretty cute for a toy. The kids gobbled it up immediately acting out a whole story, and of course involving the toy horses and other items as packages, too. I had to confiscate the bag just to get the kids ready for school one morning.

I used an alphabet stamp kit that I already had to stamp out the letters. I had some trouble with the ink smearing, but finally solved that by using a blotting sheet and the iron. The ink seems to have set, for the moment, but probably shouldn't get wet. I need to buy some waterproof inks. I carved the little heart stamp from a pink erasure. Stamps are so much fun. I imagined the birthday boy delivering the mail to stuffed animals in his house... hoping that he probably has a mouse, squirrel, owl and fox [we do]. And knowing what his favorite stuffed animals are, I addressed an envelope to a very special zebra.

{ You may have noticed that big sister and Klaus the cat had to model, because a certain little boy refused, of course. I did manage to snap a quick photo of his frisky self eyeing up a very large and captured leaf-footed bug. }

tiny mattresses

Here's a project from the past that still gets a lot of use in this house. I made this princess and the pea set when my daughter was three, actually, I made three sets: one for my girl, one for my niece and one for a neighbor friend. Not only has she loved it and played with it over the last three years, but her little brother has found many uses for it, too. This little mattress set relates to my son and another project that I'll be sharing with you soon.

The set includes twelve little mattresses all made with different fabrics, a tiny ladder, one princess, one tiny pea made of felt, and a bag with pockets to keep all the pieces safe.

Not only are these mattresses perfect for the princess and the pea, but they also provide comfort for all of the other tiny animals living in our house.

I borrowed this idea from Amanda Soule of Soule Mama fame. She was inspired by a really wonderful version of the story by Lauren Child. You'll probably recognize her beautiful, whimsical style from the Charlie and Lola series. For this book, she set up the most amazingly detailed world to shoot photographs of her story. It's so inspiring... makes me want to pull out some shoe boxes and start decorating. We also have a copy of Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child. Pinecones, twigs and tiny red shoes are involved in the plot. So cute.

A certain cat was determined to monopolize my photo-taking, but hopefully, you get the idea of how sweet these books are.

 Can you believe him? The nerve.

mermaidens and polka dots

Loving polka dots these days... especially on this red dress. I've been having fun photographing the dress and my girl. The only camera I'm using these days is on my iPhone. My Canon S95 is in the shop. I'm hoping and crossing my fingers that they'll need to upgrade me to the S100. That would be so nice.

I've been cashing in on my 20% off Barnes & Noble members coupons and buying all the sewing and decorating books that I've been admiring from afar for ages. Wee Wonderfuls by Hillary Lang recently arrived. I love it. I haven't had a chance to make anything, but I did sit down with the kids and look through it for a long time. They love it, too. It reads almost like a story book filled with different characters and names and personalities.

I especially love the Mermaiden and the I Heart You dolls. Someone else approves of the Mermaiden, too, and decided to try her hand at drawing the doll.

this finished quilt

I've finally finished another project that has been folded up and waiting for my attention these last four years. I started it when I was pregnant with my son, planning to make one for him, too, before he was born. It really was a very easy project but my old sewing machine got hung up on the quilting part. And then I got discouraged and life happened [that baby boy was born, among other life events] and there it sat. But finally, finally I pulled it out a few weeks ago and figured out the binding and finished it. Yay!

I used the pattern from Amy Karol's bend-the-rules Sewing, it's called the Easy Lap Quilt. And it really is such an easy project.

My daughter loves her quilt, and now I just need to make one for him.

this princess

I whipped up a princessey flower headband the night before my daughter's Halloween party. It was all very spur of the moment, but fun and easy to make.

Hope you find this "tutorial" helpful:

square ball-fringe pillows

In the hopes of nesting a bit and settling into our new house, I've been doing a few little projects here and there, in between taking care of the wee small people. Just before putting our old house on the market, I bought a few throw pillows to spruce up the couches, and sadly, they're already showing spots and stains and other unmentionable things [probably not, but who knows with a just turned three-year-old in the house, and in his defense he was still two when I bought the pillows].

Anyway, I pulled out one of my favorite, favorite crafty sewing books, Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. It's such a fantastic book filled with all kinds of adorable projects and patterns. You may remember this little project that I made a few years ago when my daughter was very, very small and really was a sweet wee elf.

Though Amy offers several different pillow patterns, I decided to go with the "Square Ball-Fringe Pillow" because I had the cutest little pink pom pom fringe in my stash. After measuring out the fabric for the pillow, I realized that I did not have a long enough piece of the pom poms in pink. I rushed to the nearest fabric store, which is not part of a big chain and seems to be more geared for tailors and designers, maybe, I'm not really sure who shops there. Anyway, they didn't offer any pink pom poms and so I settled on ice blue.

At first I was a little disappointed and thought that I might be making a big mistake, but after pinning the pom pom fringe to my turquoise IKEA fabric I decided that ice blue was perfect.

And so, I quickly measured and pinned and sewed and stuffed and stitched...

And made, not one, but two little pillows for the family room couch. And they look perfect when I crop out the glaring red carpet that came with the house [and really doesn't smell very good] and the piles of toys and debris on either side of the couch.

the cushion dilemma

Well, after seven years of considering, ignoring, dismissing and thinking about the window bench cushions, I finally made a new cover for one of the cushions. To be honest, we've never liked the window bench, because it's not original to the house and you can tell. It doesn't fit and it blocks the view of the stairs. That's probably why I've never made new covers... I always thought we'd tear the bench out. We were afraid of uncovering new problems though [which is always the case with projects in old houses] and didn't want to have to refinish the floors.

It was a bit challenging figuring out how to make the fabric fit the rectangular-shaped foam. I couldn't just sew two pieces of fabric together, it needed to have corners. And I didn't do it perfectly... it's far from perfect.

We hardly ever sit on them, usually they're under piles and piles of stuff. Or, the boy will knock all of the stuff off, throw the cushion on the floor, and call it his boat.

Here is Zoe testing out the cream-colored linen I thought about using. It matched the new rug [that needs to be vacuumed] but I'm glad that I went with the chocolate-colored linen.

Of course, there's still one more cushion to make a cover for... but I don't really feel like talking about that.

the woodland elf hat and sweet wee jacket

Here's another project from my past... the Woodland Elf Hat. I used the pattern from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing book.

I loved the pattern so much that I made a few hats in different shades of wool felt with vintage buttons. I also made the Sweet Wee Jacket using another pattern from the same book.

Klaus wishes that I had made him a matching set, too. I love digging through photos from past projects, especially when I see how cute and little the wee girl was at age two.

[These photos were taken in early October 2007.]