Checkout Girl

What's Up

2009-11-16T11:50:00.001-08:00

Firstly, I brought home this wee turquoise fellow today--he felt a little out of place at the insanely bedazzled bookstore, amidst a mad crowd of Christmas bits and bobs, but here on the mantle, as you can see, he feels quite at home:
I'm insanely busy, my dears, but one thing I am working on is that promised holiday tutorial. Here's the state of it this afternoon:
In other news, we Crowes, apparently allergic to smooth sailing, have decided to return to home schooling after the Thanksgiving break. Big decision. Big. For you, it likely means seeing a bit more of the divine Miss A. around these parts, which is good stuff. Lucky you, lucky me.

Housiness, Size XL

2009-11-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

There's a very good reason why I can't really cook anything.
It's not just that I'm a little lazy since the daylight savings fiasco.
It's also because this is my dining table:
So where would I put the food? Come on, folks.

Bridesmaid-Type Distraction Project #2

2009-11-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

Right. So, I'll have you know that before I made a wool-felt-flower-bedazzled headband, I took orders to the P.O. and took the plastic off the canvas I'm supposed to be working on.
This is cute, though, right? I was going to add a bunch more flowers, but my hipper sister cautioned restraint. (Actually she said if I added more it might look "crazy." Whatevs.)
I got these wide, black, fabric-covered headbands in a pack of three at Target, I think. Cheap-cheap. The flower is very easy to make. I started with a strip of wool felt about 1" by 12", I'd say. I cut a sort of wavy, wide scallop edge on one long side and did a running stitch with two strands of embroidery floss along the other edge. I pulled the string to sort of bunch up the felt a bit, and then I rolled the felt strip up to create the flower shape, basting it in place as I went. When that was done, I used a couple of stitches from the same length of floss to secure a little shank button in the center. Again with the same strand of floss, I quick stitched the flower to the band. Voila! If anybody is dying to make this (in other words, if you have dishes to wash, laundry all over the place, etc., and are looking for an excuse not to do that stuff) and needs more details, just let me know.

Working...feverishly?

2009-11-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

Having just finished this sweet little bedroom full of happy creatures, I've turned my attention to a project of giant proportions, the pattern for which must be drawn upon a huge swath of butcher paper. (Can you tell A. and I have been watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice from the sickbed? I'm afraid I shall be talking like this for weeks.)
It's also given me cause to order wool felt by the yard for the first time. Such big pieces make me feel full of ideas, but I'm sticking to the task at hand, keeping my nose to the grindstone, baby. Miles to go before I sleep. Whatever industrious cliches you can think of, all of them apply to me!

Except that I feel like I might be getting a fever. Blargh.

A Little Loopy

2009-11-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, me--after four days in this apartment with a flu-ridden Miss A., burning up with fever, alternately docile and demanding, wanting endless stories, and complaining of sore throat and headache but whinging about the medicine. (I think it smells like grape drink--yum!--but she says it's disgusting.)
But also loopy, and far more pleasantly so, is this little wool felt corsage I whipped up during her nap yesterday, based on this pattern from Betz White. Betz uses her own felted sweaters and such in all her crafts, of course, but I'm finding lots of them can be done similarly with felt.
My cousin Amanda is getting married in May and asked me if I could make something for her bridesmaids, so I'm clearly letting that distract me from a load of other tasks, but when the results are this cute, who can complain (aside from, you know, my customers)?!

Puppies and Paris--and Piglets?

2009-11-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a little dog I added to a finished house hoop this afternoon while poor Annabelle napped. She has the flu. We won't give this flu any special name because we don't have any flu-diagnosing powers around here and try like the dickens to stay out of the emergency room, but, you know, pigs do have a tendency to fly into one's mind these days when one's family members are stricken with fever, sore throat, body aches. Currently the fever is down a bit, and she's watching An American in Paris. There are some perks to sick days--Gene Kelly among them.

Shameless Self Promotion (a.k.a. "Look Mom, I'm on Martha-Stewart-dot-com!")

2009-11-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

Here it is, peeps!

Hej, Again

2009-11-02T11:26:00.001-08:00

Here's today's project--one more version of "hello fall" for the Bear and Bird show.

In other news, I found out today that I'm a finalist in the Martha Stewart/etsy DIY Weddings contest--I have no idea, really, what this means except that my wool-felt wedding portrait and my etsy shop will be featured on the Martha Stewart Weddings home page starting Thursday. I'll be sure to provide a link when I have one!

(A holiday-theme hoop tutorial is in the works, folks! And I'm also thinking about taking the tree-skirt challenge put down by my friend Corinne--thinking, thinking...)

Jellyfish Part 2, This Time it's Battery Operated

2009-11-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

Last night was a success, for sure! Aside from the tooth-rotting mound of nerds and sweet tarts in A's room right now, the costume stayed in one piece (though it did get snagged on various porch rails and fence posts--and ensnared in one giant spider web) and was universally admired. In the top shot, you can see some of the details--folks have been asking to see close ups, and if we get good light anytime soon, I would like to show you the center part, the texture of which I'm particularly proud. I just have to keep saying, though, that this thing's hard to photograph!
In this second shot, you can get some sense of the ghostly beauty of Miss A. as she glided down the sidewalks of our neighborhood (okay, barreled--whatever). You can also see a neighbor taking her picture--this happened with some frequency and was good for our egos. ;-)

In my next post, I promise to return to craftiness of the non-tricks-or-treats type. And I'm trying to think up a good holiday-themed tutorial, so wait for it!

Tah Dah, Halloween-Style

2009-10-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Here's Miss A. with teacher #1, "The Crazy Cat Lady" and--

with teacher #2, the world's most fabulous octopus. (Those tentacles are sewn partly from bubble wrap--Annabelle's idea!)
And this guy? Head of School.

(I'm terribly proud of the jelly fish costume, but it's hard to photograph! I'm going to try again tomorrow night, of course, when the blinking lights will show in the dark!)

Oh, How I Love You

2009-10-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, my dears--I am so grateful for all the lovely and incredibly helpful comments you left on the last post. We generally want to uplift one another, and that's a beautiful aim, but I think it's also crucial to have folks who will offer constructive criticism--finding kind ways to point out problems or suggest improvements is an awesome skill, and I'm thrilled that so many of you have been able to do this for me with regard to my "reproductive" endeavors. Let me be clear--I think it's best to offer feedback mainly when it's been solicited. It can be kind of crumpling to share a tah-dah moment, a finished piece you're really proud of, let's say, and have already sent to Aunt Fanny, and to have a stranger in Hoboken say, "You should really have..."
And I'm all for a healthy dose of cheerleading. (Please do not stop the cheerleading.) But you--my peeps--really gave me food for thought when I asked for it. In particular, Sweet Limes suggested that I strive for less wasted space by photographing more images at a slant (which I love to do and am glad to hear somebody agrees with me!); clever Elissa chimed in to say I could also achieve this via close ups that don't show the hoop at all. (I thought maybe a combination of hoop shots and detail shots--but should I avoid showing the hoops entirely? I'd love to hear from more of you on this.) I'd say you're split on the flats vs. bifold issue, and I am, too. I think I might try offering some of each in the future, especially for Christmas cards, which I understand some people like to appear more formal/traditional than the postcard style pulls off. Finally, tiff blew me away with her brilliant suggestion to offer buyers of portraits a set of note cards featuring their custom images! I love it and am going to work on that immediately! For reals, you monkeys are smooth.

(The images included with this post are of some teensy neighborhood hoops I'm finishing up to send off to an upcoming show at Bear and Bird in Lauderhill, Florida. Wish I could go with them!)

Note Cards and Other Reproductive Experiments (Ahem.)

2009-10-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

At the suggestion of my wise artist friend, Jen, I gave note cards a whirl. (They're available in my shop now.) They're nice, sturdy flats with rounded edges, and they come with white envelopes, two each of the four images above, which makes, you know, eight cards, math-wise.
What do you think of this endeavor? And would you be interested in holiday cards of this type? Would you ever send flats as Christmas cards, for example, or do you gotta have the bi-fold?

Lastly, I'm putting a toe into the water of making and selling full-sized prints of my work, and I'm nervous about this and uncertain--for some reason, I have always thought the felt work wouldn't translate, but I'm encouraged by the gorgeous prints Jayme McGowan sells of her intricate and dimensional paper work. I'd love to hear any and all of your thoughts on this foray into reproduction... That sounds odd. You know what I mean.

So, here's how it shook out--

2009-10-25T21:21:00.001-07:00

I finished Manu's portrait, which I had to photograph in my sister's sky-lit apartment (upstairs from me--handy, right?) because I was losing the light by the time I finished--
--and then, and only then, did I eat potato chips. No greasy finger prints on the felty beach.
In other news, HOLD THE PHONE. My unwillingness to list this turquoise bag in the Hopscotch shop may end in blows. Come on, Jen--it's like it was made for me!

W.I.P.--Manu by the Sea

2009-10-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping to finish this today--there's sunlight, and Mark will be at work, and Annabelle has a play date, so I'm thinking the universe is on the side of Melissa-type productivity. On the other hand, there's a chance I may be seized by the urge to eat potato chips and watch this again. It's watchable via Netflix streaming, which means I could easily play it while I sew, but those darned subtitles keep my eyes off my stitches, which leads to more finger stabbing and generally poorer comprehension of the film. Potato chips, though, require very little concentration. I'll let you know how it works out.

Me and Mimi (or "I finished the doll!")

2009-10-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well, there was a bit of a delay there, my dears! But here she is--my finished dolly, sewn from Mimi Kirchner's pattern on the Purl Bee.
I think she looks a bit cross--the face is definitely the hardest part, and I skipped the stencil step and just free-handed the features. And now that I'm looking at this picture, I'm realizing how urgently I need to get a shade for that grubby sconce. Sheesh. Anywho--I like my dolly, and I encourage all of you to give this project a whirl. These lovely girls would make great Christmas presents, no?

(Thanks so much to all of you for your encouragement, parenting-wise, on the last post. It's nice to get a little pat on the back in the tough spots!)

Something Fishy's Going On

2009-10-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

We had a mini-crisis in Crowe-ville this week.
Annabelle's class went salt-water kayaking, and we decided to keep her home--I'll spare you the details of this decision and just say the girl was none too pleased. In fact, she was pretty mad, but we eventually had a great discussion with her--I shed a few tears, she shed a few tears--and she ended up convinced that though she might not like our decisions, we are trying our very best to do what's right for her. Whew. Do you all struggle with this feeling of wanting your child to be happy in the short term but knowing that, instead, you have to ensure that she's happy in the long term? Why don't they tell you about this in the baby books?

Short-term-wise, she was pretty happy on the day, despite the scarcity of wet suits, as we worked on her Halloween costume, a bit of which you see above. Wait for the battery-operated lights, people.

Secret's Out!

2009-10-20T19:14:00.001-07:00

Finally finished this little garden, on 11X14" linen canvas, all its bits and pieces cut by hand from 100% wool felt and hand appliqued.
I feel like it's a joyful image, and that makes me happy because it's for the bedroom wall of a beautiful little Australian girl named Jani.
See that little bird? That's a variegated fairy wren. If I thought it was hard to make a felt tricycle... But boy, I'm proud of him.

Now I'm set to begin a portrait of Jani's brother, Manu, two years old and a big lover of the beaches of Sydney. I'm excited to make a felty ocean. Wish me luck!

Halloweening

2009-10-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

No crafting getting done with Annabelle's grandmother visiting, but we did do a little halloweening of the mantle last night. We have bats and eyeballs. Can't have too many. We have a black skeleton.
And we have this little ghostie, which I won in a recent giveaway from Skunkboy Creatures.
Man, that girl can make anything scream cute. (Get it? Scream? Ahem.)

The Sweet Life

2009-10-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

My mother in law is visiting from Texas, which means lots and lots of good restaurant meals--including one that ended in this trio at The Green Elephant last night. Oh, Green Elephant, how I love you. (Jen--they have a new dessert! Fried bananas with coconut ice cream! Veganlicious!)

I'll be back when I'm done overindulging (a.k.a. when Mamoo boards her return flight)!

Secret Garden (So Far, So Good)

2009-10-14T12:16:00.001-07:00

Mark has a rare day off (until job #2 at 5:30) and has walked with Miss A. to our neighborhood branch of the P-town public library to get the next Harry Potter book. I think they're on 5--here's where I confess they lost me sometime during the second book. Am I the only human being on earth immune to this phenomenon? Anyhow, I thought I'd take a minute to share my secret-garden progress with you.
I'll be adding Jani shortly--the little girl who loves this garden--and bunches and bunches of camellias in shades of pink. Wait for it!

Meanwhile, I haven't finished my Mimi doll yet, but here's a bit of progress!

Blame it on Mimi

2009-10-12T09:39:00.001-07:00

That's right--it's Mimi Kirchner's fault that the mess on my desk has now spread to the living room. I have, like the rest of the doll-loving world, admired her gorgeous, quirky creations since I discovered the art/craft blog scene a couple of years ago.

Imagine my glee upon discovering she'd offered a free pattern at The Purl Bee! While I can justify (kind of) shutting myself up in my studio, away from my family, to make stuff to sell, generally when I sew "for fun" (I put that in quotes because it's all fun--just don't tell my husband and daughter!), I do it whilst watching a movie with Mark or listening to an audiobook with Annabelle. That's why my little red haired dolly and all her bits and pieces are spread out next to the purple chair today.
Folks, you should try this pattern--it's so much fun and requires only hand sewing. The instructions and photos are clear as a bell, and you only need the backstitch, the running stitch, and the whipstitch. (You will notice my whipstitch needs serious work. It's definitely my weak link.)

I think I'll have photos of the finished dolly tomorrow--let's hope the sunshine holds out!

Slightly Fewer Than a Thousand Words (The Messy Desk)

2009-10-10T14:55:00.001-07:00

This picture, of the messiness of my studio desk at the start of a new project, tells lots of little stories. First, it signifies that I'm in the beginning stages of a "secret garden" type portrait on linen canvas for an Australian girl name Jani. (Since Meg shared the portrait I made of future-Finn in the forest, I've had lots of requests for similar pieces, children in favorite or fantasy landscapes, and I have to say, I love making them).

Here's a short list of what else this photo is saying:

1. There's jasmine tea in the Campbell's soup cup. Right now, this stuff's like smack to me, delicious, air-freshener-smelling, reminds-me-of-eating-sushi smack.

2. I discovered a new-to-me source of 100% wool felt. I don't ever really "trust" a felt source until I get scads of their product in the mail, and I've had some duds--getting a box in the mail full of stuff with the texture of scouring pads makes me want to cry, folks. It's pitiful. But thanks to a couple of craft books I've read recently, I decided to take the plunge and try A Child's Dream True. I was really hopeful because you can pay with PayPal (which you can't do at Magic Cabin, my usual happy place for delicious 100% wool), and you can buy yardage. Well, it's THE GOOD STUFF! Hooray! You can see the greens (for the garden) billowing all over my desk and glimpse their promo postcard, too.

3. The Gingher tin in the corner tells you that I lost my beloved embroidery scissors and had to buy a new pair. I can't quite quash the sneaking-but-totally-insane suspicion that somebody stole them. They're that good.

4. I recently allowed my family to talk me into putting the desktop computer in my studio. While I do like being able to edit photos and do shop stuff on a bigger, brighter monitor, I'm feeling a little crowded, my dears. What should I do?

5. It's time to clean my desk.

It's a little like the end times around here--

2009-10-07T13:14:00.001-07:00

--pouring rain for ten minutes and then glaringly bright, then sudden rain again. I went to pick up Annabelle at school, and we were so hot on the blacktop that we started shedding jackets and sweaters and rain boots, stuffing them in her back pack.
We started off, and about ten minutes down the road, this little hurricane-hailstorm deal kicked up, causing me to--get this--lose my grip on my umbrella so that it blew into the road, directly into the path of an oncoming ambulance.
The thing, in all its polka-dot glory, stopped traffic (not the ambulance, thank goodness) for a minute and then blew back to us (by this time soaked to our underpants). We made it to the Cumberland Farms, where we took shelter (and some salt and vinegar chips) until the weather turned a little less wrathful, and then we took off again. By the time we hit our block, yup--sunshine.

All this is to say, I did my very best to eek out a couple of not-too-tragic photos of the polar bear piece in a moment of relative light. They're still pretty terrible photographs, but how 'bout that polar bear? I kind of love him.

This Rain is Killing Me--and a Killer Bag

2009-10-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

I am dying to take pictures of my just-finished custom portrait, in which a cute little girl in pink boots takes a moonlit stroll through the forest with her pal the polar bear, but it's dark and pouring here today, so we'll have to settle for this sunshiny-orange Samsonite overnight bag, which I love but which my Hopscotch better half says I can't keep. Drats.

Cash and Carry

2009-10-05T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a little rotten-tooth wallet I whipped up for a rollertastic birthday party Annabelle attended on Sunday. We are fairly fond of the birthday girl (one of the heirs to the Swallowfield empire)--she's got an eye for quirky design and a great sense of humor, so I knew this fabric was just right for her. To be safe, though, I sweetened the deal with a fiver.
The white teeth are smiling, but the photos don't show them. Only the brownies and greenies are sad about their state of decay, see.
(I made this after reading like half a dozen wallet patterns, so it's sort of original, but I borrow heavily from the construction of the bunny wallet from Zakka Sewing. Clearly, mine's bunny-less, but the book pattern helped me figure out how to get card pockets and a bill pocket, which has somehow always sort of baffled me.)