belle epoque

I’m only visiting because Moondoggie is here entertaining the wee one. Crafty moms, how DO you do it? Not only have time to craft, but have time to blog? I’d love some advice that doesn’t involve full time help and total sleep deprivation and/or starvation. ‘Cause when she’s asleep I’m eating, sleeping, or showering! I WISH I was crafting, so, gals, help me out with some words of wisdom if you’ve got ‘em! Granted the wee is just 3 months old today, so perhaps I’m jumping the gun on thinking me-time could be possible at this point

Enough with the whinging, though! I did find something I could do while in the rocking chair– READ! And I was lucky enough to get my hands on some beautiful crafty books from Chronicle that are further whetting my crafty appetite, namely The Pillow Book by Shannon Okey and Lotta Prints by Lotta Jansdotter:

These books are both lovely and inspiring. What with supplies for my Gocco B6 dwindling in availability, and my love for printing growing proportionally, I’m particularly nuts about Lotta Prints, which offers multiple methods of printing and lots of inspiration (not to mention darling illustrations designed for use as stencils in the back!). I’ve ALWAYS loved leaf motifs, and so I’m particularly drawn to the section on leaf printing:

And having a baby in the house has immediately upped my appreciation for pillows– for putting my feet on, cushioning my back, and propping up the wee (who really doesn’t like to lie flat if she can be up and looking around!). So, The Pillow Book is right up my alley! I do love a bolster, and if you do too, you’ll find a ton of different options in the book. Like this nifty triangular one

Of course there’s also a lot of crafty I’ve been able to pine about surfing the web on my iPhone too, for example:
*Emily’s rag dolls! I managed to print out the pattern, and enlarge it at the UPS store (some fussing went on in the stroller as I spent a million years trying to figure out the zoom function of the copier, but I had to tell HMB that she is not the boss of me!). Anyway, one day I want to make one.
*The Magnolia Club! Oh, if I could knit I think I’d only really want to knit with Amy’s beautiful yarns. I almost want to join just to get them in the mail and stroke them.
*The CRAFT baby bootie contest She actually needs booties now that I put her in real outfits without built-in feet!

I’m sure there’s a ton of other stuff that I missed, but that’s what I’m thinking about today. Oh, and the Three Month Birthday Pic, Miss S chatting with her pal Monkey

Be very, very quiet. Shhh… the baby is sleeping soundly in the daytime, not in my arms in the rocking chair, for the first time since the day she turned a month old. Who knows how long it will last, so if this entry is cut short, you know why! Things will probably continue to be pretty quiet around here until she hits 12-14 weeks, which as you moms out there know is the magical age at which an immature digestion gets better and babies get on a more regular schedule. I’ve found I have a hard time reading my bloglines and no luck commenting on many blogs with my iPhone (which stays with me in the rocking chair at all times), so I’m sorry to have been a silent reader of your blogs as well. I’d love to see what you’re up to, so if you’re not already a contact of mine on Flickr please add me so I can browse your crafty goodness over there. Plus which I post pictures of wee miss beelypoke from the iPhone straight to Flickr, so you can see what is up with us if you are so inclined.

But before I get called away (or wailed away, really), I want to VERY belatedly announce the winner of the Bead Simple earring giveaway! Chosen by the highly scientific method of asking my mother to choose a number between 1-39, the chosen one is the lovely Leah of Creative Everyday! I’ll e-mail you for your address Leah, and send those earrings off when the little miss and I next take a walk to the Post Office.

And before I go I want to tell you about a crafty artist whose work I love– Jess Brown. Her art dolls are so beautiful and charming. Of course HMB (her majesty the baby), is not ready for something so gorgeous (the spit-up factor), but I’d love to have one of my own. Here is a speedily taken picture of two of her dolls at my favorite neighborhood store, Nest

And another from her site, used with her permission, of course
.

I’ll try to pop in when I can, in the meantime I’m thinking crafty thoughts and reading your blogs and looking at your Flickr in the wee hours!

p.s. if you can think of anything crafty that can be done one-handed from a rocking chair, please let me know!

I’ve never liked the expression “spoiled rotten,” mostly because I’ve been fortunate to be treated very well by my family and my friends, and I hope it hasn’t made me too rotten. I know other people, too, who I’d consider pretty fortunate who are also grateful for everything they’ve been given. So, I go for spoiled silly instead, because it is rather giddy-making to have such gloriously generous friends! Well, wee miss s. appears to be on the road to spoiled sillyness too, because look at what has come in the mail from our lovely crafty friends

A beautiful patchwork bib from the dear and talented Linda!
And super sweet Christy sent along the most insanely sweet dress bib and bloomer set

Could you pass out? I adore bloomers (even though back in the day I remember HATING to wear them).

And you know, I’ve been a bit spoiled myself. Want to guess what this is?

Awwwww yeah. When craft time is limited to nap time, it helps to have the best, most efficient tools available to get the job done. I’ve already been playing with it and it is a REVELATION. More to come, and happy Saturday night to you!

Hello There! So, it has been a little over a week that I’ve been a mom, and it is pretty great most of the time. I promise this is not going to become exclusively a mommy blog (not that there is anything wrong with mommy blogs! they are awesome.), but of necessity it will have to become the craft blog of a mommy. The most crafty thing I’ve done since wee miss S was born is Babygami, which is genius.

But I’m trying to keep up with at least some things crafty–the iphone is my lifeline!
*If you haven’t already, you can apply to be a vendor at the awesome Bazaar Bizarre Maker Faire until March 12! There were so many fantastic, creative vendors there last year, it was really hard to control myself. Hopefully the wee will be a good sport and come with me for just a few hours.
*Have you seen the magazine Craft Stylish? It is published by the same brilliant minds behind Sew Stylish, and of course Threads. I recently got my hands on the latest issue and there is so much inspiration in there! I’m particularly excited to make the knit fabric wrap cardigan… Oh! And I also learned that despite what I thought, Sew Stylish did NOT go away! It still exists, just on newsstands and no longer by subscription, phew! I love the magazine, and their companion Simplicity patterns.

I’ve also had the opportunity to appreciate some of the handmade baby gifts I’ve received. Did you know that you can’t put a baby in a onesie until after their little umbilical cord stub falls off their bellybutton? Yeah. So poor wee S has been in t-shirts and diapers almost exclusively, and unable to wear any of her stylish little duds yet. However, I’ve been swaddling her in her Little Snuggle Bunny flannel blankets, which are highly cute.

They are double sided, so not only are they warm, but when you fold over the top of the blanket, it shows a sweet complimentary fabric. So when I take her out, she’s in the pink of fashion.

She is also totally enamored of the scrumptious cuddly blanket Shelly made for her

Which is this squidgy pink goodness on one side, and an elegant cherry blossom print satin on the other.

I’m definitely starting to feel more rested and myself, which of course means crafty plans are bubbling in my brain again! Hopefully we’ll work out the eating and nap schedule here soon so I can get in a little bit of sewing once in awhile

I have pretty much always been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. Not so much for the overblown romantic love aspect of it (far too much pressure, I think!), but the fun of reveling in pink, red, hearts, chocolate, doilies and glitter in the dead of winter (well, here in SF it is the beginning of spring, but never mind). I haven’t gone as overboard this year as I sometimes do, but I made wee mailable Valentine treats out of Dover sampler holiday images and opaque inkjet shrink plastic (which I’m still working out how best to use– I think it needs to be varnished).

I packaged them up in tiny Muji envelopes closed with glittery red heart stickers

and hopefully they will make it through the regular mail (tucked in regulation envelopes) with regular postage ok!

And for you, my lovely blog friends, I offer a yummy chocolate chunk cookie recipe. Just FYI if your sweetie happens to be male– I brought these to a Super Bowl party and they seemed to be a particularly big hit with the males in the room. The women liked them, but the men kind of freaked out.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted from my favorite Fannie Farmer recipe)
1/4 lb butter, softened (or just left on the counter for a few hours)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/8 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup oatmeal
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, cut into 1/2inch ish chunks with a sharp knife (Don’t stress about the size, just chop up the chocolate as best you can, and keep it all, tiny bits and all, on the cutting board until you dump it in the mixing bowl. I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet from Trader Joe’s, and guesstimated on the 6 ounces– I used most of a half-pound block)

Pre-heat the oven to 375 and either grease or line a cookie sheet or two with parchment paper. Cream the
butter, and gradually add in the two sugars, beating until the mix is light and smooth. Beat in the egg
and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda, whisking to make sure it is
well-blended. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet, just until well combined. By hand (with a wooden spoon or spatula), stir in the chocolate chunks and oatmeal until evenly distributed. Drop in rounded teaspoons onto the cookie sheets (I use a small ice cream scoop to make it easier), and bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from the cookie sheet (they will not be totally set until they are cool). In the meantime, give someone you like the beaters and bowl to lick, as the dough is super yummy uncooked (though, y’know, not for the pregnant or tiny since there’s raw egg in it).

However you feel about Valentine’s Day, I hope you’ll treat yourself tomorrow!

Despite moving a bit more slowly these days and halving my to-do list much of the time, I’m so inspired by the many fun, crafty groups/challenges out there to join! Two of them fit in with what I’m already doing, so I felt ok about joining up- namely, Quilt Month over at Sew Mama Sew (the button on the left will take you over there) and The Dinner Challenge, which I found out about through Linda (whose risotto recipe looks so good!). The Dinner Challenge was originally 5 days long, so is officially over but looks like it is informally continuing on the flickr group. The chilly winter weather had me longing for comfort food, so I got everything together to try out Ina Garten’s Chicken Pot Pie recipe on Friday night. They turned out very pretty

They were also pretty delicious. However, I started cooking around 3pm and dinner wasn’t ready until 7, and the recipe was so rich, and made SO MUCH that we could barely finish our two servings, and neither of us really are in the mood to have any more, though there are about 4 more servings left in the fridge. I’m thinking about freezing the sauce, as the pastry is fairly easy to make, which would decrease the 4 hours of cooking time to more like 1.5 for defrosting and pastry-making.

Yesterday was spent cruising around in the car and doing baby-type-errands, including buying the all-important car seat/travel stroller thingy. Moondoggie spent the evening doing an awesome job putting together the crib, which now has a pink polka-dotted sheet on the mattress. The room is still rather bare, but once I’ve framed all of the pictures to go on the wall, and finished the wall hanging and a few other crafty baby items(quilt month, yay), I’ll take a picture to show you.

I had a copyediting teacher who said that she took issue with restrooms labeled “ladies” as they seemed exclusive. I’ve always considered myself a lady so that has never made me feel unwelcome. However, I think the sign above would be a perfect solution to the dilemma of how to mark restrooms without resorting to the clinical sounding “female” or excluding youngsters by labeling them “women.” Or maybe I was just a little too tickled by a bathroom sign at the mall.

But I did learn something crafty to share! Moondoggie and I went to a cultural/historic dance presentation yesterday where we learned that the term “bark cloth” comes from the ancient practice of making cloth from the paper mulberry tree in Tahiti! Women would beat the strips of bark until they were soft and came together in sheets, then make clothing from it. Kings would get dyed and painted cloth. Who knew?

I am having fun trying to find things to photograph with the iPhone that turn out ok enough to show you. But I will post pictures from my real camera on flickr when I’m home!

It has been a wet and blustery couple of days in San Francisco, inspiring lots of snuggling in and reading books and making warm, hearty meals. But today the sun has made an appearance, so I am coming out of my cave to show you what I’ve been making:

A flock of frocks from Alicia’s pattern in the book Softies. They are gifts for some lovely people I know, and I can’t tell you more than that without ruining it for the recipients who read this blog! I think these two are my favorites frocks:

Now, you are probably also noticing the FABULOUS fabric behind the little flock. Well, the kindness of bloggers never ceases to thrill me– you may remember that I got a square of that loveliness in Alicia’s Santa Lucia Doll Kit, and promptly became obsessed with finding more. I visited many Joann’s and despaired, but the lovely Jen saw my plea in the Santa Lucia Doll Flickr Pool and got in touch to say she too had been so enamored of that fabric that she bought bolts of it and was willing to send me 1/2 yard of her remaining stash! Isn’t that so generous? Thank you so much Jen! I vow that it will be used for good.

Also in the picture above is a book I’ve been coveting for ages, after reading many glowing blog reviews– Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. I was planning to use a nice Christmas gift certificate to Barnes & Noble to buy it, but on a chance trip into Anthropologie found it on the sale table for half off! Yes! $15 for that gorgeous, fat, colorful, inspiring book. I made the beef stew from it for dinner last night, though skeptical that something with so few ingredients could have much flavor. I was SO WRONG, it was DELICIOUS, basically just as written. I have always wanted a go-to beef stew recipe and now I have one! If you try it– instead of thyme I used a bay leaf, and I threw in a chopped sweet potato just because I had it in the root veggie bin.

Now I’m going to go out and soak up the battery-charging rays of winter sunlight!

holidays, New Year etc! I’ve had such fun catching up on all of your wonderful holiday projects and New Year’s reflections and resolutions. I didn’t expect to take SUCH an extended break, but it was lovely. I went to visit my family in NYC where I bought fabric and yarn

visited favorite places with favorite people

saw LOTS of movies, namely The Golden Compass (good), Sweeney Todd (better), and Juno (best), and read a bunch of very good books, though the one I was utterly taken by was Susannah Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which was a Christmas gift from the fabulous Lauren (who, by the way, is going on a book tour for her latest book beginning in February–I’m super excited that she’s coming to San Francisco, and I urge you to see her if she’s in your town too!).

Then I came home to sunny San Francisco for a few lazy days with Moondoggie, who got me an iPhone (among other very nice things) for Christmas! So now I’ll be able to browse blogs and send e-mails no matter where I am (given decent WiFi and a strong AT&T signal!). Very exciting. I also got my hands on the latest Marie Claire Idees and had to immediately make the darling patchwork star ornament, despite being post tree-decorating time.

It is a great use of favorite scrappy bits (the pieces really are tiny), and I’m thinking I might like to make a stack of them and then just put them away to give as gifts next year (when, I imagine, having a 9-month-old might complicate handmade holiday plans a bit!).

I am feeling and looking more like Tweedledee every day, and getting inexplicably, yawningly tired after doing very little indeed, and starting to feel anxious about buying and assembling baby furniture (we have exactly nothing at the moment). But I shan’t let that stop the crafting around here– I am determined to at least make the quilted wall hanging from Last Minute Quilted and Patchwork Gifts for the baby’s room asap!

I hope your New Year is starting off well and happily!

Confession: I have issues with decorating. I’m unable to commit, I don’t like putting holes in the walls (what if I change my mind?!), plus I seldom buy regular-sized or shaped art and am too cheap for custom framing. So I am very proud of this tiny step forward:

The single decorated corner of my studio, The Bird Corner, filled with my avian treasures: bird tags by Susie Ghahremani (collected over at least 4 years), a beautiful parasol bird by Becky and a lovely nest painting from Lavish (it was a gift and I’m sorry to say I don’t remember the name of the artist)*Update! Thanks to the lovely Molly, I can tell you that the artist is Bishop Lennon. Go to her website, her work is FABULOUS. Oh, and the bird ornament I made from the pattern in Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which is not going to live in the corner but is just visiting for now. I made the display on the right using a blank 8×8 canvas, nails, and the coolest pewter branch hanger from Rare Device, to which I wired the parasol bird. I should, perhaps, have painted the canvas a color, and I may yet, so if you have any suggestions let me know (I’m thinking pale aqua or turquoise).

I’m not done with the decorating by any stretch of the imagination. I have two sweet Jen Corace prints, some wonderful works of art from Abigail of Theo Design, and a few neat Black Apple prints, all waiting patiently for frames and a little bit of courage on my part. But that may have to wait until the holiday rush is over. I only stopped sewing gifts to decorate because I ran out of stuffing and haven’t gotten more yet!