belle epoque

I’ve been surrounded with dolly clothes and pieces of yet more knitted toys over the past few days. I’m going a bit crazy, perhaps, and might have to add a green peaked hat and shoes with bells to my wardrobe. Anyway, I also thought it was about time for a little pre-holiday goodie for you guys, my lovely readers, who come and visit and write sweet comments. You may or may not remember that last year I had the opportunity to teach a craft workshop at the December Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco, on how to make these little guys

Sadly this year Baz Biz is just a few days from my due date, so I don’t know if I’ll even be able to make it to the show, let alone teach anything! Anyway, I thought those of you who weren’t at the workshop last December might to make a penguin yourselves. Last year I added a jingle bell, a tiny red scarf and a hanging loop to the wee penguin to make them into Christmas ornaments for a swap.

Pop over to the Tiny Penguin Tutorial page to download the pattern and instructions, and find a link to step by step photos if anything seems confusing! I hope you enjoy it and that you’ll let me know if you make one– I’d love to see yours.

This one has been popping up all over the crafty interwebs, and I was so excited to get my hot little hands on it!

Hand-Stitched Felt by Kata Golda.

These projects are all so charming and simple. I think they would be terrific not only as gifts for children (and grown-ups who appreciate the sweet), but also as first sewing projects for a child who is ready to hold a needle and thread. They are all the more darling for any mistakes or imperfections, and utterly satisfying and frustration-free to stitch together. I made three of the sweet finger puppets that are featured on the book jacket

They took almost no time to make–just a few snips and a few stitches, then instant gratification! I’ll also be making a little “bed” for them so I can roll them up together and pop them in HMB’s stocking for Christmas…

Phew, here I am again and it has thankfully been less than a month since my last post. Thank you guys so much for coming back to read, and leaving such sweet comments.

As it is approaching my bedtime, I’ll get right to the craftiness! When we were visiting family in New England last month, I took the opportunity to gather up some acorn caps. It may be I just don’t go to the right places in California, but I’ve never found regular, dear, bulby acorns here, and I had some roving that wanted to be made into felt acorns


I can’t tell you how much I love looking at them and running my fingers across them in their wooden bowl. Unfortunately HMB is far too interested in pulling them to fuzzy bits, or else they would be a fun part of autumnal play– maybe next year? I do not, sadly, have a tiny drill, so have no way to hang them unless I was to run a needle and floss through the roving under the cap. For the moment, though, I’m just going to enjoy them as they are!

The deliciously colored roving is from the wonderful Mary Jane’s Attic. If you happen to be in the Bay Area, you can get Jamie’s roving samplers at her lovely store, Urban Fauna Studio. They also have gorgeous yarns, 100% wool felt and a variety of highly tempting craft supplies. She is awesome and I wish I had a smaller stash and more crafting time so I could do even more to support her crafty business venture!

I made some other wee crafts from New England flotsam that I’ll show you when I’m back next– hopefully very soon!

I’m working on this amazing doll pattern, by Mimi Kirchner, incredibly available for free at The Purl Bee. I am stunned by the generosity of creative people with such a signature style who make patterns available at all, let alone free of charge. Mimi’s work is so beautiful and quirky, so making a doll in her style is great fun– the construction of this one is really ingenious. It is all hand-sewn and I’m working away a little at a time so this is all I’ve got so far

The little legs sort of creep me out unattached like that. But I love the way the pattern makes such a nice, realistic shape for both the arms and legs. I’m looking forward to stitching it all together and embroidering the face. I’ll keep you up to date!

I put the button on my sidebar but never mentioned that I’m participating in the very gentle Creative Every Day challenge this year. Yes, I realise I’m having a baby in two months (give or take), which will very likely put a cramp in being super duper productive in terms of quantity of projects, but the guidelines of the challenge are kind. Yesterday I came up with a new breakfast:

Plain yogurt with dark sweet cherries (my new favorite frozen fruit) from Trader Joe’s, and figured that was my creativity for the day (according to the challenge, culinary creativity totally counts. i also made risotto). But Susan reminded me that I was slated to submit a tiny softie pattern to CROQ Zine, and thus out of excitement and renewed crafty inspiration was born Petey:

A pattern for his tinyness will appear in the February issue, so grab a copy when they go on sale (if I find out when, I’ll remind you, don’t worry)! I’ve already drawn up the pattern and how-to, and it is in Susan’s hands, so unlike some of my tutorial promises (I promise, I’m still working on them), this one is for reals– even if for some reason it doesn’t end up in CROQ, it is already all written and photographed so I shall post it up here lickety split, pinkie swear.

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!

Does what you read influence what you cook? It does for me, at least when I’m reading something particularly atmospheric. Barbara Pym novels inspire scones and jam. Barbara Cleverly’s mysteries? Chicken Tikka Masala all the way:

Of course I owe the recipe to Alicia, and it has quickly become a favorite (with all of the changes she recommends, namely WAY less salt, and in my case only half a jalapeno).

I’m still organizing my little studio, so haven’t yet cut the tree fabric, but thank you for your empathy about project paralysis, and good suggestions! But of course I’ve had to make things even in the crafty chaos. I’m still loving the book Softies, and I’ve admired Jenn Docherty’s creations for years now, and the two culminated in Edwin joining the family


As you may have noticed, Edwin is a bit wonky. His proportions are nothing like the pattern for Jenn’s sweet Luella in the book, and I think he prefers going bare to overalls, but he is very dear and has made fast friends with Francoise.

Happy Friday to you all! I hope you get in some good eating, reading and crafting this weekend.

We were at the beach for the beginning of the weekend, where I played with roving and felting needles, resulting in this little fellow

Still not sure if he’s felted together enough, but I find him so cute I can hardly stand it. I just want to put him in my pocket and take him everywhere, but I’m afraid I might start talking to him in public and become a crazy felt mouse lady. So he’ll just stay on my desk to keep me company.

The weather was rather grim at the beach so we headed home in time for me to go to the Capsule Design Festival today with Camilla, Brian and Meghan.  What an overwhelming amount of seriously cool and creative independent design! There was so much to take in that I was unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds. A few highlights include Donna Lou’s feminine, flirty dresses and tops, Random Nicole’s whimsical screen-printed and appliqued tees and sweats, and Vivi Dot’s sweet button accessories. As an added bonus, I got the chance to chat with the always-charming Nicole of Queen Puff Puff, and meet Deborah of Chic Cosas!

See how cute they are? And can you tell how cold it is?

Meghan and I wandered our way up to Doe after the festival, and oohed and ahhed over all the pretty cleverness there, and now I’m home, making the Chicken Tikka Masala that Alicia talked about the other day. It is my favorite Indian Restaurant dish, so I’m super excited to have a recipe I can try at home! I’ll let you know how it goes…

Welcome to anyone visiting because of Natalie’s lovely post on the Craft Blog.  Craftis such a great resource for all things indie and diy, and I was so honored to participate in the Craft portion of Maker Faire!

Now, what I’ve been up to. First of all, Simplicity 3835, round two. Round one was the Mrs Roper Gone Wrong dress, round two, in cheery retro fabric, is much better

It is a well-constructed pattern and I will wear the dress happily(if you’re going to make one, this is the “long” length, since I’ve heard the mini is more like a shirt). I’ve loved the versions I’ve seen on Flickr and elsewhere in solid grey or black, with contrast pockets, neckline and sleeve-ties, but I’m not sure I need another of exactly this dress, even in a different color. Plus I’m a fickle crafter and always ready to move on to something new and untried!

I’ve also been happily playing with the wool sampler I got at the Bazaar Bizarre from Mary Jane’s Attic. Jamie’s Needle Felting demo at the Maker Faire was mobbed with eager crafters so I had to stand well back. I may not have gotten the benefit of her needle felting expertise close up, but I did get inspired!

Yay for tiny needle felted softies. I still have quite a bit of practicing to do with shaping and felting enough before putting pieces together (I am very impatient), but these sweet little fluffy shapes are so satisfying to make! I can see more cute needle felty things in my future…I love those tiny bottle-cap pin cushions- if you know of a good tutorial on how to make one of those, please share!

Finally I’ve been working on the next mini-collection for etsy and will have it up early next week. Here is a bitty sneak preview

Any guesses at the theme?

Happy weekend to all of you!  Yay for a long one here in the USA! Hope the weather is great where you are so you get to bbq and soak up a little summer sun.

Yay for needle felting! Inspired by Emily of The Black Apple (who is endlessly inspiring), I ordered a needle felting kit from A Child’s Dream and tried my hand at a racoon. Meet Rusty:

He likes midnight walks, opposable thumbs, chimneys and trash cans. Once when I was growing up we had a family of racoons living behind our chimney.  Animal Control rousted out a mother and her two little babies and took them away in traps.  We’ll let Rusty stay right here with me and Moondoggie, I think.

As far as my first foray into needle felting goes–I cheated a bit and didn’t get a felting mat, which I think resulted in Rusty being a little bit fluffy and not felted together as well as he could be. I plan to get some upholstery foam next time I come across it so that I can make some more little creatures with the remaining roving. I’m thinking a mouse or two, maybe a bunny and definitely one of the skunks they give instructions for in the kit!